The Unwavering Reality Of The Big Three 

I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of Xiangling. I try to play Diluc. My Xiangling deals more damage. I try to play Yoimiya. My Xiangling deals more damage. I try to play Cyno. My Xiangling deals more damage. I want to play Klee. Her best team has Xiangling. I want to play Raiden, Childe - they both want Xiangling. She grabs me by the throat. I fish for her. I cook for her. I give her the Catch. She isn't satisfied. I pull Engulfing Lightning. "I don't need this much er" She tells me. "Give me more field time." She grabs Bennett and forces him to throw himself off enemies. "You just need to funnel me more. I can deal more damage with Homa." I can't pull for Homa, I don't have enough primogems. She grabs my credit card. It declines. "Guess this is the end." She grabs Gouba. She says "Gouba, get them." There is no hint of sadness in his eyes. Nothing but pure, no icd pyro application. What a cruel world.

Every buff is a buff to Xiangling

The indirect nerfing of Bennett by the addition of Dendro is one of the most clever balancing moves I've seen in any game.

People always talk about how much Xiangling receives indirect buffs , but let's talk about FISCHL

Just wanna say that fischl definitely rivals them too. Calling it the big 4 (or 5 with sucrose) is what i consider more true since big 3 makes it seem like fischl is 'smaller' than those whereas fischl was an insane unit pre dendro and post dendro has only gotten significantly better being half the reason keqing aggravate is even usable in single target lol

I have both Xingqiu and Yelan and somehow I still myself in a situation where I'm looking for a third Xingqiu (insane hydro applier) for the other team. Hopefully Furina is able to handle that job.

the fact that how genshin managed to keep the powercreep to bare minimum where most other gachas tries to grow through powercreep is amazing . this is one of the reason which made them unique with success and still on the top even after 3 years

my favourite game: Xiangling Impact venti gave xiangling grouping and shred zhongli gave xiangling shred and shield raiden gave xiangling battery and overload nahida gave xiangling em, burning and burgeon furina gave xiangling dmg bonus i can’t wait to see what the remaining archons have in store for xiangling

Its funny that after this video that the data shows Jean usage is more than Bennett for the first time after YEARS, I mean I know this is due to Furina just released and the abyss is more set to her, and then Jean is more suitable for Furina than Bennett

I feel like only XQs kit is overloaded for no reason. Bennet lost some relevancy with more HP and EM scaling characters and more reaction based (none vape or melt) teams where his atk buff is not needed. He is still top meta koz almost every second main DPS still highly benefits from his insane atk buff. Xiangling is still an insane off field dps, but i feel like outside of mono pyro, national and reverse melt, she is not optimal anywhere. Can be used in other teams, but they wont be better with her. So that kinda limits her usage. I feel like that 3 archetype is super strong, and enough for her to stay relevant forever, but you wont just slap her on every new team and do well. And now the issue, XQ. Good single target dmg, hydro res shread, unmatched dmg reduction, some healing too, resistance to interruption, unmatched hydro app. He is way too flexible, and if your team does normal / charged attacks(besides neuvilette), there is literally no downside of using him. The abyss enemies are not tanky enough to justify using a more dmg based champ over him like yelan, but the abyss enemies tend to be able to oneshot you, or stagger you into a combo that oneshots you. If you are dying in the abyss, its probably because you are not using him. If you dont generate enough blooms or vapes, its probably because you are not using him. The main reason why other hydro units are still very much top meta is koz double hydro comps are working very well (XQ + Yelan is part of 2 of the 3 best single target teams imo) and you also often want hydro on both side of the abyss. Something like childe national + hyperbloom will clear every single abyss with ease.

When kuki came out she was so bad, had barely any use and especially at C0 which you wouldnt expect many players to get many copies of her. Everybody was laughing at her. Making her down. But when Nahida came out ... well lets just say kuki came back to get us down on our knees. Really carries so many quicken, hyperbloom teams and now with healing getting back into the meta as well i personally consider her being as much, if not more valuable than bennet (with tenacity she can also give an atk bonus) in most teams and she can even provide significant damage with her ult.. Maybe not as much as xianlings ult but i mean how much ER does xianling really need to get it back on CD? Also you can easily play Kuki with fav bc you might as well expand her kit even more and make her an ER battery. Yes thats right: Kuki's Ult is great but still only 1/4 of her kit. Not to mention that her healing has a 100% uptime and is following you around EVERYWHERE. It's not as strong as a baizhus AOE 10k heal but he gets knocked back so easily WHILE casting the elemental skill. If kuki gets knocked back she just dont care ya know? Skill is set up. Your carry's set up with drugz for 15 seconds. Also she cant die to a single attack btw. Also Bennet can sometimes be a lackluster supporter in the abyss when the enemies are flying around like hydro abyss heralds and whatnot. One more thing: Kuki has amazing synergy with xinqiu. Did you know that i'm the biggest kuki stan?

why use 5* when 4* do trick? basically, these 3 are always on my abyss team, they're just so good

i dont actually have a built xiangling, but xingqiu and bennett (and chongyun!) are the only reasons i can even get through the spiral abyss

This video did not age well. Sumeru was already a first sign that Mihoyo is out to break up the dominance of the "Big Three". It introduced a new element that scaled on EM and transformative reactions that scaled with EM and levels instead of ATK. Fontaine is the nail in the coffin with a slew of HP scaling damage carries tuned to huge numbers and Furina's team damage buff. Although the three of them will always remain useful and extremely good value for investment especially to low/non-spenders and new players to the game, a glance at the usage rates of Abyss from 4.2, they have finally fallen off the top tier and even dropped to as low as the third tier. A gacha game that depends on the sale of characters as its primary revenue will not want its most powerful units to be 4-star characters. At the same time, Mihoyo is very cognizant that minimizing power creep is important to the long term health of the game, so its aim is clearly to introduce new content and features that will reduce the importance and desirability of the Big Three at the elite end of Genshin's content while at the same time ensuring that they remain very useful everywhere else.

Indeed my Xiangling deals more Damage than my FULLY built Ayato and Yoimiya 😭😭😭 I even leveled her Basic Attack because of that

Immediately subbed and thumbbed up, outstanding production quality and impact. LOVE the intro so hard. I usually watch videos with half attention while playing the game. As soon as I saw your opening, I knew I had to stop playing and immediately give the video my 100% attention, and I WANTED to, I was salivating for the polished fine gem of a video that I had only seen a preview of so far. Insanely amazing video creation skills. The music, the script, the visuals, the memes, everything was truly *chefs kiss*

*RIP in pieces Xingqiu, courtesy Furina*

I really loved how you saw the idea of generlieast characters from your perspective and how well u explain it , i dont usually comment on YT but u deserve more! U earned new subscriber, please keep making content like that.

hoyo just got greedy with specialist. XQ and XL can dish out crazy dmg at c0, and with bennett people even recommend stopping after c1 - literally not worth your primos/starglitter to actively go after more cons. Meanwhile Mika Faru Sara and Gorou all need c6 to be useful in their already extremely limited teams.

Your style and analysis is really calm and very understandable. Some TFs show numbers and keep babbling about stuff like icd and funneling which i can understand but the way you are telling about your analysis makes it easy to swallow. Keep up your good work, I'm sure you'll have great times ahead of you.

kind of exploding at your subscriber count that should be much higher because GODDAMN the PRODUCTION QUALITY ✨✨

Benett is forever the best boy

It’s always Xiangling.

very very rarely do i comment on anything, but damn really nice video considering your sub and view count well done, i expected like 1k minimum hope u can catch the algorithm

I think the main issue is that they "balanced" their insane capabilities basically just with ER cost. Except in end-game ER is never an issue, you can safely assume you have the artifacts and character depth to manage it effectively, so to most players they just appear broken with no balance. And tbh, Xiangling probably wouldn't be half as dominant if Bennet was so perfect to battery her, since she is awful at generating her own energy. Snapshotting her burst is just overkill at that point. They actually just did the same thing with Charlotte, who's absurdly strong considering arguably best-in-game cryo application, good damage, and incredible team-wide healing. Its bc they mainly balanced it all with high ER cost. Long time players just throw favonius sword on her and its no longer any issue. That said, since healing is inherently not valuable unless its with Furina, she still won't be "general" like national. Also, it makes it worse too that those strong generalist characters are all in the shop too. So there is literally 0% chance any player, new or old, can miss out on them. They are guaranteed no matter how bad your luck is. Even if anyone else were to powercreep them, they'd still have more usage, simply due to being guaranteed to any player that wants a generalist like that.

My account grew up mildly incompatible with the big three (Yelan to Hyperbloom to ayaka freeze) but now that I have wriothesley I am enjoying the melt playstyle.

Ive always hated the fact the big 3 have stayed relevant because it makes team building so stale if your not trying to keep up with the trends. Even when trying to keep up with the trends theres a good chance that atleast one of the big 3 will be a member of the team your building (usually xingqiu at this point). Which means not using those characters when available typically means you arent being as optimal.

I meannnnn I feel like it's the power five with Sucrose and Fischl

Add Sucrose and Fischl to this list to get the big 5. Near irreplaceable in many teams.

Don't forget that the community initially buried (misunderstood) Benny, so a lot of people missed loading up on his dupes based on the bad early hype.

On the bright side, since generalists are rare now, you can go f2p easier than only specialists

If they aren't going to nerf the launch 4*s then they need to power creep them, or at least power-match them. You don't need to make a character that is strictly better than Xiangling, you only need to make a character who is AS good as Xiangling, and then maybe can do some other thing that Xiangling can't (without raising their objective power tier), such as given them a cool movement tech, or giving them *some* conditions in which their damage/application would be better while in others it would be worse, so if you build the team toward that strength, they are the better option, but Xiangling would still be best in other, also meta comps. Yelan is a great example, you can still use Xingqui if you want, but you can also use Yelan without making an objectively worse choice, and Yelan is much better in certain ways, without raising the bar on "hydro spike damage." It depresses me how few options people have to beat Xiangling in any team comp she is remotely suited for.

What discord can I join to have folks look at my roster and help me decide what two teams to build up for Abyss? I'm not a whale but I'm not F2P, either, so my roster is decent but missing a lot of the easy "core" picks and I could use some help so I don't invest in underperforming characters (that I don't particularly like).

in lore, Bennett is actually is special, from baby he can safe from Mare Jivare domain Xinqiu is base from adeptus Guhua and Xiangling is linked by Guoba's bond

I don't even have my Xingqiu or Bennett built because I don't like them. (My XL is built, but I mostly only use her in Hydro-immune scenarios because I main Neuvi - and even that will end when I get Xiao). The only one of the Big 5 I use is Fischl because I love her. I get through everything with ease outside Spiral Abyss. I've learned to relax and not force myself to play in a way I don't have fun with.

I'm a Genshin boomer (1.4 veteran) and it is really crazy watching so many characters rise and fall while these three stay the same.

Bro I left the game from like 2.0 with those 3 with venti and diluc as my main team one form or a other,but I recently started to play again due to more content and they're still on top of the "meta" except my diluc fell off hard smh.

I'm sure my rotations aren't optimal but I barely use Xiangling, despite how strong she is, because even with 190% ER I can't consistently get her burst back and she feels useless without it

I don't know, I think Bennet and Xiangling have lost relevance in the game. While yes, their teams are still overall very powerful, you shouldn't forget that you can't only view the game from a perspective of a veteran who has all the characters. New players can't just go for the best teams (and let's also be serious even though you can get Xiangling for free, her constellations are important for her overall damage), they have to use what they can. So let's look at these big three: - Bennet: While he can dish out a lot of damage, he is mainly a buffer and battery. However, since Pyro lost quite a bit of relevance over time the same with ATK as the general damage stat, his usage is actually quite limited. The main characters that he now supports are Navia, Lyney and Xiangling, so if you don't play either of them (because you don't have them) his healing alone isn't worth it - Xiangling: Similar to Bennet, she lost quite a bit of relevance. Yes, she is still very important in mono pyro and in teams where you have strong Hydro application. But this is the thing: She NEEDS Hydro application (if not in mono pyro) while the hydro applicators don't need her. Hydro applicators have become far more relevant with Dendro and since Hoyoverse decided that most Hydro characters scale off HP, since Xiangling is very dependent on Bennet, putting them together is also not necessarily your best choice to begin with - Xingqiu: That's actually the only of the three that I would say gained even more relevance over time. Though, let's be honest, a lot of his strength come with constellations and it is way harder nowadays to get thim, which is why I personally would advise people to go for a C0 5* hydro applicator if they have the chance, but considering that Hydro is probably the most important element in the game, it is hard for him to lose that relevance As for other strong characters mentioned in the comments, I agree that Fischl is probably more relevant than Bennet and Xiangling nowadays which is mainly because she is just a good battery in general, not just for electro team mates and because electro got a good buff with dendro, an element that Bennet and Xiangling don't really support much. As for Sucrose which I saw mentioned, I wouldn't count her that much anymore. Her grouping is strong, but you don't need grouping as much anymore nowadays I feel and VV can be used by every anemo character so the more anemo characters that get released the more relevance she loses (her EM buff is good in certain teams, especially Electro-Dendro teams, but it's not necessarily a must have).

I'm not disagreeing at their general strength but i think it changed over a year ago, with Dendro, Xingqiu is the only one i really rely on these days. I do rely on other 4* like crazy but its more Fischl Kuki Sucrose situation, with Beidou in there occasionally not because shes a staple of units argued to be near the top, just good while being uniquely fun. I care about clear times and enjoyment, not usage rates so we might be split on that, i could care less whats popular.

Theoretically, the easiest character to powercreep among these three is actually Xiangling since she's a dps, with less support utilities than the other two. All mihoyo has to do is release a 5star off field pyro dps with good numbers and pyro application. But somehow, hoyo never does this. All the pyro characters they release are mostly onfielders (lyney, yoimiya, hu tao, etc), or off-field and defensive characters such that they can't outdps xiangling (thoma, dehya). And to top it all off, everything new they release just directly or indirectly buffs xiangling. No shiny new 5star pyro that competes with her role at all. Maybe they're saving for Natlan.

I still use Diluc and Venti in Abyss till this day and they work greatly depending on your team comp build.

The fact that I never worked on my Xingqui more than the bare minimum, and he still hits like if he was on drugs, is just proof that genshin will never make another decent 4 star

Xiangling can get creeper easily. Just need a snapshoting pyro applicator with less energy issues/e skill reliance. Kinda like furinas e. Xianglings holding up purely for the fact of snapshotting. Everything else can be replaced.

Moral of the story, just because a character isn't performing well now, doesn't mean they won't perform well in the future. Just wait for new characters and weapons also artifacts. Nothing is really powercrept, everything still works in genshin even diluc and venti. Idk about dori tho

mmm dunno if this aged too well outside f2p with furina

The funny thing is Diluc was always meant to be gacha trash. The damage number on the man's elemental skill is 1/4th of a GOUBA. A lot of the game seems balanced around co-op, characters balanced against being on the field in a team all the time. So in singleplayer passive damage turrets are scaled like crazy. You push one button with Furina, and it does a million damage. While a Cyno asks you to press a million buttons to accomplish the same thing. Good damage over time effects (and elemental reactions) will always make constantly swapping characters in singleplayer optimal. Really the only "solution" would have been to only be able to use one character at a time, but then you have the lame problem of 3 computer controlled characters either doing everything for you, or dying like little idiots constantly. They're stuck with the game they've made.

What a nice video, although i disagree eith something, i think the big 4 (i think Fishal should be inculded) eill grt powercreeped inbthe future, but not by four stars, but rather it will be powercreeped by 5 stars, we already seeing this trend with Furina, Yelan etc etc

Like commented and subscribed 👍

the subnautica music goes incredibly hard

nice vid

I saw that xq amongst the neuvilettes

And then this abyss releases, discouraging ppl to play pyro characters, LMAO Nice vid, huge respect for the original national in the footage!

I think Xingling, Xinqui, Fischl are Big three now, as they have great off field application. Bennett are Sucrose are in similar situation.

"what do you need to not be power crept?" uhhh be so broken that early devs dont know what they're doing🤣

playing genshin around 2 years, my Xingqiu is on lvl 20, he is never touched in my acc and I did it purposely. I build bennet because I forsed to, I build Xiangling, because Tartaglia really wants her and I love him. I hate those big 3. They was a huge mistake.

I think beidou - fischl and yaoyao needs some love, they are stupidly good as well as sucrose :)

Bloom.

the only way to make the big 3 somewhat less powerful is to make 3 abyss teams

As a huge fan of Xingqiu's CHARACTER (not just his kit) I'm happy that he's meta and won't go away soon. I can go fight alongside him in the abyss forever!

I really wanna delete these accidentally OP characters from my game.

I agree with the main point of the video but it's really a case of "the big 5" with Fischl and Sucrose jumping in. What all 5 of these have in common is the vast number of teams they serve as the best or second best option, only being beaten out by the very best 5*s only in certain scenarios. Yes, I know Sucrose has low usage. But usage isn't a measure of character strength. The chinese speedrunning scene, with their gold system, makes heavy use of all characters in the big 5. Because, even with the presence of better 5*s, their system incentives low investment which really proves how good she is in a vacuum.

1:53 Legit saw this whole soliloquy in another video I swear!!!

wow guys look a new polearm released! *My Name is Xiangling, I'm a chef from Liyue, my favorite place is the chicken! I mean Kitchen!*

Also fichel and sucrose

ever since sumeru and Fontaine, I feel like fischl has become one of these

I have some reservations about Xiangling, but let me elaborate on my perspective. Her innate power and abilities are evident, but there's a noteworthy caveat - she struggles with energy generation, and her Elemental Burst consumes a hefty 80 energy. Consequently, to maximize her potential, one must invest significantly in ER, which can ultimately diminish her overall damage output. To truly bolster her effectiveness, a substantial investment is required. Otherwise, you'll find yourself compromising between damage output and ER for a more comfortable rotation. Personally, I've never been entirely satisfied with her build, and she seems to be the sole character plagued by this issue. I've tinkered with countless artifacts, and yet the results have always left something to be desired. I prefer to view Xiangling as a support-enabler or a Pyro applicator, rather than considering her strong in terms of raw damage. While it's true that you can achieve remarkable Vaporize damage with a dedicated DPS build, this comes at the cost of her ER suffering, and her trusty panda bear companion doesn't contribute significantly to her energy pool. Nonetheless, this unique trait is what sets her apart, as if she had efficient energy generation, she would undoubtedly surpass even the Archons in power.

i feel like when genshin first came out they didnt actually know meta, which is why we have mega broken characters like bennett xiangling xingque and they cant do shit abt it cus they cant nerf them directly. granted theyve done a great job building around this meta they sunk into the ground like an obelisk with dendro and the fontaine characters

Fischl though?

This the only big 3 J Cole should be talking about

For the first time for like an eternity a 4 was second most used without being in big 3 It’s kuki

Big 4 - bennett - xingqiu - xiangling - fischl If Big 5 - add Sucrose Big 3 is not enough.

meanwhile my xiangling is on life support

Big 5 Benny,XQ,Sucrose,Fish,Xiangling

i didnt know people think its the big three bc sucrose and fischl especially are really good characters and while sucrose is overshadowed by kazuha fischl is the Best electro caracter by far

Slander against venti. He's still very useful

Well...until Nahida, Nilou, & many Dendro & Hyperblooms came...Plus Neuvillette outmatches any Top DPS right now....And Furina also outmatches any Buffer Chars in Genshin not only in raw DMG but also she can be in any team...even Geo, Dendro, EM-teams, Healer-teams or Anemo....Plus Navia will be on par with Xiangling in many team instances, if not outmatches her in some teams as a Sub DPS.

"Oh noo"😂

OK but Venti and Dilucs cases are very different. Diluc was only ever good because we didn't hve anything better and because in the beggining Mihoyo didn't understand what they were making (and neither did us). Venti fell off due to him trivializing anything that wasnn't a boss to the point they had to mke enemies immune to his grouping capabilities. Only one of them was actually powercrept.

My favourite characters kaveh, heizou and kaeya are not exactly meta. I'm lucky enough to get my hands on heizou but I dont know when kaveh will get a rerun or if he will ever get a rerun.

Still waiting for a fun Cryo DPS without a Y chromosome to make this Shenhe I pulled not worthless

Guys I have an engulfing xiangling with a great crit ratio but my haitham finally is dealing more damage fore I pulled c1 furina😭 IVE BROKEN THE CURSE GUYS

I would add Fischl and Sucrose to the Big Three and make it the Big Five :D They are just as good even if replacing/swapping them is easier (Kazuha/Yae Miko)

I remember old legends, where ancient people kept saying Bennet was mid...

what about amber

it also doesn't help that these 3 characters are the core of the cheapest, easiest, and arguably strongest team in all of genshin since the beginning.

I only use water boy

no fischl?

Shinobu supremacy!

the big three VS the power five it really depends on how you view the game but i must say i've grown tired of bennet and XQ and yes only those two cuz i didn't really use XL all that much she is probably tied with fischl for the amount of times i actually used her in abyss and i only played fischl after dendro i think out of the 3 or 5 whatever you wanna call them XL is the most overrated for many reasons that i don't want to dive into

Its the power 5 tho... You can also argue power 5 + 1 (hyperbloom shinobu). Id also argue 5 + 1.5 (with DMC [not the best choice but always a good choice] + shinobu hyperbloom).

Hoyoverse can't make Powercreep unit because of Bennett. We need a lot of counter for these big three.

These 3 is truly Genshin's favorite children... Specially Xiangling she is a 6 star Kazuha and Yelan are just 5 star version of Sucrosse and Xingqiu... Maybe hoyo will make another similar character

My Bennett deals more damage than my Razor😭

I'm sorry but Genshin content with Subnautica music makes my brain feel weird Great video tho!

You'd think the introduction of dendro and Furina were ways to phase Bennett out of meta. But Bennett is still in all of the top speedrun abyss teams. I don't think hoyoverse did as great of a job as they were hoping, sadly.

is this word came from op ,n and b

I purposely actived my c6 Bennett to make him less use

The big 3 usage rate comes from a place of comfort not really strength

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