Fix Dehya. Please. Image: Hoyoverse

Having played Genshin Impact for over a 400 days now and hung out in Genshin’s Reddit communities for this long, I generally don’t think every character has to be meta. It’s okay to have average damage!

On the other hand, I don’t think for characters to be at least half decent is too much to ask for. Has Hoyoverse considered the time, people, and resources that went into each character?

The release of Dehya is a more recent example of this. She has below-average damage but that’s not the worst offense. Her primary role is unclear and for the two of her notable functions, she doesn’t excel in either.

We also thought Dehya was Genshin’s way of introducing a new mechanic. But it’s…not really? After her release, we’re right back to having healers and shielders (e.g., Baizhu), making her more of an experimental character.

It doesn’t help she has been thrown into the permanent 5-star pool. Her constellations can help alleviate her poor damage output and usability issues, but that’s already a lot to ask for — we don’t usually pray to lose 50/50 on limited banners, and it takes 150+ pulls on the permanent banner for one copy of a standard 5-star character.

This is such a shame. Dehya looks great and has a great personality. I love her voice, her poses, and her animations. These are all just so well done, which makes her underwhelming performance that much more painful. It’s like getting a rocket launcher in [insert AAA action game], only to find out it deals less damage than your starter pistol.

Us Dehya fans will probably keep nagging for a while. And we will continue to come up with ways to “fix” Dehya because it’s hard to just let this go. It’s highly unlikely that Hoyoverse ever drastically changes her kit like how they did Zhongli. But thinking about Dehya’s revised kit is cathartic, so I’ll do it too.

Here’s my vision for what Dehya could’ve been.

“Rarifying” 4-Stars

I don’t know the exact nomenclature for it (so I came up with the word “rarify”), but Genshin loves doing this: turning a 4-star into a 5-star (or occasionally, vice versa). This isn’t limited to characters either - some weapons also get turned into limited 5-star weapons.

Here are some examples:

One of Hoyoverse’s most successful attempts at rarifying a 4-star. Image: Hoyoverse via Game Rant

• Barbara and Kokomi: Both Barbara and Kokomi are idols, healers, and catalyst Supports. Kokomi is better at Hydro application with her jellyfish being able to apply Hydro every 2s over a large AoE, and her Burst turns her into an on-field DPS, boosting her DMG based on Max HP. Barbara’s Normal/Charged Attacks can heal the entire party while she is on-field with her Skill active. And I do miss Barbara’s huge instant heal from her Burst. C6 Barbara can also instantly revive and fully heal a teammate if they are down, which is handy in Spiral Abyss.
  They share the same 4-star best-in-slot weapon and the same best-in-slot healer artifact set, if the above similarities aren’t enough.
• Xingqiu and Yelan: Both Xingqiu and Yelan are Hydro Sub DPSs who can initiate coordinated attacks with their Burst, even the animations look strikingly similar. Xingqiu is more defensive as he can reduce DMG taken by the active character, and has more Hydro application via Rainswords for melee users. Yelan is easier to build as she mostly scales on HP, and can boost on-field character’s DMG with her passive. Yelan’s Skill is also a unique ability that lets her quickly maneuver, escape, or reposition. Overall though, in Spiral Abyss they are largely replaceable with each other.
• Yanfei and Yoimiya: While most people will compare Yanfei to Klee as both are Pyro catalyst users, I would compare Yanfei to Yoimiya as they are both “comfort” Vaporize Main DPSs. Where Yanfei’s Burst gives her a Charged Attack DMG bonus, Yoimiya gets a Normal Attack DMG bonus via her Skill. Both are designed to be Vaporize triggers, and they share the same core Hydro teammates like Xingqiu/Yelan. Both are simple to use.
• Lisa and Yae Miko: Both are Electro catalyst sub-DPS characters. Yae’s Skill is basically Lisa’s Burst, except not requiring Energy and not limited to a small-ish AoE. Lisa’s hold Skill has a long charge time and a long CD (but also some of the highest multiplier when at max Conductive Stack), so in Yae’s case, it’s a nuke Burst, though with a high Energy requirement. They both have Energy issues at C0. Some also say Yae is a 5-star Fischl, and they are not wrong, but I think Lisa is more like a prototype Yae.
• Noelle and Itto: Both are DEF-scaling Geo claymore DPS characters. They differ in that Noelle can both shield and heal (and thus double as a support), while Itto hits much harder. Noelle and Itto both have a special Burst state where their Normal/Charged Attack DMG is increased by a portion of their DEF. Noelle’s Skill generates a Skill, while Itto’s Ushi does have a taunt mechanic. They are also both great users of Redhorn Stonethresher.
• Razor and Cyno: Both are Electro on-field DPS characters, though Cyno isn’t a direct upgrade of Razor: Razor is a Physical DPS, and Cyno is designed as an Aggravate/Hyperbloom DPS. In lore, Razor is a wolf-person while Cyno is an Anubis descendant. They have similar-looking Skill and Burst, with abundant claw symbolism. They are also the only two male Electro characters so far. Cyno also takes after Raiden as his Burst gives him Electro infusion; Razor’s Burst gives him coordinated Electro attacks, which helps apply Superconduct.
• Prototype Amber, Everlasting Moonglow, and now, Jadefall’s Splendor: Prototype Amber is a 4-star craftable catalyst, while Moonglow and Jadefall are both 5-star limited weapons (or some say signature weapon) for Kokomi and the upcoming Baizhu respectively. The three are all catalyst weapons with HP% ascension stat, but the 5-star ones only give 8.5% more HP when maxed out. While their passives overall are different, they share the same energy regeneration mechanic, which restores energy for the equipped character. But the issue here is, Amber is craftable, so it’s easier to reach max refinement level, and refunding more energy than R1 of Moonglow or Jadefall, making pulling either limited weapon a poor-valued choice.

Of all of the above Hoyoverse’s attempts at rarifying 4-stars in Genshin, making a 5-star Xingqiu is perhaps the most successful one. Everlasting Moonglow, nicknamed “Donut”, has been nearly universally disliked, Yae was long criticized for her lack of i-frames when placing her turrets, and the recently released Cyno is at best, a sort of mid Electro DPS with limited usage. Kokomi is a cult favorite and sees new life in Sumeru, but before, if you had a good shielder, she wasn’t a must-pull. Yoimiya is designed for comfort and Itto has stayed a super niche choice for main DPS.

That said, creating a new 5-star based on an existing 4-star is entriely valid, as we can see with Yelan’s success.

Dehya Could’ve Been a 5-Star Bennett

Bennett, though unlucky as an adventurer, is often a necessity in Spiral Abyss. Image: Hoyoverse

Why would Hoyoverse ever make a 5-star Bennett?

Bennett is one of the most powerful 4-star supports in Genshin and he has been insanely popular throughout Genshin’s lifespan. His simple dual utility of healing and buffing is highly valuable, especially in Spiral Abyss, which oftentimes is about raw damage. He is also straightforward to build, and accessible due to him often being rate-up on banners, as well as simply due to being a 4-star character.

With each update, Genshin is constantly evolving and it would be logical that Hoyoverse wants the playerbase to adapt new ways to play. For example, the (much hated) introduction of the Corrosion mechanic with Rifthounds alongside Kokomi’s release was that kind of a push to nudge people away from shielders like Zhongli and towards healers.

Why should Bennett ever be replaced?

Bennett heals the active character, but only up to 70% of Max HP. Not only is the active character limited to his AoE (“circle impact”), they can also get staggered, thus interrupted.

Bennett’s second most utility is that he can boost the active character’s ATK from his own ATK (base ATK + weapon ATK). This is seeing diminishing value in Genshin as this doesn’t work on the following types of characters: 1) DEF, HP, or EM scaling characters; 2) off-field characters whose abilities do not snapshot; and 3) if they are equipped with weapons with a high ATK%. A most notable example is that Bennett can’t buff Yelan, whose Skill and Burst scale on HP.

Bennett’s C6 is also an interesting constellation as now his field grants the active character Pyro infusion, which can be sometimes undesirable. For example, accidentically activating it can be quite the trouble for Xiao teams.

Before Yelan, we almost always had Xingqiu in certain teams, and it could get tiring. Having a 5-star counterpart to Bennett can also free him up for the other team in Spiral Abyss, which can be a small benefit for longtime veteran players. It can also help change up the playstyle and keep the game feeling fresh and new.

Why do I think Dehya was going to be a 5-star Bennett?

I thought at a glance they had a lot in common.

For example, Dehya wasn’t designed to be another Vaporize DPS, which I could understand. There’s already a lot of them, 5-star or 4-star. Instead, she has HP-scaling on offensive abilities, and features a new type of defensive utility (that also takes the form of an AoE). Bennett was most certainly not designed to be a DPS either, as his base ATK at max level was under 200.

She buffs active character’s resistance to interruption. And instead of healing teammates, she tanks for teammates and heals herself. In principle, it sounds just like a shielder. If her resistance to interruption buff works well enough, she should be a direct sidegrade to shielders.

This is important because recently in the 3.5 second phase 12-2-2, there’s the Black Serpent Knights. If these enemies hit you when your character is shielded, they will gain strength and resistance, making them nearly unkillable (at least within allotted time. Besides healers, Dehya is one way to work around this.

Before her release, Dehya was already a popular Sumeru story character with the playerbase. She had great potential to become a 5-star Bennett, if Hoyoverse designed her right.

Why not a 5-star Xiangling?

This is a common question many people have. If Dehya wasn’t going to be the 5-star Xiangling, 5-star Xiangling when?

Xingqiu and Xiangling were both popular pre-3.0 characters, but when we dive in it’s for different reasons. For Xiangling, it’s because her Burst, Pyronado, has no internal cooldown (ICD), which means every one of her swings could trigger an elemental reaction, which means more damage in less time.

In contrast, Xingqiu’s Burst does have ICD, but because it’s standard 3-hit/2.5s (whichever shortest), and he does 3 hits every 1s, it’s like ICD doesn’t really apply to him. Yelan is the same.

The lack of ICD is a trait of character kit design from the early days of Genshin, and the design team surely has realized just how it can make characters flatout “broken”. Xiangling is one such example, and Tartaglia is another.

Nowadays we no longer get characters with no ICD. Hoyoverse has largely refrained from making another character whose attacks don’t have any ICD. It would even seem like new characters are clearly designed with ICD in mind. Case in point: Ayato, whose Hydro application (Skill & Burst) has ICD, and thus less ideal when compared to Tartaglia for Vaporize.

This makes it harder to make a 5-star Xiangling at all, if new characters are not really allowed to get away with no ICD. 

We’ve only had one Pyro character each in Inazuma (Thoma) and Sumeru (Dehya) as well. If this pattern were to hold up, it’ll be a while until we see a proliferation of new and powerful Pyro characters. (Let’s hope we don’t have to wait all the way until the Pyro Archon.)

Dehya’s New Kit: a 5-Star Bennett

The Basics

I would probably design Dehya as a hybrid defensive support + buffer + Burst DPS. Defensive support + buffer are things Benny is already good at, while Burst DPS is how she can contribute towards overall team damage with relatively low field time.

First of all, Dehya should have Pyro DMG Bonus as ascension stat, not HP%. The latter is much more common from substats, or from weapons (with Fontaine, it seems we’ll have more HP% weapons too). 28.8% elemental DMG bonus vs 28.8% HP%, of course most of the time we would prefer DMG bonus.

In terms of Normal Attack multipliers, I think they are acceptable considering my vision for this new Dehya kit.

Elemental Skill: Molten Inferno

At Talent Lv.10:

• Indomitable Flame: 203.2% ATK + 3.6% Max HP
• Ranging Flame: 239% ATK + 3.6% Max HP
• Fiery Sanctum Field DMG: 108.4% ATK + 5.4% Max HP
• Max Gold-Forged Form State Duration: 18s
• Mitigation: 80%
• Duration: 12s
• CD: 18s

The several changes I think are necessary: 1) incorporate Dehya C1’s HP scaling into her Skill DMG scaling; 2) mitigation at talent level 10 should be at least 80%; 3) Gold-Forged Form State should last up to the entire duration of the Fiery Sanctum, and there shouldn’t be two different levels of resistance to interruption.

Elemental Burst: Leonine Bite

At Talent Lv.10:

• Flame-Mane’s Fist DMG: 177.7% ATK + 9% Max HP
• Incineration Drive DMG: 250.7% ATK + 10.3% Max HP
• Max Duration: 4s
• CD: 18s
• Energy Cost: 70

Similarly, Dehya’s Burst should really have her C1 HP scaling at C0. Additionally, her Burst should NOT be able to jump-cancel. In fact, it shouldn’t have auto-targeting at all. 

I would instead propose auto-ending: if the player does not rapidly tap Normal Attack or Elemental Skill button during the Burst for 2s, the Burst will automatically end, triggering Incineration Drive.

If it matters so much to some players, her Burst animations should be considered as Normal Attack animations, but I don’t think allowing her to Vaporize is the best way to differentiate Dehya.

I also think her Energy Cost at 70 is okay. A lot of 5-stars have a 70-cost Burst, and if Dehya were to be built as a Burst DPS, this amount of Energy requirement is worth it.

Passive: Unstinting Succor

When Dehya receives DMG from Redmane’s Blood, the DMG is reduced by 30%. 

When her HP falls below 30%, Dehya will recover 30% of her Max HP and will restore 5% of her Max HP every 2s for the next 12s. This effect can be triggered once every 12s.

Her DMG reduction originally only works for 6s after her second tap of E or ending her Burst, which I feel is a very arbitrary requirement. Let her have the DMG reduction at half (which is 30%), but for 12s, which is the duration for Dehya’s skill AoE at C0.

The original Dehya A4 passive has 10s of downtime, which is its biggest issue. What we want to see is 100% uptime for self-healing, because even then she can still be one-shot while off-field tanking. Here I have changed it to 12s duration with a 12s CD, which aligns with her C0 skill duration.

Passive: Stalwart and True

When Pyro-related elemental reaction are triggered within the Fiery Sanctum field, nearby party members will receive an Elemental Mastery bonus and Pyro DMG bonus based on Dehya’s Max HP. A maximum total of 250 Elemental Mastery and 60% Pyro DMG bonus can be granted to nearby party members this way.

• Elemental Mastery is increased by 0.09% of Dehya’s Max HP;
• Pyro DMG bonus granted is equal to 0.2% per 1,000 points of Dehya’s Max HP.

Max 4 stacks. A stack can be gained every 0.5s and each stack lasts 6s. Gaining a new stack will refresh all previous stacks’ durations. The above bonus effects can be activated every 18s, and will be canceled if Dehya is down.

This is what I wish Dehya would have. Currently, Dehya’s best team is Mono Pyro (but she’s not the carry), and some of Bennett’s most notable use cases are in Hu Tao and Yoimiya Vaporize teams. I think Dehya would be a better support and dare I say — a solid alternative to Bennett in these team with this new buff effect.

How this works is, Dehya gives EM and Pyro DMG bonus to all team members as long as Pyro reactions are triggered in her AoE (including Pyro Swirl, of course). This is an easily fulfilled requirement since her field does coordinated attacks, so as long as you’re not playing Physical, you’re good. Look! I even added a stacking mechanic to make it more of a challenge. 

I’m really reasonable.

But with (a total) 0.8% Pyro DMG bonus per 1K HP, to reach the maximum of 60%, Dehya would need 75K HP, which is very very hard to achieve. If anyone did ever manage this, it would come at a huge expense of Dehya’s personal damage (which, isn’t totally unacceptable if she’s built to simply tank and buff). But if you did, Hu Tao and Yoimiya can make use of both EM and Pyro%.

Even in the case where she’s the only Pyro in the team or Dehya is the Burgeon trigger, she can make use of the buffs herself. Not bad.

Why Pyro DMG bonus? Well, with the upcoming Fontaine, Vaporize might be back in fashion, and Pyro DPSs might get a new life after being largely ignored during the Sumeru chapter. In general, elemental DMG bonus is much rarer compared to ATK, which can come from artifacts’ main and substats, 4pcs Noblesse Oblige, weapon base ATK, weapon passive (e.g., Staff of Scarlet Sands/Primordial Jade-Winged Spear), and Pyro resonance. Elemental DMG bonus however can only come from ascension stat, Goblets, and some weapon’s passive.

Making Dehya’s A4 passive a Pyro-specific buff might shoehone her into more of a niche buffer, but it would mean she could be of more value than Bennett in some teams like Pyro hypercarry teams. Even in non-Pyro-centric teams, EM could be helpful.

Constellation Lv.1: The Flame Incandescent

When the Fiery Sanctum field’s coordinated attack triggers a Pyro-related elemental reaction, the field duration is extended by 1.2s, and the coordinated attack trigger interval is reduced by 0.3s. This can occur every 0.5s and up to 5 times.

This new C1 has a similar trigger condition to Dehya’s new A4, but it both extends the field duration and reduces the trigger interval down to 1s at max stacks, which would make her comparable to Thoma. But remember, this new Dehya is at the same time, getting her A4 stacks, which increases her EM, which would make her superior to Thoma as a Burgeon trigger. (Thoma’s AoE is super small compared to Dehya’s AoE anyway.) This new C1 also extends Dehya’s anti-stagger utility, reaching 18s at max stack (=100% uptime, same as the current C2).

Constellation Lv.2: The Sand-Blades Glittering

Dehya’s Max HP is increased by 20% and DMG mitigation is increased by 15%. When Flame-Mane’s Fist and Incineration Drive attacks hit opponents, Dehya will restore 4% of her Max HP to any party member whose HP is less than or equal to 70%. This effect can be triggered once every 0.2s.

This new C2 has three parts: HP increase, mitigation% increase, and team-wide HP restoration. The 20% HP increase is relatively minor, but increasing mitigation to 95% at talent Lv.10 would make her finally comparable to decent shielders (along with 100% uptime).

Dehya’s current C4 has HP restoration but only to herself, and she can already self-heal. Here she restores a higher amount of HP to the team (including herself), but with limit of 70%, which is more than enough and in line with Bennett’s same restriction. And now there’s a use for her Burst, even for her highest-possible-HP build.

For context, her 10-hit Burst can restore about 20K HP for each party member, which is more than enough to save a near-death hypercarry if you need.

Constellation Lv.4: An Oath Abiding

Dehya’s Leonine Bite DMG is increased by 10% per stack of ???. Dehya can gain up to 2 stacks of ??? from taking two separate instances of DMG through Redmane’s Blood and 3 stacks from hitting opponents in her Blazing Lioness state. When her Blazing Lioness state ends, all stacks are consumed and 3 Energy per stack is restored to Dehya. Stacks last 30s. One stack can be generated every 0.3s.

Number-wise this mirrors Nilou’s C4, while in practice it uses a stacking mechanic to turn damage taken by Dehya into more damage dealt to enemies. It might also motivate players to use Dehya’s Burst after her Skill, allowing her to take damage for max stacks.

Constellation Lv.6: The Burning Claws Cleaving

I actually think Dehya’s C6 is fine, though the CRIT Rate increase is a bit low. If the RNG can be removed all together it would be even better.

Alternatively, her C6 can be more like a typical elemental buffer’s C6, i.e., “after Dehya’s Blazing Lioness state ends, all nearby party members gain 40% Pyro CRIT DMG bonus while inside the Fiery Sanctum field.”

Some Numbers on Hypothetical Dehya Builds: Burst DPS vs Triple HP%

In my calculation, Dehya is using her “signature” 4pcs Vourukasha’s Glow artifact set and her signature 5-star weapon Beacon of the Reed Sea. The following assumes zero substat for a baseline expectation.

• Burst DPS: HP%/Pyro%/CRIT DMG% → 35911 Max HP, 1533 ATK, 75.4% Pyro DMG bonus, 38.1% CRIT Rate, 116.2% CRIT DMG
• Triple HP%: HP%/HP%/HP% → 50520 Max HP, 1533 ATK, 28.8% Pyro DMG bonus, 38.1% CRIT Rate, 50% CRIT DMG

Doing a little theorycrafting, this new build of Dehya’s almost double the damage output at talent level 10 for the DPS build, and increases by 139% in full HP build. And this is just her personal damage, not from reactions. On top of the extra damage, Dehya will also now be buffing reactions with her EM and Pyro% buffs.

Between the Burst DPS and triple HP% builds, they don’t differ much in non-CRIT situations. The delta is 1.18% in favor of triple HP%. But because of the CRIT DMG difference, the Burst DPS build can deal on average 30% more damage when CRITing, and on average 16.5% more considering the 38.1% CRIT Rate.

But building Dehya triple HP% this way would allow her to buff the team for 182 EM and give 40% Pyro DMG bonus, so that’s more for the team while she acts as a stronger tank.

Summary: What Have I Accomplished via This Kit Redesign?

I think as it is today, Dehya’s kit has many parts that are ok. Not great, just ok. 

The new A4 and C1/C2/C4 I designed are so that they are in line with the passives/constellations from other 5-star characters, while making sure Dehya doesn’t easily become overpowered. For example, in order to max out her A4 bonuses, player would need 75K HP on Dehya, which is difficult to achieve, even with the dreaded Bell. The two new builds I think are fairly balanced, and whether it’s damage or being a tank, she’ll excel at both.

The new C1 leans into Dehya’s off-field reaction trigger role, and allows for 100% uptime. The C2 makes her mitigation more useful and allows her to emergency heal. The new C4 adds a stacking mechanic further converting damage taken to damage output, and works synergistically with her C6.

I don’t think they’ll fix Dehya man. But I’ve tried. ∎