"Kinich becoming Pyro means he's definitely strong."
When Kinich was Dendro, he needed someone to apply Pyro off-field.
But now, most characters capable of off-field Pyro application aren't very usable, and the truly good Pyro applicators have to go into Hydro Dragon Sovereign teams, where Kinich simply can't compete.
So, Dendro Kinich is a relatively awkward character.
Though his damage is very high, Leon still wouldn't recommend players pull for him.
But if Kinich is a Pyro character, then he has no such issues.
He himself can use Pyro attacks on-field, so he doesn't need teammates to apply Pyro off-field at all; he just needs teammates to apply Dendro off-field.
And in Genshin, there are way too many characters capable of applying Dendro off-field: Nahida can, Collei can, Yaoyao and Baizhu can too, and even the Traveler can apply Dendro off-field.
Plus, the Perfumer coming out this version means there are a full six characters who can apply Dendro off-field.
Compared to Pyro, there are way too many characters who can apply Dendro off-field, and each one is particularly easy to use.
It can be said that, without any change in power level, after Kinich switches from Dendro to Pyro, the team-building difficulty drops dramatically.
In addition, team diversity doesn't have to be locked into Pyro-Dendro systems; other elements' characters can even be added in.
The first thing Leon thinks of is adding Hydro characters, and the first one that comes to mind is Furina.
Kinich is a character who relies on Burning and Burgeon to deal powerful Elemental Skill damage.
Previously, when Kinich was Dendro, Furina entering the team would cause Burning to fail to maintain, making it so he couldn't fire his Elemental Skill.
But now, with his ability to apply Pyro high-frequency on-field, he can let Furina's three seafood stably Vaporize while still maintaining Burning status.
Without losing the original damage, he can also add off-field damage from Furina, putting his damage on par with the same-rarity Hydro Dragon Sovereign.
Moreover, after Furina enters the team, Chuychu can also join in.
Chuychu in the next version can equip the Heart of the Brave set, easily adding 40% Pyro damage bonus to Kinich.
"Oh right, and the Heart of the Brave set." Leon recalls the woman who previously turned from a 5-star DPS character into a 4-star powerful support.
After Mualani equips the Heart of the Brave and the Saga of the Dragon-Slaying Heroes and enters the team, she can increase Kinich's attack and Pyro damage bonus, and she can also deal decent damage herself during Kinich's output gaps.
At that point, Kinich can pair with Bennett to form a double Pyro plus double Natlan character combo, eating high attack buffs and elemental damage bonuses throughout, and the unusable aspects drop a lot all at once.
In terms of damage, it doesn't have to be lower than with the Hydro Archon in the team. Kinich's attack multipliers are very high, and with Bennett helping boost attack, he can deal very high output.
Plus, zero-constellation Hydro Archon can only give 75% damage bonus, and that requires eating it full to get that much; on average, it might only be 50%.
Mualani with the Heart of the Brave set can give 40% damage bonus; the gap isn't that big.
"This is troublesome now."
Leon's mood was very bad.
Not only does Mualani's video need redoing, but even Kinich's part needs deleting and modifying.
In fact, he might not even be able to release this issue's video.
After all, his videos mainly sell points on roasting how the characters' mechanisms suck.
But with Mualani and Kinich's current mechanisms, he temporarily can't see any obvious flaws; even if he releases a video, not many people would agree, and it would instead cause his fan count to drop.
"The last character we want to introduce to everyone is the Pyro Traveler." The animated little person in the preview livestream introduced.
"Pyro Traveler?"
Leon was dumbfounded.
According to the leakers, in the first few versions after Natlan launches, the Traveler couldn't resonate with Pyro power at all, right?
How is there a Pyro Traveler next version?
[What?]
[Leakers wrong again?]
[This is the third time already]
[Wrong, counting the Chuychu one, leakers have been wrong four times in a row]
[Looks like Mihoyo learned from Marvel; secrecy is done quite well, and they occasionally use fake info to string along the leakers.]
[Don't! If leakers are gone, where do I get next version's info from?]
[Go find Uncle Mi (lol).]
While the barrages were discussing heatedly, Leon felt things had taken a turn for the better.
Referencing Genshin's design style, the Traveler's power level is definitely going to be trash, trash, and trash again.
Even the most useful Dendro Traveler was only made relatively strong because Dendro characters were too scarce at the time.
When it comes to Hydro, an element stacked with powerful characters, the Traveler's mechanism was set very humorously.
For the Pyro version of the Traveler, by rights, it shouldn't be strong anywhere.
"In the Natlan version, the way the Traveler obtains Pyro is different from before."
The little person in the preview livestream introduced: "During the journey, the Traveler cannot resonate with Pyro power from the Statues of The Seven like usual, but they can obtain a Vision imitated by the Pyro Archon of Natlan, and through the Vision, learn to use Pyro."
"Wah! Natlan's Pyro Archon can actually make Visions themselves; that's so amazing!" Another animated little person in the preview livestream played the straight man.
"A Vision imitated by the Pyro Archon..."
Hearing the preview livestream's words, Leon finally understood why the leakers got it wrong.
Or rather, the leakers weren't wrong; the Traveler really didn't get Pyro power from the Statues of The Seven, but they did get power from the Pyro Archon.
What wordplay!
"As expected, you can't rely on leakers for plot."
Leon had long stopped relying on leakers for plot; now he only looks at skill designs.
But now, even for skill designs, the leakers' leaks aren't accurate.
[Leon, do you know how strong the Pyro Traveler is?]
Someone in the barrage asked.
"I don't know, but it should be very weak." Leon voiced his thoughts, "Since the Hydro Traveler's power level is humorous, then as a Pyro Traveler, it definitely won't be strong either."
But soon, he got slapped in the face.
"When the Traveler uses their Elemental Skill, it will increase the attack of the current on-field character in the team." The little person in the preview livestream introduced.
What?
Noble attack buff?
Th-this isn't right, is it?!
[I holy crap]
[The protagonist can actually buff attack too, and it's on Elemental Skill activation!]
[Doesn't that make Bennett fall from grace?]
[Traveler: Bennett, you're the challenger!]
[Don't get your hopes up too much; what if it only adds two or three hundred attack, won't you all explode?]
"Right, can't expect arbitrarily."
"The Pyro Traveler's attack buff is definitely very low."
Seeing the barrages, Leon's heart settled a bit, but he still felt a slight unease.
You have to know, the Pyro Traveler can equip the Heart of the Brave set, guaranteeing at least 40% elemental damage bonus support...
Even if it's just adding 300 attack, that's already a very strong character.
"After the Traveler releases their Elemental Burst, it will convert the on-field character's Nightsoul-natured damage to [Super-Nightsoul] damage, allowing teammates' damage to see a significant boost on top of the original."
The preview livestream continued introducing the Traveler's skill mechanism.
Leon was thoroughly shocked: "What the hell?"
"Super-Nightsoul?!"
"Why not call it Super Break too?"
Isn't this the Honkai: Star Rail protagonist's character mechanism?
How are you playing this too?
[Six!]
[Even Super-Nightsoul is out]
[Did I come to Honkai: Star Rail?]