This...
This isn't right, is it?
Leon had looked at leaker information many times for his videos and was extremely familiar with the two Natlan DPS characters coming next version.
Mualani, 5-star Hydro mage.
Kinich, 5-star Dendro claymore.
Among them, Mualani has high damage but lacks teammates, with a very humorous handfeel, and is in the same lane as the Hydro Dragon Sovereign.
Mualani can't compete with the Hydro Dragon Sovereign; she's a character not recommended for pulling.
But!
The preview livestream actually said that Mualani is a 4-star character!
Leon was dumbfounded.
Dumbfounded along with him were the fans watching the livestream.
[What's going on?]
[Isn't Mualani 5-star?]
[Leakers wrong again?]
[No, I saw the leaker's in-game footage; Mualani clearly has a Burst animation, how could she be 4-star]
[Barbara: Pfft, who says 4-stars can't have Burst animations?]
[Barbara is Mondstadt's idol; is your Mualani Natlan's idol?]
[Not impossible either]
"Holy crap."
After watching the character demos for a good while, Leon finally came back to his senses.
It's over.
All over.
If Mualani is 4-star, then his pre-made videos are wasted.
At least half wasted.
If Mualani were a 5-star character, Leon could still nitpick, finding faults from damage, handfeel, teammates, and all sorts of aspects.
But with Mualani now being 4-star, how could he even criticize her? A 4-star character still wants to soar to the heavens?
"Not good, not good, not good... If Mualani is 4-star, then she's a powerful character."
As a guide-zone UP main, Leon quickly realized the significance of Mualani being 4-star.
Mualani is a Hydro character who can react with any other element. Paired with the Heart of the Brave set, she can support all DPS characters.
Moreover, Mualani is a catalyst user who can equip the Saga of the Dragon-Slaying Heroes, increasing the attack of the team's main DPS character.
Finally, her mechanism is the same as when she was 5-star: still dealing Normal Attack damage scaled on HP.
Yoimiya's long-awaited quickswap carry.
She can completely deal decent damage while applying buffs.
Elemental damage bonus, attack buff, and supplementary damage...
Although 5-star Mualani can do this too, the cost is way too high.
4-star Mualani, on the other hand, is just right: a powerful character who can boost team DPS output at extremely low cost.
[Leon, how's Mualani? Worth pulling?]
"Pull, pull her hard!"
Leon shared his earlier thoughts with the fans while inwardly rejoicing: "Good thing I didn't release the video early, or Mihoyo would've slapped my face again."
At the same time, he felt heartbroken: "With Mualani turned into 4-star, at least half my video needs redoing."
"And I even have to praise Mihoyo for making this character well."
"That doesn't fit my video style!"
While Leon was lamenting the loss of half his video, the barrages were also discussing Mualani's role.
[If Mualani is 4-star, that's awesome]
[Can serve as Yelan's low-end sub-DPS, filling damage in output gaps]
[With Heart of the Brave set, she can also sub for Furina; that's 40% damage bonus]
[Can slot into Wriothesley's teams too: Wriothesley applies Cryo first, switch to Mualani for E and a hit, adds 40% Cryo damage]
[But Chuychu can equip Heart of the Brave too, right? Triggers don't stack, no point bringing Mualani too]
[Chuychu can't be split into two uses: Chuychu goes to Hydro Dragon Sovereign Furina team, Mualani to Lyney and Wriothesley teams]
[Why's Lyney popping up again? Doesn't Lyney want pure Pyro?]
[With 40% damage bonus, not pure Pyro doesn't matter. If Mualani's output is still strong, perfect for quickswapping with Lyney.]
Genshin's current 4-star characters actually have pretty good power levels.
Characters like Gaming and Sethos, in the hands of skilled players, are stronger than many 5-stars.
Even though Mualani has been downgraded to 4-star now, judging by her mechanism still being DPS-oriented, her damage definitely won't be low; she's probably in the same tier as Gaming.
"Not good..."
"With this, the next video can only go in-depth on Kinich."
Leon knew what his fans liked to watch. Though Mualani's current power level was quite good among 4-stars, he definitely couldn't say too many good things; even spending half a minute introducing her would be too much.
He could only spend extra effort coming up with jingles to roast how humorous Kinich's mechanism is.
At this moment, the preview livestream happened to be introducing Kinich: "Next, we have Kinich from the Scions of the Canopy, a 5-star Pyro character..."
"Good, Kinich is still 5-star."
Seeing that Kinich's star rating hadn't changed, Leon breathed a slight sigh of relief.
If Kinich had also gone from 5-star to 4-star, then his remaining half-video would be useless.
Or rather, there'd be no need to make roast videos for the next version at all.
"Wait..."
Leon furrowed his brows, looking at the green-clothed youth with the yellow pixel dragon in the video: "Pyro character?!"
Kinich, aren't you Dendro-attributed?
How did you turn into a Pyro element character?!
[What's this, how did Kinich become Pyro?]
[Didn't all the leaker videos prove Kinich is Dendro?]
[Look, in the character demo, Kinich's elemental attacks are all green, clearly Dendro]
[No, look carefully: actually, Kinich's attacks have obvious burning effects]
Leon widened his eyes, his face practically pressed to the screen. He saw that although Kinich's elemental attacks in the video were green, there really were blazing flame burning special effects.
It really is Pyro element.
[Kinich, why is your flame all green?]
[Strange fire?]
[Holy strange fire]
[Black hair, youth, uses claymore, old thing following beside him—it's Xiao Huohuo, no mistake]
The netizens were cracking wise, while Leon was completely numb.
Mualani turning 4-star was one thing.
But Kinich actually turned into a Pyro character too.
Now it's great—all the videos he made are wasted, and all the previous tables he pulled might as well be trashed!
"Lea—kers—!!!"
During the previous version's preview livestream, Leon had heard that Mihoyo's secrecy tech is now very good; even leakers datamining have misses.
Now it's even better—not only misses, but they got it wrong!
And two errors in a row!
[Leon, now that Kinich is Pyro, is he still strong?]
A strength chaser sent a barrage asking.
Strong or not?
Strong, definitely strong.
That's the noble Pyro element.
Do you understand what it means that Pyro is top-tier among people, claymore is top-tier among people, and Pyro claymore is top-tier among top-tiers?