With Mavuika just days away, how would you grade/rank the past 5 Archons passive and unique talents?
WARNING - LOOOOONG
Starting with Venti, and time has not been kind to the one who carried every single domain back in the day, go for his passive first, Skyward sonnet creating a current shooting you upwards WAS great at first, but more and more characters can now fly, the only real use is in Co-op and helping players reach the Oculus on Raidens roof...but we have a gadget what can do the same thing
But let's talk about the REAL reason Venti was so frivolous, and what still to this day has not been matched, his burst, the black hole! in version 1.0 to 1.6 this ability was the doom of every foe in Liyue and Mondstadt, triggering reactions and keeping foes at bay, but after that, foes got heavier and the damage faltered compared to newer units, it's fun sure, but it's use is very limited nowadays.
For the passive Venti get's a 2/10 very VERY limited but has it's use, for the Unique talent, i guess middle of the road, 5/10 it's fine it works, just not all the time, but it does what it says and it's unmatched in every other CC...but Kazuha does more so more people will be using him...actually I'm dropping it to 4/10 If you have Kazuha, what possible reason would you need to get Venti?
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Next up is Zhongli, and there's 2 passives to consider, 1 is the "lowers cost when forging polearms" which get's a flat ONE 1/10 Who here has made any more than 5 polearms per nation? raise your hands, really such a poorly thought-out passive that no-one cares about, so let's talk about his other passive which allows you to build him based on HP - moe HP more damage his meteor does but more importantly his shield strength increases, considering a lot of player use Zhongli primely for his shield (me included) this passive just makes your life easier, but it doesn't really help you with damage, and if you can dodge/learn foes attacks...it's pretty moot.
That being said, HP is VERY easy to level up with artifacts and to this day at C0 no one has matched his shield. so this get's a 6/10 great but has it's limits, speaking of shield, let's consider his unique talent...the Jade shield, the strongest and most useful shield allowing you to resist damage and lower opponents resistance, considering there's a lot not that can and will one-shot you, this is incredibly useful just to make your like easier and less stressful, nothing comes close to matching it, and it's uptime is longer than it's cooldown, 8/10 (but only considering the reword Zhongli, not the original release)
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Next up is the Raiden shogun, and Alike Zhongli she has a 1/10 passive and another which aids in building her, the 1/10 is of course...smithing swords for cheaper, PASS. but her second passive really makes her potent, the more ER she has, the stronger her Electro and Team ER is, meaning if you just have bad luck with artifacts, as long as you get ER she can still function, mine has 276% ER, with when she has 120% crit dam and 67% crit rate sounds terrible, but that's a 70% damage increase and ER gain, the fact she recharges ER for your team means very often after her burst finishes, all the others can use theirs, which makes Raidens even stronger. considering this helps...everyone, i can't help but give it a good 8/10 this is Zhongli's passive, but...more!
As for her Unique, the fact she can A: increase teams ER and with her skill also increase burst damage of all team mates, would make it seem incredible, HOWEVER the fact it's based on Energy cost of burst means that you are...limited in who to use to give it max efficiency, and likewise affecting damage and teams, very often you don't see/realize the damage increase as you aren't using high damage burst characters with her (see Raiden national) 6/10 it's great but has some issues with forcing players to use "bad" characters to maximize it.
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Ah Nahida, so innocent yet so so incredibly deadly, let's start with her 1st passive, the ability to grab things from afar/without climbing is a really nice QOL, it's a lot more useful that saving money, but it kinda is a "time delay" passive, as once you have picked up everything nearby...it pretty much does nothing,, however i can't deny how useful it is for high objects and resources, so it's fair to give it a 4/10 it wont be your prime focus with her but it absolutely will be used if you pull her!
2nd passive is more interesting, yet also "odd" as it will 95% of the time just affect Nahida, you pretty much buff her EM by building her with EM, and that EM means her skill does more damage, yet she's primely for reactions, so it's unlikely it will "matter" due to how much ER she can be loaded with, you often will be switching back and forth between other reaction characters, but again, it's like Zhongli and Raiden, it helps with artifacts, i'd argue it's a "touch" more limited as it mainly boosts Nahida's damage and again, her damage comes from others (unlike Raiden who does huge Electro damage) it's odd but it works, 6/10
But wait...there's more, we need to talk about her Unique talent, Dendro application, a lot of it, she was the original "spin to win" before Neuvilette, you hold skill -rotate 360, everything in the room has dendro, not only that but everyone damaged that is linked, also takes damage, for Quicken teams she's absolutely incredible, HOWEVER if you use geo or Cryo or Aero, she will do...nothing for you, that means restricted teams and companions, it's a great unique ability, but you need the right team, 7/10 for dendro reaction teams, she's unbeatable but if you're newer and don't have what she reacts best with...she's not gonna do you as much good as Zhongli.
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Finally everyone's favorite Archon Furina, and I'm going to try and not be biased and make this pure and simple, ok, first passive, she walks on water infinitely via her skill, 9/10 I'm sorry this is unbelievably useful, not having to worry about swim energy or crossing long distances means exploration is so much easier and relaxed, not to mention all manner of shortcuts you can now take, no longer will you need to glide to the abyss, just walk there! a fantastic passive that you will use over and over again
Next up lets address her second passive, She's HP focused like Zhongli, but where he is (mostly) for defence Furina is oddly enough for offence, her Salon members already deal pretty hefty damage, so giving them a 28% damage increase is kind of insane, you just spawn them and they will attack for 30 seconds, and while Xingqiu and Yelan deal off field hydro damage, that's from their burst...not skill and furina's damage excels theirs, this benefits so many characters 8/10
And finally, her Unique talent, and its got it;s ups and it's downs, first, the downs. draining teammates HP is not the biggest issue, but when dealing with corrosion or high hitting foes, the 20% that was drained from your max hp character can make all the difference between serving an attack...and not. the second down is there is "some" restrictions you NEED a wide healing character (someone who heals the whole team) and that can skew a few teams and mean only running one all the time, the up is she allows healing characters to really shine and revived them in usefulness, not only that but the damage increase is pretty formidable, and the fact it applies to every character is pretty massive, considering the fact it's a teamwide boost - its helps every character out and the fact it ties into her skill, i really can't help but give it a 8/10 it has some problems and can result in disaster sometimes, but with how easy it is to activate and the buff it gives, it's fantastic!
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To me this is how i'd rank the Arcons going into 5.3 Furina > Zhongli > Raiden > Nahida > Venti in terms of how useful and most unique the talent of them are, but you may differ due to different teams/playstyle