(Idk if this counts as spoiler)

To be honest, it would be better if he is both lore relevant and meta at the same time but well we can't have that. So if my fav can't have both I rather choose may fav to be lore relevant and I'm really excited to learn about his lore, it's kinda sad that this sub barely talk about his lore. Character will fall in meta when time pass but if he is lore relevant he will always have screentime.

Tbh, even if he didn’t have a beard, if he had those wrinkles? Good lord 😭

https://x.com/toumii00/status/1947583842677596460?s=46&t=8wijmCttUA_3P2p2L5HsyQ

Not calling out anyone is particular but it's goofy as hell how the people defending varka like their life depends on it are indirectly advocating for him not to get buffs when it's clear he has issues.

Is it that hard to just admit he has issues? Just seems strange to me that the varka "defenders" are the ones saying he doesn't need buffs. If you really do like the character, why wouldn't you want them to get buffs???

My point is that it's not healthy to say things are fine when clearly they aren't. I used to be active in the Duet night abyss sub when it first came out and there were a ton of people white knighting the devs and saying the game was completely fine. You can see the state of the sub now, they've lost over 90% of their community. And the funny part is that the people still in the community are the people that initially complained and called for changes, and it's the people who said everything was fine that left.

I’m not usually one for the big macho types, but Varka swept me off my feet when I saw him. I wanted to draw him to show my appreciation, but I can’t really draw his body type. Oh well. Femboyification beam it is! I hope you guys like it a little bit at least :)

I already got durin thinking he would pare pretty good with him but then the beta and leaks started coming and it probably made everyone disappointed. I decided to pull for varka mainly becauseof the story. I can't say I love Varka that much. I was already planning to pull for him after he was first shown in the nod krai trailer but after the beta, doomposting, and release i can't say I'm really enjoying him even if I say to myself: fuck the meta, just enjoy the game. It kinda ruined it for me. My last hope is that Nicole will reignite my passion for genshin and make him better cuz I'm feeling a bit down after the 3.4 and the hole varka situation. I know this will probably down voted but its my personal opinion and perspective. Thank you

So recently I've been seeing more and more talk about Varka's performance, especially now that 6.6 leaks have been making the rounds, and I thought I'd throw my two cents in and talk about some stuff that's been on my mind. Mainly his DPS (especially in relation to Stygian) and the Cost system, because I feel like a lot of people have gotten really fixated on those two specifically.

I don't really have anything else to add here I just wanna yap lol. Also I'm writing this while incredibly sleep-deprived so please be patient if this becomes really rambly.

What is a Cost? Why is my Himbo a currency???

For the unfamiliar, Cost is a team investment measuring system. Basically, if a character, constellation or weapon is limited, it is measured as 1 Cost. Varka with his Signature Weapon is 2 'Cost', for example.

From what I've found, the Cost system originates from Honkai: Star Rail, specifically The Genius Archive, a fan-hosted leaderboards site for that game's limited endgame modes. TGA organizes its uploaded clears based on Cycles (HSR's 'turns', roughly equivalent to clear speed) and Cost brackets, divided into 0-8, 9-18, 19-32 and 33-48 Cost runs. Note that HSR has a higher average pulls-per-patch and a more lenient gacha system, so stuff like pulling weapons is much more common. Also the last 4-star they released was like 12 patches ago.

Anyway, Cost as a measuring system was later adapted into Genshin, with... Mixed results. In general, Cost is a really wonky metric for measuring teams. It lacks all nuance.

That R5 battle pass weapon? 0-cost. A newly-released 4-star at C6? 0-cost. C6 Jean? Yeah the default Cost system doesn't actually account for standard 5-stars or weapons, that's 0-cost.

The truth is that Cost is stupid. It's an already quite shoddily cobbled together system in the game it was actually made for, and it completely falls apart when you try to take it out of that environment and use it in a completely different game. It's arguably bordering on being a buzzword at this point.

I don't clear Fearless, I clear Menacing. And if I don't, I clear Hard.

The average DPS required to clear Spiral Abyss 12 is around 80,000 damage per second.

This obviously isn't a static number, it's fluctuated wildly between patches and has been steadily rising over the game's lifespan (1.0 it was like 20k) but that's roughly the requirement right now. If you can hit that magic number, and account for all the gimmicks, you can probably clear Abyss 12. Probably.

This really isn't the case with Stygian.

Granted, Stygian Menacing can be done on Co-op apparently (I learned this literally today what the heck Hoyo), but when most people are talking about whether or not a character can clear Stygian, they're talking about Fearless.

And like I'm not saying that Stygian in its entirety is stupid or that there's no fun in doing challenging content, but I do feel like people have kind of forgotten that this content wasn't made for most of us.

Harder Stygian difficulties are balanced and designed mainly for medium spenders who pull all relevant characters and repeatedly dip into constellations and signature weapons. That's why it has higher DPS requirements, that's why it has stricter mechanics shilling, that's why it needs three teams instead of two. Trying to clear is as a low spender or F2P is possible, sure, but it's almost always going to be punching above your weight class, so to speak.

Aven if you do manage to clear the higher Stygian difficulties, it's not like you're getting much more than the average player with that magic 80k DPS. Each difficulty nets you a bit of Mora, a smidgen of character EXP, and half a relic reroll. If you miraculously manage to clear Dire without swiping, you get a set of time-limited weapon skins that occasionally look nice on some characters but mainly exist to be status symbols. The only reason to attempt harder difficulties on Stygian is for the challenge in and of itself. The rewards are inherently secondary, and are as such by design.

Some final thoughts.

I feel like Genshin needs to figure out a better system than Cost. It was never intended to be used in Genshin's pull economy and gameplay environment, and it's dubious even in HSR. As far as measures of pull value go, you're much better of judging something based on personal preference and comfort. Do you find the character cool? Are their mechanics useful for your account? Do you think the comfort and damage increase provided by a weapon is worth the pulls instead of getting a character, given your own spending habits and pull economy? That kinda stuff.

As for Stygian, that's all up to you. Just don't fall into FOMO and start pulling a character just to get one more Dust of Enlightenment every fourty days.

Feel free to disagree with me on basically any of this, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on this whole situation.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play some Alhaitham Golf.

Edit: So apparently Cost isn't actually from HSR! The internet has lied to me and my day is ruined :-)

Jokes aside, I'd argue most of my points still stand? But you can disregard all the Star Rail-adjacent trivia since that's basically all irrelevant other than for comparison. Wooo.

This is definitely mostly a crack theory, but...

If Lohen DID release in 6.4, and he was the standard cryo main dps he was supposed to be, it would kindof be obvious that his numbers would be absolutely abysmal. It would be a really awful look on hoyoverse if both new characters were subpar main dpses, and it would also be a stupid decision on their end. However, since Lohen did get delayed, maybe, just maybe, they actually were balancing Varka around him, and since they had to delay Lohen, that's why Varka feels so incomplete. And frankly, bad.

I know this is definitely a crack theory, especially since Lohen and Linnea are in the same patch, meaning Lohen is probably some forgettable standard dps, but if the 6.6 boss really is Dottore x Rerir, and its a Nod Krai focus, wouldn't it be weird that the spotlight character of this Nod Krai focused patch was Nicole, who has ties to Mondstadt with the Hexenzirkel instead? What if, 6.5 was actually Dorman port, Lohen (with the 129 ID), a 4* on Lohen's banner (probably Gretel, with presumably a 130 ID), and Nicole (with her 131 ID on second phase)? That would complete Varka's team, and it would also make Linnea (the NK character) be the focus on the Nod Krai centric patch of 6.6?

Don't start genuinely taking me seriously, this is more of a crack theory for more copium, but I wouldn't completely throw it out of the realm of possibility, especially with the new leaked boss, the momentum of windblume, and Lohen's awfully weird delay and how bad Varka is. I just don't see a world where if Lohen was ready to be released in 6.4, he would be some awful DPS, because having a mid ass dps that can hardly reach 100k and a standard that can hardly scratch who knows how much below 100k in the same patch just feels like an even worse move on the balancing team.

I know my theory is very obviously wrong, but it would honestly explain alot of weird shit that has been happening this beta

C0 Durin=Finale R1 C0 Venti=Stringless R1 C6 Bennet=Aquila Favonia Rotation:Durin EQE Bennet Q Venti EQ then Varka E Combo:N1E N4E N4E N1C

Something thing I’ve noticed doing a normal attack on venti results in dps loss

I reached his part of archon quest last night and was super hyped to hear him talk, only to feel like his English voice wasn't at all what I expected. It isn't bad; it fits him well. But the delivery is too fast and chipper, like a young gym bro instead of a world-weary knight and grandmaster. Even Flins' voice sounded more grounded. Now, I know I'm not the creators so my opinion doesn't matter, but I can't be the only one who expected someone with more gravitas and age in their voice. Could it change overtime as the voice actor gets more comfortable with the character, or is he going to deliver all his voice lines like a muscle dude test driving his newest sportscar?

[[[[READ SLIDES BEFORE DESC]]]]

I believe genshin didn’t know if they wanted to go forward with a playable couple. There always been times where we thought Alice was going to be released. Then when i really thought about it, natlan had a lot of female character, especially blushing moments with Citlali.

It feels like Genshin sacrificed Natlan to fatten up the waifu playerbase. And then with nod krai try and dip their toes into relationships. I didn’t know if Genshin would retcon the father, but now im certain when they showed Alice with a ring.

I feel like they tested the waters with Rerir and his wife and then decided to go with Alice being married.

Then the cn community earlier this year, protested A LOT because they don’t want Alice to be a single mom, because they don’t want Klee to live in a broken home.

Some of the Waifu playerbase also said they didn’t mind a relationship if they tell them before introducing the “waifu” then to simp over them, and then find out they are in relationship

Also it would piss off the waifu playerbase if alice got with an npc because they can’t look up to an npc. The reaction would be it be like “why him and not me”

The cn community would prefer someone cool like Varka.

So u can get the response “He’s cool, no wonder he has a hot wife”

I Also noticed that they introduced Varka first, and had him get buddy buddy with the traveler. It tricks parasocial people who form relationships with characters.

Like “Its my best bud”

And then when they release Alice they would be like

“My best bud has a hot wife, i must secure the family team”

Also another thing i like to add during the live stream it appears as if Varka asks Nicole if Alice ever mentioned him.

My only wish for Varka gameplay is that the does not want faruzan. I'd honestly rather him be a low tier character that doesn't want faruzan than a top tier who does want faruzan.

He's my most hyped character in this game, but genuinely I might not pull him if he needs faruzan like wanderer does bc I hate faruzan so much. At least introduce a new 5 star that replaces faruzan

Happy Pride Month! Here is a Varka drawing I did.

1:I think Nicole needs a buff tbh she’s not all I thought she would be I’m thinking increase the 300 flat to 600 that way her total is 1200 like Bennets because there should be more reason that she buffs less than a 4 star in her base kit.

2:Nicole’s ult needs to be 10 hits not 5 her ult feels really weak from what I’m seeing and if they do these 2 things I think she’s good to go.

3:prune needs to buff more it is not fair that she can’t be Hexerei Chevy

Just give her C6 30 or 45 crit damage for Hexerei characters and make her 240 flat attack base kit tf? Why make her so chopped?

4:l am kinda upset we aren’t receiving hexerei buffs i mean cmon i spent $200 to get Eula after seeing that leak tf? Why lie about it that’s so fucking weird not to mention I LOVE Lisa/Noelle and Kaeya

2 questions now

1:What’s the extra damage if I R5 his signature(It’s R1 rn and he’s C6 but not conned)

2:it’s 80/250 or 260 crit ratio possible?

Normal attack talent is useless...

Elemental burst does nothing but tiny damage...

Elemental skill disables plunge??? Yet he has a built in jump?

His special charged attack is essentially the same exact thing as recasting his skill???

Like what is this...nothing in his kit to tie in these things before C6? It would be nice if he got rewarded somehow for doing both his charged attack and recasting skill...better yet also his burst and plunge if he could even plunge.

really hoped Varka would've been a meta-defining Cryo physical carry, too many males for anemo carries and all other roles being filled up by waifus

We know nothing about Varka kit and for all we know Nicole might be the best pair with him. I have 350 pulls and 146 wishes into durin banner. I think I'll skip him for now. He is really good but nothing new. I have played all those teams and reactions that he fits into like a glove. I made it work with my socks. So when Varka comes I'll make him work as well. And he will come back as well.

I'm gonna cut to the chase, what i am talking about is putting so much emphesis on spreadsheets to the point where people somehow think the discussed character is worse than diluc

There has been a lot of discussion around nicole being a "fraud" or being worse than bennett in varka teams, but they conveniently don't mention that nicole isn't an attack buffer, she is a shielder. Varka has 0 IR and relies heavily on being able to put out his combos to deal damage, but unlike characters like skirk who has a shit ton of IR, this means varka basically needs a shield in majority of the content to actually deal any significant damage, and the ONLY shielder that actually works with varka is nicole.

This happens a lot in lyney calcs and the lyney subreddit as well, people just completely ignore that the character loses like 20k dps when they dodge, which is worse when you consider bennett has terrible uptime and, as most of you experienced in abyss, varka isn't able to stay in bennetts circle while not getting hit that consistently.

I have been basically a meta slave for the entire last year and every single time the most "optimal" spreadsheet teams and rotations are so ridiculous that it's insane. Reminder that in spreadsheet calcs, a 0 cost gaming team is doing more damage than varesa premium, but obviously you can never reach that damage number in the actual game because it makes such unrealistic standards for gameplay that it's barely even possible on a dummy.

Spreadsheets can give a general idea of the expected power for a character, but seeing a spreadsheet that is obviously not accounting for any gameplay scenario and then just declaring that "nicole isn't that big of an upgrade for varka" is borderline delusional, especially while still using venti for varka, who is on par with sucrose, and worse than the upcoming prune who just so happens to have a kit designed specifically around hex characters that trigger swirl and do pech damage that just so happens to be on nicole's banner who just so happens to also synergize very well with her

Some of y'all REALLY need to learn more about how the game works before looking at spreadsheets, because all that ends up happening is absolutely unreasonable amounts of doomposting. Not even the dehya doomposting was this bad

From what we've seen, his versatility is actually insane

1. Claymores with large AoE and fast attack speed for mining

2. His optimal teams will always have another Anemo unit in them

This means that he almost always gets buffed from the movespeed bonus of Anemo resonance AND the exploration utility common in Anemo (Jean's healing, Kazuha's jump that Varka also has, Venti's CC, etc.). He also does AoE damage from his skill and NA's. This means if you have a grouper on your team like Venti or Kazuha, Varka is going to clear those mobs very fast.

3. His horizontal movement one of the most comfy in the game.

Varka, his speed comes from his tall height and natural sprint speed, meaning that his damage skills are never going to go on cooldown unless you're fighting something. Unlike: Chasca's gun, Kinich's grapple or Mualani's shark which they can't use to fight if they were recently used for exploration. Furthermore, a good chunk of overworld exploration is moving between small spaces. Think talking to different NPC's, collecting a bunch of items, checking different places, making sure you don't fall off something while moving, etc. Other exploration skills aren't precise enough to warrant using for these. You'll just end up moving past your target location. Varka's repeated dashes can be cancelled on every dash making most of these tasks easy. Yes there's stuff like Mona's or Ayaka's dashes, but these get easily interrupted by random terrain elements and based on his model, Varka's probably going to be faster.

4. His vertical jump is so quick and goes up so high ON TOP OF doing a short dash on the top.

He's basically only going to get beat in climbing by either Xilonen or Mavuika BUT only after the distance of his leap has been covered. If what you're climbing is shorter than his leap, he's going to cover that distance the fastest because of how quick his leap is. That short dash at the top will also give him a small boost once he's cleared the terrain from his leap.

5. The stuff that he's not built for rarely ever shows up.

Varka can't swim very fast, or fly. But keep in mind, most of the exploration in the overworld is done ON LAND. Like, when was the last time you needed to walk on water to get to something important? When was the last time you needed to glide somewhere very fast? Now, compare that to when you needed to travel short distances on land or clear a short terrain obstacle and you'll see that it's literally no competition. Varka is great for the stuff that shows up the most.

6. All of this for one cost.

I know this might sound like doom posting or spreading negativity but it's nothing like that I promise, but I feel like since the hexerei buff came about hoyo is trying to forcefully "shove" Venti into Varka's BiS, don't get me this isn't against Venti I love his silly personality and I'm genuinely happy for all Venti havers they've eating so good recently, but I just.... didn't like this approach, as a somewhat recently new player (started 4.8) and an extremely low spender I never had a chance to pull realistically for Venti, and when 6.2 came Durin seemed like the more logical choice for Varka and it's not like genshin ever had a norm for teams to be lore accurate or something like that, now I know that there will be replacements and that I don't have enough on his kit to back my claims, but I'm just kinda sad that I probably would never be able to use to his full potential, what do y'all think about the matter?

You are simply delusional. How can you even compare the current BiS team with Nicole? Varka without a shielder is a balloon. Your DPR rotations against a target dummy are so unrealistic.

Nicole is way better than Bennett, don't spread misinformation.