miHoYo Addresses ‘Zhongli Is Bad’ Criticisms by Explaining His Role

When it comes to Genshin Impact communities online, there’s a rather common topic that’s been floating around on forums and social media and in videos. That is, it’s people saying Zhongli is bad or debating the value of the latest limited-time five-star unit. miHoYo responded and, rather than promise a Zhongli buff, it explained the mindset behind his development and promised a fix for one of his bugs.

Essentially, miHoYo reiterated that idea that Zhongli isn’t bad, but that he is a different sort of character than people might have expected. It noted he is designed to be a support character with high survivability and preservation elements and is working as the team intended. It noted that it is “engaged in a deep analysis of Zhongli.” However, it also made the following statement regarding the character.

Zhongli is defined as more of a support character, and the core of the support role is the ability to protect other characters in the Party. Based on this, we defined his two core abilities as shield creation and controlling the enemy: The Jade Shield (generated by holding Dominus Lapidis) provides effective absorption and cover without relying on any other equipment; Planet Befall exerts effective control over groups of enemies without relying on elemental reactions or equipment bonuses.

From a design standpoint, these two features enable Zhongli to fulfill his role as a support character, and from a review of actual game data, we have discovered that Zhongli is, in fact, effectively improving Travelers’ survival capabilities.

miHoYo did admit that Zhongli is broken in one respect, though. He might not get an Enduring Rock damage boost from the “Stone, the Cradle of Jade” C2 if someone pulled multiple copies of him and, in so doing, hit that level. The December 10, 2020 patch will fix it.

Genshin Impact is available for the PlayStation 4, PC, and both Android and Apple iOS devices. It will also eventually appear on the Nintendo Switch. The Zhongli banner will be available until December 22, 2020.