u/snowman3000

Let's enumerate the Snezhnaya SSC Electro characters and their kits:

• Alyosha
  • Healing active character
  • Buff active character
  • Off-field application
• Mitya (leaks)
  • On-field DPS primarily
  • Off-field DPS secondarily
• Danica (leaks)
  • Shielding
  • Supposed to go with Tsaritsa, so probably buffing/application

About past SSC Electro characters:

• Beidou
  • Shielding
  • Res Shred
  • Off-field application
• Yae
  • Off-field DPS
  • Buff team
• Cyno
  • On-field DPS

Danica reminds of Beidou, Mitya of Cyno, Yae C1 a much better Alyosha I guess?

Are we able to understand what niche 4* Valeriy can occupy not to be dead on arrival? Some Mitya leaks suggest he makes the launches the SSC field prism if charged enough with application, so if Valeriy is meant to be paired with Mitya I guess quick application is a possibility but then again it is hardly a niche. Maybe some res shred too, but again he becomes another Beidou considering he has a shield in the AQ.

I thought I had made peace with Valeriy being a 4*, and yet the Mitya "bugfix" feels like a vehement kick in the balls. This is up there with Dehya's and Natlan's drought. We are all the protagonists of the Ow My Balls tv program from Idiocracy, just we do not get paid.

Factual data points up to current patch 6.7:

• 42% of characters are 4-stars.
• 33% of playable chars are males.

Some disgusting opinions of mine which I don't expect many to share, but here they are so that white knights can defend the multibillion company:

• Alyosha's design and concept stands out in a sea of generic, I am convinced people would be as disappointed that he is 4* if he was first heard of and seen in the 2d trailer.
• Valeriy isn't the worst model from the 7.0 announcement program, that trophy goes to Vodyanitsa though she looked ultra basic even in 2d. She is truly a testament to the stagnation of Hoyo designs. Really looking forward to magical girl #67, really what sets Genshin apart from the competition.
• Three males and all electro? Wth is this variety? What's the point of having 7 elements. Lynchpin was the only distinguishing factor left and none of them have it.
• Where are the HATS and COATS? How did we survive two russian regions without a fur hat or ushanka? I thought Natlan's tropical weather was the perfect reason to make more revealing outfit for a while but not much has really changed since then.

Since the beginning of the game, I knew that my favorite designs would come out of Fontaine, followed by Mondstadt and Snezhnaya. Fontaine due to steampunk/victorian inspiration, Mondstadt due to European medieval fantasy and Snezhnaya due to big comfy winter clothing and accessories. I let you guess why I found almost all female characters from the trailer a huge disappointment. What weather do they have over there again?

On the other hand, I was positively surprised by the designs of Alyosha and Valeriy. Knowing that they are both 90% 4 stars, I kinda don't care about the next half a year of patches and any of the incoming characters. I have a lot of primogems and nothing to spend them on, wtf are they doing?

It's the same as back in Natlan, except at least they fooled me for many months thinking they'd release Capitano. Now it's just forgettable 5 stars one after another. Pantalone NPC... Pulcinella NPC... Man... Are we really expected to survive on playable Pierro leaks?

What's even more annoying is that all this happened before in Zenless Zone Zero. They released Seed, but instead of a big robot they turned it into feet-fetish girl, followed by 4 stars story-relevant Manato stuck with 2 unremarkable and unknown female 5 stars of no consequence. I said goodbye to the game for good when Seed released as I had exhausted my trust in the future of the game after they purged everything I liked from it. Now in Genshin they gender bender Pulonia (Fagio, sure) and then double whammy Alyosha + Valeriy four stars.

It looks like I'll put the game on maintenance mode for a long while, hoping I just don't give up completely like in ZZZ.

I have reviewed all major Valeriy leaks so far, and some leakers are also contradicting themselves. I wrote this myself and then formatted with AI for readability. Check the summary of the inconsistencies at the end of the post if you don't care about individual leakers.

Post was published on July 15, new EDITS are added at the very end of the post only.

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Full Stop Chan

June 15

• 7.1

  • 5★ Anemo Stellar-Swirl DPS
  • 4★ Anemo Stellar-Swirl character
  • 5★ Hydro support: Vodyanitsa

• 7.2

  • 5★ Electro Stellar-Conduct DPS (male)

• 7.3

  • Tsaritsa
  • 5★ Electro support

Chugou

• Danica and Mitya are both 5★ Electro.
• Tsaritsa is both a DPS and a support. Her optimal composition is with Mitya.
• Besides Noy, Snezhnaya also has another limited 5★ male character.

These leakers above have made mistakes in the past and are among the most questioned by the community.

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Little Puppet

Little Puppet has had one of the strongest track records so far, making their contradictions particularly noteworthy.

June 15

Agrees almost completely with Full Stop Chan:

7.1

• 5★ Anemo Stellar-Swirl carry
• 4★ Anemo Stellar-Swirl support
• 5★ Hydro support: Vodyanitsa

7.2

• 5★ Electro Stellar-Conduct DPS

7.3

• Tsaritsa
• 5★ Electro Stellar-Conduct support

June 26

• Sandrone team: Odette, Tsaritsa, Danica
• The maid is a 5★.
• Valeriy is a 5★ Electro Stellar-Conduct DPS.
• Danica releases in 7.3.
• Alyosha is Danica's lower-tier substitute.

June 29

Comment under an Uncle Duck leak:

> "They're still an off-field DPS."

Unclear who Little puppet is referring to, but he may be invalidating the leak. The original leak states:

• Stellar-Swirl teams use an off-field DPS plus an on-field support.
• Team: Vesna, Valeriy, Odette, Tsaritsa
• Valeriy is a 4★ Anemo character.
• Yumemizuki is Valeriy's budget alternative.

July 11

New leaks:

• Mitya and Valeriy are in the same team.
• Sandrone's team contains no male characters:
  • Sandrone
  • Odette
  • Danica
• Vodyanitsa is primarily designed to support Stellar-Swirl teams.

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Summary of Inconsistencies

• Rarity

  • June 26: 5★
  • June 29: 4★

• Element

  • June 26: Electro
  • June 29: Anemo
  • Internal datamine: Valeriy has an Electro shield, which lends some support to him being Electro, although shield effects alone are not definitive proof of his final playable element.

• Role

  • June 26: 5★ Electro Stellar-Conduct DPS
  • June 29: 4★ Anemo Stellar-Swirl character in a Stellar-Swirl team.

• Team placement

  • June 29: Vesna + Valeriy + Odette + Tsaritsa (Stellar-Swirl team).
  • July 11: Mitya and Valeriy are in the same team, implying a different composition without clarifying how it relates to the previous one.
  • July 12: Mitya and Valeriy are Electro SSC 5 and 4 stars together in 7.2, off-field dps and on-field support.

• Version placement

  • 7.1 if Anemo
  • 7.2 if Electro

The high amount of conflicting info suggests that leaks about Valeriy/Danica/Mitya at one point was mixed up irreparably, or their role/element/rarity was swapped during development. Multiple versions of them may have also existed at some point in the past, with leakers being aware only of some of them.

Personally, the datamined Electro shield is the safest piece of info we have, which imho rules out the 4* Anemo on-field support claim. Even if he is almost certainly electro, rarity and role are still up for debate, at this point until we see if he has a stellar linchpin in 7.0.

Wdyt? Anything important I missed?

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EDIT on July 16: A post by HXG was shared on the leaks sub on July 12 but was not added to the main leak sheet, so I missed it. It is allegedly by Full stop chan. It only changed the 7.1 Anemo 4 star into 7.2 Electro 4 star, identified as Valeriy. This is believable, aside from having almost no SSW dedicated chars until February and having two 4 star males Electro back to back.

The artifact set released in 6.6 is for SSC (sub)DPS and the leaked one coming in 7.0 is for SSC support. If Valeriy is SSC-oriented, he would want one of these two artifact sets. It is unlikely that more SSC artifact sets would be released, let alone tailored for him.

Is it worth starting to farm the 6.6 artifact set, even if not needed it for other characters? Do you agree with the analysis?

This post is not necessarily just for Varka teams.

My take on common holders:

• Nicole
• Durin
• Mona
• Fischl

Who else is left? Venti, Sucrose and Prune would always end up on VV anyway.

There aren't many holders imo. If one is not interested in Sandrone or stellarconduct carries, farming Celestial Gift is also inefficient. Not particularly worth it given it is not a hypercarry set.

What do you think?

Gather around everyone as it's future impact o'clock.

So far, the new region seems to mainly cater to elements Cryo, Electro, Anemo and Dendro due to the "new" reactions Stellar superconduct, Cryoswirl. Rimegrass and more.

Stellar Superconduct is the most understood reaction for now, and depends on both ATK and EM, among others.

Nicole buffs ATK, and despite being Pyro she doesn't apply the element. This means she does not risk messing up the new reactions by triggering Overload / etc. This makes me think she is compatible with future characters.

In light of this, how do you think Nicole is going to perform for new characters?

Personally, I am still deciding whether I should go for Nicole or Durin and I am ruminating on who of the two seems more futureproof. Durin is extremely versatile with old characters but he's going to mess up all new reactions due to constant Pyro application.

What do you think?