Dehya is the hottest topic in the Genshin Impact community right now due to the recent string of leaks about her kit and constellations. And while Dehya is hot, her kit might fall flat, cold and dead upon release because that’s how bad the community is anticipating her to be as a playable character. Dehya’s kit has several problems and in this article, we’re going to briefly explore all of them.
The Problems in Dehya’s Kit in Genshin Impact 3.5
Dehya’s character is meant to be a mix between a tank and bruiser and she’s expected to have a quick-swap DPS playstyle. Her burst only lasts 4 seconds and you can do a maximum of 10 hits if you’re using her kit optimally. Her role of being a tank is through her E skill where she deploys a “Fiery Sanctum” and active characters within it take half the damage they’re supposed to from enemies. She also has hybrid scaling of both HP and the usual ATK- except HP scaling on her attacks only unlocks at her first constellation.
Now that we have a basic premise of her as a playable character, here are her main problems:
Constellation-Locked HP-Scaling
One of the earliest leaks about Dehya was that she was going to be an HP scaling DPS. But not only is HP scaling damage not present in her base kit- it is actually locked behind her first constellation. The only HP scaling on her base kit is that of her damage mitigation mechanic which can scale up to (or absorb up to) a maximum of 200% of Dehya’s Max HP.
This is confusing because 200% Max HP of even the most basic built character is huge and vastly outclasses what any other shield in the game can absorb- including that of Zhongli. While we may be incentivised to thus build HP on Dehya, it’s absolutely useless because only at C1 can she convert a portion of her HP to damage. As a 5-star unit- this seems a little too selfish to not have this in her base kit.
Inefficient Tank
Continuing on from our first point, one would think having a 200% Max HP scaling on damage mitigation is huge until you learn that her Fiery Sanctum still only partially mitigates incoming damage. This means that while you could just have the strongest invisible shield while you’re in the AoE of her Fiery Sanctum, there’s also a high chance that your other characters might just die from the un-mitigated damage before reaching Dehya’s 200% HP threshold.
She’s supposed to be a tank but she only partially tanks damage- and this seems a bit inefficient and even inconvenient. Especially more so when you also consider that Dehya has means of recovering her own HP but her teammates may not.
Non-Synergistic Burst
Dehya’s elemental burst does not synergise with elemental reactions in the sense that more often than not it cannot even proc elemental reactions through the use of others’ skills or bursts. In her elemental burst state, her E skill and her NAs are replaced by her Roaring Barrage which doesn’t equate to using or dealing Normal Attack, Charged Attack or Plunge Attack damage.
This means that any other elemental burst or skill that relies on you using your normals also won’t synergise with Dehya. Imagine Raiden and Beidou all over again but this time not only does Dehya’s burst not work with Beidou’s burst but it also doesn’t work with Raiden’s skill or the bursts of Xingqiu, Thoma, or Yelan.
Low Scaling
Finally, Dehya has abysmally low scaling on her elemental burst which is supposed to be her main source of damage. At level 10, each of her strikes on her burst state has only about 200% scaling- and this scales off of ATK. We must also not forget that her burst only lasts about 4 seconds only.
To put this in perspective, Xiao has similar scaling and he can stay in his burst form for about 15 seconds and do AoE damage to boot. According to a leaker, they barely got approximately 8000 damage per strike with her elemental burst and this was using her signature weapon and constellations.
While she’s still far from release and Dehya-wanters can argue that all of the leaks are highly STC, Genshin Impact doesn’t have a reputation for buffing bad-looking characters from the Beta before their final release.
This could also be the curse of Point 5 patches since Eula (who’s considered one of the worst 5-star units) was released in Version 1.5 and Yae Miko who was also highly criticised as being one of the worst was also released in Version 2.5. Since Version 3.5 is rolling in, maybe it’s just luck or ritual for Genshin Impact to release a highly-faulty incomplete character right about now.
While she’s definitely not looking like a good character, we do think the hate is a bit overblown and she can still be functional upon release as the Genshin devs aren’t inexperienced or losing touch with their craft. There’s also a chance that just like Yae Miko in Sumeru, Dehya’s true value will surface in Fontaine which is, personally, a questionable decision on the part of the developers- if it stands to be true at least.
