Nahida is coming in Version 3.2 and her kit is already leaked. Like any other Archon unit, she looks like a broken meta-defining character. Due to Nahida’s kit leak, many players are choosing to skip Nilou for a multitude of reasons.
Most players aren’t a fan of her limiting playstyle and teambuilding restrictions and the fact that Nahida drops in the next update- all of this makes for a solid reason to skip Nilou. But Beta testers of the game and even theorycrafters rightfully speculate that Nilou will further gain a boost in her damage and meta-standing once Nahida is released.
How Nahida will Buff Nilou
Nilou’s primary source of her damage is her Bountiful Cores which have a larger AoE, higher damage and shorter duration than normal Bloom cores. In her base C0 form, Nahida will make these Bountiful explosions connect to multiple enemies far beyond their AoE effect with her E skill. Up to 8 enemies will be affected by each of these Bountiful Core explosions provided even one of them takes damage from it directly.
This removes the need for any Anemo units to collect the Bountiful Cores and the enemies for efficient and reliable DPS damage. With Nahida on the team, players can just connect enemies with her E skill and have them all take damage simultaneously from Nilou’s Bountiful Core explosions.
Beyond her base kit, Nahida’s C2 will allow Bloom and Bloom sub-reactions to CRIT which they normally can’t. This is a game-changing buff that will benefit Nilou the most as this C2 will also buff Nilou’s Bountiful Cores.
With Nahida and Dendro Traveler on the team, Nilou and Barbara or Nilou and Kokomi can together output massive amounts of Bloom damage that will take out even the tankiest of enemies quickly. Since these are AoE Bloom explosions that now have the ability to CRIT, even shielded characters will have no real counter against them for long as Dendro is effective against all elemental shields except Geo.
With Nahida massively increasing the value and viability of Nilou, it might not be a bad idea to pull for her if you have enough Primogems to also get Nahida in the next update. Hoyoverse’s marketing and character combat design still remains a questionable subject as many veterans are against such mechanics where a flawed character heavily relies on other characters to output their full potential or operate as a functional unit. However with Nilou’s ability to directly affect the very nature of a transformative elemental reaction in the game- perhaps Hoyoverse is looking at a new direction to avoid powercreep.
