The Pyro-element characters in Genshin Impact are known to be high-damage dealers, but Hu Tao is an anomaly among them. She’s an ideal damage dealer for those who don’t mind her risky playstyle. More importantly, she’s only available through gacha pulls for a very limited window of time, which are called “banners” within the game. Hu Tao’s been gone for a while since her initial release, and while the developers confirmed she would be returning for the 2.2 update, it wasn’t until recently that leakers detailed what, exactly, that will look like in action. And what fans are reading about Hu Tao right now has everyone excited.
The leaker at the heart of it all seems trustworthy, as they previously disclosed the entire map of Tsurumi Island several weeks before the update went live. That same leaker with a proven track record says Hu Tao will be a part of a banner with another character named Thoma. When she returns, the leaker alleges, it’ll be alongside other playable characters such as Sayu and Diona. The leaker also claims the return of the coveted polearm Staff of Homa or the bow Elegy for the End.
Which brings us to Thursday morning, when the specifics of her return got Hu Tao trending on Twitter. The hype makes sense. Aside from her cute goth appearance and eccentric personality, she is currently the highest damage-dealing character in Genshin Impact. YouTubers have shown that her critical hits can potentially cross the one million damage threshold (for comparison: my partially built Xiao is dealing around 20 thousand). Even for players who don’t have her constellations (special abilities gained by pulling multiple copies of a character through gacha), Hu Tao has earned her reputation as a single-target boss killer.
Though Diluc, another Pyro DPS in Hu Tao’s niche, deals a lot of base damage, Hu Tao herself compensates with a high-risk, high reward playstyle. When she uses her skill, she gains a massive attack bonus that scales off how much health that she’s lost. Her elemental damage also enjoys a passive boost when she’s at half-health or less.
And her skills are perfectly complimented by the accompanying polearm weapon Staff of Homa, which the dataminer confirmed would be running in the weapons banner at the same time. It increases attack based on low health conditions. The staff’s passive health boost also makes it the best weapon for Zhongli mains who want to spam his meteor attack.
The bow Elegy for the End, meanwhile, is known to be an excellent weapon for Ganyu, Venti, and Fischl due to its elemental reaction boosting power. Though honestly, the only reason that you’d want Elegy is if you don’t already have Skyward Harp, another five-star bow weapon that is only available through pulling the gacha.
More pragmatically, the 4-star characters on the banner will be much easier to obtain. Thoma is the newcomer for “Moments of Bloom,” and the special program confirmed that he’s a shield character. This means that his support skills will scale off of his maximum health, making him another potential candidate for those who manage to obtain the Staff of Homa. Sayu and Diona are returning characters to this banner, and both have decent support abilities that may be worthwhile depending on your usual elemental team composition.
I’ll probably be skipping this banner because I’m a risk-averse Geo-element main, but next week will be a treat for Pyro players. “Moment of Bloom” is expected to run after “Farewell of Snezhnaya” ends in five days.
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