What if you have a fun dps (like Jane) that wants a meta support (like Caesar). Is that not an incentive to pull for meta ? Fun is subjective. There are people who have fun clearing endgame and who don't like getting stuck in lower floors
@@wafaay7182 "There are people who have fun clearing endgame and who don't like getting stuck in lower floors", - this actually people are acting like having a smart approach and wanting to clear end game content automatically makes you a meta player.
Honestly, pushing the meta to accommodate fun is how I play best. Which is why my anomaly team is "Spin to Win". Piper and Jane do silly things, meta be damned.
The gacha shock coming from Nikke to a Hoyo game has been pretty intense. In Nikke as an active player I can generally pull for every character and have a decent chance of getting them, only skipping the really un-meta ones. Over here in Zenless I have to be far more discerning. It actually took me close to all 180 pulls to get a single Jane.
This _is_ likely the worst it will ever be though, because right now you have a minimal roster, low Polys, and new characters are coming out left and right. As the game matures, you will have a mature roster of useful, built characters, there will be a lot more re-run banners, and you will slowly build up a stockpile of spare polys, so that when new charatcers come along, it's easier to pass on the maybes and pull on the ones you want, still having plenty for the next one.
I play for fun, pulled Caesar and built her as a DPS. I also made a standard support build for Caesar so I can flex her into stun support to put her on other teams, but I really want to on field Caesar as much as possible for that juicy parries, I’ll live and die for her parry
Her parries do feel pretty enjoyable to some degree. Got into enjoying the "Counterattack" gameplay initially from HSR's FUA teams (mainly Clara & Yunli, with a bit of Aventurine), and then enjoyed the time with Ben in Zenless. Caesar is a bit of the same as well, but I can see her being a bit more enjoyable and challenging, moving much faster than Ben but at the cost of a much shorter window to trigger (EX) Special to parry & counter.
@@LlamaM2288 I was able to do with Caesar mainly because of her shield giving a huge atk buff and with a solid luck on drive discs, I have a video with my dps Caesar build. I think it is possible to turn a good majority of the agents into dps, I’ve seen a guy completing one side of Shiyu Critical with solo Nicole, so it is possible, but not all characters will feel satisfying to play as dps, some will feel better as their intended role
I think that one of the last things you said are one of the most often overlooked piece of advice and really should even be expanded upon. When people are worried that if they don't have the "right" characters that the are going to be missing out I think they need to have things put into perspective for them. You can easily do the story, events, and your weekly HZ with whatever characters you want. You could run all A-ranks and make it work no sweat. Not being able to S-Rank or even finish the last few stages of SD means you miss out on about 1 pull worth of poly and a meaningless amount of resources. And if you do pull characters just to try to S-Rank all levels of SD every patch then you are sinking more resources into those characters you pulled than you are getting out in return. I 100% believe that you should only pull the characters you want. Characters fall out of meta and sometimes even become meta again when new characters are added that better support them. I have about 400 pulls saved up (between poly and reels) and no limited banner characters and have no issues. People should pull who they want and not get hung up on trying to keep up with the meta. If the character you want happens to be meta, that's great, but I think pulling just because a character is "good" or "meta" is just going to burn a player and kill the fun for most.
fun should always take priority, only meta should be considered when evaluating how much does it add to your fun value, or if an account is in a bad state and stopping a player from having fun
100% agree. You need pull for what you want, keeping in mind what is coming up and how to startergize to make nice teams for your favorites. With leaks, we know banners quite far in advance (currently 1.4) which is over 2 months away.
I think "Optimal" is probably the best word for pulling Caesar. She's just slots so well into so much, but I can agree with her playstyle feeling a bit plain I pulled her because I liked her character and because she buffed my Jane Doe team more (a team I already really enjoyed) Good video! Pull who you want!
Sorry for not have anything to add into this conversation but I need to add that your videos are always a mix of helpful and fun. And idk why but “Lycon and subscribe” always crack me up
Warning a lot of text - Couldn't agree more. Always pull for who YOU want not for what anyone says about META. Waifu over meta, always. However as you pointed out it is smart to not just pull for who you like but also plan teams for them. For example I tried to pull for ZY because she was a meta pick but I didn't like her gameplay, I lost the 50/50 to lycaon on her banner and gave up after that despite me having more pulls. Knowing that Jane might be the character I actually enjoy playing and her personality(yes personality, her actual personality of a cunning person). And I was absolutely right, when I played through Jane's story, got her and saw how fun she was I had no regrets. When I initially saw Caesar I thought she and Burnice were an easy skip because they didnt resonate with me but once I got to know them better and saw the satisfying animation of Caesar's parry - I love dark souls mechanics. I knew she was the right choice for myself. And now I come to crossroads with meta and waifu - I see that Burnice will be really solid off field anomaly agent but I don't like off field characters at all. This is why I am skipping her for Yanagi who is supposed to be on field just like Jane, not to mention her potential synergy with Miyabi. I will stick to my beliefs and skip Burnice entirely for Yanagi and Miyabi.
I saw this one guy who said "pull for meta, with an asterisk" and basically saying, you can pull for whoever you want, doesnt matter how strong or weak, but you can also pull meta characters as a way to enhance your non-meta character that you personalyl find fun (this is very prominent in other Hoyo games like genshin and hsr) I personally enjoy Qingque in HSR and I pulled Sparkle (a meta support) just for Qingque, granted i love sparkle's character but its a win-win at the end of the day Pull for waifu, then make waifu strong :)
I just want to say, thank you for the follow up video and really discussing the fun vs meta conversation. 90% fun 10% meta (for builds). Was really struggling last week over who to pull given the 1.3/1.4 supposed info. Still pulling for Burnice over Caesar because I want a partner for Grace, Jane, or Piper. FUN all the way.
I started the game about a few weeks ago for Lucy. Become a big fan of Piper and the rest of the crew so Im pulling for all of them. I’m a pretty simple dude.
I will pull for a character if I adore them, reagrdless of meta, but I don't mind meta pulling if I'm lacking an attribute or an empty role that can be filled I WILL pull for Burnice, Caesar would've been nice but she feels a bit cluncky for me
I strike a balance between "fun" and "meta". I think about meta when it comes to the longevity of my account. Not necessarily to "dominate" the game, but to make sure I go through the game with less struggles. And my brand of fun is making use of what I have and what I get and rolling with it. These are things I learned from playing Arknights over the years. Even if I don't get the characters I want, it doesn't take away what the game is for me. There's much more to the game than the characters I didn't get and characters that "shakes" the meta. I play for fun and I play to keep the fun going as long as it can go for
Makes me happy that they added ways for you to test out the new characters each time they come around. lets the Fun players get a taste of how the character plays before they decide whether or not they want to pull. That being said totally a Fun player myself. no point on building meta if you aren't having fun in the first place. Genuinely more fun to just work with what you got, cause building Ben to be a stronger attacker than Ellen is funny as hell.
How a character's kit feels to play is usually the deciding factor for me, and then focusing on how to boost the strength of the characters that are fun to play.
I did the whole, "use who I like/whoever I get" game plan in HSR, though I was playing very casually, and Penacony destroyed any and all of my enjoyment with its difficulty spike. So, I'm of the opinion that everyone should have 1 invested meta team before branching out and grabbing whoever you want for fun. Because, you never know if a year into the game, Hoyo might just decide to double the difficulty. And it's no fun watching what you thought was a fun team with cool animations get absolutely destroyed by, ostensibly, normal enemies. You might be able to get away with just a single meta DPS in this game, though.
In genshin this is a non issue. You can literally blitz past most stuff with anyone. The only place where meta matters is floor 12. Everything else can be blitzed with just about anyone. Even then floor 12 most of the time is easy.
Man i'm both, like i got really Lucky to win jane and cesar and their respective w-engines (because of the grinding of polychromes) and the fact that I got really inmersed into the numbers and meta that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the game, and that is because of your videos! Keep it up man, and may all your 50/50 be blessed.
Fun all the way. Pulled Caesar because she is absolutely my favorite playstyle, and am saving for M6 Caesar to on field DPS her (already have M1 and her W-Engine)
I’d say pull who you want, especially who you find more fun… …but do have a plan first. Try to figure out what kind of team would work best with who you wanna pull, and see which characters you’ve pulled already can help out with that. Caesar is definitely more universal but I like Burnice more from what I’ve seen. Plus I have Jane and so I plan on pairing her with both Burnice and Lucy for a Disorder team. There are other characters I have an interest in. One because I have a team sort of built already that I think they’d be really great on and the other because I’m envisioning a team where I can use said character, a character I really like and an S-Rank I have a duplicate of. But ultimately if I don’t like their playstyle then Ill reconsider. So yeah, pull who you want, but also plan so you can get the most out of it. A balance of fun and meta can go a long way!
Although I agree wholeheartedly, I do think there is much less difference between fun and meta than you made it sound like. The reason why I like meta is because that's how I have fun. Remember that trying hard and getting rewarded for it (even if just with satisfaction) is a very valid way of having fun~
Caesar is a special case I'd say. She is not only strong and versatile, but also extremely comfortable. In perspective stage 5 of the new disputed node took me ~20 tries to complete the 1st half while I 1st tried the 2nd half because Caeser makes your team nigh unkillable. So in my opinion Caser specifically is one of those "Mast pull" characters. You have to really dislike Caser design and gameplay or really want Burnice to skip Caser. Ultimately though if you don't value comfort her pull value is not much higher then for any other limited character
Jane is by far the most fun character for me! I do everything with her; her moveset is awesome, and she deals tons of damage. It's unfortunate that new players can't get her!
I'm sort of both; I started out as just a "idk pull whatever I guess", then got really into trying to tune characters, then found my killer group of Caesar, Nicole, Piper and now I'm just having a lot of fun finding new ways to use my existing kit. So yeah, I guess I'm a bit of both? I dunno, game is really fun to me!
Absolutely love your videos, dude! I appreciate how you can see things from multiple sides and especially from a low-spending player's perspective. I personally pull for fun and don't mind if I don't S rank all of Shiyu, but I also do find it really fun trying to get S ranks with non-meta teams that are just absolutely delightful to play. It's almost like a bit of a challenge! At the same time, the game is so fun overall, it's hard not to want all of the characters 🤣
I've lost the 50/50 for Cesar, so I'm going for fun and Burnice 😅. The next one that I really like is Lighter, but having Koleda already, he doesn't seem so vital atm. Thank you Average Luck Gamer, it's the first time in my life I really look forward a new video on TH-cam!
Personally speaking, I don't do Meta....for the most part. I'll look up and build my Agents to their Meta builds, but I won't run Meta teams (That I know of.) I plan on my main team being Jane, Caesar and Burnice. No idea if that'll be Meta or not, but I thought it'd be fun.....and a nice view at all times.
As long as you get the basics right and active their passives, most teams work fine. Like, I play grace jane rina all the time and people say it's not a good team, but it still clears the end game very easily. Just goes to show how little optimal teams matter.
This video is the definition of " It _depends..._ " 🤣 I agree though. I was on the fence about pulling psycho fire-gremlin, but as a rat-haver she buffs my main single team super well, and as a piper x lucy for 2 team content she slots into that to pad up numbers to match my Quingyi x Jane x seth team. On top of that, blasting enemies with a wall of fire is just so fun. So quite literally it's both for me. as it typically is.
I have my own fun by building my personal "meta" in other words I like finding strategies that anyone could choose that work strong together in my way, but while sometimes it matches what others echo sometimes it doesn't and I'm willing to share my logic behind it both in practice and with numbers if they want. But at the end of the day I made something that I found fun that wins me my games almost always with S despite not having min max stats and that's good enough for me
this early in the game i care more about meta and getting the elements covered. when I have the elements covered I will only care about if I like the character or if it seems like a broken support for characters i like. this is the way I do genshin and im happy with it. I skipped 80% of fontaine characters because I hate their outfits and now I have a primo treasure trove for natlan so it payed off.
I'm in it for the fun mainly but I do try to keep up with the meta, but as a F2P I have my limits. Skipped Qingie and Jane to save for Burnice though, can't wait for her release, play style seems really fun and I'd like an S Rank fire type to round out my teams. Love your vids mate.
I started by using the best characters, eventually beat everything in the game and wanted to challenge myself to "groups". Doing the tough challenges with "only cunning hares" or "only belobog" creates alot of fun. Doing Sons of Calydon soon with Burnice, Piper and Lucy.
I'm a new player just started yesterday and I'm picking up Burnice. I don't care about synergies or anything, that music video was literally the reason I got interested and checked out ZZZ in the first place. I'll figure the rest out later lol.
You can have both, look at Jane for example. She’s incredibly fun to play and also meta as hell right now. Prioritize what you have fun using above all else though and then you can make it work from there.
I guess I would say I'm a fun player, but specifically a "here for the gacha" player. I hadn't played a gacha game in like 10 years before ZZZ (ignoring a few hours spent on Genshin), so I pretty much started playing just to test my luck. I make this distinction because while I might prefer the playstyle of one character over another, I've realized I'm not that excited to play a new character at this point. I can S rank end game currently, so I don't "need" (quotes because you don't need any character) them and once I get them, it's not like I'll have much content to use them on. All that to say, I'm basically just here to collect characters almost indiscriminately at this point lol
i skipped caesar and im gonna skip brunice too (maybe) but good lord look at the yagani god damnnnnn im in love with her design and saw her gameplay too and its amazing❤
fun and meta go hand in hand so it isn't as simple as you can only choose fun or choose only meta. some people actually enjoy playing zenless in general so aiming to own specific characters are only part of the charm to the whole experience of zenless VS actually playing the game with whatever you want.
I try to draw a good balance between fun, future proofing & meta. I focus on building characters I like but also try not to over-invest in characters that may become too difficult to play as the game progressively gets harder. Powercreep is real and only becomes more prominent over time so as much as I love character like Anton & Anby, it’s hard to justify investing in them as much as a limited S rank character. Of course that isn’t going to stop me from playing my favourite characters, but my priority is being able to clear all the content that awards premium currency each week/cycle because collecting characters I like is what I enjoy most about Gacha games.
I prefer to pull characters based on my account's needs. Whenever possible, when a character comes up that is considered a "must have" I choose them over a character that I like. As a result I can choose whoever I want later. If I pull a character because I really like them, then I later dedicate myself to pulling characters that will benefit the ones I have, even better if they were already among the "must have". In ZZZ I pulled Caesar because she's considered good for the account, although I also like her. Meanwhile, I pulled Jane Doe just because I like her, and now I'll need to choose characters that can support her. By the way, I have no polychromes for I don't know how long, so I can't focus on new characters for now.
I keep finding myself in a situation where no matter how good Zhu Yuan is, I struggle to make her work, and I've performed better with Corin in Shiyu nodes that resist physical than if the same node was weak to ether, a similar issue I have with Nicole and her delayed timings. My brother also somewhat struggles with Zhu Yuan but he excels with Anton, which is another character I can't manage to make work for me, which is then quite funny because he struggles to make Rina work in his anton team (He runs Koleda + Lucy instead). Like sure, It's good to train a Fox in your back pocket for when it comes in handy, but if you're truly adore or are gifted at Donkey Kong, maybe focusing on him is the right choice for you. On a similar note, recently I started playing Genshin Impact because of Kinich, I really liked his design and character concept, I didn't manage to get him in time but im softly sticking with the game and playing at a slow pace, What I'm finding is that every single character I've expressed an interest in seems to be considered garbage or extremely low tier (Qiqi and Dori for example, but also oddly Kinich, since I keep hearing a complaint that he needs a combination of partners that doesn't exist yet and that is unlikely for a while). so Im trying to pivot, learn the basics of how the game works, and invest all my resources in Kaeya since ive heard he's good, and I think he's hot
I feel like I'm a bit of both. I dont want to be gating my options due to lacking a type of team but after I have my general bases covered its party time, and i'll pull who/what I want. Caesar just happened to be the perfect triple whammy of letting me cover multiple bases, enjoy other characters more freely like Piper and S11 AND is a character whose unique mechanic I enjoy playing. All that wrapped in a character archetype I like. So it was really the easiest decision of my life.
Definitely both. I find having a clunky team that doesn't feel like it's fitting together quite frustrating. Was gonna go burnice but I got soldier from standard and since Caesar gives me a team comp that's good for her and my nekomata it was too good to pass up. Also my little Sekiro gamer brain loves her parries so yeah, I'm definitely having fun!
Good video, but as experienced gamer... People will always min max out the fun. It's the developer's responsibility to stop that from happening. Also another thing, if you don't look for leaks, you can't really guess how good Burnice will be, like for example let's say character Y is next and that character increases disorder damage, how are you supposed to plan while Caesar just released? I didn't know and Hoyoverse doesn't help you because they want you to feel like you are missing out.
I started playing after Jane so I missed both Yuan and Jane - but I dig burnice style of game play and honestly I just want to have fun with the game still working on the meta with what I’ve pulled already - so I’d say I’m 50/50 of both
I'm pulling for both. By which I mean, Burnice is certainly more fun for me as well, but I also believe she will be a meta pick for future Anomaly-focused teams.
Its funny cus I pulled Caesar since i heard she was so good, yet i COULD NOT figure out how to make her work and she just felt boring to play with for me (in a team with piper and lucy), but after pulling burnice for her fun factor, BOTH caesar and burnice work well and feel fun to play with! I was worried i wasted my last set of pulls on caesar since i barely got burnice in her last week but this video does have solid advice to just pull if you find a character fun, and you have a viable option/team to make them shine :D
I believe in the beautiful now and the perfect future approach. Which means I only pull for units I know I won’t regret and/or will provide a new avenue of horizontal investment (in terms of comp potential).
The demos for a banner's S-Rank can make or break whether I even consider them. Sure, Caesar's got everything I'd need numerically for a team (Impact-focus, ATK boost, shields) but something about her gameplay just doesn't click like Ben...so I decided to not commit. But the biggest hurdle for me is the resource sink. Every agent you pull is a heavy commitment because they don't arrive at Lvl 60 with their Core Passive maxed and a fully maxed Drive Disc set. That stuff takes time to achieve, even if you've got some materials left over. For me, at least, I've got these three check boxes when determining my pulls: -Do I have a place for them to work mechanically? -Are they fun to play repeatedly? -Am I willing to consistently dedicate all my battery to fully upgrading them/wait multiple weeks before they're at my current team's level? Whether they're enjoyable as a *character* can have some sway, but those first two usually stop any impulse pulls for me. They're also why I'm not pulling for the current banners of 1.2 and why I'm going to go (in-game currency) broke when Lighter shows up. TL;DR Play the demos, consider the in-game resource sink, and get a good idea of what playstyles you like using. And above all...if you're having fun, then it wasn't a waste.
I’m gonna be honest, ever since I watched the 1.2 preview thing when I stumbled over it on TH-cam, I’ve been wanting Burnice. And then I took into account payment, and realized I’d be fine getting her. Then I just pulled a couple of tens on Caesar, not purposefully meaning to get her, but I got her anyways. And I’ve decided to stick to the plan with Burnice. I’ve got a little over Two weeks. Whatever it takes, I’m getting the Arsonist!!!
ZZZ's fun to me is: to invest my polycroms correctly so I can always (and confortably) guarantee shiyu all S, so after that I can try to clear it with any character I want (because I like to build all my characters). 😊
I started playing towards the end of Jane's banner so I just saved my pulls for Caesar, and the standard tapes you get in game got me Grace. So I'm planning on pulling for Bernice to pair with Grace. I really like the idea of having them both on a team and I'ma make it work. Hope I can win my 50/50 so I can use the rest on my poly to get Rina from the 300 mark
Coming from genshin, I believe in pull whoever I want. I also think that hoyo will make faction charas work with each other so full faction pulls is really viable
I always just use the characters I like! Fun is way more important to me than the meta, I love to collect waifus and other stuff so that’s most important! Sometimes my Waifu happens to be meta but I never seek the meta on purpose!
C. Waifu/Husbando - Make them work, even if you have to touch a bit of Meta, or if for some reason you don't find them fun, find a playstyle team you like with them. Nothing feels better than being able to clear Shiyu/Abyss with your favourites.
Ellen, Lyacon, Soukaku the meta team. I got lucky and got all 3 of them Ellen's weapon. Cleared Shiyu in the first few weeks thanks to that team. However I did not enjoy playing that team at all. Since i did not do enough research before hand I just went with the crowd. I should've known better due to playing Genshin from launch but oh well. So to me it comes down to 2 simple things how important is clearing content at the max reward to you and how willing are you to invest into a team. (Skill levels, Agent levels, W-engine levels, drive discs). A meta team allows you to be lazier/cheaper on the latter and still get max rewards. If you're all about the polychromes and or hate building characters then by all means follow the meta, gorge yourself on these TH-cam videos and do whatever they say to get your rewards. However if that matters less to you or you just vibe with a particular character's look, Voice actor, gameplay or whatever you will enjoy the game for far longer if you pull that unit and invest and build your team around them instead as that will guide all your future pulling descisions.
As a new Player I got Ceaser not only because of meta but she turned out to be my favorite character along with Burnice. So I hope I can win my 50/50 and get Burnice and than Yanagi or atleast Grace so i can have my disorder team😅
I'm more of a fun player that has meta tendencies. I try to build around characters I think look and act cool, then build a team based around it. At the beginning of her banner, I tried to pull Caesar because she looks awesome and has a great personality to boot. Plus, when I did her trial, I loved her gameplay with perfect parries (not even counting the buffs she gave, I just love pulling out that shield and denying my enemies). But I exhausted all my resources and ended up bricking anyway (pulled Lycaon on my guaranteed pull instead...). So I sulked that I couldn't have my justice king, but then ultimately gave up trying to get her. Burnice, on the other hand, I also love. Gives off major gremlin energy that I love about Soukaku. So I spent the past two weeks grinding my butt off, and with Burnie right around the corner, I still gotta pray for a little luck. I have enough resources for 55 pulls, but my guarantee is within 86 pulls. I want her to replace Lucy on my Fire/Physical squad, because I abhor Lucy completely. Teaming up with Piper and someone else (I don't know yet, all my DPS units do not click with Burnie and Piper both), I may just hope for Burnie and then wait a bit for a new compatible unit to drop to round out the team.
I think I lean towards fun rather than meta, but sometimes meta is fun! Figuring out the best teams, weapons, etc. **with what i’ve got** makes for a fun time. It’s fun to feel that the characters that I like are strong. It’s fun to be able to get rewards from all the endgame content. But it’s not fun when it becomes death by spreadsheets or suffering through types of gameplay I don’t even like. Besides we’re in such an early stage of the game that there’s a large chance the meta will drastically change anyway - kind of like Honkai Star Rail with Pure Fiction mode which made characters previously thought as weakest shoot straight up to S-tier. Anyway girl shoots flames so hard she flies. 12/10 pull forever always
Fun over meta any day. I don't mind beating enemies to a pulp for a longer time. Except on time trials, I hate those XD My problem is, all of them look so damm fun to play. I heard Yanagi is coming right after Burnice. That's 7 fun characters in a row so far! (Ellen, Zhu Yuan, QingYi, Jane, Caesar, Burnice, AND Yanagi... basically all of them)
The moment I beat ambush mode without caesar, I decided I don't need her. hoyo might push more shield agenda, I would take it as challenge. Took me 3rd zhongli rerun to pull for him, I did it to complete archons collection. Burnice playstyle remind me kafka dot in hsr. Funnily, both out around same patch which is 1.2. Character wise she just like yoimiya, guinaifen but crazy. bubbly fire characters always my fav
I find it most fun making meta compositions with non meta DPS characters. Thats why I chose Caeser. I can imagine her enabling many characters in the future and for my characters right now.
ALL of this is true. I got Ellen from the start. And love her. I pulled for Zhu Yuan because "she meta" (and also cuzz i thought it would be nice to farm pity... im an idiot) but she didn't really grasp me honestly and now she's just sitting there... I missed out on Qingyi for her. Now i have Jane doe and she works fine with Grace and Seth but Burnice would be the "better" option. But isntead of making that mistake again i pulled for Ceasar whom i love. She works well enough in my Ellen team. Now funny enough i might still end up pulling for Burnice (wwith a little bit of luck and 50/50). But i could try it since i don't want Yanagi/Lighter/Miyabi/Harumasa and the first 2 idols (the black haired one looks pretty dope though) And all i really want for reruns are Ellen's W-engine and maybe qingyi
As someone suffering from not getting zhu or Caesar, I’ve been in for fun but dealing with the unfortunate back and forth of character pulls, although it may appear meta if you realize I haven’t missed a single day since starting the game, which was three days into release.
Caesar was the unit that allowed me to clear Shiyu w/ S ranks across the board when pairing her with Soldier 11. This was after scrapping my mono lightning team entirely and losing hope on Shiyu altogether until a new DPS was released. So not only does her physics make brain go smooth, but her tactics make other characters go brrr. Best of both worlds.
I play as both. Though when I do anything META, it’s always unintentional. I still use Nicole and Billy, they’re so goated together, especially with Caesar. But for endgame Shiyu defense, and if it calls for it, I can fall back on the classic Anby, Nicole, and Billy team while using Caesar for as a flex for another team. To me, Caesar provides a level of flexibility that makes making teams with the limited characters I have much easier to use. It also helps that I actually do like how she plays as well, I find it fun! Parry mechanics aren’t seen too often, so seeing this was a massive plus.
I pulled on every banner and got everyone except qingyi and I dont regret that. The thing I regret Is pulling On janes weapon banner. I mean I literally got her in 17 pulls and could have left the rest for other character but I decided that my queen needs to have her crown (RIP 140 pulls cause I lost 75/25)
Meta is base on current performance in the game and fun is base on what individual player thinks so i don't think this is a good spectrum, so i would just say pull who you like. If like big number then good, if you like huge gameplay then good, if you like massive body parts than you don't really need to be reassured.
Take it from an Arlan main in Star Rail. Exclusive S ranks are so far above the game's power curve that it does not matter which one you pull. People will endlessly debate, justify and regret their choices, but no matter what you choose your account should be able to clear.
I am a meta-fun slingshot-type player, the way I play is that I pull for the on-field DPS agent I enjoy, the agent that I really see myself sticking around with till the very end and still have the feeling of enjoyment in the game and then I pull for the meta off-fields, stunners, sub-anomalies, supports, etc, why? Because they barely have any screen time and I personally would see me have way more fun picking a meta off-screen that supports my main DPS agent so they feel even stronger and I can have even more fun that way with my favorite field agents 💯
If you just want S ranks then build 1 team for that purpose. Then make a fun team, and slowly build it. The issue with this strategy is time and money constraints but I’m finding this to be the way to do it
I usually pull based on which characters I like the most in terms of design or personality and just figure out something that works to clear stuff afterward, but I did make an exception to this once in Star Rail when MoC became unbearable to do with only Natasha, Bailu, and Lynx available as my sustain characters. Later the game gave me Gallagher, which helped, but I finally snapped and pulled Fu Xuan on her rerun because I was fed up with restarting levels on MoC and hoping for a lucky spread of damage and heals to get through fights. So I guess I went meta just enough to allow me to keep having fun playing the game.
that's me 3:05 for zhu yuan last minute before quingyi but now i would have skipped zhu yuan to not miss jane and pull caesar after but i didn't know and wanted faster end game so no brain damage and fun (i pulled Ellen, Zhu yuan, lost50/50to jane, got ceasar and SKIP until idol ice support come because i want to stay on my 2 team since it's not my thing to level up everything equally)
I've always more went for characters I like. Pros and cons for both. Using Genshin as a point of comparison for it because I've played it for three years however it wound up being a situation of me having a ton of units I don't really play anymore. Looking for Zenless to wind up being the same way. Sometimes I have gotten a character that become much more valuable later on in the game's live. I like Jean for instance but I had stopped playing her for a long while. Furina came out and Jean got a lot of playtime as a result. Looking long term it's not bad to have units around because they can absolutely make a come back when changes happen. New playstyles can come out as well like what happened with Furina. Never really did all that well until Furina came out which hit my playstyle very well. Especially with my like for healers. I more favor playing for fun but after you get your two teams I don't think it truly matters who you pull for because you are already set up. At least when you are playing for fun. Yes you might do high scores and fast clears playing the meta way but also doesn't mean you can't pulling for fun. It took me ages to full clear the tower in Genshin but I finally did do it and not really the meta way. One of my teams was Arlecchino in a chevy comp. Arlecchinio was c6/r1 but still. ^^;
I try to be both but I usually end up with pulling for who I like or waifu/husbando pulls. Which is why my HSR account needs more support chars. Ceasar is my waifu pull this season and she's so much fun. I like playing the tank role so I like tank waifus. I did have fun with Burnice but I'm saving up for my next waifu, Yanagi. Glasses chars are hot. Good luck to everyone's Burnice pulls. Waifu pulls all the way 🔥🔥🔥
I mainly focus on doing the best I can with the characters I want. I pick the characters I want, and learn how to optimize them to the fullest. Am I getting the best score posible? no, but, personally, I have fun by getting the best score I can with the characters I want. I tryhard while having fun with my favourite characters. also, dont obesess over being or doing "the best". Unless you are spending insane amount of money to even try to compete with the top players that are doing the same, you wont be "the best". again, thats how I get my fun, if you get your fun by really tryharding and optimizing, using only the best units, then thats cool too. Its a game at the end of the day, have fun your way.
I tend to be in the middle and fight with myself a lot on which way I should take lol. I never really pull for characters I don't like at all though, that just wouldn't be enjoyable for me anymore. On another note even as a fun player if you are into it there is still a level of min-maxxing there for you, and it's where I personally end up finding a lot of fun in games like this. Even if your character isn't the "correct" or "meta" pick, you can work to make them as powerful as they can be and try to minmax all of their stats and optimize their build. Getting a character you like and have fun with and making them "complete" with a finished and strong build is really satisfying.
This is a very close issue for me because I run into people in discord chats who think that the meta is the main thing, and the fact that I play nekomata shows that I'm an idiot and so on, too, because she's weak, but I don't think she's weak at all. And she's pretty strong. For me, and I think the fun factor is a little more important than the meta, especially considering that in zzz every character is closes content without problems)
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
FUN all the way. it is a game after all.
What if you have a fun dps (like Jane) that wants a meta support (like Caesar). Is that not an incentive to pull for meta ?
Fun is subjective.
There are people who have fun clearing endgame and who don't like getting stuck in lower floors
@@wafaay7182 "There are people who have fun clearing endgame and who don't like getting stuck in lower floors", - this actually
people are acting like having a smart approach and wanting to clear end game content automatically makes you a meta player.
@@wafaay7182 But Burnice is the best choice for Jane.😅
I try to be a bit of both. Fun, meta and how much I like the character are all important factors
Honestly, pushing the meta to accommodate fun is how I play best. Which is why my anomaly team is "Spin to Win". Piper and Jane do silly things, meta be damned.
wipeout poses in a jane piper team can be silly. is a fun team, tho. i've used them with caesar for a full on shielded assault.
They are the Zenless version of the Herta fans.
"Kuru-Kuru~! Kururin~~!!"
Burnice?
@@LCastle-tm8gx after grinding away, yes. Burnice is now spinning to win with them.
Personally I did go for Caesar because I really enjoyed her parry/defensive assist based gameplay.
The gacha shock coming from Nikke to a Hoyo game has been pretty intense. In Nikke as an active player I can generally pull for every character and have a decent chance of getting them, only skipping the really un-meta ones. Over here in Zenless I have to be far more discerning. It actually took me close to all 180 pulls to get a single Jane.
same. when you lose 50/50 and hit hard pity both times it's quite a pain.
This _is_ likely the worst it will ever be though, because right now you have a minimal roster, low Polys, and new characters are coming out left and right. As the game matures, you will have a mature roster of useful, built characters, there will be a lot more re-run banners, and you will slowly build up a stockpile of spare polys, so that when new charatcers come along, it's easier to pass on the maybes and pull on the ones you want, still having plenty for the next one.
I play for fun, pulled Caesar and built her as a DPS. I also made a standard support build for Caesar so I can flex her into stun support to put her on other teams, but I really want to on field Caesar as much as possible for that juicy parries, I’ll live and die for her parry
Her parries do feel pretty enjoyable to some degree. Got into enjoying the "Counterattack" gameplay initially from HSR's FUA teams (mainly Clara & Yunli, with a bit of Aventurine), and then enjoyed the time with Ben in Zenless. Caesar is a bit of the same as well, but I can see her being a bit more enjoyable and challenging, moving much faster than Ben but at the cost of a much shorter window to trigger (EX) Special to parry & counter.
How did you turn her into a dps? Do you think it's possible with any character type as well?
@@LlamaM2288 I was able to do with Caesar mainly because of her shield giving a huge atk buff and with a solid luck on drive discs, I have a video with my dps Caesar build.
I think it is possible to turn a good majority of the agents into dps, I’ve seen a guy completing one side of Shiyu Critical with solo Nicole, so it is possible, but not all characters will feel satisfying to play as dps, some will feel better as their intended role
@breezeless_7665 oo okay I'll check out the video. Cause I might wanna try and do the same thing with Lighter since he's a stunner and not dps
@@LlamaM2288 a reminder that you can use an attacker engine instead of her signature, I just really like her to I use her signature lol
I think that one of the last things you said are one of the most often overlooked piece of advice and really should even be expanded upon. When people are worried that if they don't have the "right" characters that the are going to be missing out I think they need to have things put into perspective for them. You can easily do the story, events, and your weekly HZ with whatever characters you want. You could run all A-ranks and make it work no sweat. Not being able to S-Rank or even finish the last few stages of SD means you miss out on about 1 pull worth of poly and a meaningless amount of resources. And if you do pull characters just to try to S-Rank all levels of SD every patch then you are sinking more resources into those characters you pulled than you are getting out in return.
I 100% believe that you should only pull the characters you want. Characters fall out of meta and sometimes even become meta again when new characters are added that better support them. I have about 400 pulls saved up (between poly and reels) and no limited banner characters and have no issues. People should pull who they want and not get hung up on trying to keep up with the meta. If the character you want happens to be meta, that's great, but I think pulling just because a character is "good" or "meta" is just going to burn a player and kill the fun for most.
Well said.
fun should always take priority, only meta should be considered when evaluating how much does it add to your fun value, or if an account is in a bad state and stopping a player from having fun
100% agree. You need pull for what you want, keeping in mind what is coming up and how to startergize to make nice teams for your favorites.
With leaks, we know banners quite far in advance (currently 1.4) which is over 2 months away.
I think "Optimal" is probably the best word for pulling Caesar. She's just slots so well into so much, but I can agree with her playstyle feeling a bit plain
I pulled her because I liked her character and because she buffed my Jane Doe team more (a team I already really enjoyed)
Good video! Pull who you want!
Sorry for not have anything to add into this conversation but I need to add that your videos are always a mix of helpful and fun. And idk why but “Lycon and subscribe” always crack me up
That's exactly what I'm going for! Thanks for the support!
I'm a grace only player
Chad.
@@AverageLuckGamer Burnice helps the grace team so we will be there
@@vishnuanand9669 holy based. a fellow grace enjoyer. 🤝🏾
@@KalhuSoru9 simply the best Zenless character
feet for days
Warning a lot of text - Couldn't agree more. Always pull for who YOU want not for what anyone says about META. Waifu over meta, always. However as you pointed out it is smart to not just pull for who you like but also plan teams for them. For example I tried to pull for ZY because she was a meta pick but I didn't like her gameplay, I lost the 50/50 to lycaon on her banner and gave up after that despite me having more pulls. Knowing that Jane might be the character I actually enjoy playing and her personality(yes personality, her actual personality of a cunning person). And I was absolutely right, when I played through Jane's story, got her and saw how fun she was I had no regrets. When I initially saw Caesar I thought she and Burnice were an easy skip because they didnt resonate with me but once I got to know them better and saw the satisfying animation of Caesar's parry - I love dark souls mechanics. I knew she was the right choice for myself. And now I come to crossroads with meta and waifu - I see that Burnice will be really solid off field anomaly agent but I don't like off field characters at all. This is why I am skipping her for Yanagi who is supposed to be on field just like Jane, not to mention her potential synergy with Miyabi. I will stick to my beliefs and skip Burnice entirely for Yanagi and Miyabi.
I saw this one guy who said "pull for meta, with an asterisk" and basically saying, you can pull for whoever you want, doesnt matter how strong or weak, but you can also pull meta characters as a way to enhance your non-meta character that you personalyl find fun (this is very prominent in other Hoyo games like genshin and hsr) I personally enjoy Qingque in HSR and I pulled Sparkle (a meta support) just for Qingque, granted i love sparkle's character but its a win-win at the end of the day
Pull for waifu, then make waifu strong :)
I just want to say, thank you for the follow up video and really discussing the fun vs meta conversation. 90% fun 10% meta (for builds). Was really struggling last week over who to pull given the 1.3/1.4 supposed info. Still pulling for Burnice over Caesar because I want a partner for Grace, Jane, or Piper. FUN all the way.
I started the game about a few weeks ago for Lucy. Become a big fan of Piper and the rest of the crew so Im pulling for all of them. I’m a pretty simple dude.
Zenless can't exist without ur videos man, love your content 🫂💚
Thanks so much for the support!
I will pull for a character if I adore them, reagrdless of meta, but I don't mind meta pulling if I'm lacking an attribute or an empty role that can be filled
I WILL pull for Burnice, Caesar would've been nice but she feels a bit cluncky for me
I didn't pull for Caesar, then got Burnice in just 30 pulls. The RNG Gods blessed me, probably felt bad for how they treated me when pulling for Jane.
I strike a balance between "fun" and "meta". I think about meta when it comes to the longevity of my account. Not necessarily to "dominate" the game, but to make sure I go through the game with less struggles. And my brand of fun is making use of what I have and what I get and rolling with it. These are things I learned from playing Arknights over the years. Even if I don't get the characters I want, it doesn't take away what the game is for me. There's much more to the game than the characters I didn't get and characters that "shakes" the meta. I play for fun and I play to keep the fun going as long as it can go for
Makes me happy that they added ways for you to test out the new characters each time they come around. lets the Fun players get a taste of how the character plays before they decide whether or not they want to pull. That being said totally a Fun player myself. no point on building meta if you aren't having fun in the first place. Genuinely more fun to just work with what you got, cause building Ben to be a stronger attacker than Ellen is funny as hell.
I go for max fun factor. When I started I actually skipped Zhu Yuan and Ellen cause I didnt like em.
How a character's kit feels to play is usually the deciding factor for me, and then focusing on how to boost the strength of the characters that are fun to play.
I did the whole, "use who I like/whoever I get" game plan in HSR, though I was playing very casually, and Penacony destroyed any and all of my enjoyment with its difficulty spike. So, I'm of the opinion that everyone should have 1 invested meta team before branching out and grabbing whoever you want for fun. Because, you never know if a year into the game, Hoyo might just decide to double the difficulty.
And it's no fun watching what you thought was a fun team with cool animations get absolutely destroyed by, ostensibly, normal enemies. You might be able to get away with just a single meta DPS in this game, though.
penacony is difficult huh
In genshin this is a non issue. You can literally blitz past most stuff with anyone.
The only place where meta matters is floor 12. Everything else can be blitzed with just about anyone. Even then floor 12 most of the time is easy.
Man i'm both, like i got really Lucky to win jane and cesar and their respective w-engines (because of the grinding of polychromes) and the fact that I got really inmersed into the numbers and meta that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the game, and that is because of your videos! Keep it up man, and may all your 50/50 be blessed.
Thanks for the support! Glad I'm helping you to enjoy the game.
Cant decide so im pulling for everyone until im broke.
Fun all the way. Pulled Caesar because she is absolutely my favorite playstyle, and am saving for M6 Caesar to on field DPS her (already have M1 and her W-Engine)
Waifu over Meta?
Fortunately my WAIFU is META 😎
And fun to play with
2:10 Guilty~
Naturally.
I’m with you there 😂😂
Well because yeah i gona do a count 142 days left for virtual idols
I’d say pull who you want, especially who you find more fun…
…but do have a plan first. Try to figure out what kind of team would work best with who you wanna pull, and see which characters you’ve pulled already can help out with that.
Caesar is definitely more universal but I like Burnice more from what I’ve seen. Plus I have Jane and so I plan on pairing her with both Burnice and Lucy for a Disorder team.
There are other characters I have an interest in. One because I have a team sort of built already that I think they’d be really great on and the other because I’m envisioning a team where I can use said character, a character I really like and an S-Rank I have a duplicate of. But ultimately if I don’t like their playstyle then Ill reconsider.
So yeah, pull who you want, but also plan so you can get the most out of it. A balance of fun and meta can go a long way!
Although I agree wholeheartedly, I do think there is much less difference between fun and meta than you made it sound like. The reason why I like meta is because that's how I have fun. Remember that trying hard and getting rewarded for it (even if just with satisfaction) is a very valid way of having fun~
Caesar is a special case I'd say. She is not only strong and versatile, but also extremely comfortable. In perspective stage 5 of the new disputed node took me ~20 tries to complete the 1st half while I 1st tried the 2nd half because Caeser makes your team nigh unkillable. So in my opinion Caser specifically is one of those "Mast pull" characters. You have to really dislike Caser design and gameplay or really want Burnice to skip Caser. Ultimately though if you don't value comfort her pull value is not much higher then for any other limited character
Jane is by far the most fun character for me! I do everything with her; her moveset is awesome, and she deals tons of damage. It's unfortunate that new players can't get her!
I'm sort of both; I started out as just a "idk pull whatever I guess", then got really into trying to tune characters, then found my killer group of Caesar, Nicole, Piper and now I'm just having a lot of fun finding new ways to use my existing kit. So yeah, I guess I'm a bit of both? I dunno, game is really fun to me!
Absolutely love your videos, dude! I appreciate how you can see things from multiple sides and especially from a low-spending player's perspective.
I personally pull for fun and don't mind if I don't S rank all of Shiyu, but I also do find it really fun trying to get S ranks with non-meta teams that are just absolutely delightful to play. It's almost like a bit of a challenge! At the same time, the game is so fun overall, it's hard not to want all of the characters 🤣
Good video man, Piper is my favorite so I'm looking forward to pulling Burnice and using her in my piper team with Lucy. Fun all the way
I've lost the 50/50 for Cesar, so I'm going for fun and Burnice 😅. The next one that I really like is Lighter, but having Koleda already, he doesn't seem so vital atm. Thank you Average Luck Gamer, it's the first time in my life I really look forward a new video on TH-cam!
Personally speaking, I don't do Meta....for the most part. I'll look up and build my Agents to their Meta builds, but I won't run Meta teams (That I know of.) I plan on my main team being Jane, Caesar and Burnice. No idea if that'll be Meta or not, but I thought it'd be fun.....and a nice view at all times.
That team will work just fine :)
As long as you get the basics right and active their passives, most teams work fine. Like, I play grace jane rina all the time and people say it's not a good team, but it still clears the end game very easily. Just goes to show how little optimal teams matter.
> I won't run meta team
> Proceeds to name the most meta team in the game
@@ВладиславБериславский Didn't know if it was Meta or not, I just like the 3 booties.
@@ZenlessGhost yeah, I see, but it was kinda funny ;)
This video is the definition of " It _depends..._ " 🤣
I agree though. I was on the fence about pulling psycho fire-gremlin, but as a rat-haver she buffs my main single team super well, and as a piper x lucy for 2 team content she slots into that to pad up numbers to match my Quingyi x Jane x seth team. On top of that, blasting enemies with a wall of fire is just so fun.
So quite literally it's both for me. as it typically is.
*Leo DeCap whistle and pointing meme* as i point at the Bangboo during the *SMACK*
I swear i wait for it every video! 😂
I have my own fun by building my personal "meta" in other words I like finding strategies that anyone could choose that work strong together in my way, but while sometimes it matches what others echo sometimes it doesn't and I'm willing to share my logic behind it both in practice and with numbers if they want. But at the end of the day I made something that I found fun that wins me my games almost always with S despite not having min max stats and that's good enough for me
this early in the game i care more about meta and getting the elements covered. when I have the elements covered I will only care about if I like the character or if it seems like a broken support for characters i like. this is the way I do genshin and im happy with it. I skipped 80% of fontaine characters because I hate their outfits and now I have a primo treasure trove for natlan so it payed off.
I'm in it for the fun mainly but I do try to keep up with the meta, but as a F2P I have my limits. Skipped Qingie and Jane to save for Burnice though, can't wait for her release, play style seems really fun and I'd like an S Rank fire type to round out my teams. Love your vids mate.
I mostly focus on trying to build teams that synergise together, based on characters I like. Also ofc some impact on like strength too.
I started by using the best characters, eventually beat everything in the game and wanted to challenge myself to "groups".
Doing the tough challenges with "only cunning hares" or "only belobog" creates alot of fun.
Doing Sons of Calydon soon with Burnice, Piper and Lucy.
I'm a new player just started yesterday and I'm picking up Burnice. I don't care about synergies or anything, that music video was literally the reason I got interested and checked out ZZZ in the first place. I'll figure the rest out later lol.
You can have both, look at Jane for example. She’s incredibly fun to play and also meta as hell right now. Prioritize what you have fun using above all else though and then you can make it work from there.
I guess I would say I'm a fun player, but specifically a "here for the gacha" player. I hadn't played a gacha game in like 10 years before ZZZ (ignoring a few hours spent on Genshin), so I pretty much started playing just to test my luck. I make this distinction because while I might prefer the playstyle of one character over another, I've realized I'm not that excited to play a new character at this point. I can S rank end game currently, so I don't "need" (quotes because you don't need any character) them and once I get them, it's not like I'll have much content to use them on. All that to say, I'm basically just here to collect characters almost indiscriminately at this point lol
i skipped caesar and im gonna skip brunice too (maybe) but good lord look at the yagani god damnnnnn im in love with her design and saw her gameplay too and its amazing❤
fun and meta go hand in hand so it isn't as simple as you can only choose fun or choose only meta. some people actually enjoy playing zenless in general so aiming to own specific characters are only part of the charm to the whole experience of zenless VS actually playing the game with whatever you want.
i didn't plan to pull Caesar but then i saw her music video and i said, you son of a bangboo i am in
I try to draw a good balance between fun, future proofing & meta.
I focus on building characters I like but also try not to over-invest in characters that may become too difficult to play as the game progressively gets harder. Powercreep is real and only becomes more prominent over time so as much as I love character like Anton & Anby, it’s hard to justify investing in them as much as a limited S rank character.
Of course that isn’t going to stop me from playing my favourite characters, but my priority is being able to clear all the content that awards premium currency each week/cycle because collecting characters I like is what I enjoy most about Gacha games.
I prefer to pull characters based on my account's needs. Whenever possible, when a character comes up that is considered a "must have" I choose them over a character that I like. As a result I can choose whoever I want later. If I pull a character because I really like them, then I later dedicate myself to pulling characters that will benefit the ones I have, even better if they were already among the "must have".
In ZZZ I pulled Caesar because she's considered good for the account, although I also like her. Meanwhile, I pulled Jane Doe just because I like her, and now I'll need to choose characters that can support her.
By the way, I have no polychromes for I don't know how long, so I can't focus on new characters for now.
I keep finding myself in a situation where no matter how good Zhu Yuan is, I struggle to make her work, and I've performed better with Corin in Shiyu nodes that resist physical than if the same node was weak to ether, a similar issue I have with Nicole and her delayed timings. My brother also somewhat struggles with Zhu Yuan but he excels with Anton, which is another character I can't manage to make work for me, which is then quite funny because he struggles to make Rina work in his anton team (He runs Koleda + Lucy instead). Like sure, It's good to train a Fox in your back pocket for when it comes in handy, but if you're truly adore or are gifted at Donkey Kong, maybe focusing on him is the right choice for you.
On a similar note, recently I started playing Genshin Impact because of Kinich, I really liked his design and character concept, I didn't manage to get him in time but im softly sticking with the game and playing at a slow pace, What I'm finding is that every single character I've expressed an interest in seems to be considered garbage or extremely low tier (Qiqi and Dori for example, but also oddly Kinich, since I keep hearing a complaint that he needs a combination of partners that doesn't exist yet and that is unlikely for a while). so Im trying to pivot, learn the basics of how the game works, and invest all my resources in Kaeya since ive heard he's good, and I think he's hot
I feel like I'm a bit of both. I dont want to be gating my options due to lacking a type of team but after I have my general bases covered its party time, and i'll pull who/what I want. Caesar just happened to be the perfect triple whammy of letting me cover multiple bases, enjoy other characters more freely like Piper and S11 AND is a character whose unique mechanic I enjoy playing. All that wrapped in a character archetype I like. So it was really the easiest decision of my life.
Caesar is fun though... her enabling every other DPS in the game from Soldier 11 to Corin to Billy to Ellen to Grace etc is just a bonus
I love the fact that every discussion video about video games everyone puts persona background music
Definitely both. I find having a clunky team that doesn't feel like it's fitting together quite frustrating. Was gonna go burnice but I got soldier from standard and since Caesar gives me a team comp that's good for her and my nekomata it was too good to pass up. Also my little Sekiro gamer brain loves her parries so yeah, I'm definitely having fun!
Good video, but as experienced gamer... People will always min max out the fun. It's the developer's responsibility to stop that from happening.
Also another thing, if you don't look for leaks, you can't really guess how good Burnice will be, like for example let's say character Y is next and that character increases disorder damage, how are you supposed to plan while Caesar just released? I didn't know and Hoyoverse doesn't help you because they want you to feel like you are missing out.
I started playing after Jane so I missed both Yuan and Jane - but I dig burnice style of game play and honestly I just want to have fun with the game still working on the meta with what I’ve pulled already - so I’d say I’m 50/50 of both
I'm pulling for both. By which I mean, Burnice is certainly more fun for me as well, but I also believe she will be a meta pick for future Anomaly-focused teams.
Its funny cus I pulled Caesar since i heard she was so good, yet i COULD NOT figure out how to make her work and she just felt boring to play with for me (in a team with piper and lucy), but after pulling burnice for her fun factor, BOTH caesar and burnice work well and feel fun to play with!
I was worried i wasted my last set of pulls on caesar since i barely got burnice in her last week but this video does have solid advice to just pull if you find a character fun, and you have a viable option/team to make them shine :D
I believe in the beautiful now and the perfect future approach. Which means I only pull for units I know I won’t regret and/or will provide a new avenue of horizontal investment (in terms of comp potential).
The demos for a banner's S-Rank can make or break whether I even consider them. Sure, Caesar's got everything I'd need numerically for a team (Impact-focus, ATK boost, shields) but something about her gameplay just doesn't click like Ben...so I decided to not commit. But the biggest hurdle for me is the resource sink.
Every agent you pull is a heavy commitment because they don't arrive at Lvl 60 with their Core Passive maxed and a fully maxed Drive Disc set. That stuff takes time to achieve, even if you've got some materials left over.
For me, at least, I've got these three check boxes when determining my pulls:
-Do I have a place for them to work mechanically?
-Are they fun to play repeatedly?
-Am I willing to consistently dedicate all my battery to fully upgrading them/wait multiple weeks before they're at my current team's level?
Whether they're enjoyable as a *character* can have some sway, but those first two usually stop any impulse pulls for me. They're also why I'm not pulling for the current banners of 1.2 and why I'm going to go (in-game currency) broke when Lighter shows up.
TL;DR Play the demos, consider the in-game resource sink, and get a good idea of what playstyles you like using.
And above all...if you're having fun, then it wasn't a waste.
I’m gonna be honest, ever since I watched the 1.2 preview thing when I stumbled over it on TH-cam, I’ve been wanting Burnice.
And then I took into account payment, and realized I’d be fine getting her.
Then I just pulled a couple of tens on Caesar, not purposefully meaning to get her, but I got her anyways. And I’ve decided to stick to the plan with Burnice. I’ve got a little over Two weeks.
Whatever it takes, I’m getting the Arsonist!!!
ZZZ's fun to me is: to invest my polycroms correctly so I can always (and confortably) guarantee shiyu all S, so after that I can try to clear it with any character I want (because I like to build all my characters). 😊
I started playing towards the end of Jane's banner so I just saved my pulls for Caesar, and the standard tapes you get in game got me Grace. So I'm planning on pulling for Bernice to pair with Grace. I really like the idea of having them both on a team and I'ma make it work. Hope I can win my 50/50 so I can use the rest on my poly to get Rina from the 300 mark
Coming from genshin, I believe in pull whoever I want. I also think that hoyo will make faction charas work with each other so full faction pulls is really viable
I always just use the characters I like! Fun is way more important to me than the meta, I love to collect waifus and other stuff so that’s most important! Sometimes my Waifu happens to be meta but I never seek the meta on purpose!
C. Waifu/Husbando - Make them work, even if you have to touch a bit of Meta, or if for some reason you don't find them fun, find a playstyle team you like with them. Nothing feels better than being able to clear Shiyu/Abyss with your favourites.
Ellen, Lyacon, Soukaku the meta team. I got lucky and got all 3 of them Ellen's weapon. Cleared Shiyu in the first few weeks thanks to that team.
However I did not enjoy playing that team at all. Since i did not do enough research before hand I just went with the crowd. I should've known better due to playing Genshin from launch but oh well.
So to me it comes down to 2 simple things how important is clearing content at the max reward to you and how willing are you to invest into a team. (Skill levels, Agent levels, W-engine levels, drive discs).
A meta team allows you to be lazier/cheaper on the latter and still get max rewards. If you're all about the polychromes and or hate building characters then by all means follow the meta, gorge yourself on these TH-cam videos and do whatever they say to get your rewards.
However if that matters less to you or you just vibe with a particular character's look, Voice actor, gameplay or whatever you will enjoy the game for far longer if you pull that unit and invest and build your team around them instead as that will guide all your future pulling descisions.
As a new Player I got Ceaser not only because of meta but she turned out to be my favorite character along with Burnice.
So I hope I can win my 50/50 and get Burnice and than Yanagi or atleast Grace so i can have my disorder team😅
Fingers crossed for you!
I'm more of a fun player that has meta tendencies. I try to build around characters I think look and act cool, then build a team based around it. At the beginning of her banner, I tried to pull Caesar because she looks awesome and has a great personality to boot. Plus, when I did her trial, I loved her gameplay with perfect parries (not even counting the buffs she gave, I just love pulling out that shield and denying my enemies). But I exhausted all my resources and ended up bricking anyway (pulled Lycaon on my guaranteed pull instead...). So I sulked that I couldn't have my justice king, but then ultimately gave up trying to get her. Burnice, on the other hand, I also love. Gives off major gremlin energy that I love about Soukaku. So I spent the past two weeks grinding my butt off, and with Burnie right around the corner, I still gotta pray for a little luck. I have enough resources for 55 pulls, but my guarantee is within 86 pulls. I want her to replace Lucy on my Fire/Physical squad, because I abhor Lucy completely. Teaming up with Piper and someone else (I don't know yet, all my DPS units do not click with Burnie and Piper both), I may just hope for Burnie and then wait a bit for a new compatible unit to drop to round out the team.
I think I lean towards fun rather than meta, but sometimes meta is fun! Figuring out the best teams, weapons, etc. **with what i’ve got** makes for a fun time. It’s fun to feel that the characters that I like are strong. It’s fun to be able to get rewards from all the endgame content. But it’s not fun when it becomes death by spreadsheets or suffering through types of gameplay I don’t even like. Besides we’re in such an early stage of the game that there’s a large chance the meta will drastically change anyway - kind of like Honkai Star Rail with Pure Fiction mode which made characters previously thought as weakest shoot straight up to S-tier.
Anyway girl shoots flames so hard she flies. 12/10 pull forever always
Fun over meta any day. I don't mind beating enemies to a pulp for a longer time.
Except on time trials, I hate those XD
My problem is, all of them look so damm fun to play. I heard Yanagi is coming right after Burnice.
That's 7 fun characters in a row so far! (Ellen, Zhu Yuan, QingYi, Jane, Caesar, Burnice, AND Yanagi... basically all of them)
The moment I beat ambush mode without caesar, I decided I don't need her. hoyo might push more shield agenda, I would take it as challenge. Took me 3rd zhongli rerun to pull for him, I did it to complete archons collection.
Burnice playstyle remind me kafka dot in hsr. Funnily, both out around same patch which is 1.2. Character wise she just like yoimiya, guinaifen but crazy. bubbly fire characters always my fav
I find it most fun making meta compositions with non meta DPS characters. Thats why I chose Caeser. I can imagine her enabling many characters in the future and for my characters right now.
ALL of this is true. I got Ellen from the start. And love her. I pulled for Zhu Yuan because "she meta" (and also cuzz i thought it would be nice to farm pity... im an idiot) but she didn't really grasp me honestly and now she's just sitting there... I missed out on Qingyi for her. Now i have Jane doe and she works fine with Grace and Seth but Burnice would be the "better" option. But isntead of making that mistake again i pulled for Ceasar whom i love. She works well enough in my Ellen team. Now funny enough i might still end up pulling for Burnice (wwith a little bit of luck and 50/50). But i could try it since i don't want Yanagi/Lighter/Miyabi/Harumasa and the first 2 idols (the black haired one looks pretty dope though) And all i really want for reruns are Ellen's W-engine and maybe qingyi
As someone suffering from not getting zhu or Caesar, I’ve been in for fun but dealing with the unfortunate back and forth of character pulls, although it may appear meta if you realize I haven’t missed a single day since starting the game, which was three days into release.
Caesar was the unit that allowed me to clear Shiyu w/ S ranks across the board when pairing her with Soldier 11. This was after scrapping my mono lightning team entirely and losing hope on Shiyu altogether until a new DPS was released.
So not only does her physics make brain go smooth, but her tactics make other characters go brrr. Best of both worlds.
"BBOOOBBBAAA" that's the kind of player I am. I also like tight too...
I play as both. Though when I do anything META, it’s always unintentional. I still use Nicole and Billy, they’re so goated together, especially with Caesar. But for endgame Shiyu defense, and if it calls for it, I can fall back on the classic Anby, Nicole, and Billy team while using Caesar for as a flex for another team.
To me, Caesar provides a level of flexibility that makes making teams with the limited characters I have much easier to use. It also helps that I actually do like how she plays as well, I find it fun! Parry mechanics aren’t seen too often, so seeing this was a massive plus.
I pulled on every banner and got everyone except qingyi and I dont regret that. The thing I regret Is pulling On janes weapon banner. I mean I literally got her in 17 pulls and could have left the rest for other character but I decided that my queen needs to have her crown (RIP 140 pulls cause I lost 75/25)
Meta is base on current performance in the game and fun is base on what individual player thinks so i don't think this is a good spectrum, so i would just say pull who you like.
If like big number then good, if you like huge gameplay then good, if you like massive body parts than you don't really need to be reassured.
Take it from an Arlan main in Star Rail. Exclusive S ranks are so far above the game's power curve that it does not matter which one you pull. People will endlessly debate, justify and regret their choices, but no matter what you choose your account should be able to clear.
meta fun is a good category, I like to put myself in there also, I usually consider the pros and cons but I pick what's more fun in the end
I am a meta-fun slingshot-type player, the way I play is that I pull for the on-field DPS agent I enjoy, the agent that I really see myself sticking around with till the very end and still have the feeling of enjoyment in the game
and then I pull for the meta off-fields, stunners, sub-anomalies, supports, etc, why? Because they barely have any screen time and I personally would see me have way more fun picking a meta off-screen that supports my main DPS agent so they feel even stronger and I can have even more fun that way with my favorite field agents 💯
Got Caesar but will go for Burnice too, I skipped out on DoT on HSR so will try that alternative gameplay style in ZZZ because why not
If you just want S ranks then build 1 team for that purpose. Then make a fun team, and slowly build it. The issue with this strategy is time and money constraints but I’m finding this to be the way to do it
Going to pull for Burnice even though I got Caesar and her w-engine. I’ve gotten every character I’ve tried to pull for except Qingyi.
I usually pull based on which characters I like the most in terms of design or personality and just figure out something that works to clear stuff afterward, but I did make an exception to this once in Star Rail when MoC became unbearable to do with only Natasha, Bailu, and Lynx available as my sustain characters. Later the game gave me Gallagher, which helped, but I finally snapped and pulled Fu Xuan on her rerun because I was fed up with restarting levels on MoC and hoping for a lucky spread of damage and heals to get through fights. So I guess I went meta just enough to allow me to keep having fun playing the game.
that's me 3:05 for zhu yuan last minute before quingyi but now i would have skipped zhu yuan to not miss jane and pull caesar after but i didn't know and wanted faster end game so no brain damage and fun
(i pulled Ellen, Zhu yuan, lost50/50to jane, got ceasar and SKIP until idol ice support come because i want to stay on my 2 team since it's not my thing to level up everything equally)
I've always more went for characters I like. Pros and cons for both. Using Genshin as a point of comparison for it because I've played it for three years however it wound up being a situation of me having a ton of units I don't really play anymore. Looking for Zenless to wind up being the same way. Sometimes I have gotten a character that become much more valuable later on in the game's live. I like Jean for instance but I had stopped playing her for a long while. Furina came out and Jean got a lot of playtime as a result. Looking long term it's not bad to have units around because they can absolutely make a come back when changes happen. New playstyles can come out as well like what happened with Furina. Never really did all that well until Furina came out which hit my playstyle very well. Especially with my like for healers.
I more favor playing for fun but after you get your two teams I don't think it truly matters who you pull for because you are already set up. At least when you are playing for fun. Yes you might do high scores and fast clears playing the meta way but also doesn't mean you can't pulling for fun. It took me ages to full clear the tower in Genshin but I finally did do it and not really the meta way. One of my teams was Arlecchino in a chevy comp. Arlecchinio was c6/r1 but still. ^^;
I try to be both but I usually end up with pulling for who I like or waifu/husbando pulls. Which is why my HSR account needs more support chars.
Ceasar is my waifu pull this season and she's so much fun. I like playing the tank role so I like tank waifus.
I did have fun with Burnice but I'm saving up for my next waifu, Yanagi. Glasses chars are hot.
Good luck to everyone's Burnice pulls. Waifu pulls all the way 🔥🔥🔥
I mainly focus on doing the best I can with the characters I want. I pick the characters I want, and learn how to optimize them to the fullest. Am I getting the best score posible? no, but, personally, I have fun by getting the best score I can with the characters I want. I tryhard while having fun with my favourite characters.
also, dont obesess over being or doing "the best". Unless you are spending insane amount of money to even try to compete with the top players that are doing the same, you wont be "the best".
again, thats how I get my fun, if you get your fun by really tryharding and optimizing, using only the best units, then thats cool too. Its a game at the end of the day, have fun your way.
Bernice was a must pull for me. I loved Caesar's design and kit, but I needed another anomaly character because both of mine were physical only.
I am try to Pull for both
I tend to be in the middle and fight with myself a lot on which way I should take lol. I never really pull for characters I don't like at all though, that just wouldn't be enjoyable for me anymore.
On another note even as a fun player if you are into it there is still a level of min-maxxing there for you, and it's where I personally end up finding a lot of fun in games like this. Even if your character isn't the "correct" or "meta" pick, you can work to make them as powerful as they can be and try to minmax all of their stats and optimize their build. Getting a character you like and have fun with and making them "complete" with a finished and strong build is really satisfying.
This is a very close issue for me because I run into people in discord chats who think that the meta is the main thing, and the fact that I play nekomata shows that I'm an idiot and so on, too, because she's weak, but I don't think she's weak at all. And she's pretty strong. For me, and I think the fun factor is a little more important than the meta, especially considering that in zzz every character is closes content without problems)