Mihoyo has once again announced another round of buffs for Genshin Impact's troubled five-star character, Zhongli. Like the previous round of notes mentioned, these changes will be reflected in the game's 1.3 update.

The Lord of Geo has had a rough go of it, and folks who spent primogems pulling for him ended up pretty disappointed.  It's a shame, as Zhongli has been one of the more interesting five-star characters to come out of the game and was quite popular with the community prior to his banner.

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Regardless, it sounds like Mihoyo has continued to take the feedback seriously and after some further digging, Zhongli must've been more busted than the studio thought. Following this latest round of testing, Mihoyo touched on Zhongli's core problems. To put it succinctly: he's a weak support, he has no real synergy, he's pointless in co-op, and other geo characters still outpace him (even with how weak Geo currently is).  Mihoyo's aim is to improve Zhongli in Geo parties, non-Geo parties, and co-op play.

Adjustments to his Elemental Skill Dominus Lapidis continue in this latest update, and it looks like that's it for now. His original effects from Mihoyo for the skill read as:

  • Causes nearby Geo energy to explode, causing the following effects:
  • Creates a shield of jade. The shield's DMG Absorption scales based on Zhongli's Max HP and has 250% Geo DMG Absorption
  • Deals AoE Geo DMG
  • If there are nearby targets with the Geo element, it will drain a large amount of the Geo element from a maximum of 2 such targets. This effect does not cause DMG

The latest round of adjustments drastically improves upon that, especially if you take changes to the Geo element into consideration. Those changes now describe the skill as:

  • Causes nearby Geo energy to explode, causing the following effects:
  • If the maximum number of Stone Steles has not yet been reached, it will create a Stone Stele
  • Creates a shield of jade. The shield's DMG Absorption scales based on Zhongli's Max HP, and has 150% Physical DMG and Elemental DMG Absorption
  • When a character is protected by the Jade Shield, opponents within a set radius have all Elemental RES and Physical RES decreased by 20%. Effect cannot be stacked
  • Deals AoE Geo DMG
  • If there are nearby targets with the Geo element, it will drain a large amount of the Geo element from a maximum of 2 such targets. This effect does not cause DMG

So maybe don't write Zhongli off just yet. In a game like Genshin Impact where the end game includes timed content, playing defensively for long periods of time doesn't pay off. It seems like that's finally clicking with Mihoyo, and players who scored Zhongli on his banner may have a delayed reason to celebrate in the coming months. You can check out Mihoyo's detailed blog post now.

Next: Genshin Impact - Crimson Agate Locations And How To Use Them