The Story of Ayaka's fall from Top Tier DPS in Genshin Impact

A short description of events that happened to Ayaka, how an S tier Character became barely playable and considered to be a B-C tier character by some.
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[jacoblopingco]

I believe that most important factor of Ayaka's downfall was not dendro or Fontaine. Ayaka still has her niche in freeze, and Wriothesley is pretty equal with her, he is considered stronger by some, and weaker by some. The biggest factor in Ayaka's downfall was content switching to more bulky enemies that can't be frozen. Ayaka is still definitely an S tier unit and isn't really that much worse when compared to her peers aside from Neuvillette, which is a pretty mote point since every dps is inferior to Neuvillette. She never really got worse, it's just that content isn't compatible with her anymore. All that it would really take to bring her back to relevance would be more Spiral Abyss chambers with freezable enemies. She's in a Venti situation where she is still broken, it's just that the situations in which she is broken aren't as common as they used to be.

[lordkaiser]

there's no downfall.. mihoyo just randomly changes the enemies in the abyss..

[xyithan]

I still remember when Ganyu was top tier DPS

[YukiZero]

Freeze should be buffed to frostbite... frostbite will freeze enemies and those that cannot be frozen will be slowed and receive increased cryo damage.

[Yelan-nd]

Basically mihoyo focused on freeze reaction more than any other cryo reactions to the point that even the cryo resonance is designed for characters that makes use of freeze only. But now that freeze falls off, an entire group of characters that benefitted from freeze are also falls off as well.

[catfishflavour]

Its not like she been powercrept by others much. The abyss these days just doesn't fit her playstyle, and not fit for cryo too. For example, I already lost count on how many times copelia and copellius show up at the last floor or how many times the enemies are resistant to freeze comp, like inquisitor baptyst. Ayaka's not weak but she's not meta already

[Cupidador]

ayaka was my first 5 star so she'll have a special place in my heart no matter what!

[Gonshaaa]

The icewind suite single handedly slapped her out of the top of the meta

[fukanoonwish]

she is still top tier when you can freeze

[blackastranyx]

More like Cryo's downfall. Hoyo needs to do a better job with superconduct. Also the fact that theres no reaction with dendro and cryo. But Ayaka's burst still melt bosses that dont move.

[FacingVicissitudes]

I mean, I wouldn’t despair yet because her element, Cryo, has yet to actually show up with Snezhnaya. And I doubt Hoyo won’t make any buffs for that element. Can’t wait for the Pyro one!

[moodiiperson]

It's not Ayaka herself, it's the enemies.

I still use her in Abyss, but what's the point of using Freeze if you can't even group the enemies? Anymore, they're making enemies too heavy.

[Bliss]

There is hope in the next two regions which are Pyro, probably bringing some sick melt teams, and Cryo. What she really needs is a unit or mechanic that works with elemental bursts. Anything that even slightly scales bursts can bring her back into the limelight since her burst occupies the highest percentage of her damage potential of any character.

[saudmubarak]

A character that buffs freeze reaction will save her. She's good. it's just freeze, can't freaze bosses.

[midwestairway]

Freeze got power crept, just like venti ultimate. Tbh rendering the enemies into immobile damage absorbing sponges was never a good game design, Freeze should have been for a second or 2, not like in genshin anyway, game is not balanced and sloppy

[cydzerlight]

No matter, she will always be my dps. I played genshin because i saw her beta! Im been going on welkin and bp (i stopped both now) to pull her in 2.0! Now i gettin her contellations through reruns and now im awaiting for her final constellation!

[persephonehades]

When I first started in Genshin, I knew I wanted Ayaka. So, I got her, and then Sumeru came out a few patches after that, which was my first time reaching floor 11-3 to 12-1. I tried hard to make her work. I mean, afterall, everyone's veteran advice for newer players was, and still is, focus on your first two teams. However, one of my teams wasn't in the condition it needed to be, and the Sumeru abyss did not like Ayaka at all unless she was in optimal condition. Eventually I would get Alhaitham, and the rest would be history as I finally could 36* the abyss, but not with my first ever limited 5*.

All of that said, downgrading her into a driver role is where I felt some peace with her and could 36* the abyss with her. I know people say hyperbloom can work without a dedicated DPS or even a 4th member, but I haven't been able to produce that myself. I put her in a hyperbloom+freeze team since the funny "fridge" mechanic still works, even on bosses, and adding a character like Furina over Xingqiu also lets you buff Ayaka's damage too. This is unironically my favorite way to play her in the abyss. It's rather stress-free. There's also a hypercarry version I like to toy around with, but Coppelia/Coppelius makes that difficult to get a clear run. Basically replacing the hydro for Bennett, cryo-infuse Kazuha's burst, Layla for protection and tenacity, and unga bunga.

Ayaka might have a place in Imaginarium Theator though. I also have a feeling Natlan won't present an Ayaka buff, but Snezhnaya might. I mean, it's the land of cryo.

[iamdanishhavocx]

shes still strong, you are underselling her value during sumeru, she was my main dps for the concentrated beasts in the abyss during abyss 3.0 era, especially the one with against the double beasts back to back, but I have to agree when fontaine came out, she really had to take a backseat for neuvillette and now arleccino

[ragingstorm_]

everybody gangsta till they add -70 cryo res enemies in natlan

[ayatoayagi]

Dw. The last region is literally land of snow. So probably all the cryo characters will get a new good support.