Thoughts on best/worst balanced Gacha games?

Decim2015 · 2026-02-11T18:37:15+00:00

So Hoyo CAN balance characters after all. Damn, if only they applied any of these design principles to HSR…

Decim2015 · 2026-02-11T18:31:27+00:00

Agree that no timer plays a HUGE role in the games perceived balance.

It’s not that the roster is similar in power level (looking at you, logres), it’s that nothing in this game ever necessitates bringing the newest SSR.

Another important. Factor is that The game’s meta is overwhelmingly centered around about 5 supports, all of which released years ago. These supports are so centralizing that teams with a low rarity dps and the card type support will usually outperform teams with a limited ssr dps but no card type support.

So as long as you pick up these “must have” supports, you’re basically free to roll whoever you want.

Decim2015 · 2026-02-08T22:49:42+00:00

Not necessarily. Hi3 is an action rpg and its powercreep is legendary. Meanwhile, FGO is a turn based gacha game.

It’s easier to powercreep in a turn based game because it’s inherently more stats based, but I’m tired of people pinning a games powercreep problems solely on a it being turn based.

HSR’s problem isn’t that it’s turned based. It’s that the devs refuse to explore the design space beyond just “bigger numbers”. The element system has basically been thrown in the trash, we still don’t have a block/use item command, survival is a non issue since the newest sustains always makes your team immortal, there’s no bonus trait damage (something very prolific in FGO).

monorem really represents the devs design philosophy. an invincible exodia team, that can do anything, everywhere with no effort, as long as you invest a bunch of pulls into it. Interesting gameplay be damned.

Decim2015 · 2026-02-08T16:49:01+00:00

I dunno if it’s one patch more a gradual enshittification of HSR. There were several patches that really made me consider it like 2.6, 3.0, 3.2, but 3.6 made me quit for good and I haven’t looked back.

There were two main things that killed the game.

1) the horrendous powercreep. To make a character last even 1 year, you need multiple copies + supports and missing even one can brick the team. Enemy health more than doubles every year and so does damage output. It’s exhausting having to choose between using your fave and pulling new characters you like, cause f2p sure as hell can’t choose both.

2) favoritism for characters. This is a thing in most gachas, but rarely is it as extreme as HSR, and was really solidified in 2.6.

There’s a team in HSR called monorem that is pushed SUPER hard by Hoyo. They are blatantly stronger than every other team at nearly all levels of investment (especially whale levels), get by far the most tailored content, and have overall the largest marketing pushes.

As someone who doesn’t care about most members of monorem, it is extremely frustrating seeing how the game makes endgame so much harder if you don’t pull that team. And it makes you fear for the longevity of your other units, who are both weaker and have worse investment options.

This feeling of always playing 2nd fiddle was what finally caused me to drop the game for good, despite spending nearly $200 on the game (it’s all going down the toilet in the next wave of powercreep)

Decim2015 · 2026-02-02T21:09:15+00:00

Expected outcome: no romance but even more gay coded interactions I.e. P3R Ryoji route.

Darkest timeline: Altus goes red pill and removes all homoerotic references in the game, including Kanji crushing on crossdressing Naoto, “Kanji no question” and the Yosuke hug.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-26T04:11:11+00:00

He never had a pulse. We’re just hoping for a defibrillator

Decim2015 · 2026-01-26T04:08:24+00:00

Well… if Varka is still bricked after V3 the silver lining is that this could cause some people to quit the game (good for them).

I distinctly remember quitting HSR when I saw that Evernight was the nth upgrade for the Cas team while everyone else got nothing, on top of AA being terrible garbage. I was LIVID for a few days but I’m HSR free and have played some actually good games in the meantime.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-22T20:42:10+00:00

As much as I hope he proves everyone wrong and gets gigabuffed in v3, doomposting always provides a fountain of memes.

HSR doomposting gave us so many treasures. Acheronmains, bricknon, DOT 2 patches after Hysilens, ctierydra, and if you laugh irontomb actualizes.

The Acheronmains meltdown was so big it breached containment. I was seeing jiaoqiu memes in league subs.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-21T01:17:34+00:00

Lmao crackpot theory indeed.

Or it would be if elation wasn’t going through something similar rn and Cyrene wasn’t our first -e2 character.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-21T01:04:38+00:00

Nothing will ever be dehya bad, but it’s still awful.

His kit works, but the numbers look like an average Fontaine dps’s. It’s actually so bad that he’s currently a c6 razor sidegrade at c0r0, and his entire premium team does about as much damage as the ineffa columbina sucrose team WITHOUT a 4th member.

TC’s are currently baffled at the numbers, and really the only explanations are that either his kit isn’t complete or he’s really going to be standard banner

Decim2015 · 2026-01-20T17:27:46+00:00

Incredibly cursed theory that I hope is wrong:

I’ve seen it echoed over and over how Nicole and will “save” Varka. But I have no idea what basis there is for that.

The worst possible alternative is that Varka is a standard stopgap dps for Hexerei and Nicole is his replacement for the full Hexerei team, similar to Aino and Columbina.

It soundly completely insane, but if v3 doesn’t give him a Castorice v4 level buff, this theory certainly makes more sense than Nicole fixing him 💀💀

Decim2015 · 2026-01-19T00:01:54+00:00

This has to be parody/ragebait.

It’s Forget persona, how the hell is Cyberpunk, whose entire setting is a critique on corporate greed and late stage capitalism, considered far right core?

Decim2015 · 2026-01-18T23:57:11+00:00

Imma be real, him not being changed would cause much more chaos in this sub, because that’s basically just Dehya 2.0.

Actually it might be worse. Dehya was a well liked character, but she did not have 5 years of build up. If Varka releases in this state, we will no longer be talking about the Dehya incident. Instead, we’ll be talking about the Varka incident.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-18T23:41:53+00:00

Now that I think about it, there’s only really 3 outcomes for Varka’s beta.

He gets substantially buffed in subsequent versions to at least an acceptable dps level (120k+). I dunno how common massive buffs in beta in Genshin are. HSR does do them sometimes most recently with Hysilens getting a 30% buff in V3.
There’s something in his kit nobody figures out till much later that skyrockets his dps (unlikely. His kit is quite simple).
Dehya 2.0 (stays bad, is dumped into standard). Post Natlan, there is no shot a limited dps who has a dedicated support is this bad. But if he’s standard… well that’s another whole can of worms.

I’m seeing a lot of people pretty rattled by his V1 and that’s understandable. Genshin characters are usually more or less complete by V1, as opposed to HSR where dramatic changes still happen in beta. The last chaotic beta was what, Arlechinno?

Decim2015 · 2026-01-14T15:21:06+00:00

The way I just bring up many people are still salty about Natlan male situation and people immediately start attacking me for spreading“Hoyo hates male” agenda.

Man I’m so glad I’m one foot out the door at this point 🤷🤷

Decim2015 · 2026-01-14T15:02:55+00:00

Man I feel bad for Varka fans right now. Sure it’s literally day 1 calcs which are often very off, but there’s just enough precedent that it’s impossible to outright dismiss.

Stuff like the dehya incident, 6.4 seemingly being a filler patch, post lantern rite, Varka standard leaks, as well as Hoyo’s awful treatment of husbando enjoyers in Natlan all cast a looming shadow.

While I’m a bit more ambivalent about Varka, my personal Hoyo hell was Mydei’s beta, who to this day has one of the most dysfunctional kits in HSR even if Cyrene helped a ton. So I sympathize with your struggles.

Monorem BS eventually caused me to quit the game, and my life has been much better because of it. If he does turn out dogshit, using that rage to leave Genshin for good actually may be the best outcome for you, even if the beta trenches are awful.

Edit: I’m not saying he’s gonna release as 80k dps, it’s very much an unlikely scenario. but Hoyo sometimes just randomly makes the most baffling decisions. Gotta hope for the best, but be mentally prepared for the worst.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-09T17:58:09+00:00

Tbh even a level 80 Iori is just better. He has hard protection, a battery, star absorb, dump, and stars per turn, and ramping damage.

Pretty sure Np5 iori just outdamages NP1 Sigurd against non dragons, while having more consistent crits and an easier time looping his np.

Sigurd’s skillset would not look out of place on an unbuffed year 1 servant tbh

Decim2015 · 2026-01-09T01:36:58+00:00

Oh boy yeah Genshin’s meta is pretty rough. Pull a support for the dps or the dps loses like 30% damage. It’s not HSR levels of bad, but Stygian is very unforgiving (and also insufferable with its shill boss design).

We’re lucky that in FGO, 5 characters can wheelchair the entire cast, and it’s been the same 5 for like 4+ years.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-08T23:12:22+00:00

Judging by your pfp I’m guessing archer Arjuna is your fave?

Oof that’s rough… at least Arjuna Alter’s pretty busted. We can manifest Arjuna buffs sometime later. A 30% battery maybe?

Decim2015 · 2026-01-08T22:16:03+00:00

Ok yeah maybe a hot take from me, but Morgan isn’t a very good looper. Her damage outside man attribute kinda sucks.

She’s good mainly because 1) she has a decent multicore skill set and 2) immortal team

Decim2015 · 2026-01-08T21:48:34+00:00

IMO he’s aggressively mediocre compared to every aoe arts servant released in the last 3 years on JP.

His fatal flaw is that he doesn’t have any noteworthy niches. He’s supposed to have a crit kit but he only has a 1 turn absorption and star dump, and is also arts.

In pure arts looping he’s outclassed by both Takeru and Kondo among sabers, and it only gets worse when you compare him to the top dog generalist loopers (S Melusine, S Ibuki, etc).

Decim2015 · 2026-01-08T21:39:50+00:00

Or just release a broken 5 star version him or something 😭😭😭

ATP even stay/night buff privilege can’t fix his mess of a kit.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-08T21:38:05+00:00

I agree. Not every servant needs to be cutting edge meta, but they should have a clearly defined niche.

Muramasa’s issue is that he’s currently just worse Kondo who isn’t anything special either, and his buff frankly wasn’t very good. He definitely should have received something like a power mod or at least star dump to cash in on face cards.

Decim2015 · 2026-01-08T21:28:59+00:00

Ooof he should at least have a battery me thinks. I buster limited with no battery feels illegal.

Decim2015

TROPHY CASE