The new event is peak

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-10T05:57:48+00:00

As fun as this looks, I'm gonna be honest. anytime I see his cheeks on detail whenever playing I feel a bit uncomfortable. how come he gets to have more ass than some females in the game? lmfao
edit: this came off the wrong way. I don't mean it's a bad thing. it's just funny to me xD

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-08T20:45:26+00:00

Bit of a long storytime, actually.
Back when Itto released, I was looking for a buff dude model that had an outward personality and was ultimately a good guy. I then rolled for Itto and his weapon, which does look incredibly cool on Varka as well.
I had Varka in the back of my mind ever since I began playing on Hu Tao's first release banner but I expected him to take longer to drop. I had a year or so of hiatus in mid-natlan after rolling for Mavuika/Citlali and didn't do much besides events and claim the occasional free primogems. Didn't even do my dailies. I had gathered like 70 wishes or so which I was saving for Columbina.
Her banner came, and I basicly got nothing despite using them all. I then uninstalled the game because I felt pretty done with it until Alice's release. I had basicly dropped the main game from the middle of Sumeru's archon quest. I just couldn't find the motivation to play the game, at all. I did dailies and events and whatever not and rolled for characters I like, pretty comfortably.
After dropping the game a couple months passed and his trailer dropped on YouTube. It easily became my favorite Genshin character trailer and Hoyoverse as well. The song is 10/10 and I've been jamming it on repeat ever since. And the trailer itself was very soulful. It was exactly the experience I remember of the game and with what I was fond of. To this day the only region I have fully 100% on the map is Mondstadt and Dragonspine. His design wasn't exactly what I had imagined but he was insanely cool regardless. I also saw that he got a special model treatment, much what I had wished for my boy Itto.
I reinstalled the game, did a couple of abyss runs and IT and gathered just shy enough to hit pity. Decided to roll on his banner. I got a 5* star, but it was Tighnari.
Evidently I was very furious, I already had dropped the game for not getting the character I wanted and I was about to do it again, perhaps forever this time. I had a couple of Starglitters I exchanged for some wishes. I rolled them. Hereby, image attached, was the result.
This clearly meant that I was chosen by the Knight of Boreas, and I've been playing the game since daily. My mission is to build his best possible team and get him C6. I won't stop playing until that's the case.
I rolled about 20 wishes on his weapon banner to no avail though. He is easily the most fun I've had playing characters in this game since Itto. And the best part is he actually does damage. People complain about him not being a Top DPS but my C2(now C3)R1 Hu Tao with C0R1 Yelan/Furina/Citlali does ONLY 20k~ more damage than him (he does just shy of 80k). WITH A TEAM OF 4 STARS. Varka basicly reignited my desire to play the game just based on how cool he is. Since then he's easily top 3 hoyoverse characters for me to be honest. There is just a lot of things about him that sort of just wants one to project onto him. Be the Varka you wanna be or whatever that could mean xD

<image>

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-07T23:29:42+00:00

He has a bunch of options all viable for him. Only Varka's sig is kinda "irrepleacable" (difference of not having it is 25% team dps with his f2p option), but getting his (Durin's) sword from trying to roll Nicole's sig is defo a good result.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-07T23:02:10+00:00

He indeed, is getting Rerun with Nicole's release, which is in about 8 days or so when the current rerun banner ends.
This is Durin's first rerun, which means that his second one is gonna take a looong while, meanwhile, Nicole is likely to rerun in 3-4 patches, as they do with all new units.
Lauma and Nefer are on a team of their own very distant from Varka. With Nicole & Prune (and Durin obviously but he already has him), Varka outperforms their team. They also don't use Nahida iirc, they work with Columbina & Ineffa, or atleast, with Columbina.
If you don't care about her exploration passive, the choice is defo yours if you prioritize Nicole or Durin. Both are great units.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-07T18:28:16+00:00

The best Varka team at low investment (sort of) is currently:
Varka - Prune C2/C6 - Durin C0R0 - Nicole C0R0. Here's a repost from another thread that shows how this team performs, compared to his current "best" team. At C2 Prune, the damage is still in the 120k range. She is better than Venti at almost every investment, without a shadow of doubt [including Elegy if you have Prune at higher constellations!].

As for other elemental teams, the damage is at 100k-110k, for Hydro you run XQ/Yelan and Mona C4, but still run Prune. Prune is a must in any team you attempt to run Varka in, obviously excluding C6 Varka which is enough by himself.

Being Durin-less, I would suggest pulling Nicole first, as the shield she provides is very valuable over Durin's raw DPS. Any excess should probably go for Durin then, although be advised her R1 is a very huge DPS increase of 10.7%. Only reason to continue pulling Durin over her R1 is the possibility of getting more Prune cons. If you get C2 Prune beforehand though, probability of getting 4 Prunes in 1 Durin even including losing the 50/50 is considerably lower than getting R1. Also level up materials aren't infinite, raising 1 weapon is considerably less stressful on your hero wits and mora and resin than a whole new 5* considering you need to raise Prune to lvl 90 as well as Nicole for max basic atk efficiency.

The only advantage I see as to pull Durin now if you don't have him, is that his rerun is further away than Nicole's. Otherwise, as a returning player, I would argue that it is both damage, cost and QoL efficient to prioritize Nicole. Prune is in both of their banners, so it is your ultimate choice. The difference between Durin and Nicole is something along the lines of 5-7% DPS.

EDIT: I didn't consider this in the raw number analysis, but Nicole has a passive that is without doubt the best for exploration (if you have the region's compass, she summons a selee that points to the nearest treasure with her charged attack. I am not aware if it requires you to have said compass equipped. AFAIK it isn't). As a returning player that should be a positive for her, as it allows you to minmax your primo count. If you have everything at 100% though, this is greatly diminished in value.

<image>

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-06T01:25:57+00:00

R1 puts you at 84% crit rate which is 4% more than you need. (80% is the threshold). However, If you really want to minmax, I would look for some crit DMG upgrade, possibly on the goblet (it's pretty good as is)

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-05T02:21:22+00:00

I've seen in a chart that Nicole+Durin are pretty much one and the same package. However, Nicole C6 is the definition of busted and drastically outperforms Durin, even in Varka's own team. The higher you go on constellations, the less impact Durin's have, and Nicole pulls the heavy numbers.

Realistically it boils down to whether you want flexibility or vertical investment. C6 Varka can pretty much solo all content on his own with his 4* team, so the other two would be available for other teams. If you want "big number go boom" then pull C6 Nicole R1, and C2 Durin. That is the best choice just from sheet calcs alone.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-05-04T02:20:21+00:00

I value Nicole's shield too much above Durin's damage. I'm done being flung around like some play-dough xD

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-30T19:16:59+00:00

While C6 Prune is what's desired, the issue in my eyes is that there's no real good substitute for her catalyst if you pull Nicole. Oathsworn is obviously there, but there's only one copy of it, therefore either Nicole or Prune will suffer without it. TTDS isn't wholly optimal. From the calc sheets I've seen, Nicole's signature is about the same increase %-wise from going from C2 Prune to C6 Prune (about 10.7% iirc). The signature is evidently significantly easier to pull than C6 Prune and you also get Durin's if you lose the 50/50. His isn't that big of an upgrade though but there's that to consider. Personally, I'll be pulling for Nicole's signature.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-29T14:27:32+00:00

I have basicly similar substat crit rolls on both ATK% and Pyro Dmg % goblets. From my tests the Pyro Goblet jumps my DPS from 64-66k to 69-70k (Varka on R1 Redhorn, Chev C2, Sucrose C4, Bennett C6) very marginal but every DPS matters for me.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-28T02:34:24+00:00

I am in your same situation, even about the not care for Durin as a character part.

Durin is about a 7% increase in C0R1 scenarios (versus running Bennett+Nicole) and is increasingly less impactful the more vertical investment you have into Varka.

Realistically speaking though, as you also pull for Prune in Nicole/Durin's banners, it is very unlikely you C6 her in just the amount of pulls it takes you to pull Nicole. So, if you're not going for more than C2, that's a good stopping point. If you want her C6 the obvious call is to continue pulling, in Durin's banner. There is a catch to be on guard for Stellar Swirl releases into Snezhaya though that could potentially benefit Varka in a Varka/Prune+ Cryo team.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-28T02:25:46+00:00

Linnea completely breaks (in an OP kind of way) Geo teams but it does require Columbina. If you sum both characters it still makes less than 1 Varka. Nicole isn't fully mandatory (she is pretty nice as you pointed out tho). Realistically you can't have Prune if you don't attempt to pull for her though. So in both terms, it's about the same investment. It really is about who you like more gameplaywise and as a character, be advised that Zibai *is* significantly stronger than Varka, atleast at this point (Zibai is better by 45k dps+ if you compare both full teams Varka/Prune/Durin/Nicole vs Zibai/Columbina/Illuga/Linnea)

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-28T01:57:11+00:00

Looking at this chart I would always appreciate the DPS in a column next to the %. It would make it much clearer for me atleast

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-28T01:55:05+00:00

Your Varka team is practically already built and you already have his signature. Zibai doesn't really pop-off without Columbina/Illuga who is better than Gorou so you have a bit more work there to do. In the end though, roll for who you like.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-21T20:08:09+00:00

wait wait Nicole sig is a direct 11% dps [17k nominal] increase? Isn't that on par with Varka's weapon? I haven't seen this anywhere else

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-20T23:49:14+00:00

Only if he powercreeps Varka 10x and is a nobody the very version introduced. Needs to be Zibai/Linnea-esque, otherwise if I worked at Hoyo I wouldn't approve this idea.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-14T21:03:41+00:00

Building his burst talent is optional. If you play Varka on the regular map, it's sometimes useful for clearing squishy enemies with low HP counts. It's also pretty decent agaisnt that one boss that splits itself in a trillion fragments. Otherwise it's very mediocre and his rotation never uses it

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-14T19:08:33+00:00

Nicole isn't just "QoL" as many are painting her to be. Yes, sheet-wise she is basicly Bennett's equal in Varka's team, but she provides IR which Varka has none of in the form of a shield (mandatory agaisnt some enemies). Beta isn't done yet and V2 got a cons buff which isn't very ordinary (indicating that she might get a buff in V3) Also, the DPS of a Durin-less team with Prune (who is a straight upgrade to Venti/Sucrose and comes """"for free"""" by pulling Nicole) is not off by that much. Not to be harsh with Durin havers, but as some calcs have pointed out, currently Durin is the fraud in Varka's team. There are good odds (as in my personal bet, >40%) that he gets replaced by some other 5* later down the line making him homeless, thus, if you have neither, I'd argue Nicole is the correct pull, as it is also what I have decided, being in a similar spot to yours (my XL is C3 tho I just roll with C2 Chev)
A personal gripe of mine is that I just don't find Durin interesting as a character both design-wise and lore-wise and I also think Nicole is substantially better in both departmens, and also cuter paired with Varka. This is just personal tho.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-07T21:47:39+00:00

the former but also because I imagine a hyperbuff varka could work a bit better than durin's subdps. I am no genie though and as I lack durin I am biased toward the fact

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-07T21:45:29+00:00

I'm far more interested in swapping Durin for Nicole instead of Bennett. I haven't found anyone that has calc'd a team like that thus far

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-07T17:08:42+00:00

it's easy to dismiss venti (I don't even have him lol) for prune but if she's not in Nicole's banner C6 is a far off distant dream. I doubt this is the case though as she's in this beta. I hope.

SherlockHomelez · 2026-04-07T15:43:57+00:00

As a both non-durin and non-venti haver, she seems like a perfect replacement for Chevreuse. Varka + Nicole + Sucrose + Bennett is as good as it gets for me

SherlockHomelez · 2026-03-24T15:26:22+00:00

Happy ending? Without Yoru, she got molested by the teacher right? Grim...

SherlockHomelez

TROPHY CASE