How it fills to see new players slandering Zhongli like he wasn't on the top of the meta for 4 years

What do you all know about the Goat Zhongli!

Commentaires

_ironhearted_2026-01-21 18:20

I got zhongli really late but heck I've used him almost everywhere after I got him. He's so easy to slot seriously. Who cares about meta

Curiousity10242026-01-21 19:02

What you mean? He worked really well with Columbina even in Meta = =

ErenIsNotADevil2026-01-21 19:10

Lunar Crystallize Zhong mmmmm

SaberWaifu2026-01-21 20:53

People who care about meta are those who like that type of content that made you write "almost everywhere" rather than "everywhere", which is usually stuff like Fearless Stygian or Abyss 12.

Zhongli is a perfect comfort pick if you don't like to git gud and push your abilities to improve at the game by optimizing teams and rotations, which is something that interests enough people to make the "who cares about meta" statement kinda useless.

Revolutionary-Tax-812026-01-21 18:21

My first 5 star I got at 8th pity 🥲 I was a baby bitch back then I didn't even know you could hold skill to get a shield

detainthisDI2026-01-21 19:15

Same lol. I didn’t understand what was so great about him until I had to look up a guide to get past Azhdaha and realized I was using him wrong

KaiFireborn212026-01-21 19:27

He didn't use to even put a column on when you used shield mode

hanato_062026-01-21 18:32

3 solid dps + comfort character was the meta for a long time.

Now, bosses have an insane HP pool or mechanic that the meta boils down to 2/3 solid core + 2/1 mechanic shill.

Zsamy2026-01-21 18:35

3 dps was never viable in endgame

hanato_062026-01-21 18:40

National team and its variations were literally the 3 dps + comfort blue print.

IcySignificance53402026-01-21 18:37

As someone who's been around for more than a year (so still new-ish, at least newer than you) it's crazy how I just play a completely different game in terms of perceiving Zhongli's value in the META compared to older players. I've never once felt like I needed him, not even as a comfort character. If I want geo sustain with res shred, I use Xilonen, if I want a shielder I use Ineffa, if Ineffa is busy I use Lan Yan. I'm so curious what his buffs are gonna be like, because Zhongli with modern day buffing capabilities would actually be insane, even moreso if they gave him sub dps capabilities

hutre2026-01-21 18:53

The point of zhongli is to stand in every single attack and still be alive so shielders like ineffa and lan yan's shields are not strong enough for that

IcySignificance53402026-01-21 19:04

I've never once felt like Ineffa and Lan Yan's shields weren't enough and I don't even go out of my way to dodge when I use them

Tobikage19902026-01-21 19:38

Azdaha's room-wide aoe's made people want a tanky shield.

Logical-Injury37472026-01-21 20:52

Their shield is definitely not enough for people without skills aka me. I started the game 2 years ago. He was the 3rd limited I pulled. I don't pull a lot so he's very useful for me since he can slot in almost any team. I now have Lanyan and Ineffa but my Lanyan isn't that built so her shield goes down fast. My Ineffa is built but even I feel her shield isn't enough because without heals, Flins hp still gets dangerously low by the end of a local legend fight and that's with me trying to dodge. Even for abyss, I occasionally pull out Xianyun in place of Sucrose for Flins because I don't think Ineffa's shield is enough. I'm just that bad at dodging that I need a shielder like ZL.

KaiFireborn212026-01-21 19:28

Lan Yan, Ineffa, Layla and Citlali aren't even that much weaker than Zhongli's, nor can Zhongli actually stand all the attacks - even a 50k HP ones breaks relatively easily with modern enemies, plus there's hp drain of all kinds nowadays

LiDragonLo2026-01-21 20:03

Eh not really, lan yan's can survive tulpa (abyss) with hydro infusion, zhongli can't

OmniOnly2026-01-21 19:09

Zhongli was just not META. people just shoe horned him into every team for comfort thinking it adds more dps. The only argument was that they were so bad having a permanent shield gives more dps. The better you play the less you care for him. He's still good for braking Geo shields. Zhongli and Geo had to get fixed as a whole as he was the worst character in the game when he came out.

omegavolt92026-01-21 19:44

He might not do as much as a more specialized character but it's not like he's dead weight.

Clover-kun2026-01-21 19:59

The Zhongli release was infamous, first great controversy in Genshin. I get the idea they were going for, a bruiser character that could tank damage and deal additional damage when his dong resonated with nearby geo structures, but holy hell Mihoyo was torn to shreds online when people found out that Diona (a 4 star that released on his own banner at the same time) had a stronger shield than him

LiDragonLo2026-01-21 20:02

Is that the diona special?

omegavolt92026-01-21 19:43

Zhongli is definitely not up to par with other characters, but when people talk about him like he's useless, it always makes me think they don't understand his strengths. He's not the best, other characters specialize and minmax better than he does. But you can throw him into literally any team and he will do good work.

I hope someday we'll get some new craftable 4 star support weapons. If Zhongli had better support options than just Favonius Lance, that would really seal the deal. Currently any catalyst support has a huge advantage because of Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers

Supreme-Machine-V22026-01-21 19:44

As someone who started a year ago as well in 5.0 I just don't see why people taught that highly of him.

I talked to some friends they just sad people were bad when game came out but really? Genshins dodging system isn't anything groundbreaking and it's very forgiving I don't get why he was ever needed that much.

He is my third limited unit (I still don't have xilonen my second limited time geo unit is Navia and I only have Zhongli and Navia as my 5 star geo units).

Ke5_Jun2026-01-22 01:10

You have to understand though that these characters did not exist for most of Genshin’s lifetime. Xilonen did not exist until 5.1. Lan Yan did not exist until 5.3. Ineffa didn’t exist until 5.8.

As a generalist defensive option, Zhongli had next to no competition. You either had shred OR sustain, not both. And certainly not shred of all 7 elements at once. Closest we got was Bennett with sustain and massive ATK buff, but this doesn’t help HP or EM scalers. Noelle had sustain but no shred and had her own issues like being required to be played on field. Diona and Layla had sustain but no shred. Shenhe had shred but no sustain. Kirara had sustain but no shred.

And no, artifact sets don’t really count. Kirara can shred dendro and sustain with Deepwood, but technically Zhongli can also use Deepwood to the same effect and had a stronger shield alongside shredding all 7 elements so in spread/aggravate where you’d use Kirara, Zhongli still buffed more.

Zhongli only really started getting outclassed when they started bringing in characters with way more value than is arguably warranted. Take Escoffier for example. She has sustain, shred, and subdps; it’s ridiculous. No way Zhongli can compete with that, especially not in a niche where he was already not the best pick (freeze, as geo messes that up). But Escoffier only came around in 5.6. Natlan really changed the landscape of the meta.

Fleur_Hiiroluvr2026-01-21 18:41

As a day 1 player, Zhongli was never really meta. He was a comfort pick just because he has a strong shield. But otherwise he doesn't really do much and more often that not a character who has lesser sustain but higher buffs/personal dmg is just better. Plus his pillar is just annoying. And hey I pulled Zhongli on his release but I think last time I used him was in Inazuma.

ErenIsNotADevil2026-01-21 19:22

He could only ever be meta during *certain* abyss lineups 🗿

Supreme-Machine-V22026-01-21 19:46

Sameish I started in 5.0 and got him when he rerun with Neuvillette but I still don't use him that much he seesm boring and uninteresting to me and I really don't need shielding in all honesty.

I can use Kuki for healing if I need sustain that badly but never zhongli.

drtrousersnake2026-01-21 20:44

Zhongli was pretty meta back when Hu Tao was one of the top dps. Hu tao, zhongli, xingqui (flex) with the flex either being someone like Mona for more hydro procs, venti/kazuha for grouping, or some random geo character for geo resonance (hydro resonance was increased healing back then so was pretty useless making geo resonance the only type that benefited hu tao). When Yelan came out and hydro resonance got reworked "double hydro hu tao" with Zhongli was still many people's go-to team as zhongli was the only character that could shred both hydro and pyro resistance. Zhongli was popular enough that the game tried to discourage his use with enemies that get buffed if you have a shield, the "Shadowy Husks" and "Black Serpent Knights".

Zhongli didn't really fall off until Sumeru when hyperbloom teams took over but many people still used zhongli in burgeon teams to get rid of burning procs. It wasn't until Furina's release that zhongli got kicked out of most people's double hydro hu tao teams and became demoted to just being for "I don't feel like dodging this boss's attacks" and "local legends" cheese.

MrZelant2026-01-21 18:55

C2 John Lee is still very much OP in coop. Mine has saved several people on Dottore multiple times.

Darkfire13782026-01-21 18:56

Feels good to Microwave now Lunar Crystalize is on the up and up tho.

Iokua_CDN2026-01-21 20:46

Loving my Flins Columbina Raiden Zhongli team.

Flins does the big damage, Columbina does decent, applies hydro, buffs and heals with Prototype Amber, Raiden Deletes everyone's energy requirements and does some damage, and Zhongli Shreds everyone's resistance, shields, and can even buff with Tenacity while doing Lunar crystallize, and Microwave damage, and occasionally petrifies enemies

Like Raiden maybe could be swapped off for someone better, but Zhongli is actually awesome in the team

MykeTyth0n2026-01-22 00:22

Is your Zhongli c1?

TheRuggedMinge2026-01-21 21:29

I'm curious, if you play this kinda team, do you put zhongli on golden troupe or something?

DeadenCicle2026-01-21 21:40

Nope, he should be on a compatible support set, which one depends on the team. His personal damage is too unreliable because most enemies don’t stay completely still to take damage from the resonating structures, and the Resonance range/radius is very small. His pillar can be broken too and you are forced to summon it close to the enemy and your structures.

TheRuggedMinge2026-01-21 21:41

So is most of the damage done coming from the lunar crystalize directly then?

Iskandor132026-01-22 01:03

Yes exactly. His resonance is mainly to increase geo application. LCR triggers when you do the lunar reaction 3 separate times.

Ancienda2026-01-21 21:49

A popular JP youtuber recently posted a video about this and yeah he used Golden Troupe.

[Here is the video for those who are interested](https://youtu.be/Tt4h2Suh5pA?si=wIut4gcoheXQ4JxX). Its in Japanese but i think the auto-translate should work well enough or even just watching the video is satisfying to see haha

literally microwave comp to the max

lowderchowder2026-01-22 03:13

lmao columbina cameo for 2 seconds

MagiMagist2026-01-22 05:33

Okay, I am convinced. Was going to skip the moon goddess, now I am gunning for her

LibraProtocol2026-01-21 22:26

Ngl I wish Geo Traveler could resonate just like Zhongli T.T

Hizenberg_2232026-01-22 02:01

is geo traveler rock can be broken also?

app082026-01-22 03:18

Yes, of course it can.

lowderchowder2026-01-22 18:24

not before the largest enemy decides to stand on top of it and dodge the entire reaction..

just found that out an hour ago

mephyerst2026-01-21 22:55

I run Electro Trav, Aino, Flin, Zhongli works super well. Clears all content other then the whale stuff in SO and is super comfy.

TaxevasionLukasso2026-01-22 13:02

Uh, you realize that you aren't triggering lunar crystalize without Zybai or Columbina in your team, right?

OmniOnly2026-01-21 19:01

He wasn't the top Meta when people thought he was the top Meta. He was the safety casual comfort pick that you stop using when you needed more DPS.

Shopworn_Soul2026-01-21 20:11

>He was the safety casual comfort pick

And now we have so many other shielders who offer a bigger poke in the eye to the bad guys that's he's not even the best at that.

silent_soda2026-01-21 21:31

Literally look at ineffa 😭 even Citlali is enough if you still dodge. And their cd are short even though their shield isn’t as good

spencerthebau52026-01-21 21:53

I love Zhongli and used him on basically every team for 4 years straight but I replaced him with Ineffa on a lot of my teams that use electro, she condenses the subdps and support roles so well and her shield is good enough

Me_to_Dazai2026-01-21 19:01

They don't know what it was like trying to use Hu Tao, Xiao or Ganyu during 2.x without Zhongli. My Hu Tao would've died 500 times over in Abyss without daddy Zhongli lol and I literally would never take Xiao out without Zhongli in his team. And back then that meteor was actually considered good damage + the petrification was actually useful ("I will have order" will forever be stuck in my head lol). Wolflord would've been the bane of my existence in Abyss without Zhongli. Honestly he's the reason I have skill issues with dodging nowadays......

Innuendo_812026-01-21 19:13

But what if I Have No Zhongli and I Must Scream?

TheCuriousCorsair2026-01-22 06:31

I... I was never expecting a Harlan Ellison reference in the Genshin community lol.

Innuendo_812026-01-22 06:46

Right? I was kind of shocked to see the pic and nobody referenced the source really….

BusBoatBuey2026-01-22 13:03

Because the reference is done to death to the point where it is done by people who haven't even read the very short source material.

Innuendo_812026-01-22 17:15

They Have No Google and They Must Read?

omegavolt92026-01-21 19:26

I feel like people slander everyone. People slandered Flins before he even released. People slandered Ineffa after she released but before people understood the full extent of Lunar Reactions' power. People talk about Zhongli like he's a frail old man that no longer has a place in the meta yet he's popular with Neuvillette teams when Neuvi is still a top tier DPS unit.

Zhongli is by no means a bad unit; his resistance shred from shields may be outclassed by some characters for some elements (I think it's most valuable for Dendro and Geo since they can't be swirled), but it's still good in any team. Add support artifacts and support/battery weapons to his armor shred, crowd control, and super comfortable shield, and he's still a really good unit. Is he the best? No. Is he weak or bad? Absolutely not.

mucio-2026-01-21 19:29

To all deep shits slandering zhongli, he has big pp shield, 20% shred, and 35% dmg bonus on archaic petra. Thats a xilonen kit, with lowet scalling and easier play, in 2020. He was, and still is, a great unit. His buff will get new meta teams online when it arrives.

OmegaThunder2026-01-21 23:26

Archaic petra was never a top choice for Zhongli, mainly because it was infamously unreliable for any reaction teams.

Xnub2026-01-21 19:30

His ability to slot into any team as a "you can't kill me" meme to just face slap content is top tier. He still has a great roll.

SaberWaifu2026-01-21 19:32

Perhaps we have different definitions of "meta" because in 99% of the teams he's not the optimal option.

Meta calcs run on theory. The theory assumes that the player has the skill required to perform close to those calculations, so a character designed around fixing skill issue at the cost of lower damage output will never enter the meta.

One of the biggest example from back in the early days was in the Hu Tao comps. Zhongli was slotted by most players with the fear of her dying due to her kit mechanics, however Xingqiu's defensive abilities proved to be more than sufficent to get the job done in his place and free the Zhongli slot for something better.

James4402812026-01-21 20:22

To be fair, Hutao/XC/albedo/zhongli was probably one of the only comps he WAS optimal in because of geo resonance and the fact that vape Hutao with amber/thoma was always too inconsistent to pull off.

Obviously once yelan released this changed but it was pretty good for a while.

beautheschmo2026-01-21 21:23

Tbf even on the original double hydro we was generally the best 4th or at least very close to it, it was Furina's release that really killed him there

James4402812026-01-21 21:38

Ehh I don't know if I totally agree. Double hydro made vaping much much MUCH more consistent. You went from vaping 75 percent of the time on zhong albedo to 95 percent of the time. Zhong pillar was also really annoying to play around for the same reason in solo hydro

beautheschmo2026-01-21 22:10

Well yeah, the team was XQ Yelan Zhongli lol there was no issue with vapes and because the damage split was similar between elements zhongli having unconditional hybrid shred was pretty valuable.

Furina killed him since she needed a healer and then xilonen and citlali both killed him by just having better buffs in general.

Yes the pillar was always obnoxious though lol

177013-228922-42992026-01-21 21:25

no because tao xingqiu bennett sucrose is 1.0 4\* only and does better lol

James4402812026-01-21 21:36

It was only a 5k dps difference (38k to 43k dps) assuming you are able to get some uptime on hutao's less than 50 % hp passive. It was also much harder to play optimally

And tbh that team gutted your team making options. We had very limited options at that time

Realistic-Stress-5342026-01-21 19:35

I Have No Primogems, and I Must Pull

nghigaxx2026-01-21 19:35

He was never more meta than the last 2 stygian lol

Sad-Possibility-93772026-01-21 19:39

Meta is a hell of a term to use when describing zhongli the last 5 years.

like how he will be “meta” again…. Until yall realize his pillar is about to break all the damn time just like albedos flower would

Spoopy_Kirei2026-01-22 05:04

They pretty much gave up on geo constructs now. They're just gonna give him a phantom pillar like they did Albedo. Probably something like if shield persists, constructs in vicinity will initiate microwave. That should make him useful

Tron_bonneLoFi2026-01-21 19:43

I got him by accident pulling in the wrong banner

I don't really regret it

Gakamis2026-01-21 19:44

Zhongli has been slandered for his whole existance tho?

When he was released he was garbage.

And when he was buffed, he was called a "dps loss"

\*
He wasn't top of meta, he was just a comfort pick. (not saying comfort pick is bad of course tho lmao - I used Zhongli for a long time)

Isk4nd4r_rd2026-01-21 19:48

He was never top meta, just top comfort. Now you kinda need all the dps you can get so comfort is the 1st th8ng thats sacrificed.

Eeekpenguin2026-01-21 20:11

Sweating with no sustain nefer

demonzq2026-01-21 20:19

Calling skill “sweating” is just you protecting a character you like.
Your skill issues don’t make everyone else sweats.

DehyaFan2026-01-21 20:25

No he's saying he's sweating nervously as he plays never with no shield.

Accurate-Screen-75512026-01-21 21:39

Nefer has so many iframes its probably not the best example to use

Eeekpenguin2026-01-21 21:42

Kinda is tho, I tried to grind down dire sigurd with nefer and gave up after dying over and over lol. Skirk to the rescue tho, bagging me my first dire clear.

Altruistic_Ad4042026-01-21 22:36

How are you dying with so many dashes in between attacks?

Eeekpenguin2026-01-21 23:04

Sigurd is cringe

Ali-J232026-01-21 21:43

For real though nefer is probably one of the few characters that is not that hard to play sustainless. She had alot of iframes and she dashes alot. So just 1 prototype amber feels enough in alot of cases

gilorneth2026-01-21 21:57

He was always high on abyss clear tierlists before natlan, so he was top meta.

Crispys272026-01-21 22:06

That’s not meta just player preference. A lot of people using something doesn’t make it good in itself. Comfort is fine but let’s not call that meta

xkoreotic2026-01-22 00:04

While not 4 years, he was 100% top of the meta for about a year immediately after his buff from the ensuing chaos from the community, then he quickly fell off into a high tier comfort pick as more supports came put that had better elemental synergy for meta DPS characters.

rulerguy62026-01-22 06:44

I'd say he was a top meta pick for a good amount of time on release, because this was before good sustains also gave huge bonuses like Citlali. His damage was alright after the buffs but the best DPS units shortly after were Ganyu and Hu Tao, so shielders were very important.

It goes beyond comfort when Hu Tao leaves you with no stamina on 20% HP, or when Ganyu needs interrupt resistance to do damage reliably.

It wasn't until Kuki really that we got a good sustain who did more than just sustain, and even then healing and electro application was way less valuable than say... Layla giving a shield and cryo application. Nowadays sustains are just amazing support units in their own right so there's no need to sacrifice healing or shields.

Clover-kun2026-01-21 19:56

The Dong was always a safe pick, but meta only in a handful of Geo teams. Honestly I felt his shield always took too long to summon, and he didn't do much else besides an okay resistance shred and an occasional pseudo freeze. I ended up using shielders like Diona, Thoma, and Layla a lot more often.

Diona is easily my most used shielder simply on the virtue of being able to do a lot of things decently well, even in this post Citlali/Ineffa world.

parrotandpeacock2026-01-21 20:00

He was never meta, he always has been a comfort character.

kifune892026-01-21 20:00

Lunar Crystalized change Zhongli now you could build him full EM 🤣 I test the full EM Zhongli for fun, while I'm waiting for Zi bai

pHScale2026-01-21 20:04

Geo has never been that high in the meta, and the Geo archon is no exception.

However, I still love the element and it's archon. Zhongli is very much a comfort character for me, and his shield has carried me through Inazuma and Sumeru. And he's indispensable to me for mining ore.

Now that lunar crystallize is a thing, his pillar resonates with the lunar Geo thingies, and that really ups his damage and application. He's back on my Nod Krai team with Columbina.

noivern_plus_cats2026-01-21 23:51

Itto/Bina/Ineffa/Zhongli is surprisingly a good team on account of just how much damage his resonance does. Just changing his resonance to being based on his hp instead of attack will instantly buff him to crazy heights in those kinds of teams

pHScale2026-01-22 00:00

My team is currently Yaoyao, Zhongli, Columbina, and Raiden. It gives me all the lunar reactions with excellent elemental application, shields, a healer (for that weird lunar cocoon mechanic), and very frequent ults (great for Raiden).

My only complaints are that I'm not using Nahida for easy resource collection (first world problem lol) and that none of these characters are especially mobile (not a big deal when I can kuuhenki or moonlane most places)

EddyConejo2026-01-22 01:26

I'd argue he's goated for that reason though. Before all these shielders came (Ineffa, Citlali, Lan Yan, etc.) he was always one of the top used characters despite being a DPS loss in most teams.

Chilzer2026-01-22 06:01

Wasn’t he meta on Hu Tao comps back in the day (once they added his all res shred to the shield anyway) since her low HP and charge attack cancels *really* needed that chunky shield? Plus before Rifthounds and the Healer meta in late Inazuma/early Sumeru, any build guide recommended him in place of every healer that wasn’t also a battery or providing resonance cause 20% res shred and Tenacity was too good to pass up.

Darkwolfinator2026-01-21 20:06

I hate this man. Your character is meta for 4 YEARS and then after one year of not being meta you start crying. Same exact thing hutao and zongli mains do. Arlecchino didn't even get 1 year before Mavuika beat her. In particular hope these two dont get buffs.

CantaloupeParking2392026-01-21 20:11

In adeptus faction buffs we trust

HumsterMKI2026-01-21 20:17

ZhongLi only became META after the First Grand Drama Genshin Impact had.

Those who remember, those were really crazy times.

Itspronouncedn0m2026-01-21 20:19

People who didn’t know how to dodge thought he was the goat. When in reality you could clear so many things without him.

gacha_drunkard2026-01-21 20:36

The only thing worth slandering about Zhongli is his sig.

Awesomefluffyns2026-01-21 20:40

Zhongli has almost always been a dps nerf in every single possible team though? When was he ever THE meta pick?

HiroshiTakeshi2026-01-21 20:40

Fym "how it fills"

sain_inaban2026-01-21 20:45

C1 Zhongli requirement incoming soon.

CompetitiveStreak2026-01-21 20:52

These whippersnappers know nothing about the goat

Draco_0rnsteins_simp2026-01-21 20:56

He's still the comfiest character to have when dealing with local legends

NekooShogun2026-01-21 21:07

I've relied on Zhongli for many of my teams for years. Since I got him in 2022. Now I've slowly begun to realize that the shield just ain't shielding like it used to and I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I will probably have to bench him soon.

VladDHell2026-01-21 21:14

Who replaced him??? He’s still broken imo

On a related note how are people running all these sustainless teams ???

Alpha06Omega092026-01-21 21:17

He was not even top meta for a year… he's comfort

USDXBS2026-01-21 21:21

A crazy powerful shield still wins most fights.

Neutral_Memer2026-01-21 21:23

He was not widely used because he was good, he was widely used because everyone back then sucked at the game and we had a lot less characters to pick. At the time he released we had what, four other sustain options? One of them being Barbara? He was just the comfiest character to have on a team with his 100% shield uptime, said shield granting you immortality because nothing could get through it, and his overworld utility.

Then came Inazuma with the dogs.

Riftwolves didn't kill gramps outright, sure. But he started declining rather fast, and once Dendro rolled out with its complete lack of synergy with Geo, the element itself basically died; endgame-wise, Zhongli was only really used when Wolflord showed up (or if you were a MonoGeo main, since to my memory it was during that time that Hu Tao ditched double Geo for double Hydro). His res shred was not contributing enough to really justify using him in optimized teams, then along came Layla with a comparable shield, then along came Baizhu who was good just by being Dendro in a meta ruled over by Bloom, and suddenly we are in Fontaine, where getting punched in the face suddenly became a good idea because Marechaussee Phantom (this is a joke, I am pretty sure nobody was running Dehy unironically just to trigger that set).

DPS characters of Fontaine were given their own source of interruption resistance (admittedly in their constellations, but hey, it's there) and could heal with their base kits. I don't think I need to explain to you how a 1.1 era character whose entire utility hinges on you, as the player, being incapable of avoiding death on your own didn't fare well in that era.

Onward to Natlan, where Zhongli's validity as a res shredder was completely torn to shreds by Xilonen, his shield no longer being necessary because sustain options were plenty and nearly every team had one more optimal than him, and the fact that Mavuika and Skirk were killing shit too fast for any sustain option to really matter. Then they released Ineffa. Lunar-Crystalize gave the ancient Microwave setup some light, but it is not entering meta any time soon.

If you ever want to unironically call Zhongli meta, then pray to whatever god is up there, appease the Great Old Ones with stupid cat videos and burn incense at the altar of Da Wei's nutsack every evening so that Liyue buffs give him something very good

MallowMiaou2026-01-21 21:24

He’s still fast at breaking geo shields I guess

imbusthul2026-01-21 21:25

Ngl. Getting Zhongli back in 1.1 affected my skill. Since I didn't have to dodge much with him around well after he was buffed in 1.3. It took some time but I improved my skill now I can see one of my favourite team comp from back in the day be somewhat useful. That being the microwave.

xmenjeanpaul2026-01-21 21:32

My C6 zhongli will always be meta in my heart

Due_StrawMany2026-01-21 21:33

Genshin did this to themselves, characters get powercrept so they get slandered

Substantial_While9962026-01-21 21:34

Zhongli never leaves he is my comfort character he is my second limited 5star(after childe) that i got at his rerun on the second lantern rite and i also have his nendoroid. Also he is kinda the reason i started genshin along with the fact that the gane looked like botw in the beginning

YakTheKuza2026-01-21 21:35

I still use Albedo and Zhongli on every overworld team for comfort gaming

Justa-A-person2026-01-21 21:38

Nah I still love zhongli!! Still use him quite often

EmperSo2026-01-21 21:41

He wasn't meta ever since dash was added

-AnythingGoes-2026-01-21 22:04

The issue is that the community on large accepts spreadsheet calcs and omega sweat logic as the "meta". That's why you'll see people say "he wasn't top meta he was only for comfort". When Zhongli enables loads of clears that people otherwise wouldn't make because ping, skill level, degree of sweat, builds, roster, etc all vary from person to person.

Appropriate_Twist5412026-01-21 22:10

Meta is temporary, whoever you pull for is forever

dasbtaewntawneta2026-01-21 22:24

>like he wasn't on the top of the meta for 4 years

he was literally never meta lmao

OneRelief7632026-01-21 22:29

He wasnt.

Itz_sharkD12026-01-21 22:31

No bro Shlongli is still good

xXWarriorAngelXx2026-01-21 22:37

What... the fuck... is that...? 😰

Pinky_Boy2026-01-21 22:42

shield>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>meta

Napoleonex2026-01-21 22:47

Idk if meta but I remember there was some big meteor pp damage builds

Bballer2202026-01-21 22:52

4 years. That's some copium

Raph2042026-01-21 23:07

When was Zhongli “top of the meta”?

redam332026-01-21 23:08

Ok i think "the top of the meta" is a bit of an overexaggeration

Lazy-Traffic53462026-01-21 23:13

He was always for people with skill issue or bad ping , glad to see shield impact is less required now

Pyrotten2026-01-21 23:22

He was not on the top of the meta for 4 years lol, even 3 years ago he was a more comfy option for most teams while being a damage loss. THAT SAID I don't think that a bad thing and imo comfortability is a very undervalued aspect of his kit.

FloralArchivist2026-01-21 23:51

New player here, he's on my to-wish for list! idk if he's not meta, I like his character and a shield sounds so very convenient.

I'm so disappointed that I started playing just after he ran, reruns for older characters seem to take forever in this game.

r0ksas2026-01-21 23:52

Honestly i pull him as my first limited character in his first banner because he kick the fcking spear 🤣

KingKalev2026-01-22 00:02

I will never slander the Geo Grandpa. I had to suffer without him...

Key-Poem97342026-01-22 00:10

I still used him last year when I played

Beelzebuuuuub32026-01-22 00:25

i hope he gets buffed, make him do more than just a shield and a small pen. make his geo damage bonus actually useful for his kit, make his buff something like venti where they buffed his support potential and his on-field potential

BunkerSeason2026-01-22 07:24

I don’t care about meta, I don’t never learned how to dodge bc of him so he’s never leaving my team

Glittering-Ad-16262026-01-22 08:05

As a C0 haver, idk I feel like he’s not bad but he’s not the best imo. Easy enough to build because of the HP scaling nuker but my only pet peeve is the pillar placement and shield cooldown, I’ll admit it’s a skill issue cuz I kept climbing it. He got benched the day I max friendship him