Genshin Impact: Shield, New Trend or Future Meta?

There are several Genshin Impact characters who rely on shield playing style. Generally, shields are used to form a playing style that tends to be defensive. There are many things that make Genshin Impact unique in terms of gameplay. Each character has its own style of play to deal damage or even Elemental abilities. One aspect that fans are talking about is the shield which is generally associated with the Geo element.

Unlike healing, shields provide protection before the player’s character takes damage. Generally, support characters in the form of healing are used more often. But lately, shields seem to break a new playing style. So, what exactly is the Shield in Genshin Impact? Let’s take a look below.

New Shield Type Characters – Genshin Impact

Apart from the Archon Geo, Zhongli who is the newest character in update 1.1, there are also Diona and Xinyan whose abilities focus on the Shield. Previously, there were only Noelle and Xingqiu who used Geo elemental Crystalize ability to build a Shield. Shield is actually needed by the composition of the characters in the game.

Diona and Xinyan can each provide element-type shields and are useful for reducing certain damage. In fact, the Shield that they produce can remove the elemental status attached to the character, even Xinyan can guarantee that his teammates will never get Freeze because of the fire element shield he has.

Shield s More Flexible Than Healing

As We previously explained, a shield can prevent a character from taking damage. This way, we can keep the character in tip-top shape instead of waiting for healing. For now, there is no boss that provides sustained damage such as burn. However, there is a high chance that there will be damage that players cannot avoid. 

Generally, every character has some conditions from the shield they make. Noelle, for example, can produce a strong Shield by her DEF status while Zhongli by his HP. This allows them to provide a stronger Shield if calculated and the points are greater than the average healing Support characters. They also have a higher DEF in average which allows them to last longer than other characters.

Therefore, it is important to keep relying on shields when dealing with certain enemies such as the Abyss Mage who looks more ferocious in the Domain.

Defending while attacking – Genshin Impact

Xingqiu has a special mechanic where her water sword can be used as a shield to reduce damage. If the sword breaks, the enemy will also be damaged. On the other hand, some character’s Elemental Shield can also give Elemental effects and generate reactions. Those who use the Shield can also benefit from having a higher durability and are less dependent on healing. This way, characters like Noelle or Zhongli can function as DPS, even if there are no healing characters in the party.

Geo Character Is The Key

One of the things that makes Geo elemental characters not favored is that their attack points tend to be much smaller. In fact, Geo characters can survive better and be able to fight primary elements such as water, fire, and ice easily.