Genshin Impact's Zhongli and Childe are returning to the game once again soon, but are they still worth the pull? Here is what you should know before pulling.
We haven't seen Zhongli and Childe on the banners for a while now and with many amazing Fontaine characters coming soon we need to ask one important question: Are they still worth it? And is it better to pull on this banner or skip for new characters?
Genshin Impact: Zhongli And Childe Rerun Date
Zhongli and Childe will return to Genshin Impact on September 5, and will stay until September 26, where the current version will end. Zhongli's last rerun was a year ago in version 3.0, and Childe had his two versions later in December.
If Genshin sticks to their release schedule, then the Zhongli rerun is most likely because of Focalors arriving, and we can expect all the other archons to show up soon too (so if you really want a Raiden, Nahida or Venti, you should maybe skip this banner) and Childe's arrival is most likely stemming from his appearance in the new Archon Quest. We expect Focalor's Banner to be somewhere around version 4.2, and naturally no earlier than that.
Genshin Impact: Is Zhongli Still Worth It?
Zhongli is 100% still worth it, yes. To this day, Zhongli still is the best shield in the game and will turn spiral abyss to something you might actually enjoy. He scales off of HP and is extremely simple to build, his best weapon as a shield support is quite literally the 3* Black Tassel, so he is very free-to-play friendly.
With him, you can easily build a team without a healer, since if you learn to efficiently use his skill, you take little to no damage. It's also really fun to nuke hilichurls with his burst. So in conclusion, Zhongli is your entry ticket into Genshin on easy mode.
Genshin Impact: Is Childe Still Worth It?
Now, this is a more complicated question. If you love Childe and think his dual weapon playstyle is fun, then I would say yes, totally go for it, especially since you can build any character you like to perform greatly. If you mainly want a Hydro DPS character, then we have to make some comparisons. Mainly I want to note Ayato and Nilou, but also Focalors.
Childe is more of a selfish DPS to play. He has little to no off-field potential and needs some support from his team. His mark is enough to let a Sub-DPS like Yae take the field for a few seconds, but you won't unleash his full potential if you leave him on the bench for too long. He is also at his best with C1, because his cooldown is way too long without it, and you'll feel that while playing him.
While his switch between melee and bow is pretty cool, you can archieve a similar effect by having a dual DPS-setup with e.g. Ganyu and Ayato and additionally get elemental resonance, while also not having to deal with the cooldown. Of course, this configuration means you'll have to have two top-tier characters instead of one, but consider the alternative: Having to pull at least two copies of Childe.
While Ayato's damage potential isn't better than Childe's at all means, he still has a higher usability. He is a decent support, his burst creates a reasonably big Hydro AoE, and similar fighting style, but definitely not as fun as Childe's melee stance, and it lacks the Riptide debuff.
Nilou on the other hand has the best utility out of these three, but is to an extent dependent on Dendro teammates. She is really easy to build since her kit scales off of HP, and you can use her as both a DPS (where you can find a way to make her damage more independent of Bloom reactions) or a great Sub-DPS, she is overall also a really decent Support.
The biggest downside of Nilou is that she fights with very tailor-made teams (best party comp is consisting of Hydro and Dendro only with at least one Healer) but she is very fun to play, looks really good and has a high utility.
Even though we don't know the kit of the Hydro Archon at the moment, it is speculated that she'll be a DPS/Healer Hybrid and have a unique play style that scales off of HP and is similar to Hu Tao's. Focalors could very well be here in just a few patches, so players who want to pull for Childe should also keep her in mind.
