Reality check: Nicole (probably) won't save Varka, and she even contradicts Varka's existing gameplay design.

Now, this is purely speculation from the fanbase, and as a recent Varka puller, we're all desperately waiting for the Lauma to his Nefer, the Ineffa to his Flins, the Escoffier to his Skirk, if you will.

But I have to ask - doesn't this go against his entire gameplay design of being a supposed flexible Anemo DPS who can infuse 4 different elements?

Varka has 3 team restrictions, the most out of any character, support or otherwise. Remember, he wants:

• 2 Anemo (he counts as one)
• 2 Hexerei (he counts as one)
• 2 same-element Pyro, Hydro, Cryo or Electro characters

Nicole is:

• Hexerei - this is fine.
• Pyro - this is the problem.

Nicole being Pyro will literally lock him into a mono-Pyro team for him to be viable in endgame. Varka with Nicole will probably end up as just a good (but not great) Pyro DPS who doesn't get access to Pyro reactions. Without Nicole, his Hydro, Electro and Cryo teams are, quite literally, so terrible you may as well not even bother and pretend this flexibility doesn't exist. Which begs the question why make him an Anemo character at all if he ends up just cosplaying as a Pyro character.

The only team that can come close to his Pyro teams (without Nicole, mind you) is his Hydro team consisting of a C4 Mona, C4 Jean and Furina, and it's so fucking rare to have both C4 Mona and Jean (especially Jean because the 40% Anemo RES down is the main key here).

If Nicole was an Anemo Hexerei, instead of Pyro, that'd be the most complementary character to his design. At this point, I have no idea what the Genshin combat design team is thinking, unless they're planning to make give Jean a Hexerei buff. At this moment, we have no indication of them doing so. But we still have the issue of Nicole being Pyro. Even if Jean was Hexerei, if we wanted to swap to a different element, we'd lose so much damage otherwise.

It's a lose-lose situation all around, and it deeply saddens me to see someone receive so much hype and love from the marketing and art department and from the fans be gutted to this extent.

Never mind that his non-5-star options for both weapons and teammates SUCK. There is already a huge gap between Durin and non-Durin 4-star options (and Durin isn't even his supposed "support"), and the F2P weapons are miserable compared to what the Lunar characters got with their 4-star weapon options (and Aino also exists which is a big help).

He simply doesn't have nearly enough returns for how restructive his kit and design is, unlike Chevreuse, Nilou or Escoffier who offer benefits in spades to offset their team restrictions (of which there is only one, not three).