I was thinking this morning about my second Genshin account.
I have an account on another server intended for me to play in a year or two. I'll play it every now and then, earn some Primo, hopefully unlock a gacha character I like, and be able to play through all of the earlier content with a team of favourites.
I was thinking of dipping back into that account to hopefully get Raiden, only to realize I wouldn't be able to level her past 20 when I finally do get around to playing that account proper.
That could be a problem in a year or two. New player joins the game seeing a new character they like, they pump all their early game primo to get the character, possibly even their weapon, only to find out they won't be able to use the character for about 100 hours until they get to the 4th or 5th area due to the exclusive items required. Could cause a lot of new players to quit.
Of course, that assumes that areas will be gated. Liyue can be accessed from the start of the game no problem, but Inazuma will be inaccessible due to the location beyond the ocean and the story requirements. Future areas might all be easily accessible, and this may not be a problem for anyone who doesn't get Ayaka or Raiden early game, but it still has me wondering.
MHY can handle this in a few different ways.
In Honkai, they change materials and currencies used over time, to simplify where to get them and the number of different things you have to farm. We're still at a fairly early point in Genshin's life that there's still not a "ton" to do, so they have us farming all sorts of different materials and currencies to make sure we have to check out all the newest and hottest content that they're making and to make sure that no matter what you're doing, there's a heavy resin sink or time gate in your way to slow you down. In a year's time, there's a good chance that talent books or ascension materials change to a universal material for all characters or at least all 2+ year old characters, etc.
Secondly, they can give out character growth materials through whatever the latest events are in the game. Since every patch always has an event or two running concurrently, this could easily give enough of the unobtainable materials to get the character at least off the ground. That should be enough to incentivize pulling on the banners and cover their growth to the appropriate AR level so that the player can get to the area that they need to, in order to farm more materials. This is how Fate GO handles new characters, since a lot of their materials only otherwise drop in current chapters that would take a new player like a month or two to get to at the earliest.
MHY has already stated that they are not going to continue AR past 60, so I don't think we'll see any higher gating by that metric after Inazuma. It remains to be seen if they'll use some other metric to gate players though.
Me with my current 220% Energy Recharge (not considering her level up bonus) thinking it was already damn good for her. And I'm already packing a decent ER artifact and a R3 Skyward Spine (which helps on the ER and CR side).
I still have margin to improve but no way I'm gonna farm like crazy to hit around 380%.
380% is Youtuber bait. The reality is just get it as high as you can and enjoy the benefits if you can ever raise it beyond that. Her artifact set 2PC is great for off-field support characters, so running that domain won't ever really be a waste of resin.
Except it's ugly as fuck.
I won't be seen around Teyvat sporting that lowly fisherman crap.
There are no shortage of ER substat 4* spears, and Favonius is actually pretty great for the entire team to benefit from the particles, so you have lots of choices. At least the spear isn't as ugly as the fucking Crescent Pike. Weapon skins when MHY?