C1 or Homa? Easy choice. Just get Yelan.

The Zajef voiceovers bring soooo much joy, someone should make a zejef VA mod already T_T

I'm disappointed he didn't do the Hu Tao rap in the Zajef dub section

Zajef triple crowning to be a dedicated hater with evidence is such a gigachad move

Thanks Editor for the cute Hu Tao noises! And thanks Zajef for the... cute? Hu Tao noises.

i hecking love Zajef man.. this guy does voicelines for the community being a TC... Mad respect

Dehya will surely powercreep her!

once xenon comes out, we wont need hutao anymore

Cannot stress how much an EM sand tends to be better on Homa unless you're playing VV Vape with Elegy Yelan and Sucrose.

i like how zajef cleared the difference between meta value and pull value in the beginning part of the video. alot of ppl always tends to confuse the two as just the same. hutao's meta value is still top tier even though she has a lot of competition now, that doesnt degrade her meta value, shes still top tier in single target. her competitions only affects her pull value, like pulling for raiden or just building a f2p hyperbloom is alot better than pulling for hutao and hyperinvesting her and learning her cancels, which is why her pull value went down by alot since 3.0.

You are the first guide maker who I heard say that it will be pain doing Hu Tao's animation cancle on mobile version. As a mobile player myself I can definitly agree with that.

on the topic of not dying, can we get more "enemy theorycrafting" content? like the tidbits you talked about in the iceberg video, they were quite interesting. Gonna be honest, while I think I'm tapped in to the character mechanics, I have zero clue how the enemies in this game work. And who knows, maybe people will start saying Zhongli isn't as good if they know how to dodge

For mobile players I highly recommend playing the trial a lot before pulling

Came for HuTao. Stayed and wheezelaughed for the Voicelines!!! XD

That ending was magical

After this video, my vision on Hu Tao changed a bit. I'm new to the game and only have units like: Beidou, Heizou, Xingqiu, Sara and Sayu (besides the free ones of course). And Hutao looked like a good option for my firts 5 star (only have Xiangling and Amber for pyro dmg). But now Yelan seems like a more solid option (better usability and big variety in team comps). I will go for Yelan this time and roll for Hutao in another rerun (because i will have better hydro and shield units to use with her) Thx for clearing my Thoughst about her Zajef (and sorry for bad pronunciation, english is not my mother language). And now i will pray to rngesus, so a certain zombie loli, will not jumpscare me

i like her and got her c0 and homa and yelan so im gonna enjoy c1 this time around. shes already so fun to play and c1 is gonna tie it all together

A Zajef voice over mod is something I didn't know I needed before.

Oh god the ending left me craving for a link of the entire vod 🌚🤣🤣

I respect the dedication to pull and triple crown Hutao Just to double down on Xiangling being the superior pyro DPS.

That DPS graph section about Hu Tao vape vs Nahida hyperbloom is very interesting; I think that it is what TC should be more about

31:55 - Dehya as the second pyro in a Hu Tao team let's gooooooo!!!!

Very informative and the voices you did at the end made me laugh out loud. Thank you!

Around 11:00 when you talk about dash cancels: it's important to note that not everyone plays with keyboard and mouse. I'm a PS4 player (I play on PC sometimes, but since I came from the PS4, I still play with a controller) and the dash cancel is not that easily done with a controller. Since the attack button on the DS4 is O and the jump is X, you can't attack with one hand then quickly press the jump with another. You do both with the same hand and same finger, meaning if you don't have good hand coordination, or if you have some disability, it's actually very hard to do. I have some pretty good hand coordination so I'm able to do the dash cancels perfectly about 80% of the time, but since Hu Tao is a character where you spam that a lot for a rather long period of time, the repetition can actually start hurting my finger and then I notice I don't do the dash cancels perfectly as accurately anymore. Anyway, sorry for the wall text, but I feel it's important to note that the platform you play on (or rather, the tool you play with e.g. keyboard vs controller) can make performing dash cancels more difficult. I'm really glad you talked about dash cancelling in the way you did because a lot of other content creators just explain how to perform it and move on like it's the easiest thing to do - which I think it's true if you're playing with a keyboard and mouse, but it's definitely not that case for everyone. And you don't just dismiss that. That's the first time I've seen this. I've had Hu Tao since her first banner but due to her dash cancel being her optimal playstyle and me playing on a controller, I don't actually use her all that much. I have Homa (permanently on my Zhongli) so I often debate whether I should get her C1 or not because I know performing the dash cancel by dodging would be much easier for me (since it allows me to use my thumb and pointer finger rather than just my thumb) but usually I just skip since I'd rather get a new character instead. I've run into this conundrum where I don't play Hu Tao because I don't have a C1 but I don't pull for her C1 because I don't play her enough hahaha. Currently I'm saving for Nahida rerun since I want her weapon and hopefully constellations as well, so I have to skip Hu Tao yet again. For the record, you can change the buttons (I think) so that the jump button is not one of the PS symbols, but at this point I'm so used to each button that I don't want to mess with it just for Hu Tao. Messing with the button configuration also means I could potentially make it difficult for another team to perform, so I'd rather not. Anyway, sorry again for the wall text, but I wanted to provide some of my experience as a console (or rather, as a controller) player rather than a keyboard and mouse player. TL;DR: Zajef is absolutely right and Xiangling is indeed better HEHEHEHE

🤣👏🏽 Voicelines made my day. Well done Zajef77!

HuTao these days has rougher competition since HyperBloom raised the Floor for ST DMG while taking less investment coupled with easier execution to play. There’s still also the high bar of OPPA XL that all Pyro DPS will have to compare with since she excels at both AoE and ST off-field while also having better F2P options especially with The Catch.

zajef doing the CN hilichurl song is something I didn't know I needed. excited to see(hear, I guess) more CN voice done by zajef

EM vs HP sands depends on the substats in your account. Give optimizer a try to see what's best for you. My case is interchangeable, but leaning more towards EM now since hydro resonance update gives her HP.

So, I got Hu Tao in 1.3 during her initial run, and she was one of my most used characters throughout the 2.x patches alongside Childe International (due to the orthogonal support pairings that Childe and Hu Tao can run with). I was always of the mindset that Hu Tao's raw output whilst being not Bennett reliant made her one of the better pulls in the game if you had Childe or another way to run Xiangling on the other side. However, after 3.x, I've actually rarely pulled out Hu Tao if at all for overworld and abyss alike. Truth is, I've been preferring Nahida hyperbloom, which takes the same supports (aka XQ/Yelan) as Hu Tao teams, and in my opinion hyperbloom teams are far more versatile and easy to play team than any Tao team there is. The rotations for hyperbloom are so much more fluid and adaptable to enemy encounters and scenarios, as it doesn't get affected by enemies with innate aura (like the thundering manifestation, which prevents vapes due to innate electro aura). I find that hyperbloom is also a lot more versatile in what kind of content it can be played in- Hu Tao in AoE can be extremely painful whilst hyperbloom still feels relatively good in AoE despite being single-target focused. There's also certain types of content where Hu Tao's short uptime duration can kinda grief you (for example, having two waves or hp thresholds with a gap in between, like how it can be difficult to kill the PMA minion and the PMA itself in one rotation if they don't spawn next to each other) whereas hyperbloom has virtually constant uptime making it immune to these kinds of issues. I know that there is the sentiment floating around that "hyperbloom has a low ceiling, meaning Hu Tao at high invest will eventually beat it". But my question is, just how many players will actually hit that ceiling? Just like how f(x) = 500x yields a higher output than f(x) = x^2 all the way until x = 500 despite having a lower exponent, it can be very possible that the vast majority of players simply won't have the resources or investment required to actually take advantage of Hu Tao's hypothetically higher ceiling. I can speak for my own personal experience: I found Hu Tao even in her best scenarios (single target bossing) only slightly beating out Hyperbloom, and my build isn't weak. I have a Staff of Homa, and on the Akasha my Tao build is in the top 9%. So if even I can't reap the benefits of Hu Tao, realistically speaking a good portion of the community probably wouldn't either.

Yea, I think point one is already enough to undervalue hutao, not in a way that she's bad now because she still is one of if not the best single target team, but the ceiling for hyperbloom is so high even on low investment that it can be comparable to a hyperinvested hutao team. I would still want to pull for her c1 simply because I like her playstyle and already have homa+elegy and probably play with her until I get bored or when a new character comes out.

the voiceover at the end just made my day.

You can instructer Zhongli to increase Hu Tao dmg a lot. With XQ dmg reduction, zhongli only needs 25-30k hp for shield to not break.

oh god idk why but i lost it at the reverse flash image lmao

Conclusion: zajeff hates shimenava

Hu Tao was my third 5 star after getting Jean and Raiden. I remember I struggled so much because I lacked the supports that make her META. Based on my experience, Hu Tao is really strong if you have the right pieces around her but she is not an early-mid game friendly character.

I think a lot of people forget that Beidou can also be used in Hu Tao teams for overload vape. As she is ones of the few characters that can do overvape team properly. Not only does Beidou shield combo really well with Xingqiu shield for insane survivability to match or surpass Zhongli shield, but you can also increase your AoE potential by a margin. Hu Tao Beidou Xingqiu Yelan has always been my go to for bosses that I want dead asap.

It's impressive that hoyo didnt hire zajef to voice act characters

Voice lines are objectively best parts of ask Zajefs

howling at the voiceovers dude good stuff

I feel like content creators don't explain why C1 is a damage increase and how it's good beyond stamina. The reason it's a DMG increase is that at C0, regardless of you jump cancel or not, you can only do a certain number of charged attacks before her E runs out. I believe it's 7 charged attacks. With C1 you can now dash cancel without running out of stamina before her E runs out and therefore increase the number of charged attacks.

Wow! I thought that was Hu Tao's real VA.

literally could be the va for all of the regions

Thank you for putting the numbers where hp sands and em sands are equivalent!! It's a good quick reference.

Dying of dies. This line spoke to me.

I've had Hu Tao since first run, had her C1 and then got Homa last time. She's by far my favorite character and she's never left my abyss team. Even if she isn't the powerhouse she used to be I doubt I'll ever ditch her.

I feel like I’m going to be stuck using my R5 Dragon’s Bane forever. I plan on pulling for Yelan, but the stats on the artifacts are so good as well as having Skyward Harp, her signature weapon won’t really be that big a damage increase for my build.

That outro was amazing

Can't wait for Ask Zajef Yelan Edition

I'm waiting for the voice pack since the start of video without skip, and it meets my expectation. Hope every one enjoy. :)

I ended up laughing when zajeff mentioned playing hutao against rifthound abyss. You definitely ain't gonna have any fun. Stress meter gonna skyrocket.

Liking and commenting purely to express my appreciation for the voiceovers at the end

That ending had me smiling and laughing so much. Great Video over all. learned so much but LOL 😂

I made a comment saying that Hu Tao's pull value lowered as pyro in falling off in meta. I think it was wrong of me to assume that pyro is falling off. The better way to say it is that there are far more comfortable teams to play that matches Hu Tao's damage than playing her complicated playstyle.

Thank you Schaufle :D

imo, OVERVAPE hu tao is her best team with dragonsbane and crimson witch. I play hu tao, xingqiu, fischl C6 and sucrose with PROTOTYPE AMBER R5. This team also has a core sucrose taser team so have on field sucrose when hu tao is on downtime or want to group enemies and deal AOE dmg. Thus, doesnt have that low dmg during hu tao downtime issue. Basically, a double carry team. Dragonsbane already gives EM higher than the optimal amount of around 150-180 for vaporise so adding an overload on top of that increase that optimal EM about roughly a 100. Maybe around 250 EM for overvape. Crimson witch reaction dmg in the 4 pc effect gets better value the higher the EM due to being a flat increase instead of diminishing returns which makes overvape even stronger with this BiS artifact set.

there's a comp that I came up with which somehow make her work with Dendro. Hu tao/XQ/Fischl/Yao yao(or nahida depend on your skill level or whenever Baihzu release). Basically a reaction comp but Hu tao use NA with Shimenawa.

I'm here for the voicelines and nothing else. those are GOLD!

3:30 You can only hate if you can relate, I respect that philosophy.

This is *exactly* the video I needed

voicelines were the best part of the video thank u

My Diona with bad artifacts so she only bursts every other rotation made my Hutao keep the "under 50% hp" passive pretty easily while I had to use Zhongli for the other side cuz dies of cringe wolf boss

Professionally and clumsily playing her is the best way to play her.

I *love* that you used reverse flash for the "dedicated hater" bit. Don't u ever change Zajef, u diamond geezer

i'm crying with the voice overs 😹💓

I saw someone saying that Hu Tao is basically a Yelan+Xingqiu driver and I agree lol. Honestly, if you're a little unsure about Hu Tao, just get Yelan. She is a much better and more fun unit that goes in so many teams

I choose Yoimiya over Hu tao with Yelan cuz i want to use Benneth and my Xingqui will be staying with Nahida and Kuki on hyperbloom team. Im just waiting for Zhongli rerun for Yoimiya to finish her NA combo without evading enemy attacks.

looking good jef. i dig the cut

EM sands is generally better, but HP% is ~2.7x more common. I'm using an HP sands because it's got 6 substats (14% CR plus some EM and HP), and my best EM sands has 2. I farmed Crimson Witch long enough to get a solid 30 substat build and never once saw a decent EM sands. Also I do play "weird overload bullshit" sometimes, so EM isn't quite as important. Even if I only played double hydro though, I don't think it would be worth the grind to get slightly better artifacts.

I think a lot of people are overreacting a lot concerning Hu tao and hyperbloom. There was never a must pull unit in genshin. There were always 4star teams strong enough to 36 star. Just because there's another new cheap teamcomp doesn't mean Hu tao suddenly got "power crept" like some people say. If you want more power, Hu tao scales better with investment If you want fun, Hu tao (potentially) has fun and there's not really any other reasons for pulling. These are the same before and after hyperbloom

over 1 year later ... good to see yahooooo back!!

these voice overs are getting better and better

The Zajef voiceovers are just 🔥

I run c4 Yanfei over Zhongli. Imo it is better since you free up Zhongli for someone else, and you get pyro resonance. Yanfei can also serve as a pseudo mini healer, not enough to over heal Hu Tao, but enough to keep her alive. I'm planning to try Layla for funsies.

Hutao, Mona, Yelan and Zhongli are actually a pretty cool team. Im hitting around 120K per charged (still need to lvl Mona and crown hutao E, Mona still at lv60 with her burst at 4s)

27:08 Thank you. I needed to hear this

the voiceovers sound so good

I use mine with Xingqiu, Zhongli and Mona with ttds and noblesse. At the end of the day Hu tao is still an atk scaling character so me getting to see that beautiful, almost 300k aoe dmg + 4-5 105k charged atks(~85k when no more omen) is just too good to say no and one of the reasons why I dont have any hype to get Yelan; you wont need her buff when things straight up die with one Q against enemies with Omen.

Weapon banner vs Yelan though?

I'll probably try Hu Tao a lot in the free test and if i decide she's fun enough i'll use some wishes towards her. The only units i really want nowadays are Alhaitham (wich im not pulling rn, im saving for Yelan and i have enough to secure her) and Dehya, but if Dehya is as bad as it seems and since we probably wont get Al rerun in quite a while Hu Tao could be a fun use of my Primos. I dont have any good 5* weapon to use on her and i'd need to farm her artifacts from scratch (i dont even have a decent Shime set xD). I do have every good 4* weapon option (R5 Dragon's, Deathmatch) and all the good supports for her; C0 Yelan (in like 3 days) with Elegy, Kazuha, Zhongli, built C4 Yanfei, and i can build a decent amount of teams without XQ.

Appreciate new editing style. Seem more tasteful.

Ask Dehya and the only question is WHY

Hu Tao is still a great character, just not versatile. On-field carry DPS. If you need DPS characters, consider getting her. If not, better get supports/sub DPS characters.

Thank you Schaufle, what a gigachad. Thx to Zajef as well for making this very educational, and very entertaining. 👌

35:39 got myself a new ringtone

I think one of the reasons you should value hb higher than hutao is how easy it is on mobile. Most of the time i play on pc but sometimes when i switch to mobile, god its a pain to play hutao vape even in open world But nahida raiden xq zhongli is so easy to execute that i easily can say you won't have a hard time in abyss. Im not an expert playing mobile games but as a casual player note i think you should consider this if you are playing on mobile phones Although good luck on your pulls anyway Edit:fixed some typos and pardon my English

Is Yelan a good pull for me? I want to go for Fontaine units and I don’t know if I want to go for Yelan right now because of that so that’s why I want to go for Hu Tao. I have both Barbara and Xingqui built so I feel like going for another hydro unit right now is unnecessary since I can run hydro both sides of the abyss. I have a C0 Xiangling from the abyss but no true pyro hypercarry

Man really dedicated, after all maths and answers he provided us an really good voice acting demonstration xd

its been 6months and i still come back to appreciate the umm hilicurl song in chinese

Guys heres my take. Hutao, XQ, Yelan, Zhongli is a LOT of fun and hella strong! Conclusion - if you have kokomi, pull for her.

been using hutao for the start of her release, im in love with her, missed yoimiya first banner, get yoimiya on first rerun, been enjoying lazy game play of yoimiya since then, but hutao still one of my fav chara along with nilou nahida and miko, idk hutao seems broken to me, my huato deals 140k charge vape, without benny or ttds, sadly enough all my huato artifact stolen by my yoimiya xD

Glad I stayed for the last question lmao 😭😂

34:52 is a masterpiece

I'm listening the voicelines over and over again for like 20 minutes. And i can't stop. HELP.

Will I be sent to jail if I play my Hu Tao with a 4 piece bolide ?

The reason I downloaded this game was to play hutao. Got her c1 and Homa and,,,never ended up playing her. I initially ran her on shimenawa, and I think that experience just put me off the character. That plus having no hp sands (which according to this video isn't even a problem.) I do plan on pulling yelan after losing the 50/50 first rerun. So thanks for the inspiration to try again.

i pulled c0 hutao for her yahoo, not for learning dash canceling mechanic and other stuff about her i go yelan, tag aqua, and hope homa come too saved up 260 pulls as for last night

Hutao is the only character i regret pulling, i dont use her at all, she dies way too often and id much rather just play yoimiya

34:51 is the best part of the video OM

ngl high refine Proto Amber Nahida actually makes burgeon playable for HT. I don't think it beats a well invested double hydro team in single target where Yelan and XQ with amazing artifacts/weapons get buffed by Zhongli and Petra, but imo it's better in AoE. I was basically able to clear the rifthound AoE chamber a few seconds over a minute with Burgeon. Main thing for Burgeon is that it heavily incentivizes using her burst, which leads to higher AoE damage. You mitigate the healing because of her E cutting a set percentage at cast + burgeon damage. When you proc burning because of her burst's AoE (which you usually do at end of rotation), you can essentially let Yelan vape her E and it hits really hard with Nahida's EM buff. Use fav on both Yelan and XQ and you can pretty much burst every rotation on HT with 110-120 ER + it has synergy with HT's crit rate passive.

The question we really need to be asking is C1, Homa, or Yelan? and then following up that the correct answer is Yelan.