Ah. Varka. What a guy, eh? He's tall, he's beefy, he's blonde, he has scars, and he has two claymores by his sides. What more could you want? Well, I want Genshin Impact's Varka to be a really good DPS with great damage numbers, but unfortunately, that might not be the case.
Join me in mourning what could have been: Genshin Impact's Varka, the much-anticipated Grand Master of the Knights of Favonious, name-dropped in early versions of the game but never seen until 2025, is finally coming out as a playable character. However, numbers from leakers with access to the version 6.4 beta say it's not looking good for him. We all wanted an SS-tier, stupidly good fighter who could blast his way through the Spiral Abyss, but it appears he may be mid.
The long and short of it is that his kit seems to have contradictions in it, and his constellations are a little lacking - along with the general damage output being around a measly 90k even with Bennett, everybody's favorite buffer, and Durin, a pyro off-DPS. Reddit user Huejallo did a breakdown of numbers in the r/Varka sub, so if you want to dive deeper into what's going on, I recommend their post.
He just needs a bit more work before release, but it doesn't look like Hoyoverse is going to do that. Hopefully, V3 of the beta will give him the boost he needs, but I'm not holding my breath. Something else that could harm him is that rumors suggest he'll run alongside Genshin Impact Flins' first rerun - while this weapon banner would be absolutely stacked, Flins is regarded as a really good DPS with plenty of usage thanks to the Lunar-Charged reaction, so many may go for him instead of ol' Varka.
Amidst all this, his official drip marketing suffered a delay and was only released on January 23. Hoyoverse did change the schedule so that official posts come after the beta releases, but this is a good few days beyond when we usually expect it. Either way, he's here now.
I've been waiting five [insert expletive here] years for this man to come out, and while I will still pull for him, I'm sad he's not going to sweep all the combat in the game. He and my C4 Diluc will share the same R5 Serpent Spine, and keep each other warm on the bench while Flins and Neuvillette deal with the Spiral Abyss.