Genshin Impact players furious over “terrible” Neuvillette nerf in 4.8 update

James Busby
Neuvillette looking sad

Genshin Impact players are calling out HoYoverse over a Neuvillette nerf, which has made the 5-star Hydro character “terrible” to play. 

As part of the Genshin Impact 4.8 update, HoYoverse has made adjustments to Neuvillette’s charged attack. Before the patch, the Hydro character could rotate his water beam at high speeds, enabling him to quickly acquire new targets. 

This enabled players to rapidly spin 360 degrees, dealing damage to all enemies simultaneously. Well, it turns out that this was a bug and not an intentional part of his kit.

As of July 17, 2024, HoYoverse has now fixed this issue and rewarded players with free Primogems. However, following the change to Neuvillette’s charged attack, Genshin players have taken to social media to voice their anger over the “terrible” nerf. 

Genshin Impact fans slam Neuvillette nerf

“It just seems really clunky by how they’re force-slowing him. He feels way worse to play than he did before,” wrote one unhappy player on the Genshin Impact Reddit page. “I hope they revert it like the Yae Miko totem bug fix.”

Others were keen to highlight how HoYoverse could nerf Neuvillette’s beam speed without making him feel clunky to play. “Rather than nerf the camera rotation, HoYoverse could have limited the hitscan to only hit targets seen in the first 90°s of rotation every 0.4s,” explained one commenter. 

“This way rapid spinning around would cause a DPS loss (which is fair), without the clunky gameplay.”

Since the nerf went live, players have reported that using Neuv’s beam is now extremely difficult to sue against more mobile enemies. This is especially true when facing bosses like Childe and Arlecchino, who use their agility to weave in attacks.

The problems don’t just end there though, as even killing Spiral Abyss mobs is proving tricky – an area that is needed for clearing floors within the time limit. “I just played a few hours ago and even though I positioned Neuv a bit far for him to easily hit many enemies just by turning, it sucks,” wrote another Neuv main. 

“Prior to the nerf I could kill both final 2 enemies on his Artifact domain just by switching. now, I can’t do it. wastes too much time switching even with proper positioning.”

Some members of the Genshin community also believe HoYoverse has tactically nerfed Neuvillette to push more people into rolling for Mualani. This character will be released in the Natlan update, alongside Mavuika and other new units. 

While it’s currently unknown whether the devs will make any additional adjustments to Neuvillette’s beam speed, the devs have now outlined all the characters that will be coming in the Natlan update, so be sure to check them out here