Genshin Impact: Should You Pull for Wriothesley or Venti in 4.1 Phase 2?

Phase two of Genshin Impact 4.1 is upon us, and with it come two new limited character banners. Well, one new one and one rerun. Wriothesley is the latest addition, the game’s first Cryo Catalyst user hailing from Fontaine. Joining him is Venti, originally released all the way back with the 1.0 release of Genshin. Both characters are incredibly good at their respective roles, but which you pull for (if either), will heavily depend on the team you already have and what piece of that team’s puzzle you need.

Related: Genshin Impact: How to Reroll

Should You Pull for Wriothesley in Genshin Impact?

Wriothesley is the latest Cryo Main DPS in Genshin Impact and the only one who uses a Catalyst as his weapon choice. Like all Fontaine characters, his kit revolves around spending his HP to power his abilities. His main focus for damage is the normal attacks that he can augment with his Elemental Skill, with his Burst offering supplemental damage and one of his only main sources of AoE. In short, Wriothesley is a single-target DPS monster, and if you surround him with characters that can give him some area damage, there’s almost nothing he can’t take on.

• Wriothesley’s Normal Attack is his bread and butter. Repelling Fists is a five-hit-combo that deals heavy Cryo damage. It’s best used in combination with his Elemental Skill, but note that if you use his skill or sprint, the combo count will only reset after a brief delay. Wriothesley’s Charged Attack is his most common source of AoE damage but is mostly a combo ender while you wait for his Normal delay to end. In practice, Wriothesley is almost always attacking, and any team that can trigger contact Elemental Reactions off his Cryo application will do wonders.
• Wriothesley’s Elemental Skill, Icefang Rush, is a state-based ability. After using the Skill, he sprints forward a short distance, then enters the Chilling Penalty state, which increases his interruption resistance and expends HP to empower his Normal Attacks. HP will only be consumed if above 50%, so you’ll need to have a character like Bennett on hand to keep Wriothesley topped up.
• Wriothesley’s Elemental Burst, Darkgold Wolfbite, uses a single, powerful strike to deal massive damage to any enemy in front of him. Shortly after the first attack, he’ll deal Ousia-aligned Cryo damage to any affected enemy. With a modest amount of Energy Recharge (not his main stat), he can almost always have his Burst on tap to finish a combo or apply supplemental Cryo to enemies in the area.

As you might have gathered, Wriothesley isn’t the best at dealing with the masses of mobs you’ll find in some of Genshin Impact’s endgame activities. However, when you put him in the ring with one or only a few enemies at once — and especially when there’s a team to support him — expect death to be swift. For your enemies, that is.

Should You Pull for Venti in Genshin Impact?

Venti, the wandering bard and master of Anemo, remains one of the best all-around characters in Genshin Impact, even more than three years since his introduction. What he does well, he does very well. Don’t expect Venti to be your next main DPS or your primary support, but his crowd control and supplemental damage capabilities are a sight to behold. His kit is all about his Elemental Skill and Burst, with his Normal and Charged Attacks playing a distant fiddle to the elemental-focus of his other abilities. Play him right, however, and Venti not only enables teams but can revolutionize them.

• Venti’s Normal and Charged Attacks are nothing to write home about. His normal is a series of six attacks with his bow, and a full charge deals Anemo damage in a small burst. Neither attack has any additional effects or bonuses, but as Venti is best used off-field, that makes sense.
• Venti’s Elemental Skill is where his kit starts to get spicy. On use, he summons a Wind Domain that deals AoE Anemo damage and pulls enemies into the air. If you charge the ability, the Domain is larger. Venti’s Skill is best used whenever his Burst is on cooldown to keep your foes off balance.
• It’s Venti’s Elemental Burst that’s the real start of the show. It creates a massive whirlwind that pulls enemies in and deals continuous Anemo damage. The kicker is, if you use Hydro, Pyro, Cryo, or Electro on the Stormeye his Burst creates, the wind gains that element as a damage type, as well. So you can not only cause Swirl reactions but any of the others your team can create, barring anything to do with Dendro.

Venti is, therefore, one of the best tools you can put in your Genshin toolbox. He doesn’t specialize in anything, and he doesn’t have the defense shred of a unit like Kazuha, but Venti remains one of the strongest general purpose units in the game.

How Are the 4-Star Characters in Genshin Impact 4.1 Phase II?

See, here’s where pulling for Wriothesley or Venti’s gets tricky. Unlike the phase one banners for 4.1, which had the likes of Fischl and Xingqiu, in phase two we have a much less…optimal selection, shall we say. None of the three 4-star options are anywhere approaching meta selections, so unless you’re already close to pity it’s a hard sell even with the quality of the 5-stars on offer.

To start, Dori is a bit of a meme in the Genshin community, as her damage and kit are just sub-par, to put it mildly. Thoma is a solid Pyro shielding unit, but the stats you want for him get in the way of him being as effective as even the likes of Diona. And don’t even compare him to Zhongli. Chongyun isn’t bad, per se, but he’s outshone by almost every other Cryo support character in the game.

Your choice to pull on either Wriothesley or Venti’s banners could very well depend on how much having additional Constellations of any of these characters you can stomach collecting. But if you have the Primogems or the desire to spend real money, it might not be as big an issue.

Final Conclusions: Wriothesley

• Pull for Wriothesley if you want a stellar single-target Cryo DPS unit that can apply tons of elemental status and cause just as many Elemental Reactions. He’s especially good if you already have a Crit Damage catalyst ready to go.
• Don’t pull for Wriothesley if you’re good on DPS characters or want someone who can do a little more of everything and isn’t so specialized.

Final Conclusions: Venti

• Pull for Venti if you want one of the best general-purpose units in the game and some high-quality supplemental damage and crowd control.
• Don’t pull for Venti if you already have a solid Anemo character in Sucrose or Kazuha or don’t have the Primos to spare.