Emilie in Genshin Impact: A Full Regret or Niche Utility? ExploreGenshin

With the release of Emilie in Genshin Impact, players were hopeful she’d be a versatile Dendro support. But in Red Warrior’s latest review, he doesn’t hold back: “Do I regret Emilie? Absolutely.”

Let’s unpack what makes Emilie feel like a missed opportunity—and where, if anywhere, she still holds value.

Emilie’s Niche: Only Useful for Kenich?

Red Warrior repeatedly emphasizes one key point: Emilie’s usefulness starts and ends with Kenich. She was seemingly designed to synergize with him, especially in burn-based compositions. Her ability to help Kenich perform his fifth-hit combo is one of her few mechanical upsides.

However, in practice, even this is flawed. During Red Warrior’s Stygian Onslaught runs, he struggled to activate the fifth hit consistently, citing issues with the E-hold mechanic and poor timing with energy availability:

“I was trying to hold E… and it just wouldn’t work. The game wouldn’t register it.”

This clunky synergy undermines her core niche. If a character’s main role is to enable a specific mechanic—and that mechanic is unreliable—then the character’s value plummets.

The Problem with Burn

A significant portion of Emilie’s kit revolves around triggering Burn, an underutilized and often underwhelming elemental reaction. Burn can be useful situationally (like in the Lava Dragon stage of Stygian Onslaught), but the cost is high: you lose access to Melt and Vaporize, two of the highest-damage reactions in the game.

“Burning is okay when it’s the only option. But in every other situation, you’re giving up massive damage.”

The opportunity cost of choosing Emilie for Burn-focused setups means she’s usually competing against stronger team archetypes.

Burn in Stygian: A Temporary Lifeline

Red Warrior acknowledges Emilie can shine when Burn is explicitly required, such as with the current Lava Dragon statue in Stygian Onslaught. But he makes it clear: this is a narrow, temporary advantage.

Once Stygian rotates or future content doesn’t favor burn, Emilie’s usefulness drops off entirely. She’s not a universally viable support like Furina or Miss Coffee (Escafier), who continue to dominate across content types.

The Weapon Dilemma

Emilie’s signature polearm is statistically solid:

608 Base ATK
33% Crit Rate
15% ATK Passive

However, Red Warrior warns that summoning a weapon just for Emilie is risky. Her limited viability doesn’t justify pulling on the weapon banner unless you already want her for specific content.

He concedes it’s a decent stat stick, especially for characters like Iansan or in edge cases, but it doesn’t meaningfully elevate Emilie to a must-pull status.

Comparison to Other Supports

Throughout the video, Red Warrior compares Emilie unfavorably to other units:

Furina: Offers energy, healing, and party-wide buffs—far more consistent across all team types.
Miss Coffee (Escafier): A premium off-field support who enables powerful elemental combos without needing to sacrifice reactions.
Citlali: As a Cryo enabler, she opens up powerful Melt options that Emilie simply can’t match.
Yaoyao: Even older supports are often more broadly usable due to their healing and uptime.

“Why would I ever build a serious team around Emilie when we have Sealie or Miss Coffee?”

A “Full Regret” Character?

Yes. Red Warrior calls Emilie one of his most regretted summons, not out of spite but because of her limited scope and missed potential. He points out that she: