After six years of Genshin Impact, I've settled into a comfy rhythm and rarely have strong enough feelings to commit them to print, but new 5-star Vesna is the kind of character I've wanted for ages. I am hootin' and hollerin', by which I mean I am telling my boss, and now you, about her.
Vesna is one of two newly released 5-star characters in Genshin Impact update 7.1, opposite Vodyanitsa, who is one of Vesna's best teammates. She's a fae warrior, and an on-field damage-dealing character who specializes in the new Stellar Swirl reaction introduced with Snezhnaya.
Vodyanitsa is a solid support character, but Vesna is something else. Granted, her play style is very similar to Zibai, a Lunar Crystallize DPS character released in the Nod-Krai arc. You activate her skill to enter a special stance, use normal attacks to build up a resource, and then use that resource to launch powerful elemental skills, weaving in an elemental burst whenever you can (ideally before your final three skills).
I like Zibai, so obviously I like Vesna. I'm also attracted to power in games like this, so it helps that Vesna has been rated by many reputable Genshin theorycrafters as one of the strongest DPS characters in the game, if not the singular best for some team and build assumptions.
But what really pushes Vesna over the top is her movement utility. This is the first Genshin Impact character to fly so fast and so freely out in the open world. Chasca, another Anemo flyer, has nothing on Vesna, even with Natlan's regional bonuses supporting her.
If you hold a dash on Vesna, she'll unfurl her wings and take off, able to cover surprising distances and quickly ascend before running out of stamina. In Snezhnaya, you can also swap to Vesna, and only Vesna, mid-air to instantly begin flying and regenerate a chunk of stamina.
Genshin Impact is just a different game now. For context, Xianyun is one of the weakest limited 5-star characters in the game today, but she's also one of my most-used simply because her triple-jump skill is incredibly fun and useful for exploration. Chaining Xianyun's jump into Vesna's glide in Snezhnaya is utterly transformative, and even in other regions where Vesna can't be swapped into like this, her flight time is astounding.
Exploration is a pillar of the Genshin experience, and Vesna is literally never leaving my exploration party from now on. At least not until Genshin releases, I don't know, Anemo Spider-Man. But frankly, it's hard to imagine exploration getting much breezier than this. I've played a lot of Mavuika, Sandrone, Varesa, Xilonen, Yelan, Kazuha, and all the other exploration standouts barring Wanderer. Nobody comes close. I've never had this much fun just roaming around Genshin, and I don't think I could recommend a character more strongly.
