After much backlash from fans, the nerf was reverted and players are now set to be given Primogems as compensation.
In the recent version 4.8 update, Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse fixed what seemed to be a bug regarding Neuvillette’s charged attack.
What the devs failed to mention however is that the supposed bug has been currently ongoing since Neuvillette’s release eight months ago.
The bug refers to how players can manipulate Neuvillette’s movements during his charged attack, specifically how he can rotate 360 degrees at mach speed with just a tweak of the sensitivity setting or mouse DPI.
This strategy, obviously called “Spin to Win” in the community, was a popular tactic used by Neuvillette players to clear endgame content like the Spiral Abyss in a matter of seconds. As such, many saw the so-called bug fix as more of a nerf to one of the strongest characters in the game.
As a result, players from all across the world went up in arms in protest of the nerf.
Chinese fans even went as far as reporting HoYoverse to their government, citing “Consumer Fraud”.
Not even 24 hours later, Genshin Impact caved and will roll back the apparent Neuvillette nerf, highlighting the fact that by limiting the rotation speed, it made Neuvillette clunky and difficult to control.
In an official statement to their social media channels, Genshin Impact stated that:
“After the fix went live and Travelers experienced it firsthand, players provided a lot of feedback regarding the fix. Some Travelers mentioned that using Neuvillette's Charged Attack now felt more clunky, which was indeed an oversight on our part.”
Because of this, Genshin Impact will compensate players with 1,600 primogems, a full ten pull, however, the compensation schedule has yet to be announced.
This isn’t the first time that Genshin Impact has faced controversy regarding character kits. During the Geo Archon Zhongli’s release in version 1.1, Chinese fans also protested his subpar kit that resulted in the devs deciding to implement buffs for him in version 1.3.