Kamisato Ayaka (神里绫华 Shenli Linghua), the frostflake heron. Argenti makes certain things a bit more obvious, as well as that Dahlia character recently introduced in the Duke Inferno Penacony video of HSR.
In general, we are not a fan of Genshin hiding and obfuscating things behind Japanese names as the Japanese may pronounce the Hanzi/Kanji (Chinese characters) very differently from how Chinese do. Moreover, the Japanese kunyomi can result in a very different romanization in English compared to Chinese pinyin. Oh but it's artistic, just like the sakura swirls and haikus of springtime. No. You need to be very clear and direct with your English romanizations or you are going to confuse a lot of people who only know English and not Chinese characters. Things like Silver Wolf (Yinlang/Ginrou), Aventurine (Sha Jin), Argenti (Yinzhi/Ginshi), Dr. Ratio (Zhenli Yisheng), Black Swan (Hei Tian E) are some other examples in that game called HSR. And then there is Cheng Tianzhang (you know who we are referring to).
We have read everything Sir Arthur has said. When Arlecchino and her character voice-overs release, we better not see words being put into people's mouths.
Ayaka collects pollen as her ascension mat.
From raw calcs, Ayaka is the best cryo freeze dps in the game (still is as of 4.x). The fact she has some aoe gives her an advantage. It appears Ganyu/Noctis have more aoe on their CA, but Ayaka has her burst nuke in the arsenal. Also the fact Ayaka can attack faster with her CA, whereas Ganyu/Noctis type dps need to charge their nuke (beware interruption), can make Ayaka feel a bit more comfortable to play sometimes.
She has an alternate sprint like Mona that can move over the surface of water. Her sprint can apply Cryo to the enemy and has ICD. After using her sprint she gains a brief Cryo infusion.
Apparently Kaeya still has the highest NA scalings among sword users (as of 4.4). We do not know if this will change when Arlecchino comes out. The funny thing is that in the beta Alhaitham once had the highest NA scalings, but then the Opium wars, Taiping rebellion, and 8 nation alliance happened in December 2022, and the Qing dynasty was overthrown after the Boxer and Xinhai rebellions.
Ayaka charged attack scaling is good but costs stamina. Based on how her charged attacks work, she almost applies Cryo too quickly (and at jagged intervals), so she will not melt every hit. Sometimes the Pyro supporting character will be melting not Ayaka. As Ayaka applies Cryo at jagged intervals and has ICD, it is not like one can play her as a melt enabler (compared to Childe, who has Riptide which makes his hydro application more uniform and smooth or Alhaitham, who has special icd on mirrors).
Ayaka can also run Freeze teams, which can feel comfortable to play. But not every enemy can be frozen, such as the Maguu Kenki. Later we discuss which team archetype (melt or freeze) has more dps.
So Ayaka is part of a club of dps with 10s cd E, including Xiao, Itto, Yelan.
The burst does around 20 hits and comprises a significant amount of Ayaka's DPS. It has a high energy cost of 80 and long cooldown of 20 seconds, but compensates with higher scaling (compared to Xiaogan E). Some people say the AoE can have a mind of its own. It can snapshot Bennett's buff.
So Ayaka Q and Noctis CA are similar in that they are split into multiple parts, whereas Eula Q and Xiaogan E are just single-instance of damage nukes. Maybe one would expect Eula Q and Xiaogan E nukes to be split into multiple parts like Noctis but that is a story for another day. From the central limit theorem and law of large numbers, splitting the damage into multiple parts makes it easier to achieve the expected value of damage and avoids the crit fishing problem (where one big nuke may not crit). It becomes easier for Ayaka and Noctis to achieve the expected average damage rather than having to reset abyss to get that crit. But Ayaka may not really have a cr problem if she has 4p blizzard. HSR has learned from the central limit theorem and has split characters' attacks into multiple parts.
Again, her Q applies Cryo too fast so it may not melt every hit. Although it can be used to enable a Pyro carry to melt, Ayaka's burst does not last long enough (only 5 seconds) and has long cooldown, downtime, and high energy cost. What is needed for a melt enabler is long uptime on cryo app, preferably on E (so something like cryo Nahida/Furina).
Noctis C6 is a bit like Ayaka C2. Perhaps that is the power of healthy corporate culture. The fact that Noctis has this as a C6 shows the power level of C2 Ayaka. Ayaka's C4 has def shred, which is good. Her C1 is cd reduction, like Eula C1 or Alhaitham C1 (are we hinting at something here?). Her C6 is ok-ish, could be better.
4p blizzard for freeze. Unfortunately 4p WT only works for bow and catalyst users. This is something melt Ganyu has over melt Ayaka. That is why some prefer freeze Ayaka over melt. But you can still play Ayaka in melt (or at least with Bennett).
4p emblem can work for burst. 2p mixed sets can work. Heck even 4p gilded can work for melt. Even Ganyu can use 4p gilded for melt. We got to spread gilded to every corner of the universe.
ATK sands, Cryo DMG goblet, CRIT circlet (usually CRIT DMG since she is usually running 4 piece Blizzard, which already gives CRIT Rate). One advantage Ayaka has over Ganyu is that Ayaka has a slightly higher base ATK.
Her bis is the Mistsplitter. Skyward Blade for ER is fine too.
Since she is usually run in Freeze teams, she is usually paired with a Hydro unit, another Cryo unit for Cryo resonance, and an Anemo unit for swirl and VV.
For hydro, Mona is usually one of her best supports for off field application and DMG Bonus. Kokomi can heal but her burst will take field time away from Ayaka (which may not be too bad given Ayaka's low DPS anyways). Xingqiu can also work but is usually wanted by Diluc or Hu Tao. Furina can also work.
The other Cryo unit is usually Shenhe for her buff or Diona for the healing, shield, and battery to fund her high burst cost of 80. Rosaria, Kaeya, Chongyun, Layla, Qiqi, Aloy can also work. If paired with Furina, Charlotte can work as a second cryo unit.
Some people like to pair Ganyu and Ayaka together as Ganyu E is a taunt and her Q is a cryo buff for Ayaka. This playstyle almost forces Ganyu to act like a support. Others say Ganyu and Ayaka take field time from each other, and Ayaka may benefit from another subdps (as Ganyu main dps potential is a bit more than her support potential).
For the Anemo VV unit, as always we have Venti, Kazuha, and Sucrose. Jean/Sayu can also work if you need the Anemo slot to be a healer, and the may synergize more if doing Ayaka-Furina.
As of 4.x, how do these 3 main cryo dps (besides the physical Eula) compare? Ayaka is usually best for freeze and burst dps. Ganyu is usually best for melt but can do freeze. Wrio can do both, but generally Ayaka and Ganyu tend to have more aoe. While Wrio can be played freeze, he can shatter the enemy. While he can work for melt (especially for nuking CA), his damage is usually split into several parts with icd (Q + NA), meaning not all of his hits will melt.
Both Wrio/Ayaka can use Yelan/XQ whereas Ganyu is more reliant on Mona/Furina/Kokomi. Wrio is more of a destruction class unit whereas the other are more erudition. So Wrio can use Marechausse a bit better, while the others prefer Blizzard more. Also Wrio can synergize more with Furina's burst.
We assume level 10 NA and level 10 Q. At level 10, her CA spam combo (N1C3) will have a total scaling of around 400% and can be done once every 2 seconds on average (also considering the time needed to refresh her infusion by dashing or refresh her stamina). So the dps from her CA is roughly $$x_c = 1.616*(108.97*3+90.39)/2 = 337.1784$$ which is lower than Ganyu. After using her E, she gets 30% more damage on her NA and CA for 6s which is not much time really and contributes not much to overall dps. After using her Q, she also gets 18% DMG Bonus for 10s, but again the contribution is minimal, like a speck of dust.
Her burst does around 20 slashes with scaling of around 202% per slash at level 10. The burst has cd of 20 seconds, so if she can spam it on cooldown the dps is $$x_b \approx 1.616*202*20/20 = 326.432$$ which is again quite low. But Ayaka has huge energy issues and a large energy cost of 80 so it is unlikely she can spam the burst on cd.
Adding ca and burst dps gives $$x = x_c + x_b = 663.6104$$ And that is the power of healthy corporate culture.
Without Bennett, we have to impose a corporate tax and divide the dps by 1.5 (equivalent to a 1/3 or roughly 33% tax). The dps is then $$x/1.5 = 442.4069333333$$
Objectively of the 2.0 characters, if Ayaka does not have Bennett (or C6 Shenhe) she may do less dps than Yoimiya (with Bennett). It will then be kamisatover. However if Ayaka has Bennett, then Yoimiya and Ayaka can do comparable dps, but Ayaka will have an advantage in aoe. Yoimiya has very high st dps, but we wish it was more aoe. Ayaka is a quickswap unit (sprint instant cryo infusion), a bit like Xiaogan.
Ayaka Melt (with Bennett) has more dps than Ayaka Freeze. Bennett gives 1.5 increase in atk (1.5 times more dps). Freeze enables blizzard 4p (40% cr on frozen), which paired with cryo resonance (15% cr), which gives 55% cr or 110% cv. Assuming a typical well-invested dps has 100% cr and 200% cd, then blizzard could allow for 310% cd (stacking crit dmg). This is a dps increase of 4.1/3=1.3666666667. In other words, Bennett's buff is greater than 4p Blizzard.
So why not both? Usually Bennett pyro app may melt frozen enemies. But if one is careful to avoid this, something like Ayaka-cryo-Bennett-hydro (such as Furina) could work. But then there is no vv. So then Ayaka-vv-Bennett-Furina. This may be Ayaka's highest dps team (on paper). A melt Ayaka could be built 2p WT, 2p Blizzard or other kinds of sets. Even 4p Emblem is an option for burst nuke.