It is certainly interesting to have Noctis enter the world of Teyvat as if it were an isekai.
Interestingly, Noctis became the chief justice of Fontaine. With all due respect, this person is probably more suited to be a banker managing Fontaine's cashflows than a justice. It seems the banker turned into a judge and politician. But as they say: money is power. So who knows if the banks secretly control all the courts and politicians in the world.
Noctis and Morax have the same base hp. This pretty much confirms a long time suspicion that many people had on what exactly Morax represents. And it has a lot to do with money. Morax even uses the specific character 摩 mo.
'I will have order'. This line from Morax fits Noctis quite well too. He may as well use his cane as a weapon to bring order to the courtroom. In his elemental burst, he throws his cane at the enemy, petrifying them.
The end of Noctis' demo shows a sky cracking like glass. Hmm, is this a possible reference to Rene's world formula prophecy or how Dottore told Nahida that the skies are fake in the Sumeru AQ?
It appears Neuvillette runs his own mafia of Melusines. The Melusines also seem to look up to Noctis as a role model kind of figure. How cute.
Neuvillette's character intro contains a reference to the Bible and Leviathan, the hydro dragon. Perhaps this is foreshadowing? Noctis is described to be quite emotionless...
Well guess what, Noctis is the reincarnated dragon of water.
Is it even remotely possible that Neuvillette is related to or inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France? After all, Fontaine is based on France. Napoleon was known for establishing the Napoleonic code, a civil code still in use in France. During this period, Napoleon headed the French Consulate, which is usually considered something very important in French history.
Similarly, the Iudex Neuvillette is well-versed in the law and civil cases of Fontaine, even helping pass laws and amendments himself. It appears Napoleon and Neuvillette share a similar connection to the judicial system.
Napoleon was also the og that tried to invade Russia. We all know how that turned out. On the topic of hydro and water, Napoleon was also quite famous for the Battle of Waterloo (1815), truly one of the campaigns of all time.
So if Noctis is like Napoleon, then could the electro unicorn pony thing be his Marengo? Quite a trusty steed.
If Napoleon is one of the most famous men in French history, then who is one of the most famous women? Joan of Arc, called Jeanne d'Arc in French, is a national hero of France who defended the nation and insisted that Charles VII be king.
Coincidentally, Jean of the Knights of Favonius also has the same base hp as Noctis.
Noctis can use hydro pump. It is funny what kinds of analogies some people make for this: Gyarados, Blastoise, Squirtle, Kamehameha.
While using his special CA, he will drain his HP. So it seems Xiao, Lyney, Noctis are part of a special club of destruction characters that can continuously drain their HP.
Noctis' E and Q create sourcewater droplets. His E creates 3, while his Q creates 6. These droplets help him charge his special CA faster. Each special CA absorbs 3 droplets at a time. He is able to absorb the droplets created by the hydro MC, which would make hydro MC a support for Noctis.
Noctis' AoE is pretty good.
His special CA, E, Q all scale with HP, so he does not use Bennett buff. And as of 4.1, there is no HP Bennett at C0. The advantage is that he is not reliant on Bennett as his scalings are actually naturally high. On the other hand, he does not have access to as many HP buffs (compared to ATK buffs).
One passive increases the special CA damage the more hydro reactions triggered, up to 3 draconic stacks. The increase is multiplicative at 110%/125%/160% when 1/2/3 hydro reactions are triggered (so when 3 different types of hydro reactions are triggered, it multiplies his special CA dmg by 1.6). Note this is only counting the distinct types of hydro reactions. So 3 bloom reactions only give 1 stack as that is only 1 reaction. To get 3 stacks, one needs 3 different types of reactions (e.g. swirl, bloom, EC). Note the tertiary reaction hyperbloom is more of an electro reaction and does not count as a hydro reaction for his stack-counting (and similarly for burgeon).
The 160% increase is big enough that one usually wants to play 4 different elements at C0 (diversity team). So Noctis is quite dependent on reactions, basically the opposite of Lyney who prefers mono teams. Although this passive seems to allow for more flexibility in team building, it can actually turn out to be a restriction of its own kind as double hydro can result in one less stack (at C0).
Of course if the enemies are elemental beings like pyro slimes or electro slimes, and Noctis attacks them with hydro, it may be possible to get stacks that way too. This kind of scenario is probably one of the few ways to gain 3 stacks in teams with 3-4 hydro.
Another passive gives him more dmg bonus for each percent hp he has above 30% (for a max of 30% dmg bonus). In this sense Noctis and Hu Tao are opposites. Noctis gets more dmg bonus when his hp is above 50%. Hu Tao gets more dmg bonus when her hp is below 50%.
He also increases swimming speed underwater for the party.
Constellations are overall decent.
C1 gives one draconic stack for free, which frees up his team building and enables double hydro teams. However, it may still not allow things like triple or quadruple hydro. Why would you want 3 or 4 hydro on a team? The purpose is to help Noctis' energy generation. Because Xiao and Itto can be freely played in mono teams (not dependent on reaction stacks), such teams can generate more anemo or geo particles to funnel their 70 cost bursts.
C2 gives 14% crit dmg to CA per stack. C3 increases CA levels. C4 generates a droplet when Noctis is healed (once per 4s). C5 increases Q levels.
C6 allows his CA to absorb more droplets to last longer than 3s (for more continuous CA) and fire off 2 other currents. It seems a bit similar to Ayaka's C2. Perhaps that's just corporate culture.
The 4p marechausse is recommended as Noctis can continuously drain his hp and obtain full stacks easily. Alternatively, one can try 4p HoD, 4p Nymph, 2p Tenacity, 2p Vourukasha, and mixed sets.
Do HP, Hydro, Crit build. For substats: Crit, HP, ER.
The Eternal Flow (Liu Yong) Aeon Wave weapon is his bis. Verity, Toledo, Solar Pearl, HP substat weapons are ok. For 4 star weapons, the Prototype Amber is one of his bis. Widsith is also decent.
Hyperbloom, taser, freeze, vape, burgeon (sautee, curry, oven, who came up with these names?) can work. Teammates can include Nahida, Dehya, anemo vv (Venti, Jean, Kazuha, Sucrose), Morax, Albedo, Fischl, Raiden, Yae, Kuki, Yaoyao, Kirara, Rosaria, Diona, Layla, even Gorou (for crystallize).
Although double hydro may not be too recommended unless C1, hydro teammates can include Mona, Barbara, Hydro MC. Like Lyney, Noctis is a CA dps that does not use XQ or Yelan. Beidou can actually work for shield and because her Q procs on CA.
Dehya's 12s E (at C0) can actually accomodate Noctis' 3 free CA (lasting 12s). In this pair, sometimes it might be Dehya vaping rather than Noctis.
Noctis could be played in Nilou teams. There is nothing stopping that. But just note Nilou teams usually have only 2 elements (hydro, dendro) and 1 reaction (bloom), which means Noctis will only get 1 draconic stack. So there is some anti-synergy and a dps loss here.
It takes 4s to charge his special ca. The ca lasts 3s, hits 8 times, and there is 1s between consecutive ca. So a normal rotation is 8s. In 18s, he may do 2 full ca without E or Q.
Assume 61.6% dmg bonus on ca + 30% from passive for 91.6% dmg bonus. Assume he has 3 draconic stacks for a 1.6x multiplier.
At lv10, his special CA has $$14.47\%*8*1.6=185.216\%$$ HP scaling. Converting this to atk, this is around 1852.16% ATK scaling. So it is basically a nuke per special CA. But it makes sense: it takes longer to charge his special CA (without E/Q) than Lyney's CA, so to compensate it should have higher scaling.
The mv is (multiplying by dmg bonus) $$x=3548.73856$$ The dps is (assuming 8s per CA, without E/Q) $$x/8=443.59232$$ This is quite high for just using CA (no E, Q). And in fact, the CA contributes most of his dps, with his E and Q damage giving marginal contributions.
But above is assuming we do not use E or Q at all (raw CA dps). If we do use E and Q, we can do more CA within an 18s window. The E, Q allow 3 free CA, lasting 12s in total (with 1s delays between CA). So suppose he does 3 CA every 18s (has burst on cd). Then the dps is $$z(3) = x*3/18=591.4564266667$$ That is quite high.
Above assumes 3 stacks. If he only has 2 stacks, the multiplier drops from 1.6 to 1.25, and the dps becomes $$z(2) = z(3)*1.25/1.6 = 462.07533333336$$ In other words, he really wants 3 stacks.
Note: to get the extra 30% dmg bonus, he wants to stay above 80% max hp. His CA drains 8% max hp per .5s. So in 3s, it drains 48% of his hp (but will not go below 50% max hp). In other words, without healing or using E and Q (to gain droplets), the CA dps can be suboptimal. Thus Noctis benefits from a healer and being played as a 'quickswap' or 'burst dps' unit: rotation being E, Q, CA for 12s and then switching off (for 6s downtime).
Despite being a CA dps, his dps style is quite unique, like Xiao or Alhaitham (with E and Q giving flexibility). Overall, Noctis' kit design is a bit similar to Lyney's: good dps, high scalings, good range, CA focused, health drain, and self-healing. Other than that, Noctis has very good aoe.
Because of Noctis' CA range, he actually has less of a need for crowd control.
It seems Ogedei (窝阔台汗) is finally getting some screentime in Genshin.