V3 was an absolute letdown, to say the least. I just don't understand why they nerfed Jiaoqiu, in particular to his lightcone. I get that they changed the appliance requirements, so you would want the character (Jiaoqiu in this case) to use the lightcone. However, the new lightcone is now worse by miles. The fact that after you applied the unarmored state twice on a target, you can no longer apply it for that duration or whatever. Do you know what this means? It's now a single target. Yes, that's right, it's single target. Unless I'm somehow misinterpreting the last sentence of the latest change, please let me know.
Next, his new trace. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? It's literally worse than Pela's. His new trace is the same as one of, if not the worst, LC in the game. It's not pointless, but why wouldn't you just copy and paste Pela's talent over. I would rather have a 1 for 1 than whatever monstrosity they cooked up.
Next, his DoT. I'm sorry to tell you, but this is probably one of the worst changes because of the nerfs he got. What we wanted was his kit to make sense, so we wanted his DoT incorporated into his kit. We wanted it as an extra thing with what he ALREADY had, but no, they decided to nerf him and add some minor dot. This dot isn't even worth replacing anyone in DoT teams. Have you all seen the E2 showcases??? Tbh, idk why you would even E2 for his DoT when it's the same as getting 3 characters, Kafka, BS, and Ruan mei.
Guinaifen vs. Jiaoqiu. Sorry, but I just don't see how anyone's jades are worth it for him. Yes, I understand if you simp for him, but if he's only 19% better than Guinaifen and they needed to change his LC just so Pela can't be a competitor, then he's genuinely not worth it. Need I mention, Guinaifen can now use his lightcone.... but the fact that it's only a 19% difference between E6 Guinaifen and Jiaoqiu, a 5* is a joke. If you add the ult vulnerability, okay, fine, 34% better. It sounds like a lot, especially if you imagined a new harmony giving 34% stronger buffs than Sparkle. However... Guinaifen is a 4, not a 5.
Also, Pela is just better in almost every way, at least as a debuffer. Better traces, sp positive (I know the latest change to Jiaoqiu's trace makes him kinda sp neutral/less sp negative, but Pela is fully positive...), and literally cheaper to build in every way. She doesn't need some crazy ehr requirement, she doesn't need a 5* lc to stand out, and she has higher base speed, meaning it's easier to reach the 160 speed requirement for hyperspeed. I know the speed difference is very little between the two, but sometimes we're just that unlucky.
It's almost as though Hoyo doesn't want us to pull at all. For both the LC and character. Also, for those of us who are running Acheron teams, we already get 9 stacks per cycle/1 ult. Jiaoqiu isn't going to give us an extra ult per cycle, so it genuinely doesn't matter. We don't need more stacks. And if you say pure fiction, respectfully, FMC with trend does the exact same thing if you build enough ehr which jiaoqiu needs anyway.
For those of us who want to pair him up with Ratio. If you're f2p, respectfully, Jiaoqiu isn't worth the pulls. You're better off building Pela and saving your jades for Topaz, a new hunt fua, or whatever.
Look, I'm not much of a doomposting fan, but the fact that they butchered his kit like this is not fun AT ALL. The only things we can hope for are beta feedback to reach the devs. This will allow them to up his numbers in V4 and V5... hopefully. Maybe they're just changing his kit around in V3 but buffing his numbers for his debuffs in V4 and V5... or maybe I'm just coping.
Edit: Look, if you want to pull for him because you like his design, playstyle, kit, etc, that is PERFECTLY fine. I'm not trying to change your mind on pulling. I'm just trying to explain how he compares to pre-existing characters and how he isn't worth it if you are trying to get an upgrade to a pre-existing character. I genuinely wanted to pull for him as well, but now, well... it just seems kind of out the window. Still love his animations and stuff tho...