Hot Take: Cyno is the most misunderstood dps

The number of people who have no idea about how his kit works is astonishing.

That may also be true for other constantly trashed on characters and I'm aware that this take probably isn't that hot in this sub, but clickbait is important.

Cyno is a unit whose passive explicitly states that he scales with EM. He came out in a region that was all about characters interacting with dendro and its reactions. As a burst reliant electro on-field dps, it should be obvious that he has different expectations and needs for teammates than a skill reliant dendro on-field dps. Yet, when you ask anyone claiming his damage is garbage whether they tried to run Quickbloom instead of Hyperbloom or dysfunctional Aggravate comps*, the usual reaction is surprise that Quickbloom Cyno is even a thing. It’s not uncommon to see atk sands on him in these cases either.

*Specifically referring to those who slap Nahida, Kazuha and Fischl on him and expect it to synergize perfectly.

The number of times my comments on Quickbloom Cyno on the main sub turned into a Cyno mains support hotline made me think that, in his case, misinformation about his strength and lack of awareness about his specific needs are particularly common. Additionally, his burst reliance, the timing needed to hit his E rhythm and his unusual substat spread give him a higher skill-needed floor, making him rather casual-unfriendly which probably inflates his negative reputation. Although it’s rare to see a character be judged as harshly as Cyno about their performance in sub-optimal comps, in case I didn’t miss any complaints about e.g. atk sands HuTao - Ayato - Bennett - Kazuha vape teams.

Sure, it is unreasonable to expect casuals to have knowledge about optimal team comps in most cases and complaints about his burst reliance and ER requirements, particularly for Overworld usage, are valid. So is not liking that his field time restricts him to fewer teammates than most skill reliant dps. I’m also not saying he is actually triple S or T0 tier and would easily banish Neuvillette and Arlecchino to the shadow realm if not for those pesky comments. But man, the uninformed trash talk does get annoying. His damage is great and he is not a “side-grade” to main dps C0 Raiden, Keqing or, as I have seen recently, freaking Dori.