Pros and Cons

Due to the way Thoma’s shield works, he is able to keep a strong shield without relying on only one Talent. He can start and end a fight with a significantly strong shield without having to activate his Skill again because he is able to stack his shield during his Burst. For a more in-depth explanation of how Thoma’s shield works, please see the 'Blazing Barrier: How Thoma’s Shield Works' section.

Thoma’s shield is amazing for units that perform Normal Attacks (NAs) often and are extremely vulnerable to interruption during their DPS window. Even if Thoma’s shield breaks, he can easily create another one when the on-field character uses Normal Attacks during his Burst, preventing the DPS from getting staggered. Essentially, Thoma’s shield keeps on-field units NA-ing instead of being smacked around and losing a significant amount of DPS.

The only shield better than our beloved Thoma’s at C0 and max stacks is none other than Rex Lapis’ himself. However, this is with full stacks on Thoma’s shield. Without full stacks, Thoma’s shield from his Skill falls behind Layla’s and Diona’s. For reference, it takes Skill+6 Fiery Collapses for Thoma’s shield to reach Diona’s Hold Skill and about Skill+7-8 Fiery Collapses to reach Layla’s Skill. At C1, Layla’s shield can become better than Thoma’s.

Although this may sound like a con in most DPS scenarios, for Burgeon Thoma this is extremely helpful. Thoma’s ICD allows him to reliably proc Burgeon without interfering too much with Dendro Core creation. Additionally, Thoma’s ICD does not matter for triggering Burgeon, as each Dendro Core counts as a separate entity.

A lot of people undervalue Thoma as a shielder primarily due to not understanding how his shield's stacking mechanic works (therefore thinking it’s weak), and/or being scared away by his ER requirements. The first is easily remedied with a simple explanation, and the second is easily mitigable if you take into consideration the build options you have. For example, using a 5-star ER Sands, 2-piece EoSF, and a level 90 Fav Lance brings your ER to 202.4% even without any ER substats on artifacst. For more information about ER, please see the ER requirements chart within each build section.

He cooks, cleans, and doesn’t raise an ancient god from the Archon War to try and steal the Geo Archon’s Gnosis. What more could you ask for?

These two cons go hand in hand, but as mentioned earlier in the Low Investment Shield Support section, you can work around them by making sure you have enough ER coupled with good rotations. In addition to this, his Constellation Lv. 1 (C1) reduces his cooldowns and his Constellation Lv. 4 (C4) reduces his Energy requirement.

Thoma is able to provide teams with a good shield and very good Interruption Resistance due to his ability to quickly create a new shield even if a pre-existing Blazing Barrier breaks. This can be very helpful in teams that include Ayato, Hu Tao, Yoimiya, or Xiao, as they naturally incorporate NAs in their DPS windows.

However, Thoma does not synergize well with units like Ayaka due to his lengthy off-field Pyro application which interferes with Freeze uptime, or Ganyu, as his Fiery Collapses don’t proc from Charged Attacks. Moreover, due to Thoma being a Pyro character and a shielder, he has stiff competition with other strong supports like Bennett and Zhongli due to other support capabilities they can bring to a team.

Thoma is not Xiangling, Hu Tao, Diluc, or Klee– he does not have great multipliers, which decreases his damage potential quite a bit. That being said, Genshin is a team-based game. You are able to play the character you want as long as you put some work into them and build a team that supports their specific needs. Because of Thoma’s lower scaling, you will need to invest resources into him, in addition to a strong team in order for his damage to become significant.

On the flip side of this, the DPS role where Thoma shines the most is Burgeon, where talent multipliers don’t matter!

Genshin isn’t the hardest game to play – end-game content does not require the best team comps to clear. Yes, it may be harder depending on the enemies and buffs present, but you don’t need an extremely strong and optimized team to 36* Abyss. Just make sure you build a team around your DPS.

Play who you want and who you enjoy!