Liyue’s star chef is one of the characters players can unlock in Genshin Impact relatively early in the game. After completing Spiral Abyss Floor 3 Chamber 3, Xiangling will join the party. Part of the main story quest also involves her so players can test out her kit in actual battle.
Xiangling: Overview
Xiangling has a lot going on for her. First, she is a pyro character and currently, pyro has access to Melt and Vaporize, the strongest elemental reactions in the game (because they can deal critical damage). Second, she uses a polearm, a weapon with high attack speed that deals physical damage. This makes it easy for new players and free to play players to build her as a main or secondary DPS. Third, her character levels include Elemental Mastery, which helps a lot if she is a support for your team to trigger elemental reactions.
Xiangling’s normal attacks hit hard and fast, and ideally you would want to buffer a charged attack at the end of four normal attack hits. This optimizes her DPS and can be easy mastered even when playing on mobile.
Her Elemental Skill summons Gouba, a stuffed bear that acts like a pyro turret. Gouba’s attack range can slightly increase with constellations, but it’s best to summon him at melee range. Each attack deals pyro damage and debuffs enemies with the pyro element. Xiangling’s 2nd passive talent makes Gouba leave behind a chili pepper, increasing attacks by 10%, which makes for a great DPS increase for your party.
Gouba can be pushed around, altering his target priority. Venti’s Burst cannot suck him up together with enemies but Anemo Traveler’s Burst can, which can help kill enemies faster thanks to Swirl.
Her Elemental Burst is Pyronado. Xiangling opens up with three pyro attacks then has a swirling pyro disc surround her, hitting enemies in a 360 degree arc. Her 4th constellation increases the duration of Pyronado by 40%, giving you more DPS.
Xiangling’s Builds
Xiangling can be built either as your primary DPS or a support DPS character. Her attack speed lets you get more hits in versus a greatsword, which means better chances to proc critical hits. Her high elemental mastery allows you to proc elemental reactions with high damage values.
Weapon: Crescent Pike/Primordial Jade Spear/Skyward Pride/Deathmatch
Artifacts:
2pc Bloodstained Chivalry + 2pc Gladiator/Crimson Witch of Flames
ATK hourglass
PHYS DMG goblet
ATK/CRIT DMG/CRIT RATE headpiece (depending on lacking stat)
Xiangling’s attacks in carry mode are enabled by an easy-to-obtain weapon, the 4 star craftable Crescent Pike. It’s ability grants you an extra instance of a physical attack with 20% bonus damage after you absorb an elemental orb or particle. This extra physical attack effectively doubles Xiangling’s every attack and can crit as well. The Crescent Pike’s ability will work as long as you get elemental particles, so be sure to spam your abilities as well as your team’s Skills and Bursts to get the most out of Xiangling.
Having two pieces of Bloodstained Chivalry and Gladiator help skyrocket Xiangling’s white damage numbers, and having physical damage bonus on her goblet and on the Crescent Pike ensure that you are dishing out the best possible damage values out of her. Alternatively, you can also increase the damage of her Skill and Burst to make your DPS more consistent with the Crimson Witch of Flames set.
Weapon: Prototype Grudge/Favonious Pike/Dragon’s Bane/Skyward Spine
Artifacts:
2pc Crimson Witch of Flames + 2pc Noblesse Oblige OR 4pc Lavawalker (if main DPS is pyro)
ENERGY RECHARGE hourglass
PYRO DMG goblet
ATK/CRIT DMG/CRIT RATE headpiece (depending on lacking stat)
Alternatively, you can build a solid support Xiangling again with little investment. Prototype Grudge, Favonious Pike, and Skyward Spine all provide energy recharge as a substat, which helps a lot since Xiangling’s Burst costs 80 energy. You can also use Dragon’s Bane which has the elemental mastery substat, to further increase the damage values from your elemental reactions. For a support build, you would want to give her energy recharge on her timepiece to help manage her energy costs and a pyro damage bonus goblet because you will be spamming her Skill and Burst off of cooldown all the time.
Team Compositions: General
As a main DPS, Xiangling would do very well with a fellow pyro character like Bennett. His kit provides more sources of pyro damage, buffs Xiangling’s attack, and gives healing. As far as support characters go, Bennett should always be top of mind and yes, he works really well even with no constellations, making him a very free-to-play friendly character.
Xingqui is another support character that pairs well with Xiangling. His Burst, combined with Xiangling’s own Burst, provide you with a source of Vaporize damage, allowing you to breeze through certain Spiral Abyss floors and many of the enemies in the overworld with ease.
Fischl is also a good support for Xiangling. Overloaded produces the highest single target damage from the elemental reactions, and is great for focusing on big enemies that have bigger HP bars. Be mindful of where you place Oz in relation to Gouba, since you would want the two of them hitting the same target for best results.
Diona is also a great support for a carry Xiangling. Her shield allows Xiangling to stay in the fight longer, while her Burst gives healing and a source of the cryo debuff. Placing Gouba or activating her Burst within Diona’s cryo field allows Xiangling to consistently trigger Melt, and thanks to her already high elemental mastery, can proc for big numbers.
Diluc is a great carry for support Xiangling, thanks to their elemental resonance. Swapping to Xiangling to pop Gouba and her Burst ability gives Diluc a continuous source of pyro damage when his own Skill and Burst are on cooldown, allowing you to continue the damage.
Keqing is another 5 star that benefits greatly from the support Xiangling provides. Her Burst allows Keqing to consistently trigger Overloaded, and Gouba’s stationary pyro damage lets her gather enemies to her so she can unleash her Burst on the maximum number of targets.
Finally, Razor is also a good match for Xiangling. She won’t be the one triggering Overloaded, but thanks to Razor’s high damage values, you will still see high numbers pop up and lots of enemies dead thanks to their combo.
Summary
Xiangling is a flexible pyro character, able to be built as a physical damage dealer or a very competent support for your team. Her DPS playstyle involves agility and favors optimizing her attack rotations, while her support playstyle involves swap-based plays to maximize elemental reaction damage. She is free-to-play friendly as her best in slot weapons for both builds can be easily obtained through the Blacksmith but gives great results no matter how you build her.
JD Pablo Editor-in-Chief
JD Pablo is the current Editor-in-Chief of twenty8two. Enjoys video games, pizza, banana bread, and tea. Takes coffee black.
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