Xiangling Build Guide For Genshin Impact

Xiangling is a 4* Pyro Polearm sub-DPS commonly regarded as one of the best units in the entire game.

She is one of the free characters that all players can unlock just by playing the game, but unlike all other free characters, she’s not subpar. In fact, she’s the opposite of that—she’s such an amazing character that we’ve placed her firmly in the S-Tier in our Genshin Impact Tier List, an honor rarely bestowed upon any 4* character, let alone a free one.

What makes her so useful is the ability to provide amazing utility through all of her abilities without needing to stay on the field. In addition to said utility, she also brings a metric ton of DMG with her.

In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know to play your Xiangling optimally.

This includes:

• How to prioritize her talents
• Which constellations you should aim for
• What weapons and artifacts to equip her with
• Which team compositions she works best in

So, without any further ado, let’s begin.

Xiangling’s Talent Priority

Talent	Description	Priority
Normal Attack (Dough-Fu)	Normal Attack Performs up to five consecutive spear strikes. Charged Attack Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way. Plunging Attack Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.	Xiangling’s role in the meta is that of an Off-Field Pryo DPS. The idea is to keep her on-field presence to a bare minimum, which means she doesn’t get to perform any Normal Attacks. Therefore, this is Xiangling’s least important talent. That being said, Xiangling can be played as a fairly competent Physical DPS in the early game. If you wish to play her this way, consider this her 2nd priority talent.
Elemental Skill (Gouba Attack)	Summons Guoba the Panda. Guoba continuously breathes fire at opponents, dealing AoE Pyro DMG.	The DMG Gouba offers is fairly decent for an Elemental Skill, but it’s very unreliable, as it’s highly likely to miss enemies entirely. Nevertheless, through the process of elimination, this is Xiangling’s 2nd priority talent.
Elemental Burst (Pyronado)	Displaying her mastery over both fire and polearms, Xiangling sends a Pyronado whirling around her. The Pyronado will move with your character for the ability’s duration, dealing Pyro DMG to all opponents in its path.	Xiangling’s Elemental Burst is the reason she sits so comfortably in the S-Tier—the DMG it does is just insane. This is easily Xiangling’s 1st priority talent, beating out the Elemental Skill talent by a landslide.

Xiangling’s Passive Talents

Talent Name	Description	Evaluation
Chef de Cuisine	When a Perfect Cooking is achieved on an ATK-boosting dish, Xiangling has a 12% chance to receive double the product.	Like all cooking passives, this one is inconsequential.
Regina Probationum	Increases the flame range of Guoba by 20%.	This passive addresses the issue with Xiangling’s Elemental Skill in the worst way possible. In theory, it sounds great, but without the ability to reposition Gouba, the ability will still miss more often than not.
Shadow Samaritan	When Guoba Attack’s effects end, Guoba leaves a chili pepper on the spot where it disappeared. Picking up a chili pepper increases ATK by 10% for 10s.	While not massive by any means, being able to grant extra ATK to one party member is serviceable.

At its core, Xiangling’s kit is extremely simple—you switch to her, cast her Skill, cast her Burst, and switch to another character until her cooldowns refresh.

In a vacuum, she’s not even that great a character.

Her incredible strength, relative to other DPS characters, is a result of many small perks combined to make something greater than the sum of their parts.

For example, Xiangling has some highly impactful constellations, several artifact set bonuses that work wonders on her, and a plethora of weapon options that propel her to great heights. All of these perks will be discussed in their respective segments of the guide.

But there are two things unique to Xiangling’s Elemental Burst that the game doesn’t tell you about and that you should know if you want to maximize her DMG:

• Xiangling’s Burst Snapshots.
• Xiangling’s Burst has no ICD.

Because these terms probably mean nothing to you, let us explain.

Snapshotting refers to the characteristic of some (but not all) abilities to use the stats the character had upon casting the ability throughout its duration. In practice, this means that if you buff Xiangling and cast her Burst, the Burst will retain the benefits of the buff even after the buff expires. Likewise, if you cast her Burst and then buff Xiangling, the Burst will not get the benefits of the buff. So the sequence in which you cast abilities matters a lot.

ICD—short for Internal Cooldown—is a mechanic that dictates how frequently an ability can apply an Element onto an enemy. The standard ICD is either 2.5 seconds or 3 hits—whichever happens first. This means that most abilities in the game cannot apply an Element to an enemy every time they hit them.

We say most abilities because Xiangling’s Pyronado is the exception. For whatever reason, it has no ICD whatsoever! Knowing this allows you to pull off some crazy Elemental Reaction combos with Xiangling that no other character in the game can mimic.

Xiangling’s Constellations

Constellation Name	Description	Evaluation
Crispy Outside, Tender Inside	Opponents hit by Guoba’s attacks have their Pyro RES reduced by 15% for 6s.	Despite Gouba’s overall ineffectiveness, he’s at least able to land his first attack fairly consistently when cast right before Pyronado. This means you’ll always get some value from C1, but overall this constellation is still lackluster.
Oil Meets Fire	The last attack in a Normal Attack sequence applies the Implode status onto the opponent for 2s. An explosion will occur once this duration ends, dealing 75% of Xiangling’s ATK as AoE Pyro DMG.	Even Physical DMG Xiangling doesn’t get much value from this. For sub-DPS Xiangling, this constellation is effectively useless.
Deepfry	Increases the Level of Pyronado by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.	This constellation is great. All constellations that buff the main damaging ability of DMG dealers typically are. Interestingly enough, this isn’t even the biggest buff to Pyronado that Xiangling’s constellations offer. It’s still top-shelf material though, greatly increasing the DPS of her Burst.
Slowbake	Pyronado’s duration is increased by 40%.	This is, without a doubt, Xiangling’s best constellation. Xiangling’s whole kit revolves around her Burst, so extending its duration is even more valuable than just giving it more DMG.
Gouba Mad	Increases the Level of Guoba Attack by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.	While relatively unimpressive, Xiangling’s C5 is still not bad. As mentioned previously, her Elemental Skill does a fair bit of DMG—inconsistency is its only major fault.
Condensed Pyronado	For the duration of Pyronado, all party members receive a 15% Pyro DMG Bonus.	While not her most powerful constellation, Xiangling’s C6 is still highly impactful and very much worth getting if you wish to maximize her DMG output.

Xiangling’s constellations start off poorly but build up to a powerful crescendo.

So while there’s little to no value in obtaining her C1, C2, and C5, you should still feel great about every Xiangling duplicate you get as these will get you that much closer to her amazing C3, C4, and C6.

F2P players looking to tackle the endgame will be well-rewarded for sniping Xiangling whenever she’s featured on a banner or purchasing her constellations in the Starglitter Shop.

Best Weapons For Xiangling

Weapon Rarity	Explanation
Engulfing Lightning 5*	Engulfing Lightning is a fitting BiS weapon for a character commonly referred to by the community as the Pyro Archon. Energy Recharge is essential on Xiangling for maintaining consistent uptime on Pyronado, so this weapon offers both DMG and consistency.
Staff of Homa 5*	As mentioned in our Genshin Impact Weapon Tier List, the Staff of Homa is amazing on any Polearm user and Xiangling is no exception. That being said, many 4* weapons are just as good at buffing Xiangling’s sub-DPS effectiveness.
The Catch 4*	At maximum refinement, the Catch outperforms many 5* weapons on Xiangling. And best of all, it’s completely F2P! It will feel like an eternity fishing for all the refinement materials, but the reward is worth the effort. If you’re new to the game, chances are you don’t have the Fishing System unlocked. For details on when and how you can unlock this, check out our Genshin Impact Beginner’s Guide.
Wavebreaker’s Fin 4*	Arguably the most difficult 4* weapon to obtain on this list, the Wavebreaker’s Fin is also the most powerful. At higher refinement, it can go toe-to-toe or even outperform the 5* weapons in this list thanks to its massive base ATK and incredible passive.
Dragon’s Bane 4*	Dragon’s Bane is another incredibly potent 4* weapon for Xiangling. In a Vaporize team that can effortlessly make maximum use of its Elemental Mastery substat and otherwise restrictive passive, this becomes yet another weapon that can compete with some 5* options.
Favonius Lance 4*	If you find that your Xiangling can’t maintain consistent uptime on her Burst or you simply wish to sacrifice some of her DMG in favor of supporting another character with extra Energy, Favonius Lance is the best option.
Crescent Pike 4*	If you’re running Xiangling as a Physical DPS, look no further than the craftable Crescent Pike. The way this weapon synergizes with her Normal Attacks is incredible. Physical DMG numbers will be popping left and right. If you’re already determined to run Xiangling in a sub-optimal role, the least you can do is make her the best she can be at it.

Best Artifacts For Xiangling – 4-Emblem of Severed Fate

Among the various artifact set bonuses that work great on Xiangling, the 4-piece Emblem of Severed Fate stands above the others as the most universally powerful one.

For endgame content relevancy, all you care about is buffing Xiangling’s Burst DMG and increasing its consistency—this set bonus accomplishes both.

In terms of main stats, Xiangling works best with an ATK% Sands, a Pyro DMG Goblet, and a CRIT Rate/CRIT DMG Logos.

In a Melt or Vaporize team that also features ways of buffing Xiangling’s ATK, you’ll get better results from an Elemental Mastery Sands.

And as for substats, the best ones you could get are CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, Energy Recharge, and ATK%. Again, Elemental Mastery is also a great one to have, but only if you’re using Xiangling in a team built around proccing Elemental Reactions.

Although, if you’re running her in such a team, then you should also swap out the Emblem of Severed Fate set bonus for the 4-piece Crimson Witch of Flames. This artifact set greatly increases the potency of Melt and Vaporize Reactions, in addition to providing some extra Pyro DMG across the board.

Another solid option is the 4-piece Noblesse Oblige set bonus. This will sacrifice some of her personal DMG output in favor of buffing the rest of the team, putting her in a more supporting role.

Best Team Composition For Xiangling

F2P National Team

The so-called National Team is one of the most powerful and well-accomplished team compositions in all of Genshin Impact, yet it consists entirely of 4* characters.

If you’re looking to make it far into the Spiral Abyss but you don’t have any of the top-tier 5* characters, this team will get you there.

• Xiangling
• Bennett
• Xingqiu
• Chongyun

Xiangling is here to cast her Burst and watch Elemental Reactions go off.

Bennett is the ATK buffer for the team. Make sure to Snapshot both Xiangling’s and Xingqiu’s Bursts for maximum effectiveness—this means casting Bennett’s Burst first and then casting their Bursts inside Bennett’s Burst. As the second Pyro character, her also unlocks the Pyro Resonance, increasing the ATK of all party members.

Xingqiu is here to provide the team with some off-field Hydro DMG for the sweet-sweet Vaporize Reactions.

Chongyun is technically the best candidate for the on-field Normal Attacker position in this team. That being said, this team is all about cycling through the Elemental Skills and Bursts of all party members whenever possible. Only perform Normal Attacks with Chongyun when everything else is on cooldown. If you have Raiden Shogun, you can use her instead of Chongyun for the so-called Raiden National Team—a greatly more powerful version of this already powerful team.

F2P Melt Xiangling

• Xiangling
• Bennett
• Rosaria
• Kaeya

Xiangling’s role in this team is identical to her role in the National Team—she’s there to cast her Burst and watch big numbers pop.

Bennett is also here for the very same reason. However, if you don’t have Bennett, you can replace him with any Pyro character. Amber, Thoma, and Xinyan will do, although the best option will be Yanfei. While arguably not a F2P unit, Diluc works incredibly well in this team and many F2P players do begrudgingly have him.

Rosaria is here to provide some off-field Cryo DMG and share a portion of her CRIT Rate with the rest of the team. Kaeya is often presented as the best alternative for players who don’t have Rosaria, but since he’s already part of the team, the other two 4* options will have to do—this includes Chongyun and Diona. Diona is the perfect choice for teams that don’t have Bennett.

Kaeya is sometimes referred to as the discount Rosaria. He accomplishes the exact same role in this team, only without the CRIT Rate sharing. If the only character you don’t have for this team is Bennett, it’s better to swap Kaeya out for Diona than Rosaria.

Whale Vaporize Xiangling

• Xiangling
• Bennett
• Tartaglia
• Kazuha

Xiangling and Bennett don’t care whether they’re in a F2P team or a whale team—they do their job identically and provide amazing value in both instances.

Tartaglia, better known as Childe, is the on-field attacker in this team. In melee stance, his Hydro attacks are some of the fastest in all of Genshin Impact. Combined with the lack of ICD on Pyronado, this means Childe and Xiangling can Vaporize at a breakneck pace. Childe applies Hydro so quickly that he will often be the one to set up Elemental Reactions, rather than the one to proc them, technically making Xiangling the biggest DMG contributor in this team.

Kazuha is the team’s support. He’ll greatly buff the Elemental DMG output for the rest of the team thanks to both his kit and the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer set bonus.

Is Xiangling Worth It?

We end all our Genshin Impact character build guides by asking whether or not the character in question is worth investing resources into.

But this question seems silly in the context of this build guide.

Of course Xiangling is worth it.

She’s equally worth it for beginners and hardcore endgame players alike.

She’s so good that most players don’t ever replace her with any 5* character.

However, we should note that her usefulness is largely dependent on Bennett.

If you can’t run Xiangling and Bennett in the same team, her power-level drops significantly.

This isn’t an issue because Bennett is also an S-Tier unit used in many teams, but it’s something to keep in mind.