Genshin Impact Xiangling build guide: Best polearm, artifacts & teams

Xiangling was available in Genshin Impact right from the release, and despite all these years, she is still one of the very best DPS in the game. She can be slotted into plenty of teams, so here’s how to build Xiangling in Genshin Impact, detailing the best artifacts, weapons, and more.  

Xiangling is one of the strongest characters in Genshin Impact, and you can even get her for free. She cooks, both as a chef and as a damage dealer. But even though she does good damage, Xiangling has some strict requirements that you’ve to work with if you’re to get the best out of her.

Ideally, you’ll need her C4, on C0 she remains decent enough but not as fiery. Since she is one of the limited banner 4-star rate-ups currently in Genshin Impact 4.2, which features Cyno and Ayato, it is a good banner to chase her Constellations.

If you already have Xiangling, here is everything you need to know about her build in Genshin Impact. 

• How to play Xiangling in Genshin Impact
• Xiangling’s abilities in Genshin Impact explained
• Best weapons for Xiangling in Genshin Impact
• Best artifacts for Xiangling in Genshin Impact
• Best team and rotations for Xiangling in Genshin Impact

How to play Xiangling in Genshin Impact

Xiangling in Genshin Impact is a Pyro DPS character, and most of her damage comes from her Elemental Burst.

Her playstyle isn’t all that complicated, all you have to do is perform her Elemental Burst and have one Hydro Character in your team so you can Vaporize it to do an extraordinary amount of damage. 

While Xiangling does a good amount of damage herself, she shines the best when you play her with other DPS, like Childe, using her as an off-field damage-providing character. Xiangling is best when paired with Bennett as well.

Xiangling’s abilities in Genshin Impact explained

Normal Attack

Xiangling’s Normal Attack in Genshin Impact is useless. There is no point where you’ll ever find use of it. 

Since she is best slotted as an off-field character, the priority is to have her swapped out as quickly as possible without losing anything, and with her being an Elemental Burst-heavy character, the Normal Attack doesn’t add anything of value. 

Likewise, you don’t have to level her Normal Attack talent. 

Elemental Skill – Guoba Attack

Xiangling’s Elemental Skill summons Guoba, who’ll spit out fire at certain intervals and generate particles. 

Guoba does decent damage, and since Xiangling is Elemental Burst-reliant, every single elemental particle helps. 

In an ideal Xiangling rotation, it is necessary to perform her Elemental Skill just as you perform her Elemental Burst. It both helps her with ER management and squeezes more damage. 

Elemental Burst – Pyronado

Xiangling’s Elemental Burst is arguably her most important talent. This means your priority is to upgrade it to its maximum potential and make sure to provide it with all the buffs that increase its damage. 

In her Elemental Burst, she summons a circular ring of fire that’ll move around with you, dealing an AoE Pyro DMG. 

Best weapons for Xiangling in Genshin Impact

The Catch

The Catch is one of the best weapons for Xiangling because it is not a part of the gacha pool and can be earned by just fishing. It also has ER as a stat, which is best for someone who is Elemental Burst-reliant like Xiangling.

Since it isn’t locked behind any form of gacha, it is highly recommended to have it at R5, and at that refinement level, you do not have to worry about any other weapon options unless you want to min-max and do the maximum possible damage for Xiangling.

At R5, its passive will increase Elemental Burst DMG by 32% and the CRIT Rate for Burst by 12%, both of which are extremely helpful on Xiangling.

Staff of the Scarlet Sands

Staff of the Scarlet Sands is Xiangling’s best in the slot and does the most damage. It is, however, locked behind gacha, and being a 5-Star, it is only available in the weapon banner whenever Cyno is part of the limited-banner pool. 

It provides a CRIT Rate as a substat, and ATK based on your EM as a passive. Since most of the DMG Xiangling does is from Vaporize, building EM is already important, and she also scales well with ATK, making it a top choice for Xiangling. With this weapon, you can focus more on EM and ER and spare the worries about CRIT Rate, a little. 

Engulfing Lightning

Engulfing Lightning is another top pick for Xiangling, as it provides ATK based on ER with its passive and provides ER as a substat. Both ATK and ER are important. Engulfing Lightning is meant to be paired with the Emblem of Severed Fate, which is Xiangling’s best in-slot artifact. 

Staff of Homa also fares just as well as Engulfing Lightning and The Catch. Other 4-star options include Favonius Lance, Deathmatch, and Kitain Cross Spear.

Best artifacts for Xiangling in Genshin Impact

Before we delve into the best artifacts for Xiangling in Genshin Impact, there are certain things that you need to keep in mind regardless of the set you use. These are just standard requirements or stats that you should keep in check: 

• Xiangling’s Energy Recharge should be at least more than 180% and ideally near 200%.
  • This is lowered based on the number of team members with Favonius weapons. 
• Ideally, you should use EM Sand, Pyro DMG Goblet, and CRIT Circlet.
  • Dipping ER lower to achieve the combo is not recommended. It is best to meet ER and then focus on other stats. 
• ATK is also any alternative Sands, but only when you’re not playing reaction-based teams, like mono-pyro. 

These are too complicated demands or stuff to keep in mind. So, here are all the best artifacts. 

4pc Emblems of Severed Fate 

• 2-Piece Bonus: Increases Energy Recharge by +15%
• 4-Piece Bonus: Increase Elemental Burst DMG by 25% of Energy Recharge, max up to 75% DMG bonus 

It is highly recommended to farm Emblems of Severed Fate, and this is Xiangling’s best in slot and a cut above everything else. Not only that, Emblem is best in the slot for plenty of characters, so it is worth farming. 

The 2-piece Bonus grants ER, and we already shared how high her ER requirements are. The set will give you a much-needed ER boost. Meanwhile, the 4-piece provides an Elemental Burst DMG based on ER, so it can’t get better than this. 

4pc Gilded Dreams 

• 2-Piece Bonus: Increases Elemental Mastery by 80.
• 4-Piece Bonus: Within 8s of triggering an Elemental Reaction, the character equipping this will obtain buffs based on the Elemental Type of the other party members. ATK is increased by 14% for each party member whose Elemental Type is the same as the equipping character, and Elemental Mastery is increased by 50 for every party member with a different Elemental Type. Each of the aforementioned buffs will count up to 3 characters. This effect can be triggered once every 8s. The character who equips this can still trigger its effects when not on the field.

The other good option is Gilded Dreams since it provides EM, which Xiangling scales well with, and in most teams, you’ll have to pair her with a Hydro unit anyway. It is not better than Emblems of Severed Fate and does not work when you’re using Xiangling on mono Pyro teams. 

Overall, though, it is just best to farm Emblems of Severed Fate. 

Other options include: 

• Crimson Witch of Flames. 
• Pairing Emblem with another EM-providing set. 
• Pairing either of the above with ATK-providing sets. 

Best team and rotations for Xiangling in Genshin Impact

The best team for Xiangling in Genshin Impact is Childe National (Xiangling, Childe, Bennett, Kazuha). It is not universally good all the time, as other teams perform just as well.  

• Best team: Xiangling — Childe — Bennett — Kazuha
• Rotation: 
  • Childe Elemental Skill
  • Bennett Elemental Burst
  • Kazuha Elemental Burst
  • Kazuha Elemental Skill
  • Xiangling Elemental Skill
  • Xiangling Elemental Burst 
  • Childe Elemental Burst
  • Childe Elemental Skill

Other teams that are just as good include: 

• Xiangling — Lyney — Kazuha — Bennett
  • When using this team, EM is not useful on Xiangling. Focus more on ATK and CRIT than anything else when using this team.  
• Raiden — Bennett — Xiangling — Xingqiu
  • It is probably one of the easiest teams to play. 

Other notable teams: 

• Xiangling — Bennett — Xingqiu — Yelan
  • You can slot Ayato or Kazuha here as well for either Xingqiu or Yelan.
• Sucrose — Bennett — Xiangling — Xingqiu

That’s all you need to know about the best team for Xiangling in Genshin Impact. For more on the game, check out:

Genshin Impact Encounter Points explained | How to reroll in Genshin Impact | All Star-Shaped Gems and Seelie locations | How to get more Primogems and wishes | Genshin Impact Sakura Bloom locations | Genshin Impact Sango Peal Locations | Genshin Impact Geoculus locations | Genshin Impact Lotus Head locations | Genshin Impact Fatui Pyro Agent locations | Genshin Impact Philanemo Mushrooms locations | Genshin Impact Valberry locations | Genshin Impact Dandelion Seeds locations | Genshin Impact Ayato build guide | Genshin Impact Chongyun build guide