Xiao Mains

Should You Wish for Xiao?

Art By: nya_Deko

By Xiao Mains Discord

discord.gg/xiao

Also Available At:

http://syw.xiaomains.com/
Mobile Friendly Link

Updated for Version 3.3

Introduction
This guide will present a list of in-depth pros, cons, and general notes that anyone interested
in Xiao should understand before they commit to their decision of pulling or skipping him.
While we of course love Xiao, we understand that he may not be the best choice for everyone.

Thus, our goal is not to convince you whether Xiao is meta or not meta or to recommend you to
pull or not pull him. The only goal is to provide a fair and comprehensive analysis of his
strengths and weaknesses and allow players who read this guide to draw their own
conclusions.

DISCLAIMER
This guide is focused on evaluating Xiao at C0 or C1. For C6 considerations, please see
the C6 Xiao section of our main guide.

This guide ignores all other aspects of Xiao, such as his appearance, personality, lore,
design, voice, etc. If you like Xiao for these aspects, you are valid and you should pull for
him no matter what this guide or anyone else says. This is ultimately a PvE game, so
only you can decide how you enjoy this game. Play whoever you want.

Credits
Primary Authors
baeliph#8346, Llamagician#8583, Felician#5771

Reviewers
Coded#2644 (TC Lead), Rich3331#9097, 3.14#2780, Shintenzu#8454

Table of Contents
Introduction
Credits
Table of Contents
Build
 Artifacts
Weapon
Teams
Gameplay
The Pros and Cons of Plunges
Elemental Burst
Kit Design
Plunge DPS
Anemo DPS
Constellations
Afterword
Additional Resources

Build
Artifacts
PRO: Xiao’s 2pc artifact sets can be very easy to build.
Firstly, Xiao is not dependent on his 4pc set, and can run any combination of 2pc ATK% sets,
including Gladiator’s Finale (Glad), Shimenawa’s Reminiscence (SR), Vermillion Hereafter (VH),
Echoes of an Offering (Echoes) as well as 2pc Viridescent Venerer (VV) and 2pc Desert
Pavilion Chronicle (DPC) that give Anemo DMG%. These combinations have been competitive
before the launch of 4pc Vermillion Hereafter, his BiS set, and can serve to be functional
replacements that are slightly inferior.

For optimal builds, different 2pc combinations only offer a 2-4% DPS difference between each
other, and are approximately 5-10% worse than 4VH, so the player can choose whichever
combination has better substats should they opt to build the 2pc options. Xiao can even
forsake one or even both set bonuses for off pieces as long as the difference in substats
between their on-set and off-set artifacts is worth the loss of the set bonus.

PRO: Xiao’s artifacts can be very easy to farm.

The Chasm’s VH and Echoes domain (The Lost Valley) offers both sets as 2pc ATK options,
which can serve as a back up plan set of artifacts for those farming for the 4pc Vermillion
Hereafter set. For that reason, it is a good artifact domain to farm in for those wishing to build
Xiao.
Inazuma’s SR and EoSF domain (Momiji-Dyed Court) is also widely regarded as a valuable, if
not the most valuable artifact domain in the game as both sets offer useful set bonuses. For
that reason, many will already have strong SR artifacts available to them.

Glad and VV artifacts are now available through the crafting table’s Artifact Strongbox, so
while farming for any artifacts, the player can opt to exchange their bad 5* artifacts to
passively farm Glad or VV artifacts. Furthermore, players can passively get Glad artifacts
through their Genshin journey via farming bosses.

The 3.3 domain (City of Gold) offers 4DPC alongside the 4pc Flower of Paradise Lost. Thus, for
players who are farming for sets that benefit Dendro Hyperbloom/Burgeon teams, this can
serve as a good alternative too.

Weapon
PRO: Xiao can utilize some of the more niche DPS polearm options.
Xiao is able to use most DPS oriented polearms to great effect. He is the only character that
can fully utilize PJWS and other more niche options such as Vortex Vanquisher, Calamity
Queller, and Lithic Spear. Even Skyward Spine and Engulfing Lightning can find value by
offering Xiao comfortable ER stats for easy burst uptime.

NOTE: Xiao’s F2P polearm options.

Apart from utilizing niche 5* weapons, Xiao also has access to several F2P options that players
can equip on him. Blackcliff Pole, obtained from Paimon’s Bargains, and Missive Windspear,
obtained from the 3.1 Of Ballads and Brews Event, serve as competitive options for players
who do not have access yet to 5* options or Lithic/Deathmatch, the latter two being
banner-only and paywalled respectively.

Favonius Lance is also a decent option for him, granting team energy that enables high-cost
support units like Faruzan, Yelan or Xiangling. Although high refinements come with gacha
luck, its high base ATK and ER substat makes it a good choice for Xiao and does not lag behind
other options that much.
Teams
PRO: Xiao does not directly compete for many popular characters.
Xiao does not compete for popular support characters. Most of them like Bennett, Raiden or
Yelan are viable on him, but he does not depend on them, and thus allows some degree of
team flexibility. The only core unit that he directly competes for is Faruzan, a rather niche
Anemo buffer launched in patch 3.3, and so it is often straightforward to run him across from
your second Spiral Abyss team.

CON: Xiao’s best teams may still see the use of expensive supports like Jean, Zhongli or
Faruzan.
Xiao is ultimately a hypercarry DPS whose total team DPS scales almost entirely on his
personal investment. Thus, to reach Xiao’s peak hypercarry DPS, he will often require more
expensive supports.

Most notably, due to the enormous buffs she can offer Anemo DPSes, Faruzan is basically
required in order to maximize Xiao’s hypercarry potential. As she is a relatively new 4* support,
obtaining constellations on her, especially C6, is an expensive investment.

Triple Anemo teams with Faruzan are also strong now, and scale best with 5* Anemos like
Jean, Kazuha, or Venti who provide much more utility than their 4* counterparts. These Anemo
characters are also often highly sought after in other teams, further increasing the investment.

Finally, one of Xiao’s most popular traditional teams is the well known Double Geo comp with
Jean, Zhongli and Albedo. This sees the use of four 5* characters, an investment that not many
beginners may be willing to commit to.

PRO: Xiao’s teams can be built flexibly and F2P friendly.

While Xiao’s most optimal teams may be expensive, the beauty is that Xiao’s teams are
actually quite flexible in terms of making viable comps. He rarely requires any specific
character to the degree that other characters might.
 The Xiao Mains Discord server has this command to simplify Xiao’s team comp.

As an example, let’s take a look at Xiao’s popular teammate options:

● A F2P friendly substitute for Albedo is Geo MC, who offers 10 crit rate, crowd control,
and burst DMG with Wake of Earth, or Fischl, who offers easy off-field Sub-DPS.
● A F2P friendly substitute for Jean is Sayu (or even Sucrose if you can use Zhongli’s
shield to sustain your team). Sayu can offer healing and comparable (or even better)
energy.
● A F2P friendly substitute for Zhongli is Diona or Thoma. Diona especially can offer
healing, shields, and energy utility.

Even if players decide not to run Faruzan together with Xiao (L), she is still by nature a buffer
and shredder and not a crucial role like an enabler, and so can be replaced with other options
like Bennett, Yelan, Jean or Zhongli who fill respective parts of her kit.

NOTE: Does Xiao need Zhongli?

While I would be as bold as to say that Zhongli is a must pull for Xiao Mains due to how much
comfort, utility, and DPS he can provide for Xiao, Xiao still has many Abyss viable comps
without Zhongli. While clearing with non-Zhongli teams may be more difficult (especially for
high res enemies, more on that below), Xiao is not as dependent on Zhongli as Hutao is on
Xingqiu or Xiangling is on Bennett.

PRO: Xiao’s supports can be built quite cheaply.

Xiao is a hypercarry, so he deals the vast majority of damage in his teams. Therefore, the rest of
the team mostly consists of buffers, batteries and survivability units, most of whom can be built
cheaply. This can let people dedicate their farming to Xiao and leave their optimized support
and Sub DPS artifacts for other characters.

That being said, Xiao’s teams can still benefit from building secondary sources of damage, such
as investing into Albedo’s 4pc Husk set.
CON: Most supports and buffs do not last the entirety of Xiao’s burst.
Xiao’s Burst spans 15 seconds on field (and even longer when counting Elemental Skill casts
and hitlag) and he cannot be swapped out of field during that time period without losing his
Burst. As a result, his field time extends longer than most common buffs. For example, the
buffs from TTDS, 4pc Noblesse Oblige, Bennett’s Burst, etc. all run out around midway
through his Burst. While there are some supports whose kits can be utilized fully throughout
(such as Faruzan’s C2 Burst, Zhongli’s Shield, Raiden’s E, Albedo’s Flower, and GeoMC’s Burst)
they are few and far between.

CON: Few supports can fully take advantage of or synergize with Xiao’s mobile AOE.
Xiao’s mobility means that he can and will run across the field in different scenarios, which will
detriment the number of off-field buffs that can actually follow him around; such as Bennett’s
field which is rooted to a fixed spot, or Kaeya’s icicles which follow Xiao up and down. As such,
few support units can synergise with his high mobility.

Gameplay
The Pros and Cons of Plunges
PRO: Xiao’s plunges offer him a wide and mobile AOE.
Xiao’s plunges have a surprisingly large AOE, which can be beneficial when facing multiple
mobs; this also lets him be more efficient in crowd controlling, since he can deal knockback and
damage in the large area he covers.

In Spiral Abyss, Xiao excels in AOE chambers. His ability to deal damage to multiple enemies
at once is invaluable for saving time. In particular, he excels against multiple enemies with high
poise, in which case they cannot be staggered by his plunges. For example, the multiple
Rifthounds chamber (Abyss 3.3, 12-3-2) or the triple Maguu Kenki chamber (Abyss 3.4,
12-2-2) are some of Xiao’s best match ups. He is able to deal damage to all of the enemies
present at the same time to deplete their HP at the same time, saving a lot of time versus if you
had to use a more single target oriented DPS to tackle one at a time.

NOTE: Xiao’s Single Target DPS.

Xiao’s per-plunge damage was balanced with his wide AOE in mind. So while his plunges can
deal say 40k to 5 different enemies for a strong amount of total damage, against single target
(ST) enemies, Xiao’s overall damage output will be decreased.
Fortunately, against many ST enemies, he can utilize techniques such as N1CJP and plunge
collision to increase his DPS by more than 40%. With C2+ Faruzan as well, his DPS output is
generally high enough to still afford most players a comfortable clear.

That being said, his single target damage may still not compete with top teams in this niche
depending on available investment and skill.

PRO: Xiao’s plunges allow him to break or bypass the majority of shields with ease.
Physical shields such as hilichurl Dendro/Geo shields are completely ignored by Xiao’s plunges.
He is also capable of breaking any abyss mage’s shield in only a few plunges. And while Xiao
himself does struggle somewhat against the shields of abyss heralds/lectors, the
aforementioned flexibility of his teams allows him to simply bring a dedicated shield breaker to
solve this.

PRO: Xiao’s plunges and aerial gameplay can allow him to dodge enemy attacks.
The vast majority of enemy attacks cannot reach Xiao while he is airborne. This means that,
with proper gameplay, Xiao can safely avoid situations that would be highly dangerous for
most other characters.

CON: Xiao’s plunges can leave him vulnerable to enemy attacks during and after his plunge.
What goes up must come down; although Xiao can avoid attacks while in the air, he is
completely unable to act while plunging and for a brief time once he hits the ground. If the
player is less skilled or simply careless, they could plunge directly into an attack that may kill
them. (This is one reason Zhongli is so highly valued for Xiao.)

PRO: Xiao’s plunges can continuously stagger and stunlock enemies.

Xiao’s plunges deal extremely high amounts of poise damage. Most humanoids, and even
Geovishaps and unshielded Heralds/Lectors find themselves totally stunlocked as they are
staggered by each and every one of his plunges.

CON: Xiao’s plunges deal a lot of knockback which can be annoying to correct for.
Constantly staggering enemies has a downside; at best, you’ll occasionally have to chase
enemies down. At worst, you may knock enemies away from each other, ungrouping them and
making it difficult to hit them all, even with Xiao’s generous AOE. This is most apparent against
mobs with high throwback like Whopperflowers.
PRO: Xiao has a low skill floor.
The core of Xiao’s gameplay revolves around simply plunging over and over again, which
makes him relatively straightforward to use. That being said, Xiao’s gameplay can also be more
technical, such as being able to properly position his plunges, using collision damage against
single target enemies, and dodging enemy attacks with plunge timing.

Elemental Burst
PRO: Xiao offers consistent DPS over a comparatively long window.
Xiao can get up to 12 high plunges during his burst duration. This allows him to deal
consistent damage over that entire window, so even if you miss or don’t crit one or two of his
plunges, he can adjust and still get some use out of the rest of his burst. This is in contrast to
characters with more “nuke” like bursts where if you miss or don’t crit, it hurts the character’s
overall DPS by a considerable amount.

Xiao’s consistent DPS also makes him great at dealing with waves of enemies, as he can
continuously plunge through different waves as they perish until his Burst runs out.

CON: Xiao’s long Burst window can be detrimental against enemies with short vulnerability
windows and/or high mobility.
In Abyss, we sometimes encounter boss enemies such as the Ruin Serpent or Golden Wolflord
that have short vulnerability windows. In such cases, Xiao is only able to get some of his
plunges out before the boss becomes invulnerable, wasting the remainder of Xiao’s Burst
duration. In these cases, it’s often better to rely on front-loaded damage so that characters can
get the majority of their DPS out in the short window.

PRO: Xiao’s Burst has a 15s duration but only 18s cooldown, allowing him to have little
downtime in proper rotations.
Xiao’s Burst has a 15s duration, and with hitlag and animations, he often only has around a
second of cooldown before his Burst is ready to be used again. Thus, when run with a full team
and enough energy management, Xiao’s rotations should consist of quickly rotating through his
supports before getting him back onto the field and in his Burst as soon as possible. As such,
Xiao is able to have virtually no downtime on his Burst.

CON: To have little downtime, Xiao’s Burst requires intentional energy management and
batterying.
Ensuring Xiao can repeatedly rotate through his supports and gain back his energy to launch
into his next Burst requires careful energy management through deliberate prefunneling and
funneling of his own and his team’s energy particles into himself. Because Xiao’s out of Burst
damage is less than impressive, if users are not careful and find themselves having to wait
around for his Skill to refresh to gain enough energy, it can dramatically lower his overall DPS.

Kit Design
Plunge DPS
PRO: Xiao is the only character who is able to continuously utilize plunges to great effect.
Plunges are a unique mechanic in Genshin Impact and Xiao is one of the only characters that
can utilize High Plunges to the efficacy that he does. With that, he can naturally reap all the
benefits (and cons) of plunge attacks, including their wide AOE, high poise, and aerial
maneuverability.

CON: Xiao’s damage comes mainly from his plunges, which at the moment is still a niche
DMG source that leaves him with less support options than others.
Xiao’s damage sources are quite niche. He’s one of the only characters that utilize plunges, and
the amount of supports and artifact sets that buff plunges are limited (and existing options
may also be inferior to existing best options or downright incompatible, like the 4pc Desert
Pavilion Chronicle set or the 4pc Shimenawa set). Furthermore, as most of his damage comes
from plunges, he cannot take advantage of other common buffs such as increased Normal
Attack, Charged Attack, or Elemental Burst damage.

Anemo DPS
PRO: Xiao deals damage primarily through Anemo DMG, which few enemies have
particularly high resistance or immunity to.
Xiao’s Anemo DMG has prevailed against most enemies in-game due to Anemo’s nature of not
being barred against certain other elements; including Azhdaha or La Signora, two examples of
element-oriented enemies that may obstruct other DPSes. As an Anemo DPS, Xiao trivializes
most of these difficulties, clearing most content in the game with ease since Anemo is not a
common element for enemies to have a high resistance to.

NOTE: Xiao is an Anemo DPS which has limited support and resistance shred options.
There is currently only one support in the game, Faruzan, who directly buffs Anemo damage.
Furthermore, there are limited sources of Anemo resistance shred. Before Faruzan, Zhongli was
the only character who offered Anemo RES shred at C0. Fortunately with Faruzan, Anemo RES
shred is now available on a 4* option as well, increasing its availability.

However, easy availability to Anemo RES shred will generally be confined to these two
characters. Most other sources are locked behind other 5 star characters’ constellations (Venti
C2 & C6, Jean C4) and Anemo Traveler is often clunky or impractical to use.

CON: Anemo Resonance is lacking.

In the arena of Spiral Abyss, movement speed is not particularly useful. Additionally, the
cooldown reduction is negligible, especially given that Xiao cannot switch out during his burst,
so both his and his allies’ skills will be off cooldown by the time it ends anyways.

Constellations
PRO: Xiao does not need constellations to perform favorably.
Xiao at C0 already offers a kit that enables you to clear most content in the game. There is less
need to pursue his constellation upgrades as opposed to other characters, as his performance
is not gated and can be accessed favorably out of the box.

CON: Xiao’s C1-C5 constellations are QoL at best and just plain bad at worst.
However, the above advantage is due to Xiao’s C1 to C5 constellations providing insignificant
DPS upgrades to his existing C0 kit.
● C1 only provides one more Skill charge during the span of an entire 1:30 battle due to
the Skill cooldowns. Thus while it can provide nice QoL by lowering energy needs up to
20% for battles needing only 2 Bursts, it otherwise is a less-than-significant upgrade to
his energy management and a negligible DPS boost.
● C2, which boosts his off-field energy recharge, can ease a small marginal energy
requirement for Xiao. However, it ultimately does not synergize with Xiao’s main
method of receiving energy which is via funneling methods, since funneling requires
him to be on field in order for it to be optimized.
● C3 is only useful for those going for C6, and is a minimal DPS increase otherwise.
● C4’s DEF bonus is also useless in most scenarios, since most of his popular utility
supports already provide ample survivability anyway. The 30% damage reduction it
offers may be helpful for surviving should a shielder not be utilized in specific comps.
● C5 is only a minimal DPS upgrade due the large amount of DMG bonus Xiao already
receives).
C6 changes Xiao’s gameplay so much that we have an entire section dedicated to his C6’s
specific pros and cons in our official guide. You can check that out here.

Afterword

Art By: SNOWWIEE#3374

Thank you for taking the time to read our Should You Wish? guide for Xiao. We hope that this
has provided a comprehensive overview for you on everything to consider about Xiao from a
“meta” perspective.

If you have comments or suggestions for the guide, or wish to contribute to our Theorycrafting
in the future, be sure to join the Xiao Mains Discord. We would love to have you there!

Additional Resources
● Xiao Mains Adeptal Guide to Conquering Xiao
● Xiao Mains Discord Server
● Xiao Damage Calculator
● Xiao Weapon Comparison Sheet
● Xiao Mains Stats Database
○ View the many Xiao Stats here: https://bit.ly/3qtBFGa
○ Submit your own here here: https://forms.gle/z4jokw66w9nhUV9X9