Genshin Impact has its gameplay centered around exploring the world of Teyvat with a collection of characters. Metagame suggests that a team of 4 should include at least one Main DPS, Two Sub-DPS, and one Support. This guide showcases the various kinds of Support characters and how they are the star of the party.
Whether it is through Healing, attack boosting, or a swiss-army knife level of utility, Support characters provide quite a lot. Some support characters can be placed on any team, while others are more specialized. This will be a guide going over all things Support Character. The ways to tell if a character is a Support, as well as how to build and use them.
Different Types of Genshin Impact Support Characters
Support Characters do sometimes share aspects of their kits with Sub-DPS Characters. However, the aspect to look out for, is that a Support Character’s Skill and/or Burst provide a Support effect. Examples of Support effects are as follows.
Many Support characters also have a combination of multiple effects they can provide. For example, Bennett has an Attack Boost that comes from his Burst. However, the Burst also provides Healing for the party if needed. Indeed, we think Bennett is a great Genshin Impact Character.
Attack and Damage Boosting Support Characters
One of the most important attributes of a Genshin Impact Main DPS Character is their Attack. Naturally, Support Characters that increase Attack are quite useful. Whether that boost comes from Elemental Bursts, or by utilizing an Artifact or Weapon to assist, the higher the better.
Similarly, increasing the actual damage being applied is just as imperative. Upping the damage bonus of elemental or normal attacks will rack up those damage numbers to get through enemy defenses. Doing this also increases the chances of huge burst damage that will knock out multiple opponents at once.
Attack Boosting
Strangely enough in the game, there are not as many attack-boosting supports yet. This is why the few we have are highly sought after. The two we have currently are Bennett the unlucky lad, and Kujoh Sara the tengu officer of the law.
Bennett by far and away is the more popular option, being on some of the top team builds. His Elemental Burst at Constellation 0 grants an Attack Bonus based on Bennet’s Base Attack to characters over 70% health. It is important to note, however, that this Base Attack only comes from his initial Attack plus whatever his weapon gives.
Additionally, if one gets just the first Constellation for Bennett, the health restriction is forgone. Also, an additional 20% Base Attack is given on top of the initial bonus.
Ideally one will want Bennett’s Elemental Burst to be maxed at Level 11 with Constellation One. This will result in a bonus to a character’s Attack equal to 106% of Bennett’s Attack. This number is regarded as quite valuable for increasing the Main DPS Character’s capabilities.
Damage Boosting
Damage Boosting Support Characters come in many forms, ultimately they all increase one type of damage. This is either by increasing one type of damage in general, either Elemental, Physical, etc. or this increase will happen to one of a given type of damage at a certain moment.
For the former, there is an even further division of damage boosting. Characters like Gorou and Shenhe both increase the damage of their respective elements (Geo and Cryo). Shenhe even provides more damage numbers by lowering the opponent’s resistance to Cryo and Physical damage.
There are also characters like Yun Jin that increase the damage of Normal Attacks in particular. This is a niche part of Yun Jin’s kit, which is of use to a Main DPS Genshin Impact Character like Yoimiya. Yoimiya, while a bow user, functions best when utilizing just her normal attack in combination with her skill.
As for the latter, this mostly applies to support anemo characters such as Kazuha and Sucrose. Both Kazuha and Sucrose give benefits to the party for Swirling either Pyro, Hydro, Cryo, or Electro. They both also have increased efficiency through Elemental Mastery, further increasing Swirl damage.
Kazuha in particular has a Passive Talent called Poetics of Fuubutsu that is acquired at Ascension Stage 4. Whenever Kazuha triggers a Swirl, through Skill or Burst, he’ll increase the bonus of the Swirled Elemental Damage to the whole party. This makes Kazuha a premium unit for any of the mentioned elements. Inflict relevant element, have Kazuha swirl said element, then swap to the Main DPS.
Healing Support Genshin Impact Characters
In the grand scheme of the Spiral Abyss meta, Healers are back in style against certain enemies. Healer support characters help to keep the party’s health, especially the Main DPS, capped at full. Especially if you have one of the Best Healers in Genshin Impact.
While healing is fantastic, many healing support characters come with additional utilities which can help the team further. One great example of this is Bennet, he can provide healing and also attack boosting.
The best example of this though is Jean, an anemo Healer that has a tremendous amount of additional utility. At her base level, Jean’s Elemental Skill provides a way to launch smaller enemies and objects away, providing a way to control the battlefield. She is easily one of the Best Healers in the game.
The cream of the crop though is her Elemental Burst, which on use provides a burst of healing, as well as an area of effect providing further healing. The burst also applies anemo onto the active character periodically which cleanses afflicted elements. Then of course being Anemo, both the Skill and the Burst provide methods to Swirl.
Shield Support Genshin Impact Characters
Finally, a support type best suited to Main DPS Characters that are prone to be interrupted are the Shield Support Characters. The Shields in Genshin Impact provide damage absorption as well as resistance to getting interrupted out of your attacks. For many Main DPS Characters that rely on getting their normal attacks through, this is imperatively important.
The best example of a Shield Support is none other than Zhongli, the geo archon himself. By holding his Elemental Skill, not only does a pillar providing area of effect damage get placed, but a Shield appears as well. At constellation two, Zhongli’s burst will also give Shields to your character, as well as other players in co-op.
Check out our list of the Best Shield Characters in Genshin Impact for full details on what makes a good Shield Character and which ones you should focus on picking up for your party.
Weapons and Artifacts for Support Characters
An interesting aspect about Support characters in Genshin Impact is found when building their weapon and Artifact Sets. It is all about scaling attributes on their abilities. Pretty much all the Support characters have one or two attributes that increase the efficiency of their Support moves. Ultimately, this means that whatever attribute is most important to that character, will be what is on the weapon and artifacts.
Weapons for Genshin Impact Support Characters
The weapon of choice for Support Characters varies greatly and will depend on which attribute needs scaling. For a character like Bennett or Kujoh Sara, their attack boosts come from their Base Attack, so the higher the primary Attack stat they have the better.
This rule of thumb is good to follow when starting out with your Support builds. If a character cares about attribute X, then their weapon’s secondary stat should be X. For a character like Kazuha who needs as much Elemental Mastery as possible, his perfect weapon is the Freedom-Sworn as it has the secondary attribute of Elemental Mastery.
The other best way to pick a weapon for a Support character is to figure out which is more important, the Elemental Skill, or the Elemental Burst. For characters like Diona and Sucrose, they want as many chances to activate their skills. Therefore, the Sacrificial Bow and Catalyst are great options as they will reset their Skill cooldown.
For characters that also have damage on their Elemental Bursts, it is always a sure bet to choose a weapon that increases the Burst damage. While the bursts primary uses are for healing, attack boost, etc… they all do damage as well.
Artifacts for Genshin Impact Support Characters
Similar to the weapons, whatever stat is most important for the Support Character gives a clue as to which artifact set to go with. A primary example of this is Zhongli, his most important stat for Shielding is his Max HP. Tenacity of the Millelith not only gives HP% on 2 set, but also with 4 set helps in upping party Attack and Shield Strength and is one of the Best Artifact Sets in Genshin Impact.
Also similar to weapons, when in doubt about how to build a character initially, a Support Character’s Burst for the most part has damage associated with it. The Noblesse Oblige set not only gives a bonus to Elemental Burst Damage, it will also increase the party’s attack after using their Burst.
Closing Statement
Support Characters in Genshin Impact provide the backbone for the Main-DPS to continue hitting hard, and the Sub-DPS to do their jobs. Without the Support characters, there would be many an enemy and obstacle that would get in the way of your travels and tribulations through Teyvat. This guide was a way to showcase the many kinds of support they can provide.
For more on the other roles of Genshin Impact, be sure to read about our guides on Main-DPS Genshin Impact Characters and Sub-DPS Genshin Impact Characters.
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