The chef extraordinaire from Liyue’s Wanmin Restaurant quickly got attention from players when she got a quest featuring her and her skill in cooking early in the game. Fittingly wielding a Pyro Vision, she and her pet panda Guoba work together to provide support and dish out damage that’s as potent as the food they serve back home.
Every player is given a copy of Xiangling after reaching Adventure Rank 20, and completing the first three Floors of the Spiral Abyss. Her flexibility between being a DPS or a Pyro support within team compositions make her for a companion to keep in mind.
She’s also part of the pool of 4-star permanent characters within wishes, so it’s inevitable that players will get multiple copies of her the more they roll the gacha.
What makes her support capacity good is that her abilities persist even when switching out to a different character. Her skill, Guoba Attack, lets her summon her companion and let it remain on the field spewing out fire for a set amount of time before leaving an attack-boosting chili that can be picked up by teammates. Meanwhile, her Pyronado Elemental Burst circles around dealing Pyro damage for a number of seconds, and it also remains out after switching characters.
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Xiangling Best Artifacts
The artifacts that she runs will dictate what kind of role Xiangling will have within the team composition. There are generally two ways to use her optimally; as mentioned earlier, either you have her as a Pyro support, or you can let her be a secondary damage dealer.
Pyro support builds prioritizes the damage dealt by her abilities, thus two artifact sets are usually seen as options: Noblesse Oblige when you want to maximize her Elemental Burst, or Crimson Witch of Flames for a general boost in Pyro damage. You have the option to mix and match these two together on a split 2-2 set, but it would be much better to run a complete 4-set of either.
Having her as your secondary DPS, however, relegates you to using her entire kit in dishing out as much damage as possible. A full 4-set of Gladiator’s Finale artifacts should give Xiangling all the firepower she needs with an attack boost all across the board. However, if you want to maximize normal attacks more, you can do a split 2-2 set with Bloodstained Chivalry’s physical damage increase.
Xiangling Best Weapons
Support Xiangling needs a way to have her charge up Pyronado fast, and she seems to be a little average in terms of Energy Recharge even with Guoba's help. Equipping her with the craftable Prototype Starglitter solves that problem due to its secondary stat synergizing with its passive to boost damage upon gaining Energy.
Skyward Spine increases her attack speed on top of the secondary Energy Regen, but it is a 5-star weapon so getting it can be quite difficult. For a budget option, the Favonius Lance should do.
If you feel like the Energy Regen won’t be a problem, you can run Dragon’s Bane instead and maximize the Elemental Mastery and boost whenever you deal with Pyro or Hydro affected units.
Letting her be a DPS unit lets her be more considerate in weapon options. Skyward Spine can work here as well as a good crossover between roles, but the Primordial Jade-Winged Spear and the newly-released Staff of Homa work wonders on her as well with their CRIT rate and damage passive bonuses. Deathmatch can work if you got it from the paid Battle Pass.
Xiangling’s best weapon as a DPS unit would be Crescent Pike, due to the synergy it provides by mixing up using her abilities and attacking with her spear. Collecting energy orbs while in battle is very common, so the more you fight the more frequent the attack buff refreshes its timer. Most polearm fighters appreciate the craftable weapon’s passive, but Xiangling makes use of it the best.
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Xiangling Best Teammates
Her role affects the place she earns in team composition. If you have her set up to be a damage dealer, pair her with teammates that can augment her damage while attacking. A Burst-oriented Xinqiu, Oz-spamming Fischl or Cryo Healing Qiqi should do well in giving her more damage while she’s on the field.
She will also greatly benefit from the Pyro Element Resonance, giving her a significant damage boost when paired up with another Pyro user. A support-centric Amber using her Baron Bunny frequently to taunt enemies can work, or Klee using her lasers from her own Burst should add to the explosive damage (pun maybe intended).
Meanwhile, having her as support means she takes a backseat while others dish out the damage. If you build her this way, let your main DPS be of a different element that can trigger Pyro-based reactions like Melt, Vaporate or Overload.
Due to the proximity of Pyronado, however, you may wanna use melee units to maximize the damage that can be dealt. Childe, Keqing, Xinyan, Diluc, Qiqi, or even other element users like Zhongli and Jean can work well with the damage support coming from the chef’s abilities.
Are Her Constellations Good?
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, all players get a copy of Xiangling upon meeting the requirements asked of. On her own, she seems alright with having zero Constellation upgrades on her. However, the first two are way too good to not give a special highlight on their own.
Most tier lists give Xiangling a good rating so long as she’s got her first Constellation active; and considering how often Guoba can be summoned to the field, a frequent Pyro RES shred is very helpful. The second one augments her DPS build even more, adding an explosion onto the last attack of her normal attack string that deals Pyro damage based on her Attack stat.
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The next two upgrades seem to be lacklustre compared to the first two, but they’re worth noting still. The fourth Constellation extends her Elemental Burst duration by nearly half, and the final upgrade grants all party members a Pyro damage boost--perfect for teams that run a Pyro Resonance team.
Inside and outside the kitchen, Xiangling proves her worth exceptionally by covering all the bases and being able to fit into a bunch of roles with a little bit of adjustment. The fact that she’s obtainable for free after fulfilling requirements makes it all the better, and every player can get to know her strengths. A previous analogy this writer used was that she can either be a condiment or a full-course meal on her own; her role is up to the players’ hands.