The best Genshin Impact support tier list after update 2.3

By Kenneth Williams

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Dec 22, 2021

Reading time: 13 min

Our Genshin Impact support tier list can help you construct teams, plan pulls, and fully clear Spiral Abyss.

Supports are the backbone of any Genshin Impact team. Even if they just pop out to throw out their elemental skills, the right combination can turn a mediocre main DPS into a monster. They provide healing, shields, buffs, elemental reactions, artifact bonuses, and more.

While they’re all useful in their own special way, not all supports are made equal. Some only provide a single benefit while others can provide multiple at a less efficient rate. It can be hard to tell which Genshin Impact supports are better than others, but this tier list can help players find their footing.

Just like the Genshin Impact main DPS tier list, this support list assumes that five-star characters are at constellation zero. Four-stars are assumed to be a higher constellation, but not necessarily C6. They are judged as if they have good, but not perfect, artifact sets and weapons with decently leveled talents. As always, Genshin is not a very difficult game. It’s possible to clear all the story content with any set of characters. Regardless of where they appear on our Genshin Impact support tier list, pull for and use whoever you like.

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The archons and Bennett are S tier supports

While commonly considered a bottom-tier character at the release of Genshin Impact, Bennett has risen through the ranks to become an honorary archon. His burst Fantastic Voyage gives almost everything you want from a support. It heals extremely quickly, applies pyro for good elemental reactions, and applies a massive damage buff for the main DPS. He even helps activate pyro resonance and his elemental skill is great for wearing down shields. The only thing holding him back is his lack of sub-DPS potential and his sixth constellation being incompatible with several characters.

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The actual archons Venti, Zhongli, and Raiden Shogun fill out the rest of the S tier supports. All three specialize in one distinct area, but they do it so well that no other character can even come close. Venti’s elemental burst provides the best form of crowd control in the game. His elemental skill sets up swirl and more crowd control on several units on a very low cooldown. Venti also leads our Genshin Impact open-world exploration tier list for his charged elemental skill and useful passive.

Raiden Shogun is the absolute best battery in the game. Baal’s elemental burst Secret Art: Musou Shinsetsu also makes her an incredible sub-DPS character. Throw out all your other elemental bursts, launch her burst, and they should be ready to go all over again. In addition to her battery potential, she is also one of the best off-field DPS supports thanks to Transcendence: Baleful Omen. The Stormy Eye of Judgement sends out constant electro attacks in tandem with the main DPS, which sets up all sorts of elemental reactions. The right Baal build can turn any team into an absolute monster even at constellation zero.

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Zhongli brings up the rear as one of the best supports in Genshin Impact. Just like the other archons, he is able to provide constant elemental reactions with his skill. His real draw comes from his charged skill. With the right artifact set, the Jade Shield can tank any attack in the game without exception. Add in his incredibly powerful elemental burst Planet Befall, and Zhongli provides a ton of damage potential while also providing the absolute strongest shield in the game. 

Xingqiu, Xiangling, Mona, and Kazuha are A tier Genshin supports

The majority of the A-tier supports in Genshin Impact excel at applying certain elemental reactions. Xingqiu comes first because of his incredibly powerful elemental skill and burst. Fatal Rainscreen provides consistent hydro reactions and Raincutter is among the best off-field DPS bursts in the game. All melee DPS characters benefit greatly from coordinated water attacks. Xingqiu’s only downsides are that he doesn’t play nice with archers and he has to hit a very specific balance of attack and energy recharge artifacts.

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His Liyuen neighbor Xiangling takes the next position in A tier thanks to her amazing elemental burst. Pyronado creates a massive ring of fire that revolves around the on-field character. It deals an incredible amount of damage and constantly reapplies pyro for melt or vaporize reactions.

There are even strategies where the main DPS strafes around the enemy so it can apply multiple times in a single rotation. While it can deal damage and provide buffs, Guoba isn’t a very good elemental skill. It has very short range and relatively low uptime compared to other options. All that is forgiven thanks to Pyronado’s absurdly high damage output and pyro application.

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Mona fills a similar role as Xingqiu, but she trades raw damage for buffs and versatility. Mirror Reflection of Doom does double-duty as a consistent source of hydro and a form of crowd control. Her elemental burst Stellaris Phantasm is the real star of the show. It traps enemies in bubbles and applies a substantial damage buff against them. Mona also has issues with energy recharge, but her useful skill and buff burst put her in the A tier of our Genshin Impact support tier list.

Kazuha and Albedo both make the list for similar reasons. Both of them excel at applying their respective elements throughout a fight and sport low cooldown skills with high uptime bursts.

Their ultimate abilities even perform similar functions. Albedo’s Rite of Progeniture: Tectonic Tide provides a massive boost to elemental mastery while Kazuha’s Kazuha Slash is the best swirl applicator in the game. Neither one has a particularly high damage output, but they both provide a massive amount of utility.

It’s worth noting that Kazuha becomes one of Genshin Impact’s overall best characters with a perfect set of artifacts and the right five-star weapon, but our criteria puts him in A tier.

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Diona is an interesting case. Her base level with no constellations is actually very weak but as you collect extra copies, Diona’s power grows exponentially. Diona’s skill and burst provide shielding and healing respectively, but her constellation six grants an even larger elemental mastery boost than Albedo. Her strange scaling makes Diona one of the best supports on our Genshin Impact tier list. Just remember that a single Diona pull still isn’t very strong.

Genshin Impact B tier supports include Fischl, Thoma, Sucrose, and Qiqi

The majority of our B-tier Genshin Impact supports either perform one task extremely well or can perform multiple tasks well.

Fischl is one of the first characters new players gravitate towards, and for good reason. Her elemental skill and burst provide consistent elemental reactions for electro. Oz can deal a surprising amount of damage, especially with a good Fischl build. Fischl’s downside is that she can only provide electro damage with no additional benefit.

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Barbara also suffers from overspecialization. Her kit consists of healing, healing, and more healing. Let the Show Begin♪ and Shining Miracle♪ barely do anything offensively. In fact, they can even be a problem against cryo enemies because they constantly apply hydro to the on-field character.

Even with those issues, few characters can provide as much raw healing as Barbara. She also has a stealth use against the Pyro Hypostasis boss as a constant hydro applier, but that isn’t enough to bump her beyond the B tier of the Genshin Impact support tier list.

Thoma is still relatively new to Genshin Impact, but his straightforward kit doesn’t require much analysis. His elemental skill Blazing Blessing and burst Crimson Ooyoroi create shields that are particularly effective against fire damage, but his surprisingly potent damage output doesn’t matter against fire enemies anyway. Thoma’s claim to fame is that he can theoretically provide an infinite shield by using his abilities in tandem. He can also activate pyro resonance, which is very useful in domains and Spiral Abyss. 

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Moving on to the more versatile B-tier characters, Noelle is a solid anchor that ticks several boxes for a good Genshin Impact support. Breastplate creates a tanky shield and her claymore weapon can break through most types of armor. She also becomes a consistent, but slow healer at higher constellation levels.

Noelle’s problems are a low damage cap on Sweeping Time, poor elemental synergy, and uptime issues. She’s not the best healer, shielder, armor breaker, or sub-DPS, but she can fill all those roles at the cost of a single party slot.

Sucrose is usually stereotyped as budget Venti, but comparing a four-star to an archon is still a compliment. If you don’t have Kazuha or Venti, Sucrose is the best anemo character you can hope for.

Astable Anemohypostasis Creation – 6308 provides a weaker form of crowd control, but applies swirl just as well as her five-star counterparts. Her elemental burst Forbidden Creation – Isomer 75 / Type II is especially strong thanks to Elemental Absorption. By attacking it with another element, the giant crystalfly will change to that element and begin dealing massive damage. Sucrose is harder to use than other anemo supports, but she can suck in swarms and trigger Viridescent Venerer just as well.

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Qiqi is the final character in our Genshin Impact support tier list B rank. The zombified girl is intended as a dedicated healer, but she requires more effort than other dedicated healers. Herald of Frost only heals when Qiqi herself attacks. With anyone else, it simply applies cryo every few seconds. Her elemental burst Preserver of Fortune allows DPS characters to heal themselves, but it doesn’t deal much damage and has no effect at all once the marked enemies die. Despite all that, a built Qiqi can take everyone’s health bar from zero to full in a matter of seconds. 

Gorou, Rosaria, Kujou Sara, and Kokomi are low tier supports 

Genshin Impact’s C-tier supports suffer from multiple problems, but are still playable in most teams.

The first on our list is the newest support, Gorou. His war banners provide useful buffs, but they come with one of the harshest restrictions of any support character. The only way for Gorou to provide any damage boost at all is to have three geo characters in the party. Even then, it only provides a geo damage bonus, not attack.

That means that Itto and Noelle need their elemental bursts active to get any real benefit. The banner also doesn’t count as a geo construct, so Zhongli doesn’t really synergize the way he should. Gorou’s strict party requirement and lackluster damage buff keep him in the C tier of this Genshin Impact tier list.

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Next comes Rosaria, who is severely limited by her kit. Ravaging Confession is a strange elemental skill for a support. It only applies cryo to a single target, but the backstab effect doesn’t even work against bigger targets like Ruin Guards and Lawachurls. To make matters worse, there isn’t really a perfect weapon or artifact set to suit her playstyle. Despite those drawbacks, Rites of Termination is a solid way to apply cryo throughout a fight. Rosaria’s biggest draw is that she can boost her teammates’ crit rate by using her burst, but it’s only 15% of her own crit rate and is capped at 15% overall. 

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Xinyan used to be the only way to create a pyro shield, but the release of Thoma knocks her down a few pegs on our Genshin Impact support tier list. Sweeping Fervor scales based on how many enemies are hit by the initial strike, but the mechanic is buggy at best and outright broken at worst. Her ascension talent reduces the requirement, but it’s still limited in boss fights and other one-on-one situations.

Even if you do manage to get the rave shield, the damage is mediocre and requires characters to be point-blank to even do anything. Riff Revolution is similarly disappointing as a way to apply pyro, but it can do a solid amount of damage with the right build. Xinyan’s one-dimensional play style makes her a C-tier character. Play her for the fun sound effects, but leave her outside for the Spiral Abyss.

Kujou Sara is actually a pretty solid support, but she requires a specific playstyle. To get the most out of Sara’s kit, you have to swap to her, use her elemental skill, land a charged shot, swap back to DPS, run up to the enemy, and then wait for Tengu Juurai to trigger. The reward for all that is a damage bonus based on Sara’s attack, which isn’t even very big. Compare that to Bennett, who just slaps his burst down and dips. On the bright side, Sara provides a decent chunk of energy regeneration for the team and completes Inazuma expeditions quickly.

Kokomi is the worst five-star support by a massive margin. Her kit is focused almost entirely on healing, which is arguably the least-useful support role. Other supports like Noelle or Kazuha can be shoehorned into the main DPS role if the player likes them enough, but Kokomi has a completely unnecessary -100% crit rate debuff baked into her utility talent.

She also needs to be the active character to do any substantial healing. Her confusing and cluttered kit keeps Kokomi in the C tier on our Genshin Impact support tier list. Her incredibly unpopular banner means that she’s probably the rarest five-star in the game, which is a useless, but entertaining claim to fame. 

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Sayu is the definition of a character meant for everything other than combat. Her unique combination of anemo and claymore is less useful than it sounds, and she’s the worst anemo support for making swirl reactions. Instead, she serves a dual purpose as the fastest character in the game and the best for farming certain materials.

Sayu’s charged elemental skill, Fuuin Dash, is great for getting around the map without wasting stamina. Her passive allows her to sneak up on crystalflies with ease, which makes farming condensed resin much easier. While not that useful in combat, Lily “LilyPichu” Ki’s excellent voice acting work makes Sayu fun to use while exploring the world of Teyvat.

Amber and Lisa are the worst supports in Genshin Impact

Poor Amber. Her limited kit has turned Monstadt’s last remaining Outrider Knight into the butt of all jokes. Baron Bunny is more of a screenshot tool than an actual combat ability, though the taunt isn’t entirely useless. The real letdown is in her elemental burst.

Fiery Rain seems good at first, but it just doesn’t work against several flying enemies or anything that moves beyond a snail’s pace. The quick rate at which it applies pyro is more of a hindrance than a boon. Certain reactions don’t work at all while the burst is active, and the damage is pitiful at best. At least Amber can activate pyro resonance, which isn’t true for the very last character on the Genshin Impact support ranking.

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It’s popular to claim that Amber is the worst support character in Genshin Impact, but Lisa gives her a run for her money. Her elemental skill Violet Arc does literally nothing once Lisa switches out.

The only way for her to contribute off-field damage is with her burst Lightning Rose, which continuously applies electro to enemy units. Strangely, the initial hit doesn’t even apply electro. The radius is around the same as Fantastic Voyage, but it applies a less useful element and only reduces enemy defenses by 15%. All those problems contribute to Lisa coming in last on our Genshin Impact support tier list.

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