Best Support Characters And How To Use Them

Genshin Impact is an immersive game that emphasizes teamwork and tactical gameplay. Every team of four characters has a unique set of roles, with DMG dealers and healers usually receiving the most praise from the community. However, some support characters are often overlooked and deemed mediocre, while they provide the utilities that help DPS units have a greater impact on the battlefield.

Generally speaking, a support unit in Genshin Impact is anyone who doesn’t play the role of a DPS. These roles include providing healing, buffing, debuffing, crowd control, battery, and shielding.

Updated on February 17, 2025, by Nahda Nabiilah: As the meta in Genshin Impact is evolving, so are the supports. From doing simple tasks like shielding and healing, now support units offer a wide range of utilities that allow them to cover multiple roles in one team. Not only that, but some of the old ones are also climbing the tier list as they provide the most supportive capabilities to some of the new DPS units. As long as the meta is evolving, this list will keep getting updates to rank the best supports in Genshin Impact.

25

Yaoyao

Yaoyao

with her unique skill set, offers both on-field and off-field healing, making her one of the most powerful healers in Genshin Impact. To maximize her utility as a support character, players should strategically place her White Jade Radishes to ensure the most effective Dendro application and reactions for their team as she can have significant Dendro application capabilities if she’s positioned well.

Yaoyao is a relatively straightforward character to build and offers immense value as a support. Players should focus on HP%, Energy Recharge, and Elemental Mastery when constructing her. With her C1, Yaoyao increases Dendro DMG for characters inside White Jade Radishes explosion AoE, and further constellations will add even more healing and utility to the team, making her a decent support to have in teams that rely on Dendro reactions in Genshin Impact.

24

Sigewinne

Sigewinne

is a strong healer who can surprisingly deal some pretty good DMG with her Elemental Burst. Besides that, she doesn’t really offer anything more. Her first Ascension Passive grants her the ability to buff her allies’ off-field DMG, but only if it was an Elemental Skill DMG, which is a limitation on top of another limitation for an effect that doesn’t offer that much extra DMG.

23

Jean

Jean

is an exceptional healer in Genshin Impact. She’s also one of the best batteries for Anemo characters. If you’re building a team and your Anemo unit is struggling with energy, add Jean to solve that problem alongside giving the team immense sustainability. Other than that, Jean doesn’t offer much compared to the other supports in the game. So, unfortunately, she’ll have to sit at the bottom of this Genshin support tier list.

22

Thoma

Having Thoma

at the end of the ranking doesn’t make him a bad character. On the contrary, Thoma is a very useful support who can offer a lot to his team. Starting from shielding, Thoma possesses an acceptable shield that offers minor protection. Thoma also launches a Fiery Collapse attack alongside the active character’s Normal attacks, dealing Pyro DMG. This is good for Burning and Burgeon teams in Genshin Impact. Finally, on C6, Thoma gets the ability to increase the active unit’s Normal, Charge, and Plunge attack DMG by 15%.

21

Kujou Sara

Although Kujou Sara

is a niche unit that only operates with Electro characters in Genshin Impact, she’s still one of the best supports for this job. Whenever you need an Electro DPS to shine, pair them with Kujou Sara, and you’ll notice a big difference in their performance.

Other than supporting Electro units, Kujou Sara can still operate as a small battery for her team by regenerating a small amount of their Elemental Bursts every time her Tengu Juurai Ambush hits an opponent.

20

Layla

Layla

is one of the best shielders in Genshin Impact, despite being a 4-star character. In addition to her shield, Layla offers her team some Cryo applications to help in that department. That makes her highly useful in freeze teams in Genshin Impact.

When unlocking her Constellations, Layla will increase her team’s Normal and Charged attack DMG based on her HP, which is a stat she also needs for her shielding.

19

Chevreuse

Unlike other niche supports, Chevreuse

operates exclusively with Electro and Pyro units in Genshin Impact. She has one of the best buffs and debuffs in the game if her team only had Electro and Pyro characters, granting them 40% extra Elemental DMG on top of shredding enemies’ resistance to Pyro and Electro by 40%.

Not only that, Chevreuse can also heal her team as she continues to become better and better with each Constellation you unlock, especially her C6 which will further buff her team’s DMG by a whopping 60%.

18

Faruzan

While most Anemo units in Genshin Impact operate as supports, there are still some minorities who are powerful in the DPS department. Those DPS units got Faruzan

by their side elevating their DMG and further improving their CC.

Faruzan is so good at her role, that whenever you want to use an Anemo DPS unit in a team, she must automatically join to notably improve their performance.

17

Venti

Crowd control makes for a fair niche area of support skills. However, Venti

does show the strength of this skill in particular. In general, Venti is one of the best support characters in Genshin Impact when it comes to crowd control. Venti has an Elemental Burst that sucks opponents in and a skill that launches them in the air, constantly dealing Anemo DMG.

Venti has the potential to be an outstanding battery and sub-DPS unit in Genshin Impact. As with other Anemo user support characters, Venti can take advantage of the Viridescent Venerer artifact set, which not only increases Swirl DMG but also decreases the opponent’s Elemental resistance to elements infused in the Swirl by 40% for 10 seconds. This means, that Venti’s Swirls can significantly increase the DMG output of the main DPS of the party.

16

Sucrose

Sucrose

is an invaluable Anemo user for any team. In the early days of Genshin Impact, she was often used together with Mona, to showcase significant DPS numbers. Thanks to her powerful buffs, such as boosting Elemental Mastery, she has been a great addition to any party. Her Elemental Burst is a powerful AoE attack that draws enemies in, and she is particularly adept at creating Elemental Reactions since her charged Skill can hit multiple foes multiple times for greater DMG.

For players looking for an Anemo support character, Sucrose is an excellent free-to-play option, particularly for those who don’t have Venti or Kazuha. However, players should be aware that infusing an element with her Elemental Burst could present a challenge and she also has a fairly high energy cost. Additionally, her grouping capabilities are not as great as Venti’s. Despite this, Sucrose remains one of the best support characters in Genshin Impact.

15

Shenhe

Shenhe

makes any Cryo character in Genshin Impact look like one of the best DPS in Genshin Impact. Her abilities to buff Cryo DMG are unmatched to the extent that she’s a mandatory go-to support if you’re building a team around Cryo reactions. Not only that, but Shenhe also has a lot of off-field Cryo applications with her Elemental Burst, which further increases her value as a Genshin Impact support.

14

Mona

Players who have been closely following Genshin Impact for a long time have likely noticed that Mona

has become a popular choice for top-tier Burst DPS builds. This is due to her Elemental Burst ability, which amplifies Elemental DMG when used at the right time. Mona’s Burst ability creates a debuff bubble that not only traps enemies but also amplifies the DMG dealt to them and deals an additional explosion of Hydro DMG when the bubble is popped. This Hydro explosion can be used to trigger powerful Elemental reactions such as Melt or Vaporize. Furthermore, Mona’s first Constellation, which is relatively easy to obtain as she is a Standard 5-star character, provides a significant buff to her supportive abilities in Genshin Impact.

Alongside her Elemental Burst, Mona was the first exploration character to feature an alternative sprint. Her Elemental Skill allows for an easy Hydro Application, which is best suited for Freeze teams, and this skill also has additional crowd control ability, as it summons a decoy that taunts enemies.

13

Xianyun

Xianyun

operates as a healer who can wear the Viridescent Venerer set to reduce enemies’ resistance to the element she swirls with. Her ability to constantly trigger Swirl reactions is enough to make her an ideal support to have in most teams. Xianyun can also increase her team’s Plunge attack DMG, which is extremely important to some characters, like Diluc in Genshin Impact.

What puts her in a higher position on this support ranking list is how strong her combo is with Hu Tao and how she re-introduced Diluc as a decent DPS after his fall.

12

Nilou

Nilou

only works with Hydro and Dendro units in Genshin Impact. But that’s enough to make her one of the best supports in the game. With the correct team, Nilou can dictate the teams’ gameplay to create so many Bloom reactions that explode instantly, dealing an insane amount of DMG.

On her release, it was hard to find characters that match her gameplay. But now, Nilou has an entire roster of characters that can elevate her mechanics and form some of the best Bloom teams in Genshin Impact.

11

Kuki Shinobu

No character is better at creating Hyperbloom than Kuki Shinobu

in Genshin Impact. Once you cast her Elemental Skill, Kuki will continuously create a ring of Electro that heals the active character on top of triggering all the Blooms around her into Hyperblooms. This mechanic alone makes Kuki an incredible support to any Hyperbloom team in Genshin Impact.

10

Sangonomiya Kokomi

Interestingly enough, while Sangonomiya Kokomi

can take on the DPS role, she is almost too natural at being one of the best healers and supports in Genshin Impact who gained extra popularity thanks to Dendro-related reactions. Her elemental skill creates a “bake-kurage” which automatically applies Hydro-based status conditions (much like Mona’s phantoms). However, the twist is that Kokomi also includes healing capacities and an increase in “bake-kurage” strength with her elemental burst.

As Kokomi is able to heal, deal DMG, and apply Hydro to enable elemental reactions all off-field at the same time, she can be considered a versatile character who can fill many roles in team compositions. She is best suited for Bloom and Hyperbloom teams, as she will be able to heal the character that takes DMG from Dendro Core explosion with ease.

9

Raiden Shogun

As the Electro Archon, Raiden Shogun

brings a wide range of skills centered around the power of Electro. She also has one of the best energy regeneration in Genshin Impact. Raiden can be slotted into any team comp that needs an Electro element, a Sub-DPS burst unit, and a support unit that can help recharge the Elemental Burst of the team. Thanks to her unique abilities and skill set, Raiden Shogun is one of the most versatile characters to obtain in the game.

Her Elemental Skill is extremely valuable for enabling Elemental reactions, as it provides consistent Electro application off-field while also providing a buff that can increase the party’s Elemental Burst DMG. Meanwhile, her Elemental Burst is the reason for her impressive supportive performance as she will unleash high Burst DMG alongside her unique energy regeneration.

8

Zhongli

Zhongli

is a 5-star character renowned for offering a unique shield, and as the Geo Archon, this ability is truly remarkable. Objectively speaking, Zhongli’s shields are the strongest in Genshin Impact with base 150% DMG absorption against all elemental and physical DMG, to the point that players may not even need a healer in their team. He can also fit any team composition with ease.

Characters protected by the Jade Shield of Zhongli will decrease the Elemental RES and Physical RES of opponents within a small AoE by 20%, providing a significant offensive boost. His Elemental Burst is also decent, boasting a sizeable AoE and temporarily petrifying enemies. Not many can match the strength and duration of Zhongli’s shield, along with the additional benefits it provides.

7

Bennett

Bennett

is widely regarded as one of the most powerful support characters in Genshin Impact, thanks to his exceptional healing capabilities and his ability to significantly boost the ATK value of his team members. He is also fairly easy to build, and even without much effort into his build, he offers benefits that cannot be found with any other healer.

Due to the recent changes and new characters introduced, Bennett’s popularity has still experienced a slight decline amongst other support characters. Additionally, the ATK buff is not as viable as it used to be due to the recent introduction of characters with higher HP or Elemental Mastery than ATK. Despite this, Bennett is still a viable character in the current meta, just not as versatile as others.

6

Citlali

Citlali is a strong Cryo support that possesses a durable shield on top of a useful Cryo application. She’s the perfect user of the Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City set, which increases her team’s DMG by up to 40%. She can also reduce enemies’ resistance to Hydro and Pyro, making her an essential part of some teams, like Mavuika’s teams in Genshin Impact. Finally, the Cryo element has a top-tier support who can join any team and significantly improve the team’s performance.