Genshin Impact sub DPS/Quickswap DPS Tier List

Genshin Impact currently has 113 playable characters as of Luna V. This is an updated version of these characters (that have sub DPS or Quickswap DPS capabilities, can be considered as such, or have been considered as such) ranked based on their sub DPS/Quickswap DPS capabilities. They will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Peak performance:
   • How much personal damage does the character deal in their best team?
2. Flexibility:
   • How many “good” teams does the character have, and how many different characters can this use as teammates to make a “good” team?
3. Peak team performance:
   • How much team damage does the team deal in their best team?
4. Field time:
   • How much field time does the character take up?

Things that are not evaluated:

1. Supportive capability
   • How well a character can support a team will not be evaluated.

The following assumptions are made:

1. Neutral and still enemy
   • No enemies with special mechanics (e.g., Frostnight Herra) or resistances (e.g., Pyro Hypostasis)
   • We will not assume enemies fly up for three minutes to say Ganyu and Lyney are the best
   • Both single-target and AOE will be evaluated
2. Mediocre Primogem investment
   • No 5* constellations or limited weapons. However, 5* characters with free selectable constellations will be evaluated at C1. While they won’t be evaluated, 5* characters with notably strong early constellations or signature weapons will be noted
     • Standard 5* characters will be evaluated with relatively higher constellations
   • We will assume that 4* characters will generally be at C6. However, we know that it will be hard for players to have newer or niche 4* C6. We will note whether they receive major upgrades from later constellations
   • Amber, Lisa, and Kaeya will not be evaluated at C6
3. Equal resin investment
   • We will not compare a top 1% Fischl to a bottom 1% Ineffa and declare that Fischl is conclusively better
4. Mediocre gameplay levels
   • We will assume you can do something like dash cancel Hu Tao or Nefer’s charged attacks. However, we won’t assume you can do something like Skirk’s walk cancels or Mavuika’s insane combos
5. Proper builds in teams
   • We will give characters their proper builds and not purely build for sub DPS damage. This means, for example, that Furina could run an ER% sands in order to get her burst up every rotation, which could mean sacrificing some of her sub DPS.

Tier List

S+

S

B

C

F

Explanations

SS

These characters are the strongest in the game

1. Ineffa
   • Ineffa is commonly known as the “account-unbricker” due to the insane amount of off-field sub DPS she brings to the table. Furthermore, the Bineffa wheelchair (Using a team with Columbina and Ineffa) is also one of the most powerful universal compositions in the game—Ineffa’s damage is so absurdly high that supporting her with Columbina is already enough damage to bring even bottom-tier characters up to have decent damage. With the release of the Aubade of Morningstar and Moon artifact set, she gains a 60% Lunar DMG Bonus when played with another Moonsign character, which propels her to having the best sub DPS in the game. Ineffa’s only weakness is that she doesn’t work against enemies with innate non-Hydro auras, as she requires a Hydro teammate to trigger Lunar-Charged to take full advantage of her kit.
2. Mavuika
   • Mavuika, even when not played with as a main DPS, is still one of the strongest sub DPS characters in the game, especially when played with Nightsoul characters. Her powerful burst allows her to quickly swap in to deal a huge amount of damage before immediately swapping out. Additionally, she can also easily fill rotation downtime in shorter rotations with her charged attacks and on-field combos, allowing her to supply dead time with even more damage. She also has some off-field damage through her ring, though it is nowhere near her Quickswap damage.
3. Durin
   • Durin, similar to Mavuika, is a Pyro sub DPS. However, his kit not tailored to only dealing damage and may lag behind in that regard. Furthermore, he is also much weaker at filling dead time in rotations as he does not have much on-field potential. However, he is much more Mavuika, who’s burst requires Nightsoul to charge up, allowing him to play much better than her in non-Nightsoul teams.
4. Skirk
   • Skirk can operate quite smoothly as a Quickswap DPS by holding her elemental skill to absorb void rifts and unleashing her elemental burst. While not as much damage as her on-field normal attacks, her elemental burst does an extremely good amount of damage for the field time it takes. However, burst Quickswap DPS Skirk still suffers from the teambuilding restricting main DPS Skirk suffers from (namely Escoffier and Freeze requirements). Still, she can replace a support slot quite comfortably and still deal extremely good damage, especially in Cryo-focused freeze teams when Citlali does not have as much utility.

S+

These characters are extremely strong sub DPSes, even if they aren’t the top of the top. However, they may want some more resin investment compared to SS DPS characters

1. Fischl
   • Fischl is an extremely strong sub DPS with insane damage for a 4* character. Her ascension 4 passive allows her deal much more damage whenever an Electro reaction is triggered, which should be practically every team you use Fischl in. She also has an extremely good C6, which should be relatively obtainable given her status as an old character, a free character, and a Starglitter shop character. While she does do noticeably less damage than Ineffa, she is more versatile as she is able to be played outside of Lunar-Charged or Electro-Charged compositions, most notably in Overload or Aggravate.
2. Furina
   • While more known for her supportive capabilities (especially after the release of Skirk), Furina does have very potent sub DPS. Her three summons deal a considerable amount of damage that shouldn’t be ignored, especially if she’s built for damage by equipping Golden Troupe and not Tenacity of the Millelith.
3. Yelan
   • Yelan is still a pretty great sub DPS with off-field damage that triggers when the on-field character performs normal attacks. However, her damage is still lower than Furina’s, and she has not quite kept up with newer releases. Still, she is very versatile (about as much as Furina) with very high damage capabilities.
4. Escoffier
   • Escoffier has pretty high sub DPS; it’s pretty comparable to Furina’s, especially if Furina is running on a more support-centered build. However, Escoffier’s restrictiveness in her teambuilding to reach that sub DPS does limit her flexibility quite a bunch, especially if she is using Blizzard Strayer and not Golden Troupe. Still, she has very powerful sub DPS that generally should not be ignored on your average team.

S

These characters are powerful sub DPS characters. However, there is a noticeable discrepancy between them and the top-tier DPS characters, and they want a non-noticeable amount of resin investment to match them.

1. Columbina
   • Columbina’s sub DPS is noticeable in her teams, but it is noticeably much weaker compared to SS tiers like Ineffa and Mavuika. Most notably, when paired with Ineffa, she is much more suited to being built as a support to boost Ineffa’s sub DPS instead of optimizing for her own sub DPS. Additionally, she is extremely dependent on specific characters to reach her good levels of DPS (most notably, needing Lauma for her Lunar-Bloom sub DPS). However, she is still quite potent, especially in Lunar-Damage based teams. Her damage is noticeably increased in Lunar-Crystallized teams where she is able to more freely build for her own sub DPS.
2. Emilie
   • Emilie has powerful sub DPS, especially if a teammate holds Deepwood Memories. Her teambuilding is also not as restrictive, only requiring Pyro application to trigger Burning and to maintain the uptime on the Unfinished Reverie artifact set’s bonuses. While her sub DPS levels are not comparable to characters like Ineffa and Mavuika, her damage levels are still among the highest in the game, and putting her in your team will provide noticeable improvements.
3. Chiori
   • Chiori has sub DPS that is pretty comparable to Emilie’s. Hoever, her teambuilding is much more restrictive at C0, requiring a Geo construct or teammates who can trigger Lunar-Crystallized. At C1, most of these issues are fixed, and she only requires a Geo teammate for maximum damage. Additionally, however, her AOE is also much weaker than Emilie’s. She is still a potent sub DPS who brings a lot of damage to the table.
4. Albedo
   • Albedo with his new Hexerei buffs is quite a decent character, and he’s in a similar place as Chiori. However, his teambuilding restrictions to reach maximum damage are arguably even more limiting, as he requires another Hexerei character (with a heavy preference on Durin) to reach his maximum sub DPS. He also cannot take full use of the new A Day Craved From Rising Winds artifact set that was specifically designed to buff Hexerei characters.
5. Raiden Shogun
   • Raiden Shogun is a premiere Hyperbloom trigger given her insane Electro application through coordinated attacks and good weapon options. Furthermore, her burst also deals a sizeable amount of damage, though building for both Hyperbloom and burst damage is contradictory. However, she can also function as a decent sub DPS in non-Hyperbloom teams through her elemental skill and burst, though immediately switching off after her burst does not make full use of her kit (and using it would make her into a main DPS).
6. Kuki Shinobu
   • Kuki Shinobu is another good Hyperbloom trigger. Her Electro application is not as frequent as Raiden’s, though it does follow the player around in a ring (which is unlike Raiden’s coordinated attacks). She also brings some healing for more comfort, though the rest of her kit is inferior to Raiden’s.
7. Xiangling
   • Xiangling is a powerful sub DPS. However, her kit and numbers are slightly outdated today; she relies on her lack of ICD to trigger constant Vaporizes, which does not exactly take advantage of modern content. As her damage has stalled, she has not gained any stocks compared to other characters. Her DPS is notably worse than Mavuika and Durin’s, especially in teams with non-multiplicative reactions. However, she is still quite powerful

A

These characters are still pretty good and serviceable. However, they will want significant resin investment to match top-tier characters

1. Yae Miko
   • Yae Miko, in terms of damage, is very similar to Fischl. In fact, she can arguably deal more damage, especially in Aggravate teams. However, Yae Miko greatly suffers due to her awkward field time requirements which require her to place three turrets on the field with long animations. Her burst, while a nice nuke, can further exacerbate these problems as using it will require placing six turrets instead of three, doubling her already long field time. Her burst is also a huge energy sink that cannot often be cast.
2. Ororon
   • Ororon is a decent Electro sub DPS somewhat similar to Fischl. However, his personal damage is much lower. Furthermore, he only works in teams with Electro-Charged or constant Nightsoul damage, greatly limiting his teambuilding and flexibility.
3. Kamisato Ayaka
   • Kamisato Ayaka is a character who has a large portion of her damage in her burst, meaning she can enter the field and leave while still retaining a large portion of her damage. However, playing her this way will make her have near-impossibly high energy requirements, which will greatly shaft her personal damage. She also suffers from the same teambuilding issues as Skirk. Additionally, she isn’t able to take advantage of her signature set (Marechausse Hunter)—and with Blizzard Strayer being a poor choice against bosses, she is forced to run the relatively inferior Emblem of Severed Fate artifact set, stifling her personal damage even further in this playstyle. Still, as her damage is already pretty decent, this playstyle is serviceable, provided you can burst every rotation.
4. Ganyu
   • In Freeze teams, Ganyu is very similar to Ayaka in the fact that most of her damage is concentrated in her burst. However, when playing a burst DPS in these teams, Ganyu does somewhat lag behind since her Freeze teams excel in AOE and multitarget content while Freeze’s best support (Escoffier) excels in single-target content and somewhat struggles in multi-target content. Her energy needs are also quite demanding. Still, while weaker, Ganyu does function decently well when built properly in a Freeze team.
5. Navia
   • A large portion of Navia’s damage is concentrated in her skill, meaning that she can play as a quickswap DPS in teams with Crystallized or Lunar-Crystallized. This playstyle also allows her to take full advantage of Golden Troupe, which does save some resin. However, Navia still does a good portion of her damage through her normal attacks, so she isn’t getting her full value from this playstyle. It is still a viable option, however.
6. Xingqiu
   • Xingqiu is similar to Yelan in the fact that he deals off-field Hydro damage whenever the on-field character uses normal attacks. However, his damage is much, much lower than Yelan’s, and his personal damage likewise has not kept up as much. Still, his damage contribution throughout the rotation is not insignificant and sums to a decent amount.

B

These characters are most certainly quite mediocre and will require a great amount of of resin, playstyle, and primogem investment to match top tier characters

1. Lauma
   • Lauma is not even primarily a sub DPS, even though her ring does some damage. Her main source of damage comes from her hold E, which can deal massive nuke damage. However, since Lauma is mainly built to maximize elemental mastery and energy recharge, her crit stats are usually lacking and thus her nuke never reaches its true nuking potential when building for proper team damage. Still, the odd crit here and there does make it the strongest single hit by the team.
2. Nahida
   • Nahida is a lot like Lauma in the sense that she mainly not a sub DPS. Furthermore, her sub DPS also suffers from the fact that she generally does not build much crit. However, she is slightly outclasses by Lauma in most situations, and her small ticks of damage generally do not add up to Lauma’s nuke when they are on the same team. Still, she does have her place in Aggravate and Quicken teams.
3. Rosaria
   • Rosaria is a 4* character from 1.0; unfortunately, that means that her numbers have been outclasses by more recent additions. While she does deal good damage in Freeze and Reverse Melt, they are not quite high enough to put her in higher tiers. Still, she can be serviceable if you really love her and put enough resin and primogems into her build.
4. Pyro Traveler
   • Pyro Traveler is an okay sub DPS who deals a moderate amount of damage, especially in Nightsoul teams. However, there isn’t really much of a niche outside of that. Still, Pyro Traveler is one of the most F2P-friendly sub DPS options out there.
5. Mualani
   • Mualani can sometimes be used as a Quickswap DPS due to her playstyle. However, this is generally not recommended. She still deals an okay amount of damage due to how high her damage numbers are already.
6. Venti
   • With his new Hexerei buffs, Venti can now weave in a few attacks before swapping out. His hole also has some decent damage potential. Still, Venti’s sub DPS playstyle didn’t exactly benefit the largest, and in some of his teams where his sub DPS is actually somewhat important (e.g., Varka) his sub DPS is not as significant as supportive measures.

C

These characters are pretty bad. They will require a plethora of investment to match top-tier characters

1. Thoma
   • Thoma is the premier Burgeon trigger with good off-field Pyro application for the reaction. However, Burgeon is an outmoded reaction at this point, so being strong in this niche is not exactly doing him many favors.
2. Kaedehara Kazuha
   • In previous patch cycles of the game, Kazuha actually had some pretty decent damage through his burst. However, the damage has not received any notable upscales and is now outclasses by almost all newer sources of damage, thus pushing his damage contribution as a sub DPS down.
3. Kaeya
   • Kaeya, overall, is a pretty mediocre sub DPS. However, he is by no means terrible in terms of absolute damage dealt and does have his place in Freeze teams, especially with his C6. It is important to note, though, that Kaeya’s constellations are some of the hardest to get in the game.
4. Ningguang
   • Like other 1.0 characters, Ningguang used to have her place as a Quickswap Burst DPS. She was okay in this role due to her low energy requirements and ability to do large amounts of burst damage, especially from her constellations. However, she has not improved in this role and has been realtively left behind in the dust.
5. Beidou
   • Beidou is in a similar situation as a 1.0 character. She previously had pretty powerful multi-target sub DPS triggered by coordinated attacks, but new content never exactly gave her new alternatives (the first notable incident being Raiden being unable to trigger her coordinated attacks). Furthermore, Beidou also loses a lot of value in single-target, decreasing her sub DPS even further.
6. Chongyun
   • Chongyun is a slightly weaker version of Kaeya in terms of sub DPS, and there isn’t really much of anything else to say anything about him (they’re pretty similar). As such, he is placed slightly below him.

D

These characters are quite bad, and it is hard for them to match top-tier characters

1. Dendro Traveler
   • Dendro Traveler, while the second-best iteration of Traveler, is not exactly very good in terms of damage. While they have decent Dendro application over an area, their personal damage is not exactly very high, even when playing a favorable reaction like Spread or Aggravate.
2. Collei
   • Collei is very similar to Dendro Traveler, but she is slightly worse. She has worse uptime on her burst and no buffs from triggering reactions.
3. Dehya
   • Dehya has some sub DPS capabilities as her elemental skill can deal damage from off-field. However, the damage she deals is quite minimal and insignificant.
4. Layla
   • Layla has some off-field damage through her elemental burst. However, the damage dealt through this method is quite low. This problem is exacerbated due to her damage and shield scaling on differing stats. Even though her constellations somewhat alleviate this issue, her sub DPS is not exactly very high.
5. Kamisato Ayato
   • Even though he’s mainly played on-field, Ayato has some potential for off-field sub DPS. However, he is quite sub-par in this role and is very hard to get much use out of.

F

These characters are really bad and nearly impossible to match high-tier characters

1. Aino
   • Aino is a decent support, but she has terrible sub DPS. Her damage is quite negligible in all of her teams. Even though she gets some boosts through Ascendant Gleam, her damage can essentially be ignored
2. Kachina
   • Kachina is basically the Natlan version of Aino. Doing any sort of significant damage requires staying on-field with Twirly Whirly and slamming, so her sub DPS potential is also pretty terrible.
3. Jahoda
   • Jahoda somehow does even less than Aino.
4. Shikanoin Heizou
   • As a main DPS who’s damage is mainly concentrated in his elemental skill, Heizou can play a Quickswap DPS. However, he is still pretty terrible at that and does not do significant damage in exchange for bricking the rest of the team’s damage.
5. Amber
   • Amber can provide some damage through her burst, which is surprisingly low cost. However, it does not do much damage and cannot really be helped through multiplicative reactions.
6. Nilou
   • Nilou’s ring actually does a whopping 0 damage. She shouldn’t even be here, but some people think she’s a sub DPS so I’m kind of obligated to rank her.