Zhongli Quick TL;DR DPS Build Guide

by 2board · Published December 10, 2020 · Updated February 3, 2021

PSA #1: A DPS is a literal GOD and their team is their worshipers. Worship your god and they’ll make your enemies disappear; otherwise, you better start praying

PSA #2: Both Zhongli’s abilities scale off ATK, but both also benefit A LOT from HP. As Lord of Geo, he WILL have his order… just make sure you brought some money…

Summons a giant, girthy rod from the ground. PULSES with geo DMG to nearby enemies. I’ll stop with the innuendos…

PSA #3: E has two ways you can use it (BUCKLE THE FK UP LOL)

Tap E to summon a stone stele that does damage where it’s spawned
1. It will pulse 15 times, doing geo DMG to nearby enemies (lasts 30 seconds, 1 pulse = 2 sec)
2. Nearby geo structures will also pulse geo DMG (will list what can/cannot below)
3. Can only have ONE out at a time (two if you have C1)
4. ABSOLUTELY POOPS CRYSTALLIZE SHARDS
5. CAN CLIMB THE PILLAR AND IT BLOCKS STUFF

What resonates with pillar:

Geo MC E	Geo MC Q (all 4 walls pulse)	Ninguang E (pulses from center of gate, not sides)
Geo Hypostasis pillars	Geo Samachurl pillars	Albedo E

Hold E to summon a shield
1. Will do massive AoE geo DMG on activation + spawns a pillar if not already on field
2. Chunks geo elements nearby (up to two targets – clarification below)
3. Shield lasts 20 sec
4. Scales off HP

What Hold E can absolutely delete:

ANY ORE (#1 MINER)	GEO SHIELDS/ARMOR	ROCK SHIELDS
Geo Samachurl pillars	Geo Hypostatis pillars	Geovishaps/Hatchlings

Tap E at the start of the fight, then Hold E when it comes off CD. Always position to attack enemies TOWARDS the pillar to maximize damage

Masochism… You literally get hit to get stronger… Essentially the shield will gain 25% additional strength when taking damage. This doesn’t re-fresh the HP of the shield, but more so just adds to it.

YEETS A GODDAMN METEOR AT YOUR FOES. PETRIFIES ALL TYPES OF ENEMIES AND THEY CAN’T MOVE. LORD OF GEO DON’T MESS AROUND.

Every enemy type, except world bosses and domain bosses, can get petrified. This also prevents enemies from being affected from your own CC

Example: Venti Q will no longer juggle enemies up and down in the vortex when petrified. They will still take the damage from the ability though!

1.3 Update changes so everything scales off Zhongli’s HP (super neat buffs!)

A reasonable HP you want Zhongli to be around is roughly between 18,000 – 22,000, as that essentially means you’ll gain an additional 5,940 – 7,260 damage on your Q

Talent leveling order: E > Normal > Q (You can honestly go Normal first)

Weapon #1 (Recommended for ORDER): Crescent Pike

How do I get it D: ? – Forge (Prototype x1, Crystal Chunk x50, White Iron Chunk x50)

Has base Phys DMG% scaling and 80% of Zhongli’s damage comes from normal attacks

Currently Crescent Pike (as per usual) is #1 for both Geo DMG and Phys DMG hybrid builds, Jade Winged-Spear #2, Skyward #3 (CRIT centralized)

However, at R3, Jade Winged-Spear will outscale Crescent Pike’s damage, ultimately becoming the best in slot at R5

Weapon #2 (Recommended for sub/burst DPS): Deathmatch

How do I get it D: ? – Battlepass (Tier 30)

Has base CRIT% scaling and great for quickly swapping to E than Q

Favonius Lance can also work if you’re really that lacking for energy regeneration. Royal Spear is also felt somewhat good, but once you hit around 45-50% CRIT%, it feels extremely lackluster due to the redundancy of CRIT% stacking post 50%

ARTIFACT #1 (Recommended for planetary devastation): Bloodstained Chivalry + Gladiator’s Finale

How do I get it D: ? – Bloodstained at Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern Domain (AR 35 locked, 20 Resin per run). Gladiators at any World Boss (40 Resin per run)

Compared to 2-set Bloodstained + 2-set Noblesse, Gladiators provides a much higher damage output when tested, as the 18% ATK+ provides overall scaling

Here are the total DPS numbers between 2-set Bloodstained + 2-set Gladiator’s vs. 4-set Gladiator’s:

The reasoning for why Bloodstained and it’s Phys DMG% has a much higher damage markup (roughly 1.4K average) is due to the fact that

Phys DMG% bonuses are factored at the end of damage calculation, being multiplicative
Phys resistance stats are much lower (varies by enemies) than straight ATK resistance (DEF) stats, ontop of the fact Razor at C4 innately reduces Phys resistance

ARTIFACT #2 (Recommended for early slappage): Gladiator’s Finale

How do I get it D: ? – Any World Boss (40 Resin per run)

Basically a bootleg early version of Retracing Bolide. Use 4-set until you can pair with 2-set Bloodstained

PSA #4: So two final things: 1) For support, Deathmatch + Noblesse Oblige will do great. 2) Ignore the people that are abhorrently against DPS Zhongli — they’re the same people who swear by Phys DMG% Fischl but can’t reserve the same logic (either that or just blatantly salty they don’t have enough gems cause they double downed for Childe)

Main stats:

Sands	Goblet	Circlet
ATK%	Phys DMG%	CRIT% or CRIT DMG

Substats: CRIT% > CRIT DMG > ATK > EM

Take Geo DMG% on Goblet if you’re going burst DPS/Support

If you want other characters let me know. Hope this helped. Bye.