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Zhongli Quick TL;DR Support and DPS Build Guide

UPDATED FOR 2.4 😁!

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)

What resonates with pillar:

Geo MC EGeo MC Q (all 4 walls pulse)Ninguang E (pulses from center of gate, not sides)
Geo Hypostasis pillarsGeo Samachurl pillarsAlbedo E
Itto 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/ARMORROCK SHIELDS
Geo Samachurl pillarsGeo Hypostatis pillarsGeovishaps/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)

How do I get it D: ? – It’s time to roll boys (gacha)

Has base CRIT DMG and essentially made for characters like him who gain bonus with HP (tons of free ATK)

Staff of Homa will typically outperform even without the weapon skill active 90% of the time. Especially with the new Zhongli buffs, this is especially evident in damage output. PJWS does perform better if you have the proper CRIT values to consistently CRIT. Otherwise, you’re better off running Homa to scale everything.

However, for Phys DPS, Crescent Pike will push out more DPS due to the nature of how the weapon skill works. Even with a 2x Pale + 2x Bloodstained does a Crescent Pike perform better!

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

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

Deathmatch is an extremely consistent weapon considering that it provides not only CRIT%, but also a steady amount of ATK% for Zhongli’s Q. Keep in mind that it scales with both HP and ATK (with ATK being the main multiplier).

Important note: Staff of Homa will outperform Deathmatch until you have it at R4+. The likewise goes for The Catch (R5). Homa’s natural HP scaling + the buffs from 1.4 to Zhongli + Geo make it undeniably the BiS in most cases for Zhongli.

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%

How do I get it D: ? – Ridge Watch Domain (AR 30 locked, 20 Resin per run)

Boosts Phys + Crescent Pike damage and boosts your innate ATK

The E’s ATK bonus will continue to stack off of all 3 variants of your E (tap, hold, and the pulse). Just make sure to keep the pillar alive by kiting your enemies towards (inwards) the pillar, as opposed to having your back faced towards it. The only issue with the E is that it’s harder to keep it up against largers, AoE thrashing enemies (but still works fine and will get you your max stacks)

Think of it as basically a 36% ATK buff that’s consistently up due to Zhongli’s E pulses (and his low CD)

Alternatively, you can also run 2-set Pale Flame + 2-set Bloodstained as well since it also grants +25% Phys DMG x2, and it’ll be a good placeholder until you can farm for the 4-set Pale Flame pieces!

How do I get it D: ? – Ridge Watch Domain (AR 30 locked, 20 Resin per run)

Increases shield HP + boosts damage, as well as providing an ample ATK bonus to your party!

Important note about 4-set Millelith: It still proc’s the ATK bonus when you’re off-field. So as long as Zhongli’s E is still on the field and not destroyed, it’s pulses will continue to proc the 4-set bonus!

Alternatively, if you want to prioritize mainly on burst DPS, then 4x Emblem of Severed Fate will do the most damage + provide a decent amount of ER% to help Zhongli get his Q back faster!

PSA #4: So two final things: 1) For support, Deathmatch + Millelith 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:

SandsGobletCirclet
ATK% (HP% for Supp)Phys DMG% (Geo DMG% for Supp/burst DPS)CRIT% or CRIT DMG (HP% for Supp)

Substats: CRIT% > CRIT DMG > ATK > EM

Take Geo DMG% on Goblet if you’re going burst DPS/Support OR just run HP% on all 3 if you want a mega shield tank

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

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I spend too much time filling out spreadsheets for incoherent data, but at least I can turn them into guides :P

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    • 4-set Millelith will be bis. You do technically lose damage compared to 2-set Noblesse + 2-set Archaic, but it’s still better for supporting! The buff it grants your team is pretty great (since it still works off-field)

    • Possibly in the future, but I do believe 4-set Millelith will be bis. You do technically lose damage compared to 2-set Noblesse + 2-set Archaic, but it’s still better for supporting!

  1. Hi if i just plan to use him for Planet Befall and support which is the best arts? Currently running Nob + Petra.

    • Nob + Petra would make the Q do more damage. If you want to also buff the shield + doing damage, then 4-set Millelith can fulfill both

    • He can be a burst DPS and a support with 4-set Millelith, but not sure if you can really efficiently run sub-DPS + shield support (since the builds conflict)

    • If you have farmed pieces, 4-set Pale Flame will do much better BUT if your artifacts aren’t godrolls, 2-set Bloodstained + 2-set Pale Flame will do much better for just normal attacking. However, overall it’s best to get 4-set if possible.

    • Deathmatch is much easier to use (since it’s just always a constant buff) and doesn’t restrict team composition too much. Favonius helps with the regen, but does tend to lead to a lot less damage compared to Deathmatch due to lack of CRIT% + lack of ATK buff.

      Wavebreaker would only beat Deathmatch if your team has a combined max energy of 265+, since that’s the only way it’ll surpass the DMG bonus provided by an R5 Deathmatch. So minus Zhongli’s cost, the rest of your team would need to have a total of 225+ (the more the better) max energy for it to be worth it!

      • I actually don’t have Deathmatch unfortunately, I’ll instead be swapping Favonius with Wavebreaker for some damage increase. Thank you so much!

  2. I gotta say I’m completely lost :
    I’ve had my lv.80 Zhongli on 4set Archaic Petra (HP%sands/physical dmg%goblet/ HP%circlet, all on 34.8%) and some very good substats.
    However, as I increase my AR, I need more DMG, he’s my DPS.

    I accidentally chose the sword for the BP(I was furious) so for now he’s stuck with my strongest polearm, Dragonspine Spear
    (lv.60, 293 base + 50.8%physical dmg)
    Max HP : 28,469
    ATK : 877
    I basically run on HP, and he far surpasses my other “mainstream” DPS (God really suits my playstyle more, he hits more and faster lol)

    You talk about HP being good for a DPS Zhongli, which makes sense to me, I use him that way too.
    But then for the artifacts I only see ATK%….?
    This would significantly drop my HP, hence my shield !

    Did you forget to add the artifact set for DPS AND for support, cause I only see one artifact specs?? Is it for both??
    I’m so confused @_@

    • In the table, as well as below the is a comment, saying to take HP for support (basically support = shielder). It’s a bit hard to see, and I wish I could bold in tables, but it does clarify HP for shields, etc… depending on what role you slot him for!