Diluc Ragnvindr is a man of many names and identities. He is the wine industry tycoon of Mondstadt and owns the vast estate of Dawn Winery. He is a living breathing capitalist, private entrepreneur, land owner, and ex-member of the Knights of Favonius who now scoffs at them. He is the so called uncrowned king of Mondstadt.
Whatever the USA media thinks about Diluc is basically what they are saying about capitalism, about private ownership, and basically about the USA imperial system as a whole. This is called win-win design.
But this is the question that we always go back to and is why Diluc is central to Genshin as a whole: can private companies and capitalists behave well enough to get along with others including centralized leadership? Because when there is division and separatism and private capitalists try to act like their own independent countries with their own agendas, that is completely unacceptable and has a corrosive effect on society. One can even say it poses a national security threat. Eventually one power, a centralized leadership, will need to guide and rule over all. Otherwise the kingdom is not unified at all, but is rather a decentralized collection of private fiefs, companies, and mini-kingdoms with a flimsy sense of allegiance and common purpose. The kingdom long divided must unite.
Diluc summons a large phoenix that does massive AoE damage. The phoenix has a wingspan of 16 meters. The burst is cheap and costs only 40 energy and has good scaling with a special ICD on the phoenix hits.
Its name "Dawn" is a somewhat interesting choice. Again, Diluc as a character appears to be a man of many paradoxes. Another example of win-win design.
WGS, Skyward Spine, Redhorn, Serpent Spine, Fish, Caiduan. Given that Diluc already ascends with crit rate, a crit damage weapon would complement him more. The game has yet to have a 66% crit damage claymore.
Diluc is the archetypal vaporize/melt pyro dps. Some common Diluc teams are models for other vaporize/melt pyro dps. These include:
Game currently lacks Cryo Yelan/XQ. Some cryo choices include Rosaria, Kaeya, Diona (C6), etc. There is also Diluc-Chongyun-Mona-Bennett (interweave E between infused NA).
We assume lv10 talents and that Diluc is wearing 4 piece Crimson with a Pyro DMG goblet for 61.6% Pyro DMG. Within 10 seconds he can use his E three times, do three N1 in between his Es, and do his whole 4-hit NA combo (total scaling 810.73) two times after using his E combo. We assume we can spam his burst on cooldown (possible since it only costs 40 energy), so that he has a perpetual pyro infusion. One of his passives also gives his infusion a 20% extra Pyro DMG Bonus, so the DMG Bonus hits 81.6%. Crimson 4p can give 22.5% DMG Bonus after 3 E uses for 104.3% DMG Bonus for 10s.
His Es do not have ICD so they can each vaporize. The DPS is $$x = (((177+1.5*170)*1.816+(177+1.5*176)*1.891+(177+1.5*232)*1.966)+2*810.73*2.043)/10=596.3$$ This DPS is higher than a C1 Hu Tao and does not even factor in his elemental burst damage. It also does not factor possible vaporizations on his normal attacks.
But now suppose he vapes some of his NA. His NA has 3-hit icd, so assume he vapes each 3rd NA. On average this gives a $$(1+1+1.5)/3 = 1.167$$ times increase in NA damage. The average dps is then $$x = (((177+1.5*170)*1.816+(177+1.5*176)*1.891+(177+1.5*232)*1.966)+1.167*2*810.73*2.043)/10=651.6$$ (We did not even include Q damage or possible vapes on his first 3 NA.)
This dps is comparable to Scaramouche, Cyno, Eula level, which is to say quite high. But Diluc also has his own form of 'executive presence'.
Above we assume 100% uptime on pyro infusion, which is possible with C6 Bennett.
Suppose Diluc somehow magically has easy access to plunge (e.g. via Albedo E and now XY Q). He has now becometh pyro Xiao. Plunging does not proc XQ/Yelan so oh no what do we do. Here we use Focalors for hydro app. Suppose Diluc can vape each high plunge. Suppose he can do, say 8 high plunges after Q infusion. Why 8? No real reason, just seemed like a convenient number to pick.
His high plunge scaling is 441.89% at lv10. Suppose he uses Q for infusion and E 3 times to get the 104.3% dmg bonus. His dps is $$x_p = 1.5*8*2.043*441.89/10 = 1083.337524$$ And that is actually quite high (this is legit called 'meta' level), deserving of the 'uncrowned king of Mondstadt'. So it seems Diluc was destined to be a plunge dps after all. In 2024, the year of the dragon, it seems the real dragon that has returned after all is dragonstrike Diluc, the dragon of Dawn Winery.
And now dragonstrike Diluc has becometh the dragon of fire, destroyer of all monopolies.
There are a few questions about this dps: can he do 8 plunges in 10s? What is the plunge icd? If he does do 8 plunges in 10s, can he vape all of them (as that would be more than 1 plunge per 2.5s)? Can Focalors apply hydro fast enough to enable him to vape 8 plunges in 10s?
So with elevator boy Albedo, bird lady Xianyun, and opera girl Furina, anyone can become Xiao. The influence of Xiao can be felt everywhere and by everyone. He is in the whistling trees, the blowing wind, the rays of sunshine. He permeates the combat kits of dps from around the world, your favorite NPCs, your deepest dreams, and the voice actors of all including your ice girl from Japan and blonde Victorian era mafia gungirl. He is you. You are him.
As of 4.3, except for Diluc, the game lacks 5* aoe pyro dps. Dehya's Q has good aoe, but it is on her Q. All this shows is how valuable Diluc still is after all these years. Yes Diluc NA/E swings have some aoe, but we are looking for more aoe like Alhaitham, Noctis, Xiao. You can at least start with Alhaitham level aoe, which is on the high end for sword dps.
The word Diluc is from diluculum, which means dawn in Latin. Of course there may be subtle meanings and connections in the name as well, as is the case with much of Diluc's design.