Supports

Support Tierlist

Here, utility supports are units with off-field abilities that can benefit the team. For the longest time, Venti or Bennett were undisputably considered the top supports of the game. But since 3.2, Nahida can be said to have claimed the throne as best support in the game. Support classes include harmony (buffing), abundance (healing), nihility (debuffing).

Nahida: long-lasting 100% uptime off-field aoe dendro application often makes her the best dendro support for quicken and bloom teams. Because of hyperbloom's insanely high dps, Nahida's value is god-level as the premium dendro sub-dps. Hyperbloom has almost eliminated the need to have Bennett on every team. And because hyperbloom can autotarget on enemies, it almost eliminates a need to have tons of crowd control. Nahida also gives an EM buff with her burst and can do high sub-dps with her E. All other dendro supports either lack 100% uptime on dendro app, have large burst costs on app, lack aoe, have icd issues, or do not last as long as Nahida's E. If you have Nahida, there is basically no reason to use any other dendro support.
Venti: Should come as no surprise. Venti has been broken since the game's start. He may not work in every situation, but when he does work, he is a literal game-changer. Also, even with a Level 1 weapon and no artifacts, Venti will still do his job. This cannot be said about any other support. There is no way to powercreep the AoE CC Venti provides without releasing a Venti 2.0, making him one of the most future-proof supports in game. Venti's burst can destroy mobs so quickly that it basically makes Venti a DPS character, and Venti does not even have to be on field.
Bennett: Broken ATK buff, heals, can even solo an Electro Abyss Lector's shield. But does not work for every character like Hu Tao or every team (Morgana or other Freeze Team). Bennett C6 can also mess up some characters (like Eula). Hard to powercreep without releasing a 5 star version with better scaling (a Bennett 2.0 if you will). Introduction of more hp scaling units as well as dendro/hyperbloom teams has chipped away at Bennett's supremacy and universality as a support, but bouken da bouken is still broken.
Raiden: provides good energy generation (though Venti can also refund energy too) and buffs bursts. Raiden's burst also can deal a lot of damage (more so at C2) that is also AoE. Raiden is optimal on a Eula team. Other than that, the utility she provides is not as broken or needed as some of the other characters on the list. Raiden E with full EM can also be used to drive hyperbloom.
Mona: has great AoE and an excellent burst that also provides a universal damage bonus. She has one of the strongest nukes in the game and provides cc immobilization and a taunt. Good for freeze teams. If Mona were Cryo, that would not necessarily be better as Mona's burst can do 2x vaporize damage (whereas a Cryo nuke only does 1.5x melt damage), and one still needs Hydro for Freeze teams. One can make a similar argument for why a "Cryo Childe" would not necessarily powercreep Childe.
Faruzan: best anemo buffer in the game and a role model for what an elemental buffer should do.
Focalors: has 100% uptime on E that lasts 30 centuries, hydro app has no energy cost, does not require NA, can be used in more teams than Yelan/XQ. She also provides much greater buff than Yelan that is also party-wide. Her burst is a bit more conditional than Mona's. Mona is flat out unconditional 60% dmg bonus, but Focalors requires the party to change hp, which synergizes with certain destruction characters better.
Yelan: better than Xingqiu and can even provide dmg bonus of up to 50%.
Sucrose: like Venti can use the VV set to shred RES and provide good AoE CC. A C6 Sucrose is better than C0 Kazuha because Sucrose can use Thrilling Tales. Sucrose can also give dmg bonus and EM. It is just that Sucrose set the bar very high and is vastly underrated as a support.
Jean: can also provide fall damage with her skill, and her burst can apply Anemo giving it interesting applications in removing debuffs and swirling Pyro with Bennett's burst. C4 also shreds 40% anemo res. She also gives dmg reduction.
Kuki Shinobu: full EM build great for hyperblom and healing.
Yaoyao: off-field dendro app via E, healer, can be used as Nahida-substitute in bloom teams.
Mika: atk spd buff via E, physical damage buffer, healer
Xingqiu is only required for pyro dps (or double hydro), but even in that situation he got replaced by Yelan. In almost every other situation (including hyperbloom), he is not needed or can be replaced by another hydro character. Xingqiu is overrated and very single-target, whereas most other units above have much better AoE. Moreover, it is easy to powercreep Xingqiu further for pyro dps just by releasing a Cryo version of Xingqiu (to make the Pyro carries deal 2x damage instead of 1.5x). Furina/Yelan provide more offensive utility, whereas XQ provides more defense (healing, dmg reduction).
Morax: Can shred RES and provide shield. C6 can even heal (which messes up characters like Hu Tao). But in end, really only provides defensive buff, whereas many other teams (hyperbloom, Rational, Morgana, Hu Tao-Thoma, Childe-Xiangling) need more offense and do not need Zhongli. At C0, in terms of RES shred, Zhongli is powercrept by Viridescent Venerer or Superconduct for most elements except Anemo RES. Zhongli is best suited as a Xiao support. With the release of Deepwood, Zhongli fell even further out of the meta.
Kazuha: worse than Sucrose as a support. Kazuha is almost better suited as a sub-dps or damage-dealer. At C6, Kazuha becomes more like a dps (Xiao) and less like a support (Sucrose/Venti).
Kokomi: E has no icd on hydro app, good for bloom teams
Nilou: can provide significant buff to bloom damage, but restricted to dendro-hydro teams
Thoma: can shield for hu tao teams and drive burgeon teams
Gorou: almost irreplaceable as an Itto/Noelle support for buffing DEF and geo damage
Honorable Mention: Barbara with Thrilling Tales, great healing, great for bloom teams and even mono-hydro with Focalors

Most teams that clear abyss will use at least one of the supports above.

Best archons (for abyss)

Nahida > Raiden >= Venti > Furina > Morax. Rationale: Nahida is broken for hyperbloom. The only other unit that can come close is Alhaitham, but Nahida gives off-field app. Raiden is also broken for hyperbloom (E bot, full EM build). She also has some other uses such as national and energy generation. When he works, Venti is broken for cc and can be as good as or better than Raiden. But for most abyss content (including bosses), Raiden is a bit more versatile and consistent.

Focalors is great for hyperbloom, but because many other hydro applicators exist such as XQ, Yelan, etc. the field becomes competitive, giving only some places where this superstar outshines the rest.

Morax shield is universal shred but can be replaced in most situations with vv, Faruzan, superconduct, etc. Most abyss teams want more damage rather than defense. And Nahida, Raiden, etc. just provide more damage than ZL.

Notes

Childe is more an on-field "support" (or "enabler") whereas these other characters are more off-field supports. Question becomes: why not use hydro catalyst as enabler? That is because catalysts will have ICD on their NA/CA. On the other hand, Childe with riptide can apply hydro much faster. Yelan/XQ can also apply hydro faster via their bursts.
Alhaitham is similar to Childe in that he can also be used as a dendro driver for creating a lot of bloom cores or proccing quicken/spread a lot. Same question: why not use dendro catalyst as driver? Same answer: because dendro catalysts will have ICD (do not apply dendro as fast). Alhaitham's mirrors actually have a unique ICD (2 hit rule) and when combined with his dendro infusion, Alhaitham actually applies dendro very fast.
Xiangling is more like a dps than a support: her burst applies aoe pyro without icd, but there are few hydro/cryo dps that can use that to vape/melt their hits. Ganyu is probably one of the only cryo units that can use XL as a support for melt, but even then Dehya is a better alternative as Dehya's E does not cost 80 energy.
As for which characters are most important: in the game you need both DPS and support characters. They are equally as important (and it can be argued that one needs a DPS character to clear all the content in the game). Supports come and go and can be replaced. It is subjective to say support characters are more important (those who say this are more biased towards support characters). Being able to use a character in every situation does not necessarily make them better. They may then be a jack of all trades and master of none.
Healers and Shielders are equally as important. In fact, it can be argued that healing is more necessary (especially with Corrosion). Those who say Shields are more important are biased towards Zhongli (or worse Baizhu). They are also the same people who think supports are more important and use math to mislead and fool the people.

Characters that do their job without really needing artifacts or weapons are: Chongyun (E infusion), Childe (fast hydro application through E), Alhaitham (fast dendro app via E), Venti (cc), Kokomi (off-field E), Dehya (off-field E), Nahida (off-field E). Note hyperbloom teams do need artifacts and weapons to perform well (full EM builds). Bennett needs a max-level sword to maximize his atk buff. Morax needs hp on artifacts at least to make sure his shield is not paper thin. Raiden either wants 4p Emblem crit build or full EM build to function well. Any character that needs their burst to provide support needs at least some ER on their artifacts.

Top buffers

These are supports/buffs that increase the damage of others. The following factors are considered: how big the buff is, how widely applicable it is, how easily achievable it is, how long it lasts (if there is any downtime).

Faruzan (C6): 1.7-2.5 times damage for anemo dps. Anemo res shred, dmg bonus, additive dmg, crit dmg bonus makes her a model buffer. She buffs anemo in nearly every possible way. What distinguishes her from other buffers is that her buff lasts 18s (at C2) and she provides crowd control. Faruzan is a role model buffer.
Shenhe: 1.5-2 times damage for Cryo only, has quota of 5/7, unless have C6. Also shreds cryo, physical RES with Q, giving further boost to buff.
Yun Jin (C0): 1.5-2 times damage for NA only
Bennett (C5): 1.5 times damage for ATK-scaling skills (most characters and skills), heals
Mona (C0): Q gives 60% dmg bonus (for all elements). If one has no other sources of dmg bonus that is 1.6 times more damage. Say one uses a goblet of 46.6% dmg bonus. Then Mona's buff gives around a 1.41 times increase in damage. C1 can buff hydro reaction damage.
Nahida: when run with deepwood, also gives EM buff on Q (some characters like Cyno, Alhaitham benefit more from this than others), C2 also shreds 30% def on quickened enemies \( 1/(1-.3/2)\approx 1.18 \), while buffing reaction damage (on average 1.2 times). Combining deepwood with C2 effect can give around a 1.4 times buff to dendro damage. C2 alone gives around a 1.2 times buff to reaction damage. If she has 1k EM, her Q gives 250 EM, which can give at most a 2.78 times buff to transformative reaction damage (16*250/2250=1.78) 1.42 times buff to amplifying reaction damage (2.78*250/1650), and 1.86 times more additive damage (5*250/1450) compared to a 0 EM character.
Focalors: her Q can buff dmg bonus depending on how much hp changes. At the very least it can give 0-50% dmg bonus just from her E alone. If healing the team from 50% hp to full, then it may give more dmg bonus similar to Mona level. Her dmg bonus buff can increase with C1 and C2 up to 100% dmg bonus (which can become comparable to Bennett's buff for characters deficient on dmg bonus).
Kujou Sara: lv13 E gives 91% of base atk as bonus atk to character, buff lasts 6s and is not confined to space. By contrast, lv13 Bennett Q gives 119% of base atk as bonus atk, buff lasts 12s and heals (and is localized to a region of space). So if Bennett can give 1k atk, Sara may be able to give 700-800. For a character with 2k atk initially, Sara can buff atk by around 1.4 times. With C6, she can buff electro crit dmg by 60%. For characters with 200% crit dmg, this is an increase of 1.2 times in damage. Combining both c6 crit dmg buff with atk buff can give around 1.7 times more damage for electro dps.
Gorou: Q gives 25% def (for 12s), lv13 E gives 438 flat def and 15% geo dmg bonus (100% uptime), C6 gives 40% geo crit dmg (for 12s). Crit dmg buff can give 3.4/3=1.3 times more damage. The 15% geo dmg bonus is not much. Say character has base def of around 800-900. Gorou's def buffs can give around 600 more def. If character converts def to atk at near 1:1 ratio and can reach 4k atk this way, then Gorou's def buff is about 1.15 times more damage. Combining both the C6 crit dmg buff with the def buff can give around 1.5 times more damage for def-scaling geo dps.
Mika: gives 30% physical dmg bonus, atk spd, C6 gives 60% physical crit dmg buff. How atk spd bonus translates into dmg increase depends on character. As estimate, if lv13 E gives 25% atk spd, suppose it is 1.25 times more damage. Combined with crit dmg buff (1.2 times, cf Sara) that is around 1.5 times more damage.
Venti C6 gives -60% res shred (for autumn element) when combined with vv. C6 gives -20% to absorbed element, while vv gives -40% res shred. That is 1.389 times more damage against the swirled element.
Sucrose, Kazuha: can use vv as well as give dmg bonus and CC. Kazuha can give 40% dmg bonus (to autumn elements), but that's less than Mona. Sucrose can also give EM.
Viridescent Venerer, Superconduct: around 1.28 times damage (-40% RES). Other effects that give up to 40% res shred include Jean C4.
Nilou C2 gives -35% res shred to hydro and dendro
Venti C6 gives -32% anemo res shred (C2 makes E give -12% anemo res for 10s), while C6 makes Q give further -20% anemo res
Deepwood: around 1.22 times damage, -30% dendro res in between VV and Morax
Eula: E gives 25% res shred to cryo and physical for 7s (with 4s press cd), which is actually nuts coming from a dps hypercarry
Zhongli/Geo resonance: around 1.17 times damage (-20% RES); even though it has 100% uptime and applies to everything, it is also the lowest numerical buff on the list; this is the game's way of balancing things, but then one remembers that the game did not exactly balance broken da broken Bennett
Beidou C6, Rosaria C6, Xiangling C1, etc.: shred RES by 15%
Yelan: Q gives 1-50% dmg bonus, increasing over time, on average around a 25% dmg bonus buff, which is less than Kazuha.

Enablers/drivers

Here we separate reaction enablers from other buffers. Technically enablers can act as buffers by buffing other people's damage by applying an element to enable certain reactions like vaporize. But this is less about giving a buff to another character than it is about elemental application on an enemy (unless one wants to think of res/def shred as applying a special type of element/reaction on an enemy).

We consider certain special characters that bypass ICD limitations. We also consider other factors such as aoe and sub-dps value to create a shortlist for the top enablers/drivers in the game.

Dehya: 1.5 times reaction damage (for melt), no energy cost, off-field, applies aoe pyro each hit, can also drive burgeon/hyper-burgeon/rainbow-burgeon
Alhaitham: hyperbloom/quicken driver, unique ICD 2-hit rule, good aoe
Nahida: hyperbloom/quicken driver, no ICD on E app, good aoe
Raiden/Yae/Kuki: hyperbloom drivers. Here even 1k EM Cyno/Qing can act as a hyperbloom driver.
Childe: 1.5 times reaction damage (for vaporize), no energy cost, good aoe
Yelan: 1.5 times reaction damage (for vape), energy cost 70
Xingqiu, Xiangling: 1.5 times reaction damage (for vaporize/melt), high energy cost of 80
Kokomi: while her E does not have ICD, she does not do as much damage as Childe, Yelan, etc.

Chongyun can enable Xiangling to melt several of her Pyronado hits. However, there is currently no Cryo support that can enable ON-field Pyro carries to melt on every hit efficiently (there is no Cryo Xingqiu/Childe). There is Xiangling as an off-field Pyro applicator (with no ICD on Pyronado), but there is no Hydro DPS that can vaporize every hit (unless you play as charged attack Mona, Childe, etc. on Xiangling's Pyronado but that's not really the focus of their kit). Otherwise we would have a buffer that can enable 2 times melt/vaporize damage. Such a character would be at Yun Jin-Shenhe level on this list since although the buff is big, it would only apply to certain Pyro or Hydro characters.

Currently one can try Candace Q for hydro infusion with XL to simulate a hydro vape dps.

Note most of the above buffs do not apply to transformative reactions (which are buffed by certain artifacts effects, EM, Nahida C2, etc.).

Characters to help clear abyss

Another criteria used for evaluating performance is how useful a character is in helping you clearing abyss or whether a character has long-term durability ('future-proof' / 'immortality'). Such things can be contradictory as the abyss has changed over versions to suit different characters and team comps. See abyss and timeline for more details. The release of different types of enemies can also screw certain units over, like how the rifthounds and shadowy husks nerfed zhongli to the ground.

That said there are a select few characters that are closer to being future-proof than the rest, being able to clear abyss consistently throughout the ages. These include supports such as Nahida, Raiden, Bennett, as well as the top hypercarries such as Xiao, Cyno, Itto.

Characters such as kazuha or zhongli fail to make the list as they are not even necessary for clearing abyss. They also suffer from being shilled by USA foreign imperialist dictators, who try to force the whole world to agree with their propaganda and narrative. While yelan and xingqiu have been recognized for their ability to apply hydro, the introduction of hyperbloom in version 3 has leveled the playing field, making the hydro landscape a bit more egalitarian, so that basically many hydro characters, even Barbara, can be used in lieu of yelan/XQ to proc bloom reactions. As such, yelan/XQ are no longer even necessary.

Along with Raiden, Kuki (full EM build) can also be considered a very future-proof character for hyperbloom teams / healing.

Pull value

Which characters are worth spending primos to get first? First we prioritize 5 stars as most 4 stars can be obtained via standard. Moreover, we consider limited-time 5 stars rather than standard 5 stars.

If one wants to get a quick team that can clear spiral abyss, then hyperbloom is the easiest way to go. One can then prioritize getting a dendro unit first. So Nahida (1st) and then Alhaitham (2nd) would be the best pulls: Nahida for off-field dendro app and Alhaitham for very fast dendro app. And to be honest, if you get two hyperbloom teams working to clear abyss (Nahida one side, Alhaitham the other side), there is probably no need to get any other character in the game. But that would be boring, wouldn't it?

The next step would be getting an electro unit to proc hyperbloom, Raiden and Kuki perhaps being the best options for off-field app. Yae is also good. Cyno is good but is more for on-field rather than off-field electro app. Kuki's rate of electro app only becomes competitive with Raiden at C4 Kuki, which could be hard to get initially. Thus, a C0 Raiden would probably be more worth a pull given Raiden has other utility besides driving hyperbloom (such as Rational).

As for hydro app, if one already has XQ then there may be no need to pull a 5 star hydro unit. Otherwise, Yelan could be worth a pull (for hydro app, double hydro, off-field app). Yelan is a better pull than Kokomi given that Yelan does more damage and applies hydro faster and for longer. Focalors is also a good pull as she can be used in more teams than Yelan/XQ (a bit more universal), provides a larger buff, is E based, and lasts longer with 100% uptime. The main advantage Yelan/XQ have is faster hydro app for more seeds and hyperbloom (also XQ has some defensive utility with dmg reduction). If you get Focalors, you may not need Yelan, and if you have Yelan you may not need Furina (except for some dps such as CA/PA/E dps or Cyno). So there is a kind of 'parity' or 'neutrality' here (this is discussed more in Focalors). In the end, between Focalors/Yelan/XQ it is almost like you pick whichever you like more as they do similar things. Otherwise, Childe is good for very fast on-field hydro app, riptide, and enabling and can work with Nahida and Raiden for hyperbloom.

For hyperbloom dps, the 3 main bottlenecks are: rate of dendro app, rate of electro app, rate of hydro app. The dps is bounded by whichever of these 3 has the lowest rate. The fastest dendro app in the game would probably be Alhaitham given his mirror's unique icd. Nahida would be next best but is valuable for off-field app. The fastest electro app is perhaps Cyno, but for off-field options, Raiden and C4 Kuki would also be good, followed by Yae. For fast hydro app, there are several options, including Childe (for on-field), Yelan, XQ, Furina, Nilou, and Kokomi (for off-field).

Hyperbloom teams can have dps output comparable to C6 units. But to achieve this theoretical maximum, one usually needs very invested supports with high rate of application. Otherwise, most hyperbloom teams will not be as efficient and fall short of the max possible dps. This usually means getting three 5 stars, one for dendro, electro, and hydro. So rather than say it is F2P hyperbloom that is comparable to C6, it is more like getting three limited 5 stars to create an elite hyperbloom team that is comparable to C6. So that is like getting three copies (two constellations) of one 5 star. To have three C0 5-stars in a team do comparable dps to a single C2 5-star unit no longer sounds as farfetched.

So prioritize getting Nahida / Alhaitham and Raiden first. Kuki is not needed if you have Raiden, and Yelan is not needed if you have XQ.

What is next? There are perhaps two 4-star supports worth leveling in the game for their use on several teams: Bennett and XQ. Bennett provides an insane attack buff, and as mentioned above XQ is for hydro app. The introduction of hyperbloom has balanced the game so that Bennett is not as universally / monopolistically op as he once was or needed in every team (such as hyperbloom), but Bennett is still broken. The other 4 star that is also helpful or important (but not nearly at the same level as Bennett or XQ) is Xiangling for off-field pyro subdps. But given that Dehya was recently added to the game for off-field app, Xiangling is not as needed as before.

So the above are perhaps the most important supports to get for one's account. After that, perhaps one wants to get at least one hypercarry or character that deals massive amounts of damage on their own. These include Xiao, Itto, Scaramouche, Cyno. These 4 are highlighted as they currently have the highest dps output among hypercarries. These dps units are straightforward to build: just hyperinvest into their levels, talents, and they can carry you through most content in the game.

The next tier of dps units are also strong, but may not have as high a dps output as the aforementioned carries. These include Eula, Ayaka. These characters can definitely do great damage and can also carry your account. But they tend to have more supportive abilities compared to the above hypercarries, whether it is res shred or off-field app. These 6 units are highlighted as they tend to have the highest dps output at C0 to C6 among the many dps units in the game based on calculations.

After getting your favorite dps carry unit, perhaps the next very important type of character to get is the anemo support. Sucrose already exists in the game and is useful for several teams, for vv shred, crowd control, em buff, dmg bonus buff, swirl app. She is so good that there may not be a need to pull for a 5 star vv support. Nonetheless, Venti or kazuha can still support the team. Venti is more for unparalleled crowd control, while kazuha can buff dmg bonus for autumn elements.

The next character to discuss is Morax. Now Morax shreds all res by 20% and gives a shield. However, for all elements his res shred can be substituted or powercrept (vv, Faruzan, superconduct, deepwood, geo resonance). Morax is worth pulling as a generalist support if you have no idea what type of team you want to build. Then Morax can initially help buff your damage and protect your team. But to get higher dps output, there are other characters worth pulling.

After that it can be good to get sub-dps units or characters that can do off-field damage, such as Albedo, Yae. Such units can fit on many different teams.

And then after that pick whatever you want. You can choose other characters you like or even get constellations.