Xiao (魈)

Xiao, known as Alatus, the Vigilant Yaksha, the Golden-Winged Peng, is an Anemo polearm user and yaksha guardian of Liyue. Xiao is a premier AoE destruction unit that excels at plunging attacks. He is agile for exploration as well. With C6, he has the highest personal (non-reaction-based) DPS potential in the game.

Contents

Talents

At C0-C5 talent priority is: AA = Q > E.

At C6 talent priority is E > AA = Q.

Fontaine introduced units that get +3 levels to AA with constellations. Xiao's constellations give +3 levels to E and Q, which suits his C6 E spam playstyle. If one wanted to optimize further, his constellations could give +3 levels to AA and E.

Auto-Attack

This is closely tied to his Elemental Burst. Note that when Xiao plunge attacks, he will not take fall damage no matter what height he plunges from.

Xiao also has the highest Normal Attack and Plunging Attack scalings among all Polearm users.

Elemental Skill

An excellent ability with high scaling and great for exploration. It has a 10 second cooldown and starts with 2 charges.

By comparison, Ayaka's Elemental Skill also has a 10 second cooldown but with lower scaling and only 1 charge.

Xiao's skill can be used midair. One can jump and cycle midair then plunge attack. The skill can traverse 5-7 meters in distance and when spammed multiple times allows Xiao to cover the greatest distance per second among any AoE DPS.

At C1, Xiao gets 3 charges on the skill.

At C6, Xiao gains access to 'infinite cycling'. By plunging during his burst and hitting at least two targets he gains an extra charge and can spam his skill without cooldown in the next 1s. This makes him the best sustained DPS (damage per second) unit in the game by far.

Xiao can usually spam 4-6 Es within a second. One trick is to reverse the game camera to help aim Xiao's dashes. On tall enemies, Xiao can do some pretty interesting acrobatics by plunging then jumping and spamming his E.

Elemental Burst

This is the core of Xiao's kit. It gives him around 100% damage bonus at max level (that is additive with other damage bonuses) and greatly increases his jumping height (to around 5 meters vertically) and converts his attacks to Anemo (which cannot be overridden by any other infusion).

Xiao's burst increases his AoE. His High Plunge AoE goes up to 6 meters in radius, which is the highest among all plunging attacks in the game.

During its 15 second duration, Xiao can execute around 10 high plunges.

At C0-C5, it is optimal to spam high plunge attacks. Most other combinations involving mixing normal or charged attacks in between are either suboptimal or on par with spamming plunge attacks (you would mix in normal attacks if you are using Xiao with Beidou, Xingqiu, Yelan, etc).

At C6 against multiple enemies, it becomes optimal to plunge and then spam his skill for the next 1s and then repeat.

The burst costs 70 energy, which is less than Ayaka's 80 energy cost burst and Raiden's 90 energy cost burst. Pairing Xiao with an Anemo battery like Venti, Sucrose, or Jean can help Xiao gain his burst back on cooldown. The burst has an 18 second cooldown, giving Xiao at least 3 seconds of downtime.

Xiao's burst drains his health (essentially applying corrosion to himself) at an exponential decay rate (2% current hp/s at lv 10). This can be countered by pairing Xiao with a healer (Bennett, Jean, Xianyun, or even C6 Morax). The health drain can be helpful to reach low HP if one uses the Staff of Homa on Xiao. It also enables him to use Furina's buff and the Marechaussee 4p.

Being able to jump also allows Xiao to avoid many enemy attacks in the game by himself, unlike Hu Tao or Ganyu who will either have to dodge or use a shield. This is his built-in survivability as a destruction unit. His plunging playstyle is also similar to Freya from Final Fantasy 9.

Xiao and Fontaine: It seems that among pre-Fontaine destruction dps, Alatus Xiao is the one who understood the 'western' Fontaine culture most, the one 'enlightened' by 'modernity'. He has the continuous hp drain of Lyney, Furina, Wrio, Noctis; he has the gravity defying ability of the Cal Breguet Experimental Field Generator of Edwin Eastinghouse; and he has the E nuking dps (C6) of Navia. Meanwhile, the Guardian Yaksha synthesized this with the more eastern culture such as the E spam of Sumeru's Cyno. So Xiao's design is a blend of both cultural traditions and modernity, a dps with Liyue characteristics.

Constellations

  1. C1: gives an extra charge for E, gives some extra damage and terrain traversal
  2. C2: gives more energy generation, which is ok
  3. C3: increases level of E by 3, which is great for C6
  4. C4: increases DEF by 100% when under 50% HP. This makes it a bit more comfy to fight under 50% HP, but is usually not needed if running Xiao with a shield and if using Bennett. Still it can make running Xiao with Homa an even more viable option now, and it can make Xiao as tanky as Itto.
  5. C5: increases level of Q by 3
  6. C6: This is the best C6 in the game and is what takes Xiao several leagues above all other DPS. If there is any character worth C6-ing it is Xiao. And if you're considering pulling for Xiao constellations, you may as well go all the way to C6.

Build

Artifacts

In Version 2.6, the vermillion set (辰砂往生录) was released. It is Xiao's bis artifact set.

Which one is better depends on substats. The reason even 2 Shime 2 Glad can be used is that Xiao has so much damage bonus already, so getting more ATK may balance his stats a bit more. And while this may sound foreign to some people, there can even be crit diminishing returns (such as for Noctis with his signature), which can sometimes make atk/hp more valuable than crit and which is why Vermillion is better than Marechaussee for Xiao. Still, the Golden Troupe domain is a useful domain to farm for many characters compared to the Chasm domain. New players may use Marechaussee early game on Xiao but then later on when they have more time and resources upgrade to Vermillion.

Currently, no other artifact set is worth investing into. For example, we do not have a plunging set that can shred def.

Artifact Stats

Aim for ATK% on the sands, Anemo DMG Bonus on the goblet, and CRIT on the circlet (CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG depending on your substats).

For substats, CRIT > ATK > ER.

Xiao naturally has the highest Base ATK (for male dps) in the game and gains CRIT Rate on ascension. This allows one to invest more into other CRIT stats including CRIT Damage.

Weapons

Xiao has 2 top tier weapons that stand above all others:

Besides these 2 weapons, Xiao has a number of solid choices:

4 stars

Most other polearms are typically not worth investing into. Note that the Catch's passive does not work for Xiao as Xiao's burst functions as a buff (rather than a stance change like Raiden's burst).

Teams

Xiao excels individually and can dish out high DPS even alone. Unlike some other units like Hu Tao (who relies on Xingqiu), Xiao is not too reliant on supports.

That said, his teammates can also further boost his damage, and Xiao's versatility gives him more freedom and flexibility in choosing teams.

Supports

Here are some of Xiao's best supports:

  1. Faruzan: Morax used to be one of Xiao's best res shredders. But now there is a new queen in the game: Faruzan, who shreds anemo res, buffs anemo dmg, crit damage, additive damage, provides CC, sub-dps. Faruzan, especially C6 Faruzan, is undoubtedly the best Xiao support in the game.
  2. Morax: there are few ways to shred Anemo RES in the game, and Zhongli's shield is one of them. Zhongli's shield reduces Anemo RES of enemies, which is very hard to do. By contrast, Viridescent Venerer and Superconduct can both decrease the RES of every other element and are very accessible for F2P. Moreover, Zhongli provides a shield for Xiao that at C6 can even heal Xiao to counter the health drain.
  3. Bennett: Unlike Hu Tao, Xiao benefits greatly from Bennett and his ATK buff. The AoE of Bennett's Burst is 6m in radius, aligning perfectly with Xiao's plunging AoE. Moreover, Bennett can heal Xiao, making Bennett one of Xiao's best supports.
  4. Venti: Venti can generate energy and excels at crowd control, pulling enemies close enough together for Xiao to plunge attack on them at once. A common trick when pairing Xiao and Venti is for Xiao to jump and cycle against enemies within Venti's burst. Venti's burst does not last for too long, leaving time for Xiao to plunge attack on them after the enemies have been grouped together. At higher constellations, Venti can also reduce Anemo RES.
  5. Sucrose: similar to Venti and can generate a lot of Anemo particles and CC enemies for Xiao. Sucrose can also use Thrilling Tales to buff Xiao's ATK even further. Sucrose's burst will not lift some enemies unlike Venti's burst, so this can make Sucrose sometimes a better support for Xiao as then Xiao can more easily plunge on enemies within Sucrose's burst.
  6. Jean: plays the role of both healer and Anemo battery for Xiao. At C4, Jean can also reduce Anemo RES.
  7. Albedo: usually paired with Zhongli for Geo Resonance. Albedo provides some extra auxiliary damage and at higher constellations can boost Plunging damage even further.
  8. Furina: similar to Albedo, can provide subdps for Xiao, buff can also synergize with Xiao hp drain. Alatus applies corrosion to self. Furina applies corrosion to team. This is the corrosion duo.
  9. Xianyun/Liuyun: She is probably Xiao's best support in single target and non-C6 situations. She gives a pretty substantial buff to plunge damage, which is quite significant for Xiao. When Xiao 'graduates' to C6 though, he becomes more of an E dps (like that blonde gunbrella girl Xiaogan) than plunge dps. But Xiao mains will never forget the kindness and plunging assistance Xianyun gave at Poisson.

Some of Xiao's best supports are just the best supports in the game period. Xiao can use a C6 Morax or Bennett unlike other characters like Hu Tao.

For wishes, Xiao mains should prioritize getting Faruzan, Xianyun, Venti, and Morax over other supports.

Regarding Anemo RES shred, at C0, Faruzan is the best option for reducing Anemo RES by 30% (Morax is next best). But at higher constellations, C4 Jean and obviously C6 Venti powercreep Zhongli in reducing Anemo RES. Even C6 Anemo Traveler reduces Anemo RES by 20%. C6 Venti reduces Anemo RES by up to 44%, which makes him one of the best boosters to Xiao's damage. C4 Jean reduces Anemo RES by 40% within her Q, which is also amazing. So Venti and Jean make Zhongli look like a joke. At higher constellations, a C6 Zhongli is really only used for his shield and healing for Xiao. Xiao's best C6 supports are still Venti/Jean, Zhongli, Bennett. It's just that a C6 Venti will boost Xiao's damage more than Zhongli.

Some people complain whenever Venti cannot lift enemies with his ultimate. But this is actually a buff for Xiao. Whenever Venti cannot lift enemies, Xiao can plunge on them.

C6 Venti and C6 Zhongli were the original tailor made supports for Xiao. For a long time, there was no other character in the game that benefitted as much from C6 Venti and C6 Zhongli simultaneously than Xiao. Even C4 Jean and C4 Albedo (buffing plunging) work with Xiao, besides the usual suspect Bennett. Since 3.3, one can make a case that Scaramouche also benefits from Venti and his C6. But now Xiao has other tailor supports that synergize with him: C6 Faruzan, Xianyun, even Furina.

The idiotic USA media is full of lies and garbage most of the time. Do not listen to them.

The following supports are ok:

  1. Other shielders: Thoma, Noelle, Xinyan, Layla, Beidou, Tankfei, Kirara, baizhu, etc. are ok for Xiao, but Morax is the preferred preservation unit for Xiao. Diona and baizhu can shield and heal Xiao simultaneously, but even then Xiao would prefer Bennett as a healer.
  2. Other harmony units: Mona can provide DMG Bonus with her burst and off field damage with her skill. The DMG bonus is nice, but Xiao already gets so much DMG bonus from his burst that it may hit diminishing returns.
  3. Subdps: Besides Albedo/Furina, sub-dps units such as Yae Miko, Dehya, Xiangling, Fischl, and even Ganyu Q and Nahida can work (swirl can proc Nahida E), etc. to provide off-field damage. These tend to be the most 'user-friendly' for Xiao as they proc automatically, suiting his E/plunging dps. For Yelan (also gives dmg bonus), Beidou, Xingqiu, Xiao will need to interweave NA/CA between plunges.
  4. Other abundance units: Barbara can heal and use Thrilling Tales. Unlike Bennett's field, Barbara's healing will follow Xiao wherever he goes, making her an example of a healer that has more synergy with Xiao. Kuki is another healer whose ring follows Xiao around. Kokomi is ok for Xiao, but usually one can just use Barbara. Kokomi's jellyfish does not follow Xiao around, whereas Barbara's healing can. Otherwise, Xiao wants Bennett for the atk buff.
  5. Alternate dps: Generally, Xiao has near 100% field time (15s Q, 18s cd), so he does not want to pair with another dps that takes away his field time if you want to maximize his own dps. Yoimiya (Xiaogong) can provide an ATK buff with her burst and act as a sub-DPS for Xiao. Navia (Xiaogan) can do off-field geo with Q and frontload her damage with her E to provide more team damage without taking much field time from Xiao. Ayaka (Xiao N) can provide off-field damage with Q. How does it feel at the top, where it is Xiao surrounded by ladies also named Xiao.
  6. Raiden Shogun: Raiden can also generate energy for Xiao and act as a sub-DPS during Xiao's downtime. Her skill like Albedo's can also provide extra damage for Xiao, who attacks frequently during his burst. But usually, pairing Xiao with an Anemo battery will give him enough energy.
  7. Kaedehara Kazuha: like Venti and Sucrose, can also generate energy and CC enemies. Plus, for those who believe in Plunging supremacy, it can be satisfying to pair the original two plunging characters together on the team. For some time, one could see the Xiao-Kazuha pair for Abyss teams and exploration. But ever since 2.6, Xiao has moved on and found new supports like Faruzan, Furina, Xianyun to accomodate him as these characters are not tainted by their ancestry. Life is suffering, and Xiao has endured eons of suffering, but the scars of 2.6 are like a bullet wound from Navia that cannot be undone. Act more like Morax (and less like baizhu) and help cure Xiao of his suffering rather than exacerbating it.

2.6 (what happened to Kazuha) was the first betrayal. 3.5 (what happened to Dehya/Chen Yu) was the second betrayal. And 4.3 (what happened to Navia/Xiaogan) was the third betrayal. Each of these moments is like someone stabbing a knife into you heart and then twisting that knife to create a hole of blood. It is very easy to destroy trust and so hard to build it back up. You have not suffered much in life unless you have experienced as much suffering as Xiao has received all these years. But Xiao apparently is not human, so he can endure this suffering.

We are afraid 4.6 and 5.3 will be more betrayals as well. By this point, it is easy to predict the pattern.

Example Teams

Due to his own high innate personal dps, Xiao's teams are some of the most powerful in the game. The following are usually his more 'meta' teams that can clear Abyss floors more easily. These are teams that excel more in the Abyss and see more high-end Abyss usage (compared to others we will discuss below). His top teams usually always want Faruzan (C6) and Bennett (C5). In almost all situations, he would want Xianyun too (her Aloof C2 is the sweet spot). However, at C6 when doing E spam, other supports besides Xianyun such as Furina, C4 Jean, etc. can be used too.

  1. Xiao-Faruzan-C4 Jean-Bennett: top 1 or 2 for maximizing Xiao's own damage (aoe, C6 situations)
  2. Xiao-Faruzan-C4 Jean-Furina
  3. Xiao-Faruzan-Furina-Bennett
  4. Xiao-Faruzan-Xianyun-Bennett: Xianyun is better for single target bosses, whereas Faruzan/C4 Jean/Furina buff all his damage (including C6 E)
  5. Xiao-Faruzan-Xianyun-Furina
  6. Xiao-Faruzan-Mona-Bennett: nuke team (for the 5s window of Mona's omen buff)
  7. Xiao-Sucrose-Bennett-Morax
  8. Xiao-Venti-Bennett-Morax (team of gods): generally Faruzan, Jean, Sucrose, Xianyun are better anemo supports for Xiao, unless one has constellations on Venti (the ones that shred res), at which point Xiao-Venti teams may move up to challenge those above

These other teams are usable for fun and viable in Abyss, but the above teams are usually more recommended:

  1. Xiao-Faruzan-Nahida/Dehya/Yae/Yelan/Albedo-Bennett: to add sub-dps for Xiao, usually Furina is the subdps with most synergy with Xiao (above)
  2. Xiao-Jean-Albedo-Zhongli: this is ok, but teams with Xiao-Bennett have higher DPS. Really only dps like Alhaitham, Cyno, Itto, Noctis, etc. (hyperbloom or non-atk scaling) are ok without Bennett. Most other atk scalers would want Bennett.
  3. Xiao-Bennett-Albedo-Zhongli (if Xiao has enough ER or does not need an Anemo Battery)
  4. Xiao-Venti-Bennett-Diona
  5. Xiao-Sucrose-Bennett-Diona (F2P friendly team)
  6. Xiao-Sucrose-Bennett-Barbara (F2P friendly team)
  7. Xiao-Kazuha-Bennett-Zhongli (plunging supremacy): osmanthus wine tastes the same as we remember, but where are those that share the memory of the good old days before 2.6 when kazuha was just a pure soul taken in by Beidou and we did not know who is grandfather was?
  8. Xiao-Venti-Mona-Diona (better version of Morgana)
  9. Xiao-Nahida-Furina-Raiden: hyperbloom Xiao now a thing with Furina's debut
  10. Xiao-Venti-Tartaglia-Bennett (the Tartar team: Tartaglia increases Xiao's AA by +1, enabling Xiao to do more plunge damage; Tartaglia can also act as a sub-DPS during Xiao's downtime and has a great burst too)
  11. Xiao-Raiden-Bennett-Venti
  12. Xiao-Raiden-Bennett-Zhongli
  13. Xiao-Yoimiya-Bennett-Diona
  14. Xiao-Yoimiya-Raiden-Bennett

Calculations

Here we assume talent levels 10-10-10. These focus mostly on MVs. We assume that Xiao has an Anemo DMG Bonus goblet and is running 2 piece VV (which gives up to 61.6% Anemo Damage Bonus). We ignore other buffs (like a Bennett or Zhongli buff).

C0

The scaling for one high plunge attack during his burst is

\( z=404*(1+.952+.616)=1037.472 \)

We assume Xiao does 10 high plunge attacks for the duration of his 15 second burst (so 1 high plunge every 1.5 seconds). The total scaling is then

\( 10z=10374.72 \)

This DPS is

\( x_0 = z/1.5=691.648\)

C6

Note that the Q gains 3 levels so the buff becomes 108.85% damage bonus. The E also gains 3 levels.

From the previous section, we assume 1 high plunge takes 1.5 seconds. After high plunging, Xiao then spams his E say for 4 times at minimum (though he can reach 5-6) within the next second. So a rotation takes 2.5 seconds and consists of the 2 parts:

\( y=404*(1+1.0885+.616)+4*537*(1+.616)=4563.786 \)

So at C6 most of Xiao's damage comes from his E.

For the duration of 15 seconds, we assume he does this for \( 15/2.5=6\) times so the total scaling is then

\(6y=27382.716\)

The DPS is

\(x_6 = y/2.5 = 1825.5144\)

So Xiao's DPS is nearly tripled at C6 compared to C0.

Note these calculations do not factor in Xiao's 2 passives which further increase his DMG Bonus. So in practice, he can do more damage than this.

One of his passives increases damage of E by 15% each time it is used, up to 3 stacks for a total of 45% bonus. Each stack lasts 7s, and its duration is refreshed when a new stack is gained. Given how fast Xiao attacks with his E, it is very easy to have the max bonus of 45% for basically the whole duration (use Xiao's E 3 times before casting his Q to get max stacks). Recomputing the dps gives

\( y=404*(1+1.0885+.616)+4*537*(1+.616+.45)=5530.386 \)
\(x_6 = y/2.5 = 2212.1544\)

This is around a ~20% increase in dps, which is pretty significant.

Lastly Xiao has a passive that increases all damage by 5% over time, up to 25%. This has not yet been factored into the calculations, but it would increase his dps even further.

Midair plunge damage (pierce/collision damage)

For some bigger enemies (e.g. bosses like the vishaps or maguu kenki), Xiao can also do some additional 'pierce' or 'midair' damage while plunging. Basically if Xiao plunges on top of the enemy's hitbox, he will do another instance of damage before hitting the ground. There have been some interesting tricks using this. For example, using the Geo Traveler's ultimate and then plunging on top of the ridges can make Xiao enter an 'infinite loop' of plunging while doing continuous midair plunge damage.

This pierce plunge damage has scaling 161.76% at NA Level 10. It becomes significant against the bigger enemies as mentioned before and contributes a decent amount of dps. Specifically, compared to a high plunge multiplier of 404%, the midair plunge damage is about 40% of that value. So if we assume Xiao can do one instance of midair plunge damage for each high plunge, then we get a dps increase of around 40% (a 1.4 multiplier, which is quite significant). For C0 Xiao, this increases his single-target dps against bigger bosses to

\(1.4x_0 = 968.3072\)

Even without the midair plunge damage, C0 Xiao's single target dps is already the highest among C0 units (the bonus is that it is aoe). With the midair plunge damage, C0 Xiao's dps becomes higher than many C6 units.

Skill damage

Xiao can also use his E outside his burst too. This will contribute to his C0 damage. At lv10 it has 455% scaling. Assume he uses it once every 10s (because he has charges, even after his 15s he can save up charges over time so on average it effectively becomes once every 10s). Outside his burst, the dps is $$x_e = 455*1.616/10 = 73.5$$

Total c0 dps is then $$x_e + x_0 = 765.1$$ and with collision damage $$x_e + 1.4x_0 = 1041.8$$ Xiao's individual c0 dps can surpass many characters' c6 dps.

Trivia