Ningguang Guide and Best Builds for Genshin Impact

Strengths

• High single target DPS.
• Safer playing at ranged.
• Very versatile for teams.

Weaknesses

• Very weak AoE.
• Heavy investment to shine.
• Base attack very low.

Ningguang is built for critical damage. Her Geo shards can take down a single target with ease and her ability to stay at ranged sets her apart from other Geo characters. Where Ningguang struggles is that she has no AoE outside of her Jade Screen which is used more for defensive bonuses than the actual damage itself. Unfortunately to truly unlock her potential, Grandeur be the Seven Stars (C6) is absolutely necessary as she isn't reliant on Elemental Reactions and is built for pure solo DPS. For the purpose of this guide, we will be focusing on her capabilities as an on-field damage dealer.

Ningguang is built for damage, so the artifact sets above are somewhat equal choices at boosting her damage output. However, they focus on different aspects of how you would play Ningguang. First, Emblem of Severed Fate focuses more on using charged attacks, buffing their damage while you weave your normal attacks in between your skills. Noblesse Oblige focuses on a team-wide buff for Attack power when you use Starshatter and offers a flat elemental buff for your whole team. This set can work really well with a team that is swapping Sub DPS characters on and off the field to add to Ningguang's damage. Lastly, Ningguang can stack several two piece bonuses while searching for those strong CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG stats. Overall, Ningguang doesn't have a BIS set but rather can use different options depending upon how you play her and the team she's put into.

Ningguang has a very simple playstyle, with very little technical know how required. This makes it very easy for new players to pick her up and play her correctly. However, to get the highest DPS out of her you will need to heavily invest in building CRIT and ATK. She follows a simple rotation of setting up her Jade Screen and then using her charged attacks to fire through it. This amplifies the attacks and with Grandeur be the Seven Stars (C6) adds extra projectiles.

Some discussion must be had around Ningguang's Energy Recharge as her requirements will vary depending on her team composition. Typically if you are running 1 other Geo character, you can expect to cast Starshatter every 15s with a requirement of 120% Energy Recharge. Her burst cooldown can be lowered with the addition of other Geo characters, which will up her Energy Recharge requirement to 140% to maintain a constant burst. However, our team compositions will be looking at Sub DPS characters than can help support Ningguang's damage with on-field skills and with only one other Geo character joining her (Zhongli, Noelle or Albedo), setting up a 12s burst with without a battery for Ningguang requires a very specific build and isn't recommended.

Ningguang is quite versatile for team composition, as she is a standalone DPS who can be supported through on-field Elemental Reactions like Fischl's Midnight Phantasmagoria or Bennett's Fantastic Voyage. For our team sections we will be focusing on how we can create elemental reaction pairings while still supporting Ningguang on a 15s burst cycle with Starshatter. These teams have very simple rotations and are very easy to play, allowing for powerful combinations with Ningguang showcasing her single target damage. With that being said we have chosen our team builds based upon character availability (4 stars vs 5 stars), overall damage potential and best conditions for Ningguang to shine.

This setup functions on quick elemental skill swaps between characters while you line up Ningguang's Starshatter for huge bursts of damage. We will use Bennett's Fantastic Voyage for healing and a damage buff when facing stronger sets of enemies as well as being used as a short battery for particles. Fischl is used with Nightrider and Midnight Phantasmagoria which provides an amazing chunk of damage if Fischl is built correctly. Finally, we use Xilonen for added damage buffs and a great resistance shred through her sampler unique ability. Do not forget about your Geo Resonance for the lowered Geo RES and boost to Damage.

This team is a single target monster, and is so much fun to play! While it does not have many AoE abilities, it can shred groups picking them apart one by one. To start, we drop our two 'turret' style skills with Fischl's Nightrider and Yae Miko's Yakan Evocation: Sesshou Sakura. These two dish out Electro damage non-stop. Next, throw out Xiangling's Guoba Attack on to the field then swap to Ningguang, place down a Jade Screen and send some Charged Attack through it along with your burst ability. With Guoba dealing Pyro DMG and the turrets Electro DMG, this will cause a ton of Elemental Reactions that will make Crystallize shields for Ningguang. This gives us a huge defensive boost and we can start to hit targets with Ningguang, always firing from behind or beside a Jade Screen for an additional shot. Lastly, you can use the shields available from the crystallize reactions and then use Xiangling's Elemental Burst, Pyronado, to charge into the enemies. Then jump back to Ningguang and clean up the enemies still alive with charged attacks.

This build focuses on scaling Ningguang personal DPS as much as possible. This build typically requires her to have your C6 constellation and with very strong CRIT and ATK gear. It is played with Ningguang on-field the majority of the time benefiting from Geo Resonance, Zhongli's shielding from Dominus Lapidis, Kujou Sara's Subjugation: Koukou Sendou, and lastly Bennett's Fantastic Voyage for another attack buff. This grants Ningguang offensive and defensive boosts to stay on the field and fight. Character's Elemental Skills are used as a battery to feed Ningguang more energy so she can keep her burst charged. This plays as simple as you want it to be, with a rotation of the Attack buffs or use them on top of each other.