Xianyun (Cloud Retainer) Guide and Best Builds for Genshin Impact

Strengths

• Unlocks a new Plunge playstyle for many characters by increasing jump height and buffing Plunge DMG.
• Strong healing allowing them to fit many roles Jean can play while also being on a guaranteed banner.

Weaknesses

• High Energy Requirements when played without other Anemo characters.
• C1 and C2 provide incredibly significant upgrades to her team DMG and Energy Requirements.

Xianyun is primarily played as both a healer and also as a support who enables other characters to deal increased DMG through Plunge Attacks with Xianyun's Starwicker effect from their Elemental Burst.

Calculations for Xianyun's build comes from Xianyun Mastersheet made by jinszly.

Xianyun has many good weapon options with her signature weapon Crane's Echoing Call being her best option providing high ATK, reducing Energy requirements and buffing the teams Plunge Attack DMG. Her next best weapons can entirely depend on your team and build (we would advise checking the sheet). That being said, Xianyun wants a lot of Energy Recharge and ATK % on her weapons.

Therefore, of her 4-star / F2P weapons mainly focus on providing Energy Recharge to Xianyun. Flowing Purity and Oathsworn Eye are great options alongside weapons such as Favonius Codex.

Xianyun's best artifact tends to be Viridescent Venerer much like many other Anemo characters because of the RES Shred. However, Noblesse Oblige and Song of Days Past are both really good options. Noblesse and Songs are especially good when you cannot swirl elements or when a character is already using Viridescent such as Xiao teams with Faruzan. You may also consider changing Faruzan's artifacts to Tenacity of the Millelith instead.

As mentioned, Xianyun wants ATK % and Energy Recharge for her artifact priorities. This is because both her healing from Stars Gather at Dusk and DMG buffs from Consider, the Adeptus in Her Realm scale off of ATK. 4,500 ATK is required to hit the cap.

Xianyun's Energy Recharge depends on if you are playing in a team with other Anemo characters, how many uses of White Clouds at Dawn are used and if anyone is holding a Favonius Weapon.

Xianyun generally has quite low field-time only really requiring you to use your Elemental Skill for Energy and then your Elemental Burst afterwards so that your DPS can start dealing high amounts of Plunge DMG.

White Clouds at Dawn is Xianyun's Elemental Skill. When triggered, it uses the first instance of Skyladder and from there you can use 2 more times to gain additional height during exploration, deal bigger Driftcloud Wave DMG, and also generate more Energy on the plunge of the third use. Energy is only generated on the plunge not on use of the skill.

Xianyun's Elemental Burst Stars Gather at Dusk is both her healing as well as the primary way in which she supports the team. This skill summons a Starwicker allowing you to Plunge 8 times on any character to deal massive DMG.

Xianyun brings an entirely new playstyle to many characters allowing DPS characters to instead focus on Plunging instead of their main method of DPS. This can be an overall DPS increase to the following types of characters:

• Characters who already focus on Plunging such as Xiao and Gaming;
• Characters with high Plunge Attack scaling such as Diluc and Razor;
• Characters who have or provide Elemental Infusion to themselves or the party. For example Bennett, Hu Tao, Chongyun and Furina (C6) to name a few. Additionally, Catalyst characters who have an AoE plunge such as Yae Miko.

The Elemental Infusion aspect is incredibly important because Plunge Attacks have no Internal Cooldown as a result of having longer animations meaning every Plunge Attack infused with an element will deal Elemental DMG and always react with any Elements already on an enemy.

It is also worth noting Albedo can be a great support in teams, but only with his C4 Descent of Divinity which buffs Plunging Attack DMG by 30%.

This Xiao team, is one of the main ways to play Xianyun using Faruzan for increased Anemo buffs. As mentioned earlier in the guide, both Xianyun and Faruzan do not both need to be using Viridescent Venerer as the effect will be wasted. Furina is the more powerful option however Bennett is also great is Furina is being used for other teams.

Many Claymore characters can greatly benefit from Xianyun's Plunge Attack buff. The main 2 being Diluc and Gaming who can be supported by both Bennett and Furina. Other examples include the Chongyun and Razor teams listed where Chongyun's infusion can be buffed by Shenhe and Razor wants to generate Superconduct to deal increased Physical DMG.

With the addition of Xianyun, Plunge Hu Tao is a powerful team especially when paired with Furina. This changes up her classic Charged Attack style gameplay drastically while still focusing on Vaporize reactions with Hydro SubDPS such as Yelan.