Originally posted on February 16, 2023
Dendro has proven itself to be one of Genshin Impact’s strongest elements, but which characters use it best?
After the element’s introduction with update 3.0, Dendro characters have proven themselves to be incredibly strong, ranking consistently highly within the tier lists of community members. They have very strong kits that can enable powerful elemental reactions, such as Spread and Hyperbloom. Here’s our ranking of the strongest Dendro characters.
5. Yaoyao
At the time of writing, Yaoyao is Genshin Impact’s only Dendro healer. This is a pretty big deal, opening up a wide range of team compositions for her to be a part of. Her Elemental Skill summons Yuegui, a cute bunny-like creature who can both heal player characters and damage enemies. Yuegui is particularly useful due to its flexibility - if your character is below 70% HP, Yuegui will focus on healing you, and otherwise will focus on damaging enemies. This damage also applies Dendro, which can be useful for setting up Elemental Reactions.
Yaoyao’s Elemental Burst further enhances her healing and damage capabilities - it summons not one, not two, but three Yuegui! Not only that, but these little guys can deal damage and heal at the same time, and their healing affects the whole party, not just the active character. Yaoyao’s burst also increases her movement speed, allowing her to traverse the battlefield far quicker.
Since she’s a generally off-field support, we recommend giving Yaoyao the Deepwood Memories 4-piece artifact set and prioritizing Energy Recharge over her other stats. Deepwood Memories’ Dendo Resistance shred effect only needs to be on one of your characters at a time since it doesn’t stack, so if you are already using a character with that artifact set, we recommend the 4-piece Tenacity of the Milileth set.
4. Traveler
Finally, HoYoverse has given us a strong iteration of the Traveler characters, Aether and Lumine! Dendro Traveler’s kit is pretty simple - their Elemental Skill is a burst of Dendro damage that generates a few Elemental Particles.
Most of the Traveler’s utility is within their Elemental Burst, however - this creates a Lea Lotus Lamp which deals continuous Dendro AOE damage. The lamp will change configurations when it comes into contact with Hydro, Electro or Pyro damage. Hydro increases the AoE of the lamp, while Electro increases its Attack Speed. Pyro damage will detonate the lamp, dealing huge Dendro damage. Traveler’s passive means that the lamp also increases the Elemental Mastery of the active character in its AoE by 6 each second for its duration.
Traveler makes a great off-field supportive piece, much like Yaoyao. We again recommend using the Deepwood Memories 4-piece set on them and prioritizing Energy Recharge in order to keep the Lea Lotus Lamp up as often as possible. We recommend prioritizing the Traveler to hold Deepwood Memories if you have two Dendro units in your team.
3. Tighnari
Tighnari is the only Bow wielder on this list, but he still packs a punch! Tighnari, similarly to characters like Ganyu, has two types of Charged Shot. The first level will simply deal Dendro damage, while the second will launch a Wreath Arrow that explodes on hit and creates four heat-seeking Clusterbloom Arrows that deal extra Dendro damage.
Tighnari’s Elemental Skill allows him to throw down a Vijnana Stormheart, a field that taunts enemies and applies Dendro damage over time. After casting this skill, Tighnari’s next three Wreath Arrows will charge much faster. This skill is super useful as not only does it generate quite a lot of energy for Tighnari, it also makes it far easier for him to deal damage by reducing his charge times and drawing away aggression from enemies.
His Elemental Burst fires off 6 heat-seeking bursts of Dendro damage, followed by a second wave of 6 more. It’s important to note this is a very low-cost Elemental Burst, requiring only 40 energy, meaning it has a pretty high uptime. Tighnari’s passive gives him a boost to his Charged Attack and Elemental Burst damage that scales with his Elemental Mastery, making it a valuable stat to build on him.
Although as always you should prioritize Deepwood Memories on Tighnari, as an alternative we recommend using a 4-piece Wanderer’s Troupe artifact set on Tighnari. Regardless of the set, you should be prioritizing Dendro Damage, Elemental Mastery and Attack stats.
2. Alhaitham
Genshin’s newest heartthrob is none other than the sword-wielding Alhaitham, who has been long-awaited since his appearance in the Sumeru story. His main mechanics focus around Chisel-Light Mirrors, which infuse his attacks with Dendro damage and cannot be overridden. When these attacks hit opponents, the mirrors will unleash a Projection Attack which deals Dendro damage based on the number of Chisel-Light Mirrors on the field, up to a total of three. These Mirrors are a huge part of what makes Alhaitham so strong as a Main DPS - his damage output is consistently high and is not always reliant on his Skill or Burst.
Alhaitham’s Elemental Skill causes him to rush forward, dealing Dendro damage to surrounding enemies afterward. This will generate a Chisel-Light Mirror, or if Alhaitham does not currently have any, the Skill will generate two Mirrors instead. His Elemental Burst deals AoE Dendro damage based on the number of Mirrors Alhaitham has, consuming them. 2 seconds after activation, this Burst will create Mirrors for Alhaitham based on how many he was missing on activation (for example, casting with 1 Mirror will get you 2 Mirrors.)
As with all other Dendro characters, if none of your other party members are using it, 4-piece Deepwood Memories is an incredible artifact set on Alhaitham due to its Dendro Resistance shred effect. You should be prioritizing Elemental Mastery and Energy Recharge stats. The 4-piece Gilded Dreams set will improve his Elemental Mastery considerably and makes a good alternative.
1. Nahida
At number one, we have Genshin Impact’s strongest Dendro character - none other than the Dendro Archon herself, Nahida. Sumeru’s Archon wields a Catalyst, and is the best Dendro applicator in the game, as all of her attacks deal Dendro damage.
Nahida’s Elemental Skill allows her to mark enemies and deal Dendro damage to them. Marked enemies are linked together, and if any of them receive damage from an Elemental Reaction or a Dendro Core, Nahida will damage them with Tri-Karma Purification. This deals Dendro damage and scales with her Attack and Elemental Mastery.
Illusory Heart, Nahida’s Elemental Burst, creates an area that gives buffs to your team depending on the elements of your characters. If you have a Pyro character in your party, the damage dealt by Tri-Karma Purification will be increased while within the effect area. If you have an Electro character in your party, the internal cooldown for Tri-Karma Purification is shortened. Finally, if you have a Hydro character in your party, the duration of the Burst effect is increased. These effects are all strengthened further if you have two characters of that element in your party.
Much akin to the rest of our list, a 4-piece artifact set of Deepwood Memories will not go awry on Nahida if you are not using it on another character in your party. However, 4-piece Gilded Dreams is a strong alternative due to the huge boost of Elemental Mastery it affords her. You will want to focus on Elemental Mastery for Nahida’s stats.
And that’s our ranking of the 5 Strongest Dendro Characters! We’ve loved Sumeru so far and adore all of the Dendro characters HoYoverse has added to the game. Who’s your favorite?
