Genshin Impact’s character choice is a fraught experience. Knowing who to pull and who you need or don’t need can be difficult. But out of Ganyu and Zhongli, which is the best character overall or who is better for your team?
Ganyu is the better choice if you’re looking for pure damage, especially if you want Cryo damage, while Zhongli is one of the best defensive and protective characters if you don’t mind going with Geo.
Let’s consider their strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and why you would choose one or the other, as well as what the wider meta strategy would be to involve them. In the end, you’ll need to consider what is missing from your ultimate team composition.
Ganyu’s Strengths and Abilities
Ganyu is an adept user of Cryo, with her charged attack performing an Aimed Shot with an icy aura that accumulates on the arrowhead before the arrow is fired.
For charge level one, it will be the standard icy arrow that deals Cryo damage, and charge level two will fire off a Frostflake Arrow that deals Cryo damage. The Frostflake Arrow will deal Area of Effect (AoE) Cryo damage after hitting its target.
Trail of the Qilin is an elemental skill that forms an Ice Lotus and then Ganyu dashes backward, dealing AoE Cryo damage. The Ice Lotus will continuously taunt surrounding opponents, pulling attacks away from your team.
The endurance for the Ice Lotus scales based on Ganyu’s maximum HP and will release Cryo AoE on being destroyed or once its duration ends.
Ganyu also has the Celestial Shower Elemental burst attack that summons a Sacred Cryo Pearl that will continuously rain down shards of ice via an AoE Cryo attack.
Both her passives increase damage, with Undivided Heart as her 1st Ascension Passive raises the critical hit rate of subsequent Frostflake Arrows after firing a Frostflake Arrow, making the resulting bloom effects go up by 20% for five seconds.
Harmony between Heaven and Earth is her 4th Ascension Passive and means Celestial Shower grants a 20% Cryo damage bonus to active members in the AoE.
Her Utility Passive refunds 15% of the ores used when forging Bow-type weapons.
Her Constellations generally improve Frostflake Arrow, with Dew-Drinker decreasing opponents’ Cryo resistance by 15% for six seconds after taking damage from a level two Frostflake Arrow or Frostflake Arrow Bloom. A hit will also regenerate two energy for Ganyu.
The Auspicious means that Trail of the Qilin gains one additional charge while Constellation Cloud-Strider increases the level of Celestial Shower by three up to a maximum upgrade level of 15.
Westward Sojourn means that any opponents standing within the AoE of Celestial Shower take increased damage over time, going from 5% and increasing by 5% every three seconds, up to a maximum of 25%.
The Merciful increases the Level of Trail of the Qilin by three to a maximum upgrade level of 15 while finally the The Clement means that using Trail of the Qilin causes the next Frostflake Arrow shot within 30 seconds to not require charging.
Zhongli’s Strengths and Abilities
A Geo user, Zhongli is actually the Geo Archon, Morax, who has decided to become a mortal to experience a different world.
Zhongli’s Elemental skill is Dominus Lapidis.
This creates a Stone Stele on a single press, while holding causes nearby Geo energy to explode, creating another Stone Stele and creating a shield of jade, dealing Geo AoE and also drains Geo element from the surroundings.
Zhongli’s Elemental burst skill is Planet Befall that deals AoE Geo damage and casts Petrification preventing opponents from moving as it is a crowd control effect.
Arcanum of Crystal will refund 15% of the ores used when crafting any Polearm-type weapons is the Utility Passive for Zhongli.
In terms of Constellations, they tend to work on her Geo skills, including Rock, the Backbone of Earth which will boost the number of Stone Steles by two for Dominus Lapidis.
Stone, the Cradle of Jade gives Planet Befall a Jade Shield while Jade, Shimmering through Darkness increases Dominus Lapidis by three levels up to a maximum upgrade level of 15.
Planet Befall’s AoE will be boosted by Topaz, Unbreakable and Fearless to increase the Petrification effect by two seconds, increasing its duration by 20%.
Lazuli, Herald of the Order increases Planet Befall by three levels to a maximum of 15, and Chrysos, Bounty of Dominator will ensure that it converts damage to HP for the current character’s Jade Shield.
Ganyu vs. Zhongli: Who Is Better?
Ganyu remains arguably the top damage per second (DPS) unit in the game even though considerable time has passed since her release. Genshin Impact’s previous development structure likely means Ganyu won’t be seriously power crept any time soon.
Power creep refers to content (such as new characters) that is released later tends to get more powerful as time goes on.
Fitting in on almost any Cryo team due to her massive Cryo burst is likely to keep her in the top tier of party compositions for the foreseeable future.
Zhongli is not quite the DPS character that Ganyu is, but he plays a different role of tank.
When built for getting the highest amount of HP, Zhongli’s shields can’t be broken by any enemy, allowing him to protect other members of your party while they do their damage without a care in the world.
While it is possible that this mechanic could get weakened or nerfed with anti-shield enemies, for the time being he is a solid choice for almost any team.
His resistance destroyers are no joke either, basically making an impenetrable suit for everyone.
Another thing to consider is that while there are many substitutes for a Cryo DPS, such as Dendro or others, Zhongli is a very unique shielding character that can’t really be replaced with any other.
If you already have Hutao or Xiao, go for a Zhongli pull as he will synergize with them very well.
However, Dendro and Sumeru are a much better use of your primogems, so save them for Dendro Archon. Don’t pull Zhongli or Ganyu again, if you have one.
Featured Images Source:Â https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Playable_Characters
