Why Sub DPS Are The Strongest Characters In Genshin Impact

Sub DPS characters, also known as Off Field DPS have been the most dominant class in Genshin Impact for the better part of the game's lifetime. Today I'll be explaining exactly why that's the case, and why that will likely stay that way.

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#GenshinImpact #DPS #Character

[sdgre]

Fischl doesn't trigger Hyperbloom consistently. Oz has a priority for targeting and bloom seeds are the last in that priority list. Thats why Kuki is used as the Hyperbloom trigger.

[lolialf]

to this day, i still hate how Klee's ult stops as soon as you switch

[christopherflores]

Imo, hoyo really should release more off-field units. What makes genshin's combat so good is the elemental system and the fact you can switch between units to setup and trigger the reactions.

Releasing more off-field units builds on top of that strength.

[crocworks]

Support I feel is a little too broad of a term, but it is accurate. I'd normally break the Support group into these subgroups: crowd control, defensive utility, battery, buffs/debuffs. So including the on-field DPS and off-field DPS roles, that's 6 total roles.

The best characters are the ones that cover multiple roles. This is what makes Bennett + Xingqiu the best characters in the game. Bennett covers 3 roles of defensive utility, battery, and buffs. Xingqiu covers multiple roles of off-field DPS, defensive utility, and to some extent also as a debuffer (with c2) and a battery, though these last 2 roles mainly see their value in double hydro teams.

[vaggeliskapsiotis]

actually a lot of the time shinobu isn't in hyperbloom for heling shes there cuz her skill detonates the blooms perfectly every tick while putting electro on enemies every 2 ticks

[phantasmalflight]

I much prefer "off field dps" to "sub-dps", because a lot of off-field characters can sometimes be doing the majority of a team's damage.
Also, teams based around off-fielders are WAY more interesting and unqiue than teams focused around on-fielders.

[porina_pew]

"having Qiqi and Noelle would be excessive" that's half of my early game party! I eventually dropped Noelle for Diona but if I needed real healing it was Qiqi to the rescue.

[Shilag]

Personally, I hope they create more flexible characters that can function both on-field and off-field. Raiden, Nahida, Sucrose, Ganyu, Ayato, and Kokomi are all good examples of that. I just love when we can invest in a character and make them the star of a team, but they can also function as off-fielders and allow for interesting new team comps even if they're not the best person for the job.

On-field characters like Childe, Wanderer, and Alhaitham are really fun to play, but it's a shame that they mechanically play the same way regardless of what supports you pair them with. On the flip side I find characters that exist solely to make 1-2 other characters stronger extremely boring, like Faruzan, Sara, and Gorou.

[captainlightbulb]

Here's a comprehensive list of the character roles in Genshin as I understand them, noting that there is a lot of overlap and many characters can fulfil several of these roles:


- Main On-fielder: The character that's spending the most time on field, usually driving reactions. (e.g. Keqing, Ayaka, Ganyu, Hu Tao)

- Off-Field Enabler: This is a character that can apply their element quickly and effectively from off field, enabling the main on-fielder to execute reactions effectively. Most of the characters that fill this role also fill others, but it's still very important to acknowledge when a character is good at this. (e.g. Shinobu, Kokomi, Nahida, Mona)


-Off-Field DPS: Any character than can deal a respectable amount of damage with abilities that persist when they leave the field. Most of the characters that fill this role are also good off-field enablers. (e.g. Raiden, Miko, Xingqiu, Xiangling, Fischl)

-Survivability Supports: Characters that help the team stay alive. Includes shielders (e.g. Zhongli, Layla) and healers (e.g. Kokomi, Shinobu, Qiqi)

-Damage Supports and Buffers: Characters that enhance the damage output of other teammates. (e.g. Bennett, Faruzan, Yun Jin, Viridescent Venerer users)



Here are other team roles I hear people talk about, but didn't feel were worth including in the list above:

-On-Field Enabler: This is a subtype of Main On-fielder that's there primarily for quick elemental application to react with damage from Off-Fielders. This fits entirely within the definition of Main On-Fielder so I left it out for fear of being redundant.

-Burst DPS: A special type of On-Fielder that is not meant to take up a lot of field time, instead doing heavy front-loaded damage in only a few seconds. This is a niche role used only when your Main On-Fielder has severely long periods of down time. This was seen much more often in the earlier days of Genshin. However, nowadays, people have come up with much more elegant ways of dealing with a Main On-Fielder's downtime. This isn't something you'll see very often.

-Battery: While energy generation can be very important, I left this out because the concept of a "battery" in Genshin is not as cut and dry as the team roles I described above. Whether or not a character can be considered a battery is heavily dependent upon the team they're on. It's very situational, so just know that if a character on your team has trouble with Burst uptime, you may want to pair them with another character of the same element to generate more energy for them. Anemo users can also generate particles for other elements via Swirl infusions such as Kazuha's Skill and Burst.


I will reiterate that many characters in Genshin can fill more than one of these roles. So if I used a character as an example for one of them, it doesn't mean that's all they're good for. Feel free to share your thoughts and let me know if I missed something that should be on here.

[matthewsarson]

I think the problem is all down to Xingqiu and Xiangling they set the standard for sub DPS characters by doing more damage from off feild than some characters like Diluc were doing on feild. Thus all future sub DPS including 5 stars like Yelan/Yae had to compete with those damage numbers. Thus sub DPS ended up being the real carry role.

[----x-----]

I've noticed opinions slowly change to this over time with some people outright saying they are more interested in off fielders they can use for many different setups with a lot of value over in field dps

[Chris-skpx]

If Klee's burst were to work off field, she would probably be considered a much more powerful character than what she currently is, but because it doesn't, it forces her to compete against other on field damage dealers like the ones you stated, making her marginally weak. That is pretty much how powerful the role of sub-dps is.



Also, to me you sound fine in this video, if anything, it may sound like someone's first few videos if you listen closely, but it'll still pretty good.

[SunSun-sksi]

Part of me wishes crystallize were better so that Albedo could consolidate both the sub dps role along with either defensive utility or something more than just being used for his off-field dps and occasional EM buff via his ascension passive.

It's a little sad that as the first real premier 5* dedicated sub dps, he hasn't really found a home outside of mono-geo, and I'd mostly chalk that up to crystallize being a generally bad reaction. His appeal of being the only real off-field geo dps is kinda lost when the only benefits you get out of it are Gorou and geo resonance.

Imagine if Albedo were *any* other element besides geo, he'd be borderline broken between his relatively high off-field dps, minimal field time and setup, along with the ability to facilitate noteworthy reactions or even trigger those reactions himself.

[pkjose]

You're definitely right about everything you said. I've recently found that I'm always pulling on off field dps characters a lot more than on field (with the exception of characters I love or a dps role for an element I don't have). This is why I was so excited for Dehya at first because that's what she looks like. I also wanted Yae Miko as my sub dps for electro because I didn't really like how Shinobu played and I just really REALLY don't like Fischl and I'm not building her so Yae was perfect. But my point being that I find myself using the same team over and over that I crave characters that fill that role so I can add them to that list of characters I'll always use. Which is why I feel bad for units like Diluc, Heizou, Fischl, Xinyan, etc., who I'll never build because I have someone better.

[hannahmew]

Maybe it’s because yae and Nahida are some of my favorite units but I love off field dps characters a lot and I feel like they help make team building more fun

[callmeandoru]

Another that makes sub dps much more powerful compared to other types of support is their involvement in the team’s elemental reaction. Some shielder (like Zhongli) can only shield, and some dmg buffer (like Bennett) can only buff, but every single one of the sub dps characters contributes to creating elemental reactions in some shapes or forms (maybe not Albedo, but that’s more because he’s a geo character).

[kevinaguila]

There's another type of character called "driver" which is similar to dps because they stay on field for longer period of time but doesn't really do the most damage but increase others damage while still being onfield

[toastedMrBLT]

I love the content as always, but I just wanted to drop a note of appreciation for your consistent use of FE 3 Houses music as background music 😍😍

[banjowitherspoon]

I agree with you on the treatment of early 5 stars in the current version. While I do love them (always will be a Klee main) I suspect Hoyoverse did not want them to be wholly overpowered. While this does appear counterintuitive to sales, their rarity and limited runs will always entice players, especially at the beginnning of the game's legacy. Hoyo did not or might not have had a clear and detailed vision of what today's current game mechanics and playing field so they probably did not want their first batch of 5 stars to be so strong that it prevents people, especially the f2ps and low spenders, from pulling on any future characters because why would you spend money on something you already have? Look at Zhongli, his initial skills were so underwhelming probably because Hoyo did not want players to just breeze through their content which would have taken them a lot of time and effort to create - although this isn't such a good example as Zhongli's shield is still overpowered XD. Now that Hoyo has a clearer view of the playing field, they are now able to introduce more balanced 5 stars - though this does not mean every character they release would be a hit with the fans (though personally I love using characters people normally don't use like Dori and Thoma).
On the other hand, 4 stars have slightly different treatment because you can theoretically get them at any time (Kuki pls come home). In one of your videos you looked at niche 4 stars and similar to what your said there, Hoyoverse are releasing them now because we have a more diverse roster of characters. At the beginning of the game, there were many roles to fill so they gave the early 4 stars more varied skillsets to cover as much space as possible. Again I bring up that Hoyo might not have had an explicit view of what Genshin would look like 3 years into the future, and so now that the large gaps have been covered by the likes of Xiangling and co., they've now more recently brought out units like Gorou, Yunjin, Faruzan, etc. I think that if Xiangling were released now instead of at the beginning of the game, her pyronado would have an ICD and her skillset would be dramatically mitigated. With every new 4 star character release, the chances of getting the early 4 stars are lower, so newer fans have to 'work' to get them and their strong abilities. While you can buy them from the shop, the currency to obtain them requires players to pull and thus giving them justification to pull and possibly spend money and so increasing Hoyo's sales.
These are just some of my thoughts and theories, but I started playing at version 2.2 so I'd also like to hear other people's opinions :D, both Day 1 fans and those who recently joined.

[Rye_Smile]

Another awesome video -- this was so clear... Really helped me get the Sub-DPS thing straight in my head. Thanks Vars!!