Hu Tao is a 5 Star Pyro Polearm character in Genshin Impact. She is one of the 6 top-tier DPS characters in Genshin, alongside the likes of Eula, Raiden or Ganyu.
Her unique skill set allows her to deal much more damage while at low HP. However, this requires some dodging skills from Hu Tao users to avoid getting killed. In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase a complete Genshin Impact Hu Tao build guide for Main DPS.
Pros and Cons of Hu Tao
Pros
Hu Tao, as mentioned above, is an incredibly powerful single target DPS character (she can still hit multiple targets when you group them up). Teams building around her is cheap, as players only need to put most of their investments into Hu Tao.
She does not really rely on her signature weapon or constellations - players can use her just fine at C0. Hu Tao can dish out damage right away when switching in, which means she is able to take advantage of limited DPS windows or quickly dispose of threats before they become an issue.
Hu Tao has flexible team compositions and her damage is also not bound by Energy restraints.
Cons
Hard to play. Players need to learn animation cancel to use her effectively. Due to her HP requirement and playstyle, paying attention to HP and stamina is a must. Before C1, Hu Tao's stamina is fairly restrictive. Additionally, she needs either Xingqiu or Yelan to effectively deal damage.
Talents Breakdown
Talent Priority: Normal Attack = Elemental Skill >= Elemental Burst
- Hu Tao’s Charged Attacks come out extremely fast and can be canceled extremely early. It is her main source of damage.
- Elemental Skill is Hu Tao's primary source of ATK and Pyro Infusion. Using it will cause her to enter the Paramita Papilio (PP) state, providing her with ATK derived from her total HP value and infusing her Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks with Pyro damage.
- Elemental Burst is her greatest source of AoE damage. However, it is only 10-20% of Hu Tao’s overall single target damage, being worth a bit more damage than 2 Charged Attacks.
- When Hu Tao’s HP is equal to or less than 50%, her Pyro DMG Bonus is increased by 33%.
Hu Tao is one of the few units that use all of her skills with equal importance.
While NA>E>Q is correct on a spreadsheet. Hu Tao’s Burst contributes massive QoL for Hu Tao, allowing her to self-sustain any chip damage she may endure, as well as an emergency panic button, or frontloading her damage output.
Animation Canceling
Hu Tao’s infused Charged Attack can be canceled extremely quickly. There are two major ways to cancel Hu Tao’s Charged Attack: Dash cancels and Jump cancels. Dash cancels consume stamina for the Charged Attack and dash (at C0) while jump cancels only consume stamina for the Charged Attack.
Hu Tao’s dash cancels firmly defines her C1 as one of the most powerful constellations for a character, period. If a player is able to master her mechanics, Hu Tao’s damage can increase by up to 30%. Even without a damage increase, the quality of life features alone would propel the viability of dash canceling at C1.
Best weapons for Hu Tao
| Staff of Homa | Commonly recognized as the Best-in-Slot Polearm for almost every character, but Hu Tao is the only unit that fully utilizes its passive.
The HP bonus and ATK conversion feedback loop into Hu Tao since she will feasibly always be below 50% HP. Greatly increasing her damage and survivability. This is Hu Tao’s only worthy 5* weapon. |
| Dragon’s Bane | Dragon’s Bane is a great gacha weapon for Hu Tao as long as you play Vaporize compositions. Significantly better than Deathmatch when Overloading |
| Deathmatch | Significantly better than Dragon’s Bane when Melting or utilizing DMG% or EM buffs |
| Primordial Jade Winged-Spear | NOT a substitute for the Staff of Homa. Competitive with R1-3 Deathmatch and Dragon’s Bane. |
| Lithic Spear | Incredibly good at R5 with 4 Stacks, Viable teams to reach this condition are slim. This weapon is only available from the weapon banner. It is not recommended to intentionally roll this weapon for Hu Tao |
| White Tassel | Free to play option. Obtainable from overworld chests. |
Best Artifact for Hu Tao
Crimson Witch of Flames 4-piece is the artifact of choice for Hu Tao Main DPS build. It increases her Pyro and reaction damage massively, which is essential in a Melt or Vaporize comp.
- 2-Piece Set: Pyro DMG Bonus +15%
- 4-Piece Set: Increases Overloaded and Burning DMG by 40%. Increases Vaporize and Melt DMG by 15%. Using an Elemental Skill increases 2-Piece Set effects by 50% for 10s. Max 3 stacks.
Alternatively, players can use either Noblesse Oblige or Shimenawa's Reminiscence on Hu Tao. The former is a generic set that fits all characters while the latter boost Hu Tao's charged attacks, which is her main source of damage.
Hu Tao Artifact Substat
- 100 EM > Crit > 100+ EM > HP% > ATK% > Flat HP > Flat ATK
Hu Tao is able to vape 90% of her damage, the value of EM cannot be undersold. Below 100 EM, an EM sub can be worth more than a Crit substat.
Crit Rate subs will typically be of increased value for a Homa Tao due to the difficulty of building Crit Rate on her.
Hu Tao scales with HP% much more than ATK%. ER is not worth building on Hu Tao, she is not bound by energy constraints, targeting ER over more useful subs is not recommended.
Best constellation for Hu Tao
Hu Tao has two power spikes at constellations 1 and 6. However, people generally agreed that C1 alone is enough for most Hu Tao builds.
- With C1, while in the Paramita Papilio state activated by her skill, Hu Tao's Charge Attacks do not consume Stamina. This allows Hu Tao to maximize her damage potential, spamming her Charge attacks without having to manage stamina. Charged attacks spam while dodging removes some of Hu Tao's biggest weaknesses.
- However, if you get C1, C2 is also worthwhile. If you have her absolutely maxed, at 45k HP she would get an additional 4.5k per procs on her blood blossom. At ~300% attack, and a base attack of 4k, blood blossom will do around 12k base per proc. In general, It adds between 30% and 40% damage scaling off HP, letting you build her tanky. Her Q also applies blood blossom, which adds additional HP scaling damage as well as possibly doubling the overall burst potential.
- Hu Tao's C6 lets her cheat death, and is generally considered one of the best constellations in the game.
Teams & Synergies
Viridescent Venerer Vape
- Hu Tao + Xingqiu/Yelan + Anemo + Pyro
Unorthodox, VV-based Vaporize teams will result in the highest possible personal damage and team damage for Hu Tao, by taking advantage of the immense buffing capabilities of Anemo supports. However, the setups can be incredibly specific and difficult to perform.
It is very important that you swirl pyro for this team to function.
This means the rotation would be Xingqiu/Yelan -> Pyro support -> Swirl Pyro -> Hu Tao.
Flex Vape
- Hu Tao + Xingqiu/Yelan + 2
As Hu Tao can work with just Xingqiu/Yelan, players can use any 2 characters in their other slots. Fischl, Zhongli, Albedo and Kaeya are good options.
Vapemelt
Vapemelt teams consist of Hu Tao, a Hydro unit, and two Cryo units. While they do not have as much DPS as Hu Tao’s “ceiling” teams, they are much more accessible as they only require one 5-star unit (Hu Tao herself) and the team archetype provides significant utility and comfort through periodically Freezing enemies.
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