Bow characters in Genshin Impact likely have the most diverse playstyle among all the weapons in the games. Each of the available characters who use these ranged arms can be built in multiple ways, allowing them to fit different roles and playstyles. Having said that, each character has its positives and negatives. That's why it's important to know which bow users are more beneficial than the others.
Typically, a unit's strength can be easily estimated by its rarity. However, their star ratings alone don't tell the full story. How do all these bow users stack up against each other?
Updated on September 7, 2022, by Nahda Nabiilah: Since Genshin Impact is only growing ever since its release, it’s only fair that the number of playable characters will grow alongside their game. In fact, one of the best aspects of Genshin Impact is how unique each character feels. Even if two characters wield the same weapon type, each uses their weapon in their own style. That diversity is especially clear among Bow users since they range from the best characters in Genshin Impact to the absolute worst characters in it.
13 Aloy
Since Aloy is a free character, many jumped to the conclusion that she must be useless. However, Aloy shines as Sub-DPS in Genshin Impact. Her Elemental Burst deals a large amount of damage with low energy requirements.
Aloy's Elemental Skill, though, is her biggest blessing and curse. It has a tremendous cooldown, causing her to have the worst Cryo application in Genshin Impact. Additionally, she must have someone like Sucrose or Kazuha help her receive four stacks to trigger the Rushing Ice State. Once she enters her Rushing Ice State, Aloy's Normal Attack and Cryo damage are greatly enhanced.
12 Amber
Amber is adored by the Genshin Impact community, yet, almost all players agree that she is impractical. The Outrider is supposed to be played like Ganyu, however, she doesn't work out as well. Amber's Charged Attack can hit hard, but it lacks the AOE Ganyu has.
While her kit isn’t that bad, Amber struggles to find her place in the current meta. Her Elemental Skill is defensive in a game that puts a timer on every mode. Furthermore, the damage of Amber's Elemental Burst is outclassed by other Pyro characters, and the Pyro application is too minor to be meaningful.
11 Kujou Sara
Kujou Sara is best used as a Support. She doesn't have the ability to carry her team's damage; instead, she buffs their attack while her Elemental Burst deal some decent damage.
Although the Tengu Warrior grants a fair attack buff, it's not easy to apply or receive. In addition, Sara's buff requires a lot of dedication in the team's rotation. Players must keep bringing her to the field every six seconds to apply her buff. While Sara's Constellations can help decrease her limitations, she still falls short against other Genshin Impact buffers like Bennett. Still, as an upside, her sixth constellation allows her to become the best Electro buffer in the game.
10 Gorou
While Gorou is not bad, he’s still a very specific character with a limited kit in Genshin Impact. This causes him to be playable in certain situations with a fixed number of characters.
Gorou can only support Geo units that count on their Def Stats. For that, he can only be teamed with Itto, Noelle, Albedo, and Yun Jin. With all that said, Gorou is still an essential character to these units and can offer them unmatched support, especially Arataki Itto.
9 Yoimiya
Yoimiya’s kit split Genshin Impact’s fanbase into two camps. One claims she’s weak and can’t hit her shots; meanwhile, the other claims she’s one of the best DPS in the game.
Three important aspects carry Yoimiya’s high damage: her Pyro Vision, her high attack stats, and her scaling. No matter how bad her kit might seem, with those three aspects, she’s bound to deliver some decent damage. Her only downside is her Elemental Burst. It feels out of place and doesn't seem compatible with everything Yoimiya’s could’ve been in Genshin Impact. Luckily, Elemental Skill infusion can save the day.
8 Diona
As a Support unit, there’s nothing Diona can’t do. She heals, shields, cleanses, and even buffs her allies. Diona is an exceptional character to have in Genshin Impact. Her constellations improve her Co-Op abilities and further buff her team’s damage.
Even though she counts on HP scaling for all of her kits, Diona’s Base HP is one of the lowest in Genshin Impact. When she’s ascended, she gets extra Cryo damage, a useless stat for her kit. Fortunately, that doesn’t stop her from being the exceptional Support she is.
7 Collei
Since she’s so attached to Amber, many fans speculate the Forest Ranger to be as impractical as the Outrider. However, that’s not the case. Collei has a decent skill set that can support her team and apply enough Dendro.
Unfortunately for Collei, she’s already outperformed by the Dendro Traveler, who can basically take the same roles and add more to their team. The most obvious difference is that her Elemental Burst AOE is not as big as the Traveler’s Burst. Although she does have a faster hit rate, which will deal Dendro damage faster.
6 Fischl
Fischl is, without a doubt, an excellent 4-star character in Genshin Impact. She is all about Oz since her Kit revolves around how to keep it on the field, inflicting some Electro damage. By keeping Oz on the field, Fischl turns into an off-field Sub-DPS, which is how is she supposed to operate.
Ever since Sumeru came out, Electro and Dendro became the new Cryo, Hydro, and Pyro. While the latter’s reaction gameplay revolves around triggering Melt and Vaporize, Electro and Dendro reactions in Genshin Impact center around the Quicken debuff. Fischl is now a solid unit to join the Dendro reactions team compositions.
5 Tighnari
Tighnari is the first 5-star Dendro unit in Genshin Impact. Some fans would think the next Dendro characters will outperform him, but based on his kit, that doesn’t really matter. Tighnari is a fast Sub-DPS hitter in Genshin Impact. His gameplay allows him to get on the field, easily deals more than 100k damage in a matter of few seconds, then leave the field to continue the team’s rotation.
Tighnari can trigger the Spread reaction twice during his Elemental Burst and during each of his Charged attacks. That further increases his damage and puts him among the best Sub-DPS in Genshin Impact.
4 Tartaglia (Childe)
Although his ranged damage is mediocre, Tartaglia truly shines when he enters his melee stance. He has one of the best AOE hits, so if he's paired with a crowd control character like Kazuha, Childe can perform on a different level than any other DPS in Genshin Impact.
Unfortunately, the 11th Harbinger of the Fatui has a major flaw in his playstyle: he spends more time in cooldown than in combat. All of his skill set revolves around his Elemental Skill, yet his skill’s maximum cooldown is the longest in the game. Not only does it cause a major DPS loss in his team, but it also forces players to have a Sub-DPS to cover Childe's cooldown.
3 Venti
During the early days of Genshin Impact, everyone looked at Venti as a broken character. His Elemental Burst made him unique as he could not just crowd control the enemies, but he also humiliated them. Additionally, Venti is one of the best batteries in Genshin Impact.
To this day, he is still broken and is the best Support option for fights that include smaller enemies. Venti could’ve easily scored the top rank among bow users, but there are others who surpass him.
2 Yelan
People who know how incredible Xingqiu is will always compare him to Yelan since they have the same playstyle. Other than her great Hydro application and superb damage, Yelan also buffs the active character’s damage by up to 50%. That damage increase is a crazy enhancement to any DPS unit.
So all that mentioned makes Yelan an amazing off-field Support and damage dealer, which ranks her higher than most other characters on this list. Additionally, thanks to the recent Hydro Resonance buff, pairing Yelan and Xingqiu in a Hu Tao team is now an even crazier combo.
1 Ganyu
No character in Genshin Impact can consistently deal the raw damage Ganyu can, as she is one of the best DPS in the game. She continuously provides an outstanding amount of AOE damage with her Frostflake Arrows. So far, only the Qilin can effortlessly do this, whereas other characters need specific team composition and rotation to match Ganyu's performance in Genshin Impact.
Additionally, Ganyu performs excellently as Sub-DPS or even as Cryo Support. She can keep her Elemental Burst 100% up during combat, endlessly applying Cryo. Most players only focus on her Frostflake Arrows, but Ganyu Mains know her Burst packs some serious damage as well.
Genshin Impact is now available on Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Switch version is in development.