At the beginning of Genshin Impact, Players start with default characters, Kaeya, Lisa, Noelle, and Amber. While these characters are awesome at what they do, there’s always a limit to their abilities.
For example, take Noelle, who’s an amazing shielder, but lacks efficient healing without constellations. I don’t mean to offend Noelle’s mains, but the truth is, you need constellations on her. The same applies to the others, but there are a few exceptions, and among them is Barbara.
I won’t lie; I didn’t play Barbara for quite a long time because I had Qiqi, Jean, and Bennett. However, once Genshin Impact introduced new enemies to the game, who could bypass shields, apply corrosion, and bring your characters to the brink of death, I started paying attention to my healers.
I started to focus on healers that could heal my whole team and even adapt to new Dendro reactions.
Barbara was a fine choice because she could heal my whole team with her burst and was very good in Dendro teams. She can equip powerful Catalyst weapons and benefit from the best support artifacts in the game. Endowed with a C6 Barbara by Barbatos himself, I was ready to dive into new challenges and dominate the abyss.
To help you achieve the same, in this Barbara Genshin Impact guide, I will go over her best weapons, artifacts, and team compositions. I will show optimal team rotations to help you clear the challenging content. Let’s learn about this rising starlet of Mondstadt winning people’s hearts, Barbara!
The Deaconess of the Favonius Church
Barbara, Jean’s younger sister, is also the idol of Mondstadt. Being a loyal devotee of Barbatos, Barbara spends most of her time in the church, unlike Barbatos, AKA Venti, who might be drunk in a tavern somewhere.
Well, as long as Barbara doesn’t get to know about Venti’s real identity, everything will be fine. I can’t see our pure-hearted idol being heartbroken and depressed. As a matter of fact, Barbara has a rule not to let herself be depressed for 30 seconds. So, cheer up, fellas, and drink some wine with Venti!
Barbara has an adorable personality and an optimistic nature, for which every citizen of Mondstadt cherishes her. She has a lovely voice and sings for people from time to time to help them get relief from all their sorrows.
While people idolize Barbara, she looks up to her sister Jean, who is the very definition of success to her. Barbara tries her best not to mess up, and though she’s not flawless, she never gives up on her dream to surpass her sister, Jean.
You should definitely try her hangout quests. I loved Barbara’s character and the energy she portrays in the story. I remember someone annoying Barbara in the hangout quest, but Barbara didn’t want to hurt him and handled everything carefully.
She is rather mature when dealing with people and has firm stances. Barbara lives up to the title of Deaconess and has a pure heart, but at the same time, she’s not a gullible saint. She will say no to things that harm the people of Mondstadt or hurt others’ feelings.
Ascension and Talent Level-up
Barbara’s ascension stat HP % perfectly synergizes with her abilities. Her healing scales off her maximum health, and the more HP you have on her, the better her skills’ potency will be. I highly suggest you ascend her to the maximum level.
You need the following ascension materials to raise Barbara’s level to 90:
- Mora x 420,000
- Cleansing heart x 46
- Varunada lazurite sliver x 1
- Varunada lazurite fragment x 9
- Varunada lazurite chunk x 9
- Varunada lazurite gemstone x 6
- Diving scroll x 18
- Sealed scroll x 30
- Forbidden curse scroll x 36
- Philanemo mushroom x 168
Materials that you need to level up a single talent:
- Mora x 1,652,500
- Divining scroll x 6
- Sealed scroll x 22
- Forbidden curse scroll x 31
- Teachings of freedom x 3
- Guide to freedom x 21
- Philosophies of freedom x 38
- Crown of insight x 1
- Ring of boreas x 6
You will often use her elemental skill to heal your characters, so you should prioritize it. After that, you can focus on the elemental burst and normal attacks. Invest in her normal attacks only if you have extra materials or want to play Barbara as the main DPS.
Combat Talents
Normal Attack: Whisper of Water
Normal attack: Barbara performs up to 4 attacks that deal Hydro damage
Charged attack: After consuming a certain amount of stamina, Barbara deals AoE Hydro damage
Plunging attack: Being a catalyst user, Barbara deals AoE Hydro damage with a plunge attack towards the ground from mid-air.
You can use Barbara’s normal attacks for the Hydro application. I remember facing a Pyro hypostasis in the abyss and using Barbara to deplete its Pyro shield. You can also use Barbara against enemies like Pyro lector and Pyro abyss mage or for overworld items like Flaming flowers to benefit from the Hydro application.
Elemental Skill: Let the Show Begin
Barbara summons a ring of water, Melody loop, around her that has musical notes on it to deal Hydro damage to nearby enemies and apply the Wet status upon them.
The Melody loop has the following effects:
- Barbara’s normal attacks heal party members by hitting the enemies. The healing scales off Barbara’s maximum HP.
- The healing will be quadrupled if you hit enemies with a charged attack.
- Active character’s health will regenerate over time
- Applies the wet status to both the enemies and the characters themselves
Unlike most playable characters in the game, Barbara’s elemental skill doesn’t generate any elemental particles. The Hydro application of the elemental skill isn’t impressive unless you are very close to enemies.
You risk getting frozen if you face enemies who can hit you with Cryo attacks. On top of that, the healing intervals aren’t instant, so you must wait a few seconds to benefit from health regeneration.
Elemental Burst: Shining Miracle
Barbara heals all team members, including herself. The healing depends on Barbara’s maximum health. The burst doesn’t affect enemies besides showcasing a 5-star cutscene.
Barbara is a 4-star character with a 5-star animation. The burst animation can help you to transition into an invincibility frame and avoid a massive incoming hit.
It helps fill up the health bars of other characters g in an instant, which can prove game-changing if you face enemies like Riftwolves, who can deplete the health of your other team members.
Passive: Glorious Season
The stamina consumption of characters in Barbara’s elemental skill decreases by 12 %. A decent quality-of-life passive that can relax the rate of stamina consumption to cover more distance.
Passive: Encore
With a maximum extension of 5 seconds, the duration of the elemental skill increases by one second when an active character gains an elemental particle.
An amazing passive if you are using Barbara as an on-field character in your team. You can get better uptime on your skill, and if you are running a team with characters having Favonius weapons, then energy particles won’t be an issue.
Passive: With My Whole Heart
Barbara has a 12 % possibility of getting two dishes with restorative effects upon achieving Perfect cooking.
An incredible passive that can help you to obtain more heal-related dishes. If you are a free-to-play player and have to grind through challenging bosses, stacking up restorative dishes is a must.
You may need to use food items in many events, challenges, and co-op domains. You should prioritize the dishes that can heal your characters and generate health for them.
Constellations
C1: Gleeful Songs
Every 10 seconds, Barbara regenerates 1 unit of energy.
Not a significant constellation as 1 unit of energy is quite minimal, and in the abyss, 10 seconds is a substantial amount of time.
C2: Vitality Burst
The cooldown of the elemental skill decreases by 15 %, and your active character gains a 15 % Hydro damage bonus in the skill’s duration.
A decent constellation that can buff a Hydro damage dealer like Childe, Xingqiu, Yelan, or Ayato. Once you use the skill, you can buff the characters with a hydro damage bonus, and the skill cooldown decreases by around 5 seconds.
C3: Star of Tomorrow
The level of Barbara’s elemental burst, Shining Miracle, increases by 3 with a limit of 15.
A standard constellation that increases her elemental burst to provide more healing to the team’s characters.
C4: Attentiveness be My Power
With a maximum limit of 5 energy, Barbara can generate 1 unit of energy on hitting an opponent with a charged attack.
You can use Barbara’s charged attacks to generate energy for her while performing a team rotation. Switch to barbara, perform a charged attack, and swap to your main damage dealer. That’s an approach I’d follow. Do remember to keep your stamina in check, as charged attacks consume stamina.
C5: The Purest Companionship
The level of Barbara’s elemental skill, Let the Show Begin, increases by 3 with a limit of 15
The constellation amplifies her elemental skill’s healing.
C6: Dedicating Everything to You
The following effects take place when Barbara is not active on the field and is a part of your team, and one of your party members falls:
- The character is revived automatically
- The character’s health is restored to 100 %
This effect has a cooldown of 15 minutes.
A major disadvantage of this passive is that it doesn’t reset when progressing in a chamber or floors in the abyss. Before we move on to the artifacts section, here’s a video me using C6 Barbara in action.
Artifacts
Maiden Beloved
The 2-piece artifact set increases a character’s healing effectiveness by 15 %, whereas the 4-piece increases the healing received by team members by 20 % after using an elemental skill or burst.
You can equip this artifact set on Barbara in case your heals aren’t efficient and use the Thrilling tales of Dragon slayers on her to benefit from an HP substat. The set can be farmed alongside the Viridescent venerer artifact set, which is amazing for Anemo characters.
Instructor
The artifact set is a 4-star set that increases the elemental mastery of your character by 80 units with a 2-piece combination. If you use a 4-piece combination, the elemental mastery of all characters increases by 120 after using an elemental skill. You can equip this artifact set on Barbara when she’s in a reaction team.
The more elemental mastery, the more the reaction damage. She can be an amazing support in Vaporize, Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Electro-charged teams.
Wanderer’s Troupe
The set grants 80 units of elemental mastery with a 2-piece effect and increases the charged attack damage by 35 % if the character uses a Catalyst or a Bow. If you are using Barbara in the main DPS role, Wanderer’s troupe is an excellent choice for you.
Usually, players use Barbara as a supporting character, but there are a few team compositions where you can use her as the main DPS. She’s like a budget Kokomi here.
Heart of Depth
The 2-piece set grants your character a 15 % Hydro damage bonus, and the complete set buffs your Normal and charged attack damage by 30 % after using the elemental skill. Another artifact set that you can use for a main DPS barbara. The set, in general, is good for any Hydro DPS character like Childe, Kamisato Ayato, or Kokomi.
Ocean-Hued clam
The artifact set is an amazing choice for healers to enable them to deal passive Physical damage based on their healing. The more your character heals, the better the damage is. Though there is a cap to the amount of healing, something is better than nothing. You can use this artifact on Barbara when she is in a supporting role.
To maximize her healing and the potency of this artifact set, you can use an HP sand, an HP goblet, and a healing bonus circlet.
The healing bonus helps to maximize the passive Physical damage, and you obtain an extra 15 % healing bonus from the 2-piece set. The complete set summons a Sea-Dyed Foam that deals damage based on 90 % of accumulated healing.
Artifacts Stats
A general combination would be an HP sand, an HP goblet, and an HP or healing bonus circlet on Barbara. You might need a CRIT rate circlet if you have a weapon like Favonius codex on her.
However, you can also pass that if you have some decent CRIT rate substats on artifacts. The more HP you have on Barbara, the better she heals will be.
As for the DPS role, you can have an attack percentage sands, a Hydro damage bonus goblet, and a CRIT rate or CRIT damage circlet on Barbara.
You can also go with a complete EM build if your focus is more on reaction damage. Reactions like Vaporize, Bloom, Hyperbloom, or Electro-charged can benefit from extra elemental mastery on Barbara.
Weapons
If you want to play Barbara as the main DPS, you can equip any weapon with an offensive attribute like CRIT rate, CRIT damage, or attack percentage on her. To maximize the reaction damage, you can equip a weapon with an elemental mastery substat on her like the Mappa mare or the Sacrificial fragments.
The latter has a passive to reset the skill cooldown, so you can benefit from 100 % uptime on her elemental skill. Besides these weapons, let’s talk about a few notable mentions that you can use on Barbara.
Before we move on, here are a few Catalyst weapons with their substats that you can use on the main DPS Barbara:
- Tulaytullah’s Remembrance – CRIT damage %
- Skyward Atlas – ATK %
- Lost Prayers to the Sacred Winds – CRIT rate %
- Memory of Dust – ATK %
- Kagura’s Verity – CRIT damage %
- The Widsith – CRIT damage %
- Solar Pearl – CRIT rate %
- Royal Grimoire – ATK %
- Dodoco Tales – ATK %
- Blackcliff Amulet – CRIT damage %
Everlasting Moonglow ( 5-star )
Kokomi’s signature weapon features an HP substat that helps to increase Barbara’s maximum health and a passive that increases her healing bonus.
You can equip this weapon on Barbara to benefit from the passive and dedicate her to a complete healer role. Unless you have the Thrilling tales of Dragon slayers, you can equip this weapon on her.
Prototype Amber ( 4-star )
A craftable weapon that you can refine to the maximum level only if you have enough prototypes. The weapon features an HP substat with a passive that regenerates energy for the character and health for the remaining team members after using an elemental burst.
The weapon is flexible enough to fit on other Catalyst characters and partially act as a supporting character for the team.
Hakushin Ring ( 4-star )
The weapon features an energy recharge substat that can help to regenerate Barbara’s elemental burst. However, the main focus is on the passive that grants an elemental damage bonus to party members depending on the elements in a reaction. You can craft this weapon and refine it to the maximum level.
Thrilling Tales ( 3-star )
This weapon is an amazing choice for supporting characters. The weapon’s HP substat perfectly combines Barbara’s abilities and maximizes her health. On top of that, the passive grants an attack bonus to the switched character that can help your main DPS to nuke enemies.
If you are using a hypercarry like Raiden Shogun, you can use this weapon on Barbara and switch to her to buff the attack. At maximum refinement, you can gain a 48 % attack bonus for 10 seconds. The best thing is that you can easily obtain this weapon’s refinements.
Team Compositions
Vaporize: Barbara, Pyro, Anemo, Flex
Vaporize team focuses on building Barbara with enough elemental mastery to trigger vaporize reactions with Xiangling. Xiangling has one of the best Pyro applications in the game, and her Pyronado can efficiently help in vaporize reactions.
You can also have an Anemo character like Sucrose, Kazuha, Jean, or Faruzan to shred the elemental resistance from enemies. I’d recommend Sucrose because she can boost your team’s elemental mastery with her passive, and that way, you can amplify the reaction damage.
If you are starting out in the game, chances are, you may get Sucrose, Sayu, or Faruzan than other units. As for the last slot, you can go with a Pyro/Hydro/Anemo character to active elemental resistance or a shield character like Zhongli or Diona. Depending on your requirements, you can swap an additional character in the team.
Electro-Charged: Barbara, Electro, Anemo, Flex
An Electro-charged team consists of characters with high Electro and Hydro application. Barbara being a Hydro catalyst user, can efficiently apply Hydro on enemies, and with an Electro character like Fischl, you can easily leverage off-field Electro application.
On top of that, an Anemo character with the Viridescent Venerer artifact can buff your elemental damage. It’s better to have an Anemo character like Sucrose, Kazuha, or Venti to crowd control enemies and group them at a place so that a chain reaction can trigger between them with an Electro-charged reaction.
Another variant of this team composition is equipping Barbara with an Ocean-Hued clam artifact set. The set deals Physical damage to enemies, and if you have a Cryo character in your team with an Electro one, you can trigger superconduct to reduce their physical resistance by 40 % for 12 seconds.
Electro characters like Fischl, Beidou, Yae Miko, Raiden Shogun, and Kuki Shinobu are awesome in these team compositions. Suppose you want to have another Hydro character. In that case, you can have Yelan, Ayato, Xingqiu, or Childe fit in the team.
Bloom: Barbara, Dendro, Flex, Flex
I can hear Nilou mains celebrating in the background. Nilou is an amazing option on bloom teams because her kit focuses specifically on this reaction. You can have Barbara as support to mitigate the incoming damage from the cores’ explosion and switch to Nilou as the main damage dealer.
You can also go with a double resonance setup with two Hydro characters and two Dendro characters. Dendro characters like Nahida, Collei, or the Dendro Traveler are amazing choices to have off-field Dendro application in the game. As for an extra Hydro character, you can go with Yelan, Xingqiu, or Ayato to help in summoning Dendro cores.
Even if you use Barbara in a Bloom team with Dendro Traveler, Zhongli, and Xingqiu, you can yield amazing results. Recently, I tried this team composition on a friend’s account at his place and was astonished by the results.
I could easily clear the first 8 floors of the abyss and deal tons of Dendro damage with Bloom cores. A Bloom team like this can prove immensely helpful in the early phase of the game, where you don’t have access to a lot of 5-star artifacts, characters, or weapons. I must say, I will be building Barbara for a Bloom team on my account.
Burgeon: Barbara, Dendro, Pyro, Flex
Burgeon focuses on applying Pyro on bloom seeds. Once you summon Bloom seeds on the ground, you must apply Pyro to trigger an explosion. You can have Barbara as a healer in this team composition and use her elemental skill to heal an active character.
Even her elemental skill can help summon Bloom seeds, or you can have an extra Hydro character like Xingqiu, Ayato, Yelan, or Childe. Childe is an amazing option when you face hordes of enemies and want to benefit from his Riptide skills to apply Hydro to other enemies.
Once you have enough Hydro and Dendro application on the ground, you can swap to a Pyro character like Xiangling to trigger Burgeon in a massive area. Good Dendro characters like Nahida, Collei, and Dendro Traveler can help you achieve potent Dendro application.
If you are using Dendro Traveler, ensure the Lea-Lotus transfiguration, their elemental burst, reacts with Hydro first; otherwise, the lotus will explode. After interacting with Hydro, the lotus’s range will increase and can help to apply Dendro in an area.
Hyperbloom: Barbara, Electro, Dendro, Flex
A Hyperbloom team focuses on applying Hydro on Bloom seeds. You can have Barbara and another Hydro or Dendro character summon Bloom seeds and an off-field Electro character to apply Electro to the seeds.
It’s better to equip the Deepwood memories artifact set on your Dendro character to benefit from the Dendo resistance shred. You can have the usual Dendro characters available in your team and pair them with Hydro characters like Xingqiu, Yelan, or Ayato.
As for an Electro character, it’s better to build some elemental mastery on them to increase the reaction damage.
You can also include an Anemo character like Sucrose to share her elemental mastery with the team members and increase the overall team’s reaction damage. A shield character can also help you if your Electro application is inconsistent and Bloom reactions trigger on the field.
A team with Fischl, Dendro Traveler, Barbara, and Zhongli can help you in earlier floors of the abyss and easily rack up abyssal stars. I have tried and tested this team; indeed, Hyperbloom teams are awesome!
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Is Barbara a Good Healer in Genshin Impact?
Answer:Â Barbara, indeed, is a good healer in the game, especially when you are starting out and don’t have any other healer besides Noelle. Noelle is a good healer, but when it comes to elemental reactions, Geo serves a neutral purpose. Barbara can help you in teams that need reactions like Freeze, Vaporize, Bloom, etc.
You can use her elemental skill to heal your active character, whereas Noelle has to be on the field to heal the team. Noelle’s heals depend on the RNG, and Barbara has consistent heals. I’d say that you should equally invest in both characters and use them accordingly.
Question: What is the Best Weapon for Barbara?
Answer:Â While there are many choices available, the Thrilling tales of the Dragon slayers take the winning prize. Being a 3-star weapon, it rivals the top 5-star choices and buffs your main DPS’s attack. The weapon can be easily obtained and refined to the maximum level. You shouldn’t underestimate this weapon.
Question: Should I Use Kokomi or Barbara?
Answer:Â As I always say, no character is bad in the game, and comparing character heavily depends on the context. If you are talking about off-field Hydro application, Kokomi outclasses Barbara in every aspect. On the other hand, if you are talking about a healing loop that follows your active character, then Barbara wins.
Depending on your requirements and the type of enemies you face, you can use Kokomi or Barbara in any way. However, Kokomi does perform better than Barbara when it comes to Hydro application, healing, and normal attacks.
So, if that’s your requirement, then, by all means, go for Kokomi. Still, Barbara can be used in another team in the abyss.
Go Barbara Go
Be like Barbara, don’t be depressed, and cheer yourself up. Though it sounds funny, it’s what I’m trying to follow. Whenever I’m stuck on a task, I play her voice line in my head. Go, Barbara, Go!
There will be numerous events where you will meet Barbara and interact with her throughout the story. Whether it’s stealing ancient Lyres, or just a quick mid-battle healing session, she’s your gal.
There aren’t many 4-star characters in the game who are as good in the meta as Barbara is. So when you get her, invest in her skills, get a dendro user in the team and watch those damage counters soar! As always, thanks for reading Genshin Chronicle!
Besides writing about his favourite games, Himanshu prefers to keep himself up-to-date with the latest happenings in the financial world, watching anime, cooking and listening to music from all around the world.
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