I remember the early months of Genshin Impact when everyone was crazy about the standard five-star characters and wishing recklessly to obtain certain characters. With an ever-evolving roster of characters, it’s easy to lose track of the standard characters.Â
However, not everyone is able to get promoted characters and ends up getting the standard ones. Among those standard characters is one character who has stood the test of time and still continues to dominate his enemies.
Since the start of the game, there have been a lot of Pyro damage dealers who have been introduced; however, Diluc continues to be at the top of the tier list all because of his unique skills and intense gameplay. Being a nobleman who is charming with a silent nature, no one can anticipate what’s going on in his mind.
He’s a master of pulling strings in the shadows and continues to work behind the scenes to defend his city from evil forces. A nighttime vigilante who will go to any lengths to protect his homeland and doesn’t show mercy to the traitors.Â
Since Genshin Impact’s first banner, Diluc has been a fan-favorite and dominated as one of the best damage dealers in the game. Even though there are new Pyro characters, you shouldn’t underestimate his unique skillset.
That is why, in this Diluc Genshin Impact guide, I will go over his skills in detail and discuss the best artifacts and teams for him.
Diluc Ragnvindr, The Dark Side of Dawn
The Batman of Mondstadt. That’s how I see Diluc in the game. He’s always looking out for enemies and trying his best to protect the city from evil forces at play. You will meet him early in the story and assist him in some missions.
There are a few quests in the early game where you will see him in action and witness mind-blowing cutscenes. Whether it’s the abyss or the Fatui, Diluc keeps his ears open and patiently waits for the perfect moment to strike down his foes.
He’s also the owner of the Dawn winery and was a part of the Knights of Favonius before parting his ways with them. His backstory with the Knights of Favonius is briefly mentioned in the manga, and if you want to know more about the Genshin Impact manga, then I suggest you open our manga guide.
Whether it’s about the story or the combat, Diluc shines like a star in every aspect. From his in-game cutscenes to his lavish combat animations, Diluc goes all out to show his immeasurable potential. After his launch, many Pyro characters were introduced to the game.
Characters like Yoimiya, Hu Tao, and Klee are considered top-notch Pyro damage dealers, but Diluc has a niche playstyle that sets him apart from everybody else.
Though some may argue that he’s not good anymore, I’d disagree with that opinion. His unique skills, low burst cost, and fierce constellations make him a monster you don’t want to mess with.
Ascension & Talent Level Up
Diluc’s ascension stat is CRIT rate which makes him a monstrous damage dealer. There aren’t many characters in the game which feature CRIT attributes in their ascension stats, and this really sets Diluc apart.
With a few good rolls on CRIT rate on artifact pieces, you are basically set up for a perfect ratio with a CRIT damage circlet. So, if you are starting out in the game or even a veteran player who lacks a solid Pyro damage dealer, then I recommend you invest in Diluc.
Here’s a list of ascension materials that you need for Diluc:
- Mora x 420,000
- Everflame seed x 46
- Small lamp grass x 168
- Recruit’s insignia x 18
- Sergeant’s insignia x 30
- Lieutenant’s insignia x 36
- Agnidus agate sliver x 1
- Agnidus agate fragment x 9
- Agnidus agate chunk x 9
- Agnidus agate gemstone x 6
Talent level up Material for Diluc to boost a single talent:
- Mora x 1,652,500
- Crown of insight x 1
- Dvalin’s plume x 6
- Recruit’s insignia x 6
- Sergeant’s insignia x 22
- Lieutenant’s insignia x 31
- Teachings of resistance x 3
- Guide to resistance x 21
- Philosophies of resistance x 38
Diluc’s leading source of damage is his regular attacks that can be infused with Pyro after using his elemental burst. He’s one of the rare examples of the characters in the game whose normal attacks are worth leveling up.
Though it will take quite an amount of resources from your inventory, it will definitely pay off once you pair him up with solid support characters. You should invest in his regular attacks, skill, and burst continuously and if you love him a lot, feel free to use a crown to maximize his talent level.
Talents
Normal Attack: Tempered Sword
Normal attack: Diluc strikes up to 4 times in a row
Charged attack: Diluc performs continuous slashes and, at the end of the sequence, enacts a powerful slash. These attacks consume stamina, and the final slash only triggers once you complete an attack sequence
Plunging attack: Diluc descends from mid-air to the ground and deals area-wide physical damage to enemies on impact
It is rare for me to recommend leveling up regular attacks, and that’s how the case is with Diluc. I suggest you level up his common attacks because they will be the primary source of his damage after you get Pyro infusion on claymore after using his burst. I don’t see the need to use charged attacks unless you want to farm for ores.
Elemental Skill: Searing Onslaught
Diluc performs a forward slash with his weapon that deals Pyro damage. The skill has 3 charges that can be used in a row and enters a cooldown if it’s not recast again in a short period.
One of the best elemental skills out there. Diluc can perform this skill three times in a row and combine it with his normal attacks. Do keep in mind that when you are performing regular attacks, the time window for the following skill cast is short. So, you have to be quick with your attacks so that the skill doesn’t go into a cooldown period.
Another perk about this skill is to generate plenty of energy particles that can help to regenerate your elemental burst. This comes in handy when you are facing a group of enemies and are able to gather a ton of energy particles.
Elemental Burst: Dawn
Diluc’s claymore releases intense flames that knock back nearby enemies dealing Pyro damage, and summons a Phoenix that flies in front of him to deal massive Pyro damage to the enemies in its path. Once it reaches its end, the Phoenix explodes to deal area-of-effect Pyro damage. After that, your claymore will be infused with Pyro.
What a beautiful skill! A lot of my friends were star-struck after witnessing Diluc’s burst and seeing that Pyro phoenix taking a flight up to the sky.
Visuals aside, this skill helps Diluc to infuse his attacks with Pyro and has a very low energy cost. So, you don’t need to build energy recharge on him since you can easily have 100 % uptime on this burst.
Passive: Relentless
The cost of Diluc’s charged attack decreases by 50 %, and the skill duration increases by 3s.
Most of Diluc’s playstyle focuses on dealing damage with his elemental skill and Pyro-infused normal attacks. You can use his charged attacks to deal Pyro damage after burst, but the attack sequence is slow and clumsy.
That’s why it’s not feasible to use his charged attacks unless you are farming for ores where you need multiple hits to break the ore.
Passive: Blessing of Phoenix
Diluc obtains a 20 % Pyro damage bonus with a 4s time bonus on Pyro infusion after using Dawn.
Once you unlock this passive, you are guaranteed a Pyro infusion on your claymore most of the time. Diluc’s burst cost is 40 energy, and that makes it easier to recast it the moment the cooldown wears off. On top of that, you get an additional Pyro damage bonus that’s a bulky buff to his overall damage.
Passive: Tradition of the Dawn Knight
Once you forge Claymore-type weapons, you are refunded 15 % of the ores used in the process.
Currently, there are only a few forgeable claymores in the game that you can craft to refine your existing claymores. If you are a claymore main, then forging claymores with Diluc will be rewarding. You will get some ores back from your forging process and use those to craft weapon-enhancement ores.
Constellation
Conviction
If Diluc’s health is above 50 %, then he deals 15 % more damage to enemies
A decent constellation that helps you to take on enemies with massive health pools. Some extra damage bonus is very much welcomed.
Searing Ember
On taking damage, Diluc’s attack increases by 10 %, and attack speed increases by 5 %. This effect can occur every 1.5 s and stacks up to 3 times which lasts for 10s
The constellation is risky. Don’t get me wrong. It does provide you with attack and attack speed increase, but to get that buff, you have to take damage.
If you are in the vicinity of enemies that can one-shot your character, then it’s not worth taking that risk just to get a buff. However, if there are enemies Hilichurls, you can take a different route and be aggressive in your gameplay.
Fire and Steel
This constellation increases the level of Searing Onslaught by 3 levels with a maximum limit of 15. An increase in your elemental skill is worth it because it helps you to churn out more Pyro damage.
Flowing Flames
Once you cast Searing Onslaught, the following casting combination will deal 40% additional damage. The effect lasts for 2 seconds, and the damage bonus is granted if you perform the cast in a sequence after 2s of casting the first one.
This constellation might seem tempting, but it may be tough to achieve the bonus mentioned. This constellation focuses on Diluc being on the field and using his skill to gain the buff. If you look at it from a team-building perspective, then you will realize that it limits the swapping of characters.
To see the effects of this constellation in motion, you have to have supports who support Diluc’s on-field time. A few good ones can be Zhongli, Xingqiu, Yelan, Fischl, or Albedo. It all depends on the type of team you want to go with.
Phoenix, Harbinger of Dawn
This constellation increases the level of Dawn by 3 levels with a maximum limit of 15. A decent constellation for your elemental burst.Â
Flaming Sword, Nemesis of the Dark
The subsequent 2 regular attacks within 6 seconds after casting the Searing Onslaught will grant a 30 % damage bonus and attack speed. Additionally, the Searing Onslaught will not interrupt the standard attack combo.
A powerful constellation that adds up a massive value to Diluc’s damage potential. You get a boost in damage bonus and attack speed at the same time which makes it easier to shred enemies. Once you activate this constellation, you can swiftly chain your combos and deal massive amounts of Pyro damage to your opponents.
Weapons
The Unforged ( 5-star )
A really good claymore that you can use on Diluc, which features attack percentage at its’ substat and increases both shield strength and attack.
The best thing about this weapon’s passive is that the attack increase by 100 % when your character is shielded, and this makes it easy to swap in shield-providing characters like Diona or Zhongli in the team.
Wolf’s Gravestone ( 5-star )
Wolf’s Gravestone is one of the trendiest weapons in the game. This weapon is a powerhouse of insane attack boost where both the substat and passive astronomically increase the attack on all characters.
You can easily switch to EM sand with this weapon and trigger massive reactions to obliterate enemies. You shouldn’t underestimate Wolf’s Gravestone because this weapon can be used almost on all claymore characters.
Redhorn Stonethresher ( 5-star )
Although this weapon is more suited for characters like Arataki Itto or Noelle, whose abilities scale off the defense, this weapon features a notable CRIT damage secondary stat that goes up to 88.2 % with the maximum ascension.
If you have wacky rolls on your artifact substats and end up with a lot of defense, then you can switch to this claymore and have your standard and charged attack damage increased by a proportion of your defense.
At last, you can equip a CRIT rate on the circlet to have an optimized 1: 2 CRIT rate to CRIT damage ratio for efficient damage output.
Serpent Spine ( 4-star )
I bought a battle pass specifically for this weapon. Hands-down, one of the best claymores in the game and rivals even some 5-star ones. Serpent Spine is the only claymore that features CRIT rate as its substat and has a passive that’s a double-edged sword.
As long as you are on the field, you will gain stacks that will increase the amount of damage you deal but also increase the incoming damage. I like to play aggressively with weapons like this and pop up some shields to save myself from enemies’ attacks.
If you have purchased the battle pass, then I will highly recommend you buy this weapon because it’s in a league of its own. Again, spend cautiously on the game and manage your finances well.
Rainslasher ( 4-star )
Rainslasher might come in handy if you don’t have other claymores or are using them on different characters. The weapon’s passive will essentially be rendered useless on Diluc because it only works on opponents affected by Hydro or Electro.
However, an elemental mastery substat will help to increase the reaction damage in a team, and that makes it a good substitute among 4-star claymores.
Prototype Archaic ( 4-star )
Prototype Archaic is a craftable weapon that you can refine to the maximum level, granted that you are able to obtain prototype billets. The weapon has an attack percentage as its substat and deals area-of-effect physical damage to enemies every 15 seconds.
Though the passive isn’t that decent because of its minor damage, you can get this claymore quite early in the game, and its’ worth investing in this because of its general use on other characters.
Artifacts
Crimson Witch of Flames
One of the best artifact sets for Pyro characters in the game, this set helps to buff Pyro damage bonus and increase Pyro reaction damage. You get a bonus in overload, burning, vaporize and melt damage; all of which are essential in a Pyro reaction team comp.
On top of that, the 4-piece bonus also synergizes perfectly with Diluc’s elemental skill and further increases the Pyro damage bonus. This artifacts set is hand-crafted for Diluc and is a must-have, in my opinion.
Gladiator’s Finale
This artifact set is more like a general set for characters who wield a sword, claymore, or a polearm. If you don’t have a dedicated artifact set for your characters, then Gladiator’s is a good option, as it features a boost in attack percentage and ordinary attack damage.
The only caveat about this artifact set is that there are limited sources for this artifact, like weekly domains, world bosses, artifacts strongbox, or abyss rewards. There isn’t a dedicated domain to farm for this artifact, so I wouldn’t suggest feeding Gladiator’s rare pieces as EXP fodder to other artifact pieces.
Lavawalker
Lavawalker can be considered another option if you don’t have a complete 4-piece Crimson Witch of Flames. The set provides your character with Pyro resistance and an increase in damage against enemies affected by Pyro or burning.
Team Compositions
Mono Pyro:Â Diluc Anemo Pyro Flex
Mono Pyro team focuses on dealing as much Pyro damage as possible to the enemies. Usually, these types of teams are rare, but if there are a lot of Hydro, Cryo, or Electro enemies, then you can take benefit from extra Pyro characters.
A fine example would be to have Diluc, Xiangling, Kazuha, and Bennett on your team. Anemo characters can help to shred Pyro resistance from enemies and make them vulnerable to more damage.
Overload:Â Diluc Anemo Electro Flex
Generally, an overload team isn’t recommended because the reaction itself doesn’t deal a lot of damage. However, if you want to increase the reaction damage, then you just need to build a lot of elemental mastery on your characters.Â
I remember running an overload team with Klee once and clearing the last chamber of the abyss with 3-stars. An overload team focuses on increasing reaction damage, and an Anemo character like Sucrose can help to buff the elemental mastery of other characters.
Diluc, Sucrose, Fischl, and Kuki Shinobu are an example of a team that can benefit from overload reactions. However, keep in mind that there are internal cooldowns of reaction that you have to take into account. In a nutshell, it means how many times your characters can trigger a reaction in a period of time.
It’s more like a cooldown on a reaction, and not every Electro hit will result in an overload reaction with Pyro. However, in Diluc’s case, his skill has no internal cooldown, which means you can trigger reactions in a row.
Vaporize:Â Diluc Hydro Anemo Flex
If there’s a Pyro character, there’s a vaporize team. Vaporize teams focus on the reaction between Pyro and Hydro to trigger vaporize and reverse-vaporize reactions.
These reactions come under the category of amplifying reactions and deal a massive amount of damage. A prime example could be Diluc, Xingqiu, Sucrose, and Bennett.
You can use Diluc to trigger reverse-vaporize reactions, and Sucrose’s passives help to share elemental mastery among her teammates. Basically, you use an off-field Hydro character to apply Hydro on enemies so that you can take advantage of reaction damage.
Melt:Â Diluc Anemo Cryo Flex
Melt teams focus on the reactions between Pyro and Cryo. They have the same playstyle as of vaporizing team, with the only difference being the type of element. You can use Diluc, Sucrose, Rosaria, and Diona in a team to take advantage of these reactions and swap in another character who can fulfill the role of applying Cryo on enemies.
An Anemo character is a must in elemental damage teams because they can use the Viridescent venerer artifact set to shred enemies’ elemental resistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Is Diluc Good in the Game? How Good is he as the Main Damage Dealer?
Answer: Yes. Diluc is quite good in the game, even though there are other Pyro damage dealers who are better than him, but this doesn’t mean that he’s fallen off the meta. Diluc can churn out some severe damage with optimal team composition and is good enough to shatter enemies’ shields.
Diluc is a claymore user, and his blunt attacks can break mitachurls’ shields. Not only that, but even if you are facing enemies like Hydro, Cryo, or Electro abyss mages, you can easily rely on his skill to break their shields. Diluc’s elemental skill doesn’t have any internal cooldown, so you can trigger reactions in a row.
That synergizes perfectly with his low cooldown on the elemental skill, and you can also get a Pyro infusion on your claymore after the burst. He’s an outstanding character.
Question: Should I Use Diluc as a Free-to-play Player? How Good is Diluc without any Constellations?
Answer: Absolutely. Diluc is usually available on both the standard and promoted banners, where you have a probability of getting him if you lose your pity. Most of Diluc’s constellations contribute towards strengthening his damage-dealing role and feature additional buffs that can be triggered with his skills.
Additionally, his ascension stat is CRIT rate, which can help you to stack as much CRIT damage as possible on him. If you have a weapon like Redhorn Stonthresher, which features an 88.2% CRIT damage on level 90, then you can equip a CRIT damage circlet to complement it.
Granted that you have enough CRIT rate from your substats to support the build. Then, not even the gods will be able to save your enemies.
Question: How Good is Diluc in the Spiral Abyss? Should I Play him in the Abyss?
Answer: I just finished playing him in the Abyss with Kazuha, Xingqiu, and Bennett on my team, and I would say he’s really good. If you are facing multiple enemies, then there’s a chance that your burst will have enough particles to be cast again.
However, even if you are against a single tanky boss, you don’t need to worry much about energy recharge on him because his burst cost is 40, which is the lowest in the game.
There aren’t many characters who have low burst costs and can regenerate a lot of energy particles with their skills. Diluc shines in this case and will stay relevant in the abyss for quite some time. I would recommend you invest in his weapons and talents and activate any constellations that you will obtain in the future.
Conclusion
Diluc is an outstanding character who has stood the test of time in the game and will continue to do so because of his unique skills. There aren’t many characters in the game which can justify that claim, and this really makes him an outstanding character.
I got Diluc after playing for months in the game because the RNG kept giving me Qiqi. I suppose it is what it is.Â
If you want to have a character who can synergize with other support characters or participate in different team compositions, then Diluc is a certified candidate for that.
Some folks might argue that there are other Pyro damage dealers who are better than Diluc, and that’s a valid argument; however, everything in the game is dependent on the team composition. There is no general team for every scenario, and that’s where character comparison comes into play.
A character like Hu Tao is incredible for a single target, whereas a character like Diluc can counter multiple enemies at once. Still, this doesn’t mean that Hu Tao is worse. It just depends on the enemies you are against.
That was it from my end, and I hope now you can quickly build the best Diluc team out there.Â
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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