TL;DW:
- Xiao can perform a plunge attack right after using his elemental skill (E) even at ground level.
- Xiao is currently the only character in-game who does not take any damage from performing a plunge attack at any height.
- You can use his elemental skill mid-air and this is very helpful at certain situations while exploring.
- You can't aim his elemental skill while any enemy is around. He will aim a random enemy and will strike it with his elemental skill dealing damage to that enemy and any other who comes in the path.
- Using a charge of his elemental skill increase the DMG of his subsequent charges by 15% and this can have a maximum of 3 stacks. At C0, performing his skill every 5 seconds can maintain the maximum stacks as the stack duration is 7 seconds and skill cd is 10 secs with 2 charges.
- Both his Plunge attack and Charged attack has high DMG multiplier. His plunge attacks are great against multiple enemies as it has AoE damage. His charged attacks launches the smaller enemies in front of him into air and can also damage multiple enemies. His normal attacks also has good enough coverage to damage multiple enemies at once.
- The bonus 5% damage from his passive talent can go up to a maximum of 25% with an increase of 5% every 3 sec. You can have the maximum damage effect for the last 3 seconds of his burst duration.
- Life drain from his burst is based on his Current HP and not Total HP so it's not a flat number. This damage decreases as his health decreases and does not affect him a lot.
- Best artifact set for him is 2 piece Gladiator and 2 piece Viridescent with ATK%/Anemo DMG/ Crit DMG as main stats.
- Best weapon for him is the Primordial Jade as it has the highest base attack with crit rate% stat. Also the passive is good and maintaining its stacks on him is not too hard. Other good weapons for him are Vortex Vanquisher, Skyward Spine and Deathmatch. For F2P players, Prototype Starglitter is a good option as the high energy recharge stat enables him to use his burst more frequently. If you can get the Blackcliff Pole or the Royal Spear from Paimon's Shop then they are also very good option with Blackcliff pole being better value than the other. Also, Crescent Pike and Dragonspine Spear are not good options as the Physical Damage stat from them becomes useless for Xiao during his Burst duration.
- For Energy Recharge, if you are struggling with keeping up with the energy for his burst then having 150%+ ER is recommended.
- For team comps, Zhongli is an excellent choice as his shield decreases all resistance of enemy by 20%. Sucrose is a good option for Anemo Resonance and for providing with energy particles (Jean and Anemo MC can also provide this but Sucrose provides more energy particles). Venti is also good for the same reason. A healer is good for last spot preferably Bennett as along with the heal he gives attack buff. If you don't have Zhongli then using a passive support DPS like Fischl, Xingqiu, Albedo or Xiangling is a good option as they can deal damage while not being on the field and also provide some energy for Xiao.
- As for artifacts for your supports, Archaic Petra and Viridescent sets (4 set bonus) are not good as anemo doesn't react with geo to get bonus damage from Petra set and the Viridescent set does not debuff enemy with anemo resistance. Also, the swirl damage is very low so the bonus swirl damage is below average. Noblesse Oblige set is the only good option for the supports to provide Xiao with 20% ATK bonus.
- Being an Anemo DPS character is very beneficial as most of the enemies have low anemo resistance except the pyro and cryo flower.
Bonus Stuff that I forgot to mention in the video:
- His Burst (Q) changes his basic attacks to ANEMO type from PHYSICAL type.
- 4 set Viridescent can be good for boosting his supports damage in some specific comps but it is not recommended in general.
- In general plunge attacks has 2 hits, first is if you land on an enemy (Plunge Dmg) and second is Normal AoE Dmg (Low/High Plunge Dmg).
- His playstyle changes after C6.
- You can normal cancel plunge attacks with xiao by using a normal attack just after every plunge attacks. This helps a lot while using passive damage supports like Xingqiu and Fischl as the normal attack procs their effects.
Let me know if I missed something and I will add it to the post. Hope the information was useful and have a good day. Also, I hate asking this but a sub to my YouTube channel would be highly appreciated. Cheers!
