by SupGurlll

Disclaimers:

• I am a dolphin (spent ~$250)
• This build was made based on my preferences
• If you want a tl;dr just scroll through for pretty pictures and captions

Sup, I’m SupGurl. I’ve been maining Ningguang since her rate up banner, and wanted to post an updated guide including info from 1.2. I will go over detailed info on talents/constellations, weapons, artifact builds, and possible team comps. I’ll also include F2P options for weapons and possible unit switches (if any of them work). Lastly, just because I’m experienced with Ning doesn’t mean I’m going to be correct on everything. Let me know if I’m wrong and don’t be lame about it plz :]

Ningguang

Ningguang has been gaining a lot of popularity lately due to the abyss changes and looming Geo resonance buff. She is one of the best DPS characters available in game right now with insane sustained and burst damage, no need for setups from supports (though she can still make use of certain support units), and waifu points ;]

The fact that all of her damage is Geo is mostly a good thing, but you will need a sub-dps for geo cube and geo slimes. Other than that, she can handle all bosses and enemies by herself.

Talents

Like Klee, her main damage source (outside of abilities) is her charged attack. At lower levels she is a solid dps that can interrupt enemies with her normal attacks from range (very nice). However, where she really starts to shine is when her ascension talents are unlocked.

With this, we gain the ability to use charged attacks for the entire fight. Nice power boost.

Since most of her non-ability damage is from her charged attacks, this is a big deal.

Once you unlock Backup Plan, the ideal normal attack rotation is going to be 1 auto, 1charged attack, repeat. If your internet sucks like mine you might have to throw a 2nd attack in before charging to make sure the Star Jades show up :/

Ning supports herself lmao

Free bonus damage whenever? Hell ya.

Ningguang’s Jade Screen is much more than a projectile shield. You can drop it right in a group of enemies for some solid AoE Geo damage, then walk through before casting more for the 12% bonus. Another benefit of the screen is you get a ton of free energy if you drop it on a group.

Basically:

1. Drop screen in enemy’s face
2. Walk through screen
3. Ult for big pp damage
4. Normal > charged > repeat while waiting for cooldowns

Constellations

Ningguang is in an interesting spot when it comes to her cons. She has very good constellations, but they still aren’t necessary for her to be a top tier DPS. I’d try to get at least C1 though because…

AoE damage lets her kill everyone at the same time. Very cool.

With that I’d say she has everything she needs, but for the cherry on top you can try for C2 and C6.

This is a huge QoL improvement for Ning gameplay. You know how good Sucrose’s C1 is? Well, this is better once you learn how to trigger it.

This adds a lot of bonus damage to the end of your burst combo. Nice, but not necessary.

Weapons

Now that we know what Ning can do, which weapons work well with her?

Edit: Someone pointed out that Lost Prayer buff is written incorrectly and you lose your stacks when switching characters. That being the case, Memory of Dust gets the edge if you don’t need the extra crit rate.

Memory > Lost Prayer unless you need crit.

Crit rate and what amounts to a near-permanent 20% damage buff? Sounds good.

If you’re willing to take the plunge and pick up the BP, Solar Pearl is what you want. This weapon is insane on Ning. We get crit rate and, with a little understanding, a 20% boost for almost all of our damage (everything except charged attacks). Plus it matches her outfit once you level it up so that puts it on par with Lost Prayer imo.

Some other weapons of note are:

• Skyward Atlas – It’s a 5 star, so it has great base attack of course. I don’t have one so I can’t test to see if it works better than Solar Pearl with it’s higher stats and lower elemental damage bonus.
• Widsith – While the effect has a 1/3 chance of being useless damage-wise for Ning, the crit damage secondary is very nice.
• Frostbearer – With the 1.2 update we got this godsend for F2P. Previously I’d recommend Mappa Mare as the F2P option, but Frostbearer is the superior choice for Ning since we can actually make use of the secondary stat.

Artifacts

Imo the best choice for Ning is 2 set Archaic Petra, 2 set Gladiator’s for the damage and attack bonuses.

My artifacts are pretty meh btw

If you’re using Ning as more of a burst/sub-dps you could also consider 2 set Noblesse with Archaic to boost her ult damage.

Artifact main stats:

Probably obvious, but here’s what you want your main stats to be:

• Flower – Duh, only HP
• Feather – Duh, only ATK
• Timepiece – ATK %
• Cup – Geo Damage Bonus
• Circlet – Crit DMG/Crit Rate (Depending on what you need)

Artifact substats:

You might be tempted to get energy recharge to ult spam on Ning, but this really isn’t necessary for her. With Jade screen cooldown being so low (especially with C2) you’re never going to have a hard time charging up your ult. Usually it’ll be charged before the cooldown ends when you’re fighting multiple enemies.

That being said, in general we want: crit rate > crit DMG > ATK %

Getting to 70%-ish crit rate is the goal. Then you can stack ATK % and crit DMG. Anyone that is super hardcore with math can give you the exact ideal ratios in the comments but that person is not me lol.

Team Comp

Since Ning is pretty self-sufficient, building a team around her can be a bit tricky. Since geo resonance was already good (imo), and is now getting a buff, running with a 2nd geo character is a no-brainer. Outside of that there are a lot of options.

Edit here to leave a note about the new Zhongli changes:

With his shield debuff they will be adding in 1.3 (20% defense reduction for ALL elements and phys DMG), I’d have to give Zhongli the edge over everyone else in supporting Ning. We’d get almost as good reduction as a 4 set VV with Zhong shield and geo resonance. Man 1.3 is gonna be nice for Ning.

Here is the main crew I run with.

Once I pull Albedo he’s gonna take Traveller’s spot. Come home buddy.

With this crew, Fischl works as a sub-dps with her Oz damage. Here’s a summary.

• Ning – Our heavy hitter
• Fischl – Generate crystallize shields for resonance bonus, do crazy electro damage without doing any work. You will regularly see 15K electro crits just by summoning Oz with the right build.
• 2nd Geo unit – Gets us resonance. Albedo would be perfect here since he’d add more off-field damage alongside Fischl.
• Barbara – Heals/Thrilling Tales buff

Let’s theorycraft some other options:

Defensive comp with Barb for healing and Big Daddy Zhong to petrify/buff with Noblesse set. Noelle can replace Zhongli for similar effect.

Offensive comp with Bennett buff/pyro resonance. Xiangling will be our shieldbot instead of Fischl.

There are, of course, many more comps that will work with her. Try with characters you like and see what works!

Gameplay

So, after going through all of that here’s a few things I’ve picked up while maining Ningguang.

Ideal Burst Combo with constellations and Solar Pearl:

1. Summon Oz (or whatever you’re using to get your crystallize reactions)
2. Ning normal attack (Solar Pearl 20% damage boost)
3. Drop screen on enemies
4. Pick up shield crystal (usually automatic)
5. Walk through Jade Screen (2nd talent 12% geo damage boost)
6. Ult
7. Charged attack (C6 extra gems)
8. Drop screen on enemies (C2 cooldown reset)

Keep in mind for this clip we have no food/potion buffs, no Barbara buff on Ning, and the abilities also aren’t buffed by Solar Pearl here. If you do things in the right order the damage gets crazy.

Normal attack animation cancel:

Hold W (forward) while doing your normal attack to cancel the animation about halfway through. This allows you to get out more charged attacks for higher DPS while waiting on cooldowns.

​https://www.reddit.com/link/km00td/video/ltymy9ev00861/player?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=Genshin_Impact&utm_content=t3_km00td

The End

That’s all I can think of. Lemme know any cool comps you found or if I got anything wrong. Hopefully this is helpful and not too annoying to read. o/ Peace