Genshin Impact Diona guide: weapons, artifacts, and more

Thank the heavens, another healer! Genshin Impact has precious few of these all-too important characters in the game, and new character Diona even brings some fire alongside the healing. Well, ice at least.

Here’s how to leave your enemies shaken, not stirred.

Genshin Impact Diona guide

Weapons

Diona’s choice of weapon is fairly straightforward, especially if you’re pushing her towards a support route. Namely - 

Sacrificial Bow

(Picture: miHoYo)

Using Diona’s held Elemental Skill can be a little unforgiving with its long cooldown of 15s base, so the Composed ability is a massive boon. More shields, more of the time. Considering it also comes with a nice Energy Recharge stat to help get Diona to her energy-intensive Elemental Burst more often and you have a winner.

Favonius Warbow

(Picture: miHoYo)

A more aggressive option is the Favonius Warbow. Another Energy Recharge stat (Diona really needs to index into it to make the most out of her Burst) plus the Windfall skill that also helps to push for more Elemental Particles to keep the energy coming.

Obviously, to make the most of this you’ll want to push for a more Crit% heavy build than with the Sacrificial Bow. A good choice if you have Diona at Constellation Level 2 or just want her out in the field more actively.

Other options include Stringless, or any decent damage bow if you do want to go for a more damage focus build, and Prototype Crescent, Recurve Bow and Slingshot are all options if you haven’t had luck with rolling.

Artifacts

(Picture: miHoYo)

Two big options stand out straight away: 4-piece Noblesse Oblige and 4-piece Maiden Beloved. The former buffs your party when Diona uses her Elemental Burst, upping their attack by 20% for 12s, while the latter also focuses on the efficacy of Signature Mix, by increasing the healing power of her Elemental Burst with both its effects.

Another option is to run 2-piece Maiden Beloved and 2-piece Exile, giving both a +15% to healing effectiveness and increased Energy Recharge - a massive bottleneck for Diona. If you’re early on in the game or just don’t have the artifacts, running full Exile is more than functional as well.

• Read more: Genshin Impact Ningguang guide: weapons, artifacts, and more 

Finally, if you want to push for higher damage numbers (she does bring good AoE Cryo after all), consider a hybrid 2/2 split between Noblesse Oblige and Maiden Beloved, or go all out on a full 4-piece Retracing Bolide set for massive shields and a damage boost when shielded, or even a 2/2 split Bloodstained Chivalry + Gladiator’s Finale for max damage amp.

For those last two options, you probably want to have hit C2 (Shaken, Not Purred) to make Diona’s damage and staying power worth the DPS investment.

(Picture: miHoYo)

Artifact Stats

Generally, you’re going to want HP and ATK% as that’s what her healing and damage scale off of, though you can focus towards a more Crit heavy build if you are looking to push Diona towards a DPS role. You’ll also want good Energy Recharge, otherwise, that all-important Elemental Burst is going to be stuck on CD for a long time

Main Stats

• HP% Hourglass (Energy Recharge also good)
• HP% Goblet
• Healing Bonus% Circlet (important)
• Energy Recharge
• Cryo DMG, Crit DMG and Crit% all fine for damage heavier looks

Sub Stats

1. HP
2. Energy Recharge
3. Cryo Damage
4. Crit% + DMG (more important if going DPS)

Play Patterns

(Picture: miHoYo)

Diona is a fairly simple character to use effectively. You’ll usually want to get close to a group of enemies, use her held Elemental Skill “Icy Paws”l to hit as many enemies as possible (the lock on is fairly short range), then switch out to your main DPS who can use the shield and damage the slowed enemies to the best effect.

• Read more: Genshin Impact Childe guide: weapons, artifacts, tips and tricks, more 

Her Elemental Burst “Signature Mix” is great AoE Cryo damage and provides a healing field for allies, so you want it up as often as possible (hence the Energy Recharge). You can either use this early then switch out to fight in the heal zone aggressively, or use it after your main DPS has taken a battering and needs a top-up to keep up the damage.

At later constellation Levels, Diona can get good damage out inside her Burst and with Icy Paws Shields running, but again you really do need C2 to really get the most out of this.

Pairing her up with Hydro users (Mona particularly) is good for cc because of frozen - especially if you have claymore DPS for shatter -  Electro users (Lisa with her Violet Rose is great to add on to the AoE, Keqing, Beidou, Fischl etc all good too) abuse supercharge AoE well, and Pyro users (Xiangling, Diluc) hit hard with melt. In fact, she may arguably be the best character for setting up for Supercharge and Melt in the game right now.

Also, consider running her against Cryo enemies, not because her damage will be good but because Icy Paws’ shield has a 250% Cryo DMG Absorption Bonus. And hey, that means no more standing around frozen as Barabara, right?