In Genshin Impact, support characters are often the cornerstone of powerful teams. From enabling elemental reactions to providing buffs, healing, or resistance shred, a good support can elevate your entire party. In Version 5.6, with Escoffier entering the scene, it’s time to reevaluate where our top five-star supports stand.
In a detailed breakdown by Jello Impact, five-star supports were ranked across categories like damage, buffs, healing, and team synergy. Here’s everything you need to know about which support units are truly worth your Primogems.
Support Kit Comparison: Damage, Buffs, Utility
Damage
- Furina and Escoffier lead the pack in sub-DPS potential. Both characters do significant off-field damage and are built for crit scaling. Their damage output can rival characters like Yelan and Chiori.
- Citlali and Kazuha do modest damage, while Xilonen mostly focuses on support and healing.
Damage Buffing
- Most characters here offer roughly 40% damage bonus. Furina leads with consistent, universal buffs, while Escoffier offers none in this category—her strengths lie elsewhere.
- Citlali and Xilonen provide solid buffs via artifacts or passives. Kazuha excels in elemental buffs via Swirl reactions.
Resistance Shred
- Escoffier wins this category hands-down with up to 55% Cryo and Hydro resistance shred—but only in full Cryo/Hydro teams.
- Kazuha offers 40% elemental shred via Swirl.
- Xilonen gives 36% universal shred, and Citlali applies 20% to Pyro and Hydro.
- Furina does not offer any resistance shred.
Defensive Utility
- Escoffier provides a full team heal via burst, plus continuous healing—ideal for enabling Furina’s fanfare.
- Citlali provides shielding, Xilonen single-target healing, and Furina includes anti-healing effects (which require external healing).
- Kazuha offers no defensive utility.
Elemental Application
- Escoffier and Citlali apply consistent Cryo for Freeze and Melt, respectively.
- Furina contributes Hydro frequently enough for enabling most reactions.
- Kazuha helps with elemental spread through Swirl, and Xilonen provides minimal elemental contribution directly.
Flexibility & Restrictions
- Xilonen is the least restrictive support in terms of team requirements. She can slot into many comps with minimal conditions.
- Kazuha needs to be on-field to apply Swirl buffs effectively.
- Citlali is element-locked to Pyro and Hydro teams.
- Escoffier needs full Cryo/Hydro teams to reach her potential.
- Furina requires a healer to offset her anti-healing passive, unless paired with Escoffier.
Quality of Life
- Escoffier shines here with dummy-proof utility. Her healing, Cryo application, and buffs all function automatically as long as team composition meets the Cryo/Hydro requirement.
- Furina’s fanfare can be tricky to optimize due to her anti-healing.
- Xilonen and Citlali have useful but slightly more conditional utility.
- Kazuha can be clunky in multi-wave scenarios due to short Swirl duration.
Exploration Utility
- Xilonen excels at wall climbing and traversal, giving her the edge here.
- Furina can walk on water—unique, but less universal.
- Citlali can float during exploration.
- Escoffier’s exploration traits are still unknown, pending release.
Overall Team Strength & Meta Presence
- Citlali wins on peak team power. She’s a must-pick for Moa and several high-damage archetypes.
- Furina wins on flexibility. She has synergy with over 20 characters including Neuvillette, Navia, Wanderer, Xiao, Ayaka, Varesa, and many more.
- Xilonen sits in the middle, having more high-tier teams than Furina but fewer overall options.
- Kazuha remains strong but is increasingly outpaced by new, more specialized units.
- Escoffier, though new, is already looking like a meta staple for Cryo and Freeze compositions, especially alongside Furina.
Replaceability & Future Potential
- Citlali is hard to replace. If you don’t have her, your Moa and Melt teams suffer significantly. Escoffier may provide partial substitution in some Cryo comps, but not Melt.
- Kazuha can be replaced by Xilonen or Sucrose, though you lose grouping and Swirl synergy.
- Furina has few true replacements—her buff scaling is hard to match.
- Escoffier may become irreplaceable if Freeze becomes a meta staple again with characters like Ayaka, Wriothesley, and the upcoming Skirk.
- Xilonen is the most easily replaced, though still valuable for flexible team construction.
Final Verdict: Who Should You Pull?
| Category | Best Support |
|---|---|
| Overall Flexibility | Furina |
| Team Power | Citlali |
| Resistance Shred | Escoffier |
| Exploration | Xilonen |
| Grouping | Kazuha |
| Future Potential | Escoffier & Furina |
If you want to build powerful Cryo/Hydro comps, Escoffier is a must-pull. If you’re aiming for universal flexibility, Furina remains unbeatable. Need pure team strength? Citlali will carry your comps to new heights. And if exploration and elemental spread matter most, Xilonen and Kazuha are still fantastic picks.
Just remember: all of these units have a place in the meta—but which one fits best in your account depends on who you like to play and which characters you’re planning around.
For more builds, team comps, and pull advice, visit us at ExploreGenshin.gg.
