Hutao Build Guide (Patch 4.1)
| Vape Hutao | |
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Shimenawa's Reminiscence (4) |
Sands - HP / EM |
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Double Hydro |
Hutao’s Role and Skills
Hu Tao is a hypercarry single target DPS character that excels in huge amounts of burst damage while her Elemental Skill (E) is active. With no Internal Cooldown (ICD) on her charged attack, Hu Tao is unique in the sense that she is able to proc Vape or Melt reaction in every charged attack. This comes with the exception that her support must be able to keep up with her in applying Wet or Frozen onto the enemy. As of Fontaine release, the only person is still Xingqiu’s Burst that can ensure the enemy is constantly wet for Hutao to Vape every Charged Attack. Currently she is considered as the pyro “ceiling” when it comes to single target DPS.
Double Hydro Hutao
With no ICD on her charged attacks, you want to pair Hu Tao up with someone who can keep up in applying elemental type onto enemy. This is important because Vape and Melt reactions give a whopping 1.5x and 2.0x damage multiplier. The only person who can keep up with her Charged Attacks is Xingqiu’s rainsword from his Burst. Hence why, every endgame Hutao team will always have him.
The current meta team built around her is Hu Tao, Xingqiu, Yelan and either Zhongli or Kazuha. Zhongli shield is vital because it prevents her from dying but more importantly getting stunned when hit while her Elemental skill (E) is active. This helps avoid losing DPS potential whenever an enemy attacks as she doesn’t get staggered while also nullifying the need to dodge an enemy attack. The cherry on top is that Zhongli’s shield also provide a -20% shred resistance on nearby enemies further buffing her damage.
If you want more damage, you can substitute Zhongli with Kazuha or Sucrose since they can shred Pyro RES. This will further boost her damage with the cost of her survivability.
Artifact set
Shimenawa’s Reminiscence (4)
Provides the highest Charged Attack damage for Hutao but lowers her Elemental Burst damage which means lower AoE damage, also if you’re unable to burst, it might cause survivability issues.
Crimson Witch of Flames (4)
One of the best set for Hutao as she can benefit from all its effects even though she can’t gain maximum stacks.
Gilded Dreams (4)
Performs slightly below a Crimson Witch set. If you want to run Gilded Dreams on her then focus on maximizing the EM buff by running double Hydro. The set does lose some value when you can get EM buffs from other sources such as Sucrose or C2 Kazuha.
Crimson With of Flames (2)
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80 EM set (2)
20% HP set (2)
All these options are almost on equal footing because both of the sets have an equal overall damage output.
Retracing Bolide (4)
Generally only recommended if you’re running her with Zhongli as he has the strongest shield in game with high uptime.
Weapon
Staff of Homa (5✩)
No surprise Hutao’s featured weapon is her best. She maximizes the value it provides as she makes use of the weapon’s HP% passive and possesses innate HP drain in her kit.
Staff of the Scarlet Sands (5✩)
While Hutao cannot fully stack Staff of the Scarlet Sands in single-target, the EM to ATK conversion and high CRIT Rate it provides make it potent, particularly on high EM builds.
Ballad of the Fjords (4✩)
Very competitive at R1 and at R5 is better than Staff of the Scarlet Sands. Since the passive only needs a team with 3 different elements to activate, it works in most of Hu Tao’s preferred teams.
Dragon’s Bane (4✩)
Dragon’s Bane has a strong passive and provides a healthy dose of EM, making it a very strong option. It scales very well with refinements, and at R5 is highly competitive with Hutao’s other 5-star weapon options. However, it loses value with further EM buffs. It also performs slightly worse relative to other weapons in the context of Yelan’s A4 Passive buff, which diminishes the value of the weapon’s DMG Bonus.
Deathmatch (4✩)
While Hu Tao cannot make optimal use of the ATK% passive, Deathmatch is nonetheless a strong and reliable weapon, due to its sizable CRIT Rate stat.
Talent
C0-C4
Normal Attack (NA) > Skill (E) > Burst (Q)
C5-C6 (Nuke)
Burst (Q) > Normal Attack (NA) > Skill (E)
Most Hutao players should prioritize her NA first as that is her main source of damage. Although she needs to activate E before using her Charged Attacks, the multipliers from her NA is still higher compared to her E. In short, her E simply gives a damage boost and pyro infusion but her damage comes from her NA.
If you’re a whale going for a nuke showcase or oneshot build, then focus on her Q as she can easily kill most bosses at that level.
Main stat and substat
Sand: HP% / Elemental Mastery
Goblet: Pyro DMG
Circlet: Crit Rate / DMG
- Crit Rate / DMG
- Elemental Mastery
- HP%
- ATK%
Because Hutao damage scales on her HP instead of ATK, you’ll wanna swap those two. This means that HP will always come first before ATK. The other thing is since Hutao optimally would wanna Vape all her attacks, EM should be equally if not more important than the other stats. Do keep in mind that you can also get EM buff from other sources such as Sucrose of C2 Kazuha.
Energy Recharge Requirements
Hutao doesn’t need any energy requirements as she utilizes Charged Attacks for most of her damage. Having said that, it is optimal to play around the expectation that Hutao will be Bursting every other rotation with non-Shimenawa’s sets and every fourth rotation with Shimenawa’s. Also ER rolls in substats should not be considered wasted as the ability to Burst more often in high-Energy scenarios can be helpful for both her damage and survivability.
Constellation
C1 > Anything else
C1
Hu Tao’s C1 is her most powerful Constellation. It is arguably the best C1 in the game, and competes with some of the better C2s. It allows her to dash cancel her Charged Attacks without worrying about Stamina, which not only allows her to fit more CAs into her DPS window, but also makes her feel much better to play.
Note that if you are executing dash cancels quickly, you can encounter the dash cooldown after two dashes. Be prepared to jump cancel if this happens.
C1 is the recommended stopping point for low-spenders or F2Ps.
Note that C1 is only a DPS increase if you are taking advantage of the Stamina reduction effect to dash cancel and execute higher-damage combos. Otherwise, the only benefit C1 will provide is more Stamina left over at the end of a combo.