Picking Teams

There's many different ways to approach teambuilding. Picking good teams depends on the floor, divergences, as well as your existing account resources. There isn't a perfect 4-character team, but there are strategies on building the best teams for the best situations. This page delves into those.

General Tips

If you're looking for quick tips on how to improve your compositions, here is some advice:

Main Core Types

Melt/Vaporize

These cores take advantage of the damage bonus that Pyro/Cryo/Hydro Damage gets when the opposing elements are applied to an ememy. For example, Pyro attacks deal 1.5x/2x damage to enemies inflicted with Hydro/Cryo Auras. Cryo/Hydro damage deals 1.5x/2x damage to enemies inflicted by Pyro. This is currently seen as the core with the highest DPS threshold, and can be a great core to build when you need to overcome a DPS deficiency.

1. Melt/Vaporize : These cores take advantage of the damage bonus that Pyro/Cryo/Hydro Damage gets when the opposing elements are applied to an ememy. For example, Pyro attacks deal 1.5x/2x damage to enemies inflicted with Hydro/Cryo Auras. Cryo/Hydro damage deals 1.5x/2x damage to enemies inflicted by Pyro. This is currently seen as the core with the highest DPS threshold, and can be a great core to build when you need to overcome a DPS deficiency.
2. Superconduct : These cores consisting of Electro/Cryo characters amplify physical damage by procing superconduct to decrease enemy physical res. This core can be great because it is accessible through many different characters and is not as locked behind 5* characters as other cores. It is also strong situationally when fighting humanoid enemies. It does generally fall behind other cores as higher floors tend to have enemies with higher physical resistance and/or a high quantity of enemies resulting in inefficiency due to lack of AOE scalability.
3. Geo : These cores are generally pure Geo teams. This relies on the incredible buffs of Geo resonance and the compatibility of buffs between existing Geo characters. Certain characters allow these teams to gain AOE capabilities but it is still lacking in that regard compared to other cores. The biggest drawback with this core is that its power is locked behind certain 5* characters like Zhongli and Albedo.
4. Freeze : Freeze teams make use of the comfortability of play due to the freeze reaction keeping enemies in place. It is made stronger with the blizzard strayer set and resonance allowing for low crit rate builds. These teams lead to higher consistency of damage and more ease of play but do not have the same DPS threshold of melt/vaporize teams.
5. Mono-element: Mono-element teams take advantage of character-specific buffs to damage of a specific type (Bennett C6, Xiangling C6, Beidou C6, Kujou Sara C6, etc.). They are further enabled with Swirl reactions that buff that element damage further. These teams are generally locked behind character constellations of 5* characters and are best used when a specific character is not bestfit to proc reactions.

6. Pick 2-3 characters to act as your "core" or main damage-dealing combination. There should be 1 main-DPS and characters that enhance that DPS's damage [1].

7. Fill the rest of your slots with both characters that support this core and meet clearing requirements for the floor [2].

[1] Go to the second half of the page for examples.

[2] Ex. Adding Xiangling to deal with Mitachurl Cryo shields.

More in-depth explanations follow!

Teambuilding Approach

Pick a core

Your core is responsible for dealing most of the damage for your team, and usually consists of a pair of characters with good synergy. These are the characters which you should prioritize investing in for weapons/artifacts/talents.

For Abyss, you will need at least 1 core for each team. When starting a floor, look at the mobs and tips for the floor to decide which side each core should go on.

If possible, try to use different types of damage between the two teams in order to avoid being heavily disadvantaged if a floor is bad for a specific element.

Cores are generally chosen to facilitate a specific set of reactions to amplify specific types of damage. This is not the case for all characters in every team (such as flex spots for floor-specific support). There are several different classes of cores. Here are some common examples:

Melt/Vaporize

Consists of a pyro character and a hydro/cryo character to amplify one another's damage through melt/vaporize.

• High damage bonus that Pyro/Cryo/Hydro Damage gets when the opposing elements are applied to an enemy

  • Pyro attacks deal 1.5x/2x damage to enemies inflicted with Hydro/Cryo Auras

  • Cryo/Hydro damage deals 1.5x/2x damage to enemies inflicted by Pyro

• This is currently seen as the core with the highest DPS threshold

• Not as character or 5*-dependent as other team types

• Most of the options for the pyro character are limited-5* stars

• Heavy emphasis on Crimson-Witch Farming

• High reliance on characters like Xingqui and Bennett (high use characters)

Physical

These cores consisting of Electro/Cryo characters amplify physical damage by procing superconduct to decrease 40% enemy physical res.

• Strong situationally when fighting humanoid enemies

• Lots of f2p physical DPS and support options

• lower versatility: higher floors tend to have enemies with higher physical resistance canceling out the decrease in physical res

• Lower AOE

Geo

Geo teams consisting of 3-4 Geo characters taking advantage of strong Geo resonance buffs.

• Many geo characters have high compatibility leading to Higher DPS teams

• Takes advantage of lesser used "scrap" DEF heavy artifacts

• lacks in AOE (but can be improved with certain characters)

• locked behind certain 5* characters like Zhongli and Albedo.

Freeze

Teams with Cryo and Hydro characters to proc freeze.

• Higher comfortability of play due to the freeze reaction keeping enemies in place

• Made stronger with the blizzard strayer set and resonance allowing for low crit rate builds

• higher consistency of damage and more ease of play

• compromises DPS threshold

• somewhat locked behind limited-5* characters

Mono

Mono-element teams take advantage of character-specific buffs to damage of a specific type (Bennett C6, Xiangling C6, Beidou C6, Kujou Sara C6, etc.). They are further enabled with Swirl reactions that buff that element damage further.

• Easy to play

• Less domains to farm artifacts

• generally locked behind character constellations or 5* characters

• need to build more characters

There are other team types but most will fall under the above categories. Note can specific characters can enable the use of completely different team types (Overload with Yoimiya/Yanfei, and Anemo with Xiao).

General Supports

Once you have chosen your core, the specific supports you choose for each team will vary depending on the specific requirements for the floor.

The best supports will often fill in more than one of these categories. This is why pure healers like Barbara or Qiqi are not usually recommended over other more versatile supports like Bennett or Zhong Li.

Healers/Shielders

Each team should have a character than can heal or prevent the team from taking excessive damage over the match.

While it's possible to run a strong shield character like Zhong Li instead of a healer, it's not recommended.

Energy

Commonly referred to as a battery, these supports are the same element as a core character and are good at generating energy to keep their **Bursts **up more often, helping you deal more damage.

Crowd Control

Characters that are able to disable enemies in various ways. This will often be a character than can enable Freeze to disable enemies, or an character whose abilities will pick up and knock down enemies.

Damage

These supports boost the damage of your core unit in some way, either by:

• Buffing your team (Bennet, character using Noblesse Oblige set)

• Debuffing your enemies (Zhong Li, Sucroseusing Viridescent Veneer set)
• Adding resonance

Floor-Specific Supports

Shield-breakers

Prioritize adding any elements you are missing for breaking enemy shields.

If you're not sure what elements you need, check out the guides on each floor! Each one will list the shield-breaking requirements at the very top

Resonance

Addingresonance is an easy way to add damage to any team if the floor allows it. This gives a nice boost early on but drops off on the later floors as you get better stats.

/ resonances are very good for specific compositions that rely on Freeze / DMG.

resonance is good on teams that will swap between Elemental Skills often.

/resonances are the weakest and usually not worth going for specifically.

To see example teams, visit Example Teams.

Next Steps

Once you have a team, do the appropriate research on the characters (best rotations, teammates, artifacts, talents). See Resources.

FAQs

Is there a "best" team composition?

As stated at the beginning, the characters who work best depend largely on the enemies you are facing. One composition does not work in every situation. It also depends on who you have available in your roster and how well they are built. With that said, melt and vaporize teams generally deal more DPS. Freeze and Physical Comps allow much greater consistency and control.

I followed this guide but my teams are still not good enough. Why is that the case?

Most likely, you are either lacking DPS or have not optimized your rotations. See:

https://genshinhelper.gitbook.io/abyss/teambuilding/character-investment