Best Healers in Genshin Impact – Ranked

By Gallinule | July 31st, 2022 | Categories: Genshin Impact

For many of Genshin Impact’s update history, shields were the meta. They kept your character from getting damaged and had an instant effect. You could keep attacking without pausing to dodge because of the shield. Healing usually takes some time, with only portions of HP restored. That makes it less useful in combat since damage can overtake the recovery, and your character will still die. These two conflicting philosophies have led many players to ask what the Best Healer in Genshin Impact is?

Now, with the addition of Corrosion and the Black Serpent Knights (who buff themselves when hitting a shield), healers are starting to fit into the meta. Since the qualifier of ‘best’ is very subjective, I’ll just list the pros and cons of each healer, and you can decide which one is best for you.

Table of Contents

Who is the Best Healer in Genshin Impact?

There are 8 healers in the game. That doesn’t include catalyst users with the Prototype Amber, those who heal themselves (Hu Tao, Kaeya), or can heal with a constellation upgrade (Zhongli, Gorou). These characters have healing in their kit from the start, though they all have different mechanics.

Best 5-star Genshin Impact Healers

Jean

What’s excellent about Jean is that her healing scales off ATK, meaning she can heal as much as she can deal damage. She doesn’t infuse her weapon with an element, so her auto attacks are direct physical damage. Her E and Q deal Anemo DMG.

As for her healing, she does it in two ways. Once she gets her first Ascension Passive at level 20 after Ascension, her auto attacks have a 50% chance of healing the party. It’s only 15% of her attack, but she has a fast attack speed as a sword user.

The second way is through her Burst, Dandelion Breeze. On activation, it provides a burst of healing equivalent to a percentage of her ATK. It then leaves a recovery (10% of the burst activation values) field of Anemo. The field damages enemies that enter and leave it and creates a Swirl reaction every few seconds.

Her passive and the initial healing burst of her Q affects all party members, but the field only heals the active one. She’s an excellent choice to counter Corrosion since the debuff also affects everyone in the party. You can also give her the Viridescent Venerer artifact set for more utility. Otherwise, you can use a mixture of the ATK boosting sets (Gladiator’s, Shimenawa) and the healing ones (Ocean-Hued, Maiden Beloved).

Qiqi

Like Jean, Qiqi’s healing scales off ATK. However, her mechanics wildly differ from Jean’s.

First, her E skill summons a frost spirit that hovers around the active character. It heals them for a moderate percentage of her ATK every few seconds. Qiqi can boost that healing with a smaller portion every time her normal attacks hit while the skill is active.

Her Burst marks enemies within range. The marking lasts for 15 seconds. Any party member who hits a marked enemy will heal for a percentage of her ATK. With her second Ascension Passive, her regular attacks have a 50% chance of marking enemies. It can only activate every 30 seconds. This mark also has a reduced duration of 6 seconds.

Most of her healing abilities only affect the active character, except when she makes auto attacks while her E is in effect. Unfortunately for her ATK scaling, her multipliers aren’t as good as Jean’s for her to deal damage. This can be remedied by the Ocean-Hued Clam artifact set, which deals additional damage the more healing she does. She has to be the active damage-dealer to take advantage of this build.

Sangonomiya Kokomi

Kokomi is Hoyoverse’s attempt to make a dedicated healer. The meta says the DPS characters need Crit Rate and Crit Damage, and Kokomi has a passive that cuts her Crit Rate by 100%. You’ll have to build her Crit Rate to over 95% to make critical hits. Despite this, she can deal substantial damage even without crits. It’s just not as much as a DPS character would.

Her E leaves behind a jellyfish that heals allies and damages enemies (while also applying Hydro) with every pulse. It lasts for 12 seconds and cannot be repositioned. Fischl can re-summon Oz, and Guoba can be moved around with Anemo skills, but Kokomi’s jellyfish cannot move from its place. Note that this also applies Hydro to Kokomi, so watch for freezing effects.

Her Burst puts her in a buffed state where she can heal with every attack she does (Charged Attacks have increased healing). Also, she has increased resistance to interruptions and can walk on water. Her projectiles have increased damage in this state based on her max HP.

All her skills scale off HP. Her healing and the damage bonus of her Burst use it. That makes the Tenacity of the Millileth set an excellent choice for her. The 2-set bonus boosts her HP, then the 4-set lets her buff her allies with every pulse of her jellyfish. Of course, the jelly has to hit an enemy, but the set adds to her utility. She can also make do with Ocean-Hued or Maiden Beloved.

Aside from the 4-set Millileth, she can also use the Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers catalyst to buff her allies. As a bonus, the weapon’s substat is HP, which also boosts her healing capabilities. The jellyfish may only heal the active character(s), but in her Burst state, she can heal all allies.

Best 4-Star Genshin Impact Healers

Barbara

Barbara is a free character you can get just by leveling up your Adventure Rank. As such, she’s the most common healer and likely the first one you get.

Her E summons a Melody Loop that heals the active character for a portion of Barb’s HP every few seconds. Like Qiqi, if she attacks while it’s in effect, she heals the whole party for a smaller percentage of her HP. Her Burst is a simple healing ability that restores the health of all allies.

She’s a straightforward healer with a weak multiplier for her attacks, but that didn’t stop some players from making her a DPS. Still, if you want to make her an effective healer, you’ll build her HP. Regarding artifact sets, she can only use 2-set Millileth and Severed Fate, 4-set Ocean-Hued, or 4-set Maiden. She can also use Thrilling Tales to buff her allies for added utility.

Bennett

Bennett is also an HP-scaling healer, but he’s so much more than that. While his Burst is his only ability that can heal, it has more use than a healing field. It also buffs the ATK of allies and cleanses any elemental status on you by applying Pyro to your character. However, that latter portion can be detrimental if there are any Electro-inducing enemies around since it’s easier to cause an Overload reaction on you.

There are some caveats, though. Bennett can only heal for up to 70% of a character’s life, and only then will he buff the active character’s ATK. These only take effect when the allied character is on the field. Bennett has high utility as a buffer, and with the right Constellation upgrades and the Noblesse Oblige set, he’s a must-have in the party.

Noelle

Noelle combines shielding and healing. She’s the only character to have her healing scale off DEF instead of ATK or HP. Aside from that, she also gains an ATK bonus based on her DEF when her Burst is active. Her healing only has a chance when her attacks hit while her E skill (the shield) is up.

This makes her a versatile character, as building her as a DPS means increasing her DEF. That also increases the durability of her shield and her healing capability. The Husk of Opulent Dreams, Guardian’s Will, Retracing Bolide, or Maiden Beloved sets are excellent on her.

Diona

Diona is another shielder/healer combo. Her E generates a shield for her and her allies at a specific Constellation upgrade. Her Q leaves a healing field that also applies Cryo to enemies and damages them a little.

Both her healing and shielding scales off HP. 2-set Severed Fate and Millelith or 4-set Maiden are the recommended sets for her. Noblesse is also an option if you want more utility.

Kuki Shinobu

Kuki is a high-risk Electro healer. Her E can heal every two seconds; however, activating it makes her lose a portion of her HP. She also has a healing bonus if her health is below 50%, so keeping her hitpoints half full is best.

Her healing can overtake the loss of HP for its activation, but you don’t want her to have full life anyway. She can make use of 4-set Millelith, Ocean-Hued, or Maiden Beloved. I recommend Millelith for the buffing utility.

Xingqiu

Xingqiu has an Ascension Passive that lets his Rain Swords (the ‘shield’ ones that appear with both his skills) heal the active character for 6% of his total HP each. That’s a total of 24% if you have C1 Xingqiu. I didn’t count him as an actual healer because you’ll want him to be a DPS anyway, not for healing. This is just an incidental effect, and it scales off HP, not ATK or Hydro DMG. That makes him less effective as a DPS while the above healers have a dedicated stat to their role.

Best Constellation Healers

Zhongli

At his C6, 40% of incoming damage to his Jade Shield will turn into healing for the active character. The amount healed cannot exceed 8% of that character’s HP. Of course, getting his Constellation upgrades is the hard part. As the healing doesn’t have anything to do with Zhongli’s stats, this should be a great way of healing, but 8% of HP isn’t a large number.

Gorou

His Burst can heal the active character for 50% of his DEF if at least 2 Geo characters are in the party. It takes the C4 upgrade for this to take effect, though. It will not be as effective as an actual healer, but it can do in a pinch.

The Prototype Amber

Any catalyst user with this weapon can restore the party’s HP. Just slap on a 2-set Severed Fate and Ocean-Hued or Maiden Beloved, and make the timepiece Energy Recharge to make an emergency healer. The weapon restores a percentage of each affected character’s HP, so you only have to worry about using the Burst. Noblesse Oblige is also an option, as long as you can charge up the character’s Q quickly for the regeneration.

Catalyst users (that are not already healers) are:

Lisa
Mona
Sucrose
Klee
Yae Miko
Ningguang
Shikanoin Heizou
Yanfei

Mona, Lisa, Ningguang, Yanfei (C4 for additional shield), and Yae Miko are excellent candidates for this weapon. The others are more suited to a DPS role than a supportive one, so other weapons would be better for them. All can be DPS, though, if you built them that way (not with this catalyst).

Hydro Resonance

This boosts the Incoming Healing Bonus by 30% by putting two Hydro characters in the party. Any character that receives healing will restore 30% more HP from the initial value.

If you want to maximize healing, take advantage of this.

So, Who’s the Best Healer in Genshin Impapct?

Kokomi is my best healer, followed by Qiqi/Jean (depending on who has the Aquila Favonia). Benny is an excellent utility healer, too, along with a Noblesse Diona. Despite the low HP requirement on Kuki, I’m enjoying using her, but I probably won’t use her in the Abyss.

If I had to rank them based on healing ability alone:

Kokomi
Jean
Qiqi
Barbara
Noelle
Kuki Shinobu
Diona
Bennett (because of his 70% of HP healing limit)

When it comes to utility, though, it becomes:

Bennett (C1 with Noblesse)
Kokomi (Millileth with TToDS)
Jean (with VV)
Noelle (shields and DPS)
Diona (shields)
Kuki Shinobu (Millileth)
Barbara (TToDS)
Qiqi (Ocean-Hued)

However, this is only my personal ranking, so you might have a different order. As I said, the ‘best’ is subjective. I’ve used the Prototype Amber for one cycle of the Abyss (the one with a bonus to a single element). Because a Geo party can have shields from Crystallize, Gorou’s minor healing does well for the team. It depends on the situation and how you’ve built the character.

Who’s the best healer for you? Comment down below!