How good is c0 hu tao

Initially I was looking forward to Hu Tao when they announced her, and was debating whether or not to make her or Diluc my main Pyro DPS. She seemed like the Pyro version of Childe whom was my first C6 character. Having gotten my hands on her and deciding to stop at C4 for her, I’ll give a quick analysis of my impressions regarding her character overall as well as her constellations.

C0: I think Hu Tao is remarkable at C0. Just like Xiao, extremely capable and perfectly useable at C0 for what her intended role is (quick swap bust carry DPS.)

C1: Honestly I would say that C1 is either amazing if you love her CA playstyle, or just a QoL upgrade if not. During her E, her CA does do a lot of damage, but her auto-attacks aren’t anything to ignore either, and she’s very capable even with just AA. However to apply her Blood Blossom you have to do a CA, so at the very least C1 is useful for that even if you don’t spam it. Also Blood Blossom does not proc upon first application, so don’t expect it to explode for a bajillion damage from CA spam.

The problem with spamming CA is that it displaces her because it moves her character, and the animation lag following her CA is kind of long. This is (my assumption) why they gave her a phasing sprint, because to fully utilize CA spam you can either jump cancel (not recommended in the heat of battle) or sprint to animation cancel, the latter being the preferred method. So instead of spending stamina on CA’s you spend it sprinting after CA to animation cancel and face the right direction (as CA spam targeting can get wonky.)

C2: C2 is just a DPS increase, a decent one at that. It’s good for off field reactions if that’s your play style, but overall solid, and let’s you apply BB with her ult, adding to her off field and/or quick swap burst role utility. Shines a lot more if you get C4 though tbh.

C3: The extra 3 levels on her E is pretty huge, it increases your overall damage and I would say is one of her biggest constellations in terms of easy access, consistent DPS increase. Played correctly, you’re going to be seeing bigger numbers in AA’s and Burst dmg. For reference at E lvl 6, my Hu Tao was sitting at 1.4K ATK, and after activating E my ATK went to 3.1K (I had about 32K HP.) So as you can see, 3 extra levels for her E is significant and plays into her whole kit.

C4: Situational constellation that makes it easier to swap her out for your secondary DPS when facing lots of easy to kill enemies. It works similar to the Blackcliff weapon series in that you need to apply Blood Blossom to the enemy, then it needs to die within 8 seconds (duration of BB.)

The 15% bonus crit rate is nothing to sneeze at, and it really makes certain lineups with her super strong, but it’s really situational. For example you aren’t going to really be able to make use of it for current F12-1 and F12-3 of Abyss since you’re fighting 2 enemies with large HP pools, so it works best against multiple, easy to kill enemies. Really turns Childe and Xiao into killing machines in those scenarios though, but tbh they already were regardless.

C5: Decent constellation, helps if you like using her Q for burst comps (see Tony To 1.4m dmg hit https://youtu.be/Uuer69ykJVw)

C6: If you got her C6 it’s a pretty decent constellation. 2 ways to play it out; either you act like her C6 is an extension of her kit and you use it as a passive “oh shit” life saver button that lets you do 100% crit for 10 seconds, or you completely focus on it turning Hu Tao into a quick swap mega burst DPS.

Option 1 really just gives you more options when using Hu Tao and it’s impactful when it procs, but if you are not focusing on C6 it means you built her with crit rate anyways so the gains will be present, but it won’t be “omega god tier” noticeable DPS increase.

Option 2 means you’re stacking crit dmg and HP, and completely ignoring crit rate. Yes it makes Hu Tao a beast for those 10 seconds you swap her in to proc it, but I myself don’t want to play this way as it will not only force me to roll a completely different set of substats for artifacts, I also want to play her on field more, not just once every minute for 10 seconds.

Final thoughts and recommendations: She’s perfectly useable at C0, in fact I consider her one of the better characters at C0.

If you are on the fence for either a C1 or Homa, I would recommend going for the staff 100%. Homa just brings SO MUCH value to her it’s unreal. However it IS a huge risk as weapon banners have no safety net, and C1 is still an amazing constellation.

If you are determined to get constellations on her, I would say good stopping points are C1, C2, C3. C4-C6 don’t really add as much value as the first 3 constellations unless you're going for a very specific build and team comp.

If I had a choice to go back and do it again, I would probably stop at either C0, C1, or C3 myself. C4 doesn’t bring much value to my team comps personally. It’s kind of funny that she plays like how a C6 Xiao plays against multiple targets, spamming CA and dashing through enemies, just slower and shorter duration.

Lastly when I fit her into my teams you def want a shielding character, and tbh Zhongli is the best shield support for her. For healers it depends on your playstyle, I found that I did need some extra heals from Jean/Bennett for certain situations like Abyss F12 where her ult isn’t necessarily always available when you need it for heals, and the heals it does bring is limited because you aren’t hitting a lot of targets (only hitting 2 for F12-1 and F12-3)

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