In most combat-centric games, there is a clear distinction between two different types of damage dealers: agile, fast fighters, and heavy hitters. While there may be a lot of unique combat features in Genshin Impact, it also follows this general distinction.
RELATED: Genshin Impact: Top Support Characters And How To Use Them
However, despite how crucial combat is to the game, many players are still unaware of the best heavy-hitting characters in the game. Generally speaking, heavy hitters are characters that do a massive amount of damage per hit at the expense of speed and attack rate. While there isn't one distinct measure of combat strength in Genshin Impact, looking at base attack can be a good indicator for players.
Note: All characters are listed with level 1 and level 90 base-attack stats.
Kazuha (23/297)
One of the more recent heavy hitters in the game, Kazuha has been quite the innovation among the game's high damage community. To be fair, Kazuha is one of the few high-damage characters to not particularly lose out on agility.
Rather, Kazuha offers a build that adequately combines mobility and high damage hits. Best paired with either a Pyro, Cryo, Electro, or Hydro character, Kazuha can also be a ready source of swirl damage.
Tartaglia (23/301)
Few characters have the battle-hungry energy that Tartaglia, aka Childe, has. Lore-wise, this Fatui Harbinger has mastered almost every weapon (he uses the weapon he's worst at for training's sake) and lives for the battle. Naturally, with his qualifications, it makes sense that he would be a heavy hitter regardless of how much agility he sacrifices.
RELATED: Genshin Impact: Mistakes Players Make When Using Tartaglia
That said, some distinctions make Tartaglia different than other high-attack characters in Genshin Impact's cast. For one, he can attack both in melee range and long-range due to the uniqueness of his elemental skill. This makes Tartaglia one of the most tactically diverse characters in the game.
Klee (24/311)
Few people would think of bombs as being low damage. And quite simply, even in the hands of a child, bombs would make any character a heavy hitter; this certainly is the case for Klee.
Klee's reason for being a DPS is straightforward. She blows enemies away with her bombs, using an elemental skill that throws tiny bombs on the ground and a burst that uses a laser cannon.
Yoimiya (25/323)
The firework maker from the Naganohara family, Yoimiya is an interesting case for Genshin Impact characters in general (not just amongst heavy hitters.) After all, she is the only bow-user to do her damage primarily with her normal attacks rather than her charged attacks.
This makes her the only character that truly benefits from using the Rust (which lowers charged damage in exchange for higher normal damage.) And of course, her elemental burst only helps to increase her naturally high damage, by marking enemies for a damage increase.
Keqing (25/323)
Sword-users rarely lose out in speed and agility. That's why the top 10 characters by base attack only have two sword-users; they make up the bulk of agile fighters, given that they can use more hits per second than claymore-users. However, Keqing doesn't keep with this trend in particular.
RELATED: Genshin Impact: Best Team Compositions To Pair With Keqing
Among sword-users, Keqing makes for the most distinct DPS character. Her damage has a naturally high base-stat combination, while both her elemental skill and burst utilize quick, offensive strikes for high Electro damage.
Diluc (26/335)
At Genshin Impact's release, Diluc was the original heavy hitter. In fact, most fans still considered him to be at the top of DPS until Xiao and Ganyu's release, with his interesting set of Pyro talents.
Nonetheless, times do change. While the Dawn Winery's tycoon has fallen below characters like Ganyu and Xiao, Diluc now is distinctly one of the easiest heavy hitters to use. After all, there isn't much of a placement issue for his attacks (outside of aiming his burst) and there isn't an HP gimmick tied to any of his talents. Truly, his talents are among the easiest to master in the Genshin Impact.
Ganyu (26/335)
The secretary of the Liyue Qixing's placement on this list should really not come as a surprise to most Genshin Impact fans. After all, Ganyu doesn't place at the top of DPS characters for nothing.
RELATED: Genshin Impact: Mistakes Players Make When Using Ganyu
Ganyu's charged shots are massive, hitting multiple opponents with high Cryo damage. And of course, Ganyu also feeds off of her high critical hit rate and damage, often hitting critical hits half to one hundred percent of the time.
Ayaka (27/342)
Surely, Ayaka must seem like a strange character to find here. After all, Ayaka's playstyle centers almost purely on using her sprint. However, a peculiarity of Ayaka's is that her damage doesn't primarily derive from her elemental skill or burst, but rather from her normal attacks.
In fact, her charged attack has more potential for damage than most other Genshin Impact characters (suffice for maybe Keqing.) And this comes at the benefit that her charged attack also works against crowds, multiplying her total damage by the number of opponents hit.
Eula (27/342)
Few characters fit into the heavy hitter category quite as well as Eula does. Her normal attacks do massive amounts of damage and her ultimate is well-known for precisely timed shots that also do massive damage.
In addition, Eula makes for one of the most suitable physical DPS characters. Her normal attacks are actually fairly high damage-wise compared to even her own elemental potential. This can make for some interesting team compositions for Eula, given that she doesn't need to rely on a catalyst for her reactions.
Xiao (27/349)
Frankly, many looking at Xiao may question whether he is a heavy hitter or not. However, based on damage alone, Xiao most certainly qualifies as a heavy hitter (should the player avoid a few major mistakes.)
However, the Yaksha makes for a heavy hitter with the quirk that he doesn't lose agility per se, but rather he increases in vulnerability (via karma) and has high cooldowns. Players should be aware of this when choosing strategies for Xiao.
NEXT: Genshin Impact: Easter Eggs And Hidden Details You May Have Missed
