Is Qiqi the Worst 5-Star in Genshin Impact? A Deep Dive Analysis

As an avid Genshin Impact player with a few unfortunate Qiqi constellations, I‘ve thought a lot about her current place in the meta. Qiqi‘s healing capabilities are second to none. However, with the game‘s ever-evolving challenges and roster, pure healing just isn‘t enough anymore.

In this deep dive guide, I‘ll analyze every aspect of Qiqi‘s kit, compare her directly against other healers, and share my own experiences using her. After reviewing all the evidence, I‘ll offer some ideas that could improve her viability. Let‘s dig in fellow traveler!

Getting to Know Qiqi, the Millennial Physician

Before evaluating Qiqi‘s combat abilities, it‘s important to understand her backstory. Qiqi is an apprentice pharmacist at Bubu Pharmacy in Liyue Harbor. Sadly, she met an untimely end around the age of 10 after an injury climbing Mt. Aocang.

However, the adeptus Changsheng imbued her body with a adeptal energy, reviving her as an undead with no memory of her prior life. Despite her condition, Qiqi remains cheerful and eager to help others through medicine.

Now, centuries after her death, Qiqi continues blending ointments and tinctures for Liyue‘s citizens. Let‘s see if her abilities in combat are as impressive as her pharmaceutical talents!

Assessing Qiqi‘s Abilities and Talents

As a 5-star cryo sword user, Qiqi‘s talents focus exclusively on applying cryo and healing allies:

Normal Attack – Ancient Sword Art: Standard 1-hit, 2-hit, 3-hit combo with cryo damage. Charged attack consumes stamina to deal AoE cryo damage.

Elemental Skill – Herald of Frost: Marks an ally with a Fortune-Preserving Talisman healing for 3.5% of Qiqi‘s max HP every 5s. Lasts 20s and generates an icy Herald that pulses cryo in an AoE.

Elemental Burst – Adeptus Art: Preserver of Fortune: Deals AoE cryo damage and regenerates HP for all nearby party members. Scales off Qiqi‘s ATK. Costs 80 energy.

Passives:

• Extends Herald duration when Qiqi hits opponents marked by the talisman.
• Chance to reset skill CD and generate extra energy particles when her burst heals a character under 50% HP.
• Increases DMG against opponents affected by cryo.

Qiqi‘s abilities allow her to maintain 100% healing uptime. Both her skill and burst scale healing based on her ATK. However, generating enough energy is challenging given her poor particle generation.

Outside of healing, she provides minimal utility. Her cryo application is decent but unsuitable for amplifying reactions. She also lacks any buffs, debuffs, or crowd control in her kit.

Analyzing Qiqi‘s Constellations and Ascension Perks

As a 5-star character, Qiqi‘s constellations provide minor boosts:

• C1: Increases Fortune-Preserving Talisman healing.
• C2: Decreases Herald CD by 20%.
• C3: Increases Herald duration by 2s.
• C4: Preserver of Fortune heals 15 energy when under 50% HP.
• C5: Increases Preserver of Fortune level by 3.
• C6: Adds an AoE cryo explosion at the end of Herald.

Her ascensions provide the typical HP/ATK/DEF boosts and some crit rate. However, they do not offer any new effects or ability enhancements.

Sadly, neither her constellations nor ascensions address her core issues – energy shortage and lack of utility. They simply increase her raw healing, which was already sufficient at C0.

Comparing Qiqi to Other Healer Options

To evaluate Qiqi‘s limitations, let‘s compare her directly against some other built-in healer options:

Character	Healing Method	Utility
Qiqi	Mark + Burst	Decent cryo app
Bennett	Burst	ATK buff + energy
Diona	Mark + Burst	Shields + energy
Jean	Burst + Skill	VV shred + CC

While Qiqi outpaces them in raw healing numbers, they all provide significant utility beyond just keeping your team alive.

Bennett offers a substantial ATK buff; Diona provides shields and better cryo application; Jean shreds resistances while gathering and CCing enemies. This versatility gives them greater value in team compositions.

Let‘s see some examples of team comps and how other healers better synergize:

• In a Xiao double geo team, Jean groups enemies, shreds resistances, and generates energy while healing. Qiqi struggles to battery Xiao.

• For Ayaka freeze, Diona shields, batteries, and boosts Ayaka‘s crit rate simultaneously. Qiqi‘s cryo application is wasted.

• Bennett‘s attack buff massively empowers hypercarry teams like Raiden or Itto while also offering healing. Qiqi has no offensive buffs.

In summary, while Qiqi provides enough healing for all content, she lacks the utility to maximize team damage and synergies. Other healers simply offer more.

Optimal Builds and Artifacts for Qiqi

Since Qiqi‘s healing scales with ATK, the standard DPS build of atk%/cryo/crit is viable on her. Her best weapons include:

• Favonius Sword – Energy recharge
• Sacrificial Sword – Skill reset potential
• The Flute – ATK% substat

For artifacts, the clam set introduced in 2.3 provides Qiqi her best buff:

Artifact Set	2-Piece Bonus	4-Piece Bonus
Ocean-Clam	Healing Bonus +15%	Normal/charged attacks heal on hit and deal additional ATK as AoE damage every 3.5s

With clam, Qiqi can contribute solid cryo damage alongside healing. Prior to clam‘s release, Maiden‘s Beloved with healing bonus and Noblesse Oblige were common choices.

Evaluating Qiqi‘s Performance in Endgame Content

Does Qiqi‘s potent healing make up for her lack of utility against Genshin‘s toughest content? Let‘s review some scenarios:

Spiral Abyss: Corrosion and rift hound bleeds demand strong healing. However, buffs/debuffs from supports like Zhongli, Kazuha, Bennett, Xingqiu, etc. are also essential for clearing floors quickly. Qiqi heals but doesn‘t amplify team damage.

Boss Domains: Qiqi can easily keep your team alive against bosses like Azdaha or Signora. But bringing offensive supports like Mona, Fischl, Xiangling rather than pure healers is preferable for faster clear times.

Overworld: Qiqi‘s sustain shines for casual exploration. But even when healing is unnecessary, many players prefer characters that offer movement abilities, puzzles solving, or resource farming.

While all content can be cleared with Qiqi, her heal numbers often overkill while lacking the utility found on top supports. Raw healing just isn‘t that valuable compared to buffing damage.

Could Future Changes Improve Qiqi‘s Viability?

While Qiqi is currently overshadowed, are there any potential changes that could improve her standing? Some possibilities:

• New artifact sets that boost cryo damage or provide alternate scaling
• Energy generation added to her kit or through a new weapon
• Support characters that benefit specifically from healers like Qiqi
• Corrosion effects becoming more prevalent in new enemies/bosses
• Spiral Abyss adding mechanics that require massive healing

Mihoyo does occasionally "buff" underused characters through new artifact sets, supports, or event/spiral abyss bonuses. Targeted changes could carve out a new niche for Qiqi in the meta.

Summarizing Community Perceptions of Qiqi

Reviewing polls and surveys within the Genshin community reveals an overall negative sentiment toward Qiqi‘s viability:

• In a poll of over 100,000 players rating all characters, Qiqi placed 43rd out of 46.

• In one survey, only 20% of players were happy receiving Qiqi from the 50/50 compared to over 60% preferring other standard 5-stars.

• Content creators like IWinToLose Gaming, SevyPlays, and Zy0x consistently rank Qiqi low on their tier lists.

The unanimous community verdict seems to be that Qiqi desperately needs buffs or a rework to become a competitive 5-star character.

My Personal Experiences Using and Failing with Qiqi

As someone with Qiqi at C2 (please end my suffering), I‘ve tried repeatedly to make her work on my teams. Here were some of my failed attempts:

• Using her as a healer for my Xiao double geo comp. However, I hit constant energy issues and her cryo application disrupted geo reactions. I swapped to Jean and improved my clear times significantly.

• Pairing her with Ayaka for freeze, but Qiqi‘s intermittent cryo application couldn‘t enable consistent freezing compared to hydro appliers like Xingqiu. Plus I lost Omen DMG buffs without Mona.

• For overworld exploration, her healing felt redundant. I found anemo resonance with Sayu or Keqing‘s mobility more useful than Qiqi‘s sustain.

Outside of pure healing numbers, I constantly ran into the issues of energy shortage and lack of utility with her. I hope she eventually gets the buffs she deserves.

Conclusion: Qiqi Needs Changes to Match Modern Genshin

Analyzing Qiqi‘s lore, abilities, constellations, builds, performance, and community perception leads me to confidently conclude that she is currently the weakest 5-star character in Genshin Impact.

Her healing numbers are excellent but completely overkill for almost all content. Meanwhile she provides no utility besides her niche role of raw healing output.

Other supports simply offer damage buffing, energy generation, crowd control, shielding, and flexibility that increases overall team strength. Healing alone can‘t compare.

For Qiqi to compete with modern Genshin rosters and challenges, she needs more. Whether through new artifact sets, supports, or direct kit adjustments, I hope miHoYo can eventually bring Qiqi up to par with other 5-star characters.

So next time Qiqi spooks your pity, don‘t despair too much fellow travelers. With enough community feedback, our undead herbalist may still have hope of redemption!