Hu Tao was my first 5 star featured character on genshin impact, and to this day, I still use her quite a bit. I pulled her from her first banner ever (she's only had 1 rerun so far.) In the story, she runs a funeral and likes to play pranks on people. I love her personality, she's super cute and a very cheerful person. She also likes to sing little songs. This post will kinda be a guide on her and I'll be showing my personal Hu Tao team, my damage and share some tips about her.
Hu Tao is an SS+ tier main dps, she uses the element pyro and is a polearm user. Her playstyle is very simple and fun. Most of her damage comes from her elemental skill, which infuses her attacks with pyro damage.
This is the team I usually run with my Hu Tao. She doesn't really need a healer as her ult heals herself and xingqiu does a little bit of healing for the rest of the team if you need it. I could honestly switch xiangling here with someone else like the character Kazuha, but I don't have him. But xiangling is still very helpful here as she provides pyro resonance and is a good pair with xingqiu, they do a lot of damage together. Zhongli is good with every team, but he's especially helpful with Hu Tao as she needs a shield to protect her. This is because she's usually low in health, (Her E takes some of her health) and lower health makes her do more damage. Thus, a shield character is a must when playing with Hu Tao.
To optimize her damage, you want to focus on charged attacks. This is an example of the damage I did with Zhonglis shield, and Xingqius Vaporize. Here she does nearly 50k dmg per charged attack which is very strong. Xinqiu provides constant hydro application which helps to proc vaporize and multiply her damage. Xiangling would just provide extra off-field damage, and if you have her c6 like I do, she can also provide Hu Tao 15% more pyro damage.
I double crowned Hu Tao as she's been my main dps for awhile. I left her ult at level 9 as you really wont be using this much unless your Hu Tao needs healing. Keep in mind that this may reduce her damage output if she heals too much. So you generally want to keep her health low. However, Hu Tao's ult can do a lot of damage. My ult does over 100k with my usual team. Before using her ult make sure shes very low in health so it can do a lot of damage. As you can see from this passive talent, if her HP is less than 50% she gains more pyro dmg bonus.
4 pc crimson witch is Hu Tao's best set (However, 4pc Shimenawa's Reminiscence could also be good, but I don't like that her energy is sacrificed, although this isn't really a big issue with this character as she doesn't need her ult much) You need HP% / Pyro DMG / CRIT Rate. HP% is very different from usual DPS which usually needs ATK% time piece. This is because Hu Tao scales off HP and her base atk is very low. So you need HP% instead of ATK%. Try to aim for over 30k HP, my Hu Tao has 33k and her atk goes up to nearly 3.5k while E is active.
I use the BP weapon Deathmatch. This would probably be her best 4 star weapon. However, when Hu Tao gets her next rerun I'm planning to wish for her signature 5 star weapon, Staff of Homa. This is because it's one of the best polearms and is universal for every polearm character because it's really good. This will be my first time wishing on the featured weapon banner, but it will be worth it. Other ftp weapons you could go for on Hu Tao are Blackcliff or Dragon’s Bane. And if you have any 5 star polearms, it will be better on her.
These are my overall stats on Hu Tao. The low ER isn't a problem, because she doesn't really need this. I'm satisfied with my crit dmg, however I would be happier with a bit more crit rate. Although 63% isn't bad, more is always better for consistent dmg. However, the pyro domain wasn't very nice to me, so I will just have to leave it like this for now.
There have been some rumors that she'll get her 2nd rerun very soon, I hope they're true so I can finally get her 5 star weapon, staff of homa. Anyways, Hu Tao is waving everyone goodbye (:
All gifs from https://scarasmooches.tumblr.com/
All screenshots taken by me from the game Genshin Impact
🌸🌸~Thanks for reading!!~🌸🌸