The National Team is one of Genshin Impact‘s most popular as well as meta team compositions. It is mostly used in the Spiral Abyss for its massive damage output since the goal of the team is to trigger as many Elemental Reactions as possible. Even though the National Team has undergone a few changes and some new variations have been found, the National Team in Genshin Impact has core characters that should never be replaced.
The National Team was popularized by Genshin Impact‘s CN (Chinese) server, especially after they had also realized the potential of two of the team’s core members: Xiangling and Bennett. Xiangling and especially Bennett were seen by the Western community as low-tier characters until the CN community shed some light on how amazing these characters actually are, and the National Team developed over time from that revelation.
At its core, the National Team in Genshin Impact consists of Xiangling, Xingqiu, and Bennett. The fourth slot for this composition is a little flexible, but there are a couple of variations that are better and more effective than the rest. While some of these variations take investment and the usage of limited 5-star characters, there is also a free-to-play friendly version of the National Team that is easily accessible and should not be overlooked.
Genshin Impact’s Original Free-to-Play National Team
Genshin Impact‘s original National Team is loved by the community for its ease of access and how free-to-play friendly it is. This team consists of Xiangling, Xingqiu, Bennett, and Chongyun, all 4-star characters. Each character serves a specific role and specific build to enable the massive damage output that this team can accomplish. The goal of this team composition is to constantly trigger Vaporize, Melt, and Freeze reactions through the character’s Elemental Bursts and Elemental Skills.
Xiangling is an amazing character in Genshin Impact and serves as the driver for this team since her Elemental Burst, Pyronado, has huge damage scaling and a long uptime made even better by her Constellation 4 talent that increases the uptime of her Burst by 4 seconds. She also benefits from being a polearm user and can make use of the incredibly strong free-to-play polearm, The Catch. The Catch increases the damage and CRIT Rate of the wielder’s Elemental Burst by a large percentage, making it an extremely useful weapon. Xiangling is one of the best users of this weapon, but another 4-star weapon, Dragon’s Bane, is a solid contender for this team composition. She also greatly benefits from the 4-piece Crimson Witch of Flames Artifact set, since it increases the damage of Pyro reactions, and even more so from the Emblem of Severed Fate Artifact set, since it greatly increases the damage of her Elemental Burst.
Xingqiu is another staple of the National team since the utility and damage of his Elemental Burst cannot be overlooked or easily replaced. His Burst, Guhua Sword: Raincutter, will constantly launch Hydro swords at enemies when the on-field character uses Normal Attacks. This ability pairs greatly with Xiangling’s Pyronado to constantly trigger Vaporize reactions, resulting in large damage output. Xingqiu is another great user of the Emblem of Severed Fate Artifact set since a lot of his damage comes from his Elemental Burst. Xingqiu can also supply the team with small healing and damage reduction thanks to his Elemental Skill.
Bennett is the final irreplaceable Genshin Impact character of the National Team. Bennett is one of the best (if not the best) 4-star characters in the game due to his unmatched support capability. His Elemental Burst, Fantastic Voyage, places a small field on the ground that grants the character stepping on it a lot of healing as well as a massive attack buff based on his own base attack stat. Bennett is best combined with the 4-piece Noblesse Oblige Artifact set to give the rest of his team a 20% attack buff when he uses his Burst, further increasing the buff Fantastic Voyage provides and should also be given whatever sword a player has with the highest base attack stat since it is the only stat that is calculated into Bennett’s buff on his Burst. While a lot of 5-star weapons in Genshin Impact are best, like Aquilia Favonia, a good free-to-play option is the 4-star craftable sword Prototype Rancor since it has a fairly high base attack stat.
The final member of the original National team is Chongyun, who takes up the flexible spot. Chongyun is mostly used for his Elemental Skill, which creates a zone on the ground that converts any character in the zone’s Normal Attacks to Cryo damage. Since Xiangling’s Normal Attack animations are so quick, Xiangling can take advantage of Chongyun’s Elemental Skill to apply Cryo very quickly while she is on the field. This team combination involves quick rotations of Bennett’s burst, followed by Xiangling’s burst, Xingqiu’s burst, and Chongyun’s elemental skill. Then, Xiangling is typically left on the field to quickly use Normal Attacks to apply Cryo while her own Burst and Xingqiu’s Burst passively follow her. This results in extremely quick reactions of Vaporize, Melt, and Freeze, which results in a lot of damage in a quick amount of time.
Variations of Genshin Impact’s National Team
There are several characters that can take Chongyun’s flexible spot. Another free-to-play option is Sucrose, who can utilize the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer Artifact set to swirl Pyro and Hydro, giving Xiangling and Xingqiu a large damage boost. Tartaglia is also popular among the National Team, who takes the main on-field position and utilizes his Elemental Skill to attack enemies, all while being supported by Xiangling’s, Xingqiu’s, and Bennett’s Elemental Bursts to trigger Vaporize reactions.
However, another very popular version of the National team is the Raiden National team, which has the Raiden Shogun take Chongyun’s spot. The Raiden Shogun fits perfectly with the National team composition since she herself can provide Energy Recharge to the team, increase the damage of her team’s Elemental Bursts, and take the role of the on-field attacker herself with her own Elemental Burst. This National team constantly triggers Vaporize, Electro-charged, and Overload reactions, resulting in a lot of damage. And since the Raiden Shogun herself has massive damage potential, it could be considered an improvement over the original National team.
There have been many experiments with the National Team throughout the Genshin Impact player base, and a lot of them have found success in the Spiral Abyss. Any player that utilizes any variation of the National Team is sure to excel in clearing the Spiral Abyss. The damage output of the National Team is hard to match with other team compositions, and it is why it has stayed meta in Genshin Impact.
