Qiqi is a strong healer, but she does have kit issues that make her perform much worse than Diona – so Diona is easily better than Qiqi. Qiqi’s kit revolves entirely around healing, and that’s her only ability. She does have stronger healing than Diona, but Diona’s additional utility makes her more valuable. Among many things, Diona can provide shields, increase movement speed, and generate a lot of energy particles. These are all very useful abilities that pull her ahead of Qiqi. To further explain, let’s take a look at their character value and how they perform in the two modes of Genshin Impact: Overworld (Exploration & Co-op) and Spiral Abyss (Meta). Note: All comparisons are made between a C6 Diona and C0 Qiqi.
In The Overworld
Exploration (Single-Player)
Diona outperforms Qiqi in exploration. Aside from her combat abilities, she has extra perks that work great when exploring – namely:
Increased movement speed – Her shield provides increased movement speed that is very accessible at a low cooldown. This lets you sprint across places much faster. Skill’s homing abilities – Diona’s skill can home both enemies and animals. This is especially useful when catching fowl and meat – it does most of the job for you.
Co-op (Multiplayer)
Co-op is a place where Qiqi’s strength in healing can shine. Diona still outperforms her, but the gap lessens. Because Co-op generates a lot of energy particles, most of Qiqi’s energy issues are solved. This essentially lets her cast her burst more often – aka a lot more healing, thus increasing the team’s survivability. Plus she can heal any nearby teammate. Unlike Diona, they don’t need to say within a circle to receive heals. Diona is also a great Co-op unit, especially at C2. With C2, she can now provide teamwide shields – including its benefits of increased movement speed and resistance to interruption. This is especially useful in content that needs or appreciates shields, like the Azdaha domain.
Spiral Abyss (Meta)
Particle Generation
Diona has strong particle generation, while Qiqi has none. This is one of Qiqi’s biggest kit issues. Her elemental skill doesn’t generate any energy particles, so she can’t effectively charge her own burst. In contrast, Diona has great particle generation – enough so that it’s her most used ability. This lets her function as a battery in multiple teams that use a Cryo unit. Plus, using a Sacrificial Bow or Favonius Bow – aka her best-in-slot weapons – can effectively double her energy particles.
Cleanse
Diona can cleanse elemental auras. Characters can obtain elemental auras – most of which act as debuffs during battle. To cleanse these auras, you can self-apply an elemental to trigger an elemental reaction. Diona’s elemental skill self-applies Cryo shortly after a shield is formed. This essentially lets her cleanse auras or debuffs off your characters. Qiqi doesn’t have this ability.
Team Compositions
Diona is a meta character that fits into a lot of top meta teams. In contrast, Qiqi doesn’t see much use in the Spiral Abyss. She is viable, but she’s never a recommended unit. Here’s a short TL;DR on who performs better in some of their best teams and why. Freeze teams are generally composed of:
2 Cryo units 1 Hydro unit 1 Anemo unit
The first Cryo unit is often the Main DPS, while the second one is a support or battery. Diona slots perfectly as the second unit. Her strong particle generation makes light work of charging the DPS unit’s burst. Plus, she has the extra defensive options of healing and shields. Because Qiqi doesn’t generate any particles, she simply can’t replace Diona in this role. Qiqi Taser is a very niche team. Here, Qiqi makes use of the 4-piece Ocean Hued Clam (4OHC) artifact set. 4OHC’s passive converts the user’s heals into additional damage – a maximum of 30,000 damage can be dealt per tick. Qiqi acts as the on-field DPS and Beidou’s driver.
Qiqi deals damage through the 4OHC set. At mid-investment, her strong healing can consistently reach the 30k damage ceiling per tick. This lets you build her as a Physical DPS instead of a pure healer – which further adds to her total DPS. 4OHC’s damage is also considered Physical damage, so it benefits from the Physical resistance shred, like superconduct reactions. Qiqi’s Cryo and Beidou’s Electro application can continuously proc this reaction, thus further increasing Qiqi’s damage. As Beidou’s driver, Qiqi’s fast normal attacks let her effectively drive or proc the discharges of Beidou’s burst.
Thanks to Qiqi’s excessive healing, she outperforms Diona in this team. Plus, Diona has little to no synergy here. Eula teams are usually composed of:
Eula 1 Cryo unit 1 Electro unit
Diona performs far better than Qiqi as the second Cryo unit. Her support abilities also synergize extremely well with Eula – namely, strong particle generation, shielding, and movement speed.
Her strong particle generation can effectively charge Eula’s burst. With a Sacrificial or Favonius Bow, she’s easily Eula’s best teammate. Diona’s shield greatly increases Eula’s resistance to interruption. This lets Eula continuously attack opponents without getting staggered and stops her from taking damage. Diona’s shield also increases Eula’s movement speed, thus letting her perform more normal attack combos.
In contrast, Qiqi has minimal synergy with Eula. The only utility she provides is healing and Cryo application. Healing is appreciated, but shielding is more important. Diona’s shield removes the need for dodging attacks – thus having more time to deal damage. Plus, Eula has no need for Qiqi’s Cryo application. Eula is already a Cryo unit that provides enough Cryo to trigger superconduct reactions. Basically, Qiqi’s never a recommended teammate. These are teams where one unit serves as the hypercarry. Hypercarries deal most of the team’s damage and spend the most time on-field. Diona and Qiqi’s role as a healer makes them viable in a lot of teams – hypercarry teams being one of them. But still, Diona pulls ahead of Qiqi here. She simply has a lot more utility. Qiqi will work, but she’s often not the best option.
Who Should You Build?
Diona is easily the better unit – and the recommended one to build. She’s a great character that can fill a lot of support roles and utilities into a single slot. This lets her effectively fit into multiple teams and perform perfectly fine in them. And at higher investment, she can function as a Zhongli replacement. Although she has a weaker shield, this is compensated by her heals – and all the other utilities she has in her kit and constellations. Basically, Diona is a great unit to have and build. She’s not a must-build, but the versatility that her kit provides is certainly useful in both the overworld and Spiral Abyss.
