In this blog post, I will introduce a Genshin Impact team I came up with myself, which I call Postmodern Xiao.

Even though I came up with the team comp myself, it is highly unlikely that I am the first person to come up with it The reason for that is twofold:

1. I started playing the game a year after it came out (near the end of version 2.2, to be precise).
2. All the characters required for the team were there at release (i.e. version 1.0 of the game), or were released a few patches later (Xiao was the last character to be released out of all everyone in the team, but even he was released in version 1.3).

Because of this, there was a long period of time during which other players would have most likely arrived at the same conclusions I did.

However, since this team comp is not explicitly mentioned on the Keqing Mains page for Xiao, I decided to take the opportunity to talk about a personal favorite team comp of mine.

Why Is It Called “Postmodern Xiao”?

The name is a nod to Xiao’s most popular team comp, which I like to call Classic Xiao:

As the above image shows, the team consists of Jean, Zhongli, Xiao, and Albedo.

The idea behind this team is quite simple. Jean is there to provide healing, Zhongli is there for interrupt resistance, and Albedo is there for strong off-field Geo damage. Xiao, of course, is the star of the show and the main DPS of the team.

The team comp I (independently) discovered is the next-generation evolution of the Classic Xiao team comp, hence the name.

So far, the explanation explains the reason I wanted to move past the Classic part of the team name, but not why I settled upon Postmodern.

The reason for that is a bit geeky: A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away), I was reading Rainer Grimm’s post on C++20, where discussed the new features that were coming with the update.

In that blog post, he has a section dedicated to naming the new generation of C++ updates:

Okay, we should give the new child a name, because the existing C++ standards have all informal names.

• Legacy C++: C++98, and C++03
• Modern C++: C++11, C++14, and C++17
• <To be filled>: C++20, C++23 …

This name discussion is difficult.

The blog post goes on to say

You see, there is a slight tendency to postmodern. Maybe, you have a better idea.

which is where I got the idea for the word Postmodern from!

Who Is In The Team?

This team consists of, in no particular order,

1. Sucrose
2. Zhongli
3. Xiao
4. Albedo

Team Ordering: An Aside

When I started playing the game, I had the Traveler as slot 1. Then, I got my first 5-star, Keqing, whom I put in slot 3. Obviously, Keqing functions as a better DPS than the Traveler, so I eventually ended up training myself to gravitate towards slot 3 whenever I wanted to use my team’s DPS.

Because of the teams I used in my early days, the character’s function became synonymous with the meaning of the slot number. As another example, I put Xiangling in slot 1 in my early teams, so slot 1 became synonymous with a sub-DPS slot for me.

For the sake of completeness, here are the 4 team slots and what they mean for me:

1. The sub-DPS or healer slot. It used to be solely a sub-DPS slot until I started using classic Xiao. In my early days, Jean used to act as both a healer and a sub-DPS, which is where it got its secondary meaning.
2. The burst support slot. The characters slotted here are solely used for their Elemental Skill and/or Bursts.
3. The DPS slot. Always, without fail.
4. This slot is for supports and off-field damage dealers. Basically, characters who come on-field for a short amount of time.

What Are The Builds?

Sucrose

In just about every other team Sucrose is slotted in, she uses the Viridescent Venerer (VV) artifact set. Well, not here!

The VV set makes sense in reaction-based team comps, because of its big res. shred. However, VV does not reduce the enemies’ Anemo resistance (because Anemo cannot swirl itself), so putting that on her would waste an artifact slot that could potentially buff the DPS of the team.

We cannot use the Tenacity of the Millelith set because another character is using the set already, and its description states that the 4-piece bonus cannot be stacked. The classic answer to the question of “What other buffing artifact set is there?” is the Noblesse Oblige set.

A small thing to note here is that Noblesse Oblige will work best if the enemies can be cleared in 1 rotation or so, because we aren’t really feeding particles back to Sucrose with the rotations in this team comp, so getting her burst back will be a bit of an issue. This is not so much of an issue in the overworld, but it can make a difference in the Spiral Abyss.

Sucrose is the only character whose weapon is fixed: She must use Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (TTDS) for its massive 48% ATK buff to the character who comes on-field next.

Zhongli

The standard artifact set to put on him, assuming that your Zhongli has enough HP to be an effective shielder, is the Tenacity of the Millelith set.

The 4-piece set bonus grants a +20% ATK bonus when the wearer’s Elemental Skill (E for short, since that is the default keybinding on PC), so it’s good for Xiao too.

Xiao

Strictly speaking, Xiao here will have the same build he would have in the Classic Xiao team comp. This means that any artifact set whose 2-piece grants an ATK boost works, and farming for Vermillion Hereafter (VH), his Best in Slot (BiS) is not really required.

Accounting for average substat rolls, VH offers a 5-10% damage increase over 2x 2-piece combinations. For a full-fledged discussion on what artifacts to use on Xiao, refer to Keqing Mains’ Xiao guide.

Albedo

The only acceptable artifact set on Albedo is the Husk of Opulent Dream set. The set was tailor-made for DEF-scaling characters such as Albedo.

Technically, Albedo is a split-scaling character because his E scales of off DEF but his Q scales off ATK. However, his E constitutes most of his damage output and not his Q. For this reason, the general advice given is to just ignore his dependence on ATK and just stack as much DEF as possible.

Warning: While you are free to put the characters in whatever slots you want, you are strongly advised against placing Albedo in the first slot in the Spiral Abyss. If he is in Slot 1, then he spawns with 0 Curiosity stacks from the Husk set’s 4-piece bonus. This means that you are losing out on a grand total of a 24% DEF bonus and a 24% Geo Damage bonus. However, if he is in any other slot, he spawns with all 4 stacks.

Albedo’s weapon is essentially fixed, but only because of how good his signature 4-star event weapon, the Cinnabar Spindle, is on him, with a 69% DEF bonus at level 90 and refinement rank 5 (R5 for short).

If you don’t have Cinnabar Spindle for some reason, Harbinger of Dawn also works well on him.

How Do The Characters Function?

Sucrose

Sucrose mainly acts as a support, using her Elemental Burst (Q for short because that is the default keybinding on PC) to activate the 4-piece Noblesse Oblige buff.

Extra care must be taken to make sure to slot her in before Xiao so that he gets the TTDS ATK buff.

Zhongli

Since this is an F2P (Free 2 Play) friendly team, Zhongli is expected to be C2 at most. In this case, he functions as a shield bot/burst support.

There are a couple layers to his use.

The first thing to consider is whether his Q will be used or not. This mostly depends on how optimally one wants to play Zhongli: It is a well-known fact that using Zhongli’s Q if he is pre-C2 is a DPS loss for the team due to its long animation. If he is C2, then using his Q automatically gives you the shield, thus saving valuable time and making his Q viable from a DPS standpoint.

If damage output is of the utmost priority, then Zhongli can only be used as a shield bot. However, if you like the (occasionally) big numbers that he outputs with his Q, and the Petrification feature of his burst, then you can use him as a burst support.

The other aspect to keep in mind is his E usage, i.e. his Stone Stele placement. This can be a little tricky to get right at C0, and slightly easier at C1 (because it allows you place 2 Steles instead of 1).

The 4-piece set bonus for the Tenacity of the Millelith set can only be activated if the Stele’s tick hits an opponent.

The other main feature that Zhongli has is his res. shred. He is a valuable source of Anemo res. shred, and the easiest one to get, considering the fact that the other options are things like Jean’s 4^th constellation.

Since Zhongli’s res. shred emanates from his jade shield, and has an approximate radius of 3 Abyss tiles, keeping the res. shred up for the duration of the shield shouldn’t be an issue.

Xiao

He is the DPS of the team. There isn’t anything special about the way he operates, and nothing to make a special note of.

Albedo

He deals off-field Geo damage via his E. Every once in a while, the player must switch to him to use his E and/or Q and then switch out.

That being said, in Abyss floors, I often stay on Albedo and proc his E with normal attacks to generate particles for him and Zhongli, for subsequent chambers. I find it easier to generate particles with him instead of Zhongli.

What Is The Rotation?

The rotation is very simple, if you keep all the little things mentioned in the previous sections in mind. There are two minor variations, and they have to do with how you prepared for the rotation.

Spiral Abyss Rotation

Assuming that we have no preparation and the characters are slotted in the order shown in the image, the rotation would be as follows:

1. Switch to Xiao so that he gets the TTDS buff.
2. Switch to Zhongli, do his E.
3. Switch to Albedo and place his E.
4. In Abyss, I like to do Albedo’s Q right off the bat, assuming it’s up.
5. Switch back to Zhongli and do his Q, if it’s up. The reason we don’t do his Q immediately is so that we can proc Albedo’s E and deal even more damage to the enemies.
6. Sucrose Q (bonus points if the Q picks up an element), Sucrose E.
7. Xiao E, E, and then Q. After that, we start plunging!

Overworld Rotation

In the overworld, I usually use Zhongli for moving around and climbing since he is a tall character. In this case, there is no danger of Sucrose’s TTDS buff going to the wrong character, since we have already prepared for the rotation.

1. Do Zhongli’s E.
2. Switch to Albedo and place his E.
3. Do Albedo’s Q if it’s up, and the enemies are worthy of its use.
4. Switch back to Zhongli and do his Q, if it’s up, and the enemies are worthy of its use.
5. Sucrose Q (bonus points if the Q picks up an element), Sucrose E.
6. Xiao E, E, and then Q. After that, we start plunging!

In general, however, the overworld is far more forgiving than the Spiral Abyss, so it’s not a big deal if you miss steps or just make up your own rotation.

Rotation Demonstration

Here is a video demonstrating the Spiral Abyss rotation in the game: