Performing animation cancels is very important for maximizing damage. Without it, she will deal significantly less damage and feel more clunky to play. Uncancelled charged attacks can greatly displace her away from opponents. And sprinting to reposition her consumes more stamina on top of her charged attacks – and having zero stamina makes it impossible to dodge opponents’ attacks through dashing. Still, Hu Tao is an incredibly strong DPS. A bit of practice is enough to make her a viable unit against single-target content. This also makes mastering her animation cancels feel especially rewarding. Note: This is based on meta only. If you like Hu Tao regardless of her power level, don’t let this stop you from pulling her.
Pros & Cons
Hu Tao Strengths
Hu Tao is an incredibly strong single-target DPS – enough that she’s the strongest one there is. Both her skill and burst lets her deal a significant amount of damage within short windows. And even at C0, she’s an amazing unit for speedrunning content. Although she’s single-target oriented, she can work against some AOE content. It does require grouping and proper positioning, but it’s viable. A well-built Hu Tao will clear small AOE content even if it’s not her specialty. Power budget refers to how spread out a character’s strength is in their kit. Most of Hu Tao’s power budget is in her elemental skill. This lets her comfortably deal damage without worrying about charging her burst. Every 16s, Hu Tao can dish out a massive amount of damage without any energy restraints. Even then, her burst cost is only 40 energy. This makes it incredibly easy to charge and cast often. Hu Tao gains 33% Pyro damage bonus when she’s below 50% HP. Pairing her with a healer can overheal her past 50% HP – which is a damage loss. Fortunately, Hu Tao’s elemental burst has built-in healing, so she’s perfectly functionally even without a healer. Her burst’s healing is also perfectly suited for her kit. It’s enough to maintain good survivability while staying below 50% HP. Plus, she’s always paired with Xingqiu – his rain swords provide additional micro-healing that often won’t overheal Hu Tao past 50%. Hu Tao’s C1 is among the strongest constellations in-game. C1 makes it so charged attacks during her skill consume zero stamina – this is both a massive quality-of-life and damage boost. It solves most of her stamina issues and makes her much easier to play. Plus it lets Hu Tao comfortably perform dash cancels instead of jump cancels. This is a faster form of animation cancel. It’s basically a damage gain since she can fit more charged attacks within her skill duration.
Hu Tao Weaknesses
Hu Tao is mechanically challenging to play – she requires animation cancels to deal favorable damage. Animation cancels can greatly smoothen her gameplay, so it’s especially important if you want to optimally play Hu Tao. This takes a good amount of practice. Jump cancels are best for a C0 Hu Tao, while dash cancels are recommended for a C1 Hu Tao. Hu Tao’s skill drains a portion of her HP, and her charged attacks cost a lot of stamina. Since Hu Tao often stays below 50% HP, she’s more vulnerable to getting one-shot by opponents or just dying quickly. She can dodge enemy attacks through dashing, but dashing consumes stamina – thus making stamina management even more relevant. Since Hu Tao’s charged attacks also consume a lot of stamina, so she’s likely to run out of stamina during or after her skill. Basically, paying attention to her stamina and HP is quite important. Xingqiu is Hu Tao’s most important teammate – he’s basically irreplaceable unless you have a C2 Yelan. However, Xingqiu is a highly contested unit that most teams and characters want. So if you play Hu Tao, you can’t play any teams/characters that use Xingqiu. This can often be solved by simply using other Hydro units. Still, most Hydro alternatives are limited 5-star characters – it’s unlikely for newer or early-game players to have them.
Are Hu Tao’s Constellations Worth It?
Hu Tao’s most notable and significant constellation is her C1 — and yes it’s very much worth pulling. This is a massive quality-of-life and damage boost that completely solves her stamina issues. It’s among the strongest constellations in-game, and it’s highly recommended for players that enjoy playing Hu Tao. C1 is a good place to stop pulling for constellations. But if you intend to pull for more, here’s a closer look at Hu Tao’s constellations.
C1: Crimson Bouquet
During her skill, Hu Tao’s charged attacks no longer consume stamina. It’s a very strong constellation both mechanically and in terms of damage.
C2: Ominous Rainfall
Increases Hu Tao’s Blood Blossom damage by 10% of her max HP. Her burst also now applies the Blood Blossom effect. This is a damage boost, but it’s insignificant. It’s simply never recommended to pull for C2.
C3: Lingering Carmine
Increases her elemental skill talent by 3. This increases the HP to ATK conversion of her skill and buffs her Blood Blossom damage. It’s a damage gain but not by a lot.
C4: Garden of Eternal Rest
Upon defeating an opponent affected by a Blood Blossom, all nearby allies (except Hu Tao) gain 12% CRIT rate for 15s. It lets Hu Tao buff her teammates, which is appreciated but not needed – you should still build the standard amount of CRIT rate on her teammates. She also doesn’t gain any extra damage from this constellation.
C5: Floral Incense
Increases her elemental burst talent by 3. This is a decent damage buff for her burst, but it’s not a significant increase in total DPS.
C6: Butterfly’s Embrace
When Hu Tao drops below 25% HP or suffers a lethal strike, she won’t die. Instead, she gains buffs for 10s – namely, elemental and Physical resistance increase, 100% CRIT rate, and increased resistance to interruption. This effect also triggers when Hu Tao has 1 HP remaining. It can occur every 60s. C6 is a strong but inconsistent constellation – when active, its effects can effectively double her total DPS within that 10s window. But it’s only realistic for speedrun showcases. This is when you actively trigger its effects to deal a significant amount of damage for a few seconds. A C6 Hu Tao isn’t built any differently from a C0 Hu Tao. You will occasionally get its 100% CRIT rate buff, but you should still build 70%+ CRIT rate on Hu Tao. C6 simply isn’t reliable enough to ignore her CRIT rate.
Staff of Homa vs C1 Hu Tao
For players especially fond of playing Hu Tao, C1 is the better pull. It makes her feel smoother and more comfortable to play. This also lets her perform more charged attacks – which is also a damage gain. Staff of Homa is an equally great pull but not only for Hu Tao. If you’re already satisfied with C0 Hu Tao’s gameplay, Homa is the better option. It’s a guaranteed damage gain, and you don’t have to re-learn animation cancels. Plus, Homa works really well with every DPS polearm unit. It can essentially buff every polearm DPS that you use. Here’s a more detailed comparison of the two:
Double Geo vs VV Vape Hu Tao
Double Geo is Hu Tao’s most popular team, while VV Vape is her strongest team. Double Geo is generally composed of:
Hu Tao Xingqiu Zhongli And Albedo
This team mostly relies on the effects of Geo Resonance to buff their damage — it’s very easy to play. It’s a highly recommended team because of its ease of use. VV Vape is composed of:
Hu Tao Xingqiu Kazuha/Sucrose And Thoma/Amber/Yanfei
This team is significantly harder to play. It has strict rotations needed to maximize the team’s damage — so it’s less recommended for most players.
Does Yelan Work with Hu Tao?
Generally, yes. Although there are still teams where Yelan’s Hydro application isn’t enough to keep up with Hu Tao – like Double Geo. In these instances, it’s best to use both Xingqiu and Yelan in a single team instead. A C2 Yelan also solves this problem. C2 gives her additional Hydro application that’s enough to keep up with Hu Tao’s Pyro. But at C0, Yelan can’t effectively replace a C6 Xingqiu for Hu Tao.
