As a DPS, she can work as both an on-field DPS and Burst DPS. As a support, she can easily equip the Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (TTDS) book for buffing or Prototype Amber for healing. Plus she fits into all Geo teams as a battery. Ningguang can basically slot into multiple teams and roles. Still, she’s not a must-build. Oftentimes, there’s simply a better unit or alternative to her slot in these teams. She’s not among the top DPS or supports in-game. So it’s only recommended to build Ningguang if you’re especially fond of playing her.
Pros & Cons
Ningguang Strengths
Ningguang’s burst and normal/charged attacks have a significant range that can home opponents. This is best against flying and very mobile opponents — like the Golden Wolflord and Specters. And it makes her a great driver for off-field abilities. For instance, Beidou’s burst only triggers its Electro discharges when the active character’s normal or charged attacks hit an opponent. Thanks to Ningguang’s long-range and homing abilities, she can almost always guarantee a hit – thus reliably triggering Beidou’s burst. Ningguang can easily fit into multiple roles. As a DPS, she can work as both an on-field DPS and Burst DPS. As an on-field DPS, she stays on-field dealing damage – which includes performing a combo of normal/charged attacks, skill, and burst. Plus she can also act as a driver for units with off-field abilities like Xingqiu, Beidou, and Xiangling. As a Burst DPS, Ningguang only goes on-field to cast her skill and burst – both of which deal a quick instance of damage. This build is mainly relevant for quickswap teams. This is a team where you quickly swap between characters and cast their abilities off cooldown. Ningguang also works as a support. She offers some utility that can be used in multiple teams – such as healing through the Prototype Amber weapon, energy regeneration through her skill, and buffing through the Thrilling Tales of Dragons Slayers (TTDS) book. Ningguang’s multiple build options let her fit into a variety of teams. As a DPS, she doesn’t rely on reactions to deal damage, so it’s easy to slot most supports into her teams. Some units are definitely better than others (Like Zhongli and Albedo), but most of them work. Plus she’s a good candidate for Double Geo teams. Pairing her with another Geo unit like Zhongli, Albedo, or Geo Traveler can easily enable Geo Resonance – which basically gives teamwide buffs. This also works for her support builds, thus letting her provide plenty of utility for your teams.
Ningguang Weaknesses
Ningguang is mainly single-target. Her constellations do add a bit of AOE, but most of her attacks are single-target oriented – they only cover a really small AOE. This makes her very unfavorable against AOE content. To compete with other AOE-oriented DPS units, Ningguang would need to deal X times the amount of her current damage – X being the number of opponents. Ningguang can be mechanically challenging to play because of her clunky normal/charged attack animations and Geo construct. Her charged attacks (CA) deal notably more damage than her normal attacks (NA), so it’s very important in her attack combos as an on-field DPS. However, performing CA’s consumes a lot of stamina – thus needing proper stamina management. Plus, her NA and CA attack animations are relatively long, so it’s also important to perform animation cancels to maximize her damage. This includes holding forward to cancel her NA animations and standing still during her CA animations. Additionally, proper placement and usage of her skill’s Geo construct are pretty valuable. Passing through her Jade Screen provides a 12% Geo damage bonus for 10s. This can effectively buff her and her Geo teammates’ damage. So it’s useful to have it on-field and not be easily destroyed upon cast. As a battery, it’s also important to know that her skill can only generate energy particles every 6s. This means that casting her skill consecutively within 6s will only generate 1 set of particles. So you need to wait for 6s to generate 1 set of particles per cast – thus making her feel clunky to play.
Are Ningguang’s Constellations Good?
Ningguang has good constellations that buff her damage and slightly improve her gameplay. It’s generally recommended to pull for her constellations if you play her as a DPS. This is because getting her C1-C5 effectively brings you closer to C6 – her largest damage gain. But, in a support build, her constellations aren’t important. Still, you’ll naturally get her constellations while pulling in gacha banners – so here’s a closer look at each one.
C1: Piercing Fragments
When a normal attack hits, it deals AOE damage. Her normal attacks have relatively low multipliers, so it doesn’t deal a significant portion of her damage. But this is still a small damage gain. Getting C1 is more of a steppingstone toward her next constellations.
C2: Shock Effect
When Jade Screen is shattered, its CD resets. This can only occur once every 6s. Being able to cast her skill twice serves as a direct damage boost. Plus it lets you recast her skill when it’s immediately shattered. And when used properly, it can also serve as an extra source of Geo energy particles – this reduces Ningguang and her teammates’ energy requirements.
C3: Majesty Be the Array of Stars
Increases her elemental burst talent level by 3. C3 increases her burst damage multipliers. It’s a good damage gain, especially in a Burst DPS build.
C4: Exquisite be the Jade, Outshining All Beneath
Jade Screen increases nearby characters’ elemental resistance by 10%. This very slightly increases your characters’ survivability – but it’s generally unnecessary.
C5: Invincible Be the Jade Screen
Increases her elemental skill talent level by 3. Like C3, this simply increases her skill damage multipliers. Her skill isn’t a massive portion of her damage, but it’s still a decent damage gain.
C6: Grandeur Be the Seven Stars
When Ningguang casts her burst, she gains 7 Star Jades. This is her most significant damage gain. Performing a charged attack after her burst launches the 7 Star Jades. C6 is a great constellation – and it’s a highly recommended pull for Ningguang Mains.
The Widsith vs. Solar Pearl on Ningguang
The Widsith and Solar Pearl are similar at Refinement Rank 1. Solar Pearl is more reliable because of its guaranteed damage gain, while The Widsith has an extra layer of RNG for its buffs – one of which is completely useless for Ningguang. Because of this, Solar Pearl is generally the more consistent and safe option. However, it’s much easier to get Widsith refinements since it’s a gacha weapon – and Widsith with higher refinements does outperform Solar Pearl. So it’s recommended to just use whichever one has higher refinements. And if they have the same refinement rank, then Solar Pearl is generally better.
