How to make Barbara a DPS in Genshin Impact

Barbara is often viewed as a simple Support character whose role is outshined by nearly any other healer. Her role as a DPS requires some setup but there are a few ways to go about it. The sets, weapons, and teammates are optional but for the most effectiveness, there will be some recommendations for the Barbara mains wanting to explore each option.

Vaporize Build

Barbara has a unique Charged Attack that has a very high scaling. With no Talent Level investment, this does 166 percent damage and at Talent Level 10, the damage scaling increases to 316 percent.

Artifacts

With the Wanderer's Set four piece set, Barbara's Charged Attacks do an additional 35 percent damage as well as giving her an additional 80 Elemental Mastery. This can make her Charged Attacks do as much as 351 percent.

Utilizing this set for a Vaporize build is advisable as Vaporize is the only Hydro Reaction that is capable of dealing Crit Damage. This makes characters that deal passive pyro damage the best when paired with Barbara.

Stats should prioritize Crit Rate, Crit Damage, and Attack or Attack% as this will be the main source of Barbara's damage. Attack%, Hydro Damage, and either Crit Rate or Crit Damage spread among the Goblet, Sands, and Crown are the recommended focus. If possible, the Crit Rate and Crit Damage should have a one-third split between them.

Weapons

• Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds - The preferred Five Star weapon for its increase to Elemental Damage with a decent Crit Rate bonus.
• The Widsith - The preferred Four Star weapon for it's ability to increase either Attack, Elemental Mastery, or Elemental Damage with a great Crit Damage bonus.
• Royal Grimoire - The Attack buff from this Four Star weapon gives a nice boost to Barbara's damage and has the ability to stack Crit Rate. Its situational but a good choice for those who have it.
• Dodoco Tales - This Catalyst increases Attack when Barbara does Charged Attacks but does nothing for Crit Rate or Crit Damage. It is useful if Barbara's Crit ratios are strong enough with just her substats.

Team And Rotation

There are some teammates that make Barbara especially powerful when paired together. Characters can be swapped out for others but for the highest damage potential, Bennett and Sucrose are recommended.

Bennett's Burst will increase everyone's Attack based on his own Base Attack while within the circle. Surcrose's Passive makes it so upon proccing Swirl on Barbara's attacks, her Elemental Mastery is increased 50. Additionally, Sucrose hits an enemy with her Elemental Skill, all party members gain 20 percent of her own Elemental Mastery.

The idea is to have another Pyro character, such as Xiangling, using their Burst within Bennett's Inspiration Field, and having Sucrose use her Elemental Skill before switching to Barbara to spam Charged Attacks. The amount that Vaporize does will depend on whether she crits or not and can reach six digit numbers relatively easily.

Related: How to get Barbara’s Summer Skin in Genshin Impact

Freeze Build

There are a few ways to play around with builds that utilize Barbara's attacks in unique ways. Her Elemental Mastery becomes more important if focusing on Reactions, but her Crit Damage is just as important in a Freeze team composition.

Artifacts

There is a lot of room to swap things around with this sort of build as it can be played for Freeze, Vaporize, or Electro Charged teams.

Focusing on Barbara's Attack, Hydro Damage, and Crit Damage is the main priority as teams utilizing Freeze will have two Cryo characters for their resonance. This will increase Crit Rate by 15 percent when damaging frozen enemies or enemies affected by Cryo.

Shimenawa's Reminiscence

Shimenawa's Reminiscence is a good choice for Freeze builds as the increase to Charged Attacks is easy to acquire. The increase is 50 percent and only requires Barbara to have more than 15 Energy after using her Elemental Skill. The two piece Attack increase only adds to her damage capabilities and is a welcome bonus.

Heart of Depth

Heart of Depth increases Charged Attacks as well and its two piece increases Barbara's Hydro Damage by 15 percent. Her Normal and Charged Attacks are increased after using her Elemental Skill but the bonus is only 30 percent.

Mix And Match

A two piece Gladiator's Finale and two piece Shimenawa's Reminiscence will increase Barbara's Attack by 36 percent, making them both useful options for her. Alternatively, players can instead use a two piece Heart of Depth for the Hydro Damage Bonus and pair it with either Gladiator's or Shimenawa's for the additional buff.

Weapons

Because Crit Damage is used again for this build, the same weapons used in the Vaporize build are recommended.

Electro Charged Build

Using Electro Charged makes use of Barbara's short Internal Cooldown for causing Elemental Reactions. Focusing entirely on her Elemental Mastery, Barbara's Charged Attacks are never used.

Artifacts

Wanderer's Troupe's two piece is very important for the increase in Elemental Mastery, but even the Instructor set can be put to good use. Other stats have little importance as Barbara's main source of damage will be based on Reactions.

Electro Charged damage is based entirely on Elemental Mastery and isn't capable of critting. Barbara should be the one making these Reactions because if the Wet status is already applied on a character before Electro is applied, the damage will instead be based on the Electro character's Elemental Mastery.

While it might be hard to find an Elemental Mastery Goblet, Sands, and Crown of the same set, set bonuses won't matter nearly as much for this build.

Team And Function

The best applicator for Electro is Beidou, Lisa, and Fischl. The key to making Reactions work is to make sure that Electro is applied BEFORE using Barbara's Normal Attacks so that the damage is based on her Elemental Mastery.

Lowering the enemy's Elemental Resistance with an Anemo character using the four piece Viridescent Venerer bonus is advised. Sucrose raises the Elemental Mastery of characters after using her Elemental Skill but any Swirl applicator works.

Against single targets that do not have the Electro aura, Barbara's Elemental Skill may be used to apply Wet in between another character's Normal Attacks. Although she isn't the active character, the damage is based on Barbara's Elemental Mastery so long as her Skill's Aura is applied after.

Weapons

• The Widsith - Despite having a Crit Damage bonus, this Four Star Catalyst's ability to increase Elemental Mastery shouldn't be underestimated for this build.
• Sacrificial Fragments - The Elemental Mastery from this Catalyst is perfect for this build but the chance to reset Barbara's Elemental Skill can come in handy in certain situations.
• Mappa Mare - The Elemental Mastery bonus makes this a good choice for this build but it's other effect has little use.

Related: How to get Barbara for free in Genshin Impact

Hyper DPS Healer

This build makes Barbara's entire kit valuable and makes use of what player's already know how to do; Heal.

Artifacts

Ocean Hued Clam causes a Bubble to appear that deals Physical Damage once it pops. The damage is based on how much healing the character does but caps out at 30k HP. It deals 90 percent of this healing as damage, up to 27k, but this number can be higher if the enemy is affected by Super Conduct.

Because Barbara's healing is based entirely on her HP, artifacts should focus on raising this as high as possible. This shouldn't be any different than how most people build Barbara and makes her deal tons of healing while now also dealing plenty of damage.

Team Members

This Barbara works best on a Super Conduct team. Characters like Lisa, Beidou, and Fischl can use their Burst and swap to a Cryo applicator. Super Conduct teams are great for Physical Damage DPS characters such as Eula, Rosaria, and Razor. Rosaria in particular has a Burst that can be activated and swapped.

When a character is affected by Super Conduct, either Barbara or a Physical Damage character can come out to take full advantage of the lowered Physical Resistance of the enemies.

Weapons

• Everlasting Moonglow - The preferred Catalyst for this build. Increasing Barbara's HP will increase her healing and the bonus from this weapon also builds Energy, Healing Effectiveness, and even Normal Attack Damage.
• Prototype Amber - Another HP Catalyst than increases Energy. This weapon also causes team members to heal a percentage of their HP over six seconds.

For more Genshin Impact guides, check out Heart of Depth Artifact Set: Stats, how to get, and who can use it in Genshin Impact on Pro Game Guides.