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Genshin Impact Diona build

Our Genshin Impact Diona build shows you how to master the mixology of this four-star cryo support, featuring her best weapons, artifacts, and more.

Genshin Impact Diona birthday art showing her smiling and holding up a flower crown

Genshin Impact’s Diona is a four-star cryo support, capable of keeping you shielded and topping your health up so you can live to fight another hilichurl. So let’s take a look at the best Diona build, including her weapons, artifacts, and more.

If you’re looking for an extra boost outside of what a Cat’s Tail cocktail can offer, check out our Genshin Impact codes for some sweet, sweet freemogems. We’ve also got a handy Genshin Impact tier list, along with guides to the next Genshin Impact banner, Genshin Impact update, and Genshin Impact events.

Here’s everything in our best Genshin Impact Diona build:

What’s the best Genshin Impact Diona build?

Diona is a four-star cryo bow-wielder. She’s best suited to the support role, and is capable of shielding, healing, and buffing her allies. This makes her a very valuable ally in many teams, condensing multiple roles into one slot.

Here’s a brief summary of our best Genshin Impact Diona build:

Rarity ★★★★
Element Cryo
Weapon Bow
Best weapon Favonius Warbow
Weapon substitutes
  • Sacrificial Bow
  • Elegy for the End
Best artifact set Maiden Beloved
Artifact substitutes Nobless Oblige
Main stats
  • Sands – HP%
  • Goblet – HP%
  • Circlet – HP%
Sub stats
  • Energy recharge
  • Crit rate (if using Favonius Bow)
  • HP%
  • HP

Favonius Warbow and Sacrificial Bow are tied as Diona’s best weapon, both offering her a much needed boost to her energy recharge. In terms of artifacts, we recommend a full set of Maiden Beloved to increase her healing capabilities, with a focus on energy recharge and HP as stats. For more details, check out the dedicated weapon and artifact sections below.

When leveling up her talents, we recommend upgrading her elemental burst and elemental skill at the same time. Her normal attacks deal very little damage and offer no real benefits, so you don’t need to worry about leveling those up if you don’t want to.

She’s relatively easy to build and has a simple skillset that condenses multiple roles into one slot, allowing you more flexibility in your team comps. She also works as a great cryo battery, and her constellations really boost her supporting power.

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How to use Diona

Diona’s skills are pretty simple and easy to master. Her normal attack damage is very low, so you shouldn’t rely on her as any form of damage dealer unless you’re trying an experimental build.

Instead, we generally recommend swapping to Diona and using Icy Paws (hold) as often as possible to keep her shield up, as it not only negates damage but also cleanses the shielded character of elemental effects and offers a movement buff. To increase efficiency, you can animation cancel after casting Icy Paws by either dashing or switching to another character.

When it comes to her burst, remember that she tosses the AoE onto an enemy. As such, it can be risky to charge into her healing circle with an un-shielded, low-HP character. So be sure to line up her skill and burst well, and find a comfortable rhythm in your rotation that suits both your team comp and playstyle.

What’s the best weapon for Diona?

When it comes to picking a weapon for Diona, Sacrificial Bow and Favonius Warbow are the strongest contenders. Favonius Warbow boosts Diona’s energy recharge through its base stat, while also allowing her to function as a battery for even non-cryo units through its elemental particle regeneration.

Sacrificial Bow is also a solid weapon for Diona. It has that handy energy recharge stat, while also providing her with more shield uptime and extra energy regeneration through its passive.  According to Keqingmains, Sacrificial Bow is actually a better pick if you prefer more cryo particles, whether for Diona or cryo-based allies.

Diona’s best five-star weapon is Elegy for the End. It boosts her energy recharge and has the chance to trigger a valuable teamwide buff. However, this is a highly-contended weapon, and it takes some practice and technical skill to keep its buff up.

Sacrificial Bow Base stat: energy recharge
Skill: after you deal damage to an opponent with an elemental skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own cooldown. This can only happen once every 30 seconds
Obtain through standard or limited banners
Favonius Warbow Base stat: energy recharge
Skill: crit hits have a 60% chance to generate a small amount of elemental particles, which regenerate six energy for the character. This can only occur once every 12 seconds
Obtain through standard or limited banners
Elegy for the End Base stat: energy recharge
Skill: increases elemental mastery by 60. When the equipping character hits an enemy with an elemental skill or elemental burst, they gain a Sigil of Remembrance. You can trigger this effect once every 0.2 seconds, even if the character is not on the field. When you possess four sigils, all of them are consumed and all nearby party members obtain the Millenial Movement: Farewell Song effect for 12 seconds, which increases elemental mastery by 100 and attack by 20%. Once this effect triggers, you don’t gain any new sigils for 20 seconds. Buffs of the same type do not stack
Obtain through limited weapon banner

What are the best artifacts for Diona?

Noblesse Oblige is the best artifact for Diona, as long as no one else on your team is already holding it, as it offers a valuable team-wide buff.

Alternatively, a full set of Maiden’s Beloved is a great artifact set for Diona. It’s especially valuable if you intend to use her predominantly as a healer rather than a shielder, as it increases her healing capabilities dramatically.

Here are Diona’s best artifacts:

Maiden Beloved Two equipped: Increases healing effectiveness by 15%
Four equipped: Elemental skills and bursts increase healing received for all party members by 20% for ten seconds
Obtain from Valley of Remembrance domain, Windwail Highland (near the Dawn Winery)
Noblesse Oblige Two equipped: Increases elemental burst damage by 20%
Four equipped: When you use an elemental burst all party members’ attack is increased by 20% for 12 seconds
Obtain from Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern domain, Minlin, Mt. Aozang

Artifact stat recommendations

For Diona’s main stats, you should aim for all HP% pieces to boost her shield. While there are some situations where a healing bonus circlet may be beneficial, her shield is far more valuable than her healing, so we generally advise against it.

In terms of sub-stats, if you want Diona to burst on every rotation you should aim to get her energy recharge to around 170% first. Aside from that, pump plenty of HP, and, if your Diona is using the Favonius Bow, try to get some crit rate in there, too.

Main stats:

  • Sands – HP%
  • Goblet – HP%
  • Circlet – HP%

Sub-stats: 

  • Energy recharge
  • Crit rate (if using Favonius Bow)
  • HP%
  • HP

Genshin Impact Diona standing outside the Cat's Tail in Mondstadt

What are the best Diona team comps?

As a healer and shielder, Diona is a pretty flexible unit that can fit into most team comps. She performs best in freeze and melt teams and can be a suitable replacement for Genshin Impact’s Zhongli if you don’t have him or are using him on a different team.

At C6, Diona’s hefty elemental mastery buff also makes her a strong pick for fridge teams, pairing her with a hydro unit, a dendro unit, and either an electro or pyro unit.

However, there are some flaws with using her alongside a dendro and hydro unit. As you likely know, cryo and dendro don’t create an elemental reaction, and for some strange reason her Icy Paws target the bloom reaction dendro cores. This can result in energy recharge issues, as her Icy Paws only produce elemental particles when hitting an enemy.

Here are some of our top picks for Diona team comps that don’t rely on her being C6. Keep in mind that many of these team comps have room for substitutions, as long as the elements are the same and their kits offer similar utility. For example, you can switch Kazuha out for Venti or Sucrose, Klee out for Diluc, Kokomi out for Ayato or Mona, etc.

Hu Tao Xingqiu Rosaria Diona
Ayaka Kokomi Kazuha Diona
Klee Ganyu Sucrose Diona
Yoimiya Xinqiu Bennett Diona

What are Diona’s abilities?

Here are all of Diona’s skills and talents.

Active skills:

Normal attack Kätzlein Style
Normal:
perform five shots with Diona’s bow
Charged: perform a more precise and powerful shot that deals cryo damage when fully charged
Plunge: plunge from mid-air to deal AoE damage on impact
Elemental skill Icy Paws
Press: 
fire two icy paws that deal cryo damage to enemies and form a shield around Diona
Hold: Diona leaps backwards before shooting five icy paws, forming a shield around Diona. This shield absorbs an extra 75% damage
Elemental burst Signature Mix
Diona throws a cold brew that deals AoE cryo damage and creates a Drunken Mist. This mist deals continuous AoE cryo damage and regenerates HP of characters within the AoE

Passive skills:

A1 Cat’s Tail Secret Menu
Move 10% faster and consume 10% less stamina while under the effects of Icy Paw’s shield
A4 Drunkard’s Farce
Signature Mix’s AoE field now reduces enemies’ attacks by 10% for 15 seconds
Utility Complimentary Bar Food
You have a 12% chance to obtain double the product when performing Perfect Cooking on restorative dishes

What are Diona’s constellations?

If you pull more than one copy of Diona, you can unlock one of her constellations. Here are each of her six constellations and their effects.

C1 A Lingering Flavor
Diona regenerates 15 energy after the effects of Signature Mix end
C2 Shaken, Not Purred
Increases Icy Paws’ damage and shield’s absorption by 15%. When an icy paw hits an enemy, a shield is created for other nearby characters on the field with 50% of the shield’s absorption for five seconds
C3 A-Another Round?
Increases the level of Signature Mix by three
C4 Wine Industry Slayer
Within the AoE of Signature Mix, aimed shots charge for 60% less time
C5 Double Shot, On The Rocks
Increases the level of Icy Paws by three
C6 Cat’s Tail Closing Time
Characters within Signature Mix’s AoE will gain the following effects:
  • Incoming healing is increased by 30% when HP falls below or is equal to 50%
  • Elemental mastery is increased by 200 when HP is above 50%

What are Diona’s ascension materials?

Here are all the materials you need in order to ascend Diona to the max level.

20➔40
  • 20k mora
  • One shivada jade sliver
  • Three calla lily
  • Three firm arrowhead
40➔50
  • 40k mora
  • Three shivada jade fragment
  • Two hoarfrost core
  • Ten calla lily
  • 15 firm arrowhead
50➔60
  • 60k mora
  • Six shivada jade fragment
  • Four hoarfrost core
  • 20 calla lily
  • 12 sharp arrowhead
60➔70
  • 80k mora
  • Three shivada jade chunk
  • Eight hoarfrost core
  • 30 calla lily
  • 18 sharp arrowhead
70➔80
  • 100k mora
  • Six shivada jade chunk
  • 12 hoarfrost core
  • 45 calla lily
  • 12 weathered arrowhead
80➔90
  • 120k mora
  • Six shivada jade gemstone
  • 20 hoarfrost core
  • 60 calla lily
  • 24 weathered arrowhead

Here’s where to get each of Diona’s ascension materials:

  • Shivada jade – drops from normal and weekly bosses
  • Firm, sharp, and weathered arrowheads – drops from hillichurl enemies
  • Calla lilies – gathered from around lakes in Mondstadt, especially Springvale
  • Hoarfrost cores – drops from the cryo regisvine normal boss in Mondstadt’s Galesong Hill

Genshin Impact Diona laying on her back, covered in cats

What are Diona’s Talent materials?

You can upgrade Diona’s normal attack, elemental skill, and elemental burst to level ten. Here are the materials you need to get one of her talents to level ten.

1➔2
  • 12.5k mora
  • Six firm arrowhead
  • Three teachings of freedom
2➔3
  • 17.5k mora
  • Three sharp arrowhead
  • Two guide to freedom
3➔4
  • 25k mora
  • Four sharp arrowhead
  • Four guide to freedom
4➔5
  • 30k mora
  • Six sharp arrowhead
  • Six guide to freedom
5➔6
  • 37.5k mora
  • Nine sharp arrowhead
  • Nine guide to freedom
6➔7
  • 120k mora
  • Four weathered arrowhead
  • Four philosophies of freedom
  • One shard of a foul legacy
7➔8
  • 260k mora
  • Six weathered arrowhead
  • Six philosophies of freedom
  • One shard of a foul legacy
8➔9
  • 450k mora
  • Nine weathered arrowhead
  • 12 philosophies of freedom
  • Two shard of a foul legacy
9➔10
  • 700k mora
  • 12 weathered arrowhead
  • 16 philosophies of freedom
  • Two shard of a foul legacy
  • One crown of insight

Here’s where to get each of Diona’s talent materials:

  • Firm, sharp, and weathered arrowheads – drops from hillichurl enemies
  • Freedom talent books – rewards from the Forsaken Rift domain on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays
  • Shard of a foul legacy – drops from the Childe weekly boss in Liyue’s Enter the Golden House trounce domain

Talent priority

When leveling up Diona’s talents, we recommend prioritizing the following:

  • Elemental skill = elemental burst >> normal attack

When using Diona in a traditional support role, you don’t need to level up her normal attack at all. Generally, you should aim to upgrade her skill and burst at the same time, but can prioritize one over the other depending on your needs – prioritize skill if you need a better shield, or prioritize burst if you want more healing.

That’s all we’ve got in our Genshin Impact Diona build guide. For more Hoyo adventures, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list, Honkai Star Rail codes, and Honkai Star Rail update guides. We’ve also got a build for Honkai Star Rail’s Bailu – we’re pretty sure she and Diona would get along.