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 the best Genshin Impact Diona build:
What’s the best Genshin Impact Diona build?
| Best weapon | Favonius Warbow |
| Weapon substitutes |
|
| Best artifact set | Maiden Beloved |
| Artifact substitutes | Nobless Oblige |
| Main stats |
|
| Sub stats |
|
Diona is a four-star cryo support unit with a pretty handy kit capable of shielding, healing, and buffing her allies.
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.
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.
On the other hand, Sacrificial Bow also has that handy energy recharge stat, as well as 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.
Another great option is Elegy for the End, which boosts her energy recharge and has the chance to trigger a teamwide buff. However, this is a highly-contended weapon, and it takes some practice and technical skill to keep its buff up.
| Weapon | Effect | How to obtain |
| 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 |
Gacha |
| 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 |
Gacha |
| 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 |
Gacha |
What are the best artifacts for Diona?
If no one else on your team is holding a full set of Noblesse Oblige, we generally recommend going with that set as it offers a very valuable team-wide buff. Alternatively, a full set of Maiden’s Beloved is the best option for maximising Diona’s healing if that is the main role you plan to use her in.
| Artifact set | Effect | How to obtain |
| 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 |
Valley of Remembrance, 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 |
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
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 – click on the character icons to view their individual build guides. 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.
| First character slot | Second character slot | Third character slot | Fourth character slot |
 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:
| Skill | Effect |
| 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:
| Skill | Effect |
| Cat’s Tail Secret Menu | Move 10% faster and consume 10% less stamina while under the effects of Icy Paw’s shield |
| Drunkard’s Farce | Signature Mix’s AoE field now reduces enemies’ attacks by 10% for 15 seconds |
| 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.
| Constellation | Effect |
| 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:
|
What are Diona’s ascension materials?
You need a lot of Calla Lillies to ascend Diona, which you can find spread around Mondstadt. You can farm the arrowheads by defeating hillichurl enemies, and the hoarfrost cores come from the Cryo Regisvine world boss.
| Required level | Mora | Materials |
| 20 | 20,000 | One shivada jade sliver, three calla lily, three firm arrowhead |
| 40 | 40,000 | Three shivada jade fragment, two hoarfrost core, ten calla lily, 15 firm arrowhead |
| 50 | 60,000 | Six shivada jade fragment, four hoarfrost core, 20 calla lily, 12 sharp arrowhead |
| 60 | 80,000 | Three shivada jade chunk, eight hoarfrost core, 30 calla lily, 18 sharp arrowhead |
| 70 | 100,000 | Six shivada jade chunk, 12 hoarfrost core, 45 calla lily, 12 weathered arrowhead |
| 80 | 120,000 | Six shivada jade gemstone, 20 hoarfrost core, 60 calla lily, 24 weathered arrowhead |
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.
You can get the Freedom talent books from the Forsaken Rift domain on Monday, Thursday, and Sunday. The shard of a foul legacy drops come from the weekly Childe boss in Liyue.
| Level | Mora | Materials |
| Two | 12.5k | Six firm arrowhead, three teachings of freedom |
| Three | 17.5k | Three sharp arrowhead, two guide to freedom |
| Four | 25k | Four sharp arrowhead, four guide to freedom |
| Five | 30k | Six sharp arrowhead, six guide to freedom |
| Six | 37.5k | Nine sharp arrowhead, nine guide to freedom |
| Seven | 120k | Four weathered arrowhead, four philosophies of freedom, one shard of a foul legacy |
| Eight | 260k | Six weathered arrowhead, six philosophies of freedom, one shard of a foul legacy |
| Nine | 450k | Nine weathered arrowhead, 12 philosophies of freedom, two shard of a foul legacy |
| Ten | 700k | 12 weathered arrowhead, 16 philosophies of freedom, two shard of a foul legacy, one crown of insight |
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 – skill if you need a better shield, 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.