Genshin Impact 2.4: Should you wish for Zhongli or Ganyu?

The second banner for Genshin Impact 2.4 will feature Zhongli and Ganyu. It’s quite the celebration for Lantern Rite, putting two of Genshin’s finest characters in the hands of more players. With two of Genshin Impact’s best units featured, which one should you Wish for?

Genshin Impact 2.4: Should you wish for Zhongli or Ganyu?

The heavyweight Event Banner of the year is here. Both are paragons of their respective roles: Zhongli has the strongest Shields in the game and Ganyu has the highest DPS in the game. Let’s take a closer look at both of them to determine who’s best for your account and playstyle, and what characters they work well with that you may already have.

Zhongli

The Geo Archon returns with his second re-run, and he’s as strong as ever. Zhongli is a Geo Polearm user that specializes in creating Shields to protect and support your other characters. His Elemental Skill, Dominus Lapidis, creates a Stone Stele pillar that deals intermittent Geo damage in the area around it. Holding the Skill creates Zhongli’s signature Jade Shield, a powerful piece of kit that is Zhongli’s main utility.

The Shield’s strength scales from Zhongli’s Max HP and deals some damage when it’s made. It also drains Geo from two nearby enemy sources, great for destroying Shield and structures. His Passive Ascension Talents increase the strength of his Shield further. Zhongli is one of the only characters that can keep his Shield up permanently by recasting the Skill.

Perhaps the Jade Shield’s best ability is that it decreases the Elemental and Physical Resistance of nearby enemies. Notably, this is one of the only ways to directly debuff Anemo resistance, enabling DPS units like Xiao and some builds of Kazuha to excel. Of course, it’s good on just about any character as well.

With the Shield on, you don’t need to dodge enemy attacks. You can now tank them and keep attacking. This lets you also conserve stamina, a great boon to characters who rely on Charged Attacks like Klee, Ningguang, Yanfei, Ayaka and Keqing, or with characters that need to animation cancel for their optimal rotations like Hu Tao and Tartaglia.

This is even better for those playing on mobile or low-spec hardware. It’s difficult to dash on mobile touchscreen controls or when your old laptop or phone hitches during intense combat encounters.

Zhongli is also the key enabler for an all Geo team (I call it Rock Band). The Geo Elemental Resonance ability Enduring Rock increases Shield Strength, and increases a Shielded character’s damage by 15% and decreases the Geo Resistance of enemies hit by their attacks by 20% for 15 seconds. Combined with Zhongli’s Jade Shield, this allows Ningguang or Arataki Itto to deal high amounts of damage.