Zhongli

Zhongli

★★★★★
Geo
Polearm
Off-Field
Support
Survivability
Builds Update5.5
Teams Update5.5
This kind of playstyle is very straightforward; stack as much HP as possible. Prioritize HP scaling polearms such as Black Tassel and artifact sets such as Tenacity of the Millelith (4) to capitalize on Zhongli's Shield. Most of the time, especially on a HP-focused Zhongli, casting Elemental Burst is a DPS loss due to the cast time, which is why you'd only want to cast Elemental Burst for the Crowd Control it offers, and not for damage.

Best Artifacts

(2) Geo DMG Bonus +15%
(4) Upon obtaining an Elemental Shard created through a Crystallize Reaction, all party members gain 35% DMG Bonus for that particular element for 10s. Only one form of Elemental DMG Bonus can be gained in this manner at any one time.
Can be more useful than Tenacity of the Millelith (4) in teams that don't scale as well with ATK buffs or already have another Tenacity of the Millelith holder. Though it can be an awkward set to utilize well without extending rotation times, since the Holder of the set (Zhongli in this case) has to pickup the shard for the buff to take effect.
(2) When a nearby party member triggers a Nightsoul Burst, the equipping character regenerates 6 Elemental Energy.
(4) After the equipping character triggers a reaction related to their Elemental Type, all nearby party members gain a 12% Elemental DMG Bonus for the Elemental Types involved in the elemental reaction for 15s. If the equipping character is in the Nightsoul's Blessing state when triggering this effect, all nearby party members gain an additional 28% Elemental DMG Bonus for the Elemental Types involved in the elemental reaction for 20s. The equipping character can trigger this effect while off-field, and the DMG bonus from Artifact Sets with the same name do not stack.
Preferred over Archaic Petra if there are multiple Crystallize-compatible Elements or Geo characters that want DMG% bonus.
(2) Dendro DMG Bonus +15%
(4) After Elemental Skills or Bursts hit opponents, the targets' Dendro RES will be decreased by 30% for 8s. This effect can be triggered even if the equipping character is not on the field.
This set works best in Dendro reaction focused teams (Bloom/Burgeon/Hyperbloom/Spread) that prefer having Deepwood Memories on Zhongli so that they can run more damage focused sets such as Gilded Dreams / Flower of Paradise Lost instead for the highest overall damage gain. That said it means keeping the enemies near your pillar's to have good uptime on the Dendro resistance shred effect, which can be difficult with no grouping abilities in a team.
(2) Increases Elemental Mastery by 80.
(4) Upon triggering an Elemental Reaction, increases all party members' Elemental Mastery by 120 for 8s.
This set is usually only used in a few heavily reaction focused teams, such as Ganyu Melt or Hu Tao Vape, where you're maximising your damage in exchange for a weaker shield. Though Zhongli's shield is still usually more than strong enough even with fewer substat rolls to strengthen it.
(2) HP +20%
(4) When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased by 20% and their Shield Strength is increased by 30% for 3s. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5s. This effect can still be triggered even when the character who is using this artifact set is not on the field.
(2) HP +20%
(4) Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst DMG will be increased by 10%. After the equipping character takes DMG, the aforementioned DMG Bonus is increased by 80% for 5s. This effect increase can have 5 stacks. The duration of each stack is counted independently. These effects can be triggered even when the equipping character is not on the field.
(2) HP +20%
(4) When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased by 20% and their Shield Strength is increased by 30% for 3s. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5s. This effect can still be triggered even when the character who is using this artifact set is not on the field.

Best Stats

Sands
HP%
Goblet
HP%
Circlet
HP% / CRIT Rate
Substats
HP% / HP / Energy Recharge / CRIT Rate
Crit Rate should only be considered when Zhongli is equpping Favonius Lance to reliably proc the passive.

Best Weapons

Base ATK354
HP+46.9%
SourceWish
Bane of the Soft
Increases DMG against slimes by 40~80%.
Base ATK565
Energy Recharge+61.3%
SourceWish
Windfall
CRIT Hits have a 60~100% chance to generate a small amount of Elemental Particles, which will regenerate 6 Energy for the character. Can only occur once every 12~6s.
Use this weapon over Black Tassel if you value the team energy (Note that you need to build some amount of Crit Rate if you are running Favonius Lance to trigger the passive)