Gorou is a 4* Geo Bow Support who buffs DEF and—provided the team he’s on has at least three Geo characters—also buffs Geo DMG.
While this does make him a niche Support, it’s a niche well worth exploring due to how many DEF-scaling Geo character Genshin Impact features—including two S-Tier DPS characters in Arataki Itto and C6 Noelle.
Because of this, Gorou has become an indispensable part of Geo-centric teams.
In other words, if you’re running a DEF-scaling Geo main DPS and you’re looking to maximize their DMG output, Gorou is a must-have. So, while he only gets a B ranking in our Genshin Impact Tier List due to having no versatility, Gorou is exactly S-Tier in the right line-up.
However, for him to properly Support characters in the right line-up, he must first be properly built, which is done by:
- Prioritizing talents
- Sniping some constellations
- Choosing the best weapon
- Equipping the best artifact set
- Using synergistic teammates
In this Gorou build guide, we’ll walk you through all of these steps and more, starting with talent prioritization and overall kit evaluation.
Table of ContentsShow
Gorou’s Talent Priority
| Talent | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Attack (Ripping Fang Fletching) | Normal Attack Perform up to 4 consecutive shots with a bow. Charged Attack Perform a more precise Aimed Shot with increased DMG. While aiming, stone crystals will accumulate on the arrowhead. A fully charged crystalline arrow will deal Geo DMG. Plunging Attack Fires off a shower of arrows in mid-air before falling and striking the ground, dealing AoE DMG upon impact. | Not only are Gorou’s Normal Attack DMG multipliers abysmal, but they scale off of ATK, whereas the rest of his kit scales off of DEF. This is easily Gorou’s least important talent. You don’t have to level it up at all. |
| Elemental Skill (Inuzaka All-Round Defense) | Deals AoE Geo DMG and sets up a General’s War Banner. General’s War Banner Provides up to 3 buffs to active characters within the skill’s AoE based on the number of Geo characters in the party at the time of casting: • 1 Geo character: Adds “Standing Firm” – DEF Bonus. • 2 Geo characters: Adds “Impregnable” – Increased resistance to interruption. • 3 Geo characters: Adds “Crunch” – Geo DMG Bonus. Gorou can deploy only 1 General’s War Banner on the field at any one time. Characters can only benefit from 1 General’s War Banner at a time. When a party member leaves the field, the active buff will last for 2s. Hold Adjust the location of the skill. | Gorou’s Elemental Skill adds flat DEF to the active character standing inside its AoE. It also adds 15% Geo DMG if the team features at least 3 Geo characters. All of this on an ability that has 100% uptime. It also does some negligible DMG on cast, but we can ignore that. This is easily Gorou’s most important talent. In fact, when people think of Gorou, most of them think of this ability specifically. |
| Elemental Burst (Juuga: Forward Unto Victory) | Displaying his valor as a general, Gorou deals Aoe Geo DMG and creates a field known as General’s Glory to embolden his comrades. General’s Glory This field has the following properties: • Like the General’s War Banner created by Inuzaka All-Round Defense, provides buffs to active characters within the skill’s AoE based on the number of Geo characters in the party. Also moves together with your active character. • Generates 1 Crystal Collapse every 1.5s that deals AoE Geo DMG to 1 opponent within the skill’s AoE. • Pulls 1 elemental shard in the skill’s AoE to your active character’s position every 1.5s (elemental shards are created by Crystallize reactions). If a General’s War banner created by Gorou currently exists on the field when his ability is used, it will be destroyed. In addition, for the duration of General’s Glory, Gorou’s Elemental Skill “Inazuka All-Round Defense” will not create the General’s War Banner. If Gorou falls, the effects of General’s Glory will be cleared. | Gorou’s Elemental Burst basically functions as his Elemental Skill on wheels—featuring the exact same buffs which use his Elemental Skill talent level for scaling. This means that you could have the Elemental Skill at talent level 10, the Burst at talent level 1, and activating the Burst would still net you all the talent level 10 Skill buffs. The only thing that scales with Burst talent levels is the extra DMG, which is negligible. So, while this is technically Gorou’s second-priority talent, you can leave it unlevelled if you’re starved for resources and it wouldn’t make much difference. |
Gorou’s Passive Talents
| Talent Name | Description | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Seeker of Shinies | Displays the location of nearby resources unique to Inazuma on the mini-map. | Inazuma is home to some difficult-to-find unique resources, making this passive talent more useful than it would be in, say, Mondstadt. Still not a great talent by any means. |
| Heedless of the Wind and Weather | After using Juuga: Forward Unto Victory, all nearby party members’ DEF is increased by 25% for 12s. | This passive talent actually makes it so that Gorou’s Burst is more powerful than his Skill. You still don’t have to level the Burst to get its benefits though. Nevertheless, this is a great talent. |
| A Favor Repaid | Gorou receives the following DMG Bonuses to his attacks based on his DEF: • Inuzaka All-Round Defense: Skill DMG increased by 156% of DEF • Juuga: Forward Unto Victory: Skill DMG and Crystal Collapse DMG increased by 15.6% of DEF | This passive talent is okay. It makes it so that Gorou’s negligible DMG becomes slightly less negligible. |
Gorou is a character designed to do one thing and one thing only—buff DEF for other characters.
And, to be fair, he fulfills his purpose splendidly. Not even Bennett—arguably the best 4* Support in the game—can bring more value as a Support to DEF-scaling Geo character than Gorou.
Now, Gorou can technically deal some off-field DMG, but you shouldn’t count on this being useful. For reference, at talent level 10 and with the extra DMG from the last passive talent included, Gorou’s Elemental Skill will deal around 350% of his DEF as DMG every 10 seconds.
This isn’t an issue, of course.
Gorou is already an amazing Support who can even heal the team with some constellations. He’s already doing plenty for his teams without ripping enemies apart with his off-field DMG output. We just wanted to be upfront about this and set proper expectations.
Now, let’s look at those constellations!
Gorou’s Constellations
| Constellation Name | Description | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Rushing Hound: Swift as the Wind | When characters (other than Gorou) within the AoE of Gorou’s General’s War Banner or General’s Glory deal Geo DMG to opponents, the CD of Gorou’s Inuzaka All-Round Defense is decreased by 2s. This effect can occur once every 10s. | This constellation effectively reduces the cooldown of Gorou’s Elemental Skill by 2 seconds. Considering that he already has 100% uptime on his Elemental Skill, C1 isn’t really impactful. |
| Sitting Hound: Steady as a Cloak | While General’s Glory is in effect, its duration is extended by 1s when a nearby active character obtains an Elemental Shard from a Crystallize reaction. This effect can occur once every 0.1s. Max extension is 3s. | Now C2 is a much better constellation as it reduces the downtime on his Elemental Burst from 11 seconds down to 8 seconds. On a 20-second cooldown, this is a neat quality-of-life upgrade. |
| Mauling Hound: Fierce as Fire | Increases the Level of Inuzaka All-Round Defense by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. | While the conditional Geo DMG bonus provided by his Elemental Skill doesn’t scale at all, the flat DEF buff does scale past level 10. This is an amazing constellation that significantly buffs Gorou’s supporting capabilities. |
| Lapping Hound: Warm as Water | When General’s Glory is in the “Impregnable” or “Crunch” states, it will also heal active characters within its AoE by 50% of Gorou’s own DEF every 1.5s. | Gorou’s optimal teams prefer to run 3 or even 4 Geo characters, which can leave you starved for healers. However, with C4, Gorou can act as the team healer. This is an incredible constellation that frees up some teambuilding restrictions Gorou normally has. |
| Striking Hound: Thunderous Force | Increases the Level of Juuga: Forward Unto Victory by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. | C5 is useless. All it does is increase Gorou’s DMG, but that’s a lost cause. |
| Valiant Hound: Mountain Fealty | For 12s after using Inuzaka All-Round Defense or Juuga: Forward Unto Victory, increases the CRIT DMG of all nearby party members’ Geo DMG based on the buff level of the skill’s field at the time of use: • “Standing Firm”: +10% • “Impregnable”: +20% • “Crunch”: +40% This effect cannot stack and will take reference from the last instance of the effect that is triggered. | Gorou’s C6 is simply amazing. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t only buff the on-field character. With this, even Gorou’s DMG output starts to look halfway decent, whereas the DMG output of all other Geo characters simply skyrockets. |
In terms of constellations, Gorou starts quite weak but only gets better and better with each one.
Well, C5 is the exception, as it’s his worst constellation by far, but we can just ignore this for now.
C2, C3, C4, and C6 all add meaningful buffs to the character, especially C4 which effectively turns Gorou into a Geo Bennett—and we all know how powerful Bennett is.
If you’re running DEF-scaling Geo characters (which you are, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading Gorou’s build guide), then you should try to get as much of Gorou’s constellations as you can, as the pay-offs are huge.
Best Weapons For Gorou
| Weapon Rarity | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Favonius Warbow 4* | Favonius Warbow is Gorou’s BiS weapon as it allows him to translate his sub-par DMG output into Energy generation. It does require you to invest into CRIT Rate on a character that doesn’t do a lot of DMG, but the result is more than worth it. Best of all, Favonius Warbow is a quest reward early on in the game’s story, so all players should have at least one copy. |
| Sacrificial Bow 4* | Sacrificial Bow is Gorou’s second-best weapon choice. While you might call into question the ability to reset the cooldown on an Elemental Skill that already has 100% uptime, the fact of the matter is that the AoE of Gorou’s Skill is static and sometimes you just want to quickly reposition it, which is what this weapon allows you to do. |
| Elegy for the End 5* | Gorou needs an Energy Recharge weapon to function properly, so the only 5* ER weapon has to make the list. However, we prefer Favonius and Sacrificial weapons over Elegy for the End for two reasons: 1. Gorou doesn’t do a lot of DMG so the higher base ATK doesn’t matter all that much. 2. This weapon’s passive buffs Elemental Mastery and ATK%—both stats that characters who want Gorou as their Support don’t care about. It’s still a good weapon, but it’s not better than the 4* options. |
| Fading Twilight 4* | Fading Twilight is a patch 2.7 event-exclusive weapon that gives Energy Recharge and increases DMG through the passive in a way that benefits Gorou and his DEF-scaling abilities. This is technically the best weapon for maximizing Gorou’s DMG without gimping his supporting capabilities. |
Best Artifacts For Gorou – 2-Husk of Opulent Dreams + 2-Emblem of Severed Fate
Unfortunately, there isn’t a single 4-piece set bonus in Genshin Impact that perfectly fits Gorou. Technically, you could point towards the 4-piece Husk of Opulent Dreams, but we don’t think focusing on Gorou’s DMG output is the way to go when building him for optimal effectiveness.
For this reason, we think it’s best to use the combination of the 2-piece Husk of Opulent Dreams and the 2-piece Emblem of Severed Fate set bonuses.
This will give Gorou extra DEF and Energy Recharge, increasing the scaling of his abilities and making it easier to spam his Elemental Burst.
As far as stat prioritization goes, the main stats you should go for are:
- Energy Recharge on the Sands
- DEF% on the Goblet
- CRIT Rate on the Logos
A couple of words regarding Gorou’s CRIT stats before we move onto artifact substats:
The CRIT Rate Logos is recommended not because Gorou is expected to output a lot of DMG, but because his BiS weapon—Favonius Warbow—has a useful supporting passive that only procs when he crits. If you’re using a different weapon, there’s no need to go for the CRIT Rate. Instead, you should use a DEF% Logos or—if your Gorou is at least C4—a Healing Bonus Logos.
Additionally, since you only need CRIT Rate to proc the Favonius Warbow passive, there’s no need to fret over CRIT DMG.
As for substats, the best rolls you could get are:
- CRIT Rate
- Energy Recharge
- DEF%
- DEF
Last but not least, you can use the 4-piece Noblesse Oblige set bonus. We reason we don’t value it highly is because, ideally, the characters Gorou will be used to support are DEF-scaling characters who don’t benefit as much from this set bonus. However, the less optimal your team is, the better this set bonus becomes.
Best Team Composition For Gorou
F2P Gorou Team
- Gorou
- Noelle
- Ningguang
- Fischl
Gorou is the team’s primary Support, providing Energy generation and stat bonuses to other characters.
Noelle is the team’s main DPS, using all of Gorou’s buffs to significantly increase her DMG potential. Plus, as the second Geo character in the team, she’ll ensure access to the powerful Geo Resonance, which will boost her DMG even more. What’s great about Noelle is that she’s also the team’s healer and shielder. While Noelle needs her C6 to compete with A-Tier 5* DPS characters, she’s a strong enough main DPS in her own right even before unlocking all her constellations.
Ningguang is the team’s off-field DPS. Having a 3rd Geo character will not only increase Gorou’s effectiveness, but it will also help with Noelle’s Energy issues. Noelle needs her Burst to be effective, and having another character who can generate Geo particles for her goes a long way. Plus, her personal DMG output is not to be underestimated. Lastly, Ningguang can even buff Noelle’s DMG through her Jade Shield. If you don’t have Ningguang, you can use Geo Traveler or Yun Jin. They won’t offer nearly as much DMG as Ningguang, but they’ll provide additional buffs for Noelle in the form of increased CRIT Rate or Normal Attack DMG buffing.
Fischl is the best character to round out this team due to her passive talent which deals DMG to enemies whenever you proc an Electro-related Elemental Reaction. This includes even Crystallize, which this team will be triggering all the time thanks to Fischl’s consistent off-field Electro DMG and Noelle’s Geo-infused Normal and Charged Attacks. No other 4* character comes even close to marching Fischl’s value in this team, but if you don’t have Fischl, viable alternatives include off-field DPS characters. Kaeya and Rosaria stand out as the best options here because their Bursts cost 60 Energy, as opposed to 80 Energy which most other off-field DPS characters need to add any value to this team. Alternatively, you could use Geo Traveler or Yun Jin for a full Geo team.
Whale Gorou Team
- Gorou
- Arataki Itto
- Albedo
- Zhongli
Gorou‘s role in this team remains unchanged from his F2P role—he generates Geo Energy and buffs DEF and Geo DMG stats. The only difference is that this team would much prefer to also have him function as a healer with his C4 unlocked.
Arataki Itto is the team’s main DPS. In many ways, Itto is like a 5* version of Noelle—a DEF-scaling Geo main DPS that relies on his Elemental Burst infusion to deal most of his DMG. The DMG ceiling of C0 Itto is slightly higher than that of C6 Noelle, but he lacks the other utility C6 Noelle provides. This is to say that you could replace Itto in this team with C6 Noelle and very little would change.
Albedo is the off-field Geo DPS of the team, effortlessly adding a ton of consistent DMG while requiring next to no on-field presence. Plus, as another DEF-scaling Geo character, Albedo gets all of the benefits of Gorou’s buffs.
Zhongli is the team’s shielder and source of crowd control. He also buffs the DMG of all other characters by shredding enemies’ Geo Resistance.
Is Gorou Worth It?
Gorou is a weird character to evaluate.
While he only serves a niche role, within his niche, no one can outmatch him.
This makes answering the question of whether or not he’s worth it very simple:
If you’re using Itto or Noelle as your main DPS, then Gorou is very much worth it. We’d go so far as to say that these characters cannot reach their maximum DMG potential without Gorou on their team.
However, if you’re not using these two specific characters, then there’s no merit to using Gorou.
So, before you go investing resources into pulling and/or leveling up Gorou, just ask yourself whether or not you have or want to use Itto or Noelle as your main DPS. Without them, Gorou will only be collecting dust inside your character archive.
