Hu Tao is one of the most, if not the most, famous Genshin Impact characters and she’s finally getting another rerun in Version 3.4 of Genshin Impact. Strangely, however, many players are saying she’s not worth it anymore or that her value’s dropped in the era of Dendro which isn’t true and we’ll tell you why.
Hu Tao’s Value in the Dendro Meta of Genshin Impact 3.4
Hu Tao is up there as one of the strongest DPS units in the game and when it comes to single-target scenarios she’s definitely the strongest. Her value comes from her fast Pyro application. With a unit like Xingqiu who can apply Hydro just as fast, you get consistent Vaporise reactions that have a huge multiplier- thus giving you those sweet big numbers.
In the Dendro meta, however, other units and reactions have been added that help you get out of the cage of Melt and Vaporise reactions which were famous for their high multipliers and damage. As such you can now build Burgeon, Hyperbloom or even Quicken teams that can keep up with the damage numbers of Hu Tao teams. And a majority of these new teams are more F2P-friendly and require much less investment and skill to play.
This is where Hu Tao stumbles. Hu Tao is a complete unit at C0 and though she dishes out high damage numbers even with low investment, she does get better the more you work for her kit. That is to say that, unlike the new Dendro teams, her DPS ceiling is still higher- which is why we said the Dendro teams could keep up but they can never outright surpass Hu Tao’s DPS teams.
Hu Tao does need good stat investment and she needs units like Xinqiu or Yelan to shine. To get the best out of her, you also need to learn animation or dash-cancelling to be able to consistently use her Charged attacks which consume a fair amount of stamina. Her C1 helps with that. Her signature weapon Homa is unmatched even though there are plenty of other 5-star and even 4-star weapon options.
Thus Hu Tao hasn’t fallen off per se but more like there are more teams and units to compete with her now and that is a good thing as it presents players with more options and freedom. Hu Tao still holds her title of the strongest and if you do decide to pull for her you’ll need to work hard on her kit to get the best out of her. At the end of the day she’s worth it as she rewards that hard work by trivialising even the hardest floors of the Spiral Abyss.