Best Noelle builds, weapons, and teams in Genshin Impact

Noelle is a 4-star Geo Claymore user in Genshin Impact. Here are the best weapons, artifacts, and teams to turn this humble maid into a powerhouse DPS.

Playstyles

Noelle shines best in an on-field DPS role, using Normal Attacks during her Burst to simultaneously deal damage and heal her entire team. Her naturally high DEF combined with her team-healing utility makes her one of the only true bruisers in Genshin Impact. Set up your supports, swap to Noelle, use her Skill, then Burst, then spam Normal Attacks to deal respectable Geo damage in a large AoE. Her Burst state persists after she swaps to a different teammate, so you can take a moment to refresh buffs if you have to.

The primary downside to playing Noelle like this is that she requires specific teammates to make her competitive with other DPS units. This guide will focus primarily on her DPS playstyle.

Noelle as a pure shielding/healing support is not recommended unless you have no other options. She must be on-field in order to heal, taking valuable field time from more damaging teammates. In addition, her shield has a short duration with a long cooldown, making it unreliable for consistent shielding. If you are new and Noelle is your only defensive option, equip either Favonius Greatsword or Whiteblind and stack DEF and Energy Recharge until you are able to acquire a better healer.

Weapons

Redhorn Stonethresher – This is Itto’s signature weapon, but it works just as well on Noelle. If equipping this weapon, you may want to use Charged Attacks instead of Normal Attacks in order to proc its passive more often. Just make sure you’re not using 4pc Echoes of an Offering or 4pc Gladiator’s Finale if you opt for Charged Attacks.

Serpent Spine – Serpent Spine is great for Noelle, especially with Refinements. Try to keep her shielded as much as possible when using this weapon to keep up stacks. You may want to supplement Noelle’s shield uptime with Zhongli’s.

Beacon of the Reed Sea – It’s difficult to make use of Beacon’s passive, but even without activating them, Beacon is a good CRIT Rate stat stick. 

Whiteblind – As a craftable weapon, Whiteblind is the most accessible weapon for Noelle. It performs decently, and Refinements are very helpful.

Artifacts

4pc Husk of Opulent Dreams – Noelle’s best set. Its 4pc effect grants a massive amount of DEF at max stacks. You can pre-stack this effect before combat by having Noelle off-field and waiting for 12 seconds before beginning your challenge. 

4pc Echoes of an Offering – This set is finicky on most characters since its 4pc effect is affected by your ping. However, Noelle bypasses this issue with her relatively slow Normal Attacks, allowing her to proc the effect at a predictable rate. It’s still not consistent due to its RNG-based effect, but on average, this set should be fairly decent.

4pc Gladiator’s Finale / 4pc Retracing Bolide – These sets are also fine if you don’t want to farm the above domains. Gladiator’s Finale pieces can be obtained from bosses and artifact strongboxes. Retracing Bolide’s domain is not very Resin-efficient, so you might as well farm a 4pc Husk set instead.

2pc combos – Combinations of Husk of Opulent Dreams, Marechausee Hunter, and Archaic Petra can be serviceable if you don’t want to farm any of the above domains.

Artifact Stats

Noelle has poor Energy generation for herself, so she should be played in teams with at least one other Geo teammate. With Gorou or Albedo and one Favonius weapon holder, Noelle generally needs around 120% Energy Recharge.

Noelle has mixed DEF and ATK scaling on her attacks. If you have Constellation 6 or high Talent levels, DEF is the better stat to invest in. Ideally, even if you don’t yet have Constellation 6, you should still invest in Noelle’s Talent levels as much as you can so that her DEF scaling outpaces her ATK scaling.

Don’t neglect Noelle’s character levels either. Unlike most ATK-scaling DPS units, Noelle doesn’t benefit as much from her weapon’s additional Base ATK. This makes her Base DEF extremely valuable, and you should level her to 90 if at all possible.

Teams

Noelle’s best teams put her at the forefront as an on-field DPS. She synergizes well with other Geo units, though you can add teammates of other elements too. Her teams often look something like:

• Gorou is practically mandatory for an effective Noelle team. His Constellation 6 grants 40% Geo CRIT DMG, but he provides plenty of useful buffs even before C6. Equip Favonius Warbow and build some CRIT Rate on him to improve his Energy generation. 
• Albedo, Zhongli, or Yun Jin will provide additional Geo particles and activate the maximum effect of Gorou’s buffs. You can bring two from this list for a full mono Geo team, or just one if you’d prefer to have an open flex slot.
  • Albedo is a great off-field DPS since he will benefit from Gorou’s DEF buffs.
  • Zhongli is a rare source of Geo RES shred and will help keep Noelle shielded to take advantage of Geo Resonance. 
  • Yun Jin buffs Noelle’s Normal Attacks. Noelle’s Normal Attacks are slow, but have a massive AoE, allowing her to proc Yun Jin’s buff multiple times per swing if there is more than one enemy. Yun Jin’s buff doesn’t work on Charged Attacks though, so keep that in mind if you are more accustomed to Noelle’s Charged Attack combo with Redhorn.
    
• If you have the space, you can bring an additional off-field DPS like Fischl or Xingqiu. Additional elements can help counter enemy mechanics like ASIMON’s invisibility or the Pyro Abyss Herald’s shield. The elemental application can also help with shield uptime through Crystallize, helping to maintain Geo Resonance buffs on Noelle.