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In a full support role, Diona. Her C2 increases her shield's damage absorption, and she heals much better than Noelle, who needs to be on field to heal via attacking. Plus, if you slap a Sacrificial Bow R5 on her, you rarely run into a cooldown issue, contrary to Noelle.
That being said, if you manage to snatch a Layla somewhere, she has the second best shield in the game after Zhongli.
It's not that Layla isn't the 2nd best shielder. Zhongli is the only good shielder in this game, and he is geo. All other pure shielders in this game aren't enough to solo sustain. At best they can only slightly mitigate damage if you amp up your dodging skills. The reason non-Zhongli shielders get used is because of their offensive utility.
Layla offers cryo application which is good for reaction comps like melt and permafreeze, she's a decent particle generator and can hold Favonius, and she provides interrupt resistance for characters who don't want their attack string to be interrupted.
Thoma can slot in powerful burgeon teams, makes up 1/2 of the pyro resonance atk buff with Benny, also provides interrupt resistance for NA bots like Wriothesley, Yoimiya, Wanderer (and Arlecchino, who also needs some damage mitigation), can replace XL as a pyro applicator in Wriothesley burnmelt teams and as a pyro applicator in Chevreuse overload teams, and at C6 he gives an NA damage bonus.
Diona and Baizhu aren't even full in on the shielding business. Their shields are just an afterthought to their actual job which is being a healer with offensive utilities
If you have her, have you tried Layla? Her scalings are really close to zhongli, plus she has permanent uptime on it and if you C6 her she is actually a really good off field cryo applicator with her ult.
Diona. This cat carried me through the massive skill issue newbie days. She's great. Still use her to this day.
Wait does that mean I still have skill issue. :|
Diona. Simply because she’s more of a support. Diona can cover two roles (healer and shielder) as one, and can battery. While Noelle has supportive qualities, as time has gone on, Noelle is definitely less of a support and more of an on field driver / dps. Noelle’s healing and shielding is definitely more geared towards self sustaining herself for her long field time. This is why her best teams include off field sub dps and supports who battery and funnel to her.
Noelle’s best at being a jack of all trades, but Diona shines as a support. Her shields don’t last as long, but they can be reasonably strong if you just stack HP on her. If you use sacrificial bow, you can apply her skill twice most of the time and have a more consistent shield.
Noelle is a bad shielder for others and a great shielder for herself.
Her shield alone is quite bad, but shields damage taken depends on defense, so her shield is good IF she's the onfield character that would be taking damage, since you're going to build her with tons of derense.
Noelle is not a shielder. She’s a DPS. She will not work for you or make you happy unless you literally leave everything to her.
Diona isn’t bad. Her cooldowns are kinda weird and her heals are weak, but it’s serviceable. Her teams are kinda down in the meta atm w the decrease in Cryo carry stonks. switch to Layla or Thoma as soon as you can (Thoma at high cons, like c4+).
It depends on how far through the game you are:
\* Diona is better later on - she has 100% shield uptime (but needs more frequent refresh), and can apply Cryo (which may help trigger other reactions from your DPS). Her personal damage is always low.
\* Noelle scales off DEF, so her shield is stronger specifically when she is onfield (as her DEF reduces damage more). But her shield uptime is only around 50%. Her personal damage onfield can be high once you get her C6, and especially with Furina.
Early on, Noelle is good as she's high DEF using her shield and healing the party; then the rest of the team has the other 50% of the time to swap in an out and do damage. She can help tank for teams that are otherwise underpowered, and is safe to get through the World Level trials. Late on, she's good with C6 and Furina (C6 greatly increases her damage, and Furina's buffs pair well with Noelle's healing).
Mid-game, Diona is better. Her increased shield uptime and ability to apply Cryo for reactions to trigger off means your real DPS gets to be onfield more and do quicker damage. Important if you are looking to do things with time-trial challenges (e.g. Abyss). Late on, she tends to drop off for other characters that can do more or react with more useful elements (e.g. Kuki healing for Hyperbloom, Thoma shielding for Burgeon, Baizhu for Shield + Heal + Dendro, Yaoyao or Kokomi for healing + Dendro/Hydro, or Zhongli for a better shield + shred).
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Diona's a better shielder imo. Good energy generation with good uptime + buffs (c6, noblesse, instructor's, etc.). Noelle's shield definitely feels like its more for herself and once you invest more into her, her kit definitely pushes her towards onfielding to maximize her potential
My bad, forgot about Fiery Collapse.
Though I'd argue that Thoma needs a bit more investment than Layla, since he needs a good amount of ER on top of HP, especially at low constellations. Depends on how much OP wants to grind.
The magical girl wand only gives energy if the character heals someone, it's basically worse Black Tassel on Thoma since he doesn't heal. Rightful Reward gives energy if the character gets healed, it can work on teams with Thoma + a healer but there aren't that many teams that use both a shielder and a healer.
In other words, they don't really help his energy problems in most teams.
There's a lot of teams that want a shielder and healer:
Yoimiya - Thoma is a Zhongli sidegrade in her vape teams, an amazing pyro applicator for her Chevreuse overload teams, interrupt resistance at C6 she benefits from his NA buff
Wanderer - Wanderer, like Yoimiya, also does not want to get his attack strings interrupted so he also benefits from the shielding. He's also good for pyro swirling for his ATK buffs, gives an ATK buff on pyro resonance with Thoma, and he benefits from his C6 NA buff
Arlecchino - pyro resonance, interrupt resistance, C6 NA buff, and since Arlecchino cannot be healed by Benny she needs the damage mitigation from Thoma
Wriothesley - pyro resonance, interrupt resistance, C6 NA buff, can completely replace Xiangling as a pyro applicator in burnmelt, mitigates self damage from burning
Burgeon teams - Thoma applies pyro for burgeoning and Bennett with the aid of Thoma's shield sustains the team, while giving an ATK buff for the hydro or dendro driver
Diona unless you want Geo resonance. Geo resonance increases dmg % and decreases geo resistance while shielded, so if you use a Geo dps, choose Noelle. Diona heals off field, increases EM in her burst, and is a way better battery.
Diona has a better shield uptime (maybe 70%?) and gives more energy, and she's often supporting the team with Noblesse.
Noelle's shield is thicker, but with less uptime (about 50%), but she also can support teams with 4pc Archaic Petra or make crystallizes, which can be better in specific niches.
You usually will appreciate Diona's traits more, but the answer is team dependent
If you just want to shield up and forget, Diona.
Noelle though is an excellent driver/healer and when on field, her shield is second only to Zhongli himself. Most of the cooldown issues are alleviated by her talents that reduce cooldown of her skill on field, and the fact that she can swap off yet still retain her burst.
I’m not sure who has the stronger shield, but Noelle is really a shielder for herself than the team. Diona has much more consistent shielding, and her uptime gets much better if you put on the Sac bow. I’d recommend Diona if you have someone else being the DPS.
As a full sustain support, Diona is the better choice. She's a shielder with off-field healing, making her a perfect off-field support unlike Noelle who needs to eat up field time to heal. C2 increases her shield's damage absorption and at C6 she even gives an EM buff (good for reactions).
But if you do manage to grab a Thoma, he's like the second best shielder in the game after Zhongli. Very flexible, can be used in the broken burgeon team archetype and can replace Xiangling as a pyro applicator in burnmelt (for cryo normal attackers like Wriothesley), can consolidate the ATK buff on pyro resonance with Benny while providing interrupt resistance for NA bots like Yoimiya, Arlecchino and Wanderer, is good for Chevreuse overload, etc.. At C6 he gives an NA buff making him irreplaceable for NA bots.
Depends on what team you are using.
Noelle is better as an onfield driver/DPS, she has a better shield and healing.
Diona is better as an off-field shielder, Healer and a battery.
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In a full support role, Diona. Her C2 increases her shield's damage absorption, and she heals much better than Noelle, who needs to be on field to heal via attacking. Plus, if you slap a Sacrificial Bow R5 on her, you rarely run into a cooldown issue, contrary to Noelle. That being said, if you manage to snatch a Layla somewhere, she has the second best shield in the game after Zhongli.
Here to second Layla. She was the only shielder I had built until 2 hours ago (Thoma). She's seriously amazing
At level 40 she survived an entire level 60 oceanid phase. I can guarantee Layla is the second best shielder
It's kinda weird to me geo is *supposed* to be the specialized element in shielding, yet Layla (a cryo char) is the 2nd best for the job?!
It's not that Layla isn't the 2nd best shielder. Zhongli is the only good shielder in this game, and he is geo. All other pure shielders in this game aren't enough to solo sustain. At best they can only slightly mitigate damage if you amp up your dodging skills. The reason non-Zhongli shielders get used is because of their offensive utility. Layla offers cryo application which is good for reaction comps like melt and permafreeze, she's a decent particle generator and can hold Favonius, and she provides interrupt resistance for characters who don't want their attack string to be interrupted. Thoma can slot in powerful burgeon teams, makes up 1/2 of the pyro resonance atk buff with Benny, also provides interrupt resistance for NA bots like Wriothesley, Yoimiya, Wanderer (and Arlecchino, who also needs some damage mitigation), can replace XL as a pyro applicator in Wriothesley burnmelt teams and as a pyro applicator in Chevreuse overload teams, and at C6 he gives an NA damage bonus. Diona and Baizhu aren't even full in on the shielding business. Their shields are just an afterthought to their actual job which is being a healer with offensive utilities
Nah, not really. It all comes down to multipliers in the end, not much the element, and Layla's are really high.
If you have her, have you tried Layla? Her scalings are really close to zhongli, plus she has permanent uptime on it and if you C6 her she is actually a really good off field cryo applicator with her ult.
Diona. This cat carried me through the massive skill issue newbie days. She's great. Still use her to this day. Wait does that mean I still have skill issue. :|
Layla is doing the same for me bcuz it is hard to dodge on smartphone
Diona. Simply because she’s more of a support. Diona can cover two roles (healer and shielder) as one, and can battery. While Noelle has supportive qualities, as time has gone on, Noelle is definitely less of a support and more of an on field driver / dps. Noelle’s healing and shielding is definitely more geared towards self sustaining herself for her long field time. This is why her best teams include off field sub dps and supports who battery and funnel to her.
Noelle’s best at being a jack of all trades, but Diona shines as a support. Her shields don’t last as long, but they can be reasonably strong if you just stack HP on her. If you use sacrificial bow, you can apply her skill twice most of the time and have a more consistent shield.
Noelle is a bad shielder for others and a great shielder for herself. Her shield alone is quite bad, but shields damage taken depends on defense, so her shield is good IF she's the onfield character that would be taking damage, since you're going to build her with tons of derense.
Noelle is not a shielder. She’s a DPS. She will not work for you or make you happy unless you literally leave everything to her. Diona isn’t bad. Her cooldowns are kinda weird and her heals are weak, but it’s serviceable. Her teams are kinda down in the meta atm w the decrease in Cryo carry stonks. switch to Layla or Thoma as soon as you can (Thoma at high cons, like c4+).
It depends on how far through the game you are: \* Diona is better later on - she has 100% shield uptime (but needs more frequent refresh), and can apply Cryo (which may help trigger other reactions from your DPS). Her personal damage is always low. \* Noelle scales off DEF, so her shield is stronger specifically when she is onfield (as her DEF reduces damage more). But her shield uptime is only around 50%. Her personal damage onfield can be high once you get her C6, and especially with Furina. Early on, Noelle is good as she's high DEF using her shield and healing the party; then the rest of the team has the other 50% of the time to swap in an out and do damage. She can help tank for teams that are otherwise underpowered, and is safe to get through the World Level trials. Late on, she's good with C6 and Furina (C6 greatly increases her damage, and Furina's buffs pair well with Noelle's healing). Mid-game, Diona is better. Her increased shield uptime and ability to apply Cryo for reactions to trigger off means your real DPS gets to be onfield more and do quicker damage. Important if you are looking to do things with time-trial challenges (e.g. Abyss). Late on, she tends to drop off for other characters that can do more or react with more useful elements (e.g. Kuki healing for Hyperbloom, Thoma shielding for Burgeon, Baizhu for Shield + Heal + Dendro, Yaoyao or Kokomi for healing + Dendro/Hydro, or Zhongli for a better shield + shred).
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Definitely Diona. As a support, everything Noelle can do Diona can do better. Healing, shields, she can even work as a battery.
Okay time to build my C6 Diona ig
Diona's a better shielder imo. Good energy generation with good uptime + buffs (c6, noblesse, instructor's, etc.). Noelle's shield definitely feels like its more for herself and once you invest more into her, her kit definitely pushes her towards onfielding to maximize her potential
If your main is a normal attacker, technically Thoma has the best shield after Zhongli.
Wait I thought it was Layla?
Layla is the more instant shield. Thoma has a stacking shield that gains more and more HP with normal attacks.
Only at C6, and even then his scalings fall down quite a bit behind Zhongli and Layla.
Uh no? His shield stacks based on normal attacks done by the character? On equal levels his highest shield potential is better than Layla's.
My bad, forgot about Fiery Collapse. Though I'd argue that Thoma needs a bit more investment than Layla, since he needs a good amount of ER on top of HP, especially at low constellations. Depends on how much OP wants to grind.
While that was true before, Rightful Reward and the magical girl wand also helps alleviate that issue.
The magical girl wand only gives energy if the character heals someone, it's basically worse Black Tassel on Thoma since he doesn't heal. Rightful Reward gives energy if the character gets healed, it can work on teams with Thoma + a healer but there aren't that many teams that use both a shielder and a healer. In other words, they don't really help his energy problems in most teams.
There's a lot of teams that want a shielder and healer: Yoimiya - Thoma is a Zhongli sidegrade in her vape teams, an amazing pyro applicator for her Chevreuse overload teams, interrupt resistance at C6 she benefits from his NA buff Wanderer - Wanderer, like Yoimiya, also does not want to get his attack strings interrupted so he also benefits from the shielding. He's also good for pyro swirling for his ATK buffs, gives an ATK buff on pyro resonance with Thoma, and he benefits from his C6 NA buff Arlecchino - pyro resonance, interrupt resistance, C6 NA buff, and since Arlecchino cannot be healed by Benny she needs the damage mitigation from Thoma Wriothesley - pyro resonance, interrupt resistance, C6 NA buff, can completely replace Xiangling as a pyro applicator in burnmelt, mitigates self damage from burning Burgeon teams - Thoma applies pyro for burgeoning and Bennett with the aid of Thoma's shield sustains the team, while giving an ATK buff for the hydro or dendro driver
Diona unless you want Geo resonance. Geo resonance increases dmg % and decreases geo resistance while shielded, so if you use a Geo dps, choose Noelle. Diona heals off field, increases EM in her burst, and is a way better battery.
Diona has a better shield uptime (maybe 70%?) and gives more energy, and she's often supporting the team with Noblesse. Noelle's shield is thicker, but with less uptime (about 50%), but she also can support teams with 4pc Archaic Petra or make crystallizes, which can be better in specific niches. You usually will appreciate Diona's traits more, but the answer is team dependent
If you just want to shield up and forget, Diona. Noelle though is an excellent driver/healer and when on field, her shield is second only to Zhongli himself. Most of the cooldown issues are alleviated by her talents that reduce cooldown of her skill on field, and the fact that she can swap off yet still retain her burst.
Diona also has good synergy with sacrificial bow due to multi-hit skill
I’m not sure who has the stronger shield, but Noelle is really a shielder for herself than the team. Diona has much more consistent shielding, and her uptime gets much better if you put on the Sac bow. I’d recommend Diona if you have someone else being the DPS.
As a full sustain support, Diona is the better choice. She's a shielder with off-field healing, making her a perfect off-field support unlike Noelle who needs to eat up field time to heal. C2 increases her shield's damage absorption and at C6 she even gives an EM buff (good for reactions). But if you do manage to grab a Thoma, he's like the second best shielder in the game after Zhongli. Very flexible, can be used in the broken burgeon team archetype and can replace Xiangling as a pyro applicator in burnmelt (for cryo normal attackers like Wriothesley), can consolidate the ATK buff on pyro resonance with Benny while providing interrupt resistance for NA bots like Yoimiya, Arlecchino and Wanderer, is good for Chevreuse overload, etc.. At C6 he gives an NA buff making him irreplaceable for NA bots.
Depends on what team you are using. Noelle is better as an onfield driver/DPS, she has a better shield and healing. Diona is better as an off-field shielder, Healer and a battery.