Genshin Impact Gorou build transforms him into the ideal Geo support

Looking for a great Genshin Impact Gorou build? Now that the Shadows Amidst Snowstorms event has come to a close, and the rerun banners for Eula and Albedo have finished, Gorou and Arataki Itto have finally arrived in Teyvat. The Geo duo is set to make the element even stronger, as Itto smashes stuff with his Oni club, and Gorou boosts the power of Geo-based parties through the roof.

This general of the Watatsumi Island resistance is one of the first element-specific support characters we've had in Genshin, increasing defense, resistance to interruption, and damage based on the number of Geo characters you have in your party. With Albedo's recent rerun, the new Geo artifact set, Husk of Opulent Dreams, and now Gorou and Itto, Geo is set to become one of Genshin's most powerful and utilized elements.

And Gorou is at the center of that, his elemental skill and burst helping to enable lots of different Geo character combos. If you're planning to lay your paws on Itto, our Golden Wolflord guide can help you get the Riftborn Regalia you need to ascend him. If not, read on for our best Genshin Impact Gorou build, as well as a fun free-to-play setup to try out on the top dog.

The best Genshin Impact Gorou build

Gorou is all about support, and while his burst does have AoE damage potential, it's better to use his banner-based buffs to help other, better Geo damage-dealers dole out some punishment. In this sense, the best Gorou build is one that allows him to use his abilities as often as possible, while also complimenting the buffs he already applies.

You'll want weapons and artifacts that focus on energy recharge, shortening cooldown, or granting party-wide bonuses. This build should do just that:

• Weapon: Favonius Warbow or Sacrificial Bow
• Artifact: (4) Noblesse Oblige

The Favonius Warbow is a four-star weapon that is a pretty common pick for support characters. This is because it grants energy recharge as a secondary stat, and means that crits have a 60 percent chance to generate six energy for the character every 12 seconds. As long as you prioritize building crit rate with artifact stats to some extent, this should occur consistently, letting Gorou use his burst more often.

Another top support pick for bow-users is the Sacrificial Bow, a four-star weapon that has a 40 percent chance of resetting a skill's cooldown when you damage an enemy with it. This can occur once every 30 seconds. The bow also offers energy recharge as a secondary stat, making it perfect for a support character.

For artifacts, Noblesse Oblige adds another dimension to the General's Glory banner Gorou gets from his burst. A two-piece increases its damage by 20 percent, but a four-piece boosts every party member's attack by 20 percent for 12 seconds, making it the perfect complement to the buffs that Gorou's burst already applies.

Genshin Impact Gorou F2P build

The support build above is quite free-to-play friendly and ideal for Gorou, so this time we're going to focus on another easy build that's a little fun, and should help him deal damage instead.

• Weapon: Alley Hunter
• Artifact: (4) Husk of Opulent Dreams

There's a reason miHoYo brought the four-star bow, Alley Hunter, back for version 2.3, and that's because it synergizes perfectly with Gorou's playstyle, and the new artifact set, Husk of Opulent Dreams. While a character is off the field, this weapon increases damage by 2 percent every second to a max of 20 percent. But while they are on the field, this buff decreases by 4 percent per second. Considering you'll mainly be using Gorou for his burst or skill, then switching to other characters, this works well.

The Husk of Opulent Dreams artifact set functions the same way, granting you a stack of Curiosity every three seconds you are off the field, or when you hit an opponent with a Geo attack. You can stack up to four of these, and each grants a 6 percent defense and Geo damage bonus. This set also grants 30 percent increased defense. Once you unlock Gorou's 'A Favor Repaid' passive, his skill and his burst both get extra damage that scales with defense.

All-in-all, this should mean that you can hit hard with Gorou's elemental skill or burst, then switch to another Geo character while Alley Hunter and Husk of Opulent Dreams buff his damage. If you hit an enemy with his skill, granting him a Curiosity stack, it'll take ten seconds to both accumulate three more and gain Alley Hunter's max buff. Ten seconds is also incidentally the cooldown for Gorou's elemental skill.

When you switch back to him after ten seconds, he'll have 20 percent more damage from Alley Hunter, a 24 percent Geo damage boost from Husk of Opulent Dreams, and 24 percent more defense, which should add to the defense-based damage buff that his elemental skill and burst benefit from. This will let you use his skill or burst, then jump back out again so other characters can benefit from the banner.

To make sure Gorou can use his burst consistently, also be sure to prioritize energy recharge as an artifact stat to some extent. And those are our best Genshin Impact Gorou builds. Good luck catching the good boy!