Why (Almost) Everyone Should Get C2 Furina

Furina is a Hydro Support and Sub DPS that is rightfully considered to be one of the best characters in the game in regards to her power and utility. In most teams, she is worth more than the single slot she takes up. This results in her being one of the highest demand units in the game when it comes to teambuilding. This guide aims to make the case as to why Furina's vertical investment is more than worth it for most players.

NOTE: I am not a theorycrafter. This guide comes from a purely observational perspective and no damage calculations will be provided in this guide. Please refer to a more comprehensive guide for calculations.

Furina's Constellation 1 "Love Is a Rebellious Bird That No One Can Tame" states the following:

"When using Let The People Rejoice, Furina will gain 150 Fanfare. In addition, Furina's Fanfare limit is increased by 100.

Essentially, Furina's C1 will grant you 50% of her C0 buffing capability immediately after using her elemental burst (Furina's max Fanfare at C0 is 300). In addition, the maximum amount of Fanfare that Furina can generate is increased by 100! Overall, you will start with a significant damage buff from the start of your rotation, but will also only have to generate 250 Fanfare points instead of 300 to reach Furina's maximum potential, meaning more maximum buff uptime and a higher damage ceiling. Furina's C1 is a great team damage increase in its own right, and you'd be reasonable to stop here, but there is more to come!

Furina's Constellation 2 "A Woman Adapts Like a Duckweed in Water" builds on Furina's C1 with the following effects:

"While Let The People Rejoice lasts, Furina's Fandfare gain from increases or decreases in nearby characters' HP is increased by 250%. Each point of Fanfare above the limit will Increase Furina's Max HP by 0.35%. Her maximum Max HP increase is 140%.

Furina's C2 increases the rate of Fanfare generation in addition to granting Furina additional HP when Fanfare overcaps. This has the effect of amplifying the rate at which you reach Furina's maximum buffing capability and allows overcapped Fanfare points to not go to waste, instead increasing Furina's personal damage by a great deal.

As mentioned earlier, Furina's Constellation 2 comes with a great deal of benefits. The changes and additions to Furina's kit from, her first two constellations may seem complicated, but they generally boil down to the following points:

• Direct increase to damage buffing capabilities through increased Fanfare limit and starting base of 150 Fanfare points upon the casting of Furina's elemental burst (C1), which is expanded upon through boosted Fanfare generation when HP increases or decreases (C2).
• Increase in Furina's personal damage through an increase in her Max HP when Fanfare generation exceeds the 400 point cap.
• Increased maximum buff uptime due to increased Fanfare generation. This results in more overall team damage from both your main carry and supports.

As you can see, Furina's C2 has clear benefits. That being said, Furina's C2 is not for everyone.

While Furina's C2 is a great boost to most accounts, there are some caveats to who can make the best use of her early constellations which will be mentioned in this section.

Those who "should" go for Furina's Constellation 2 are as follows:

• You already have at least four "premier" supports. This is a fairly general guideline, and your "premier" supports will greatly depend on your account. These will be listed in a Tier List later in this guide. This number can in fact include Furina herself.
• You have at least 2 Main DPS units. This is self explanatory. You need at least 2 teams to be able to clear the Spiral Abyss, and this ultimately requires you to have at least 2 Main DPS units. While a quickswap team can also be an option, these teams are becoming more niche as Genshin Impact progresses, and Furina is generally used in a team that has a main carry.
• You are already well invested into your favorite characters. If Furina is in fact one of your favorite characters, go ahead. Otherwise, make sure that your investment goes into your favorite characters before you vertically invest in "meta" characters as Genshin Impact is a game about collecting and using the characters you like.

It goes to say that if you do not meet the previous "criteria", then Furina's constellations may not be the best option for your account. However, there are some additional considerations:

• Do not invest in Furina constellations unless you have a healer built or your Main DPS has built in self-sustain, such as Clorinde. Yes, Furina can heal, but every second you spend in Furina's Pneuma state loses overall team DPS.
• If you are a newer player, investing in constellations is generally not advisable. Yes, you might seem to have the resources to be able to pull down a C2 Furina, but you likely have a limited roster, which was already mentioned previously as a reason to not get Furina constellations, but vertical investment early on can also hamper your ability to obtain future characters as a bulk of your primogems come from early to mid game exploration and questing.

So far, we have really only discussed the benefits of Furina's C2 relative to her kit, but there is a great deal of benefit from Furina's C2 that extends beyond her kit:

• Team Damage: As mentioned throughout this guide, Furina's Constellation 2 greatly increases the damage output of your entire team. This can result in faster Abyss clears or elevate a team that couldn't clear previously into clearing territory.
• Team Flexibility: Slotting a C2 Furina into a team can allow greater flexibility when it comes to the rest of your team slots. For example, Navia traditionally wants Bennett in her teams, but Furina's buffing at C2 can make it easier to sub another teammate such as Yelan or Fischl, allowing another team to make use of him.
• Less Reliance on Certain Team or Character "Gimmicks": Furina's buffing at C2 can allow you to lower your reliance on or even ignore certain portions of a given character's kit that otherwise can be difficult to work around or simply make clearing certain content difficult. Examples of this will be discussed in the next section.

As mentioned previously, Furina's C2 allows you to ignore certain team "gimmicks" that are a result of specific character kits and use them in a different way that may be more enjoyable or easier to build around depending on your account and playstyle.

1. Lyney: Usually, Lyney wants to be used in a Mono Pyro team due to his passive that grants him extra DMG% when his attacks hit an enemy already affected by Pyro. This maxes out when you have two additional pyro characters in the party. Furina enables you to use a Vaporize setup that can deal as much if not more damage than fully utilizing his A4 passive. While such a setup is completely viable at C0, Furina's C2 greatly increases the potency of Lyney's Vape teams.
2. Ayaka: Ayaka's kit, Cryo Resonance, and the Blizzard Strayer artifact set all push Ayaka to be used in a Freeze team. Unfortunately, such teams have rapidly dropped in viability due to the tendency for Spiral Abyss to contain bosses and other enemy types that cannot be frozen. Furina, especially at C2, can help alleviate this issue by granting Crit Rate through the Marchausse Hunter artifact set and a great deal of DMG bonus that elevates her Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill to another level. When paired with Shenhe and a VV healer unit or Xilonen, you create a powerful hypercarry team that can easily clear endgame content.
3. Chasca: Chasca's A1 passive both increases her personal damage and chance for an "extra" elemental bullet to be fired for each PHEC unit in the team, which highly encourages you to run a rainbow team. Furina's buffing at C2 can allow you to forgo one of these stacks and build a team that purely uses one reaction type such as Freeze or Vaporize. While you will lose some damage on occasion, you will still have a 66.7% chance to trigger the "extra" elemental bullet from her A1 as well as have a 35% DMG Bonus during her skill up time on top of Furina's already high buffing capabilities.
4. Hu Tao: Both Hu Tao's kit and the passive of her signature weapon Staff of Homa encourage her to remain below 50% HP for increased damage, but it is possible to forgo this in favor of Furina's buffing. This is more than viable with Furina at C0, but the increased buffing from Furina's C2 makes this an even better option for Hu Tao's teams. This can ironically increase Hu Tao's survivablility as a strong healer such as Jean or Xilonen can keep Hu Tao close to full HP despite Furina's HP drain.
5. Neuvillette: Neuvillette's A1 passive increases his damage for each unique Hydro reaction triggered up to three stacks. This should encourage a rainbow team, but Furina's buffing, even at C0, allows you to forgo one of these stacks in favor of her buffing. At C2, this can be extended further and allow you to even ignore two stacks of his A1 without sacrificing damage. This can increase the viability of a double geo core, mostly Xilonen and Zhongli.

In the end, what characters you pull for and vertically invest all depends on your preferences and what is best for your account. This guide simply outlines one avenue of vertical investment that in my belief is the most valuable in the game thanks to its sheer power and flexibility. Whether it be increased team damage, more team flexibility, or making it easier to work around certain aspects of character kits, Furina's C2 is arguably one of if not the best investments in the game.