Gorou Build and Guide

Gorou is a 4-star Geo Bow character who is primarily played as a support for Geo and DEF scaling characters, offering buffs with his Elemental Skill and Burst. The former ability is the central focus of his kit. When cast, his Elemental Skill deals some minor Geo DMG, but more importantly sets up a “General’s War Banner” lasting for 10 seconds. This provides buffs to characters in the field based on the number of Geo characters in the party, including Gorou:

• 1 Geo: Provides a flat DEF buff of up to 371 at Talent Level 10

• 2 Geo: Provides resistance to interruption

• 3 Geo: Provides a 15% Geo DMG Bonus

His Burst mostly functions as an extension of this, replacing the field created by his Skill with “General’s Glory” for 9 seconds; this offers the exact same buff, but allows the field to move with the active character. Every 1.5 seconds, his Burst also minor Geo DMG based on Gorou’s DEF and pulls in a Crystallize shard towards the player. Most importantly, however, is that his Burst activates Gorou’s Ascension 1 Passive - allowing him to increase the team’s DEF by 25% for 12 seconds. 

It is worth noting Gorou’s buff is actually on the character in short intervals for 2 seconds at a time; this effectively extends Gorou’s buff durations and also allows it to linger for a short time after swapping off-field. 

His second Ascension Passive is of low value, merely providing additional DEF scalings to his Skill and Burst. His Normal Attacks are similarly lackluster, and only used when required to trigger Weapon Passives. 

Finally, as a 4-star character, Gorou has relatively accessible Constellations. His C1 reduces his Skill’s cooldown by 2 seconds once every 10 seconds when a character other than Gorou deals Geo damage, allowing him to more flexibly fit 2 Skill uses in certain teams. His C2 extends Gorou’s Burst duration by 1 second up to 3 times every time a Crystallize shard is picked up or Lunar-Crystallize is triggered, allowing his Burst’s buffs to last up to 14 seconds. C3 then offers 3 Talent Levels to Gorou’s Skill, allowing it to provide up to 438 DEF at TL13 for a minor increase.

Gorou’s C4 allows his Burst to provide healing every 1.5 seconds based on his DEF if there are at least 2 Geo characters on the team; while the healing is very minor, it can potentially suffice in place of a dedicated sustain due to Gorou’s teams tending to be naturally bulky. His C6, however, is the real reward: with 1,2, or 3 Geo characters in the team, Gorou’s Skill and Burst now provides a teamwide 10% ,20%, and 40% CRIT DMG respectively for 12 seconds - serving as a good damage increase.