One of the best 4-star characters in Genshin Impact because of her big damage despite being a free character (especially on C6). Xiangling specializes in dealing damage off-field with her Burst Pyronado. It's one of the best sources of Pyro aura in the team.

This guide is based on the Community Character Builds by the Genshin Helper Team.

Skills Overview

Normal Attack: Dough-Fu

Normal Attack
Performs up to five consecutive spear strikes.

Charged Attack
Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way.

Plunging Attack
Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.

Elemental Skill: Guoba Attack

Summons Guoba, who will continuously breathe fire at opponents, dealing AoE Pyro DMG.
Cooldown: 12 seconds

Elemental Burst: Pyronado

Displaying her mastery over both fire and polearms, Xiangling sends a Pyronado whirling around her. The Pyronado will move with your character for the ability's duration, dealing Pyro DMG to all opponents in its path.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Energy Cost: 80

Ascension 1: Crossfire

Increases the flame range of Guoba by 20%.

Ascension 4: Beware, It's Super Hot!

When Guoba Attack's effects end, Guoba leaves a chili pepper on the spot where it disappeared. Picking up a chili pepper increases ATK by 10% for 10s.

Passive Talent: Chef de Cuisine

When Xiangling cooks an ATK-boosting dish perfectly, she has a 12% chance to receive double the product.

TLDR / Rotation

In Xiangling's rotation, it's rare (almost none) for someone to use her Normal Attack. Most of the time, what she did was trigger her Pyronado and leave behind a Guoba to recharge her Energy.
For example (the team in the image above Arlecchino + Thoma + Xingqiu + Xiangling): Arlecchino's Skill > All of Thoma/Xingqiu/Xiangling's Skill and Burst > Arlecchino's Charged ATK to gain Bond of Life > Spam Normal Attack > Repeat.

Simply change the DPS to any other character you want and you will still get the general rotation for Xiangling.

Speaking of Energy, it's best if the team consists of more than 1 Pyro (Example: Character + Character + Pyro Character + Xiangling) because Xiangling needs a lot of Energy to back up her Burst in the next rotation. Her best partner-in-crime would be Bennett because of his short Elemental Skill, great particle generation, and healer slash buffer.
If you bring along Bennett, make sure you use Xiangling's Burst and Skill AFTER Bennett's Burst and Skill because her Burst can snapshot the buff from Bennett's Inspiration Field.

Of course, there are also other options such as using Kitain Cross Spear/Favonius Lance for her Energy demands, or just use another Pyro character like Thoma.

Talent Priorities

Burst > Skill

Burst is the number one priority for Xiangling to be upgraded. Her Pyronado is the main attraction and deals significant damage even without reaction. Her Skill isn't to be laughed at either because even though Guoba is stuck on the floor and has the tendency to mistarget, a single hit from Guoba is as much damage as a single hit from the Pyronado.
Tips: Guoba can be sucked in with an Anemo grouper like Kazuha and Sucrose.

Constellations

Best Constellations: C1, C3, C4 & C6

C1: Crispy Outside, Tender Inside ⭐
Opponents hit by Guoba's attacks have their Pyro RES reduced by 15% for 6s.

C2: Oil Meets Fire
The last attack in a Normal Attack sequence applies the Implode status onto the opponent for 2s. An explosion will occur once this duration ends, dealing 75% of Xiangling's ATK as AoE Pyro DMG.

C3: Deepfry ⭐
Increases the Level of Pyronado by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.

C4: Slowbake ⭐
Pyronado's duration is increased by 40%.

C5: Guoba Mad
Increases the Level of Guoba Attack by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.

C6: Condensed Pyronado ⭐
For the duration of Pyronado, all party members receive a 15% Pyro DMG Bonus.

Recommended Weapons

1. Staff of the Scarlet Sands (5✩)
2. Staff of Homa (5✩)
   ~= Engulfing Lightning (5✩)
   ~= "The Catch" (4✩) [R5]
3. Primordial Jade Winged-Spear (5✩)
   ~= Skyward Spine (5✩)
   ~= Calamity Queller (5✩)
   ~= Deathmatch (4✩)
   ~= Ballad of the Fjords (4✩)*
4. Vortex Vanquisher (5✩)
   ~= Wavebreaker's Fin (4✩)*
   ~= Dragon's Bane (4✩)*
5. Missive Windspear (4✩)
6. Kitain Cross Spear (4✩)*
7. Lithic Spear (4✩)*
8. Favonius Lance (4✩)*
9. Prototype Starglitter (4✩)

Regarding Weapon Choices: THIS LIST ASSUMES THAT XIANGLING IS RUN WITH BOTH BENNETT AND A SECONDARY BUFFER (i.e. Kazuha/Sucrose)

1) Staff of the Scarlet Sands (ATK: 542 • CRIT Rate: 44.1%)

[Refinement 1] The equipping character gains 52% of their Elemental Mastery as bonus ATK. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, the Dream of the Scarlet Sands effect will be gained for 10s: The equipping character will gain 28% of their Elemental Mastery as bonus ATK. Max 3 stacks.

2) Staff of Homa (ATK: 608 • Crit Damage: 66.2%)

[Refinement 1] HP increased by 20%. Additionally, provides an ATK Bonus based on 0.8% of the wielder's Max HP. When the wielder's HP is less than 50%, this ATK bonus is increased by an additional 1% of Max HP.

3) Primordial Jade Winged-Spear (ATK: 674 • CRIT Rate: 22.1%)

[Refinement 1] On hit, increases ATK by 3.2% for 6s. Max 7 stacks. This effect can only occur once every 0.3s. While in possession of the maximum possible stacks, DMG dealt is increased by 12%.

4) Vortex Vanquisher (ATK: 608 • ATK: 49.6%)

[Refinement 1] Increases Shield Strength by 20%. Scoring hits on opponents increases ATK by 4% for 8s. Max 5 stacks. Can only occur once every 0.3s. While protected by a shield, this ATK increase effect is increased by 100%.

5) Missive Windspear (ATK: 510 • ATK: 41.3%)

[Refinement 5] Within 10s after an Elemental Reaction is triggered, ATK is increased by 24% and Elemental Mastery is increased by 96.

6) Kitain Cross Spear (ATK: 565 • Elemental Mastery: 110)

[Refinement 1] Increases Elemental Skill DMG by 6%. After Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the character loses 3 Energy but regenerates 3 Energy every 2s for the next 6s. This effect can occur once every 10s. Can be triggered even when the character is not on the field.
Notes: This weapon's passive reduces the ER threshold of Xiangling greatly. This allows you to distribute ER rolls into otherwise offensive substats and due to this, an [R5] Kitain Cross Spear can outperform Primordial Jade Winged-Spear. Due to lowering ER thresholds so much, the Crimson Witch of Flames (4) artifact set will outperform Emblem of Severed Fate (4).

7) Lithic Spear (ATK: 565 • ATK: 27.6%)

[Refinement 1] For every character in the party who hails from Liyue, the character who equips this weapon gains 7% ATK increase and a 3% CRIT Rate increase. This effect stacks up to 4 times.
Notes: At [R5], and with 2 stacks, this weapon performs equal to Primordial Jade Winged-Spear.

8) Favonius Lance (ATK: 565 • Energy Recharge: 30.6%)

[Refinement 5] CRIT Hits have a 100% chance to generate a small amount of Elemental Particles, which will regenerate 6 Energy for the character. Can only occur once every 6s.
Notes: The utility provided by a highly refined Favonius Lance can make it a weapon of choice in a team comp where Xiangling is not triggering the reaction and is instead used as an aura. (i.e. Reverse Melt teams)

9) Prototype Starglitter (ATK: 510 • Energy Recharge: 45.9%)

[Refinement 5] After using an Elemental Skill, increases Normal and Charged Attack DMG by 16% for 12s. Max 2 stacks.

Regarding Weapons and Artifacts with EM stat:
Dragon's Bane / Kitain Cross Spear / EM substats: In team comps where you can trigger both Vaporize and Overload at the same time (i.e. Raiden National), Elemental Mastery gets more value, pushing these weapons and artifacts ahead in damage.

Recommended Artifacts

1. Emblem of Severed Fate (4)
2. Crimson Witch of Flames (4)*
3. Noblesse Oblige (2) / Crimson Witch of Flames (2) / +18% ATK set (2) / +80 EM set (2) / Emblem of Severed Fate (2) [Choose Two]
4. Noblesse Oblige (4)
5. The Exile (2) Scholar (2)*

1) 4-Pc Emblem of Severed Fate

2-Piece Bonus: Energy Recharge +20%
4-Piece Bonus: Increases Elemental Burst DMG by 25% of Energy Recharge. A maximum of 75% bonus DMG can be obtained in this way.

2) 4-Pc Crimson Witch of Flames

2-Piece Bonus: Pyro DMG Bonus +15%
4-Piece Bonus: Increases Overloaded and Burning, and Burgeon DMG by 40%. Increases Vaporize and Melt DMG by 15%. Using Elemental Skill increases the 2-Piece Set Bonus by 50% of its starting value for 10s. Max 3 stacks.
Notes: This set can be competitive with Emblem of Severed Fate (4) on team comps where Xiangling triggers Overloads in addition to Vaporize (i.e. Raiden National).

3) Noblesse Oblige (2) / Crimson Witch of Flames (2) / +18% ATK set (2) / +80 EM set (2) / Emblem of Severed Fate (2) [Choose Two]

4) 4-Pc Noblesse Oblige

2-Piece Bonus: Elemental Burst DMG +20%
4-Piece Bonus: Using an Elemental Burst increases all party members' ATK by 20% for 12s. This effect cannot stack.

5) 2-Pc The Exile + 2-Pc Scholar

The Exile 2-Piece Bonus: Energy Recharge +20%
Scholar 2-Piece Bonus: Energy Recharge +20%
Notes: This set can be used as a very low investment support build to enable Reverse Melt team comps where Xiangling is not triggering the reaction and is instead used as an aura and needs a lot of Energy Recharge. Note that it is not recommended to stay on this build as Xiangling can still contribute respectable damage with offensive stats.

Team Compositions

Vaporize Team

Arlecchino / Hu Tao / Pyro DPS: Main DPS
Xiangling: Pyro Off-Field DPS
Yelan / Xingqiu: Hydro Off-Field Sub-DPS
Bennett: Healer + Buffer || Zhongli: Shielder + Elemental RES Shredder

National Team

Raiden Shogun / Tartaglia / Any other suitable DPS: Main DPS
Xiangling: Pyro Off-Field DPS
Xingqiu: Hydro Off-Field Sub-DPS
Bennett: Healer + Buffer

Burgeon Team

Tartaglia / Kamisato Ayato: Main DPS
Xiangling: Pyro Off-Field DPS
Dendro Traveler / Nahida: Dendro Applicant
Bennett: Healer + Buffer

Sukukomon

Sangonomiya Kokomi: Hydro Off-Field
Xiangling: Pyro Off-Field
Fischl: Electro Off-Field
Sucrose: Enabler

Mono Anemo-Pyro Team

Wanderer: Main DPS
Xiangling: Pyro Off-Field DPS
Faruzen: Anemo Buffer
Bennett: Healer + Buffer

Melt Team

Ganyu: Main DPS
Xiangling: Pyro Off-Field DPS
Zhongli: Shielder / Burst Support (If you build him)
Bennett: Healer + Buffer