Albedo

Albedo

5★GeoSwordOff-field Damage

TL;DR

Albedo's Skill plants a flower in the ground for 30 seconds. Anything taking damage inside it sets off a Geo bloom every couple of seconds, whether he's on the field or not. His Burst adds one big set of blooms plus a lump of Elemental Mastery for the party. Press both buttons, swap off, come back in half a minute.

Rotation

  1. Skill (E) on top of the enemies. A glowing flower plants itself where you aimed.
  2. Burst (Q) if the Energy is there. Seven blooms go off inside the field.
  3. Swap to your damage dealer. The field keeps firing on its own.
  4. Come back and press Skill (E) again when the flower disappears, roughly every 30 seconds.

Abilities

Skill (E) Plants the field for 30 seconds on a 4 second cooldown. Any enemy inside it that takes damage sets off a Geo bloom, at most once every 2 seconds. It doesn't matter who dealt the damage. Hold the button to choose where the flower lands.
Burst (Q) 40 Energy, back in 12 seconds. A Geo hit in front of him. Seven blooms go off inside the field as well if one is up. Casting it hands everyone nearby 125 Elemental Mastery for 10 seconds.
The platform Stand on the flower and it lifts you up on a crystal pillar. Genuinely useful for getting up cliffs. No part of his combat value.

What actually matters

The two or three real decisions. Everything else is noise.

  • His damage reads off Defence. The blooms scale off his Defence stat, so Attack on his weapon or artifacts does nothing for them.
  • One bloom every 2 seconds. That's the ceiling. Any team hitting things inside the field will reach it. Fast attackers don't get more out of him than slow ones.
  • The flower doesn't follow the fight. Drop it on the enemies rather than under your own feet. The 4 second cooldown means moving it costs you almost nothing.
  • The Elemental Mastery from his Burst is real. 125 for 10 seconds is worth pressing on the way out if the rest of your team triggers reactions.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Defence if you can find it, Crit otherwise. Cinnabar Spindle is the ideal pick, though it came from an event so you either have it or you don't. Failing that, Harbinger of Dawn is a 3-star with a large Crit DMG bonus that only applies above 90% health, which is free on a character who never stands in front of anything.
Artifacts 4-piece Husk of Opulent Dreams. It stacks Defence and Geo damage while he sits off the field, which is where he spends the fight.
Main stats Defence sands, Geo damage goblet, Crit circlet. An Attack main stat is a wasted slot here.

Works well with

GeoDendroElectro

A second Geo character gets you the resonance and more shields off crystallize. Dendro and Electro are there for the Elemental Mastery buff, which only pays out if somebody is triggering reactions with it.

Don't bother

  • Attack sands, Attack goblets or Attack weapons. Defence is the stat his damage comes from.
  • Staying on the field to swing his sword. Two buttons then swap.
  • Re-pressing the Skill early. The short cooldown makes it tempting, but a fresh field does nothing the running one wasn't already doing. Move it when the fight moves.
  • Levelling the Burst ahead of the Skill. The blooms from the field are the bulk of his damage.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Albedo on KeqingMains.