Alhaitham

Alhaitham

5★DendroSwordMain Damage

TL;DR

Alhaitham's Skill hands him two floating green mirrors. While he has them his sword turns Dendro and every attack that lands sets the mirrors off for a blast of their own, which is nearly all of his damage. His Burst swallows the mirrors for a pile of extra hits. Stack Elemental Mastery and swing.

Rotation

  1. Skill (E) with nothing out. He dashes forward and two mirrors appear behind his shoulder.
  2. Charged Attack once for a third mirror.
  3. Normal Attack. Every string that lands sets the mirrors off.
  4. Burst (Q) with all three up, for the biggest version of it.
  5. Swap off. The mirrors are spent and his sword is just a sword until the Skill is back.

Abilities

Skill (E) A short dash that deals Dendro damage and makes one mirror, plus a second one if he had none to start with. 18 second cooldown. Hold it to aim the dash.
His mirrors Three at most. While he has any, his normal, charged and plunging attacks are Dendro and nothing can override that. When one of those attacks hits, the mirrors fire a Dendro blast, at most once every 1.6 seconds and bigger the more mirrors are out. They drop off one at a time every 4 seconds. All of them vanish the instant he leaves the field.
Burst (Q) 70 Energy, back in 18 seconds. Lays down a field of Dendro hits and eats every mirror he has to add more of them. Two seconds later it hands back three mirrors minus the number it ate, so a three mirror cast gives you none back.
Charged Attack Two quick slashes. Worth pressing because it makes a mirror once every 12 seconds, which is how you get to three without spending the Skill twice.

The one mechanic to understand

The mirrors are the damage.

His sword hits are the trigger and the mirrors do the work, so the number of mirrors out is the number you're playing around. Three is the target before the Burst, since the Burst turns each one into extra hits. If you'd rather keep punching after it, cast the Burst on nothing instead: it hands you a full set of three, at the cost of most of the Burst's own damage. Either way the mirrors follow him off the field, so there's no version of Alhaitham that does anything while another character is out.

What actually matters

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

  • Elemental Mastery, then Crit. His passive turns every point of Elemental Mastery into more mirror and Burst damage, up to double. Nothing else on the sheet competes with it.
  • The mirrors fire on a 1.6 second timer. Swinging faster doesn't produce more blasts, so there's no rush in the attack string.
  • The Skill is on 18 seconds and so is the Burst. They come back together, which is what makes his rotation the same shape every time.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Elemental Mastery. Sapwood Blade is craftable in Sumeru, carries Elemental Mastery and drops a small buff for the team on top.
Artifacts 4-piece Gilded Dreams. It's Elemental Mastery on both halves for a character whose damage is calculated from it.
Main stats Elemental Mastery sands, Dendro damage goblet, Crit circlet. Keep enough Energy Recharge in the substats that the Burst comes back every rotation.

Works well with

ElectroDendro

Electro is the one that changes his numbers, since the mirrors apply Dendro constantly. A second Dendro character mostly helps by keeping the aura up while he's off the field.

Don't bother

  • Attack main stats. Elemental Mastery beats them by a distance.
  • Leaving him on the field once the mirrors are gone. His physical sword string isn't worth the seconds.
  • Counting the mirror timers. Skill, Charged Attack, swing, Burst is the same rotation every time.
  • Physical or plunge builds. Everything routes through the mirrors.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Alhaitham on KeqingMains.