Alyosha

Alyosha

4★ElectroPolearmHealer

TL;DR

Alyosha's Burst sends his companion out to fight next to you for about 14 seconds. While it's out there it heals whoever you're playing every couple of seconds and drags enemies off them. His Skill tags enemies first, and the companion smacking a tagged enemy is what hands your damage dealer an attack bonus. Tag, Burst, swap off, forget about him for the next rotation.

Rotation

  1. Tap Skill (E) at whatever you're fighting to tag it.
  2. Burst (Q) straight after.
  3. Swap to your damage dealer and stay near the fight so the healing reaches you.
  4. Come back roughly every 18 seconds and do the same two buttons.

Abilities

Skill (E) Tap to shoot the enemies in front of you for Electro damage and tag every one of them for about 15 seconds. Holding it aims at a wider group for a bit more damage. About a 15 second cooldown, and it's your main source of Energy particles.
Burst (Q) Costs 70 Energy. Puts his companion on the field for about 14 seconds along with a patch of ground that taunts enemies and shocks anything standing in it. The companion goes for tagged enemies first and pops their tags. Roughly an 18 second cooldown.

The one mechanic to understand

The tags are the buff.

The tag itself does nothing. It sits on the enemy for about 15 seconds waiting for his companion to hit that enemy, and that hit is what pays out: whoever is standing on the field at that moment gets an attack bonus for the next 15 seconds. That's the entire reason to press the Skill. Cast in the other order it still works, the companion just spends its first swing on an untagged enemy, so Skill then Burst is the habit worth building.

What actually matters

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

  • Energy Recharge, an unpleasant amount of it. A 70 Energy Burst is expensive and the Burst is the whole character. His passive also turns Energy Recharge straight into damage on his two buttons, up to a 70% boost at 200%. If he's your only Electro character you're looking at well over 200% and it will hurt. A second Electro teammate roughly halves the problem.
  • Attack, because attack is his healing. Every hit the companion lands heals your active character for a flat share of Alyosha's attack. That means attack substats do more for his healing than you'd expect, and a Healing Bonus circlet is a bonus on top rather than the main event.
  • A Cryo teammate switches on his extra trick. Cryo and Electro together make the new Stellar-Conduct reaction, which drops a glowing field on the ground, and standing in that field gives his tag payout an extra 20% Stellar-Conduct damage for your on-field character. Without Cryo he's still a perfectly good healer, he just isn't doing that part.
  • C1 and C2 are worth having. C1 gives him 15 Energy whenever the team triggers an Electro reaction, which takes a real bite out of that Energy Recharge requirement. C2 stretches the Burst to about 20 seconds, which is long enough to skip a cast now and then.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Energy Recharge, as much of it as you can find. The Catch is free if you've done any fishing in Inazuma and it's almost all Energy Recharge. Favonius Lance is the other pick, since it coughs up particles for the rest of the team as well as him.
Artifacts 4-piece Noblesse Oblige. He uses his Burst every single rotation, so the 20% party attack sits there permanently, and nothing else he could wear beats that.
Main stats Energy Recharge sands, attack goblet, Healing Bonus circlet. Crit does nothing worth having on him.

Works well with

CryoElectro

Cryo is the one that unlocks his extra trick. A second Electro character is mostly there to fix his energy problem, and it fixes it a lot.

Don't bother

  • Holding the Skill. It's a little more damage for noticeably more time standing still, and the tag is identical either way.
  • Building him for damage. His numbers are a rounding error next to whoever you swapped to.
  • Watching for the tags on enemies. Press E at the group, everything in front of you has one.
  • Normal attacks. His last swing does apply a tag, which is nice, and you will never need it.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Alyosha on KeqingMains.