Columbina

Columbina

5★HydroCatalystSupport

TL;DR

Columbina turns your team's ordinary reactions into lunar reactions, the moon versions of them. With her in the party, Electro-Charged becomes Lunar-Charged, Bloom becomes Lunar-Bloom and Hydro-Crystallize becomes Lunar-Crystallize, all of them hitting harder the more Max HP she carries. Her Skill leaves a ripple that trails your active character, ticking Hydro and every few seconds landing a bigger hit of her own that scales off her Max HP. Her Burst lays down a patch of ground that boosts those reactions further. Press the Skill every rotation and the Burst whenever it is ready, then swap out.

Rotation

  1. Skill (E) to start the ripple. It follows whoever is on the field for 25 seconds.
  2. Burst (Q) if you have the Energy. The ground around you turns into her domain for 20 seconds.
  3. Swap to the characters who actually trigger the reactions and fight inside it.
  4. Come back when the Skill is off cooldown, about every 17 seconds.

Abilities

Skill (E) A hit of Hydro damage around her, then a ripple that follows your active character around ticking Hydro damage for 25 seconds. Lunar reactions your team sets off while it is out fill her gravity meter. 17 second cooldown.
Burst (Q) Hydro damage around her, then it converts the terrain into her domain for 20 seconds. Lunar reactions triggered inside get an extra kick that depends on which of the three it was. For Lunar-Bloom that kick is extra dew for the party, which matters to a team that spends dew. 60 Energy on a 15 second cooldown.
Her gravity meter Fills from lunar reactions while the ripple is out and discharges into the enemies when full, at most once every 6 seconds. The hit counts as whichever lunar reaction contributed the most, scales off her Max HP and can crit. Each discharge also gives her 5% Crit Rate for 10 seconds, stacking to three.
Charged Attack Ordinarily a slow Hydro hit in front of her for 50 stamina, which you can skip. If your team is holding dew from a Lunar-Bloom it becomes a free Dendro attack instead, three hits, no stamina.

The one mechanic to understand

She needs one of three reactions already happening.

Her passive only rewrites three things, so the team has to be producing one of them: Electro plus her Hydro for Electro-Charged, Dendro plus Hydro for Bloom, or Geo plus Hydro for Hydro-Crystallize. Once one of those is running, every lunar reaction the party triggers gains base damage from her Max HP, up to 7% at 35,000. The party's Moonsign also goes up a level while she is in it. The awkward case is an enemy that turns up with its own element already on it, since that can smother the reaction the whole team was built around.

What actually matters

  • Max HP. Her meter's discharge scales off it and so does the base damage she adds to the team's lunar reactions. One stat, both jobs.
  • Crit. The discharge is her own hit and it crits. Her passive stacks up 15% Crit Rate on its own after three discharges, so Crit DMG is the half you shop for.
  • Enough Energy Recharge for the Burst you actually want. It costs 60 with nothing in her kit feeding her Energy back, so forcing it every rotation as the only Hydro character means around 250% and the damage stats that paid for it. Casting it every other rotation halves that. The only team that needs it every time is a Lunar-Bloom team that spends dew, since the extra dew comes off the Burst.
  • One of Electro, Dendro or Geo in the team. Without a partner for one of those three reactions there is nothing for her to convert.

Gear

Weapon Favonius Codex is the accessible pick: it carries Energy Recharge and its passive coughs up extra energy particles, which is the cheapest way to make the Burst affordable. Prototype Amber is craftable, carries Max HP and refunds a little Energy after each Burst, so it suits her when the Burst is only every other rotation.
Artifacts 4-piece Silken Moon's Serenade, the lunar reaction set. Its 2-piece half is Energy Recharge, so even two of them help. A couple of 2-piece Max HP and Energy Recharge sets will hold the fort until you have four.
Sands Goblet Circlet Substats
HP / ER HP HP / Crit DMG Crit + HP / ER

Energy Recharge sands only if you are forcing the Burst every rotation. A Crit Rate circlet goes to waste, since her passive stacks 15% of its own.

Works well with

ElectroDendroGeo

Those three are the ones that make the reactions her passive rewrites. Anything else in the party is along for the ride.

Don't bother

  • Treating her as a pure buffer. Her meter's discharge is a real hit that scales off her Max HP and crits, so a Crit DMG circlet is not wasted on her.
  • Watching the gravity meter. It fills and goes off by itself.
  • Her Normal Attacks. She is off the field for nearly the whole rotation.

Want the full deep dive? Read Columbina on KeqingMains.

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