Cyno

Cyno

5★ElectroPolearmMain Damage

TL;DR

Cyno's Burst is the character. It turns him into a spear wielding Electro machine for 10 seconds. Pressing his Skill during that window both adds time to it and fires off extra bolts, so the loop is Burst, swing, then Skill whenever the game tells you to. Up to 18 seconds of it. He runs on Elemental Mastery.

Rotation

  1. Let your supports go first. Dendro on the enemies before he starts swinging.
  2. Burst (Q). He changes stance, his spear turns Electro and a 10 second timer starts.
  3. Normal Attack.
  4. Press Skill (E) the moment his stance visibly shifts. It hits harder, throws out three bolts and adds seconds to the timer.
  5. Keep alternating until the state drops, which is up to 18 seconds in.

Abilities

Burst (Q) 80 Energy, back in 20 seconds. Puts him in his stance for 10 seconds, extendable to 18. His normal, charged and plunging attacks all become Electro that nothing can override, his Elemental Mastery goes up and he's much harder to interrupt. Swapping away ends it early.
Skill (E) A thrust on a 7.5 second cooldown outside the stance. Inside it, it becomes a heavier area attack on a 3 second cooldown that extends the stance every time you press it.
Normal Attacks A four hit spear string. Most of his damage lands here while the stance is up. His Elemental Mastery is added straight onto these.

The one mechanic to understand

Press the Skill when he changes stance.

Every few seconds inside the Burst, Cyno shifts into a readable pose with his spear held out. Pressing the Skill in that moment makes that cast do 35% more damage and fires three bolts on top. Those bolts hit harder than anything else he has. Pressing it at any other time still extends the timer, just without the payoff. It's the one bit of timing the character asks for, so watch him rather than the cooldown.

What actually matters

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

  • Elemental Mastery on top of Crit. His passive adds 150% of his Elemental Mastery to Normal Attack damage and 250% of it to the bolts, so it works like a damage stat here rather than a reaction stat.
  • Energy Recharge, enough for an 80 cost Burst every rotation. Roughly 130% with another Electro character in the team, more if he's alone. When the Burst isn't up he does almost nothing.
  • The stance ends if he leaves the field. Everything the team does happens before you press the Burst.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Elemental Mastery. Kitain Cross Spear is craftable in Inazuma, comes with Elemental Mastery and refunds Energy on the Skill, which suits his expensive Burst.
Artifacts 4-piece Gilded Dreams for the Elemental Mastery. Thundering Fury is the swap in a team where he's triggering reactions constantly, since it shortens his Skill cooldown and lets him press it more often.
Main stats Elemental Mastery sands, Electro damage goblet, Crit circlet.

Works well with

DendroElectro

Dendro is what his Elemental Mastery build is for. A second Electro character mostly solves his Energy problem.

Don't bother

  • Physical builds. His spear is Electro for the only part of the fight that matters.
  • Playing him without the Burst up. Wait the extra few seconds instead.
  • Charged Attacks. They cost 25 stamina and do less than the string.
  • Swapping out mid stance to fit in a teammate's buff. The stance goes with him.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Cyno on KeqingMains.