Dahlia

Dahlia

4★HydroSwordShielder

TL;DR

Dahlia shields. His Burst puts a shield on your active character sized off his Max HP. It hands the party a 12 second blessing on top. During the blessing your damage dealer's Normal Attacks bank replacement shields, so a shield that pops gets put straight back. They also swing faster, up to 20% quicker at 40,000 of his Max HP. Tap Skill, press Burst, swap away.

Rotation

  1. Tap Skill (E). The Energy particles it drops are what pays for the Burst.
  2. Burst (Q). The party gets his blessing for 12 seconds and whoever is standing there gets the shield.
  3. Swap to your damage dealer. Their Normal Attacks bank replacement shields as they go.
  4. Come back when the Burst is ready, about every 15 seconds.

Abilities

Skill (E) Plants a fountain of Hydro in front of him. An enemy that touches it sets it off for AoE Hydro damage. A party member who touches it gets launched into the air instead. Hold to place it somewhere specific. Only one of his can be out at a time. 9 second cooldown.
Burst (Q) AoE Hydro, a shield on the active character and the 12 second blessing on the party. The shield's size comes from his Max HP and it soaks Hydro damage at 250% effectiveness. 60 Energy on a 15 second cooldown.
His banked stacks Every four Normal Attacks your active character lands during the blessing bank one, to a maximum of four per cast. Each one is spent to summon a fresh shield the moment the current shield breaks to damage.

The one mechanic to understand

The 12 seconds after the Burst are the ones that count.

The shield is only half of what the Burst does. The other half is the blessing. While that is up, your active character's attacks speed up by 0.5% for every 1,000 Max HP Dahlia has, which is 20% at 40,000. The blessing is also what lets his banked stacks replace a broken shield, so the window where he is protecting anyone properly is those 12 seconds rather than however long a single shield lasts. Constellation 4 stretches it to 15.

What actually matters

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

  • Energy Recharge. The Burst is the character and it costs 60, with only his own skill particles paying for it. Solo Hydro wants roughly 250%, which drops a long way with a second Hydro character in the team.
  • Max HP. Shield size and the attack speed buff both read off it, so it is the only offensive stat he has. 40,000 is where the attack speed stops improving.
  • Frozen reactions. A character freezing enemies during the blessing banks him two stacks at a time, once every 8 seconds, which is far quicker than counting out Normal Attacks.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Energy Recharge, as much of it as you can find. Favonius Sword is the pick because its passive coughs up extra particles, which is the cheapest way to cut that Energy Recharge requirement down.
Artifacts 4-piece Noblesse Oblige. He bursts every rotation anyway, so the 20% party attack lands on whoever is doing the hitting.
Main stats Energy Recharge sands, HP goblet, HP circlet. Make the circlet Crit Rate if you are running Favonius Sword, since its passive needs some to trigger.

Works well with

Cryo

Cryo is the only element his passives reward, through the freeze. The shield and the attack speed are element blind, so anyone swinging a weapon benefits.

Don't bother

  • Crit or damage stats past what Favonius Sword needs. He is not here to deal damage.
  • Holding the skill in a fight. Tapping it is quicker and the particles are the reason you pressed it.
  • Counting his stacks. Your damage dealer is producing them just by attacking.
  • Walking into his fountain yourself, unless you fancy being thrown into the air.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Dahlia on KeqingMains.