Illuga
GeoPolearmSupportTL;DR
Illuga's Burst is the whole character. It puts a pile of stacks on the party, and every Geo hit anyone lands spends one stack to come out bigger. How much bigger is a slice of Illuga's Elemental Mastery, and it's several times larger when the hit is a Lunar-Crystallize reaction. His Skill exists to make Energy particles. Press Skill, press Burst, leave.
Rotation
- Skill (E) for the particles.
- Burst (Q) straight after.
- Swap to your Geo damage dealer and spend the stacks.
- Back in roughly every 20 seconds for the same two buttons.
Abilities
| Skill (E) | Sends his bird at whatever is in front for a small amount of Geo damage. Hold to aim it at something further away. About a 15 second cooldown, and the particles are the reason you press it. |
|---|---|
| Burst (Q) | Costs 60 Energy. For about 20 seconds the party carries 21 stacks. Any Geo damage anyone deals eats a stack and gets bigger. Geo constructs sitting on the field when you cast, or made during it, add five stacks each up to three of them. |
The one mechanic to understand
The stacks run out before the timer does.
21 stacks sounds generous until you notice that hitting three enemies at once spends three of them. That's what the construct bonus is for: anything your team plants on the ground counts, and so do the little moon constructs the Lunar-Crystallize reaction scatters about, so a team already doing that reaction usually walks in with closer to 36. Once the stacks are gone the buff is over whether or not the 20 seconds are up, which is the honest reason he'd rather be in a team that makes constructs than one that doesn't.
What actually matters
The two or three real decisions. Everything else is noise.
- Elemental Mastery, and nothing else. The buff is a straight percentage of it. Sands, goblet, circlet, substats, all of it.
- Energy Recharge, enough to Burst every rotation. The Burst is the character and only his Skill makes particles, so around 165% if nobody else is feeding him. Put it on the sands if you can't get there on substats.
- He can't start the reaction himself. He makes Lunar-Crystallize hit harder, he can't cause one. That needs Geo landing on a Hydro-soaked enemy, so somebody else in the team has to be doing it.
Gear
A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.
| Weapon | Elemental Mastery. Dragon's Bane is craftable and carries more of it than any polearm you're likely to own. Favonius Lance instead if the team's energy is tight, since the particles solve a problem the Elemental Mastery doesn't. |
|---|---|
| Artifacts | 4-piece Silken Moon's Serenade, which is built for exactly this. 4-piece Instructor is the cheap stand-in and hands the party Elemental Mastery of its own. |
| Main stats | Elemental Mastery sands, Elemental Mastery goblet, Elemental Mastery circlet. Energy Recharge on the sands instead if the Burst isn't coming back. |
Works well with
Geo
HydroHis passive counts the Hydro and Geo characters in the party and pays out more for each, up to three, and he's one of the three. So two more between those two elements is the target.
Don't bother
- His own damage. The bird does about as much as you'd expect a bird to do.
- Crit stats, unless you gave him Favonius Lance and want its passive to fire.
- Holding the Skill. Tapping is faster and the particles are the same.
- Bringing him to a team with no Geo damage in it. Every stack he hands out only touches Geo hits.
Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Illuga on KeqingMains.