Kaveh

4★

DendroClaymoreMain Damage

TL;DR

Kaveh belongs in a team with a Hydro character, because his job is turning wet enemies into a floor covered in Dendro cores and then setting all of them off. His Burst turns his claymore Dendro for 12 seconds and makes every core the party creates hit harder. Stack Elemental Mastery, swing, press the Skill to pop everything.

Rotation

Let your Hydro character soak the enemies first.
Burst (Q). Any cores already lying around pop at once and his claymore turns Dendro for 12 seconds.
Normal Attack. Every swing on a wet enemy leaves another core on the ground.
Skill (E) on its 6 second cooldown to set the whole lot off early.
Swap off when the 12 seconds end.

Abilities

Skill (E)	6 second cooldown. A scan that deals Dendro damage around him and makes every Dendro core inside it burst immediately, instead of waiting for its own timer.
Burst (Q)	80 Energy, back in 20 seconds. Pops the cores in range, then for 12 seconds his Normal, Charged and Plunging Attacks turn Dendro with a wider reach. Every core anyone in the party makes deals extra damage. It ends if he leaves the field.
Normal Attacks	A four hit claymore string. Ordinary on their own, but during the Burst each one on a soaked enemy is another core.

The one mechanic to understand

The cores hurt him, which is how he heals.

Dendro cores go off near whoever set them off, damaging your own character when they do. Most Bloom teams treat that as the cost of doing business. Kaveh gets healed by it instead: every core that hits him gives back health worth three times his Elemental Mastery, which on a proper build is a large heal several times a second. So the messy version of a Bloom team is the one he wants. You don't need a healer alongside him.

What actually matters

Elemental Mastery first. Core damage is calculated from it and so is his healing. Energy Recharge is the only stat that competes with it for a slot.
Crit still counts. The cores can't crit, but in most teams the Hydro character sets off more of them than he does, which leaves his own Dendro swings as a real share of his damage. Favonius Greatsword wants about 30% Crit Rate to fire its passive on top of that.
Energy Recharge for an 80 cost Burst. Somewhere between 170% and 250% depending on how much Dendro the rest of the team brings, with a second Dendro character at the low end. Favonius Greatsword covers a big chunk of that by itself.

Gear

Weapon	Energy Recharge. Favonius Greatsword from the standard banner carries it and its particles pay for his Burst with spares for the team. Forest Regalia is the craftable stand-in for the same stat. Ignore its passive, which rewards him triggering reactions he mostly doesn't.
Artifacts	4-piece Deepwood Memories. Cutting enemy Dendro resistance by 30% lifts every core the team makes, whoever set it off. If a teammate already wears it, 4-piece Ocean-Hued Clam turns the healing the cores give him into extra damage.

Sands	Goblet	Circlet	Substats
EM / ER	EM	EM / Crit Rate	ER / EM

Take the Energy Recharge sands when the Burst isn't back every rotation. With Favonius Greatsword, get Crit Rate to around 30% from the circlet or substats. A Healing Bonus circlet is the one to pair with Ocean-Hued Clam.

Works well with

Hydro

Dendro

Hydro is not optional, since without water on the enemy there are no cores for him to pop. A second Dendro character keeps the aura up while he's off the field.

Don't bother

Flower of Paradise Lost. It boosts Bloom damage for whoever set the core off. In most teams that's the Hydro character, not him.
A healer for him. The cores feed him more than one would.
Playing him outside the Burst. His claymore isn't Dendro until you press it.
Charged Attacks. They drain stamina for the same cores a normal swing makes.

Want the full deep dive? Read Kaveh on KeqingMains.

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