Mavuika

Mavuika

5★PyroClaymoreMain Damage

TL;DR

Mavuika's Burst doesn't use Energy at all. It runs off her fighting meter, which your other characters fill by attacking, and once that's at least half full you spend the lot on a 7 second window where she rides a flaming motorbike and does the damage. Her Skill has two shapes: tapped it leaves a ring behind that shoots at things while somebody else is on the field, held it puts her on the bike. Tap the skill, hand the field to your team, come back and burst.

Rotation

  1. Tap Skill (E) to leave the ring out.
  2. Play your other characters. Their attacks are what fill her fighting meter.
  3. Swap back and press Burst (Q) once that meter is at least half full.
  4. Charged attacks on the bike for the 7 seconds it lasts.

Abilities

Skill (E) Tap it and she leaves a ring that follows your active character and hits nearby enemies every couple of seconds. Hold it and she gets on the bike instead, where all her attacks turn Pyro and she moves fast. Tapping again switches between the two. 15 second cooldown.
Burst (Q) No Energy cost. Spends the whole fighting meter on a slam from the air, then 7 seconds where her attacks stop draining her nightsoul meter and hit harder the fuller the fighting meter was. 18 second cooldown.
Her two meters Her nightsoul meter is filled by her own skill and drains while the ring or the bike is out. When it empties they vanish, so press the skill again. The fighting meter fills only from your other characters attacking, and it's the one the burst spends.

The one mechanic to understand

Your teammates charge her burst, not energy particles.

Nothing Mavuika does generates the fighting meter her burst runs on. It fills when your other characters land normal attacks, and faster when a Natlan character on the team spends their own nightsoul meter. That's why Energy Recharge is a dead stat on her and why the rotation is "put the ring out, go and play everyone else, come back". Half full is the minimum to cast, and casting at the minimum is a much smaller hit than casting at full, so the patience is the damage. Her passive pays the same thing forward: after the burst, whoever is on the field gets a damage bonus scaled to how much fighting meter she spent, up to 40%, fading out over the next 20 seconds.

What actually matters

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

  • Fill the fighting meter before you burst. Casting the moment it lights up works and costs you most of the damage. Give the field to your other characters until it's full.
  • No Energy Recharge. Not a little, none. Nothing she does spends Energy, so every point of it is a wasted substat.
  • The 7 seconds is the whole fight. Everything before the burst is setup, so plan buffs and shields to land on that window rather than on the ring.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Crit, then attack. Tidal Shadow is craftable and does well if the team has a healer. Serpent Spine from the battle pass hits harder if you own it and something is keeping the stacks alive.
Artifacts 4-piece Obsidian Codex. It wants her in her own state and swinging, which is exactly what the burst window is.
Main stats Attack or Elemental Mastery sands, Pyro goblet, Crit circlet.

Works well with

PyroCryoHydro

Cryo and Hydro give the burst window a reaction to work with. A second Pyro is there for the resonance and the attack buff, and any Natlan character fills her fighting meter faster than the rest.

Don't bother

  • Her normal attacks off the bike. They exist and that's about all.
  • Riding around outside the burst window as a damage plan. It drains her nightsoul meter and the ring is doing more from the bench.
  • Holding the skill when you meant to tap it. The ring is the off-field form and it's what you want out while the team builds the fighting meter.
  • Trying to have the ring and the bike out together. It's one or the other, and tapping the skill swaps between them.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Mavuika on KeqingMains.