Mizuki

5★

AnemoCatalystSupport

TL;DR

Mizuki's Skill lifts her off the ground and drifts her forward, hitting for Anemo every so often as she goes. While she is drifting, everyone's Swirl damage goes up by an amount scaled off her Elemental Mastery. Once her Witch's Revelation quest is done, each Swirl she triggers in the drift also turns her next drift hit into a big one, again off her Elemental Mastery. Her Burst leaves a little creature following your team that drops snacks, which either heal whoever is hurt or blow up. So the job is: let the team put their element on the enemies, then drift through them.

Rotation

Send the rest of your team in first so there is Pyro, Hydro, Cryo or Electro on the enemies to swirl.
Burst (Q) if you have the Energy, which drops the snack creature for 12 seconds.
Skill (E) and steer her through the enemies. Her hits swirl on their own as she passes.
Stay in the drift until it ends, then swap back to your damage dealer. 15 second cooldown on the Skill.

Abilities

Skill (E)	One Anemo hit on cast, then she floats and drifts forward, hitting nearby enemies at intervals. 15 second cooldown. You steer the direction. After her Witch's Revelation quest, a Swirl she triggers in the drift makes the next of those hits a big one, worth ten times her Elemental Mastery on top, once every 2.5 seconds. In a Stellar Swirl team that big hit brings a second one of the same size with it.
Burst (Q)	Costs 60 Energy, 15 second cooldown. Sucks enemies into a pile, then leaves a creature following your active character for 12 seconds. It puts a snack on the ground every so often.
The snacks	Pick one up above 70% health and it explodes for Anemo damage. Pick one up below that and it heals you off her Elemental Mastery instead. Twice as much if Mizuki is the one collecting it. Left alone they explode by themselves.

The one mechanic to understand

The drift extends itself, but only while she is swirling.

The drift starts short and every Swirl she triggers while in it adds time, up to about double. So it runs its full length when she is passing over enemies that are already carrying somebody else's element and cuts off early in a clean fight. Teammates landing Pyro, Hydro, Cryo or Electro hits while she is drifting also feed her extra Elemental Mastery, which goes straight back into the Swirl buff she is handing out. With the Witch's Revelation quest done the drift hands out a second thing: everyone nearby gets 10% of her Elemental Mastery as their own while she floats. The quest also makes her Swirls count for her. Each one she triggers loads up her next drift hit with ten times her Elemental Mastery. If somebody nearby triggers a Stellar Swirl she spends the next 8 seconds in a state where the loaded hit lands twice, the second time as Stellar Swirl damage.

What actually matters

Elemental Mastery. The Swirl buff, her loaded drift hits, the Elemental Mastery she shares and the healing off the snacks all scale off it. It is the only stat on her that does more than one job.
Something on the enemy to swirl. She brings Anemo and nothing else, so send the team in first and keep her drifting over the enemies. That is what the buff multiplies and what pays for the extra time.
The healing is a top-up. A snack only heals somebody already hurt, so it is not a reason to leave a dedicated healer at home.

Gear

Weapon	Elemental Mastery, as much of it as you can find. Mappa Mare is craftable and does the job. The Widsith is the bigger number when its buff lands on the Elemental Mastery option, though you are rolling a die every time she comes in.
Artifacts	4-piece Gilded Dreams. 4-piece Viridescent Venerer instead when nobody in the team makes Stellar Swirls, since it strips the resistance of the element she swirls off everything she hits.

Sands	Goblet	Circlet	Substats
EM	EM	Crit / EM	EM + Crit

Crit on the circlet in a Stellar Swirl team, where her loaded drift hits are a real share of the damage. Elemental Mastery everywhere else. Around 120% Energy Recharge is plenty, since the Skill is the part that buffs and the Burst can sit out a rotation.

Works well with

Those four are the elements she can swirl and the four her Elemental Mastery passive watches for. Teams that leave their element on the enemy while she drifts get the most out of her. Cryo with a Snezhnaya teammate who turns her Cryo swirls into Stellar Swirls makes her loaded hits land twice.

Don't bother

Her Normal and Charged Attacks. The drift does the hitting and the Charged Attack costs 50 stamina.
Bursting every rotation. Building Energy Recharge to manage it costs you Elemental Mastery, which is the stat that matters.
Attack or Anemo damage. Nothing on her reads Attack, so Elemental Mastery is the stat behind every number she produces.
Recasting the Skill to stop the drift early. That ends the Swirl buff you cast it for.

Want the full deep dive? Read Mizuki on KeqingMains.

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