Mualani

Mualani

5★HydroCatalystMain Damage

TL;DR

Mualani's Skill puts her on a surfboard and burns her Nightsoul meter while she's on it. Ride into enemies to build three momentum stacks, then attack: the third stack turns her bite into the big one that hits every enemy she's bumped into. Bump, bump, bump, bite. Everything she does scales off her Max HP.

Rotation

  1. Skill (E) to get on the board. Her Nightsoul meter fills to 60 and starts draining.
  2. Surf through the enemies. Every one you touch gets marked and gives you a momentum stack, three at most.
  3. Normal Attack at three stacks. The bite is visibly bigger and it fires missiles at every marked enemy.
  4. Pick up the pufferball it leaves behind for 20 Nightsoul back, then go again.
  5. Burst (Q) while she's still on the board. It doesn't need the meter itself, but the artifact set only pays out while she's surfing.

Abilities

Skill (E) 6 second cooldown. Gives her 60 Nightsoul points and puts her on the board. She moves fast, is hard to interrupt and can ride across water. Pressing it again gets off early.
Normal Attacks On the board they become bites that deal Hydro damage off her Max HP, one every 1.8 seconds, usable in the air. Off the board they're ordinary catalyst swipes and not worth your time.
Her momentum Touching an enemy on the board marks it and gives her a stack, up to three, no more than one stack per enemy every 0.7 seconds. Stacks make the bite bigger. The third one turns it into the enhanced bite, which clears the stacks when it lands.
Burst (Q) 60 Energy, back in 15 seconds. A homing missile that does area Hydro damage off her Max HP.

The one mechanic to understand

You steer into enemies on purpose.

Nothing about her rewards standing still. Contact is what marks an enemy and what builds her stacks, so the board is a weapon rather than a way of getting around. Once you have three stacks the next bite hits the enemy in front of you and then throws missiles at up to five others you've already marked, which is why a lap through the pack beats bumping the same target three times. Marks come off as the missiles land, so the next lap has to re-apply them.

What actually matters

  • Max HP is her damage stat. Bites, missiles and Burst all scale off it. Attack does nothing.
  • The pufferballs are your fuel. Each enhanced bite drops one. Picking it up hands back 20 Nightsoul points. Two per trip on the board, so grab them rather than surfing past.
  • Multiple enemies split the damage. Hitting three at once takes each hit down to about 72% of its solo number. Still more total damage, just not free.

Gear

Weapon Max HP with Crit behind it. Prototype Amber is craftable and carries HP, which is the stat that counts even though its own passive does little for her.
Artifacts 4-piece Obsidian Codex. It pays out while she's in her Nightsoul state, which is the only time she's doing anything.
Sands Goblet Circlet Substats
HP Hydro DMG Crit Crit / HP

Works well with

PyroAnemo

Pyro is what her Hydro is for, since one bite soaks a target thoroughly. Anemo drags the pack together so a single lap marks everything. Other Natlan characters feed her too: their Nightsoul bursts stack a bonus onto her own Burst.

Don't bother

  • Attack stats of any kind.
  • Biting at one or two stacks. Take the lap.
  • Her Charged Attack. 50 stamina for a pufferball lob.
  • Saving the Burst. Fire it while she still has stacks banked from teammates' Nightsoul bursts.

Want the full deep dive? Read Mualani on KeqingMains.

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