Nahida
DendroCatalystOff-field DamageTL;DR
Nahida's Skill puts a mark on every enemy in front of her, and from then on any elemental reaction your team causes fires a free hit of Dendro damage onto all of them at once. Her Burst makes those hits bigger. You press both, swap away, and she keeps earning her keep for the rest of the fight without ever coming back on the field. Build her with Elemental Mastery and stop thinking about her.
Rotation
- Tap Skill (E) to mark the enemies.
- Burst (Q) straight after.
- Swap off and play your team normally. Every reaction they cause now hits everything you marked.
- Come back and tap E again when new enemies turn up, or when the burst runs out.
Abilities
| Skill (E) | Tap it and everything nearby, up to eight enemies, gets marked. Marked enemies take extra Dendro damage whenever a reaction goes off on any one of them. This is the whole character. |
|---|---|
| Burst (Q) | A field lasting about 15 seconds that makes the marks hit harder or fire more often, depending on who else is in your team. |
The one mechanic to understand
The marks spread damage, they don't deal it on their own.
Nothing happens until somebody triggers a reaction. Mark five enemies, hit one of them with Electro, and all five take the Dendro hit. That's why she's excellent against packs and only decent against a single boss. The trigger can come from any of your characters, or from the Dendro cores lying around, and it can fire roughly every two and a half seconds.
What actually matters
The two or three real decisions. Everything else is noise.
- Elemental Mastery, and lots of it. It feeds her damage, it feeds every reaction your team is triggering, and past 200 points it starts handing her free Crit Rate as well. Aim for around 1000 if you can get there. She's still fine at 800.
- She lends her Elemental Mastery to whoever is fighting. A quarter of the party's highest Elemental Mastery, up to 250 points, goes to the on-field character. If Nahida is the highest, that's a free buff for your damage dealer, which is one more reason to keep piling it on.
- Somebody to react with. Electro is the classic partner because that reaction keeps feeding itself, but Hydro and Pyro both work. On her own she does close to nothing.
Gear
A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.
| Weapon | Elemental Mastery, every time. Wandering Evenstar is craftable in Sumeru, has Elemental Mastery as its main stat and buffs the team's attack while you're at it. |
|---|---|
| Artifacts | 4-piece Deepwood Memories. The set drops enemy Dendro resistance by 30% when she hits them with Dendro, and every mark going off is Dendro damage, so it lifts the whole lot. |
| Main stats | Elemental Mastery sands, Elemental Mastery goblet, Elemental Mastery circlet. Yes, all three. Pick up enough Energy Recharge in substats that her burst comes back each rotation, roughly 150% if she's your only Dendro. |
Works well with
Electro
Hydro
PyroEach of these changes what her burst does for her: Electro makes the marks fire more often, Pyro makes them hit harder, Hydro makes the burst last longer.
Don't bother
- Holding E to aim. It's there so you can pick targets at range, and in a real fight the tap catches everything anyway.
- Crit stats. Her passive hands her Crit Rate for free once her Elemental Mastery is high, and Elemental Mastery is worth more per substat regardless.
- Attack. It is in her damage formula, it's just a rounding error next to Elemental Mastery.
- Playing her on the field. She can, she just gives up most of her value doing it.
Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Nahida on KeqingMains.