Nahida

5★

DendroCatalystOff-field Damage

TL;DR

Nahida's Skill puts a mark on every enemy in front of her. 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. She keeps working 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. Hold it instead to pick out ones standing off at range.
Burst (Q) straight after.
Swap off and play your team normally. Every reaction they cause now hits everything you marked.
Come back and tap Skill (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. Hold it to aim instead, which reaches enemies further away than the tap does. Marked enemies take extra Dendro damage whenever a reaction goes off on any one of them. Everything else she does is a bonus on top of this.
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 does far more against a group than against a single boss. The trigger can come from any of your characters, or from the Dendro cores lying around. It can fire roughly every 2.5 seconds.

What actually matters

Elemental Mastery and lots of it. It feeds her damage, it feeds every reaction your team is triggering. 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

Weapon	Elemental Mastery, every time. Wandering Evenstar only comes from a wish banner featuring it, 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.

Sands	Goblet	Circlet	Substats
EM	EM	EM	EM / ER

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

Pyro

Each 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 the Skill for enemies already in reach. The tap catches them. The hold is for the ones at range.
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 tiny next to Elemental Mastery.
Playing her on the field. She can, she just gives up most of her value doing it.

Want the full deep dive? Read Nahida on KeqingMains.

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