Neuvillette

Neuvillette

5★HydroCatalystMain Damage

TL;DR

Neuvillette's damage is one move: hold the attack button and a river of water comes out for 3 seconds. His Skill and Burst are there to leave little water droplets floating around him. The Charged Attack pulls those in by itself, which starts the river almost instantly instead of after a slow wind-up. Stack Max HP and Crit, stay near the droplets and don't worry about anything else.

Rotation

  1. Set up your supports first.
  2. Skill (E) for droplets, then hold attack for a full Charged Attack.
  3. Burst (Q), then keep holding attack. Stay near the droplets rather than chasing enemies away from them.
  4. Aim for three or four Charged Attacks per rotation, then reset.

Abilities

Charged Attack Hold the attack button. A continuous beam of Hydro for about 3 seconds that costs no stamina. This is where all of his damage comes from.
Skill (E) A short waterfall that does some damage and, more importantly, leaves three water droplets floating nearby.
Burst (Q) Big area Hydro damage with a delayed second half and six more droplets. Cast it for the droplets as much as the damage.

The one mechanic to understand

Without droplets, the Charged Attack takes about 4 seconds to wind up before the beam even starts, which is far too slow to use in a fight. Absorb up to three droplets and that wind-up drops to about 1 second. The beam also drains his own health while it fires and the droplets heal that back, so absorbing them solves both problems at once. You don't collect them yourself. They hang floating wherever his Skill and Burst placed them. Using a Charged Attack drags any that are close enough straight into him. All you have to get right is standing near the droplets when you start the Charged Attack.

His Skill summoning the three glowing blue orbs. Start a Charged Attack while they're that close and they get pulled in for you.

What actually matters

  • Max HP is his attack stat. All of his damage scales off it. HP sands, HP substats and Crit on top.
  • Teammates who cause Hydro reactions. Each different kind of reaction your team triggers stacks up a damage bonus for him, up to three stacks. Three stacks is a very large multiplier.
  • Energy Recharge barely matters. Around 110% is plenty, which is unusual for a 5-star and makes the rest of the build easy.

Gear

Weapon Max HP, then Crit. Prototype Amber is craftable with an HP main stat. Its passive heals the party and gives him Energy back after a Burst, which covers his two small weaknesses at once.
Artifacts 4-piece Marechaussee Hunter. It boosts Charged Attack damage and gives him a large amount of Crit Rate whenever his health moves, which the beam's self-drain triggers constantly.
Sands Goblet Circlet Substats
HP Hydro DMG Crit / HP Crit + HP

An HP circlet is fine too if your Crit is already sorted by the artifact set.

Works well with

DendroElectroCryo

The point of these is variety, not raw power. Three different kinds of Hydro reaction in one team is what maxes out his damage bonus, so a mixed team beats a specialised one here.

Don't bother

  • Normal Attacks. Hold the button, don't tap it.
  • Attack of any kind. HP is his scaling stat and Attack does effectively nothing.
  • Stacking Energy Recharge. He needs very little of it.
  • Panicking about the health drain. It stops below half health and the droplets heal it back anyway.

Want the full deep dive? Read Neuvillette on KeqingMains.

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