Ningguang
GeoCatalystMain DamageTL;DR
Ningguang shoots gems, banks them, then fires the lot with a Charged Attack. Her Skill puts up a stone screen: walk through it for 12% Geo damage and leave it standing, because her Burst fires an extra volley through it. Normal Attacks to stock up, Charged Attack to spend, Burst on cooldown.
Rotation
- Skill (E) to plant the screen between you and the enemies.
- Walk through it. That's 12% Geo damage for the next 10 seconds.
- Burst (Q) with the screen still up, so it fires its own volley alongside hers.
- Normal Attack a few times to bank gems, then Charged Attack to throw them all at once.
Abilities
| Normal Attacks | Single gems that deal Geo damage. Each one that hits banks a jade for her Charged Attack. |
|---|---|
| Charged Attack | One big gem, plus every banked jade fired along with it. While she has any jades it costs no stamina at all, so this is the button she lives on. |
| Skill (E) | 12 second cooldown. Geo damage on cast, then a stone screen that blocks enemy projectiles and takes a beating based on her Max HP. Any character walking through it picks up 12% Geo damage for 10 seconds. One screen at a time. It can't be climbed. |
| Burst (Q) | 40 Energy, back in 12 seconds. A swarm of homing gems. If a screen is nearby it shatters and fires a second volley of its own, which is a large part of the damage. |
The one mechanic to understand
The screen is a buff you walk through.
Most people treat the screen as cover, which it happens to be. Its real job is the 12% Geo damage bonus it hands to any character who passes through it, plus the extra volley it adds to her Burst. So the order matters: screen down, walk through it, then Burst while it's still standing. Putting the screen up after the Burst wastes both halves of it.
What actually matters
- Charged Attacks are free while she holds jades. No stamina cost at all, so there's no reason to spam Normal Attacks past a few.
- Her Burst is cheap and comes back fast. 40 Energy on a 12 second cooldown means she can cast it every rotation without much Energy Recharge at all.
- Nothing she does reacts. Geo doesn't combine with the other elements, so her teammates are there to shred resistance or shield rather than to set anything off.
Gear
| Weapon | Crit and Attack. The Widsith from the standard banner has Crit DMG and a big random buff every time she swaps in, which she does once a rotation. Mappa Mare is craftable in Liyue if the wishes haven't handed you one. |
|---|---|
| Artifacts | 2-piece Archaic Petra for the Geo damage, plus 2-piece of anything with Attack on it. The full 4-piece only pays out if a teammate keeps producing Crystallize shards for someone to pick up. |
| Sands | Goblet | Circlet | Substats |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATK | Geo DMG | Crit | Crit / ATK |
Energy Recharge is not a stat she needs.
Works well with
Geo is the only element that does anything for her, through the resonance and a second character able to cut Geo resistance. Everyone else in the team is picked for shields or for what they do on their own.
Don't bother
- Elemental Mastery. Geo barely reacts.
- Charged Attacks on an empty bank. That's the version that costs 50 stamina.
- Using the screen as a wall and forgetting to walk through it.
- Stacking Energy Recharge past what the substats give you.
Want the full deep dive? Read Ningguang on KeqingMains.
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