Ningguang

Ningguang

4★GeoCatalystMain Damage

TL;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

  1. Skill (E) to plant the screen between you and the enemies.
  2. Walk through it. That's 12% Geo damage for the next 10 seconds.
  3. Burst (Q) with the screen still up, so it fires its own volley alongside hers.
  4. 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

The two or three real decisions. Everything else is noise.

  • 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

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Crit and Attack. Solar Pearl from the Battle Pass boosts her normal and Charged Attacks, which is everything she presses. Blackcliff Agate out of Paimon's shop is the easier one to get and gives Crit DMG instead.
Artifacts Two pieces of Archaic Petra for the Geo damage, plus two of anything with Attack on it. The full four-piece only pays out if a teammate keeps producing crystallize shards for someone to pick up.
Main stats Attack sands, Geo damage goblet, Crit circlet. Energy Recharge is not a stat she needs.

Works well with

Geo

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 theorycrafting version? Read Ningguang on KeqingMains.