Sandrone
CryoClaymoreMain DamageTL;DR
Sandrone's charged attack sends out a little machine that hangs in the air firing beams, and that's where nearly all her damage comes from. Her Skill puts her on a hovercraft, which makes the machine dump its charge into one big shot. So the whole character is charged attack, Skill, charged attack, Skill, about three times through, then Burst. She needs an Electro teammate or none of the good version happens.
Rotation
- Supports first, and make sure your Electro teammate has put Electro on the enemies.
- Charged attack to send the machine out and let it fire.
- Skill (E) to drain the meter into a big shot. Cancel the ride early with a normal attack or a dash.
- Repeat that pair roughly three times.
- Burst (Q) at the end, so it cashes in everything the machine burned off.
Abilities
| Charged attack | Summons the machine and sets it working. It sweeps the ground in front of her and periodically fires heavier beams, filling its own meter as it goes. This is her damage. |
|---|---|
| Skill (E) | She boards the hovercraft and drifts forward for about 6 seconds, steerable, and two Cryo shots go out as she gets on. While she's riding it the machine's meter drains fast, and that drain is the point. Only about a 4 second cooldown, so you'll use it constantly. |
| Burst (Q) | Costs 60 Energy. A barrage plus a long beam. The beam gets bigger for every chunk of meter the machine has burned off since the last time you cast it. |
| The machine's meter | Climbs to 100 while the machine is firing. Hit 100 and it flips to a slower, weaker mode and stays there until it drains back under 50, which is dead time you don't want. |
The one mechanic to understand
Stellar-Conduct and the field it leaves.
With Sandrone in the party, Superconduct stops happening and Stellar-Conduct happens instead. Triggering it drops a glowing field on the ground, and standing in that field is what turns her kit on: her beams get upgraded, and the shot she dumps out of the machine hits several times harder. Superconduct needs Cryo and Electro, she supplies the Cryo, so an Electro teammate is not a nice-to-have. It's the difference between her real kit and about a third of it.
What actually matters
The two or three real decisions. Everything else is noise.
- Don't let the meter fill. Use the Skill before it reaches 100. If it tops out you're stuck watching the slow mode for a few seconds and your rotation is ruined. If that keeps happening you're charged attacking for too long between Skills.
- Attack, not Cryo damage. Stellar-Conduct damage completely ignores Cryo damage bonus, so an attack goblet beats a Cryo one by a distance. This is the single most common way to build her wrong.
- Energy Recharge only up to about 140%. Past that it's doing nothing for you and the stats are better spent on crit.
Gear
A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.
| Weapon | Crit first, attack second. Tidal Shadow is free off a Fontaine blueprint and gives a big attack boost as long as somebody in the team heals occasionally. |
|---|---|
| Artifacts | 4-piece Disenchantment in Deep Shadows, which is built for this kind of damage. 4-piece Gilded Dreams is the stand-in while you farm it. |
| Main stats | Attack sands, attack goblet, crit circlet. |
Works well with
ElectroCryoElectro is the requirement. A second Cryo character keeps the aura topped up so the reaction keeps firing instead of stalling between her charged attacks.
Don't bother
- Normal attacks. Her string exists and it's not what you're here for.
- Riding the hovercraft for the full six seconds. Cancel out with a normal attack or a dash and get back to charged attacking.
- Elemental Mastery. It does something for the reaction, it just loses to crit and attack in every slot.
- Levelling her Burst before her normal attack talent. Her charged attacks run off the normal attack talent, which is nearly all her damage.
Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Sandrone on KeqingMains.