Sayu

Sayu

4★AnemoClaymoreHealer

TL;DR

Sayu heals by rolling through enemies and swirling. Every swirl she causes tops up the whole party, by more the higher her Elemental Mastery. Her Burst leaves a little wooden helper behind that heals or attacks depending on how the team is doing. Hold Skill, roll through the group, Burst, swap.

Rotation

  1. Have a teammate leave Hydro, Pyro, Cryo or Electro on the enemies first.
  2. Hold Skill (E) and roll through them. Every swirl heals the team.
  3. Press the Skill again to stop rolling and finish with the kick.
  4. Burst (Q) to drop the helper for 12 seconds, then swap off.

Abilities

Skill (E) Tap to roll a short distance and finish with an Anemo kick. Hold to keep rolling for up to 10 seconds, steering as you go, then press again to end it early with a stronger kick. The longer she rolls the longer the cooldown afterwards, from 6 seconds up to 11. A held roll picks up whichever of the four elements she touches and adds damage of that type.
Burst (Q) 80 Energy, back in 20 seconds. Anemo damage, a heal for the party off her Attack, then a helper that stands there for 12 seconds. It attacks while everyone is above 70% health and switches to healing the worst-off character below that.
Her swirl healing A passive, not a button. Swirling while she's on the field heals every character for a flat amount plus 1.2 more per point of her Elemental Mastery, at most once every 2 seconds.

The one mechanic to understand

The rolling is the healing.

Her Burst looks like the healing button and it is the smaller half. The real healing comes from the swirl passive, which fires every 2 seconds while she is rolling through enemies that already have an element on them. It scales off Elemental Mastery rather than Attack or Max HP. That is why she is built for Mastery: the same stat raises her swirl damage and her healing at once. Against enemies with nothing on them she rolls around dealing Anemo damage and healing nobody.

What actually matters

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

  • Elemental Mastery. It sets her swirl damage and most of her healing. Around 700 is where she stops feeling thin.
  • An element on the enemies. No element, no swirl, no healing.
  • Energy Recharge for an 80 cost Burst. Around 180% if she's your only Anemo character.
  • The helper waits for 70% health. Below C1 it attacks a healthy party instead of healing, so it is not a top-up you can schedule.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Elemental Mastery, with enough Energy Recharge to keep the Burst up. Katsuragikiri Nagamasa is craftable, carries the Recharge and refunds part of her Skill cost.
Artifacts 4-piece Viridescent Venerer. Stronger swirls and 40% off the swirled element's resistance for the team, which is the set built for what she spends the fight doing.
Main stats Elemental Mastery sands, Elemental Mastery goblet, Healing Bonus circlet.

Works well with

PyroHydroElectro

Any of the four she can swirl. She wants one of them left on the enemies before she starts rolling, so an off-field applicator suits her better than a carry who applies while on the field.

Don't bother

  • Rolling for the full 10 seconds. Longer roll, longer cooldown, with your carry waiting.
  • Attack or Crit stats.
  • Her Normal Attack strings. The claymore is scenery.
  • Expecting the helper to keep a healthy party topped up below C1.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Sayu on KeqingMains.