Traveler (Anemo)

Traveler (Anemo)

5★AnemoSwordSupport

TL;DR

Everyone has this one already and switching to it costs a walk to a statue. Hold the Skill for a couple of seconds, drop the Burst on the pile, swap away. Both buttons pick up whatever element is already sitting on the enemies and swirl it. The artifact set you put on them strips that element's resistance off for whoever is doing the real damage.

Rotation

  1. Let a teammate put their element on the enemies first, so there is something to swirl.
  2. Hold Skill (E) for two or three ticks, then let go so the explosion lands.
  3. Burst (Q) into the group.
  4. Swap out. The tornado keeps working for about 6 seconds without you.

Abilities

Skill (E) A vortex in front of you doing Anemo damage, ending in a wider blast when it stops. Holding grows both the damage and the area. It stretches the cooldown from about 5 seconds up to about 8. If the vortex touches Hydro, Pyro, Cryo or Electro it takes that element on board and adds its damage, once per cast.
Burst (Q) Costs 60 Energy, back in about 15 seconds. A tornado that travels forward for about 6 seconds, dragging enemies with it. Picks up an element the same way the Skill does.

The one mechanic to understand

The tornado walks off with your enemies.

This Burst is not a whirlwind that sits still. It travels forward from where you cast it and hauls everything it caught along with it, which is useful for gathering a scattered pack and a problem when it drags them out of Bennett's circle or over a ledge. Cast it so the tornado's path runs through where you want the fight, not away from it. A Geo construct in the way will stop it dead, which is one way to keep the pile where you put it.

What actually matters

  • The artifact set is most of the reason they are on the team. 4-piece Viridescent Venerer cuts the enemy's resistance to whatever got swirled by 40% and that cut lands for whoever is actually doing the damage.
  • Elemental Mastery in all three slots. Swirl damage scales off Elemental Mastery and almost nothing else. They are not here to put numbers up themselves.
  • The element pickup chooses itself. Cryo goes first, then Pyro, then Hydro, then Electro. You cannot aim it, so to get a specific element absorbed, nothing ahead of it in that order can be on the enemy.

Gear

Weapon Exaiphanes Blade, free from the Snezhnaya Archon Quest and the best sword on every Traveler form. It costs nothing to level or refine: you take it to that region's Statues of the Seven. Iron Sting is the craftable stand-in until you have it, since Elemental Mastery is what the rest of the build is chasing.
Artifacts 4-piece Viridescent Venerer. Hand it to a different Anemo character if that one swirls more often than this one does, since the shred only lands off the Swirl that triggered it.
Sands Goblet Circlet Substats
EM EM EM EM / ER

Crit and Anemo damage bonus are both close to wasted.

Works well with

CryoPyroHydroElectro

Anemo does nothing by itself. One of those four has to be on the enemy or there is no swirl, no absorbed element and no resistance cut.

Don't bother

  • Tapping the Skill. Holding it is more damage over a wider area for a couple of extra seconds of cooldown.
  • Crit substats. Nothing they do wants them.
  • The Normal Attack talent. The wind blade at the end of the string does almost nothing.

Want the full deep dive? Read Traveler (Anemo) on KeqingMains.

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