Varesa

Varesa

5★ElectroCatalystMain Damage

TL;DR

Varesa does her damage by falling on things. The loop is Skill to dash in, one tap of Normal Attack that comes out as a free launcher, then slam back down. One run of that fills her meter and lights up her fiery state. Once she is in that state every landing offers a cheap version of her Burst that skips the cooldown and tops the state back up. That is the button you want. She stays on the field the whole time.

Rotation

  1. Press Skill (E) to dash at whatever you are hitting.
  2. Tap Normal Attack once. It becomes a free Charged Attack that throws her into the air. Tap again while airborne to plunge. That landing fills her meter and drops her into her state.
  3. Do both of those again. Her state hands the Skill a spare charge, so it is ready.
  4. Press Burst (Q) as she lands. It comes out as the cheap version, which ignores the cooldown and refills the state.
  5. Back to step 1. Every plunge from here offers the cheap Burst again.
Varesa hanging in the air with a large purple diamond drawn around the middle of the screen
That purple diamond is the game telling you the cheap Burst is up. Press Q while it's on screen.

Abilities

Skill (E) Tap to rush forward and hit things on the way. For the next 5 seconds your next Normal Attack comes out as a free Charged Attack instead and she is hard to knock around. Two charges, 9 second cooldown.
Plunging Attack The damage. Hits everything on the way down and again where she lands. Outside her state each landing fills her meter.
Burst (Q) Two versions off the same button. The full one is 70 Energy on an 18 second cooldown and just puts her in the state. The one you press is the cheap version: it appears for a moment after a plunge in her state, costs 30 Energy, ignores the cooldown and fills her meter back up.
Her state Up to 15 seconds and the cheap Burst keeps extending it. Normals, Charged Attacks and plunges all hit harder and the Skill gets an extra charge.

The one mechanic to understand

The Skill loads the plunge. The plunge pays for the next Burst.

A plunge on its own is not worth much. Using the Skill loads a bonus onto her next ground impact, a modest one normally and a much bigger one while she is in her state. That bonus is spent the instant one impact connects, so the Skill is the thing you press before every plunge. The order to keep straight is plunge, then Burst, then Skill, because using the Skill closes the cheap Burst window.

What actually matters

  • Skill before every plunge. The bonus it loads is most of what a plunge is worth and one landing uses it all up.
  • Energy Recharge, but not at any price. Two cheap Bursts a rotation is the ideal, not a requirement. With a second Electro character feeding her particles around 120% to 145% gets there. On her own it would take close to 200%. At that point skip the stat: keep the Crit and Attack, take the cheap Burst when she happens to have the Energy and lean on the teammates instead. A missed cheap Burst costs far less than those artifacts would.

Gear

Weapon Crit first, then Attack. The Widsith off the standard banner is the easy one to have. Favonius Codex instead if her Energy is what's holding the rotation back, since it makes particles every time she crits.
Artifacts 4-piece Long Night's Oath, which is the Plunging Attack set and she is a Plunging Attack character. 4-piece Obsidian Codex does a similar job if that is what your Natlan farming has already handed you.
Sands Goblet Circlet Substats
ATK Electro DMG Crit Crit / ATK

Elemental Mastery does nothing unless you are pairing her with Dendro.

Works well with

ElectroDendroPyro

A second Electro is mostly about her Energy bill: it roughly halves how much Energy Recharge she has to carry herself. Dendro turns her hits into Aggravate, Pyro overloads them. Whatever the element, a Natlan teammate also feeds her Attack buff.

Don't bother

  • Standing there swinging. One tap after the Skill is a launcher and everything past that is time she is not in the air.
  • Standing about while the Skill is on cooldown. A paid Charged Attack, 50 stamina a go, still gets her airborne. The plunge off it is the smaller one without the Skill's bonus, but it beats waiting.
  • Holding the Skill in a fight. That is the overworld sprint.

Want the full deep dive? Read Varesa on KeqingMains.

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