Yeah, Keqing is pretty great now in Aggravate teams. Pair her with Collei and either Fischl or Shinobu and you've got some shredding potential.
So I realized I have Shinobu. Not sure about a 4th for the party, I just threw Barbara in for healing and wetting enemies since I have 2 Electros.
But yeah, they really rip through everything. Only real weakness is wood shield mini bosses, since you just need to grind damage against them and can't bust the shield.
The only pyros I've unlocked is Amber and Xialing, but I don't know if I want to lose the healing since Keqing, Collei and Shinobu are all pretty fragile.
-Loki- on
0
Options
BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
Wood shield mitachurls have windows of opportunity to them from behind as they charge or attack, but they won't do those abilities if you continuously attack them as they'll focus on shieldwalling. Just bait them into an attack, dodge it and then damage.
Bloom reactions may render this unnecessary as they often hit enemies from above, but I haven't properly tested how consistent this is.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
0
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I don't know if you feel comfortable, but Kuki's E is a heal as well. That could free up a spot in the party for either Fischl, to help with energy needs, or Sucrose.
From what I've seen there's been many reasons to throw Sucrose into a team as she's considered one of those must-have units I don't have
I've built her but never really got the hang of using her, granted I still don't have many constellations for her. Now that I have Kazuha I don't see myself using Sucrose at all.
Hmmm. I still like Barbara in there. Healing in a fragile team and wetting in a team with two Electros is real useful.
Shinobus heal is okay but the self damage means you need to keep it on her for a few pulses before swapping to a character that needs it.
Shinobu's heal deals 30% of current hp as damage (also it can't drop her below 20%). If she is below 50% hp she gains +healing and her burst deals damage longer. Combined those mean that you should just let her drop below 50% and use her heals on other people. Just put all the HP artifacts you can find on her, that way even when she is low on health she will still have enough hp not to die from one hit.
Yeah, I think sucrose is theoretically better at doing aoe swirl, but between kaz and venti, I've never bothered building her. Farming a single full virdecent EM build was enough for me
You can also just use Shinobu's skill and... not switch her out. If she's built right, the healing offsets the self damage.
In the middle of a combat that's usually a big dps loss unless you are hitting her burst next. Leveling her normal attack is a waste of talent books so better to swap into somebody who can deal damage ASAP. Not to mention it's better to just let her take the self-damage so she'll get below 50% hp.
Of course, in actual play I often end up healing her even if I shouldn't, if not in combat then between combats. But in harder fights she might drop low and I don't have the time to heal her and that's when her low hp bonuses kick in. I really like her heal - with the short CD, long duration and quick ticks, even without constellations the heal itself is great. Her biggest weakness is the lack of a cheap, good weapon option: no TTDS for sword users.
+2
Options
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
edited November 2022
I’ll give Sucrose another try and load Shinobu up on +hp.
edit - man, my old team that I ran around with using the story characters to unlock for free just doesn't stack up against this team. The other team is Aenemo Lumine, Amber, Noelle and Barbara. Basically I'd run around with Lumine as my main DPS, swap to Noelle if I needed to be more tanky, swap to Barbara for healing and pretty must just use Amber for busting water/cryo and wood shields.
I'd get through everything, but fights would take while. Lumine just didn't seem that great for being the main DPS, but I just wanted to keep using her since, well, her story.
This team though. Starting off with Collei to place Spread or Bloom and then Keqing to hit Aggravate just shreds those same fights.
Slowly gettting used to Shinobus healing. It's a different way of doing it, but yeah the fact that you can do it between fights and don't need an enemy to hit to trigger it means you can just activate it, heal Shinobu back to full, then swap between party members for the remaining ticks and keep doing that so everyone is full for the next fight.
You can also just use Shinobu's skill and... not switch her out. If she's built right, the healing offsets the self damage.
In the middle of a combat that's usually a big dps loss unless you are hitting her burst next. Leveling her normal attack is a waste of talent books so better to swap into somebody who can deal damage ASAP. Not to mention it's better to just let her take the self-damage so she'll get below 50% hp.
Of course, in actual play I often end up healing her even if I shouldn't, if not in combat then between combats. But in harder fights she might drop low and I don't have the time to heal her and that's when her low hp bonuses kick in. I really like her heal - with the short CD, long duration and quick ticks, even without constellations the heal itself is great. Her biggest weakness is the lack of a cheap, good weapon option: no TTDS for sword users.
If you go, like, Shinobu/Yelan/Raiden/Nahida and you just need somebody on field doing normals to play the dice, having Shinobu be that somebody isn't that big of a deal, right?
You can also just use Shinobu's skill and... not switch her out. If she's built right, the healing offsets the self damage.
In the middle of a combat that's usually a big dps loss unless you are hitting her burst next. Leveling her normal attack is a waste of talent books so better to swap into somebody who can deal damage ASAP. Not to mention it's better to just let her take the self-damage so she'll get below 50% hp.
Of course, in actual play I often end up healing her even if I shouldn't, if not in combat then between combats. But in harder fights she might drop low and I don't have the time to heal her and that's when her low hp bonuses kick in. I really like her heal - with the short CD, long duration and quick ticks, even without constellations the heal itself is great. Her biggest weakness is the lack of a cheap, good weapon option: no TTDS for sword users.
If you go, like, Shinobu/Yelan/Raiden/Nahida and you just need somebody on field doing normals to play the dice, having Shinobu be that somebody isn't that big of a deal, right?
i've basically been doing that team, but with xingQ instead of yelan. it's pretty solid. usually raiden is doing the autos with her burst, then by the time all e skills are cycled she's usually bursting again.
Sucrose is still one of my go-to's for the earlier abyss floors. she just hits such a wide area, it really cleans up those aoe-style rooms. just needs a decent R-lvl sac frags to feel great.
Does vv shred stack with big zhong energy shield shred?
Yes, but shred is only half as effective once an enemy runs out of positive elemental defense. Most of them only have 10% resistance to most elements, so either VV or ZL will put them below zero on its own.
World Level 6 achieved and now I'm starting to feel it in Domains. Still not weak, I can murder things in the overworld just fine, but when a Domain is doing things like constantly keeping my stamina at 0 so I can barely dodge with continuous AoE icicles stunlocking then it takes several minutes to clear.
Started to explore Inazuma now that I'm free of Ritou and this place is very different from Liyue. Tons of named top screen health bar minibosses scattered around and I've not only got to level the Statue with electro balls but a whole other tree with the electro sigils that goes to Level 50. Currently working on the Cleansing quest line before I get back to the main one.
Yeah, a shield helps for that domain, but it's just bad in general
0
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I don't know if you have her but Yanfei does a pretty good job breaking that domain since her regular attacks melt their shields. Her and Fischl together do a great job blowing things up, and Diona's shield can protect you from the ice damage.
I don't have her, but also I don't have resources to be building units other than my primary DPS at this point otherwise I could sling around Xiangling and Xingqiu. Following a sort of video "guide" for what to do at each range of AR to ensure I can tackle each increase of World Level and feel strong enough doing so.
Right now the key facets of AR 45-50 are:
- Level Jean (my main DPS) to 79 [Done]
- Level Jean's weapon to 80 [Done]
- Level Jean's talents to 8 [6/6/8 currently because weekly limit]
- Get 5 Star artifacts with good main stats, don't focus on sub stats yet [Almost done, need a 5 Star Viridescent hat]
- Get those 5 Star Artifacts to 20 [Just need new hat]
- Gather materials for final Character Ascension [Done] + EXP to take them to 90 [Done]
- Gather materials for final Weapon Ascension [Few more gold balls needed] + EXP to take it to 90 [Done]
- Replace support unit artifacts with 5 Star versions as able
In the previous step I did this and also brought the supports to Ascension 4 (final passive), maxed their talents, weapons, and leveled to 69. This was so that I could then reserve all the EXP and other resources for Jean to ensure I'll have enough at AR 50 to immediately finish her build.
Then I'll be able to start building other units since I'll have a rock solid foundation to work from.
+1
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Right I forgot you were using Jean as your main DPS. At least then you have your healing taken care of as well, and her Ult clears the frost effect on your characters so you could at least have a short reprieve from the stamina drain.
Yeah her elemental burst is definitely what's kept me standing in some fights, especially vs things like lawachurls and abyss mages, and combining it with Bennett's chunks down health bars with lightning speed. If Rosaria and Fischl can set theirs down at the same time then things really get cooking
If you're running her as a main dps, you probably aren't getting THAT much mileage out of the shred effect, since it's mostly to help the other element. might be worth dropping to do 2/2 with vv and gladiator or some other damage set
If you're running her as a main dps, you probably aren't getting THAT much mileage out of the shred effect, since it's mostly to help the other element. might be worth dropping to do 2/2 with vv and gladiator or some other damage set
Swirl's own damage benefits since it has the type of the swirled element. Jean may not be getting as much of her damage from that as Sucrose would though.
- Gather materials for final Character Ascension [Done] + EXP to take them to 90 [Done]
- Gather materials for final Weapon Ascension [Few more gold balls needed] + EXP to take it to 90 [Done]
Leveling everybody to 90 is really wasteful btw, most characters (even dps) are just fine at 80 and it takes a metric shit-ton of xp books and mora to get there. Jean might be an exception since she uses swirl which scales with level.
ETA: Even with characters that make sense to level to 90 I leave them at 89. That way I can see from their xp bar just how much I've used them in the overworld - my Zhongli has gotten over 450k xp just from killing stuff.
Mirkel on
+3
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Yeah, no sense getting everyone to 90 until you've been going for a long time. I've been working on getting everyone to 90 for a hot minute just for fun (except Kaeya, fuck that guy). It makes a difference, but it's not huge for most of them unlike Anemo and Dendro characters.
Hey folks, could use a bit of advice. I played a year or so back on the PS4 and instead of jumping back in on that account, I am playing on PC from the beginning to relearn the game and all it's confusing stuff. So anyway here's what's what.
AR 14(trying to get to 15 so I can Ascend someone)
My roster:
Amber 11/20
Noelle 20/20 (Somewhere I heard it was good to max her in the beginning?)
Traveler 16/20 (It's a bit strange that your character in the game is not really important, unless I'm missing something)
Lisa 11/20
Xingqiu 20/20 (I was/am thinking of as Main)
Thoma 10/20
Tighnari 1/20 (Just pulled her/him last night before logging off - Main maybe?)
I'm looking at a few party variations but this is what I plan on running right now: (Tighnari/Xingqiu/Thoma/Lisa)
As for what I'm doing in game, I'm basically just running around, completing quests, doing Commisions, and looking for Aeronoculi(?) to get my Stamina up.
So my basic questions is what should I do? With an emphasis on Characters/Leveling/Ascending and anything in game I might be missing out on doing.
Noelle is okay but falls off (then at c6 and the right gear she can be a beast, but)
Traveler is alright, dendro is the best element on them easily, though geo has uses for exploration and anemo is fine early game.
Xingqiu is one of the best 4*s in the game, absolutely worth leveling to make use of his burst. (Anyone with good off-field element application tends to be useful)
Tighnari I'm not sure who he works best with, but he's good. Should play nicely with Lisa or possibly Xingqiu's bursts for reactions.
Lisa is decent, but overshadowed by Fischl most of the time.
Amber is only really useful for puzzles - bow characters are good at hitting elemental switches for obvious reasons. People level her up to goof off, but she's the opposite of a priority.
Thoma is niche iirc, you just want to grab Xiangling from clearing Spiral Abyss 3 for pyro.
- Gather materials for final Character Ascension [Done] + EXP to take them to 90 [Done]
- Gather materials for final Weapon Ascension [Few more gold balls needed] + EXP to take it to 90 [Done]
Leveling everybody to 90 is really wasteful btw, most characters (even dps) are just fine at 80 and it takes a metric shit-ton of xp books and mora to get there. Jean might be an exception since she uses swirl which scales with level.
ETA: Even with characters that make sense to level to 90 I leave them at 89. That way I can see from their xp bar just how much I've used them in the overworld - my Zhongli has gotten over 450k xp just from killing stuff.
I specifically said this only applies to my main DPS, Jean. I even said I specifically left the support units with her at 69 (so they continue to earn EXP) and then focusing all resources on Jean. Nowhere did I say I was going to level everyone to 90, in fact I'm pretty sure I said the exact opposite and how I was only focusing on one unit UNTIL she gets to 90 THEN building other units.
So I hit AR15 and time to Ascend. Since my guys are all low, and only going to do the first Ascension, should I do them all or just 1 like the advice says for beginners? If so who to Ascend? I'm leaning towards Xingqiu but Tighnari also seems to be fun so far.
Amber is only really useful for puzzles - bow characters are good at hitting elemental switches for obvious reasons. People level her up to goof off, but she's the opposite of a priority.
So I hit AR15 and time to Ascend. Since my guys are all low, and only going to do the first Ascension, should I do them all or just 1 like the advice says for beginners? If so who to Ascend? I'm leaning towards Xingqiu but Tighnari also seems to be fun so far.
This is the video I've been using, separated into chunks specific to whatever AR range you want to look at. Started about 2-3 months ago and it hasn't steered me wrong yet. Basically, you're gonna pick a main DPS and they'll become the spearpoint of your progress.
BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
One other thing to note about the Mondstadt talent domain is that Bennett's Q infuses your character with Pyro, which automatically cancels the Cryo stamina drain. This is every bit as useful as a shield.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
0
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Tighnari I'm not sure who he works best with, but he's good. Should play nicely with Lisa or possibly Xingqiu's bursts for reactions.
Tighnari is great! And a ton of fun! He absolutely wants to play with Electro characters, and pairs really well with Lisa and Fischl. As for a fourth, that depends.
- Thoma adds a nice shield to the mix, but not much else here. Can't really burgeon without a good water character.
- Xingqiu maybe? But you don't do auto attacks with Tighnari so a lot of that ult time will be wasted.
- Dendro Traveler is alright, but this isn't his shining star here. He's an off-field dendro applicator, and he's great at it, but not for this team.
- You don't list her yet, but you should get Barbara after AR18. I'd suggest her for your team.
All that said, right now? It doesn't really matter. Have fun playing with who you want, because early on everything is easy enough that you're not going to have much trouble with the content. Get used to each character and find the ones you like.
If you like Tighnari, which you should!, his play is super easy. Swap him in, hit your elemental skill, do one quick aimed shot, fire your ult, two more aimed shots, and swap him out. When you have Fischl and Lisa firing electro everywhere, you'll see the Aggravate and Spread popping up constantly and it's hilarious.
He's the.. I think seventh character I've triple crowned now. I don't regret it. He's a blast.
Hey folks, could use a bit of advice. I played a year or so back on the PS4 and instead of jumping back in on that account, I am playing on PC from the beginning to relearn the game and all it's confusing stuff. So anyway here's what's what.
AR 14(trying to get to 15 so I can Ascend someone)
My roster:
Amber 11/20
Noelle 20/20 (Somewhere I heard it was good to max her in the beginning?)
Traveler 16/20 (It's a bit strange that your character in the game is not really important, unless I'm missing something)
Lisa 11/20
Xingqiu 20/20 (I was/am thinking of as Main)
Thoma 10/20
Tighnari 1/20 (Just pulled her/him last night before logging off - Main maybe?)
I'm looking at a few party variations but this is what I plan on running right now: (Tighnari/Xingqiu/Thoma/Lisa)
As for what I'm doing in game, I'm basically just running around, completing quests, doing Commisions, and looking for Aeronoculi(?) to get my Stamina up.
So my basic questions is what should I do? With an emphasis on Characters/Leveling/Ascending and anything in game I might be missing out on doing.
Thanks
The general theory puts characters into four groups - characters who need to be on-field to do most of their damage (selfish DPS), characters who can swap in real quick for a skill to put on some damage (sub DPS), characters who deploy something that lasts a while and does damage alongside you (support DPS), and characters who aren't there for damage as much as they are to deploy a shield or heal you to stop you from dying (utility). A party will usually want one utility and at most one selfish DPS, in addition to whatever elemental chemistry you want to have fun with.
As far as what you should be doing? Do the archon quest as long as your adventure level is high enough. If your adventure level isn't high enough, do character and world quests to build up adventure experience (and some exploring wouldn't hurt either), and if you run out of those, spending your resin on leylines and doing daily quests. Always spend your resin, even this early - about the only thing you shouldn't do is try and hit up artifact domains although they're probably not even unlocked yet.
Try and keep at least one character of each element close to the level cap until that goes above 70, with weapons and talents as powerful as you can get them.
Traveler's a sub DPS. Anemo Traveler is alright if you don't have any other Anemo, it's a fun exploration of the element theme. Geo Traveler is expected in many Liyue puzzles where their E is the cane of somaria. Electro Traveler might matter to somebody somewhere but I dunno who. Dendro Traveler shades into support DPS and is your only tree in melee range until they release Al and his hot roommate.
A lot of overworld puzzles just kind of assume you have Amber, in that they put something in an inconvenient place that you should light on fire. She's a sub DPS, and among the best ways to apply Pyro to react with shields and other things. Her charge shot has more element quanta on it than pretty much anybody else in the game, and her Q does Pyro reactions at a ridiculous pace because the game's internal reaction cooldown counts either time passed or number of hits, and the rapid pace of her Q means it's popping off and melting through abyss shields all the time.
Kaeya's a support DPS with his icicle Q, and he sprays cryo out pretty widely on the E too.
Lisa's a support DPS with her electro rose Q, though especially after ascensions she could be played a bit selfish, even if the numbers might not be there.
Noelllllllle~ is utility, and even one constellation will make her a lot better at her job, but as long as you can dodge a little she's good heals for everybody even without her Q up. Also both her geo and her claymore deal smashing damage, and you don't want to be running around Liyue without some kind of smashing damage on tap.
Xingqiu's kit is absolutely about support DPS, his Q gives a persistent rain sword option that accompanies normal attacks no matter who's on the field.
Thoma is a sub DPS who really can't apply Pyro with any regularity unless his Q is up, but for some reason he's got among the fastest and strongest polearm normals in the game?
Tighnari is a selfish DPS. though mostly that's because you need to line up his enhanced aimed shots after an E. Unlike most DPS I'd label "selfish", it's just because he needs some time out there to get his full effect - you don't actually lose the enhanced charges if you swap off field.
It's unfortunately going to be very difficult for you to get Thoma or Tighnari up over 40. Tighnari's a little easier since you can just walk to Sumeru. Thoma's materials are locked behind two island exploration you'll be doing after the Inazuma archon quest wraps.
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
So the group I'm having a lot of fun with at the moment is:
Keqing, Collei, Jean, Barbara.
Barbara needs to be swapped to a better hydro when I get one.
It gives me 3 elements that really work well toghether, and Swirl. Hydro/Electro, Dendro/Electro, Dendro/Hydro all have good results.
What I'll generally do is start a fight with Collei either with a charged shot or a Floral Ring to start spreading Spread. Then I'll swap to Keqing, throw a Stellar Restoration into the mix, blink in or charge attack and start wailing on enemies doing Aggravate damage. Swap to Barbara if I want to spread some Wet, which then lets me swap to Collei and throw another Floral Ring which drops Bloom seeds, then swap back to Keqing and either go with Driving Thunder if theres a group that's Wet and Spread/Bloomed (fucking hell this combo sounds filthy) and everything just explodes or electrocutes to death.
Jean is there to swap to if people start getting hurt to drop Dandelion Breeze and/or wail on people more since she heals on hits.
So far, it's been really fun, a lot more fun that my beginner party, and just destroys things that I used to have trouble with. But I really need a better Hydro to replace Barbara because I don't need her for healing and it would be nice to get a bit of actual damage out of her. But the slot machine just doesn't want to give me any Hydros.
Posts
So I realized I have Shinobu. Not sure about a 4th for the party, I just threw Barbara in for healing and wetting enemies since I have 2 Electros.
But yeah, they really rip through everything. Only real weakness is wood shield mini bosses, since you just need to grind damage against them and can't bust the shield.
The only pyros I've unlocked is Amber and Xialing, but I don't know if I want to lose the healing since Keqing, Collei and Shinobu are all pretty fragile.
Bloom reactions may render this unnecessary as they often hit enemies from above, but I haven't properly tested how consistent this is.
Okay, going to drop Barbara and try Sucrose.
Shinobus heal is okay but the self damage means you need to keep it on her for a few pulses before swapping to a character that needs it.
I've built her but never really got the hang of using her, granted I still don't have many constellations for her. Now that I have Kazuha I don't see myself using Sucrose at all.
Shinobu's heal deals 30% of current hp as damage (also it can't drop her below 20%). If she is below 50% hp she gains +healing and her burst deals damage longer. Combined those mean that you should just let her drop below 50% and use her heals on other people. Just put all the HP artifacts you can find on her, that way even when she is low on health she will still have enough hp not to die from one hit.
In the middle of a combat that's usually a big dps loss unless you are hitting her burst next. Leveling her normal attack is a waste of talent books so better to swap into somebody who can deal damage ASAP. Not to mention it's better to just let her take the self-damage so she'll get below 50% hp.
Of course, in actual play I often end up healing her even if I shouldn't, if not in combat then between combats. But in harder fights she might drop low and I don't have the time to heal her and that's when her low hp bonuses kick in. I really like her heal - with the short CD, long duration and quick ticks, even without constellations the heal itself is great. Her biggest weakness is the lack of a cheap, good weapon option: no TTDS for sword users.
edit - man, my old team that I ran around with using the story characters to unlock for free just doesn't stack up against this team. The other team is Aenemo Lumine, Amber, Noelle and Barbara. Basically I'd run around with Lumine as my main DPS, swap to Noelle if I needed to be more tanky, swap to Barbara for healing and pretty must just use Amber for busting water/cryo and wood shields.
I'd get through everything, but fights would take while. Lumine just didn't seem that great for being the main DPS, but I just wanted to keep using her since, well, her story.
This team though. Starting off with Collei to place Spread or Bloom and then Keqing to hit Aggravate just shreds those same fights.
Slowly gettting used to Shinobus healing. It's a different way of doing it, but yeah the fact that you can do it between fights and don't need an enemy to hit to trigger it means you can just activate it, heal Shinobu back to full, then swap between party members for the remaining ticks and keep doing that so everyone is full for the next fight.
If you go, like, Shinobu/Yelan/Raiden/Nahida and you just need somebody on field doing normals to play the dice, having Shinobu be that somebody isn't that big of a deal, right?
Shinobu's attacks scale horribly.
i've basically been doing that team, but with xingQ instead of yelan. it's pretty solid. usually raiden is doing the autos with her burst, then by the time all e skills are cycled she's usually bursting again.
Sucrose is still one of my go-to's for the earlier abyss floors. she just hits such a wide area, it really cleans up those aoe-style rooms. just needs a decent R-lvl sac frags to feel great.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
See, my problem is I’m not having problems with enemy groups. I’m not swapping to her at all.
Yes, but shred is only half as effective once an enemy runs out of positive elemental defense. Most of them only have 10% resistance to most elements, so either VV or ZL will put them below zero on its own.
Started to explore Inazuma now that I'm free of Ritou and this place is very different from Liyue. Tons of named top screen health bar minibosses scattered around and I've not only got to level the Statue with electro balls but a whole other tree with the electro sigils that goes to Level 50. Currently working on the Cleansing quest line before I get back to the main one.
Right now the key facets of AR 45-50 are:
- Level Jean (my main DPS) to 79 [Done]
- Level Jean's weapon to 80 [Done]
- Level Jean's talents to 8 [6/6/8 currently because weekly limit]
- Get 5 Star artifacts with good main stats, don't focus on sub stats yet [Almost done, need a 5 Star Viridescent hat]
- Get those 5 Star Artifacts to 20 [Just need new hat]
- Gather materials for final Character Ascension [Done] + EXP to take them to 90 [Done]
- Gather materials for final Weapon Ascension [Few more gold balls needed] + EXP to take it to 90 [Done]
- Replace support unit artifacts with 5 Star versions as able
In the previous step I did this and also brought the supports to Ascension 4 (final passive), maxed their talents, weapons, and leveled to 69. This was so that I could then reserve all the EXP and other resources for Jean to ensure I'll have enough at AR 50 to immediately finish her build.
Then I'll be able to start building other units since I'll have a rock solid foundation to work from.
Swirl's own damage benefits since it has the type of the swirled element. Jean may not be getting as much of her damage from that as Sucrose would though.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Leveling everybody to 90 is really wasteful btw, most characters (even dps) are just fine at 80 and it takes a metric shit-ton of xp books and mora to get there. Jean might be an exception since she uses swirl which scales with level.
ETA: Even with characters that make sense to level to 90 I leave them at 89. That way I can see from their xp bar just how much I've used them in the overworld - my Zhongli has gotten over 450k xp just from killing stuff.
AR 14(trying to get to 15 so I can Ascend someone)
My roster:
Amber 11/20
Noelle 20/20 (Somewhere I heard it was good to max her in the beginning?)
Traveler 16/20 (It's a bit strange that your character in the game is not really important, unless I'm missing something)
Lisa 11/20
Xingqiu 20/20 (I was/am thinking of as Main)
Thoma 10/20
Tighnari 1/20 (Just pulled her/him last night before logging off - Main maybe?)
I'm looking at a few party variations but this is what I plan on running right now: (Tighnari/Xingqiu/Thoma/Lisa)
As for what I'm doing in game, I'm basically just running around, completing quests, doing Commisions, and looking for Aeronoculi(?) to get my Stamina up.
So my basic questions is what should I do? With an emphasis on Characters/Leveling/Ascending and anything in game I might be missing out on doing.
Thanks
Traveler is alright, dendro is the best element on them easily, though geo has uses for exploration and anemo is fine early game.
Xingqiu is one of the best 4*s in the game, absolutely worth leveling to make use of his burst. (Anyone with good off-field element application tends to be useful)
Tighnari I'm not sure who he works best with, but he's good. Should play nicely with Lisa or possibly Xingqiu's bursts for reactions.
Lisa is decent, but overshadowed by Fischl most of the time.
Amber is only really useful for puzzles - bow characters are good at hitting elemental switches for obvious reasons. People level her up to goof off, but she's the opposite of a priority.
Thoma is niche iirc, you just want to grab Xiangling from clearing Spiral Abyss 3 for pyro.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I specifically said this only applies to my main DPS, Jean. I even said I specifically left the support units with her at 69 (so they continue to earn EXP) and then focusing all resources on Jean. Nowhere did I say I was going to level everyone to 90, in fact I'm pretty sure I said the exact opposite and how I was only focusing on one unit UNTIL she gets to 90 THEN building other units.
@surrealitycheck will remember that...
This is the video I've been using, separated into chunks specific to whatever AR range you want to look at. Started about 2-3 months ago and it hasn't steered me wrong yet. Basically, you're gonna pick a main DPS and they'll become the spearpoint of your progress.
Tighnari is great! And a ton of fun! He absolutely wants to play with Electro characters, and pairs really well with Lisa and Fischl. As for a fourth, that depends.
- Thoma adds a nice shield to the mix, but not much else here. Can't really burgeon without a good water character.
- Xingqiu maybe? But you don't do auto attacks with Tighnari so a lot of that ult time will be wasted.
- Dendro Traveler is alright, but this isn't his shining star here. He's an off-field dendro applicator, and he's great at it, but not for this team.
- You don't list her yet, but you should get Barbara after AR18. I'd suggest her for your team.
All that said, right now? It doesn't really matter. Have fun playing with who you want, because early on everything is easy enough that you're not going to have much trouble with the content. Get used to each character and find the ones you like.
If you like Tighnari, which you should!, his play is super easy. Swap him in, hit your elemental skill, do one quick aimed shot, fire your ult, two more aimed shots, and swap him out. When you have Fischl and Lisa firing electro everywhere, you'll see the Aggravate and Spread popping up constantly and it's hilarious.
He's the.. I think seventh character I've triple crowned now. I don't regret it. He's a blast.
The general theory puts characters into four groups - characters who need to be on-field to do most of their damage (selfish DPS), characters who can swap in real quick for a skill to put on some damage (sub DPS), characters who deploy something that lasts a while and does damage alongside you (support DPS), and characters who aren't there for damage as much as they are to deploy a shield or heal you to stop you from dying (utility). A party will usually want one utility and at most one selfish DPS, in addition to whatever elemental chemistry you want to have fun with.
As far as what you should be doing? Do the archon quest as long as your adventure level is high enough. If your adventure level isn't high enough, do character and world quests to build up adventure experience (and some exploring wouldn't hurt either), and if you run out of those, spending your resin on leylines and doing daily quests. Always spend your resin, even this early - about the only thing you shouldn't do is try and hit up artifact domains although they're probably not even unlocked yet.
Try and keep at least one character of each element close to the level cap until that goes above 70, with weapons and talents as powerful as you can get them.
Traveler's a sub DPS. Anemo Traveler is alright if you don't have any other Anemo, it's a fun exploration of the element theme. Geo Traveler is expected in many Liyue puzzles where their E is the cane of somaria. Electro Traveler might matter to somebody somewhere but I dunno who. Dendro Traveler shades into support DPS and is your only tree in melee range until they release Al and his hot roommate.
A lot of overworld puzzles just kind of assume you have Amber, in that they put something in an inconvenient place that you should light on fire. She's a sub DPS, and among the best ways to apply Pyro to react with shields and other things. Her charge shot has more element quanta on it than pretty much anybody else in the game, and her Q does Pyro reactions at a ridiculous pace because the game's internal reaction cooldown counts either time passed or number of hits, and the rapid pace of her Q means it's popping off and melting through abyss shields all the time.
Kaeya's a support DPS with his icicle Q, and he sprays cryo out pretty widely on the E too.
Lisa's a support DPS with her electro rose Q, though especially after ascensions she could be played a bit selfish, even if the numbers might not be there.
Noelllllllle~ is utility, and even one constellation will make her a lot better at her job, but as long as you can dodge a little she's good heals for everybody even without her Q up. Also both her geo and her claymore deal smashing damage, and you don't want to be running around Liyue without some kind of smashing damage on tap.
Xingqiu's kit is absolutely about support DPS, his Q gives a persistent rain sword option that accompanies normal attacks no matter who's on the field.
Thoma is a sub DPS who really can't apply Pyro with any regularity unless his Q is up, but for some reason he's got among the fastest and strongest polearm normals in the game?
Tighnari is a selfish DPS. though mostly that's because you need to line up his enhanced aimed shots after an E. Unlike most DPS I'd label "selfish", it's just because he needs some time out there to get his full effect - you don't actually lose the enhanced charges if you swap off field.
It's unfortunately going to be very difficult for you to get Thoma or Tighnari up over 40. Tighnari's a little easier since you can just walk to Sumeru. Thoma's materials are locked behind two island exploration you'll be doing after the Inazuma archon quest wraps.
Keqing, Collei, Jean, Barbara.
Barbara needs to be swapped to a better hydro when I get one.
It gives me 3 elements that really work well toghether, and Swirl. Hydro/Electro, Dendro/Electro, Dendro/Hydro all have good results.
What I'll generally do is start a fight with Collei either with a charged shot or a Floral Ring to start spreading Spread. Then I'll swap to Keqing, throw a Stellar Restoration into the mix, blink in or charge attack and start wailing on enemies doing Aggravate damage. Swap to Barbara if I want to spread some Wet, which then lets me swap to Collei and throw another Floral Ring which drops Bloom seeds, then swap back to Keqing and either go with Driving Thunder if theres a group that's Wet and Spread/Bloomed (fucking hell this combo sounds filthy) and everything just explodes or electrocutes to death.
Jean is there to swap to if people start getting hurt to drop Dandelion Breeze and/or wail on people more since she heals on hits.
So far, it's been really fun, a lot more fun that my beginner party, and just destroys things that I used to have trouble with. But I really need a better Hydro to replace Barbara because I don't need her for healing and it would be nice to get a bit of actual damage out of her. But the slot machine just doesn't want to give me any Hydros.