Genshin Impact – Keqing Physical VS Electro Build Analysis

Intro:

After the Keqing disaster, I decided to immediately build her anyway. I took Black Sword from last month’s Battle Pass because I don’t want the rest of the weapon, and Keqing seems to take that personally.

Anyway, I’ve been planning to write this for a while now, but I guess now is the perfect time to do the math.

So how is physical Keqing compared to electro?

Let’s find out!

What’s in this analysis?

1. Comparison between 5 different weapons:

• Aquila Favonia (5★)
• Jadecutter (5★)
  Her HP would be Base HP lv90 + Flower artifact (+20), with no addition from substat.
• The Flute.
  • Damaging passive will be assumed to proc every 3.5 seconds
• Lion’s Roar
  • +20% damage passive is always active
• Black Sword

1. Comparison between 6 different artifact builds:

• 4-Gladiator’s Finale (Physical build)
• 4-Gladiator’s Finale (Electro build)
• 2-Gladiator + 2-Thundering Fury (Electro build)
• 4-Thundering Fury (Electro build)
• 4-Thundersoother (Physical build)
• 4-Thundersoother (Electro build)

Assumptions:

The calculations below will follow the following assumptions:

1. Keqing is lv90.
2. The enemy is one lv80 hilichurl.
3. Talent lv6, C0.
4. All hits crit.
5. Attack sequence would be: 4-hit + charged attack.

I tried full charged attack, and the damage output is lower due to the constant repositioning, so I won’t be using charged attack method.

6. On electro-infused calculations, the last charged attack after 2 sequences will be calculated without infusion.
7. Electro is always present on the enemy. I tested electro application on her skill, and her stiletto applied ~9 seconds of electro, while her thunderclap applied it for ~12 seconds, so constant electro application is easy to obtain.
8. No elemental reaction damage will be considered, and the skill CD for 4-Thundering Fury will be lowered to 6 seconds instead of 8 seconds.

Results:

Stat overview:

Damage overview:

She has A LOT of multipliers, so I divided the cells to prevent extremely long image.

Note:

Stiletto: The damage when she put her hairpin.
Slash: The damage when she blinks to the hairpin.
Thunderclap: The damage when she uses charged attack after putting her hairpin.

Simulation Result:

Note:

Normal: (1-hit to 4-hit + Charged)/3
Skill: (Stiletto + Slash (Electro)/Thunderclap (Physical) )/8
(Divided by 6 for 4-Thundering Fury)
Burst: (Burst + Burst Slash + Last Burst)/20

Putting the damage from best to worst, and we have:

Please note that no Elemental reaction damage is considered here. I tried considering electro-charged damage, and now the numbers look like this:

P̶.̶S̶.̶ ̶I̶’̶m̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶c̶u̶l̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶e̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶T̶h̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶o̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶.̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶’̶r̶e̶ ̶u̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶t̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶r̶u̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶l̶e̶c̶t̶r̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶r̶k̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶e̶m̶y̶.̶

Edit: Thanks to mxchael for pointing this out:

Electro-charged won’t mess up electro mark, so it’s still viable to use on Thundersoother. The calculations above are edited to include electro-charged on it!

P.P.S. I do not consider superconduct because you can achieve elemental resistance reduction with swirl as well.

Now, it’s also very important to note that Keqing barely triggers elemental reaction. So I also tried seeing what happened if she triggers 2 electro charged every 8 seconds instead (Every 6 seconds for thundering fury). This is the result:

Conclusion:

1. There is no significant difference between electro and physical build in terms of damage output.
2. Best Artifact Set:
   No-reaction gameplay: Thundersoother
   Elemental-reaction gameplay: Thundering Fury
3. Best Weapon:
4. Jadecutter
5. Aquila Favonia (Physical build)
6. Black Sword
7. Aquila Favonia (Electro Build)
8. Lion’s Roar (No-reaction gameplay)
9. The Flute

Personal Opinion:

I’ve always thought Thundersoother is the best set for her, but upon doing this, I’d honestly recommend 4-Thundering Fury over it.

I personally love playing with elemental reaction, so Thundersoother will feel restricting for me.

Of course, in the end, it all goes down to your personal preference, and your RNG blessing.
Both TS and TF has their pros and cons, but damage wise, they’re both a good option!

Here’s an idea my boyfriend and I came up with:

• Keqing with Thundersoother, Electro Build.
• Teammates:

• 1 Anemo
• 2 Geos

It can be something like: Sucrose, Noelle (Healer), Ningguang (Sub DPS/Burst DPS).
Or a super whale team: Jean (Healer), Albedo (Shards maker), Zhongli (Shielder)

• The idea:
Use Anemo to swirl electro and reduce resistance.
Use 4-Petra on one of the Geo character, to produce electro shards.
Enjoy max damage on Keqing Thundersoother.

P.S. This calculation compares physical vs electro build on C0. Electro build is most likely better for C1-C6.

Author: Nable
Source: miHoYo Tavern