Keqing DPS Build Guide

Keqing is a five-star Electro character from Liyue that uses the Sword weapon to dish out quick devastating attacks to the enemies. Here is our DPS character build guide as the main DPS role for your party.

OVERVIEW

Everyone in Liyue knows it is Rex Lapis who protects their borders, but the city’s daily affairs are run by the Qixing.
As Yuheng of the Qixing, Keqing acts decisively and pragmatically, knowing every inch of Liyue like the back of her hand.
Yet as a representative of the mortals of Liyue – she has much to say about Rex Lapis’ Unilateral governance.

We live in an era of change, as the old order that has existed for a thousand years is about to be rewritten.

– Dainsleif, on Keqing

Keqing is the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, the governing body of Liyue mortals. Though a dignified lady of noble birth, Keqing is no stranger to the troubles of the common man – pragmatism and earnest diligence is Keqing’s guiding philosophy. Despite her reverence by both the citizens of Liyue and her fellow Qixing, Keqing is a maverick and a dissenter – but in truth, gods admire skeptics such as her quite a lot.

As a deadly duelist wielding the powers of electro, Keqing’s speed is only matched by her lethality – doubly enhanced by her native CRIT DMG per ascension. Using weapons such as the Black Sword or the Aquila Favonia will be instrumental to unleashing her true capabilities.

Combined with the fastest charged attack and an extremely low E cooldown – Keqing excels most in an electro-focused build:

• 4x Thundering Fury / 2x Thundering Fury
• 2x Noblesse Oblige, or
• 2x Thundering Fury / 2x Gladiator’s Finale

Pair her with Qiqi or Kaeya for a Superconduct team, or with Xingqiu for an electro-charged team.

BUILDS

1 / Arms

Best 5☆: Summit Shaper

• Base Attack: 46
• Secondary Stat: ATK% [initially 10.8%]
• Passive – Golden Majesty: Increases shield strength by 20%. Scoring hits on opponents increases ATK by 4% for 8s. Max 5 stacks. Can only occur once every 0.3s. While protected by a shield, this ATK increase effect is increased by 100%.

A symbol of a legendary pact, this sharp blade once cut off the peak of a mountain.

Currently, the best weapon for Keqing – although only attainable in wishes – is the summit shaper. This newest addition to the Epitome Invocation replaces Aquila Favonia as the premier 5☆ weapon for a number of reasons:

1. Higher attack. The Favonia boasts a higher base attack [48] and receives a 20% attack boost from its passive for 57.6 ATK at level 1. Comparatively, the Summit Shaper has a lower base attack [46] and five stacks of its ATK buff amount to a total of 20% for 55.2 ATK at level 1 – seemingly inferior to the Favonia. It is the secondary stat, however, which tips the scales in the Shaper’s favor. As the secondary stat is increased with every ascension, the shaper receives a staggering 49.6% ATK buff at level 90 whereas the favonia instead grants a 41.3% physical damage bonus. Because Keqing’s E – stellar restoration – converts all her normal attacks into electro damage, she is unable to take advantage of the favonia buff but synergizes extremely well with the massive ATK buff from the summit shaper. Combined with the 20% ATK increase and the 49.6% ATK buff, the Summit Shaper can exert a total of 69.6% weapon ATK buff at refinement 1, level 90.
   
2. Ease of use. It is also worth noting that the ATK increase effect is doubled under the protection of a shield, bringing her weapon ATK buff to a maximum of 89.6% at refinement 1, level 90. Even though Geo is undoubtedly the weakest element, shields are also extremely easy to create using characters such as ningguang, Noelle [from the beginners’ wish] or even the Geo traveler, making the requirement trivial.

Considering that the summit shaper grants incredible amounts of ATK buffs, Keqing users blessed with this weapon will wish to focus on building CRIT DMG% and CRIT RATE% for their artifacts. More ATK is likely to be redundant; furthermore, critical damage is multiplied after all attack has been calculated, which enables a significantly higher return for the already-high attack the summit shaper grants.

Best 4☆: The Black Sword

• Base Attack: 42
• Secondary Stat: CRIT RATE [6%]
• Passive – Justice: Increases DMG dealt by Normal and Charged Attacks by 20%. Additionally, regenerates 60% of ATK as HP when Normal and Charged Attacks score a CRIT Hit. This effect can occur once every 5s.

A pitch-black longsword that thirsts for violence and conflict. It is said that this weapon can cause its user to become drunk on the red wine of slaughter.

For those who would rather avoid the coin toss – or rather, the 0.6% slot machine – the black sword is sure to be a trusty companion. Its regenerative passive is extremely useful for endgame content such as the spiral abyss and its secondary stat complements Keqing very well.

1. CRIT RATE. CRIT RATE is one of the most difficult attributes to accumulate via artifacts, attainable as a mainstat only on the Circlet of Logos. Accordingly, the 27.6% CRIT RATE+ at 90/90 is a much-needed assistant to Keqing, especially considering her native gain of CRIT DMG with every ascension.
   
2. Regenerative Passive. The passive on the Black Sword is considered a weaker version of the Favonia’s passive – but it is certainly no less useful. For one, it flatly increases all charged attack damage – the primary source of keqing’s damage – and its health regeneration is virtually guaranteed to activate every five seconds with a total CRIT RATE over 50%. Though arguably not sufficient to entirely forgo a healer in the Abyssal Spire at refinement 1, the idea becomes more feasible at refinement 3+ as it regenerates 80% [R3], 90% [R4] and 100% [R5] of ATK as HP. Effectively, a 2000 ATK Keqing would regenerate 1600 health every 5 seconds with a decently high CRIT RATE!

Honorable Mention: Lion’s Roar

• Base Attack: 42
• Secondary Stat: ATK [9%]
• Passive – Bane of Fire and Thunder: Increases DMG against enemies affected by Pyro or Electro by 20%.

Though the summit shaper and the black sword are both incredibly strong weapons, they’re also extremely difficult to attain – one behind a wish, and the other behind a battle pass. For the f2p readers with us today, the Lion’s Roar is a worthy alternative. Considering Keqing’s electro-infused normal attacks, the passive is likely to have great uptime and the secondary ATK buff is also quite useful.

2 / Artifacts – Electro

Before delving into some artifacts for Keqing, it’s important to note that only artifact sets for electro builds of Keqing will be discussed here. There is one main reason for this:

• Keqing’s Passive Talent I, Thundering Penance, infuses her weapon with electro upon teleportation using her E skill. While this electro infusion is active, her normal and charged attacks deal electro damage instead of physical damage. Effectively, this means physical builds of keqing cannot fully use her E.

Physical builds are completely viable for some characters even at endgame (Jean and Razor being the most notable examples), but Keqing’s passive screams for an electro-based build. And so electro we shall!

For the extroverts: 4x Thundering Fury

• 2-Piece Bonus: Electro DMG Bonus +15%
• 4-Piece Bonus: Increases damage caused by Overloaded, Electro-Charged and Superconduct by 40%. Triggering such effects decreases Elemental Skill CD by 1s. Can only occur once every 0.8s.

My personal favorite [though unfortunately not the strongest], this set focuses on one thing and one thing only: energy regeneration through E spam. Because Keqing’s E activation turns all normal attacks into Electro, we can reduce the cooldown time of her E skill to 3 seconds assuming 100% normal attack uptime with a reaction support such as xingqiu (electrocharged) or kaeya (superconduct). This results in an extremely mobile playstyle that allows for incredible agility.

For the introverts: 4x Thundersoother

• 2-Piece Bonus: Electro RES increased by 40%.
• 4-Piece Bonus: Increase DMG against enemies affected by Electro by 35%.

A slightly more conservative option, this set allows for more damage at the cost of a slower playstyle. Currently, electro-reactions are not exactly favored due to their low damage multipliers, so the 4x thundersoother forgoes it entirely and instead focuses on heavy-hitting electro damage with its 4-piece bonus. This results in small downtime between E casts, but a higher damage output using keqing’s charged attacks.

For the whales: 2x Thundering Fury, 2x Noblesse Oblige

• 2-Piece Bonus [Thunderfury]: Electro DMG Bonus +15%
• 2-Piece Bonus [Noblesse]: Elemental Burst DMG +20%

The newest addition to the block is a combination set: two Thundering Fury, two Noblesse Oblige. This set is best used in a team with an elemental battery such as venti, with its members synergizing to only use their skils and bursts – a “quickswap” composition. Because Keqing’s Q only costs 40 energy to activate, this set is ideal for players who would like to quickly switch her in for high burst damage using her E and Q and transition to another character.

For the valiant: 2x Thundering Fury, 2x Gladiator’s Finale

• 2-Piece Bonus [Thunderfury]: Electro DMG Bonus +15%
• 2-Piece Bonus [Gladiator’s Finale]: ATK +18%

The final set we will be introducing today is also the strongest: two Thundering Fury, two Gladiator’s Finale. Combining the best of both worlds, this set takes advantage of both the elctro bonus from the thunderfury set as well as the ATK bonus from the gladiator’s finale set. A special point of interest is that both of these buffs improve not only her E but also her Q damage.

3 / Character Recommendations

Considering that keqing is an electro user and that her normal attacks are converted to electro, her best friends are all the hydro users.

Pyro supporters aren’t great because of the overload knockback, whereas cryo doesn’t exactly do much for her as overload only benefits physical damage.

Xingqiu

Xingqiu makes a great combo with Keqing because of the electrocharged procs his E and Q can provide. Combined with the periodic aura damage his E swords do to surrounding enemies, his Q activates on Keqing charged attacks because her charged attacks are actually twofold, with the first part being a semi-normal attack.

The recommended playstyle with Xingqiu is to always use his E on cooldown for the consistent hydro application, then charged attack spam with Xingqiu Q to activate his Guhua swords in conjunction with Keqing’s extremely fast recoil. The constant output of electrocharged attacks is also extremely relevant against mobs of enemies (hilichurls and treasure hunters, since they love appearing in packs.)

4 / Tips and Tricks

• Keqing’s Stiletto (E) can be aimed by holding down her E, even while not in combat. Use this to teleport to relevant locations or even dodge enemy attacks!
• Performing a charged attack while a stiletto is already present will make the stiletto explode in a large thunderclap AoE. Use this to perform ranged attacks.
• Keqing’s Elemental Burst, Starward Sword, has a significant cast time (~2 seconds) for which Keqing becomes completely invincible. Time her burst correctly to completely negate certain boss mechanics.
• Avoid combining pyro with keqing’s Electro Attacks as it will knock away and spread mobs of enemies for mediocre damage.
• Prioritize using Keqing’s charged attacks over her normal attacks as she has the highest (!) charged attack ratio in the entire game!
• Use her stiletto near bodies of water to create an electrically charged water body. Lakes and oceans can be charged this way – enemies near the body of water will take continuous electro damage! (Particularly useful against Oceanids)