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Thoma Quick TL;DR Support Build Guide

UPDATED FOR 2.8 😁!

PSA #1: A Support is that one friend that always plays the Tank in an MMORPG, and willing to do the boring job so their DPS friends can have fun!

PSA #2: Both Thoma’s abilities scale off ATK but his shields scale off HP, so make sure to make ya boy beefy. Also his move set is really cool, but he does no DMG 😭

Thoma kicks up and does AoE Pyro DMG in front of him. He then spawns a shield that scales off his max HP. The shield can stack btw!

IMPORTANT TIP: His E shield and Q shield are the same thing — meaning they can extend the duration and stack each other!

So there are just 2 things to note with Thoma’s E:

  1. His E will cleanse him of any debuff since it applies a Pyro proc to himself — this does not cleanse his teammates, only himself
  2. His shields (E or Q) can stack but caps at a certain limit based on Thoma’s Max HP

Example (get ready for some math): Let’s say your Thoma has 25,000 HP, which means the shield stack cap is at 11,389 ([25,000 x .314] + 3,539) at level 8

  • Level 8 E shield = 4,175 ([25,000 x .115] + 1,300)
  • Level 8 Q shield = 656 ([25,000 x .018] + 206)

Assuming you can get the 80 cost Q back up fast enough, if you kept alternating E > Q > E > Q > etc…, you could stack (4,175 + 656 + …..) until the shield HP caps at 11,389. Any shield you proc at that point will not add more shield HP!

Basically the shields will always be 25% stronger
Thoma does a AoE Pyro attack around him that gives him a shield + a NA buff. Whenever the active character Normal Attacks, they’ll do a small AoE Pyro attack infront of them!

Few things to note about Q:

  1. Fiery Collapse only proc’s on Normal Attacks
  2. The shield duration is 8s, but Fiery Collapse’s duration is 15s
  3. Fiery Collapse will also stay even when you swap characters, so feel free to use Thoma’s Q then swap back to your main DPS!

The burst costs a whopping 80 energy, so if you do want to maintain a 100% uptime on Thoma’s shield, prioritize a lot of ER% substats!

When you see the armor plates, that’s how you know Fiery Collapse is still active!
More HP Thoma has = more DMG Q does

Just to really drill home the point to not waste time trying to DPS with Thoma (even though it looks cool): if you have 25,000 HP on Thoma, that means the Q gets an additional 550 DMG (25,000 x .022)….. it’s really not that strong LOL

Talent Leveling Order: E > Q > Normal (you really don’t have to level NA btw)

How do I get it D: ? – It’s time to roll boys (gacha)

Has base ER% scaling and helps Thoma get his Q up faster!

Favonius Lance will be your go-to since it provides both ER% scaling and the passive assists with maintaining Thoma’s Q uptime! Even if you’re not building much CRIT% on Thoma, you’ll typically get the proc from just a few Normal Attacks/your E DMG proc, so it honestly works out well! — plus you’re bound to get some CRIT% in substats so 😛

Skyward Spine may seem ideal to run since it technically has a higher ER% stat + provides damage. However, compared to Favonius‘s passive particle generation (especially at R5), Skyward is lackluster — also you don’t really DPS with Thoma, and want to mainly use him for his shields!

Another good alternative is Prototype Starglitter or The Catch, especially if you’re F2P. Both weapon’s passives are fairly useless for Thoma, but they boast a high 45.9% ER (at level 90) so can be a great placeholder!

How do I get it D: ? – Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern Domain (AR 35 locked, 25 Resin per run)

Helps boost Q damage, but mainly for the team 20% ATK buff!

Noblesse Oblige is king since you can provide a 20% ATK buff to your whole team. Although obvious, you don’t want to run something like 4x Emblem of Fates since you’re not aiming to deal damage with Thoma’s Q

If someone on your team is already running 4x Noblesse, feel free to run a mix of 2x Tenacity (for the HP%) + 2x Emblem (for the ER%) since it’ll not only bolster Thoma’s shield, but also assist with his 80 cost burst!

To answer some questions: yes, the 20% burst DMG applies to the Fiery Collpase on his Q — it’s a useless thing to know since you shouldn’t be trying to use Thoma’s Q to DPS, but just thought I’d add it 🙂

Main stats:

SandsGobletCirclet
ER% or HP%HP%HP%

Substats: ER% > HP% (or flat HP) > CRIT%

If you want other characters let me know. Hope this helped. Bye.

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I spend too much time filling out spreadsheets for incoherent data, but at least I can turn them into guides :P

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4 Comments

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  1. hi!! if you have a rotation heavy team that uses skills a lot, would 4x tenacity be a good option? i’ve never really used that artifact set before so i’m curious about your thoughts on that 🙂 i really appreciate your guides btw, thanks !!

    • not op but tenacity of the millelith only works if the skill is like zhongli or qiqi that deals damage every second on their skill off-field. thoma’s e has like, a 15 sec cooldown so its not worth using 4x tenacity on him

      • ohhhh okay, that makes sense, thanks!! i got tripped up by the whole “effect can be triggered even when the character’s not on the field” part haha

    • So the 4x Tenacity bonus only lasts 3 seconds after the skill hits an enemy, and since Thoma has no way to refresh that CD off-field it might be a bit hard.

      You could technically put him near the end of the rotation RIGHT before your DPS takes lead again, but then the rest of the team would fall out of the ATK bonus sadly…