Guide to Keqing: A Guide By A Keqing User
I decided to start this series to analyse Keqing's various playstyles, builds, constellations, team setups, advantages and disadvantages. She's one of the standard 5 stars who's been available for more than one year and I got her out of luck during launch time. She was my original DPS carry and is still one of my mains alongside Hu Tao, Ganyu and Kazuha. I've played her in multiple styles and tried different builds. Therefore, I think my opinion on her can be seen as fairly legit.
I've heard of Cryo Keqing/Pyro Keqing with elemental infusion but since those are pretty niche I can't really recommend it personally. This will cover Physical Carry Keqing, Electro Carry Keqing and Electro quickswap burst DPS Keqing.
Constellations
Keqing's constellations cater better to Electro builds and don't really help out much with Physical ones. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of them since they have raw damage locked behind them in opposition to most 5 stars' constellations being quality of life updates with them still functioning fairly well at C0.
Her constellations are listed as follows.
C1, Thundering might: Recasting Stellar Restoration while a Lightning Stiletto is present causes Keqing to deal 50% of her ATK as AoE Electro DMG at the start point and terminus of her Blink.
This is a small damage increase and while it's possible to get the 50% damage bonus at both points, it isn't all that sustainable so honestly not the greatest damage boost out there.
C2, Keen extraction: When Keqing’s Normal and Charged Attacks hit opponents affected by Electro, they have a 50% chance of producing an Elemental Particle. This effect can only occur once every 5s.
This is the only Constellation that doesn't buff damage. Personally I've never had issues with Keqing's energy recharge and cost in various builds and I don't see why this is needed but that's just me.
C3, Foreseen reformation: Increases her Burst damage. Nothing much to explain here.
C4, Attunement: For 10s after Keqing triggers an Electro-related Elemental Reaction, her ATK is increased by 25%.
Honestly, one of her best constellations. It's locked behind a heavy paywall combined with gacha luck but the damage buff it provides, especially in Electro Charged comps, is amazing. A massive game changer for her in my opinion.
C5, Beckoning stats: Increases her elemental skill damage. Once again, not much to explain.
C6, Tenacious Star: When initiating a Normal Attack, a Charged Attack, Elemental Skill or Elemental Burst, Keqing gains a 6% Electro DMG Bonus for 8s. Effects triggered by Normal Attacks, Charged Attacks, Elemental Skills, and Elemental Bursts are considered independent entities.
On one hand the damage buff is amazing, but on the other hand I can't recommend sending thousands of dollars down the drain for a character who never gets rate ups. If we could farm constellations in Genshin like we can farm S rank fragments in Honkai and Punishing Gray Raven, that would be a godsend . . .
Overall, I don't recommend going for Keqing's constellations, especially if you don't play Electro Keqing. If you get them as a bonus, that's great unless they ruined your pity but outside that . . . not really.
Physical or Electro Keqing?
Physical Keqing requires you to use single tap E + charged attack to cancel the Electro infusion, while Electro Keqing requires you to double tap E to gain the infusion.
Physical is more early game friendly due to early access to the Prototype Rancour given for free, which is a great weapon for any Physical DPS. Late game allows for access to Amenoma Kageuchi which is great for Electro builds.
Physical is more accessible but loses out in the endgame due to lack of AOE and electro charged comps which benefit her the most. Honestly Keqing in general isn't an endgame sustainable character in my opinion, but Electro builds are far more preferable.
As explained earlier, Keqing's constellations cater towards Electro builds and don't have anything to provide for Physical builds.
Electro teams require a group of sub DPS units with heavy investment for her full potential while Physical requires access to Superconduct alone, which Keqing gains easily through being an Electro character.
Quickswap Keqing is good for dodging through iframes and preferable for long-term use as you're building different characters. This comes at a cost of limiting Keqing's personal strength.
Advantages
Keqing is the best Electro applier in the game and provides a lot of flexibility in terms of builds and playstyles. She's extremely useful early game and doesn't need high investment to work well unlike a lot of 5 stars. Her playstyle is extremely fun and she can also be efficient with exploration. Her Burst provides the best and longest iframe in the game.
Disadvantages
Keqing's highest damage output through charged attack spam is very stamina hungry and can be tough to manage. One way to balance it is by going for a combo with 4 normal attacks and 1 charged attack, reserving charged attack spam for stunned enemies only like Hypostasis bosses, the Golden Wolf Lord or Regisvines.
Electro in general isn't a great element because, while it's really cool aesthetically, it loses out on reactions. Overload especially knocks small enemies out of her range. Superconduct for Physical Keqing can still benefit due to the Physical Resistance shred.
In the case of burst DPS Keqing, Raiden Shogun outperforms her massively in terms of damage. Along with that, Raiden Shogun is also better for reactions since her first hit is the strongest which sets it off in opposition to the succeeding normal attacks which are weaker, in contrast to Keqing's strongest hit in her Burst being the final one, during which the reaction is already over and done with through the first hit of the burst which is nowhere as strong.
Keqing is currently the only dedicated Electro carry in the game, but in terms of Physical carry, can easily be replaced by Razor and Eula who perform far better in multiple situations.
Recommended Weapons
5 stars:
Mistspiller Reforged: Best weapon for Electro Carry and Quickswap Keqing with Crit DMG, high base attack and the passive synergising perfectly with her. Not as good for Electro.
Jade Cutter: Second best weapon for Electro Keqing and provides ridiculously high crit rate, with the passive being a universal damage buff. Also second best on Physical Keqing. Also strong on Quickswap Keqing.
Summit shaper: This requires Keqing to be shielded for the passive to be used to it's maximum potential, but thankfully her ult gets the rest of the passive conditions to stack by itself. Works on Physical and Electro Carries both. Loses out on Quickswap
Aquila Favonia: Best on Physical Keqing, but can also work on Electro Keqing regardless of the Physical DMG bonus due to the large base attack.
Not recommended: Freedom sworn and Skyward Blade.
4 stars:
Lion's Roar: Best weapon for Electro Keqing due to her ability to utilise the passive.
Black sword: Provides crit rate which is helpful for building Keqing and flexible as well. Unfortunately paywalled behind BP. Also loses out for Quickswap Keqing if you only use her for her skill and burst.
Amenoma Kageuchi: Best F2P weapon for Electro Keqing. Not recommended for Physical.
Blackcliff Longsword: Can work great against enemy mobs but useless against bosses. If you don't have a better weapon, this should be a last resort.
Prototype Rancour: Good for Physical Keqing and her best 4 star weapon.
The Flute: Good for Physical Keqing but not the greatest weapon out there. Can provide raw ATK for Quickswap but loses out for Electro.
Not recommended: Favonius sword, Alley flash, Sacrificial sword.
3 stars:
Harbinger of Dawn: Best for Quickswap Burst DPS Keqing due to the passive.
Artifact builds:
2 pc Thundering Fury + 2 pc Glad/Shimenawa: Extremely solid and consistent for Electro Keqing all around.
4 pc Thundersoother: In some situations the 4 pc Bonus is extremely valuable and provides Electro Keqing's highest damage output, but it loses out on versatility on enemies with elemental statuses like the Oceanid.
4 pc Thundering Fury: Meh performance with reactions in comparison to Crimson Witch.
4 pc Glad: Not recommended for Keqing at all.
2 pc Glad + 2 pc Shimenawa: Solid attack increase all around but loses out in DPS to other sets.
Pale Flame: Best in slot for Physical Keqing, no debate. Her playstyle synergises perfectly with this set.
2 pc Pale Flame + 2 pc Bloodstained: Solid Physical damage buff all around, also extremely good.
2 pc Pale/Bloodstained + 2 pc Shimenawa/Glad: Can work as a short term solution but not recommended as the final build unless you have better substats with this set.
4 pc Bloodstained: Can work with Keqing's charged attack but not the best set.
2 pc Thundering Fury + 2 pc Noblesse: Good for Quickswap Keqing.
4 pc Emblem of Severed Fate: Not recommended for Quickswap Keqing as she doesn't have many issues with energy recharge.
4 pc Shimenawa: Not recommended due to crit rate loss due to the buff after her Burst.
Stat priority should be CRIT and ATK stats.
Best Teams:
Hydro Supports: Xingqiu (BEST), Barbara, Kokomi, Mona
Pyro Supports: Bennett (BEST), Xiangling
Anemo Supports: Kazuha (BEST FOR ELECTRO), Sucrose, Venti, Jean, Sayu
Electro Supports: Beidou, Fischl, Sara, Raiden Shogun
Geo Supports: Zhongli (BEST), Albedo
Cryo Supports (Physical only): Rosaria (BEST), Kaeya, Diona, Qiqi
Anemo, Geo and Electro Supports can work with Physical and Electro carry Keqing both.
As a Quickswap, Keqing works in a lot of teams, Physical or Elemental, so I don't think I need to explain much here.
Overall, Keqing has a lot of build options and playstyles making her one of the most flexible characters in the game. She unfortunately loses out in comparison to other DPS units and Supports and doesn't have much endgame value, ranking low in the Spiral Abyss for a while.
