[Genshin Impact] Best Keqing Build: Artifacts, Weapons & Team Guide

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Background

Keqing is a 5-star Electro sword-user from the region of Liyue. She first appeared within the main story to help the Traveler find a path to the Jade Chamber.

Keqing is one of the seven merchants that form the Liyue Qixing. She specializes in real estate and construction and takes her work very seriously. Unlike the other residents of Liyue who worship the Geo Archon, Keqing doesn’t believe in the divinity of the Archons. She is someone who wants to determine her own fate, instead of leaving it in the hands of the gods. Keqing believes humanity will be better off without relying on the gods, and works harder than anyone else to prove it.

Fun Fact: Outside of work, Keqing loves to shop around Liyue Harbor.

Keqing’s belief in humanity is unwavering. She firmly believes the Archons will not always be there to protect Liyue. Not everyone agrees with her forward ideas, but everyone can tell she is hard-worker who will accomplish any task given to her. Keqing is known to be a tough boss on her assistant as well. No one has made it 3 months working for her.

Due to her hard work in Liyue, an Electro vision was given to her. At first she didn’t believe in the power of the vision and tried to destroy it many times. However, she has learned to harness its power and come to appreciate the vision, not for its divine power, but for its practical use.

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Keqing Skill Talents

Keqing’s skill set allows her to perform as a powerful DPS character that specializes in Physical or Electro DMG.

Keqing’s normal attack, Yunlai Swordsmanship, can perform up to 5 strikes on the enemy. The last attack in her animation allows Keqing to briefly teleport and launch an attack in front of her. Her charged attack allows her to unleash 2 powerful slashes on the enemy in exchange for stamina. Compared to other sword characters, her base normal attack is lower than characters like Jean, Xingqiu, and even Bennett. However, Keqing has built-in Crit DMG in her ascension rank, allowing her to keep up with them in terms of damage.

Keqing’s elemental skill, Stellar Restoration, allows Keqing to place a Lightning Stiletto to deal Electro damage to the enemy. When the Lightning Stiletto hits its target, it will deal Electro DMG in a small Aoe and place a Stiletto Mark where the spot was hit. Keqing can hold her elemental skill button to adjust the location of where she wants to place her Stiletto, and can even place it in mid-air. Her Lightning Stiletto will have an additional effect if Keqing uses a charged attack or her elemental skill again. When she uses her charged attack, Keqing will unleash a series of thundering cuts where the mark is located to deal AoE Electro DMG on the enemy. When Keqing recasts her elemental skill, she will immediately jump to where the mark is and launch one strike that will deal AoE Electro DMG. This will also allow Keqing to teleport across the terrain in the overworld. Keqing’s elemental skill has a cooldown of 7.5 seconds.

Keqing’s elemental burst, Starward Sword, deals AoE Electro DMG as Keqing unleashes 8 consecutive slashes on the enemy. The final strike will deal the most damage. Her elemental burst has a cooldown of 12 seconds and an energy requirement of 40. This allows Keqing to consistently use her burst to deal massive amounts of Electro DMG on the enemies. Her built-in Crit DMG will also boost the damage from her Electro strikes. With her ascension 4 talent, her Crit Rate and Energy Recharge are increased by 15% when casting the skill. The animation of her skill lasts 2 seconds, which is relatively long compared to other bursts.

In co-op, Keqing is best used to deal damage on the enemies and trigger Electro reactions. She has no support abilities as her skillset is built around a Main DPS character. Keqing can deal massive Electro DMG on the enemies that don’t resist her attacks.

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Keqing Passive Talents

Keqing’s ascension talents allow her to deal Electro DMG with her normal attack and boost the Crit Rate and Energy Recharge after using her burst.

Keqing’s passive talent, Land’s Overseer, reduces the time of expeditions in Liyue by 25% if she is send out. This talent is lackluster as it doesn’t boost her combat abilities or help provide a boost to the team. It is only useful to reduce the time of expeditions to get the rewards faster.

Keqing’s ascension 1 talent, Thundering Presense, converts her normal and charged attack into Electro DMG for 5 seconds after recasting her elemental skill with a Lightning Stiletto on the field. Keqing’s Electro DMG will get a powerful boost with this ascension talent. Although it will not help in a Physical DMG build, the condition of activating the effect can be ignored if you do not recast her elemental skill.

Keqing’s ascension 4 talent, Aristocratic Dignity, will boost her Crit Rate and Energy Recharge by 15% after using her elemental burst. This effect will last for 8 seconds. Keqing’s burst does not require a lot of energy, allowing her to consistently use this talent to boost her Crit Rate and Energy Recharge. The Crit Rate is especially useful as Keqing’s main damage source will come out of her critical hits.

Keqing gets a boost to her Crit DMG based on her ascension level.

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Keqing Constellations

As a 5-star character, Keqing does not need her constellation levels to be viable in the game. It does add to her Electro damage output, but isn’t needed for her to be a viable DPS character.

C1: Thundering Might allows Keqing to deal AoE Electro DMG between the start and endpoint of her elemental skill. This constellation requires Keqing to recast her elemental skill with a Lightning Stiletto present. The effects of this constellation allow Keqing’s elemental skill to deal more Electro DMG. However, it does require her to position her skill to accurately hit the targets.

At C2: Keen Extraction, Keqing has a 50% to produce an Elemental Particle after hitting an enemy affected by Electro with a normal or charged attack. This can only occur every 5 seconds. This level combined with her low energy burst allows Keqing to easily fill up her burst. The cooldown of her burst is 12 seconds, which allows the constellation to produce two elemental particles if it is triggered in that timeframe. Keqing’s ascension 1 also converts her normal attack into Electro DMG, allowing her to easily affect the enemy with Electro.

C4: Attunement increases Keqing’s ATK by 25% for 10 seconds after she triggers an Electro reaction. It can be with any element as long as she is the one to trigger it. The best reaction for Keqing to trigger would be Electro-charged as it will deal Electro DMG over time. Overloaded can also be good if you have a good Pyro support character on your team. Superconduct will not be as helpful as it will only lower the Physical RES of enemies, which is only useful to boost her normal attack damage. Keqing can easily trigger this constellation with her Electro skills to get the attack buff.

At C6: Tenacious Star, Keqing will get a 6% Electro DMG Bonus for 8 seconds after using any of her skills, besides a plunging attack. The effects triggered by each skill are independent of each other, allowing Keqing to gain the bonus from all of them. Keqing can get a 24% boost to her Electro DMG after using each of her skills. This constellation level allows Keqing to become a powerful Electro DPS that can deal massive damage.

Constellation Levels	Effects
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.
C2: Keen Extraction	Increases Icy Paws’ DMG by 15%, and increases its shield’s DMG Absorption by 15%. Additionally, when paws hit their targets, creates a shield for other nearby characters on the field with 50% of the Icy Paws shield’s DMG Absorption for 5s.
C3: Forseen Reformation	Increases the Level of Starward Sword by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
C4: Attunement	For 10s after Keqing triggers an Electro-related Elemental Reaction, her ATK is increased by 25%.
C5: Beckoning Stars	Increase the Level of Stellar Restoration by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
C6: Tenacious Star	When initiating a Normal Attack, 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.

Recommended Builds

Electro DPS

Keqing’s Ascension 1 talent allows her to convert her normal attack into Electro DMG for 5 seconds after recasting her elemental skill. This talent will be the focus of a Main DPS build centering around her Electro DMG. An Electro DPS Keqing can fully utilize all of her skill set as they all can deal Electro DMG. I will work on maxing out her normal attack first, as that will be your main source of damage. If possible, you should try to max out all her skills as they are also great damage dealers. Her elemental skill has a low cooldown and you are required to use it to activate her Electro conversion. Keqing’s elemental burst can also be deadly as it has a low energy requirement and can easily unleash multiple Electro strikes on the enemy. Focus on maxing out her burst if you plan on using just that skill. Keqing’s main damage output will be through her critical hits, as she gains Crit DMG based on her ascension level.

For her teammates, I recommend using characters that can increase the damage she can deal out either through her normal attack or burst. Bennett’s burst is capable of boosting Keqing’s attack while also healing her. Mona’s burst will increase the damage dealt to enemies and Sucrose can increase the reaction damage with her elemental mastery boost to teammates. You should prioritize triggering electro-charged on enemies as that will deal Electro DMG over time. If you don’t want to rely on reactions, you can replace Sucrose with another support character like Barbara.

Keqing’s recommended weapon is the Primordial Jade Cutter. This 5-star weapon will increase her Crit Rate. Its passive effect will boost Keqing’s HP and give her an ATK% Bonus based on her Max HP. The Crit Rate increase will allow Keqing to trigger more critical hits and deal more damage. At refinement 1, the bonus will only transfer over 1.2% of her health. It might seem low, but with a health stat of at least 20,000. that increase will be 240 to her attack.

This is the only 5-star weapon that will fit Keqing in an Electro DMG build in most instances. The Summit Shaper relies on Keqing having a shield to be effective. It is capable of dealing a lot of damage, but you will need a shield generator like Zhongli to maintain a shield around her at all times. The Skyward Blade‘s main downfall is its energy recharge secondary stat, which Keqing does not need because of her low energy burst. Lastly, the Aquila Favonia has a Physical DMG Bonus sub-stat, which becomes useless when her ascension 1 talent is activated. However, Primordial Jade Cutter is limited to an events banner and may be difficult to obtain, so you may have to equip another 5-star weapon for Keqing or settle for a 4-star weapon.

Her other recommended weapon is the Lion’s Roar, which will increase her ATK%. Its passive effect will allow Keqing to deal more damage to enemies affected by Pyro or Electro. Although the effects are conditional, Keqing can easily apply the Electro status with her skills.

The Black Sword from the battle pass is another great option for Keqing. This weapon will increase her Crit Rate and boost the power of her normal and charged attack. It can also heal Keqing when she lands a critical hit. However, this is not F2P friendly, as you will need to buy a minimum of 5 passes to get it to refinement level 5.

The Flute is another viable weapon that will increase Keqing’s attack stat. This weapon relies on gathering 5 Harmonics, which will trigger ATK DMG to surrounding enemies when they are all gathered. The Blackcliff Longsword is another suitable weapon if you don’t have any other options. This weapon can be bought from the Starglitter Exchange and can boost her Crit DMG. However, this weapon will be useless in boss fights or any situations that only have 1 enemy. The Blackcliff Longsword‘s passive effect will only increase her attack after she defeats an enemy. The Royal Longsword can also be bought from the Starglitter Exchange and can be used in more situations than the Blackcliff Longsword. This weapon will increase Keqing’s attack and boost her Crit Rate after damaging an enemy. However, landing a critical hit resets its stacks, which makes it less viable in combat.

For the early game, the Harbinger of Dawn is a great weapon to use as it will increase her Crit DMG. The Harbinger of Dawn will also increase Keqing’s Crit Rate if her health is above 90%. This weapon does require you to maintain her health to keep the effect active. The Fillet Blade can also be used if you don’t have access to the Harbinger of Dawn. This weapon will increase her ATK and has a chance to deal ATK DMG to a single enemy after hitting them.

For her recommended artifact set, a 2-piece Gladiator’s Finale and Thundering Fury will boost Keqing’s ATK and Electro DMG. This set has no conditions to activate and can be used in a lot of situations. A 4-piece Thundering Fury will only work to increase her reaction damage and a 4-piece Thundersoother will deal increased damage to enemies affected by Electro. Thundersoother is another viable artifact option as Keqing can easily apply the Electro element. A good 4-piece Thundersoother will be hard to farm so the Gladiator’s Finale + Thundering Fury is my preferred choice since you will only need 2 of each one. The effects are also unconditional and will always be active. Thundersoother requires you to first apply the Electro element first before the damage is boosted, but will deal more damage to enemies that don’t resist Electro attacks.

Both of these artifact sets can work, but will depend on your team composition and preference. If you want to boost the power of her burst, go for a 2-piece Noblesse Oblige and Thundering Fury.

For the early game, a 4-piece Berserker will increase Keqing’s Crit Rate so she can land more critical hits. A 2-piece Brave Heart and Resolution of Sojourner will also each give Keqing +18% ATK.

The main artifact stats you should focus on:

• ATK%Sands
• Electro DMG% Goblet
• Crit Rate/Crit DMG Circlet

The sub-stats you should focus on are: Crit DMG, Crit Rate, ATK%, and ATK. Energy Recharge is nice, but isn’t needed.

Physical DPS

This build for Keqing focuses on her raw physical damage. You will want to avoid activating her ascension 1 talent as that will convert her attacks into Electro DMG. The only talent you will need to focus on is Keqing’s normal attack since that is her only skill that can deal Physical DMG. Her burst will also be useful as it has a short cooldown and can deal some extra needed damage. Stay away from her elemental skill if you aren’t used to the conditions of her ascension 1 talent because her Physical DMG Bonus will not be carried over.

Keqing’s teammates for this build should be centered around triggering the Superconduct as that will deal Cryo DMG to the enemy and lower their Physical RES. Fischl can passively apply Electro to enemies with her elemental skill. Keqing can also apply the Electro element if you are careful with using her elemental skill. Having two electro characters will also speed up energy regeneration, but that isn’t necessary for Keqing. You can replace Fischl with another support character like Diona if you are comfortable with only using Keqing to apply Electro to enemies. Qiqi is a great healer and can apply Cryo to the enemy. Lastly, Bennett can heal and power-up Keqing’s attack with his elemental burst.

The best weapon for this build is the 5-star Aquila Favonia since it will grant Keqing a Physical ATK Bonus. Its passive skill will increase Keqing’s ATK and allow her to deal ATK DMG to surrounding enemies while regenerating HP. Both of these effects will scale off Keqing’s ATK and can only occur every 15 seconds. This weapon has a high damage output that is capable of dealing massive critical damage along with Keqing. The 5-star Primordial Jade Cutter can also work and will increase her Crit Rate. Using the Primordial Jade Cutter also means you don’t have to worry about the loss of Physical DMG when she recasts her elemental skill. However, this weapon is limited to an event banner and may be difficult to obtain.

Her other recommended weapon is the 4-star The Black Sword. This weapon can only be obtained from the battle pass, but it is the perfect 4-star weapon for Keqing. It will not only boost her Crit Rate, but also increases the damage she deals with her normal attack. It will also allow Keqing to regain health if she lands a critical hit with her normal attack talent. This physical build for Keqing relies on her normal attack, so The Black Sword is a great option for her if you have access to it!

If you don’t have access to the battle pass and want to run a physical build for Keqing, The Flute or the Prototype Rancour can also work. The Flute is obtained from the gacha and will boost Keqing’s ATK stat. It will also trigger a harmonic blast once you gather 5 notes. The Prototype Rancour is a craftable 4-star weapon, so anyone can get their hands on one. This weapon has a secondary stat that will raise Keqing’s Physical ATK Bonus. Its passive effect will increase her Base ATK and DEF when she hits an enemy with her normal attack. This can stack up to 4 times and the boost will increase based on the weapon’s refinement level.

The recommended artifact set for this build is a 2-piece Gladiator’s Finale and Bloodstained Chivalry. This artifact set for Keqing will raise her ATK and Physical DMG. You can also use a 4-piece Gladiator’s Finale if you can farm good artifacts from this set. A 4-piece Bloodstained Chivalry is not recommended as charged attacks aren’t suitable for combat in the long run. It also requires you to kill an enemy before its effect can activate. A 4-piece Retracing Bolide can also work if you have a shield generator or geo character on the team.

The main artifact stats you should focus on:

• ATK% Sands
• Physical DMG% Goblet
• Crit Rate/Crit DMG Circlet

The sub-stats you should focus on are: Crit DMG, Crit Rate, ATK%, and ATK. HP will also be decent in the sub-stats if you are using the Primordial Jade Cutter as that weapon will raise Keqing’s attack based on her Max HP. Energy recharge isn’t necessary if you have another Electro character in your party.

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Recommended Party Members

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Advantages	Disadvantages
Crit DMG Bonus based on her ascension rank	Higher stamina consumption for her charged attack
Powerful Physical or Electro DPS	A Physical DPS Build needs to be careful of her ascension 1 effect
Elemental skill allows her to quickly move across the terrain and hit enemy’s weak point	Passive talent, Land’s Overseer, doesn’t help in combat

Recommended Domains: Taishan Mansion, Domain of Guyun, Stormterror, Childe, Boreas, Peak of Vindagnyr, Cecilia Garden, Forsaken Rift

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Conclusion

Keqing is a versabile 5-star DPS unit that can specialize in either Electro DMG or Physical DMG. She has a useful elemental skill that allows her to teleport a short distance and attack the enemy. Her ascension 1 talent will also allow her to convert her normal attack into Electro DMG. Keqing’s normal attack output is less than a lot of other 5-star characters. However, her main source of damage will come from her critical hits as she has a built-in Crit DMG bonus when you ascend her.

What do you think of Keqing? Is there anything I missed? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach out through our Twitter or my Discord handle Seyfrid#2589.

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Other useful links:

• genshin.gg
• Keqing Rating and Build
• Keqing Build, Weapons, & Artifacts
• TL;DR Guide for Keqing

*Images of gameplay owned by miHoYo