With the Keqing banner about to drop, it’s probably best to go ahead and get an overview for the best only fake-cat in Genshin. Hands down, she’s the most entertaining character I’ve played, having both combat and out of combat utility with her elemental skill.
Usually when I start making a combo, I fall back to sticking Keqing in somewhere just because overall she’s got a lot of useful little things going on about her, which in general kind of makes her stand out among the launch-available characters in Genshin. Whether it’s her basic attacks or her burst, everything is actually pretty useful about her, even if her charged attack is a fade slash in a game where you can’t really precisely control direction while attacking, which isn’t necessarily a fault of Keqing but Genshin Impact itself.
Basic Attack String
For a basic attack string, Keqing’s is simply exciting. Like most sword-wielding characters, it’s got five inputs for five ‘separate’ attacks, and with its really awesome animations, there’s a bit of nuance just in the right place: the fourth hit in her attack string knocks enemies upwards if they’re already in the air, while her fifth and final hit is easy to cancel or follow-up without cancelling.
It’s not hard to juggle an enemy with just the attack string alone, and it looks pretty good. As mentioned, the fifth hit is easy to cancel and can be used for a number of different setups, controlling spacing with the timing of the cancel.
Charged Attack
Keqing’s charged attack is a fade slash which like most of the other other sword using characters in Genshin, strikes twice for a decent chunk of damage. Her back step is of note being that it is a fade slash, but besides that there’s nothing that special going on here until you combine it with Keqing’s elemental skill, but as you’ll see, that ability goes with everything.
Elemental Skill Press: Stellar Restoration
When Keqing’s elemental skill is tapped, she throws a Stiletto which deals a small bit of Electro damage to anything it comes into contact with. If there is an enemy nearby, Keqing will throw the stiletto at the enemy. If there is or isn’t an enemy nearby, pressing the elemental skill button again will have Keqing teleport to the enemy and slash them with her sword, imbuing it with lightning in the process.
Subsequent normal or charged attacks will be under the effects of her enchantment and deal Electro damage until the enchantment runs out.
Elemental Skill Hold: Stellar Restoration
Holding the Elemental Skill button doesn’t necessarily change how it works, but rather, allows for manual aim when throwing the stiletto. This mostly allows Keqing to move upwards and strike an enemy who isn’t on ground level, as if the elemental skill is pressed instead of held to go into manual aiming mode, the attack will be on ground level when the elemental skill button is pressed for the second time.
Second verse is the same as the first: Keqing’s sword still ends up enchanted when using this, although this does open up the opportunity to perform an electrified plunging attack as opposed to simply tapping it.
Elemental Burst: Starward Sword
Electric Judgement Cut End, Keqing’s elemental burst is a rapid-hit attack that deals chips of electro damage before one final strike. It’s possible to juggle with this attack to a certain degree, and the ending has little recovery, so it’s easy to switch off into another character or perform a variety of other actions.
That said, juggling can be temperamental with this particular elemental burst, so for best results, using a character like Jean to set up Keqing’s juggle will help out significantly with enemy hang time and altitude, but it is possible to juggle an enemy who’s been sent airborne by Keqing’s normal attack string as per the above example.
Conclusion:
Keqing is probably one of the more fun characters available at the moment. She’s simply exciting to play as, between her normal attacks, elemental skill, and elemental burst. Quite frankly, if more characters were like Keqing, I think the game would be a lot better.
Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of other characters are going to end up like Keqing. There’ll be a few here and there, definitely, but I think she’s one of the extremely rare, standout sorts of offering unique and entertaining gameplay as well as not being any sort of slouch when it comes to damage, perhaps in part simply because she’s an Electro character and every option for elemental interactions can be brutal when employed correctly.
Largely because she’s an Electro based character and it’s fun, there is an artifact set which lowers cooldown in a four set, Thundering Fury. I recommend if for nothing else other than again the amusement factor, but mixing and matching the Electro damage buff can be quite effective given that she is a self-enchanting spellsword type character. Lion’s Roar and Festering Desire are excellent weapons, and the latter of these two providing a fair match for Keqing’s overall aesthetics.
When it comes team synergy, her and Barbara go excellently together when aiming for an Electro-Charged reaction as Keqing’s elemental skill leaves her touching the enemy, allowing Barbara’s elemental skill to make them wet while she’s off the field and Keqing’s on. After Barbara, Xingqiu would likely be next with his ultimate for inflicting Hydro while he’s off the field, otherwise, the other options available would involve swapping frequently.
And just for general entertainment’s sake, Keqing is one of the few characters that can do some form of aerial combat, so putting her in with Jean to follow up on Jean’s launcher or using her to counter attacks like the Anemo Hypostasis’s one-two hit looks and feels amazing, and Electro works well enough with Anemo element anyway. Or more accurately that Anemo works with well enough with everything.
