Alhaitham
✦ Dendro On-field DPS Guide ✦
Welcome to my Alhaitham Guide! We will cover basic info while also going deep into mechanics and playstyles!
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✦ Quick Infographic ✦
✦ Talents Overview ✦
✦ Normal Attack: Abductive Reasoning ✦
Alhaitham’s Normal, Charged and Plunge Attack talent.
Normal Attack (NA)
Consists of up to 5 different strikes (6 total hits).
Charged Attack (CA)
Deals 2 instances of damage on a 20 stamina cost.
Plunging Attack
Standard Sword plunge for AoE damage.
✦ Elemental Skill: Universality • An Elaboration on Form ✦
****es forward, dealing Dendro DMG to nearby opponents when the **** ends. Creating 1 Chisel-Light Mirror (simply Mirror from now on).
Holding the skill enters Aiming Mode to adjust the direction of the attack.
Chisel-Light Mirrors
The Skill cast generates 1 Mirror, if no Mirror is present on cast it will generate 2 instead.
• When Alhaitham has at least 1 Mirror, his Normal, Charged and Plunging Attacks are converted to Dendro DMG. The infusion cannot be overridden.
• A maximum of 3 Mirrors can exist at once.
• When Normal/Charged/Plunging Attacks are performed an AoE Dendro DMG based on the number of Mirrors on the field will be unleashed (Projection Attack)
• Mirrors disappear at a 4s interval and if Alhaitham leaves the field.
✦ Elemental Burst: Particular Field • Fetters of Phenomena ✦
Creates a field that deals multiple instances of AoE Dendro DMG.
If Mirrors are present, the Burst will consume them and deal additional DMG instances.
After 2s, if 0/1/2/3 Mirrors were consumed, Alhaitham generates 3/2/1/0 new Mirrors in return.
• Energy Cost 70
• Cooldown 18s
✦ How to use his Burst ✦
Alhaitham’s Elemental Burst can simply be used in 2 ways:
As nuke, when Mirrors generated by his Elemental Skill and Asc1 Passive are already present.
As utility, when 0 or very few Mirrors are present to generate more of them and be able to on-field him.
It’s usually recommended to use his Burst to generate Mirrors and on-field him. Use the “nuke version” when in need of a quick front loaded source of damage.
Additionally, since Mirrors are generated after 2s after unleashing his Burst, it’s then possible to use his Burst, swap to another character, take a very fast action and then swap back to Alhaitham to get his Mirrors generation. Keep in mind that it might be hard depending on ping and other factors. Also failing to achieve this combo will result in 70 energy wasted.
✦ Ascension 1: Four-Causal Correction ✦
When Alhaitham’s Charged or Plunging Attacks hit opponents, they will generate 1 Mirror. This effect can be triggered once every 12s.
✦ Ascension 4: Mysteries Laid Bare ✦
Each point of Alhaitham’s Elemental Mastery will increase the DMG dealt by Projection Attacks and Elemental Burst by 0.09%. The maximum DMG increase this way for both these abilities is 90%.
✦ Utility Passive: Law of Reductive Overdetermination ✦
When Alhaitham crafts Weapon Ascension Materials, he has a 10% chance to receive double the product. Slightly better than 25% refund Talents in the long run.
✦ Talent Priority ✦
For his Talent Priority you want to have his Elemental Skill leveled up the most, followed by his Normal Attacks and then Elemental Burst.
Normal Attacks and Burst can have the same priority if he’s able to Burst often.
A small thing to remember is that as a, mostly, Spread carry leveling him up to 90 or close to it is more important than leveling his Talent level too above 6.
✦ Artifacts and Stats ✦
Artifact sets
• 4 Deepwood Memories
• Decreases Dendro RES by 30% for 8s upon hitting opponents with Elemental Skill or Burst. It works off-field.
This is technically Alhaitham’s best in slot but only if none else is using it. But since he is capable of very high damage outputs it’s recommended to have a full Deepwood on a support character and give Alhaitham the following set.
• 4 Gilded Dreams
• +80 EM & upon triggering a reaction an ATK or EM buff depending on your team composition
Best in slot option for damage and overall gameplay (when someone else in your team is carrying the Deepwood Memories set).
• 2 piece flex Deepwood / +80 EM
Great option while waiting on a good Deepwood or Gilded set. It’s also possible to combo this with Emblem or any stat that might help you. If your 2 piece flex options are much better than a full Gilded or full Deepwood you should prioritize them over chasing the full set.
Main/Sub Stats
Ascension stat is Dendro DMG (+ 28.8%)
• Sands | EM
• Goblet | Dendro DMG
• Circlet | Crit Rate or Crit DMG
Your substats will focus on any necessary ER% followed by Crit > EM > Atk%. Having around 200-300 EM might be a priority before Crit depending on your external buffs and weapon. Heavily building ER% to sustain a Burst every rotation is not recommended and it’s preferable to achieve it via support and team composition.
✦ Weapons Ranking ✦
Surprisingly enough his weapon selection is rather easy to get into. A small TLDR would be: Any 5 star Crit weapon > F2P Iron Sting / Toukabou Shigure (recent event weapon) and then a few more 4 star that usually are not as strong. Keep in mind that the following comments on his weapons are towards his usual gameplay as a Spread carry. Some Bloom or similar teams might prefer higher EM or Energy generation.
• Light of Foliar Incision • ATK 452 • Crit DMG 88.2%
This is simply his signature and overall best weapon in any scenario. It synergizes very well with EM buffs and should always be used if owned. It’s around 10% stronger than any other option (assuming same refinements).
• Primordial Jade Cutter / Haran Geppaku Futsu / Mistsplitter Reforged
They are all very close and offer great stats. Use in this order, generally, if you have more than one.
• Freedom Sworn
A great option for boosting his personal damage and his teammates. Not on par to any of the above in terms of personal damage.
• Iron Sting / Toukabou Shigure
These 2 weapons perform almost equally and since Alhaitham loves EM and DMG% buffs they tend to be the best F2P / 4 star options. Generally and at same refinements Iron Sting will perform better in AoE while Shigure will shine in single target scenarios.
• Xiphos Moonlight / Sacrificial Sword / Any Crit Sword
Good options that tend to either help his energy generation or increase his damage. But since his dps comes from different sources (Attacks / Skill / Burst) some Crit option is usually not as good. That said, a high refinement Black Sword or a Harbinger of Dawn with 100% uptime (shield much needed) can be your best option and surpass any other 4 star.
Sapwood performs equally to Iron Sting and Shigure if picking up the buffing leaf. While other options usually are below the F2P options (even among the 5 stars like Summit Shaper and Skyward Blade).
✦ Teams ✦
Alhaitham is mostly a Spread Carry. He can be used in Bloom, Hyperbloom and Burgeon teams but often just because he’s Dendro and not because of his synergies with said teams.
Quicken (Spread Carry)
This is Alhaitham’s best team archetype for his personal damage. It’s very flexible, easy and fun to play. You usually will want to stick to 1 Electro, 1 Dendro/Electro and 1 Flex option that can be anyone that fills the need of the team (like a Zhongli for shielding or a healer). Going Anemo is advised if 2 Electro units are present and deal substantial damage. Avoid any element or character that disrupts or weakens the Quicken aura too much (especially Pyro). Geo/Anemo are generally always safe while Hydro units that apply small amounts of their element can allow for “Quickbloom” teams, where your Quicken uptime stays high to boost Alhaitham’s damage but some Bloom will be triggered and provide potential Hyperblooms for the Electro unit.
Quicken (Spread Carry) + Nahida
Nahida is a great unit to pair with Alhaitham since she can provide EM buffs and carry Deepwood for him. She is usually superior in terms of utility, buffs and damage to any other Dendro unit. That said, Yaoyao can find herself in these teams to provide healing, something that Nahida can only bring by sacrificing her weapon slot and to not a great degree anyway.
Quickbloom (Quicken + Hyperbloom)
To form this kind of team it’s not mandatory to go for a Hydro unit that applies small amounts of Hydro if the Dendro amount is high enough. Someone like Xingqiu or Yelan (that apply substantial amounts of Hydro) can do the trick if paired with a double Dendro team. So pair a high Hydro application rate unit to lots of Dendro or simply pair him with someone that doesn’t apply too much Hydro (Barabara/Kokomi).
Hyperbloom and Burgeon
In these teams Alhaitham can work well as he applies a good amount of Dendro, giving you an easy time generating Dendro Cores for your Electro or Pyro unit. That said he will not be an upgrade for accounts that already own Nahida and his personal damage in such teams will feel very underwhelming. Lastly, I don’t recommend Burgeon teams as much as Hyperbloom teams even with the high AoE damage potential they can provide.
Bloom Teams
Bloom teams with or without Nilou can be a great way to use Alhaitham. Once again he is not a great upgrade to Nahida and the 4 star Dendro units could cover this job as well. Remember that Alhaitham’s damage will feel really low in teams without Quicken. And always bring a healer!
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