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Candace is a Hydro polearm user who can be played as a support or main DPS. She is a great support for characters with elemental normal attacks due to the buff from her Elemental Burst. Meanwhile, she can use that buff on herself and deal damage as the main DPS.
One thing to note about Candace is that she has the issue of C6 Bennett, where her elemental infusion breaks her synergy with Physical DPS and elemental normal attacks whose element can be overwritten. This is why it is important to understand her rotation and team comps in order to effectively use her. Here you can learn how to optimize her build to reach her peak performance!
Skills
Normal Attack: Gleaming Spear: Guardian Stance
Candace strikes up to four times, and holding the attack lunges and deals damage to enemies along its path. Unless Candace is used as the main DPS, Candace does not use this attack often in rotations, so it is the least priority in leveling up.
Elemental Skill: Sacred Rite: Heron’s Sanctum
After taping this skill, Candace hits the enemies in front of her with her shield, dealing Hydro damage. Holding it allows Candace to enter a stance where she charges her attack and blocks incoming attacks with her shield. She can block damage based on her maximum HP, and blocking is 250% more effective against Hydro attacks.
After fully charging or when the shield is broken, Candace strikes enemies and deals Hydro damage to enemies ahead of her.
Elemental Burst: Sacred Rite: Wagtail’s Tide
Candace deals AOE Hydro damage around her based on her maximum HP, and applies Prayer of the Crimson Crown status to the active character. This status applies Hydro to Sword, Claymore, and Polearm users, along with increased elemental damage to the active character’s normal attacks.
Moreover, when a character is switched, a wave is released that deals AOE Hydro damage to nearby enemies. This effect can occur a maximum of three times per Burst. However, this effect is a dual-edged sword. The Elemental damage can be a strong buff for many characters, but they can also reduce the overall damage the same way as C6 Bennett.
For Physical damage characters, the infusion overrides the Physical damage making the character weaker, and this includes Eula and Razor. However, that only applies to Sword, Claymore, and Polearm users. For characters such as Yoimiya, she can make them stronger. This skill is the main source of supporting skills for Candace, making it the highest priority in leveling up.
Passive: Aegis of Crossed Arrows
While Candace is charging her Elemental Skill during holding, if an enemy hits Candace, the Elemental Skill is fully charged instantly.
2nd Passive: Celestial Dome of Sand
The status Prayer of the Crimson Crown also grants an additional 0.5% increased damage for every 1000 HP in Candace’s maximum HP after they deal elemental damage through their normal attack.
Weapons
Favonius Lance
Favonius Lance is the best option for Candace since it grants her both energy recharge and the ability to generate particles for her teammates. At the fifth refinement, it can generate six particles when she crits, but this requires her to build crit rate in order to effectively use this passive.
Black Tassel
Black Tassel is a great alternative and is more F2P friendly. It focuses on granting her HP for her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst. While the 46.9% HP from the secondary stat is great, the passive is generally useless. However, Candace mainly depends on her maximum HP, so that does not affect her much.
Staff of Homa
Staff of Homa works so well with Candace for two main reasons. First, it boosts her support capabilities due to the 20-40% HP from its passive. The second reason is that it turns Candace into a good sub-DPS due to the attack bonus from the passive and the crit damage from the secondary stat. However, Staff of Homa is a limited weapon and can be better utilized by other Polearm users.
Artifacts
When it comes to artifacts, there are two builds based on her playstyle. The first build revolves around her supportive capabilities. Noblesse Oblige is the best set on her since it increases the attack of allies, further improving her supportive capabilities. However, an alternative in case another teammate uses Noblesse Oblige is using Emblem of Severed Fate, which boosts the damage caused by the Burst.
As for DPS Candace, Heart of Depth is the best set on her due to the Hydro damage bonus along with the 30% increased damage to normal and charged attacks after using her Elemental Skill. That makes her rotation Elemental Skill, Burst, then normal attacks till the Prayer of the Crimson Crown status expires. As for her substats, the only substat she requires as a support is HP%, while energy recharge is beneficial. As for main DPS, she requires the typical substats of attack%,
Build: Noblesse Oblige/Emblem of Severed Fate
| Flower | Plume | Sands | Goblet | Circlet | Substats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. HP | 1. ATK | 1. HP % | 1. Hydro DMG Bonus | 1. HP % | 1. Energy Recharge 2. HP % 3. Elemental Mastery |
Also Read: Best Settings For Genshin Impact: Get The Highest Performance And Graphics.
Build: Heart of Depth
| Flower | Plume | Sands | Goblet | Circlet | Substats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. HP | 1. ATK | 1. ATK % | 1. Hydro DMG Bonus | 1. Crit Rate/DMG % | 1. Crit Rate % 2. Crit DMG % 3. ATK % 4. Energy Recharge 5. HP % 6. Elemental Mastery |
Team Comps
In terms of team comps, Candace is an amazing support to characters that uses normal attacks that are infused with an element due to her Burst’s damage. Her team comps revolve around her and the main DPS, with the other two slots open for two more supports.
One of the two slots can go for a swirl user and an element applier or healer/shielder. Another possible comp is using a buffer and shielder/healer. One example of that is Yun Jin or Bennett, who also supports the main DPS along with Candace. In a typical rotation, Candace should be first since her abilities are not typically affected by others, and switching to other supports before the main DPS will create all three possible waves from her Burst.
Yoimiya
Yoimiya is an amazing DPS for a team comp with Candace. While Hydro applications are limited, the elemental damage bonus from Candace’s Burst can significantly improve her damage. Adding Yelan or Xingqiu can give Yoimiya the Hydro application she needs while charging Candace’s energy. This makes a solid DPS team and leaves a fourth slot based on need.
Kamisato Ayato
Ayato benefits from Candace in two ways: The first is the elemental damage bonus from her Burst. Ayato’s kit revolves around his normal attack, and boosting it is the best way to increase his damage. The second way is by increasing his maximum HP through Hydro elemental resonance.
Also Read: Best Ayato Build: Weapons, Artifacts & Team Comps
Childe
In melee mode, Childe’s damage mainly depends on his normal attacks that are infused with Hydro. The elemental damage bonus on normal attacks is great with Childe since it boosts the overall damage in his rotation, all while regenerating energy through the waves her Burst creates. This allows him to have his Burst almost always up while keeping his normal attack’s damage high.
Also Read: Best Childe Build: Weapons, Artifacts & Team Comps
Dendro user
One comp for Candace relies on her Hydro application while using a Dendro user. Using Bloom reaction, Candace and the Dendro user can create a seed that can be used for a reaction with Pyro, Dendro, Hydro, or Electro. While those comps are flexible and fun, rotation order is extremely important to make sure reactions work properly.
Xiangling
Xiangling is the best support for DPS Candace due to her high Pyro application. The Hydro application on Candace from her Burst will allow her to create Vaporize reaction on almost every normal attack. Adding Guoba’s attack buff and Xiangling’s own damage can make a good damage pair and leave space for two more supports.
Yun Jin
Yun Jin is another support that can work well with elemental characters who use normal attacks for their DPS. Not only that she boosts allies normal attack damage, but she also is a low-investment character and very easy to build. Moreover, Candace is not the same element as her, maximizing Yun Jin’s passive use.
Also Read: Best Yun Jin Build: Weapons, Artifacts & Team Comps
Constellation
| Returning Heiress of the Scarlet Sands | The duration of the Prayer of the Crimson Crown status from Candace’s buff is extended by 3 seconds |
| Moon-Piercing Brilliance | When the Elemental Skill hits an enemy, her maximum HP is increased by 50% for 15 seconds |
| Hunter’s Supplication | Increases the level of the Elemental Burst by 3 and the maximum level to 15 |
| Sentinel Oath | Holding the Elemental Skill’s cooldown becomes the same as tapping it |
| Heterochromatic Gaze | Increases the level of the Elemental Skill by 3 and the maximum level to 15 |
| The Overflow | When a character other than Candace has Prayer of the Crimson Crown status and damages an opponent using their normal attacks, a wave is created that deals AOE Hydro damage that scales with 15% of Candace’s health (2.3-second cooldown). The damage from this wave is considered Elemental Burst damage |
In terms of constellations, the best constellation is her sixth constellation since it makes support Candace deal great damage, generate even more particles, all while building HP. As a four-star character, it is relatively easy to get her sixth constellation in comparison to five-star characters, so it is not a big issue.
Meanwhile, this constellation is relatively useless to DPS Candace. DPS Candace can stop at the fourth constellation or fifth and be relatively the same. However, the most essential constellation is the first one since it reduces the downtime of the Elemental Burst buff. This applies to both DPS and support Candace.
In her release time, Candace became of the supports who left the niche of being only a good support to the five-star she was released with. Not only that, she is a flexible character that can be played as either support or main DPS. While her DPS damage is not as high, she still can be fun to play with that style without reducing the overall damage too much.
This is why Candace is a great character to have. Her support build is relatively easy since all she requires is HP% and energy recharge. All while being flexible as the main DPS for those who really like her.
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