Kazuha is a significant upgrade to your account, but he’s not necessary for clearing any battle content – he’s just really good. His versatility makes him a highly contested teammate that works great in multiple meta and non-meta teams. Plus, he’s generally cheaper to build than most units – you don’t need to level his talents at all. Just stack Elemental Mastery, build enough Energy Recharge, and level him. There’s basically no reason not to pull for Kazuha – unless you’re already satisfied with Sucrose or Venti. These three have their own niches, but they do often compete in team slots. Note: This is based on meta only. If you like Kazuha regardless of his power level, don’t let this stop you from pulling him or building him however you like.
Pros & Cons
Kazuha Strengths
Kazuha has multiple strong and very useful supporting abilities. This mainly includes damage bonus buffs, crowd control, and off-field elemental application. He provides teamwide damage bonus buffs through his passive. This is his most powerful supporting ability. It effectively lets him support any unit that has a swirl-able element – namely, Pyro, Hydro, Electro, and Cryo units. And with more technical combos, he can even buff two elements at the same time through Double Swirl. Kazuha’s skill acts as a strong source of crowd control or grouping. This lets him group multiple opponents to his location. It’s especially useful against AOE content where opponents are typically far from each other. His burst can absorb an element and periodically deal damage of that element. Plus, it applies an elemental aura of that absorbed element. This is most useful in teams that struggle to maintain a specific aura on the opponent. A great example of this is in VV Hu Tao and Thoma teams. Kazuha’s Hydro-infused burst helps Xingqiu maintain a Hydro aura on the enemy. This lets Hu Tao trigger vaporize reactions in all her attacks – even with Thoma’s additional Pyro application. As an Anemo unit, Kazuha can make full use of the 4pc. Viridescent Venerer (4VV) set. This is a powerful artifact set that further buffs Kazuha’s damage-boosting abilities and personal damage. Since Kazuha mainly deals damage through swirl reactions, he greatly benefits from 4VV’s swirl buff. Plus, each swirl reaction he triggers would also buff teammates’ damage through the set’s 40% elemental resistance shred. Kazuha’s strongest build consists of:
EM/EM/EM mainstat artifacts 160% Energy Recharge At least 60/70 character level
That’s entirely it. Unlike most characters, you don’t need to level his character talents nor balance his CRIT ratio. Even the 160% Energy Recharge requirement can easily be completed by using a Favonius Sword – one of his strongest 4-star weapons. Kazuha’s very versatile supporting abilities let him slot into multiple teams. He can essentially fit into every meta and non-meta team that has a Pyro/Hydro/Electro/Cryo unit. This already includes most teams in-game – like vaporize teams, freeze teams, electro-charged teams, and mono-element teams. Plus, he works great against both single-target and AOE. Kazuha’s support gameplay is straightforward – just swirl an element to get a buff. His ease of use makes him an even better unit for more casual players. You don’t need to learn attack combos or animation cancels to make him work. But Kazuha still has more technical mechanics that also make him great for min-maxers. These are more complicated rotations and gameplay that further push his potential. For instance, Double Swirl is a mechanic easily accessible to Kazuha – using it can basically double his buffing abilities.
Kazuha Weaknesses
4VV with EM/EM/EM mainstats is Kazuha’s best build by far. Although it does require less RNG than balancing CRIT substats, EM mainstats have the lowest drop rate in every artifact. Here’s the drop rate for EM on a sands, goblet, and circlet artifact:
Sands of Eon – 10% Goblet of Eonothem – 2.5% Circlet of Logos – 4%
So… it will definitely take some time to get a full EM set – unless you’re lucky with RNG. Kazuha, Venti, and Sucrose have their own niche roles and abilities – but they still very often compete for a single slot. So Kazuha can lose pull value if you’re already satisfied with just Venti or Sucrose. These two can effectively replace Kazuha in multiple teams and scenarios. To better explain, we have a few comparison guides on Kazuha vs Venti and vs Sucrose.
Are Kazuha’s Constellations Good?
Kazuha is already a really powerful unit at C0, but his constellations buff him even more. If you’re thinking about pulling for cons, it’s only recommended to pull until his C2. His C2 is an especially strong constellation that buffs both his damage and supporting abilities. His 3rd to 6th constellations just pale in comparison – they’re generally not worth pulling. To better explain why that is, here’s a closer look at each of his constellations.
C1: Scarlet Hills
Decreases his skill cooldown by 10%. Upon casting his burst, his skill cooldown resets. C1 is mainly a quality-of-life buff that reduces Kazuha’s ER requirements – which is generally good. But there are some instances where casting his skill more often is not recommended. Since Kazuha’s passive has a relatively short buff uptime of 8s, that uptime is really valuable. Casting his skill will consume the field time and buff uptime that could be better used by other units – especially if using his skill doesn’t reset the passive’s buff. If you already have a C1 Kazuha, pulling for his C2 is definitely worth considering.
C2: Yamaarashi Tailwind
The field created by Kazuha’s burst gains the following effects when active:
Increases Kazuha’s EM by 200. Increases the EM of teammates within the field by 200.
Note: these effects don’t stack. This is easily Kazuha’s strongest constellation. Increasing his EM basically buffs both his personal damage and buffing abilities. This also means that his teamwide damage bonus buff is further increased. C2 also makes him strictly better than Sucrose for teams that rely on elemental reactions. This is a good place to stop pulling for constellations.
C3: Maple Monogatari
Increases his elemental skill talent level by 3. This increases his skill’s damage multipliers. However, talent levels don’t matter in a full EM build – C3 is very insignificant.
C4: Oozora Genpou
When Kazuha’s energy is less than 45, he gains the following effects:
Pressing or holding his skill regenerates 3-4 energy for himself, respectively. Kazuha regenerates 2 energy per second while gliding.
C4 is mainly great for quickly regenerating Kazuha’s energy – thus significantly reducing his ER requirements. This is generally a good quality-of-life buff but not a massive difference. Whereas, the gliding effect is useless in combat and Spiral Abyss content. It’s decent in the overworld but also unnecessary.
C5: Wisdom of Bansei
Increases his elemental burst talent level by 3. Like his C3, this talent level increase is irrelevant in a full EM build.
C6: Crimson Momiji
After using Kazuha’s skill or burst, he gains an Anemo infusion for 5s. Each point of his EM will increase his normal, charged, and plunging attacks by 0.2%. Kazuha’s C6 enables a Main DPS playstyle. This is where he stays on-field performing Anemo-infused normal and charged attacks. In this case, a DPS build becomes a viable option – especially if he’s dealing most of the team’s damage. This also retroactively makes his C3 and C5 better. But this is underwhelming compared to other C6 units in the game. It doesn’t improve any of his supporting abilities – just his personal damage.
Is a DPS Build Kazuha Good?
A DPS build Kazuha consists of ATK/Anemo/CRIT artifact mainstats, while a full Elemental Mastery (EM) build uses EM/EM/EM mainstats. And no, DPS Kazuha isn’t good. It greatly nerfs both his damage and supporting abilities. A significant portion of Kazuha’s total DPS is dealt through swirl damage. This scales off EM and character level only – not CRIT, ATK, damage bonus, or talent levels. He will very often deal more damage with a full EM build than a DPS build, especially against AOE. There are situations where a DPS build can outperform an EM build – mainly against single-target and in teams that provide multiple external buffs. But this is still overshadowed by Kazuha’s passive, aka his main supporting ability. This passive lets him buff the entire team based on his EM. Using a DPS build, or not building EM, would mean losing the damage bonus gained from his passive. This nerfs his teammates’ damage. Sacrificing 2-3 teammates’ DPS just to buff Kazuha’s personal damage is a massive DPS loss. A DPS build Kazuha is simply never recommended.
Is Kagotsurube Isshin Good on Kazuha?
Although Kagotsurube Isshin is Kazuha’s most aesthetically fitting sword, it’s not a good weapon for him. Most of his damage comes from swirl reactions – this isn’t affected by ATK or CRIT. This is also one of the reasons why a DPS build isn’t good on him. Kazuha will benefit a lot more from an EM or Energy Recharge weapon. This includes many great 4-star options like Favonius Sword, Sacrificial Sword, and Iron Sting.
Iron Sting vs. Favonius Sword on Kazuha
Favonius Sword is arguably Kazuha’s best 4-star weapon – it’s a really good weapon on him. At baseline, Kazuha’s Energy Recharge (ER) requirement falls at 160%. Reaching this requirement is especially important since most of Kazuha’s damage comes from his burst. Favonius Sword’s high ER stat completely fills this requirement. At baseline, this build would have 676.2 EM and 161.3% ER. In contrast, using Iron Sting would very often require using an ER sands to reach 160% ER. This build would have 654.2 EM and 151.8% ER. Using Favonius would have overall better baseline stats. Plus its passive is much more useful. Both Kazuha and his teammates benefit from the extra energy particles it generates. This effectively helps charge the entire team’s bursts. As for Iron String, its damage bonus passive isn’t significant. Most of Kazuha’s damage comes from swirl reactions – these aren’t affected by damage bonus. So while it is a personal damage gain, it’s definitely not a lot.
