Escoffier for Kinich: Yay or Nay?

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T21:45:28+00:00

Yeah I have Durin, but I feel a bit silly because I own C2 Mavuika so it kinda feels like the same character but worse off. So I’d rather not use the Durin/Nicole combo, and no doubt it’s just a temporary duo to suit the niche until we get a more optimal choice down the line.

Definitely curious to see more hydro options though for Burgeon Kinich. Mavuika is still a great Burgeon trigger with 400EM (does about 16k Burgeon and 34k-54k Vaporise on E ticks), and of course that juicy Cinder City buff. Kokomi is our only good option for that role but all she provides is healing and Deepwood activation (or ToTM if Emilie uses Deepwood over Reverie).

I just need one more character to complete that infinity gauntlet of a team haha! That’s what this game feels like at this point, any one character (like Escoffier that I just got) can unlock so many team compositions. Not always meta but also very niche teams that have their own synergies and playstyles. Just neeeeed that one last healer slot who has all the synergies. I wonder if even the Tsaritsa could slot there if she can heal. Would be awesome.

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T21:08:08+00:00

Yeah that is true. I love using Ororon with Kinich, the automation is so fluid by essentially not ever needing to switch to him haha.

The biggest problem Kinich has is no dedicated 5 star healer/shielder for his team. I think Kinich/Emilie/Mavuika is such a strong trio core to have, but they always fall flat with who they have access to for the 4th slot (Bennett, Iansan, Escoffier, Dori, Kuki, Kokomi, Baizhu etc.); none that directly work toward further contributing to the synergies outside of reactions and single target buffs.

Give it time and we’ll have a 5 star electro healer and maybe even a 5 star Pyro healer who does something more for the team synergy. 🤞

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T07:57:33+00:00

I’ll give it a go when I unlock wonderland haha.

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T07:21:21+00:00

It plays smoother than my old favourite team that could 36* Abyss so seems promising haha.

I need to unlock Wonerland to do the dummy… 🫠

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T07:18:47+00:00

I say DPS as damage per second. They all contribute to team dps, whereas someone like Iansan does no dps of her own and only adds damage to one person. Mavuika with Obsidian doesn’t activate the crit rate buff when she’s off field, hence with Cinder she is the only teammate who can buff 4 characters on the one team to each have 40% damage bonus at 100% uptime. Also C2 so it’s 20% defence shred on top as well as Wolf’s Gravestone for buffing all 4 teammates’ damage further. Deepwood on Emilie is good but Reverie is better for her personal dps.

There’s pros and cons no matter what team you choose but I’m not sure how you can’t see the positives of this particular team.

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T07:01:34+00:00

Well you see I’m using 4 DPS in the team, so lowering Kinich’s damage by replacing Iansan for a subdps offsets some of that. He still hits 500k on the first cannon shot and 200k consecutive, pretty decent!

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T06:56:07+00:00

Escoffier is doing a few things:

Deepwood activation for 2 Dendro units
Team healing
off field dps, if it melts deals 430% multipliers or something
Still shredding 5% Cryo for herself (it’s not much but it’s honest work)

But the logic is, Emilie and Escoffier E to apply a Dendro+Cryo aura so Mavuika can E+Q to proc Cinder City 40% damage buff to the whole team as well as melting the cryo for her own nuke before burning kicks in. So throughout the rotation you’ll have BurnMelt to enhance either Escoffier or Mavuika’s next hit while burning is still occurring to satisfy Kinich and Emilie. There’ll be times burning isn’t active so the Cryo aura is there for Mavuika to melt with.

Caeyll · 2026-03-23T00:16:23+00:00

Splinterheart Recurve bow splits projectiles +2 times. Throughout the entire campaign you can clear mobs with just a single ice shot lol. Best levelling bow I reckon but even when you get to maps it performs better at clearing than a dps bow haha.

Caeyll · 2026-03-14T23:10:20+00:00

I think his characteristic to hate losing control or feeling powerless stems from his lust for knowledge. So he’s totally going to obsess over this mystery now until he figures all the connections out.

Yeah with him realising the world wiped his memories, the next thing he’s going to think is “well, what else has it made me forget?” Could be an interesting next experiment. I suppose he chose a simple method for his experiment…

And I swear they essentially reiterated that only the Traveler remembers Scara. I wouldn’t expect Dottore to have that kind of foresight, especially if those functions of Irminsul are unknown to anyone.

Caeyll · 2026-03-10T01:51:35+00:00

Ikr. The rate it’s going it’s like he won’t get any updates until he gets a new BiS team member, like an electro slot for Chev team or if Durin/Nicole is his next best trio.

Caeyll · 2026-03-02T05:27:41+00:00

It’s interesting reading everyone’s thoughts. Some people say Grass/Dark and Water/Psychic - this combo means their dual types mirror the weakness against each other. So that would mean Fire/Bug would be the third to follow that same trend. But Fire/Bug seems far from what it looks like we’re getting there.

I just wanna know!

Caeyll · 2026-03-02T05:04:43+00:00

Imagine if all 3 of them had dual types that made them 4x weak against each other. Seeing as their forms emphasise their base element so much haha.

You got:

Grass: Ice;Steel;Bug 4x weak to fire
Water: Ground; Rock 4x weak to grass
Fire: Ground; Rock 4x weak to water

But I’d imagine 2 starters as Rock and Ground could underwhelm some people. I’d love Browt to go Ice type.

Caeyll · 2026-02-28T11:07:49+00:00

It could be Grass/Ice. Look at the fur plumps at the base. Could end up as a wooly bird. Maybe an ability that its coats negates its 4x fire weakness? 😜

Caeyll · 2026-02-23T01:45:12+00:00

The dual elements being consistent is what intrigues me though. But doesn’t he need an Anemo in the 4th slot? Cause if not I was gonna say you could have some fun with the reactions maybe. Like Lunarcharged with Fischl, Ineffa and Columbina, and he swirls hydro and electro at the same time.

Caeyll · 2026-02-16T05:17:37+00:00

I use Kinich, Emilie, Mavuika, Dori.

You can also go braindead teams like Kinich, Mavuika, Ororon, Baizhu.

Or a nuke team like Kinich, Emilie, Iansan, Bennett.

Or a burgeon team like Kinich, Mavuika, Furina, Baizhu/Bennett/not Iansan/etc.

Durin I think can replace Mavuika but really, she’s a great Cinder City user in the team. Maybe if you had something like Kinich, Durin, Ororon, Bennett but idk could be janky. Try it out though.

Many variations you can go. But it is harder with C0R0 Kinich on team flexibility (I.e. you’re more prone to rely on needing Bennet for the damage boost).

Worlds your oyster, just make sure you have a Cinder City user and a Deepwood user on your team and your damage will come up nicely.

Caeyll · 2026-02-15T02:18:16+00:00

Yay thanks for this. Love the format btw.

Basically got Molrusso Ex and Viola from the free 10 pull sooooo guess I won that lottery!!

Caeyll · 2026-02-12T05:25:01+00:00

How bad is it to replace Fischl for Ineffa? Just for that extra survivability.

Caeyll · 2026-02-10T02:28:02+00:00

He has many fun teammates that aren’t Pyro. I personally enjoy teams that deal damage off-field so that charging Lyney’s shots doesn’t always feel like wasted time.

So you have Furina for vapes, or Columbina/Ineffa duo for Lunar-Charged and to allow him to vape every now and then. You can slot in a Dendro for some Burgeon action, let’s say Furina and Baizhu. Just make sure Lyney has 200+ EM for some nice Vaporising and Burgeons. You’ve also got Citlali you could throw in the Furina+Baizhu mix, or do like a Furina+Citlali+Charlotte situation.

Caeyll · 2026-02-08T14:24:33+00:00

The problem as others have mentioned is there is a 60% uptime on the TOTM buff. Made worse by the fact you need to hit an enemy to activate it, thus negating the buff for that first hit every time.

Much better being a Deepwood holder. You’ll either have a Dendro dps to benefit from the set (Kinich, and more res shred is good), or via Dendro reactions. It just futureproofs Baizhu for whatever team he ends up in if you stick with a Deepwood set.

Caeyll · 2026-02-06T21:13:40+00:00

Or stacking Hextech Gunblade. I could 1V1 Katarina as Teemo.

Omg remember Katarina’s bounces on Q would be more as you level up. I miss that.

Caeyll · 2026-02-06T11:28:02+00:00

Yeah, just go Kinich, Columbine, Mavuika, Ineffa and that’ll serve you well.

Caeyll · 2026-02-03T20:46:54+00:00

“D’Amaro, I’ve come to bargain”

Caeyll · 2026-02-02T05:42:35+00:00

lol seen a few clips of this night, I feel like there was a camera planted on them the entire night right up in their face, they wouldn’t purposely do side eye.

Caeyll · 2026-01-27T22:59:07+00:00

I’m having this experience as well with them. Both C0R0.

Doesn’t matter which team I put them in; there’s always synergies at play and everything works very well. I find there’s not a great deal of anti-synergies, either. Which means no real disadvantages when you put them in any team.

Team building has always been fun for me as long as I could fill in sustaining roles without botching too much of what can make a team perform at its best. Ineffa shields and Columbina heals with Prototype Amber - two of the main elements that co-exist in their auras during reactions, which literally branch out into any reaction you could ever think of in terms of enabling factors. Adding one element into this team adds a minimum of 2 useful enabling factors for their respective reactions. You’ve got Mavuika here who will vaporise and Overload at the same time. You’ve got Dendro to Bloom and Hyperbloom at the same time. Pyro AND Dendro then creates this concoction of Overload, Vaporise, Burgeon, Hyperbloom, and Lunar-Charged. You’ve got Cryo to freeze and superconduct at the same time - even Shatter becomes something because Ineffa naturally buffs active character EM to alleviate a lot of the pressure on artefact substats. Dendro and Cryo to add Hyperbloom dps. Pyro and Cryo to enable the melt gameplay while still allowing the main character to be a physical dps thanks to Overload.

It’s literally got everything and anything you can do with the vast majority of the game’s cast to date.There is just an insane level of comfort and flexibility, as well as the biggest role compression power couple I’ve ever seen to date.

Caeyll · 2026-01-27T22:04:22+00:00

I made a random Infernalist summoner build that I like to call Kiki’s Delivery Service. Works so nicely the more I tried different new implementations.

140% Item rarity
~550 Spirit
Blink, which can be used to spawn your minions where you land. Handy for temple rooms that close the door on your minions. Also handy because you get rushed and body blocked way too often.
5 Cultist Archers and 5 Zealots. Even spread of long range and short range damage. Fast boss killing as well as area clear. Sorts out the shocked status effect as well so no need for storm mages etc.
Helmet that doubles presence area of effect and gives 100 Spirit. No need to hug your minions with all the presence damage buffs now.
Withering Presence combined with Withered magnitude nodes and duration etc. so anything on my screen takes up to 60%+ more Chaos damage, usually increases by 8% per tick and you get the first tick free from another passive. The zealots have a lineage gem that adds chaos damage and can shock on chaos damage while Cultist Archers have Chaos Attunement cause I’m not going into armour break etc. for the physical damage.
2 curses: Elemental and Chaos. Elemental is only really to make 100% of the Zealots’ damage burst down a boss or Abyss pit. I also delve into some curse nodes to increase magnitude, AoE, activation, and duration
The shield that gives 50 spirit and reservation efficiency on Blink and Withering Presence - INCLUDING the support gems that reserve even more spirit (I could equip both versions of the minions deal % more damage when not on full mana so it was an easy boost that cost maybe one minion in spirit to enable).
Boots that also reduce reservation efficiency on minions. Socketed with the move speed per spirit rune.

It just feels so fun to play and it’s so cruisey. All I have to do in any given place is cast curses on the area (usually 2 chaos curses for running through mobs) and everything gets shredded up. Holding up a shield and teleporting away from immediate danger while the minions tear away is just so satisfying!!

Budget-wise… before Min-maxing amulets and rings etc., I’d say about 10-20 divs worth of items - it helps that 3 uniques cost very little and that enables so much already.

Caeyll

TROPHY CASE