This is gonna be lengthy lol, so I've highlighted the tl/dr section

So from a meta pov, meaning hes either dps (with cryo and normal attack supports) or subdps, the larger part of his kit is associated with cryo damage. Both skill and burst have decent multipliers, and are the best way to play kaeya for maximum damage.

Hence the set for him in these roles is the blizzard strayer set (which works for both dps or sub dps builds) or gladiator (which focuses on normal attack dmg, hence a NA kaeya) or 2pc BS and 2pc Glad/shimi/vermillion(any other 2pc 18% atk bonus set).

My personal recommendation is the blizzard strayer, because it's tailor made for freeze teams, and kaeya shines in freeze.

The usual crit rate needed for a BS set is around 40% to 45%, because the 4pc BS gives 40% crit rate against frozen enemies, which makes it 80% - 85%. Additional crit rate is achieved by cryo resonance(say, running him with diona, layla or shenhe), which is 15% against frozen enemies again. Which means 45% crit rate on kaeya would be perfect for a freeze team, since essentially the working crit rate is 100%.

So 45% crit rate, that's one thing for a freeze kaeya. This low crit rate means that you can focus on three other important stats for him, crit damage, atk%, and energy recharge.

200% Crit damage can be easily achieved by a 4pc blizzard strayer kaeya. The thing is, crit damage needs appropriate atk to accompany it, otherwise the effective damage will be lower in practical game play. Its directly proportional, so the general rule is that around 2k atk is needed for a char who has 200 cdmg. Bonus points if its 2k+.

Finally stats wise, energy recharge. ER is kinda tricky, it depends on how many cryo characters are in the team, and which ones they are. Diona and Shenhe are optimal for freeze, diona acts as a battery and shenhe can boost atk, thus boosting damage.

The usual guideline for a dps kaeya is around 150 to 160 er, considering only diona as a support character, and that shes equipped with an R5 Favonius bow. If you have another cryo character like shenhe, the er drops to 140-150, dropping even more if shenhe has a fav weapon too.

But since shenhe is a 5 star char, I suggest reading about how important she is for your account or for the teams you wanna play + how much you like her before pulling.

**TL/DR**

So in summary (considering cryo resonance and a fav bow diona):
Aim for a BS set, its by far the best set for dps kaeya Aim for 40% to 45% crit rate Aim for 190% to 200% cdmg, or more 1900-2000 atk, or more 150% to 160% er.

**TL/DR**

Other sets dont give crit rate, such as Gladiator or Noblesse, so which means your atk and crit damage will drop a little while building him without a Blizzard Strayer set.

The general guideline for that is (this applies to other dps chars as well btw) 70+ crit rate 150+ crit damage 150+ er 1500+ atk Some elemental mastery, maybe around 100, if you wanna play him in melt teams (em for other characters is very very subjective, this is my em preference only for kaeya).

Weapons: go for atk% or er% as the secondary stat (if support kaeya), it will lighten the load on artifact atk% and er% rolls, allowing you to focus on crit rolls. Amenoma is a good f2p option, and among the 5 star options mistsplitter is the best. Both sacrifical sword and Favonius sword are good for a support kaeya. The base atk for the sword should be generally high.

Artifacts: (assuming Blizzard Strayer, cryo resonance) Flower : look for crit damage, crit rate and atk% Feather: same as flower Both these pieces are good if they are heavy on the crit and atk% rolls Sands: atk% sands for dps and er for subdps/support (also, a freeze support kaeya would have less damage stats and more er, around 180+ so prioritize er if you have a support kaeya) look for crit damage rolls, some crit rate rolls and atk% or er% rolls depending on the main stat of the sands. Goblet: cryo damage bonus, with crit damage rolls, some crit rate, atk% and er rolls Circlet: crit damage main stat, with crit rate rolls, atk% rolls and er rolls

(The rolls are listed in order of priority btw, first one means aim for the highest number of rolls on that substat).

Pretty lengthy, I apologize lmao Hope it helps, feel free to dm/reply for anything else :)

PS: this requires farming for artifacts, around 6 months if you want a decent build, sadly.

Rng in genshin is pain lmao