This post is up to date with Version 3.1 Phase 2.
Collei is a 4-Star Dendro Bow character from Sumeru. She can be obtained for free when you clear Floor 4-3 of the Spiral Abyss. Primarily, she serves as a Sub DPS for her team.
Base Kit
Collei’s Elemental Skill, Floral Brush, has her throw out a Floral Ring, a boomerang that deals one instance of Dendro DMG to any target it hits. If it manages to hit the same opponent as it returns to your active character, it can deal Dendro DMG again. Naturally, the effectiveness of this Skill is going to depend on how many enemies you manage to hit with it and if said enemies are hit twice or not. Uptime can also be an issue as the Skill takes 12 seconds to cool down. You can extend the Floral Ring’s field duration by moving away from it, making it last 10 seconds before it automatically returns to you. This trick is rendered moot however as no matter how long you make it last, the boomerang can’t hit anything more than twice.
With her A1 passive unlocked, Collei gains the ability to produce the Sprout effect. This is triggered when a teammate procs a Dendro-related Elemental Reaction before the Floral Ring returns. Once it’s activated, it’ll follow your active character and deal additional Dendro DMG at close range, equal to 40% of Collei’s ATK for 3 seconds. This somewhat alleviates the downtime issue of Collei’s Elemental Skill and it can allow for more Reaction procs. Given the 40% multiplier however, it is rather weak.
When Collei casts her Elemental Burst, Trump-Card Kitty, she throws onto the field her kitten doll, Culein-Anbar (whose name is totally not on the nose). This doll then explodes and bounces around within the Culein-Anbar Zone, dealing AoE Dendro DMG in the process. Taking a page from Amber in more than just the name, Collei’s Burst has questionable uptime. By default, it only lasts for 6 seconds. Against a 15 second cooldown, you’re looking at 9 seconds of downtime. This is somewhat addressed by Collei’s A4 passive where a teammate triggering a Dendro-related Elemental Reaction within the Culein-Anbar Zone will extend its duration by 1-3 seconds. Due to the Internal Cooldown of the Burst, getting the full 3 second extension can be tricky but if done right, you will shorten the downtime to a more tolerable 6 second duration.
Collei’s Elemental Burst has a mild cost of 60 Energy. Surprisingly however, Collei is still a bit needy when it comes to fueling it. Her Elemental Skill generates 2.5 Dendro Particles and paired with its lengthy 12 second cooldown, it won’t necessarily get her Burst back up before cooldown. To address Collei’s Energy needs, you’ll need to stack Energy Recharge in her build and/or team her with another Dendro character who can act as a battery.
Constellations
- C1 – Increases Collei’s Energy Recharge 20% when she is off field. It’s helpful for her Energy needs though it won’t instantly fix it so you should still consider the solutions mentioned earlier in the previous paragraph of this guide/review.
- C2 – Assuming you have Collei’s A1 passive unlocked, this Constellation will automatically grant you the Sprout effect when the Floral Ring returns to you. If a teammate does trigger a Dendro-related Reaction, Sprout’s duration will extend by 3 seconds. With this Constellation, Sprout is a lot easier to obtain and its uptime, while still not amazing, is now double its original length.
- C3 – Adds three Levels to Collei’s Elemental Skill.
- C4 – Increases Collei’s teammates’ Elemental Mastery by 60 for 12 seconds after Collei casts her Elemental Burst. It’s a pretty helpful buff for Dendro team comps and it gives Collei’s kit some utility.
- C5 – Adds three Levels to Collei’s Elemental Burst.
- C6 – Creates a miniature Culein-Anbar when Collei lands a hit with her Elemental Skill. The doll’s DMG is equivalent to 200% of Collei’s ATK. While that does translate to more DMG and Dendro application, you can only get it once with each Skill use so I wouldn’t call this Constellation a significant upgrade.
Overall, Collei’s Constellations is just okay. Some good stopping points besides C0 and C6 and C2 and C4. As is always the case with 4-Star characters, there is no guarantee for them in the gacha so you should be wary about pulling for them, let alone more than once.
Weapons
- Fading Twilight (4-Star) – Not up for consideration if you didn’t get it in Version 2.7’s Flagship Event. The Fading Twilight is a more offensive option over the two Bows mentioned right below, while also giving Collei Energy Recharge. When Collei’s attacks hit opponents and/or for 7 seconds, the Bow will cycle through one of three DMG Bonuses. It’ll increase Collei’s DPS, just inconsistently so.
- Favonius Warbow (4-Star) – Has a middling base ATK of 454 but offers 61.3% Energy Recharge in return. It can also generate neutral Energy particles with a CRIT. Equipping this weapon will cover most of Collei’s Energy needs. Favonius is also very F2P-friendly as one copy can be obtained by defeating Dvalin in Act III of the main story’s Prologue.
- Sacrificial Bow (4-Star) – Only recommended if your Favonius Warbow is on someone else and you lack another copy. Sacrificial does possesses less Energy Recharge than Favonius but it does have a higher Base ATK. The cooldown reset is appealing for Collei though you’ll need to be mindful of when you cast her Elemental Skill as the reset’s own cooldown doesn’t outpace that of her Skill even with Sacrificial at R5.
- The Stringless (4-Star) – While Stringless does increase the wielder’s Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst DMG, I’m a little hesitant to recommend it for Collei. With Elemental Mastery as its second stat, you’ll be harder pressed to address Collei’s Energy needs and you’ll have to solely rely on the hell that is Artifact RNG. It may be worth using if you have another Dendro unit on the team who can supply Collei with particles.
Artifacts
Given her Element, the most straightforward set to give to Collei is Deepwood Memories (4). This will give her 15% Dendro DMG Bonus and allow her to inflict an 8 second 30% Dendro RES debuff. As one of the few means to debuff Dendro RES, you will want this set for a Dendro-related team comp. If someone else has this set equipped, you can give Collei something else. Emblem of Severed Fate (4) can be equipped to provide Collei with 20% Energy Recharge and an Elemental Burst DMG Bonus in proportion to the former stat. Another alternative is Noblesse Oblige (4) for the 20% Burst DMG Bonus and to give Collei the ability to buff her team’s ATK after casting her Burst. This would also go nicely with Collei’s C4, allowing her to buff both ATK and Elemental Mastery at the same time.
For main stats, Collei wants an ATK% Sands, a Dendro DMG Bonus Goblet, and a CRIT Circlet. You can alternatively give Collei an Energy Recharge Sands if that stat is somehow low for her and she’s struggling to get her Elemental Burst every rotation. If equipped with the Favonius Warbow, it’s very important that Collei can CRIT so a CRIT Rate Circlet would be more desirable than a CRIT DMG one. Sub stats to look for are ATK%, CRIT, Elemental Mastery, and Energy Recharge.
Conclusion
Collei is an odd character to gauge. In a vacuum, I don’t find her kit to be that particularly good, the biggest detractor being the downtime of her Talents. That being said, Dendro was only just added in Version 3.0 and counting Collei, it currently just has three characters (four once Nahida releases in Version 3.2). There’s also the fact that Collei is given out for free. Until the Dendro roster is expanded in future patches, you’ll want to consider investing into Collei, if only so that you have Dendro covered in your repertoire.
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