So all Anemo units can work as a support in any team with a swirl-able element like Pyro, Hydro, Electro, and Cryo. But although Traveler works in plenty of teams, they’re very often outshined by other Anemo units. And these characters offer more utility and ease of use – they’re basically just better. So building Anemo Traveler is only recommended if you don’t have other Anemo units in your account. Plus, Traveler has far better elements that can be more useful – such as Dendro. Note: This is about meta only. If you like Anemo Traveler regardless of their power level, don’t let this stop you from playing them.
Pros & Cons
Anemo Traveler Strengths
Anemo Traveler has a lot of utility that’s part of their kit and constellations. This includes self-healing, crowd control, damage reduction, increased resistance to interruption, and additional resistance shred. Self-healing and damage reduction increase Traveler’s survivability. And resistance to interruption lets them comfortably perform attacks without getting staggered. Traveler can also provide crowd control through their skill and burst – although this can be hard to maneuver. Lastly, their C6 provides additional elemental resistance shred on top of using the 4VV set. This is an unconditional damage gain. Elemental absorption priority determines which element an Anemo ability will swirl when there are multiple elements present. Anemo Traveler is the only Anemo unit that has Cryo as their top priority – other Anemo units have Cryo as their last priority and Pyro as their first. This means that Traveler will always swirl Cryo even when other elemental auras are present. So they’re a great Cryo support in instances where other elements can steal Cryo’s swirl reaction. Successfully swirling Cryo lets them shred the Cryo resistance of surrounding opponents. Anemo Traveler is one of the very few sources of Anemo resistance shred. Other sources are locked behind 5-star characters and constellations. Because of this, Anemo resistance shred is an unsaturated damage buff – which is great for Traveler! It makes them a valuable teammate to Anemo DPS units, most notably Xiao.
Anemo Traveler Weaknesses
Traveler’s skill is one of their main sources of crowd control and buffing – plus it deals respectable damage. However, it has a relatively long animation that takes up decent field time. In comparison, other off-field Anemo supports take very little field time to cast their abilities. This is valuable field time – especially in Spiral Abyss – that could be better used by other units like the DPS. Anemo Traveler can provide crowd control through their burst and skill – but this is hard to use and often unreliable. Their skill pushes enemies away from you after its duration. This can effectively ruin the grouping of smaller and lighter opponents. Its pulling ability increases the longer you hold it – but this takes up a lot of field time, which is often not optimal. Their burst’s tornado also provides some crowd control. It lifts lighter opponents together and away from your character. This can be good against multiple small enemies, but it can miss smaller scattered opponents or pass through larger opponents. It can also drop some opponents while moving, thus effectively scattering them away from you. Anemo Traveler really isn’t the best in anything they do. Other Anemo characters outperform them in multiple teams and roles. So it’s always optimal to just use the better Anemo unit for your team. For instance, Venti is undoubtedly the best grouper in-game – and miles ahead of Traveler in this role. Kazuha and Sucrose are also significantly better groupers and buffers. And Xiao easily deals more damage as a DPS than Traveler. Sayu and Jean can also use the 4VV set while providing the additional utility of healing.
Are Anemo Traveler’s Constellations Good?
All of Anemo Traveler’s constellations are free, and they’re pretty nice to have. They’re obtainable through completing Archon Quests, reaching certain Adventure Ranks, and buying them from Marjorie’s shop in Mondstadt. So you’ll just naturally get them while playing the game – here’s a closer look at each one.
C1: Raging Vortex
Traveler’s skill pulls enemies and objects within a 5m radius. This gives Traveler the ability to crowd control opponents with their skill. And it has a respectable pulling ability.
C2: Uprising Whirlwind
Increases Energy Recharge by 16%. C2 is very straightforward – it decreases Traveler’s energy requirements. This lets you focus on other relevant stats like Elemental Mastery (EM).
C3: Sweeping Gust
Increases their elemental burst talent level by 3. This increases their burst damage multipliers. It’s only relevant in a DPS build and insignificant in a full EM build. This is because swirl damage only benefits from EM and character level – not talent multipliers. Still, it’s a damage gain.
C4: Cherishing Breezes
Reduces damage taken while casting their skill by 10%. C4 increases Traveler’s survivability, which is valuable during their lengthy skill cast.
C5: Vortex Stellaris
Increases their elemental skill talent level by 3. This is similar to C3. It’s a damage gain mostly for a DPS build.
C6: Intertwined Winds
Opponents who take damage from Traveler’s burst have their Anemo resistance decreased by 20%. If Traveler’s burst absorbs an element, it also decreases opponents’ elemental resistance to the corresponding element by 20%. C6 effectively shreds up to 60% elemental resistance of opponents when also using the 4VV set. Plus, it’s also one of the few sources of Anemo resistance shred in-game. It’s a really nice source of additional damage – there’s not much to be said.
