Venti is the Anemo Archon of Mondstadt. Most dps showcases involving groups of small enemies are simply Venti showcases.
Venti is used for his Q. The burst provides CC vacuum that pulls in enemies and can also do elemental absorption. The absorption priority is Pyro > Hydro > Electro > Cryo / Frozen as for most Anemo characters except the Anemo Traveler (Cryo / Frozen > Pyro > Hydro > Electro).
There are 20 ticks of Anemo damage and 16 ticks of the infused element. These ticks of damage can crit. There is also additional swirl damage. With one of Venti's passives, he can refund 15 energy for himself and party members matching the infused element. As Venti ascends with ER, in practice it is very easy for Venti to spam his burst on cd.
Gravity and lifting: The Q vacuum field pulls enemies within a 15m radius and can also lift them. The Q starts doing damage within a .2m radius (the 'inner radius'). The strength of the pull and whether they are lifted depends on 1) the weight of the enemy 2) the level of Venti. Venti's level needs to be at least above the enemy's level minus 20 for it to be lifted. Then the weight of the enemy needs to be below a certain threshold (<= 100, units unspecified). Certain heavy enemies (such as the Unusual Hilichurl) can be lifted after being staggered or hit by certain attacks with vertical impulse (i.e. Jean's E or Venti's E). The exact mechanics involve the Interruption Resistance / poise system.
Even if Venti does not lift the enemies, that is actually good for Xiao since then Xiao can plunge on the enemy within Venti's ult. Even if it does lift enemies, Xiao can jump and cycle within Venti's burst.
His E is also an ability that can lift enemies. It also has pretty high scaling.
Venti is somewhat different from the other premier Anemo supports Sucrose and Kazuha when it comes to constellations. Venti's constellations give more Anemo RES shred (and even Physical RES shred). This Anemo RES shred is basically amazing for one character: Xiao.
With C2 using his E can reduce Anemo and Physical RES by 12%. If the enemies are lifted then the lose an additional 12%, bringing it to -24% total. With C6 his Q reduces Anemo RES by 20% as well as RES for the infused element in the Q by 20%. So in total, Venti can give: -44% Anemo RES, -24% Physical RES, -60% elemental RES to infused element (vv + c6). So C6 Venti powercreeps Zhongli for almost everything except Geo RES and arguably becomes a more powerful universal RES shredder.
For Xiao specifically, while he can make use of the full -44% Anemo RES shred, if the enemy is light enough to be lifted it will probably be destroyed by Venti's Q anyways. So in practice, Xiao will probably take advantage of 12% Anemo RES shred from Venti E and 20% Anemo RES shred from Q for heavier enemies, giving 32% Anemo RES shred. So for Anemo RES shred support for Xiao, C6 Venti and C4 Jean are similar. C4 Jean gives -40% Anemo RES within her Q.
4 piece VV is bis. While 4p emblem can be used to buff burst, VV -40% RES shred and increased swirl damage is usually more valuable.
Full EM (support): since the Version 1.6 swirl buffs, much of the Q damage comes from swirl. Venti crit build involves ATK, Anemo DMG, CRIT.
Weapons: Elegy of End, Stringless, Windblume Ode.
Similar to Bennett, Venti is the type of character that can be used on any team. He can battery Xiao and reduce Anemo RES with C2/C6. He can be used as vv shred in vaporize, melt, and freeze teams He can also be used in EC taser teams (such as Venti-Kazuha-Fischl-Barbara/Xingqiu). He can be used in any team that needs more CC, vv shred, and even be used as a battery. He works well with Raiden for generating a lot of energy.
Lv10 Q, 4p vv, 61.6 anemo dmg bonus $$x_b = (1.616*20*67.68 + 16*33.84)/15 = 181.92384$$ Factoring in VV shred gives $$x_b = (1.616*20*67.68 + 16*33.84*1.278)/15 = 191.958528$$ This is without swirl. So building crit on Venti is not recommended. Venti's edge comes from his swirl damage, and building EM will make him do more damage through his swirl. The 1.6 swirl buffs further boosted his damage too.
Venti's Q has its own ICD of 1s reset/3 hit rule (the standard is 2.5s/3 hit) on both the Anemo and infused ticks. The burst lasts 8s. There will be around 7 swirls (with the Anemo ticks swirling the infused element or an element applied to the ult). In AoE situations there will be 2 instances of swirl damage per enemy (scaling \(2n\)) resulting in around 14 total instances of swirl damage per enemy. At Lv90 base swirl damage is 868. Furthermore swirl damage is increased by 60% when running 4 vv. EM gives an additive bonus of $$Y = 1600/(1+2000/EM)$$ Say Venti has 165 EM (from Stringless) then this gives $$Y(165) = 121.9399538106\%$$ So in total one swirl gives $$z_s = 868*(1+1.219+.6) = 2446.892$$ The dps from swirl is then $$d_s = 14z_s/15 = 2283.7658666667$$
If running 500 EM (achievable) then the EM bonus is $$Y(500) = 320\%$$ so one swirl has damage $$z_s = 868*(1+3.2+.6) = 4166.4$$ and the dps is $$d_s = 3888.64$$ Factoring in -40% RES from vv gives $$1.278d_s = 4969.68192$$ This is actual damage. The scale conversion from mv to actual damage is roughly 1 to 4000. So the above adds roughly \(x_s = 120\%\) more to Venti's mv, bringing it to around $$x_b + x_s \approx 300$$
Damage-wise, as a sub-DPS, Venti is around Xiangling level (which is to say, pretty good). When they say Venti can do so much damage that he is basically a dps, that is sort of true. But Venti's true strength is his CC, bringing enemies close enough together to make attacking all of them simultaneously much easier in practice. Moreover his Q is an off field ability that can lift and immobilize enemies while also acting as a self-funding energy battery. For mobs of many small enemies, Venti is undisputably the king of sub-DPS AoE, defeating them in a literal breeze.
Note swirl damage is transformative, unaffected by ATK, CRIT, and enemy DEF, but affected by enemy RES and character level. The bubble pop from 4p ocean clam is calculated similarly, but is affected by enemy RES and healing amount. Swirl does elemental damage corresponding to the element infused in the swirl. For example if one swirls Pyro, the swirl damage will do Pyro damage. Moreover, if the enemy has lower Pyro RES (e.g. via vv), the Pyro swirl will do more damage.
Assuming press each time. Holding has higher scaling, higher cd, and creates wind current that can be used for plunging, evading attacks, or exploration. Press E has 497% scaling and a 6s cd. The dps is $$x_e = 497*1.616/6 = 133.86$$
The total dps without swirl is $$x_e + x_b = 315.8$$ The dps with swirl is around 430.
If Morax has a certain connection to finance, then going along these lines, his fellow archon Barbatos also has some connection to finance. Barbatos, Barbara, ... Sounds like the name of something that was acquired some time ago.