Yelan has just been released in Genshin impact, this long-awaited character has been pending for quite a while, delayed due to the lockdowns in China. Fortunately, she is now out and in the hands of players and theorycrafters alike. The character Yelan as we went through before is a unique character with her own background and story. This post however will focus on how to build her as a playable character.
First things first, Yelan is a 5-star Hydro bow character. She has a unique skill kit outlined below.
Yelan Genshin Impact Skill and Ultimate
Normal Attack and Charged Attack
Normal Attack
Performs up to 4 consecutive shots with a bow.
Charged Attack
Perform a more precise Aimed Shot with increased DMG. While aiming, flowing water will accumulate on the arrowhead. A fully charged torrential arrow will deal Hydro DMG.
Breakthrough
Yelan will enter a “Breakthrough” state after spending 5s out of combat, which will cause her next Charged Aimed Shot to have 80% decreased charge time, and once charged, she can fire a “Breakthrough Barb” that will deal AoE Hydro DMG based on Yelan’s Max HP.
Plunging Attack
Fires off a shower of arrows in mid-air before falling and striking the ground, dealing AoE DMG upon impact.
Elemental Skill
Fires off a Lifeline that allows her to move rapidly, entangling and marking opponents along its path.
When this rapid movement ends, the Lifeline will explode, dealing Hydro DMG to the marked opponents based on Yelan’s Max HP.
Press
Moves a certain distance forward swiftly.
Hold
Engages in a continuous, swift movement, during which Yelan’s resistance to interruption is increased.
During this time, Yelan can control this rapid movement and end it by using this Skill again. Additionally, each opponent marked by the “Lifeline” when it explodes grants Yelan a 34% chance to reset her “Breakthrough” state.
Ultimate Skill
Deals AoE Hydro DMG and creates an “Exquisite Throw,” which aids her in battle.
Exquisite Throw
This follows the character around and will initiate a coordinated attack under the following circumstances, dealing Hydro DMG based on Yelan’s Max HP:
This can occur once every second when your active character uses a Normal Attack.
Will occur each time Yelan’s Lifeline explodes and hits opponents.
1st ascension passive (A1)
When the party has 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 Elemental Types, Yelan’s Max HP is increased by 6% / 12% / 18% / 30%.
4th ascension passive (A4)
So long as an Exquisite Throw is in play, your own active character deals 1% more DMG. This increases by a further 3.5% DMG every second. The maximum increase to DMG dealt is 50%. The pre-existing effect will be dispelled if Depth-Clarion Dice is recast during its duration.
Utility Passive
Gains 25% more rewards when dispatched on a Liyue Expedition for 20 hours.
Yelan Skill and talent level up priorities
Based on the kit we see above, Yelan’s ideal talent priorities are similar to her 4-star counterpart Xingqiu.
Ultimate skill > Elemental skill > Normal attack
This order of talent level-ups will guarantee the most value for your Yelan and will allow you to use her in higher-level content such as Abyss Floor 12.
We recommend crowning Yelan’s Ultimate as it is very strong and benefits more from the crown than other characters as it will improve the scaling of her ultimate ability.
What is the best weapon for Yelan?
Below at the weapons, we recommend for Yelan, her best weapon is of course the banner weapon running which is Aqua Simulacra. This weapon is very strong not only on Yelan but for other characters as well however players have to be prepared to lose up to 2 pities on the weapon banner to get it guaranteed. The F2P option we recommend is Favonius Warbow, this is very accessible even for newer players and offers one of the best options for her playstyle as it reduces the amount of Energy Recharge needed to run Yelan and get her Ultimate skill recharged.
Aqua Simulacra – Best for Yelan’s damage assuming the player has reached sufficient Energy Recharge through artifacts or external sources.
Elegy for the End – Strong weapon for buffing the team with a focus on teams that rely on reactions such as vaporise ie Hu Tao teams.
Favonius Warbow – Great free 4-star weapon and aids the team’s ER requirements while lowering her personal requirements.
Mouun’s Moon – Strong option at R5 but only truly shines when Yelan doesn’t have high ER requirements in the team.
Sacrificial bow – Alternative that can work but generally not as great as Favonius Warbow.
What is the ER (Energy Recharge) Requirement for Yelan?
The Energy Recharge requirement for Yelan varies from anywhere between 180% ER to 220% Energy Recharge. This is because a majority of her damage comes from her Ultimate Skill and this needs to be up at all times to maintain her damage output. Yelan needs a lot of energy recharge so it is recommended that players focus on this first before looking into increasing her damage potential, it will make Yelan a lot more playable.
What are Yelan’s recommended Artifact sets?
Yelan’s primary recommended set is a 4 Piece set of Emblem of Severed Fate. This set benefits her the most due to being forced to run large amounts of Energy Recharge and will give her Ultimate a big boost of damage which is a huge bonus given that this is where most of her damage potential lies.
We only recommend other pieces such as 2 piece Emblem of Severed Fate and 2 Pieces Gladiators if there is truly no option. However, your substats on these artifacts need to be extremely good to justify the usage since they will not benefit her as much as the 4 piece Emblem of Severed Fate.
What substats should I aim for on Artifacts for Yelan?
Yelan’s substats should focus first on her Energy Requirements, 180-220% Energy Recharge before looking into trying to boost her other stats. Yelan is a unique character like Kokomi because she focuses more on HP as this is what the scaling of her Ultimate Skill is based on, this will be the next focus. After that the focus is on Critical Rate and Critical Damage.
Energy Recharge (180% – 220%) > HP% > Critical Damage or Critical Rate
Are Yelan’s constellations worth it?
Yelan is a strong character even without constellations however we always like to take a look at them for players willing to spend more primogems on the character banner or wanting to boost their Yelan damage even further.
Her constellation value is quite decent.
Constellation 1: Lingering Lifeline gains 1 additional charge.
Constellation 2: When Exquisite Throw conducts a coordinated attack, it will fire an additional water arrow that will deal 14% of Yelan’s Max HP as Hydro DMG.
Constellation 3: Increases the Level of Depth-Clarion Dice by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 5.
Constellation 4: Increases all party members’ Max HP by 10% for 25s for every opponent marked by Lifeline when the Lifeline explodes. A maximum increase of 40% Max HP can be attained in this manner.
Constellation 5: Increases the Level of Lingering Lifeline by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 5.
Constellation 6: After using Depth-Clarion Dice, Yelan will enter the Mastermind state.
In this state, all of Yelan’s Normal Attacks will be special Breakthrough Barbs. These Breakthrough Barbs will have similar abilities to normal ones and the DMG dealt will be considered Charged Attack DMG, dealing 156% of a normal Breakthrough Barb’s DMG.
The Mastermind state lasts 20s and will be cleared after Yelan fires 5 arrows.
From what we see above her value in terms of damage will gain the most value at Constellation 2 and Constellation 4. Constellation 5-6 are interesting however they are not going to add as much damage potential to her Ultimate ability as the previously mentioned constellations.
For low spenders and F2P players we recommend sticking to Constellation 0 or no constellation. For players who are looking to lower her Energy Recharge requirement we recommend Constellation 1 and for players who want the best bang for buck value we recommend Constellation 2.
How good is Yelan compared to Xingqiu in Genshin Impact?
Yelan is a very strong character and very comparable to the already strong character, Xingqiu. She is often seen as a second Xingqiu in the Genshin Impact Theorycrafting community.
Functioning as a second Xingqiu, Yelan’s hydro application may not be as strong as Xingqiu, but she can be used in less hydro aura application dependent teams like freeze teams or electrocharged teams. This allows players to use Xingqiu on the Vaporise teams which requires his Hydro aura application such as Hu Tao teams.
Yelan’s 4th ascension Passive also provides the on-field character a dmg% bonus which over time stacks up to become very strong in the latter end of her burst duration. This can be quite good as a damage booster for already strong characters that do damage on the field such as Raiden Shogun.
