Yelan
is a powerful hydro character in genshin impact. In fact, she's one of the best
and this yelan build guide will help you unlock her true potential.
Yelan is a 5*
hydro bow sub-dps who provides a ton of off-field dmg and hydro application to
any team.
Hydro is arguably the best element in the game—with access to freeze, vaporize, and electro-charged reactions. This alone would make her a desirable unit. But hydro units with consistent off-field hydro application are the best of the best. This is the reason xingqiu proudly sits in the s-tier in our genshin impact tier list.
Given that
she’s a power-crept version of xingqiu with an almost identical elemental
burst, it should come as no surprise that yelan is also an s-tier character.
However, she’s
a bit more difficult to play and equip optimally due to her hp scaling. This
not only means that her weapon and artifact choices differ from the sub-dps
norm, but also that some supports simply don’t work with her, like bennett who buffs atk.
In this yelan
build guide, we’ll show you how to optimize her for difficult content by
evaluating her:
- Talent
priority
- Constellation
value
- Weapon
choices
- Best
artifacts
- Team
compositions
Yelan’s talent priority
Talent |
Description |
Priority |
Normal attack |
Normal attack |
Yelan’s other abilities scale exclusively
off of hp, but her normal and charged attacks—for the most part—scale with
atk. |
Elemental skill |
Fires off a lifeline that allows her to move
rapidly, entangling and marking opponents along its path. |
Yelan’s elemental skill offers one of the
best forms of land traversal in all of genshin impact, rivaled only by sayu’s
rolling. |
Elemental burst |
Deals aoe hydro dmg and creates an
“exquisite throw,” which aids her in battle. |
On an 18-second cooldown and with a
15-second duration, this ability will constantly rain down hydro dmg at
enemies to help facilitate elemental reactions, all while dealing decent dmg
in its own right. |
Yelan’s passive talents
Talent name |
Description |
Evaluation |
Necessary calculation |
Gains 25% more rewards when dispatched on a
liyue expedition for 20 hours. |
Like all other passive talents of its kind, this
talent is inconsequential. |
Turn control |
When the party has 1/2/3/4 elemental types,
yelan’s max hp is increased by 6%/12%/18%/30%. |
While you shouldn’t let this passive talent
lock you into using only rainbow teams, it sure rewards elemental diversity
in a meaningful way. |
Adapt with ease |
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. |
This talent
is simply amazing. Keep in mind that it buffs the on-field character, so it
won’t affect yelan’s burst while she’s off-field. |
Yelan’s kit is
exactly what you’d get if you took xingqiu—one of the best units in the entire
game—and decided to make him better.
She can be used
to effortlessly enable freeze teams, vaporize teams, and electro-charged teams.
To this end,
her elemental burst is her most important asset. Making sure that she can cast
it as frequently as possible and minimizing its downtime is our most important
consideration.
However, yelan
is more than just her elemental burst. Her elemental skill—in addition to
making for the best open-world traversal and packing quite a punch—has a chance
to trigger her breakthrough state. This means that you can sprinkle fairly
effective charged shots (that charge up very quickly) in between casting her
abilities, which makes for an engaging playstyle.
On top of that,
her second ascension talent buffs up the active character, giving her added
utility beyond just mimicking what xingqiu does.
All of this is
to say that, at c0, yelan feels like a complete and powerful character.
But what about
her constellations?
Yelan’s constellations
Constellation
name |
Description |
Evaluation |
Enter the plotters |
Lingering lifeline gains 1 additional
charge. |
C1 is a
substantial constellation, increasing yelan’s mobility, energy
generation, and dmg all in one. |
Taking all comers |
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. |
At burst talent level 10—the highest f2p
players can get—each of the three arrows created by yelan’s burst deal approximately
8.3% of max hp as dmg. So this constellation increases her burst dps by
approximately 56%. |
Beware the trickster’s dice |
Increases the level of depth-clarion
dice by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 5. |
By taking her burst talent level from 10 to
13, yelan’s c3 adds 1.58% of max hp to her three arrows. |
Bait-and-switch |
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. |
Yelan’s c4 is a utility buff that is
guaranteed to increase her personal dmg output and also has the potential to
benefit her teammates, what with how many characters scale off of hp. The
floor on this constellation is decent, with the ceiling
being much higher in certain teams. |
Dealer’s sleight |
Increases the level of lingering
lifeline by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 5. |
Yelan’s c5 is her most underwhelming
constellation. |
Winner takes all |
After using depth-clarion dice, yelan
will enter the mastermind state. |
Even with the 5 arrow restriction, yelan’s
c6 is incredible. |
Yelan’s
constellations are—for the most part—incredible, with c5 being the only one
that’s bad.
The developers
seem to have gotten into the groove of making the c1 of new characters a nice
quality of life upgrade and their c2 a massive dmg bump. If you’re looking to
boost yelan’s dmg, c2 is the constellation you should aim for.
However—and we
cannot overstate this—do keep in mind that each constellation you get could
have been a wholly new 5* character that would unlock new team compositions,
play styles, and synergies.
No matter how
good a constellation is, it’s not more valuable than an entirely new character.
Now, if you’re
what the gacha community would call a whale, feel free to ignore our advice.
However, if
you’re a f2p player or even a low-spender, we highly recommend holding off on
pulling for 5* character constellations.
We know they’re
tempting. They’re tempting by design. But the payoff just isn’t worth the cost.
Best weapons for yelan
Weapon
rarity |
Explanation |
Aqua simulacra |
In general, yelan doesn’t benefit much from
using 5* weapons, with the one exception being aqua simulacra—her signature
weapon. |
Elegy for the end |
Aside from aqua simulacra, the only other 5*
bow worth using on yelan is the elegy for the end, thanks to its energy
recharge substat and supporting passive. Yelan can effortlessly proc the
passive to give the rest of the team extra elemental mastery and atk. |
Recurve bow |
It’s not often that a 3* weapon gets
featured in one of these guides, but the recurve bow is simply amazing on
yelan. As mentioned, all of her dmg scales off of hp, and recurve bow gives a
ton of hp. |
Favonius warbow |
Favonius warbow features an immensely large
energy recharge substat, which on yelan is beneficial for ensuring maximum
uptime on her burst. The weapon also adds some extra utility through its
passive, enabling yelan to generate extra energy particles even while
off-field. |
The stringless |
The stringless is yet another strong
contender for yelan thanks to its passive which directly increases elemental
burst dmg. That being said, even at r5, this weapon will just barely
outperform an r5 recurve bow unless you also factor in the dmg derived from
the elemental mastery substat. |
Slingshot/sharpshooter’s oath |
Slingshot and sharpshooter’s oath are two
other 3* weapons that are phenomenal on yelan, due to her kit completely
ignoring the atk stat. |
Fading twilight |
Fading twilight gives yelan both consistency
through the energy recharge substat and extra dmg via the passive. |
Best artifacts for yelan – 4-emblem of severed fate
Any character
who depends on their elemental burst for the majority of their dmg will want
the 4-piece emblem of
severed fate artifact set bonus, and yelan is no
different.
With this set, yelan
gets both extra energy recharge to smooth out her rotation and extra burst dmg
based on her max energy recharge.
The main stats
you should use on artifacts for yelan are:
- Hp%/energy
recharge on the sands
- Hydro
dmg on the goblet
- Crit
rate/crit dmg on the logos
Use hp% on the
sands if your yelan already has plenty of energy recharge, as she would by
using favonius warbow and at least the 2-piece emblem of severed fate set
bonus.
Otherwise, use
an energy recharge sands. This will technically lower her dmg, but it will
ensure she gets to use her burst more often, which is the main reason why you
want to use yelan in the first place.
As for the crit
stats, your goal is to get her crit ratio as close to 1:2 as possible. To
decide whether to use a crit rate or crit dmg logos, check to see which one
would get her closer to this ratio.
As far as
substats go, you should aim for:
- Crit
rate
- Crit
dmg
- Energy
recharge
- Hp%
- Hp
If you don’t
have a 4-piece emblem of severed fate, you can use any combination of the following
2-piece artifact set
bonuses:
- Emblem
of severed fate
- Tenacity
of the millelith
- Heart
of depth
- Noblesse
oblige
Best team composition for yelan
F2p vaporize yelan
- Yelan
- Bennett
- Xiangling
- Sucrose
Yelan is the team’s source of
off-field hydro dmg needed to drive vaporize reactions.
Bennett is the team’s healer
and atk buffer. While his buff may not benefit yelan much, it still provides a
ton of value for xiangling and—should you choose to run him—xingqiu.
Alternatively, you can use yanfei as your on-field pyro
dps.
Xiangling is the team’s main
off-field pyro dps. Her goal is to continuously vaporize enemies with her
pyronado dmg. Plus, as the second pyro character in the team, she’ll also
unlock the pyro resonance, increasing everyone’s atk stat. If you’re running yanfei
as the main dps, you can replace xiangling with xingqiu for even more off-field hydro
dmg.
Sucrose is the team’s anemo
support, used to reduce the enemies’ elemental resistances thanks to the
4-piece viridescent venerer set. She also increases everyone’s elemental
mastery, further boosting the effectiveness of vaporize reactions. You can use
any anemo character like sayu, anemo traveler, and jeanto proc the set bonus.
Sayu and jean will work splendidly in teams without bennett for their healing
utility. Alternatively, you can use xingqiu
or raiden shogun for more dmg, although
the latter is hardly a f2p character.
F2p electro-charged yelan
- Yelan
- Fischl
- Beidou
- Sucrose
Yelan is the team’s main
source of hydro dmg needed to proc electro-charged reactions.
Fischl and beidou cover the electro part
of the electro-charged equation. Both of these characters add off-field electro
dmg—single target and aoe respectively. Beidou deals more dmg but also requires
more energy, which is why using her together with fischl—who generates a lot of
electro energy—is a great. Replacements include electro traveler, lisa, and razor. If you’ve managed to
get her, you can use keqing as well.
Sucrose is once again here to
serve as the team’s resistance shredder and elemental mastery buffer. However,
in this team she can also function as an amazing on-field attacker—unless
you’re using razor or keqing—since all of her normal attacks deal anemo dmg and
can swirl both electro and hydro at the same time.
Whale yelan team
- Yelan
- Hu
tao
- Zhongli
- Xingqiu
Yelan is the off-field hydro
dps whose goal is to enable hu tao to vaporize her charged attacks. Her burst
also increases the on-field character’s dps by quite a bit, which in this case
will be hu tao.
Hu tao is the team’s dps,
looking to vaporize most of her dmg thanks to the off-field hydro applied by
other characters. You can replace hu tao with any other pyro dps and not much
would change.
Zhongli is the team’s shielder.
Since hu tao needs to have her hp halved for maximum efficiency, zhongli
ensures that she won’t accidentally die. His shield aura also reduces both pyro
and hydro resistance, which equates to higher overall dps for the team.
Xingqiu is our top pick for the
last slot in this team. He’ll provide extra off-field hydro dmg and ensure that
hu tao never misses a vaporize proc on her charged attacks. That being said,
one of yelan’s biggest appeals is that she’s effectively xingqiu 2.0, allowing
you to have a great off-field hydro applicator for both teams in the abyss. If
this is the case for you, consider running either albedo or yun jin. Albedo brings more dmg
to the team but runs the risk of disrupting some of hu tao’s vaporize procs.
Both will grant access to the powerful geo resonance.
Is yelan worth it?
In case this wasn’t already clear, yelan is absolutely worth it.
In many ways,
she is a power-crept version of xingqiu, who’s already one of the all-time best
characters in the game.
The difference
is that she does even more off-field hydro dmg and that her burst costs 10
energy less to cast. Plus, her dmg buff to the on-field dps also makes her a
viable support for hypercarries who don’t rely on elemental reactions for their
dmg, like eula.
In addition to
this, yelan’s hp scaling also makes her incredibly easy to outfit with weapons
and artifacts. What’s also great is that her dmg ceiling isn’t gated behind
bennett’s burst, so you can separate the two in spiral abyss without making any
dmg concessions.
Truth be told, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which yelan wouldn’t be useful, which is a mark of every great character.
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