Yelan is the newest 5-star character added to Genshin Impact in Patch 2.7, who is a Hydro sub-DPS with lots of build variety and potential.
Released at the beginning of Genshin Impact‘s 2.7 Patch, Yelan will undoubtedly be a part of a lot of team compositions. However, players might find her difficult to build due to her unique scaling for a bow character.
Yelan is a 5-star Hydro bow user that was designed to be played as a sub-DPS. Her Elemental Skill turns Yelan invisible and has her dash at a fast speed, tethering enemies together and then dealing damage and creating Hydro particles. Her Elemental Burst is very similar to Xingqiu’s, which creates a Hydro buff that will deal damage and apply Hydro to the enemy that the on-field character is attacking.
Since Yelan is Hydro, she will be able to find a place in a lot of Genshin Impact‘s teams. While several bow characters scale with HP to increase their healing or support capabilities – like Diona, for example – Yelan takes a unique route similar to Hu Tao in Genshin Impact, where HP improves her own damage output. Due to this, she might seem tricky to build at first. However, Yelan actually has several options at her disposal.
Starting off with weapons, Yelan has a couple of options that work really well with her as a sub-DPS. Yelan’s Best-in-Slot (BiS) bow is her own featured weapon on Genshin Impact 2.7’s Weapon Banner, the Aqua Simulacra, since it has an extremely valuable CRIT DMG main stat, as well as a passive increasing HP and damage. However, if players don’t want to spend their Primogems on the Weapon Banner, Yelan has some other options. The next best 5-star bow on Yelan is the Elegy for the End, since it has an Energy Recharge main stat that can help Yelan cast her Burst on cooldown, as well as the weapon’s passive buffing the entire party’s Elemental Mastery and Attack in Genshin Impact.
Yelan also has some good 4-star options for players that don’t have any 5-star bows. The newest 4-star bow in Genshin Impact, the Fading Twilight, is exclusive to Genshin Impact‘s first 2.7 event, Perilous Trail, and is probably her best free-to-play (F2P) option. This weapon has an Energy Recharge main stat as well as the passive boosting attack, which helps Yelan cast her Burst on cooldown as well as boosts her own personal damage. The Stringless would also be a solid option to greatly increase the damage Yelan deals with her Elemental Skill and Burst, and players can also use the Favonious Warbow if they want Yelan in Genshin Impact to have a lot of Energy Recharge as well as have her help funnel Energy to the rest of her team, but her own personal damage might suffer for it.
For Yelan’s Artifacts, there are a couple of options that Yelan has that would suit her best, and it would depend on the kind of weapon that the player decides to give her. If players give her a bow that focuses on increasing her own personal damage, like the Aqua Simulacra or Stringless, then it would be best to give her the two-piece sets of both the Heart of Depth and the Tenacity of the Milelith. The two-piece Heart of Depth will increase her Hydro damage, and the Tenacity of the Milelith will increase her max HP, and both of these stats contribute to increasing Yelan’s personal damage, since all of her skills in Genshin Impact scale with her max HP.
If the player gives Yelan a bow that is more focused on Energy Recharge, like the Elegy for the End or the Fading Twilight, then they should definitely give her the four-piece Emblem of Severed Fate set. This set will further increase Yelan’s Energy Recharge, and the four-piece bonus will increase Yelan’s Elemental Burst damage based on how much Energy Recharge she has. This is an extremely strong set for any character that uses a lot of Energy Recharge, and Yelan’s Burst will do massive damage if she receives this set with a weapon it has synergy with. Lastly, players can also mix and match the two-piece Noblesse Oblige set with another two-piece set like Heart of Depth, Tenacity of the Milelith, or Emblem of Severed Fate, since the two-piece Noblesse Oblige will increase Yelan’s Burst damage in Genshin Impact. This will not be as good as the other two builds listed, but can be an option if players don’t have many options or don’t have access to the Emblem of Severed Fate set yet.
For the stats on Yelan’s Artifacts, players should want to try to get as much CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG on her as possible, as well as HP to increase the damage of her skills. The stats of Yelan’s Artifacts should look like this:
It would be beneficial for Yelan players in Genshin Impact to also try to get Energy Recharge on her substats to help her cast her Burst on cooldown, as well as benefit her Emblem of Severed Fate set if she has it equipped. If players are not running a bow with an Energy Recharge main stat, they could give her an Energy Recharge Sands of Eon if they are struggling to get enough Energy to cast her Burst on cooldown, but HP% is the BiS option.
Since Yelan is a sub-DPS in Genshin Impact, her Talent leveling priority will be the same as almost any other support-type character. Her Elemental Burst takes first priority with Talent leveling, followed by her Elemental Skill, and lastly followed by her Normal Attack. Yelan’s Elemental Burst is her best feature since it is so similar to Xingqiu’s Burst in Genshin Impact, dealing damage and applying Hydro from off-field, so leveling her Elemental Burst should take priority above all else. If players are not interested in using Yelan’s charged attacks much, they don’t have to pour a lot of their resources into Yelan’s Normal Attack. However since Yelan has a unique Breakout Barb mechanic, her Normal Attack should not be ignored like most other supports and sub-DPS characters.
Yelan is a strong, versatile character that will fit onto a lot of teams in Genshin Impact. Being Hydro is an incredibly powerful asset, which means that Yelan will be able to find her way onto all kinds of different compositions, like Vaporize, Electro-charged, and Freeze teams with other beloved characters. Yelan was a greatly anticipated character in Genshin Impact, and it seems like she will more than deliver on the player base’s expectations.
Julia Schultz is a game writer for Screen Rant.
