This updated Genshin Impact Yelan build guide is everything you require to optimize your Yelan’s damage. We will take a look at the best weapons, artifacts, talent priorities, and teammates for Yelan so you can conquer those final acts/floors of the Imaginarium Theatre and Spiral Abyss!
Yelan is a 5-star Hydro Bow character in Genshin Impact. While seen as a side-grade to Xingqiu at first, Yelan quickly climbed the Tier lists with her dicey damage and excellent sub-DPS capabilities. This guide will walk you through everything you need to have a solid Yelan build in Genshin Impact while keeping things easy enough that even our beloved Razor can understand.
Table of Contents
Quick Yelan build guide
If you don’t want to read the longer nitty-gritty technical stuff, here’s everything you need to equip your Yelan with for solid damage.
| Yelan Sub-DPS build in Genshin Impact | Recommendations |
| Weapon | Aqua Simulacra, Favonius Bow, Sacrificial Bow Stringless, or any other bow with ER |
| Artifacts | Emblem of the Severed Fate, Heart of Depth + Emblem/Noblesse Oblige |
| Artifacts Stats | Sands: HP = ER (Depending on requirements) Goblet: Hydro Damage Bonus > HP Circlet: CR/CD > HP Don’t use HP, HP, HP combination |
| Artifact Sub-stats | If you can’t get burst back before cooldown: ER > CR/CD > HP% If you can get burst back before cooldown: CR/CD > HP% |
| Talent priority | Burst > Skill. Can ignore Normal Attacks. Crowning Burst is recommended |
| Level up recommendation | Level up to 90 |
Abbreviations used:
- HP: Health Points
- CR: Crit Rate
- CD: Crit Damage
- ER: Energy Recharge
Also read:Mualani build guide – Best artifacts, weapons, team comps and kit explained!
Genshin Impact Yelan build Guide: Kit explanation
Yelan is a Hydro Sub-DPS that many also call the “5-star Xingqiu” as their Elemental Bursts function quite similarly, but in reality, Yelan, even at C0, trades Xingqiu’s damage reduction, healing, and more hydro application for significantly higher damage.
Her kit is focused on dealing high single-target damage using her Elemental Burst which comes with 70 energy cost, making her need proper Energy Recharge investments. The damage of her Elemental Burst scales entirely from HP, making her weapon and artifact selection very F2P friendly.
Razor language: HP makes her strong. Burst good.
Normal Attacks: Stealthy Bowshot
Yelan’s Normal, Charged, and Plunge Attacks scale on attack stat, meaning you don’t need to level up her normal attack talent at all. At C0 to C5, She doesn’t usually auto-attack, however, if you have C6 Yelan, investing in her normal attack talent becomes a must, even more important than investing in her Elemental Burst.
Breakthrough Barb: An enhanced charged attack that Yelan gains after being on the field for five seconds or after using her Elemental Skill. Mostly useless, but can be weaved in attack rotations sometimes.
Razor Language: Not worth investing. Unless rich.
Elemental Skill: Lingering Lifeline
Elemental Skill makes Yelan enter a sprinting state where coming close to an enemy would mark them with Lifeline. The enemies marked with a Lifeline will receive damage at the end of her movement which scales off of Yelan’s Max HP. Tapping the Elemental Skill button will make her dash briefly while holding the skill will give you control over Yelan’s sprint for 3 seconds.
The skill has a cooldown of 10 seconds and when the Lifeline explodes, small-sized enemies will be pulled towards Yelan. It generates 4 particles when hitting at least one enemy and also has a 34% chance to give Yelan a Breakthrough Barb (Enhanced charged attack).
Razor Language: Skill makes lady run, skill marks enemies, skill strong.
Elemental Burst: Depth-Clarion Dice
Elemental Yelan’s burst deals coordinated attacks, similar to Xingqiu’s Rain Swords. Yelan will deal three instances of damage from her Elemental Burst every time the on-field character uses normal attacks. The burst has a 70 energy requirement and lasts for 15 seconds with an 18-second cooldown.
The damage scales on Yelan’s Max HP and can be greatly buffed by the Hydro Resonance. After unlocking her Ascension 4 passive, Yelan will buff the damage of your on-field DPS by 3.5% every second. So, you can gain a free 50% damage boost by the time her burst ends.
Razor Language: Burst is everything. Crowning is worth it.
Also check: Wuthering Waves vs Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact Yelan build guide: Talents
Yelan build guide: Talent Priorities
Elemental Burst >> Elemental Skill > Normal Attack
This priority is the most obvious choice as almost all of her damage comes from her Elemental Burst. Normal Attacks can be left at Level 1 if your rotation does not include a Breakthrough attack (Enhanced charged attack).
Ascension 1 Talent:
When the party has 1/2/3/4 characters of different elements, Yelan’s Max HP is increased by 6%/12%/18%/30%. Don’t bother much about it while building teams.
Ascension 4 Talent
If an Exquisite Throw (Elemental Burst) is active, your active character deals 1% more DMG. The damage increases by a further 3.5% every second. The maximum damage that can be gained this way is up to 50%.
A great talent as DMG% is one of the best bonuses in the game, the only flaw is that it slowly climbs up to its maximum potential.
Best Artifacts for Yelan in Genshin Impact
| Artifacts | Explanation |
| 4 piece Emblem of Severed Fate | Her best set because of the extra ER from the 2-piece paired with the Elemental Burst damage boost from the 4-piece set. |
| 2 piece mix of Emblem/Noblesse/Tenacity/Heart of Depth | Your options if you really don’t have a good Emblem set or you are playing with C6. |
Artifact stat priority for Yelan build
- Sands | ER% or HP%
Mostly ER Sands for a non-ER weapon and HP Sands on an ER weapon. You must not use anything other than ER or HP, as she doesn’t scale from ATK, Defence, or Elemental Mastery.
- Goblet | Hydro DMG
Hydro Damage Goblet will deal the most damage but if you don’t have one, an HP one will be fine.
- Circlet | Crit DMG / Crit Rate or HP
Generally speaking, Crit will always be better but a very good HP circlet might come on top for your overall damage.
Your substats will focus on ER%, Crit, and HP%.
Razor Language: Focus on Hydro lady’s energy first then Crit, and then HP. No three HP% please.
Best Weapons for Yelan sub dps build in Genshin Impact
It is important to note that Yelan’s entire kit scales off HP. This means any ATK you have on weapons and artifacts will make zero difference to your damage. Simply put, all the ATK% bows are out of the conversation.
Simply put, in cases of a character like Yelan, the biggest winners are often F2P weapons or 3-star weapons! With that in mind, here are the five best weapons for Yelan build in Genshin Impact:
- Favonius Warbow: It works well for her damage while also providing extra energy to your entire team. And, you get one for free!
- Aqua Simulacra: This is her best-in-slot and signature weapon. Requires ER% Sands or running double hydro teams to maintain energy but skyrockets Yelan’s personal damage.
- Sacrificial Bow: Works just as well as Favonius in most cases, if not better. Using it has a different rotation as Sacrificial Bow gives you double Elemental Skill charges sometimes.
- Elegy for the End: Works great in Vaporize teams like Arlecchino or Hu Tao.
- 3-star weapons like Recurve and Slingshot are very good and you can use them without much thought; in case you lack Favonius or Sacrificial Bow.
Razor Language: Favonius > Sacrificial for broke Travelers. Aqua for rich.
Best Yelan Teams in Genshin Impact
Yelan in Genshin Impact is a very flexible character that can be paired in almost all teams that require a hydro sub-DPS. The best Yelan team comps include any type of Hyperbloom team (except Neuvillette), Vaporize teams like Hu Tao/Arlecchino carry, Ayaka/Wriothesley Freeze, Taser with Wanderer/Sucrose/Xianyun or Raiden National.
Here are a few examples of Yelan teams comps for you to try:
| Name | Characters |
| Yelan double hydro | Yelan, Xingqiu/Furina, any pyro carry, Kazuha/Zhongli |
| Taser with double hydro | Yelan, Xingqiu/Furina, Fischl/Yae Miko, Kazuha/Xianyun/Wanderer |
| Hyperbloom with double hydro | Yelan, Xingqiu/Furina, Alhaitham, Kuki Shinobu/EM Raiden Shogun |
| Raiden National | Yelan, Raiden, Xiangling, Bennett |
| Hyperbloom | Yelan, Nahida, Alhaitham, Kuki/EM Raiden Shogun |
Of course, these are only a few examples of the multiple teams possible with Yelan. She’s a very strong Sup-DPS that can take your account to the next level. Despite her comparisons with Xingqiu, as you can see, she compliments Xingqiu very well to take the team’s damage to new heights.
Yelan build guide: Constellations
- C1: Extra Elemental Skill cast is great for overworld exploration and drastically reduces Energy Recharge requirements.
- C2: Extra Hydro application greatly enhances Vaporize teams but may not be very useful for other team compositions.
- C3: + 3 Level to her Elemental Burst talent level.
- C4: HP buff for your entire team, only useful for HP scaling characters like NIlou.
- C5: +3 Levels to her Elemental Skill Talent level.
- C6: Turns Yelan into a DPS. Launches 6 high damaging normal attacks after using Elemental Burst.
Yelan is already one of the best Genshin Impact characters at C0, however, if you want to vertically invest in her and like to use Vaporize reaction, C2 is a good stopping point. For the whales, C6 is one of the best Constellations in the game.
Razor Language: Good C6, don’t need C6.
Genshin Impact Yelan build guide: Pull Value & Conclusion
Yelan’s pull value in Genshin Impact has surely gone down a bit since the introduction of Furina. It doesn’t mean Yelan is bad, it’s just that you don’t have to stress too much about getting Yelan in case you already have Furina on your account. However, if Furina is absent from your account, Yelan is definitely a must-pull character in Genshin Impact.
Lastly, thank you for reading our Genshin Impact Yelan build guide. Huge shoutout to KeqingMains for detailed information.
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You can download and install Genshin Impact from their official website.
