Genshin Impact: Is Ayato a main DPS?

Last Updated on: 24th February 2022, 02:44 pm

The next big character to be released in Genshin Impact is no other than Kamisato Ayato himself, but is he a main dps? As Ayaka’s older brother, many speculated that he would be a Hydro support who synergizes with her. Is that actually the case?

His Elemental Skill is similar to Childe, who usually takes the most field time on his teams. But at the same time, his Burst screams “support ability”. While we know that every character can be a main DPS if you try hard enough, for which role is Ayato more suitable?

Talents overview

His Elemental Skill, Kamisato Art: Kyouka, grants him Hydro infusion on his Normal Attacks and creates a clone that taunts enemies. The clone explodes when hit. 

For 6 seconds, his attacks will swiftly hit every enemy in front of him with water slashes. Those slashes also have the Wave Slash mechanic, which grants every hit an extra HP scaling up to 4 stacks. At talent level 8 with max stacks, this would be around 4% of his HP as extra damage.

This is very similar to Childe’s infusion, but it has a different duration and cooldown mechanics. Ayato cannot stay longer than 6 seconds with his skill active, and its 20s cooldown can be reduced by 2s by each Normal Attack hit by other team members, up to a minimum of 12s.

For his Burst, Kamisato Art: Suiyuu, he unleashes a rain of blades in the area, very similar to Ganyu’s Burst but Hydro. Within this area, the Attack Speed of every team member is increased by 10%.

Here’s a showcase for both his Skill and Burst, courtesy of Sai on Twitter.

His first passive talent makes his clone grant him the max Wave Slash stacks when it explodes, and he also starts with 2 extra stacks. The second one grants his burst an extra 3% HP scaling.

According to Ubatcha, his Elemental Skill doesn’t not snapshot buffs while his Burst does. That means that in order to make full use of any buffs, he needs to use the Skill as soon as he receives a buff such as Sara’s Skill or Bennett’s Burst.

READ MORE: Genshin Impact 2.6: In-game leaks for upcoming area The Chasm

Ayato’s role on a team

From all of this, one may assume that Ayato is a great candidate for quickswap teams, and that would be very much correct. With his downtime, he cannot stay indefinitely on the field, and also needs for his teammates to hit enemies directly to lower his own cd.

His Burst is a good support tool and also a nice Hydro application, but with its 80 energy cost, it might be hard for him to have it up all the time without another Hydro character on the team. 

Nevertheless, he works fine as either a main DPS or a sub DPS for many teams. Not having 100% uptime is not a problem, as many other strong characters such as Hu Tao have already shown. Take this time to use your other characters’ abilities.

With heavy Hydro application and similar mechanics, he will probably do well in any team that Childe also does so. After using his Skill and leaving his Burst on the field, he can let other characters do the rest of the job.

Also, his Burst is actually very good with Ayaka, as he can enable her to permafreeze enemies. Xingqiu is a popular character for doing that, but he’s also wanted on many other teams.

TLDR; is Ayato a main DPS?

Yes, Ayato will work very well as a main DPS, but will require a quick swap-focused team in order to really shine. If you play Childe, you won’t have any problems with getting used to his playstyle.

His teams will require other characters to take some field time in order to reduce his cooldown. His sister Ayaka will be a good pair for him, which was probably an intentional design choice from Hoyoverse.

He was also recently buffed on the Beta, granting him better energy recharge during his Elemental Skill. His Skill scalings were also tuned up, all pointing to having him more on the field.

His signature weapon, the Haran Tsukishiro Futsu, will probably be his BiS, but Primordial Jade Cutter is also a strong contender, especially with its HP passive which will work very well for Ayato. 

READ MORE: Genshin Impact 2.6: Upcoming Ayato Sword, Haran Tsukishiro Futsu leaks

For artifacts, there’s the new Echoes of an Offering set, which seems to be designed for him. But even with its recent buffs, it might be too inconsistent due to relying on RNG. 

4pc Heart of Depth might be a good alternative, and if Ayato’s energy recharge proves to be good enough, 4-pieces Shimenawa’s Reminiscence should also be useful.

Genshin Impact is currently on its 2.5 version, “When the Sakura Blooms”, which brought the new playable character Yae Miko along with some character reruns, new story quests, events, weapons and enemies, including a new Weekly Boss.

You can play the game for free on mobile devices including Android, iOS, Playstation 4, Playstation 5 and Pc on both Hoyoverse’s official launcher and Epic Games Store. A Nintendo Switch version is stated to be in development.