Genshin Impact: Is Yelan a DPS?

Last Updated on: 23rd April 2022, 12:36 am

With the recent leaks, we now have information on the arriving characters in the 2.7 version, including Yelan, but is she a DPS? The update should be officially arriving mid-May and will feature her as the main 5-star Hydro bow character of one of its banners.

Alongside her, we got information on Kuki Shinobu, who will be the new 4-star Electro sword character. From the previous banners and releases, we should expect Shinobu to be on a separate banner from her. 

Yelan had a brief appearance in a 2.6 version cutscene, in which she helps the Traveler from a distance. One of the future quests should properly introduce her to the players, as well as giving us a brief test on the character herself.

Yelan skills and talents

Yelan combines some previously seen mechanics in a single character, while also having some uniqueness, such as her HP scaling. Every single skill of her scales with higher HP as well as Hydro and Atk, making it a nice status to have. In fact, her signature weapon, the Aqua Simulacra, also has a HP boosting passive.

Her Normal Attack: Stealthy Bowshot has regular hits, but its charged shot has the Breakthrough passive that she gathers by being out of combat. After 5s, her next Charged Shot has 80% decreased charge time and deals extra AoE Hydro damage. This is similar to Childe’s charged shots, but with a different triggering condition.

Her Elemental Skill Lingering Lifeline makes Yelan perform a quick dash in front of her if pressed. If held, you can control the dash instead. Each enemy hit will be affected by a Lifeline and receive damage based on Yelan’s HP. The explosion might grant her a stack of Breakthrough.

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Her Burst, Depth-Claron Dice, seems like something she borrowed from Xingqiu aside from the hair. It deals damage on cast, and every time you deal a Normal Attack, it hits the opponents in a similar way to Xingqiu’s swords. It also procs whenever a Lifeline explodes, and it continues after changing characters.

Her first talent increases her HP (and therefore, her damage) with each different element you have in your party, similar to Yun Jin, and her second talent increases the damage dealt by your current character by each second her Burst is active, to a maximum of 50% bonus damage. 

According to Ubatcha, her skill has some nice energy generation, going up to 4 particles per enemy hit. Also, she’s not invincible during the dash, but she’s resistant, similar to Raiden during her Burst.

Her kit is amazingly strong and flexible, making her useful for any role you want. She has good damage for staying on the field, but she also benefits from leaving the dirty work for another person and coming back later.

Possible uses and Artifacts

With such a strong kit and a peculiar HP scaling, she can make use of many leftover artifacts with HP as main status, but good critical substats rolls. Her Hydro application is also quite good, making her a strong competitor to Xingqiu, Mona, or Kokomi in the role.

She also excels at multi-elemental teams, but there’s no real problem in having two characters of the same element in it. Just like Yun Jin, her passive is a good help, but Yelan’s own DPS won’t be dramatically affected if not used to the maximum.

With that said, she works as a great Sub-DPS to any Pyro character, such as Hu Tao, Yoimiya, Klee, or Diluc. She also has the potential to defeat enemies by herself with the Lifeline passives and her strong charged shots.

Since, according to Ubatcha, her Burst works with Raiden, she might be a great fit for a team based around the Archon, allowing Xingqiu to participate in another Abyss team. 

For artifacts, HP would be a must on her Sands, while all the other stats would be most likely the same as other damage-dealing characters. Different from Kokomi, she benefits from Crits (her bow secondary stat is Critical Damage) and should aim for it as much as possible.

She’s able to use 2-piece Millieth + 2-piece Heart of Depth as a starter set, giving her both Hydro and HP, or maybe a 4-piece Emblem of the Severed Fate in order to guarantee extra energy as well as Burst Damage. 

For weapons, besides most 5-star weapons, The Stringless would be a good choice for her, giving extra damage and Elemental Mastery for a reaction-based team. Mouun’s Moon is another great choice, as it benefits from her high energy cost (70). But, of course, her signature weapon is the best choice.

TLDR; Is Yelan a DPS?

Yes, Yelan is able to be used as a main DPS and also as a Sub-DPS. Hoyoverse’s latest characters have been more flexible in their roles, as seen with Ayato. Even if he is undeniably better as the main DPS, his Burst is a great support tool. Yelan is a similar case, but she might be better used as sub DPS.

The reason is that most Pyro DPS characters in the game would have greater benefit from her quick Hydro applications than the contrary. Xiangling is the only consistent off-field Pyro applier, as most of the other Pyros are more aimed at a greedy DPS style.

Yelan is also a great addition to Freeze teams. Ayaka can leave enemies permanently Frozen with her, and she can have some good niche uses with Rosaria and Diona on the team. She’s much more than a simple 5-star Xingqiu, but a huge character of her own.

With all of that said, she’s surely a great option for a Hydro character. If you need another Hydro and couldn’t get either Kokomi or Ayato, or simply disliked both, Yelan might be the character made for you.

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Genshin Impact is currently in its 2.6 version, “Zephyr of the Violet Garden”, which features the return of Venti, Ayaka, and the introduction of her older brother, Kamisato Ayato. The Chasm is also available, with new enemies, quests, treasures, puzzles, and lore to discover next to Liyue. 

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.