There has been a lot of hype surrounding the new character, Yelan, release in patch 2.7 but does she live up to it? Well, I was lucky enough to pull her early in the banner, so here are my thoughts. First, while some have referred to her as a must have character, it should be remembered that there is no such thing as must have characters in Genshin Impact. All characters, even the often slighted Amber, can be made powerful enough to clear the hardest content in the game with the right build. I would never advise people to go for characters just because they’ve heard they are SS rank and everyone wants them. You should always trial a character during their banner and only go for them if you enjoy their play style.
So why did I go for Yelan? Well, I got Ayaka late in the last banner to put together a freeze team and Yelan seemed a good 5 star hydro character to fit into that team as a sub DPS. She has done a phenomenal job in that, so far. He elemental skill, lingering lifeline, is great for opening a battle. She can close range fast with it and spreads the wet state to all the enemies you manage to ensnare with it. It also does have some limited gathering effect, as enemies are pulled inwards which I’ve found really helps gather for Ayaka’s elemental skill which has a limited AOE range. Her real star move is her elemental burst, depth-clarion Dice which follows the active character around adding water damage each time they use their normal attack, further to this the active character’s attack will increase by 3.5% every second to a maximum of 50% increase for the duration of the effect. If paired with a well built DPS this can produce some insane DPS.
While I paired Yelan with Ayaka, she will fit into many teams just as well. If paired with a pyro character, she would produce a good vaporise affect and she can pair with well with anemo characters too for the swirl effect. One warning, though. Yelan’s damage scales with HP and not attack. I’ve heard it said that this makes her easier to build, but I’ve had the opposite experience. Trying to get artifacts which don’t have the added attack stat has been a tough job and despite spending some resin to increase my chances, I only managed to get one piece without attack before giving up, as I needed her usable. Perhaps, I was just unlucky in my drops but as attack is a wasted stat for her it’s not ideal. I’m sure, in time, I’ll get a better artifact set and she does do a good job with what did I manage to scrape together, but its worth bearing in mind for those planning to get her that she’s not necessarily any easier to build.
So my conclusion? Yelan is a powerful 5 star character who is fairly easy to fit into a team and can hold her own if necessary. She is mainly a sub DPS but you could use her as a main DPS if you focus on the HP stat for your artifact set and weapon, but it’s only advisable if you don’t already have a strong, prebuilt DPS to pair her with. While her skills are very good, she doesn’t really have a completely unique grouping utility. There are other characters that you could use to build freeze and vaporise teams with that would work just as well, and other characters with passives that will boost the active character’s attack. She is a great all-round package but she is replaceable, so if you don’t get lucky by the end of the banner then there is no need to despair. There are plenty of other great 5 star hydro characters in the game.
