Background
Yelan is a 5-star Hydro Bow user from the region of Liyue. She first meets the Traveler during their investigation on the Chasm and helps them defeat the Ruin Serpent.
Fun Fact: Yelan has a high tolerance for spicy food and a dislike for anything sweet.
Yelan is a mysterious person who operates well within the shadows to gather information. She works for Ningguang in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but often disappears from her work. Despite her frequent absences, Yelan is a hard worker who has the praise of Ningguang herself. She spent her time patrolling the Chasm to discover its secrets and information regarding the disappearance of her ancestor.
The people of Liyue, whether friend or foe, know Yelan by many names. Many believe she’s a spy, a wandering frantic, and even a ghost that roams the street of Liyue. Yet her identity remains a mystery to most people, even though working in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. In her free time, Yelan is also known to be an avid gambler, having confidence and pride in her skills. She operates in the Yanshang Teahouse, which she has taken ownership of, and uses to play dice and gather intel.
Yelan Skill Talents
Yelan’s talents all scale off her Max HP, which makes it an important investment to boost her damage output. Her elemental skill marks nearby enemies while allowing her to move rapidly across the field. Yelan’s bursts allows the active character to deal a coordinated Hydro attack when they use their normal attack. Her main use will be as burst support, while also serving as a Main DPS if needed.
Yelan’s normal attack, Stealthy Bowshot, fires up to 4 arrows. Her last two arrows in her will allow her to hit enemies behind her as she fires off showers of arrows while moving back. When Yelan is not in combat for 5 seconds, she will enter into the Breakthrough, which will decrease the time to. fire off her next charged shot by 80% and allows her to fire off a Breakthrough Barb that will deal AoE Hydro DMG. The damage of the Breakthrough Barb scales of Yelan’s Max HP. When the Breakthrough is ready, Yelan’s bracelet will begin to glow. As a burst support, Yelan will hardly use her normal attack unless it is to fire off her Breakthrough Barb, which is only active for the first shot after she entered the Breakthrough state.
Yelan’s elemental skill, Lingering Lifeline, shoots out a Lifeline, allowing Yelan to move rapidly across the field and mark enemies she comes into contact with. When the movement ends, the Lifeline will explode and marked enemies will be dealt Hydro DMG based on Yelan’s Max HP, while pulling them toward her. Each marked enemy damaged by the Lifeline has a 34% chance to reset the cooldown of Yelan’s Breakdown state, allowing her to use it again. This skill also has a tap and hold effect. The tap will allow Yelan to move a short distance, and holding it down will allow her to continuously move with increased resistance to interruption. The hold effect allows you to control Yelan’s movement. You can end it by using the skill button again. Regardless of the tap or hold effect being used, the cooldown will still be 10 seconds. The max duration you can hold this state is 3 seconds. Yelan’s elemental skill allows her to quickly move across distances while dealing Hydro damage to any enemy she comes into contact with. She can also use it to sneak up or pass enemies.
Her elemental burst, Depth-Clarion Dice, deals Hydro AoE damage to nearby enemies and throws out an “Exquisite Throw.” This will follow the active character to deal a coordinated Hydro attack as they use their normal attack. The damage dealt by the dice scales off Yelan’s Max HP. The damage of the Exquisite Throw does not snapshot and Yelan’s stats after her burst is cast affects the damage it can produce. This can occur every 1 second. It can also occur when Yelan’s Lifeline explodes and deals damage to enemies. Yelan’s burst has a duration of 15 seconds with a cooldown of 18 seconds. It requires 70 energy to cast. Yelan’s burst deals a coordinated Hydro attack like Xingqiu, allowing other characters to deal Hydro damage along with their normal attack. This works great to produce reactions with other characters that can infuse elemental damage into their normal attacks like Ayata or Yomiya.
In co-op, Yelan’s burst will only work on your team, making it less effective in co-op. However, she can still be used as a Main DPS while in co-op.
Yelan Passive Talents
Yelan’s ascension talent boosts both her damage and her teams. Her passive talent increases the amount of rewards she can receive when she is sent on expeditions in Liyue.
Yelan’s passive talent, Necessary Calculation, allows you to collect more rewards when she is sent on expeditions in Liyue that last for 20 hours. This is only beneficial to gain more rewards for expeditions.
Her first ascension talent, Turn Control, increases Yelan’s Max HP depending on the number of elements on your team. To gain the full benefits you will have to have 4 elements on your team, which will limit any resonance or reactions your team can produce. The additional HP will help boost the damage of Yelan’s elemental skill, burst, and the Breakthrough effect of her charged attack.
At ascension 4, Yelan gains Adapt With Ease, which increases the active character’s damage while her elemental burst is active. This is a great support talent that will increase your team’s damage every second. Characters can have their damage increased by up to 50%.
Yelan has a passive boost in Crit Rate based on her ascension rank.
| Necessary Calculation Unlocked Automatically Gains 25% more rewards when dispatched on a Liyue Expedition for 20 hours. |
| Turn Control Unlocked at Ascension 1 When the party has 1/2/3/4 Elemental Types, Yelan’s Max HP is increased by 6%/12%/18%/30%. |
| Adapt With Ease Unlocked at Ascension 4 So long as an Exquisite Throw is in play, your own active character deals 1% more DMG. This increases by a further 3.5% DMG every second. The maximum increase to DMG dealt is 50%. The pre-existing effect will be dispelled if Depth-Clarion Dice is recast during its duration. |
Yelan Constellations
Yelan’s constellations give her a variety of upgrades that boosts the power of her Lifeline effect and provide a Max HP buff to her party.
Yelan’s constellation 1 Enter the Plotters grants her an extra charge of her elemental skill, allowing it to be used a second time. Both charges have their own individual cooldowns. This constellation allows Yelan to more easily mark enemies with the Lifeline effect.
At C2:Taking All Comers, Yelan will fire off a water arrow when her element burst does its coordinated attack when the active character uses their normal attack. This allows her burst to deal extra damage based on a portion of Yelan’s Max HP.
C4: Bait-and-Switch increases all party members’ Max HP for 25 seconds when enemies affected by her Lifeline get damaged by its effects. This talent can be used to increase your party’s Max HP by 40% if 4 enemies are affected by Lifeline. This will benefit any character that scales of their Max HP like Hu Tao’s elemental skill or Barbara’s healing.
At C6:Winner Takes All, Yelan gains access to the Mastermind state after using her burst. This state converts all of Yelan’s normal attack into Breakthrough Barbs. These barbs will deal charged attack damage and will act similar to the ones produced by her charged attack. This constellation will only be beneficial if Yelan is the main DPS of your team instead of a burst support. This will allow all of her normal attacks to deal charged attack damage without having to charge up her shot. However, the effects are limiting as it will only be active for Yelan’s first 5 arrows and within 20 seconds after she casts her burst.
| Constellation Levels | Effects |
|---|---|
| C1: Enter the Plotters | Lingering Lifeline gains 1 additional charge. |
| C2: Taking All Comers | When Exquisite Throw conducts a coordinated attack, it will fire an additional water arrow that will deal 14% of Yelan’s Max HP as Hydro DMG. |
| C3: Beware the Trickster’s Dice | Increases the Level of Depth-Clarion Dice by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 5. |
| C4: Bait-and-Switch | Increases all party members’ Max HP by 10% for 25s for every opponent marked by Lifeline when the Lifeline explodes. A maximum increase of 40% Max HP can be attained in this manner. |
| C5: Dealer’s Sleight | Increases the Level of Lingering Lifeline by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 5. |
| C6:Winner Takes All | After using Depth-Clarion Dice, Yelan will enter the Mastermind state. In this state, all of Yelan’s Normal Attacks will be special Breakthrough Barbs. These Breakthrough Barbs will have similar abilities to normal ones and the DMG dealt will be considered Charged Attack DMG, dealing 156% of a normal Breakthrough Barb’s DMG. The Mastermind state lasts 20s and will be cleared after Yelan fires 5 arrows. |
Recommended Builds
Burst Support
Yelen is best used as an off-field burst support character with her burst that can land a coordinated Hydro attack with any character when they use their normal attack. A big portion of Yelan’s skill scale of her Max HP, making it viable for her damage output, as well as Energy Recharge. As a burst support, she will not need to use her normal attack. Yelan can also increase her team’s damage with her ascension 4 talent, and her Max HP depending on how many elements are in the team. Her burst and skill are great to apply Wet on enemies for reactions. Since her burst uptime will be needed to boost her damage, it is recommended to either have another Hydro character or Energy Recharge invested in her stats.
For her teammates, Yelan works well with Pyro DPS characters like Hu Tao or Yoimiya to generate the Vaporize reaction. Both characters are capable of infusing her normal attack with Pyro. She can also work in a team with Ayaka or Raiden Shogun if you were going for Freeze or Electro-charge. Bennett is a great support character that can heal and activate the Pyro team resonance to boost the team’s attack. He can be replaced with a healer like Barbara or another Hydro support like Xingqiu. Lastly, Kazuha will be used for crowd control and to boost the elemental damage of the team with his Swirl. He can be replaced with Sucrose or Venti.
Yelan’s recommended 5-star weapon is the Aqua Simulacra or the Elegy for the End. The Aqua Simulacra boosts HP and Crit DMG. Her damage dealt is also increased when Yelan is nearby enemies, whether she is on the field or not. The Elegy for the End raises Energy Recharge and Elemental Mastery. She can also boost the team’s Elemental Mastery and ATK once all its stacks are gained. The Aqua Simulacra focuses more on damage, while the Elegy of the End is more support oriented. Any 5-star weapon will work for Yelan damage-wise.
Yelan has many options for her 4-star weapon choice. The Favonious War Bow boosts ER with the ability to generate energy for the team when Yelan lands a critical hit. The Stringless is another viable option to increase the damage of her burst and reactions with its sub-stat in Elemental Mastery. Lastly, the Sacrificial Bow has a sub-stat in ER and has a chance to reset the cooldown of Yellen’s elemental skill, allowing it to be used a second time. Other good options are Mouun’s Moon and Fading Twilight.
In the early game, use the Recurve Bow as its boosts in HP and has the ability to restore health when an enemy is defeated.
Yelan’s recommended artifact set is the Emblem of Severed Fate. This artifact set raises her Energy Recharge and converts a portion of her ER stat into additional damage for her burst. You also have the option of a 4-piece Noblesse Oblige to boost her burst damage and give her team an ATK buff when she uses her burst.
Artifact stats for Yelan:
- Sands: Energy Recharge% or HP%
- Goblet: Hydro DMG% or HP%
- Circlet: Crit DMG% or Crit Rate% or HP%
In the sub-stats, look for HP%, Energy Recharge, Crit DMG, Crit Rate, and ATK%.
Sub DPS Build
Yelan can work as a Sub-DPS and a Main DPS. As a Sub DPS, she will be relying on the damage of her burst and elemental skill. She will need to use a mixture of all of her skills as a Main DPS. This Sub-DPS build for Yelan will focus on powering up her elemental burst and skill damage.
Her team for this build will allow her to utilize the Electro-charge reaction using Fischl and Raiden Shogun who will land a passive Electro attack on enemies. Either of them will work as the Main DPS for this build. Xingqiu can be replaced with Barbara to heal the team. His main role will be to fire off his Rain Swords in addition to Yelan’s coordinated attack and provide some healing for the team. He is also able to boost Yelan’s Hydo DMG at constellation 2 by reducing the enemy’s resistance to Hydro.
Yelan can equip any 5-star weapon, but both the Thundering Pulse and Polar Star offer extra Crit Rate or Crit Damage that can help boost her overall damage, especially as the Main DPS. Her signature weapon Aqua Simulacra is her best in slot due to it working well with her playstyle. Her 4-star recommended weapon is The Stringless, giving her an Elemental Mastery boost and powering up the damage of her burst and skill.
For Yelan’s artifact set, use a mix of the Tenacity of the Millelith and the Heart of Depth for extra HP and Hydro DMG. This set can be used for a Sub DPS or Main DPS Yelan.
Artifact stats for Yelan:
- Sands: HP%
- Goblet: Hydro DMG%
- Circlet: Crit DMG% or Crit Rate%
In the sub-stats, look for HP%, Energy Recharge, Crit Rate, Crit DMG, and ATK%.
Recommended Party Members
Bennett will buff the party’s ATK and heal with his burst.
Hu Tao can infuse her attack with Pyro, allowing her to deal Vaporize damage with Yelan’s burst.
Kazuha can increase the elemental damage of the team when he swirls with that element.
Fischl’s elemental skill allows her to summon Oz to deal Electro DMG to nearby enemies. She can also act as an energy battery.
Raiden Shogun can deal passive Electro damage to the enemy and can also act as the Main DPS.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Great Sub-DPS with the use of her burst | High elemental burst cost |
| Talents scale off Max HP | Ascension talent requires 4 elements of the team to gain the full Max HP buff |
| Elemental burst can increase the active character’s damage when her ascension talents are unlocked | Not many uses for her normal attack as a support character |
Conclusion
Yelan is a burst support character that scales off her Max HP. She is an amazing sub-DPS, allowing other characters to perform a coordinated Hydro attack while also increasing the damage while her burst is active. As an intelligence agent working with Ningguang, Yelan holds many secrets and is shrouded in mystery to the citizens of Liyue. She is a capable fighter who prefers to work in the shadows.
What do you think of Yelan? Is there anything I missed? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach out through our Twitter or my Discord handle Seyfrid#2589.
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*Images of gameplay owned by miHoYo
The Informal Gamer 
Hello sir, thanks for sharing yelan build
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