Yelan

Yelan

5★HydroBowOff-field Damage

TL;DR

Yelan's Burst leaves a spinning dice behind that fires a Hydro hit every time your on-field character throws a Normal Attack. It also ramps up their damage the longer it stays out, up to 50%. Her Skill is a quick dash that does damage and gives her Energy back. Press both, swap off, then keep swinging with somebody else. She costs about three seconds of field time.

Rotation

  1. Skill (E) to grab particles.
  2. Burst (Q) to put the dice out.
  3. One Normal Attack, then swap to your damage dealer.
  4. Stay on them and keep attacking. The dice only fires while somebody is swinging.

Abilities

Skill (E) She dashes forward, marks whatever she passes, then explodes for Hydro damage based on her Max HP. Tap it to move quickly, hold it to steer. Mostly you are casting it for the four energy particles.
Burst (Q) The dice. It hangs around and fires a Hydro hit at enemies roughly once a second while your active character is using Normal Attacks. All of her damage lives here.

The one mechanic to understand

The buff builds while the dice is out, so don't stop attacking.

Her passive gives your active character a damage bonus that starts at a token 1% and climbs by 3.5% every second the dice is on the field, topping out at 50%. That means the last few seconds of her Burst are worth far more than the first few. Swapping around aimlessly during it throws the ramp away. It also means her dice needs a Normal Attack character next to it: a damage dealer who only presses Skill and Burst gets the buff but never sets off the dice.

What actually matters

  • Energy Recharge and quite a lot of it. All her damage is in the Burst. It costs 70. Somewhere around 230% if she's your only Hydro. A second Hydro character or a second Skill cast per rotation both cut that down a long way.
  • Max HP. Everything she does scales off it. Around 30,000 is the number people aim for.
  • Somebody who uses Normal Attacks. Without one the dice sits there doing nothing between Skill casts and you have wasted most of her.

Gear

Weapon Energy Recharge first, Max HP second. Favonius Warbow is the standard-banner 4-star and it's the best free answer, because the extra particles help her and the rest of the team.
Artifacts 4-piece Emblem of Severed Fate. Energy Recharge on the 2-piece and Burst damage scaled off that Energy Recharge on the 4-piece, which is exactly her problem and her payoff.
Sands Goblet Circlet Substats
ER / HP Hydro DMG Crit Crit + HP

Take the Energy Recharge sands until her Burst comes back every rotation, then swap it to HP.

Works well with

PyroElectroDendro

She applies Hydro steadily rather than in a flood, which is what most reaction teams actually want. The damage buff on her passive is element-blind, so she improves any Normal Attack carry.

Don't bother

  • Attack stats. Everything she does scales off Max HP instead.
  • Aimed shots. She has a bow and no reason to use it that way.
  • Playing her on the field past that first Normal Attack. The dice pays better when someone else is swinging.

Want the full deep dive? Read Yelan on KeqingMains.

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