It’s been over four and a half years since Iansan was first teased in Genshin Impact, and now she’s finally joining the roster! For a four-star unit, she brings a shockingly (pun intended) game-changing kit that could shake up the meta in ways we haven’t seen before. But what exactly does she do? How versatile is she? And most importantly… does she actually run like a normal person?
In this pre-release guide, we’re diving deep into Iansan’s abilities, synergies, and optimal builds to see if she’s worth your Primogems. Whether you’re planning to pull for her or just want to stay ahead of the curve, let’s break down everything you need to know!
Iansan Pre-Release Guide
Iansan is a buffing support unit that massively boosts the damage output of teams with high mobility.
Her Elemental Skill lets her dash forward, dealing damage. Afterward, using a normal attack triggers an AoE charged attack. Casting her skill also maxes out her Night Soul Points (capping at 54) and activates her Night Soul Blessing state. While in this state:
- She consumes 6 Night Soul Points per second.
- Her movement speed increases, and she gains a higher jump.
- Sprinting boosts these effects even more—allowing her to leap great distances, run on water, and even traverse liquid Flagin without harm.
Her Elemental Burst deals damage, restores 15 Night Soul Points, and activates Night Soul Blessing. It also summons Kinetic Scale for 12 seconds—arguably the most important part of her kit.
Kinetic Scale provides an attack buff to the active party member, scaling off Iansan’s attack and current Night Soul Points:
- If she has 42+ Night Soul Points, the flat ATK bonus equals 27% of her attack.
- If she has less than 42 Night Soul Points, the bonus scales at 0.5% per Night Soul Point.
- At Talent Level 10, this attack buff caps at +690 ATK, requiring 2,556 ATK to max out.
Additionally, while Kinetic Scale is active, it tracks movement and converts it into Night Soul Points every second. This mechanic is lenient, as it registers animation movements rather than actual distance traveled—meaning even idle animations and small actions (like swapping characters) generate Night Soul Points.
For example, simply switching characters can generate between 1-5 Night Soul Points. This means high-mobility characters like Cyno, Keqing, Xiao, Yelan, Wanderer, and Itto can easily keep Iansan’s buff active at max capacity.
Passive Talents
First Passive (A1) – Precise Movement
- Grants the Precise Movement effect for 15 seconds after using her Elemental Skill:
- Increases her attack by 20%.
- Grants +1 extra Night Soul Point whenever she gains any Night Soul Points.
- Every 2.8 seconds, when the active character generates/consumes Night Soul Points, Iansan gains +4 Night Soul Points instead of 1.
Since her Kinetic Scale constantly generates Night Soul Points, this passive reduces depletion from 6 per second to effectively 5 per second, improving uptime on her attack buff.
Second Passive (A4) – Healing Effect
- Lets her heal the active character every time she gains Night Soul Points (for 10 seconds after triggering Night Soul Burst). This healing scales with her attack and synergizes with certain weapon/artifact effects.
Talent Priority
Iansan’s buffing potential isn’t affected by Talent levels, except for her Elemental Burst, which increases her flat ATK cap. This makes her Burst the #1 priority, followed by her Skill and Normal Attacks (which matter far less).
If you’re serious about her support role, crown her Burst—it’s that important!
Combos & Rotations
Iansan’s rotation is straightforward:
- Use her Skill to generate energy.
- Cast her Burst to apply her attack buff.
- Switch to your DPS to take advantage of the buff.
However, there’s a niche trick: Burst first, swap characters, then use her Skill. This allows her Night Soul Blessing state to persist even if she swaps out, making for some creative setups (though this might be patched).
Constellations
Iansan’s C1 reduces her Burst cost by 15 energy (dropping it to 55), making her easier to build without excessive Energy Recharge.
Her C2 is a game-changer—it allows her Precise Movement passive to trigger from her Burst and grants a 30% ATK buff to the on-field character if she’s off-field. This solidifies her as a Bennett-level buffer.
Her C3 (Skill level +3) and C5 (Burst level +3) slightly improve her damage and max ATK buff cap (increasing the required ATK to 3,000 for max value).
C4 extends the duration of her attack buff and helps her maintain max Night Soul Points, making her more consistent, even in teams with low mobility.
Finally, C6 extends her Kinetic Scale duration from 12s to 15s and adds a 25% Damage Bonus buff for the active character when she overcaps Night Soul Points—solidifying her as a top-tier buffer.
Artifact Options
Iansan’s constellations aren’t the only way she boosts her team—her artifacts play just as big a role in maximizing her supportive potential. As a Natlan support unit, she thrives in setups where she can take advantage of the Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City artifact set.
This set is incredibly strong for her, as the 2-piece bonus generates extra Energy, while the 4-piece bonus provides a massive 40% teamwide damage boost. These benefits not only help her meet her Energy needs but also significantly increase the entire team’s damage output. Because of this, Cinder City is undeniably her best-in-slot and essentially the only strong artifact option for her.
Outside of Cinder City, Iansan has very limited choices. Other teammates like Shonin can make great use of Archaic Petra, and Sel can effectively run Instructor. While Noblesse Oblige is an alternative, it’s not an optimal choice due to her stat dependencies and the fact that other units utilize it better. If absolutely necessary, Noblesse can serve as a fallback option, though it won’t come close to Cinder City in effectiveness.
Stat Priority
For main stats, Attack% is the most important since her flat Attack buff scales directly from it. While her Attack buff has a hard cap, its scaling diminishes as her Night Soul points drop below 42, making it increasingly difficult to reach the cap. However, it is still technically possible to hit the max Attack cap even below 42 Night Soul points—but this depends entirely on her Attack stat.
A high Attack stat helps mitigate this diminishing return, keeping her buff valuable for longer. Interestingly, if a unit is completely immobile, it’s theoretically possible for Iansan to reach her max Attack cap with just 1 Night Soul point—but you’d need 13,800 Attack to achieve this. Good luck with that.
If you find yourself consistently reaching her Attack cap, you can swap her Sands for Energy Recharge if needed, or her Circlet for Crit Rate or Healing Bonus.
For substats, she has two main thresholds to reach:
- Energy Recharge Threshold – Varies based on weapon and constellations:
- Before C1:
- 230% without Favonius
- 180% with Favonius
- After unlocking C1:
- 160% without Favonius
- 140% with Favonius
- Before C1:
- Attack Threshold – Aim for at least 3,000 Attack, as this is where her flat Attack buff caps at Talent Level 13. Beyond this, both Attack and Crit have nearly equal value:
- Attack% helps maintain a high flat Attack buff and improves her personal healing and damage.
- Crit boosts her own damage output but offers no additional team benefits.
Which one to prioritize is up to you.
Weapons
While it would be great if her support potential extended to her weapon choices, Iansan unfortunately wields a Polearm—a weapon type with very few supportive options (tied with Claymores as one of the worst for support). Because of this, her weapon selection is relatively simple, with two clear best-in-slot options:
- Calamity Queller – This is her best overall Polearm because of its insanely high Attack stat. It allows her to fully invest in other stats without sacrificing her flat Attack buff. Even if you want to stack more Attack, this weapon outperforms others in healing and personal damage, making it a top choice in situations where she can’t consistently cap her Attack buff.
- Favonius Lance – This weapon surpasses Calamity Queller in certain situations, particularly when she is at C0 and needs extra Energy generation. Its high base Attack for a 4-star weapon and strong Energy regeneration make it ideal when supporting a high-mobility ally who can cap her flat Attack buff or if the teammate she’s buffing has Energy issues.
If neither of these is available, any high-Attack or Energy-generating “stat stick” will work, such as the new Tamayuratei no Ohanashi. These weapons generally offer similar value, with their differences being within 1% of each other in overall effectiveness. This means you can equip almost any strong Polearm on Iansan, and it will perform decently.
Some solid Attack/Energy generation stat sticks include:
- Skyward Spine
- Crimson Moon Semblance
- Wavebreaker’s Fin
- Engulfing Lightning
- Staff of the Scarlet Sands
- The Catch
- Lithic Spear
- Royal Spear
- Prospector’s Drill
- Deathmatch
While her weapon choice does affect her team’s damage, the difference between most options is small enough to be negligible. That said, if you want to fully optimize her, prioritize weapons that offer Attack% and Energy Recharge over anything else.
Synergies
Before diving into team compositions, let’s talk about Iansan’s best synergies with the current cast of characters.
Chevreuse (Best Pairing)
Iansan’s strongest synergy is with Chev, making them an absolute must-pair duo. Their synergy works so well because:
- Iansan applies Electro, triggering Chev’s Pyro-based passives.
- Chev enables Overload teams, which knock enemies around. This forces the team to chase enemies, which naturally stacks Iansan’s buff.
The only downside? Their buffs overlap quite a bit. But honestly, with how absurdly strong these buffs are, it’s not even a real issue. When Iansan releases, expect every top-tier Chev team to include her.
Clorinde (Best Main DPS Synergy)
If we’re talking main DPS units, Clorinde takes the top spot.
- Iansan can buff Electro damage thanks to Cinder City while also benefiting from her own element.
- Clorinde’s rapid dashing playstyle ensures Iansan’s attack buff stays capped at all times.
- Clorinde has strong self-sustain, which compensates for Iansan’s lackluster healing.
This synergy is so strong that Iansan will be Clorinde best-in-slot support for every team she’s used in.
Varesa (Alternative Main DPS Synergy)
Varesa functions similarly to Clorinde in terms of synergy, but there are some differences:
- Varesa scales better with attack buffs, making Iansan’s buffs even more valuable.
- However, unlike Clorinde, Varesa lacks built-in sustain, so she may need additional support.
Despite this, Varesa + Iansan is an incredibly strong duo, just with different strengths and weaknesses compared to Clorinde.
Xianyun (Mobility & Healing Support)
Xianyun is a fantastic support option for Iansan for two key reasons:
- Fixes Iansan’s defensive weakness by providing team-wide healing.
- Enhances mobility, making it easier for the team to reposition and maximize Iansan’s buffs.
Their synergy is so strong that Xianyun and Iansan together will be one of the top duos in the game—though, of course, Bennett is still king due to his C6 Pyro infusion.
Team Compositions
Now that we’ve covered Iansan’s best partners, let’s speed-run her team compositions and why she excels in them.
Aggravate Teams (Electro + Dendro)
Iansan works well here because:
- While Aggravate doesn’t benefit much from attack buffs, her huge % damage buffs compensate for this.
- She provides 40% Electro/Dendro damage bonus + 25% extra damage for the on-field DPS, making her a top-tier defensive support for Aggravate teams.
Spread Teams (Dendro-Focused Variant of Aggravate)
Same reasons as above—huge % damage buffs make up for any attack buff inefficiencies.
Bloom Teams
Iansan’s damage % buffs make her one of the best Bloom supports, outperforming even Nahida in some cases.
Burning Teams (Kinich DPS)
Kinich thrives with Iansan because:
- His high mobility ensures he keeps her attack buff capped.
- Cinder City buffs his damage without interfering with Burning reactions.
- Overload synergy with Chev + Kinich + Iansan is insane, making her a viable alternative to Bennett.
Electrocharged (Taser) Teams
Iansan outperforms Ororon as a Taser team support because:
- She enables units like Furina, and other high-tier DPS while still keeping another Electro unit in the team.
- Her damage buffs are stronger, and she adds more team flexibility.
Physical Teams
- Iansan works shockingly well in physical comps, even though they’re not meta.
- She doesn’t infuse Pyro, meaning her buffs remain effective.
- Noblesse Oblige is a great alternative to Cinder City here.
While Vape/Melt comps are an option, this is where Bennett starts competing with her, making her less dominant in those teams.
Wrap-Up
Iansan is an insanely strong defensive support in Genshin Impact. Her buffs are so powerful that they elevate attack-scaling teams to new heights, even making some DPS characters better than before. Despite her weak healing and poor Electro application, her raw support power makes her a must-build!
