There’s a new upcoming character in Genshin Impact, Lan Yan. As a hyper-carry support unit, Lan excels in providing shields and amplifying damage for your team. If you prefer playing characters who not only protect but also empower others, Lan Yan could be your next favorite companion. In this guide, I will break down her abilities, talents, combos, constellations, artifacts, weapons, and team synergies to help you fully understand her potential and how to make the most of her in your team.
Lan Yan Pre-Release Guide & Analysis
Lan Yan is designed to be a hyper-carry support unit, excelling in providing protective shields while enhancing the damage output of one party member. If you love playing characters that empower others while keeping them safe, Lan might be your new favorite companion.
At the heart of Lan’s abilities is her Elemental Skill. Upon activation, she dashes forward and creates a shield around the active party member. This shield lasts for 12.5 seconds and scales based on Lan’s attack stat. Not only does this provide a valuable defense boost, but it also ensures that your team stays protected during tough battles.
What sets this ability apart is its follow-up mechanics. If Lan hits an enemy with her dash, she bounces backward, and at that point, she can trigger a ring attack using her normal attack or Elemental Skill. This ring bounces twice and deals damage, adding a bit of offensive punch to her otherwise supportive role.
There’s also a hold version of the Elemental Skill, where you can aim the dash for more precise positioning. While the damage mechanics stay the same, the added control gives you the flexibility to adapt to different situations.
Talent Prioritization
When it comes to prioritizing Lan’s talents, the focus is simple: her value primarily lies in her shield. This means that her Elemental Skill should be the top priority for leveling up. Increasing her Elemental Skill enhances the shield’s effectiveness, which is crucial for her role in protecting your team.
Next up is her Elemental Burst. While it contributes a fair amount of damage, its main scaling comes from Elemental Mastery, which isn’t significantly impacted by talent levels. Still, leveling this up to at least level 4 will boost her damage output, especially in reaction-based teams, but it’s not as critical as her Elemental Skill.
As for Normal Attacks, they’re not essential unless you’re intentionally using her for combo attacks. So, you can comfortably skip leveling these unless you plan on incorporating them into your combos with other characters.
Lan Yan’s Combos
Lan requires a bit of intentional setup to make the most of her potential. Since her shield has a short duration, timing is key. You’ll want to activate her Elemental Skill right before your main DPS to ensure they get the full benefit of the shield. The shield should be up when your DPS starts their rotation, maximizing its defensive value.
Once you’ve used her skill for the shield, everything else becomes optional. You can trigger her Elemental Burst for additional grouping, or if you have her Fourth Constellation, you can enjoy the buff it provides. But the most important thing is making sure that the shield is up when your DPS is ready to attack.
A key part of Lan’s effectiveness is Elemental Mastery and Swirl. Her skill can trigger Swirl to further boost the damage of your main DPS. However, at this point in the rotation, the main DPS’s element may not be ideal for Swirling. This is where a unit like Bennett comes in handy, as he can help apply the proper elemental aura for Lan to swirl. By timing Lan’s skill with the right element, you can maximize the damage output of your team.
Constellations: What You Need to Know
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive into Lan’s Constellations.
C1: Dual Rings
Lan’s first Constellation allows her to cast a second ring each time her Elemental Skill becomes infused with an element. This provides a slight increase in her damage and Elemental Application, but the overall benefit isn’t particularly game-changing. While nice for boosting damage output, it’s not a major shift in her overall performance.
C2: Shield Regeneration
C2 is where things get interesting. This constellation allows allies to restore 40% of Lan’s original shield value every 2 seconds when they deal damage with a normal attack. If you have a normal-attacking character on your team, this can result in an additional 2.4 times the shield health being restored, significantly boosting Lan’s shield potential.
This extra shield health makes Lan one of the strongest shield providers in the game (assuming the shield doesn’t get one-shotted). Her viability as a tank is greatly increased, making her an excellent choice for teams that need more survivability. However, while this is an incredible comfort boost, it doesn’t directly impact the team’s damage output as much as some might expect.
C3: Elemental Skill Enhancement
At C3, Lan’s Elemental Skill level increases by 3. This provides a slight bump to the damage of her rings and the scaling of her shield. However, since her C2 already provides a massive shield boost, this talent doesn’t add much overall, as the shield value from C2 far outweighs any additional scaling here.
C4: Elemental Mastery Buff
C4 increases the entire team’s Elemental Mastery by 60 after Lan uses her Elemental Burst. This can be useful for boosting reaction-based damage but doesn’t make a significant impact on her performance in general. It’s a nice little bonus for Elemental reaction teams, but nothing groundbreaking. Despite being the most valuable of her constellations in terms of damage potential, it still doesn’t elevate Lan to the level of must-pull characters.
C5: Elemental Burst Level Increase
At C5, Lan’s Elemental Burst level increases by 3, providing a marginal increase in damage. However, the boost is so small that it won’t notably affect her performance or speed up your team’s damage output in a significant way.
C6: Additional Elemental Skill Cast
Finally, C6 grants Lan an additional cast of her Elemental Skill. While this may sound appealing, it’s not as impactful as it seems. Lan’s Elemental Skill shares a 15-second cooldown, which means that with this additional cast, you could potentially have two rotations of shield uptime — but this is highly dependent on your skill timing. Outside of ideal play, this constellation is generally underwhelming and doesn’t provide much sustained benefit.
Overall Thoughts on Lan’s Constellations
Lan’s constellations don’t add significant power to her core role. While her C2 shield regeneration and C4 Elemental Mastery buffs are valuable for comfort and team support, the rest of her constellations feel underwhelming. If you’re not heavily investing in her as a main DPS, you won’t feel the need to pull for higher constellations, which is a relief for many players who simply want a reliable support character.
Ultimately, while C2 can make her the best shield provider in the game and C4 offers minor utility, the rest of her constellations don’t drastically change her role. So, if you’re hoping to make Lan stronger through vertical investment, it’s best to manage your expectations. You can definitely use her effectively without pushing her constellations too high.
Artifacts
When it comes to artifacts, Lan’s best option is undoubtedly the Viridscent Venerer set. This set is ideal for shredding enemy resistances, which is incredibly powerful, especially for a shielding support character like Lan. The ability to lower resistances by a percentage can significantly boost your team’s damage output, making this set a must-have in most situations.
The Viridscent Venerer set is so strong for Lan that it should be your go-to in nearly every build. The only time you might want to consider something else is if you’re in a situation where resistance shredding isn’t as effective or necessary.
If that’s the case, other support sets like Instructor or Noblesse Oblige can work as alternatives, but they won’t provide anywhere near the same level of power. Instructor is a solid choice if you’re aiming to increase Elemental Mastery, and Noblesse Oblige can work well if you’re looking to boost Elemental Burst damage. However, neither is quite as strong as Viridscent Venerer when it comes to maximizing Lan’s potential as both a shield provider and damage booster.
So, unless you’re in a very specific scenario, Viridscent Venerer will likely be your best bet for Lan.
Stat Priority
When it comes to stat priority, Lan’s main focus should be on Attack Percentage for all of her main stats. This is crucial to maximizing the strength of her shield, as her shield scales with her Attack. To ensure you’re getting the most out of her shield, prioritize building up her Attack as high as possible, ideally aiming for 3,000 or higher.
However, to meet her other needs, you can tweak her build depending on your playstyle. Consider using an Energy Recharge Sands to make sure you can consistently use her Elemental Burst every rotation. Alternatively, Elemental Mastery is a solid choice, especially if you’re aiming to optimize her Elemental Reactions. For a Crit Rate Circlet, it’s worth considering if you’re using weapons like Favonius Codex, which focus on Energy Recharge.
In general, your best approach will be to focus on two Attack Percentage main stats and one substitute stat to round out your build. Substats are important here, but your primary goal should always be increasing her Attack to bolster her shield’s strength.
Once you’ve hit the target for Attack, the next priority is Elemental Mastery. Aim for around 100 or higher Elemental Mastery to help Lan deal more damage through Elemental Reactions. After that, if you want to further enhance her effectiveness, focus on Energy Recharge to get her Elemental Burst uptime, aiming for 200% Energy Recharge.
Finally, after these core stats are in place, you can start looking into Crit Rate and Crit Damage, ideally aiming for a 1:2 Crit ratio. However, if you’re using Favonius Codex, the Energy Recharge it provides will likely cover most of her energy needs, so you can shift your focus toward Crit stats later.
Weapons
Lan’s weapon choices play a crucial role in enhancing her performance. While artifacts are important, she has several strong weapon options to further boost her effectiveness. Let’s dive into the best choices for Lan.
Her best-in-slot catalyst is the Starcaller’s Watch, and for good reason. This weapon is incredibly strong for any shielding and catalyst user. It offers a substantial Elemental Mastery boost, which is essential for maximizing Elemental Reactions. On top of that, it provides an 28% damage bonus buff to the on-field character, making it especially powerful for buffing Lan’s abilities as a support unit. The Starcaller’s Watch is tailor-made for Lan, enhancing her ability to deal damage through swirl and Elemental Mastery reactions. If you have this weapon, I highly recommend equipping it to her.
The next viable option is Thrilling Tales of the Dragon Slayer. This catalyst grants a massive 48% Attack bonus to the on-field character, making it an excellent choice for teams with a main DPS who scales with Attack. While this weapon does not directly benefit Lan herself—since the buff is exclusive to Attack-based characters—it can significantly boost the performance of your main DPS, making it a solid choice for team synergy. However, it does require you to swap to the on-field character, which can disrupt rotations.
Apart from these two, other supportive catalysts such as Thousand Floating Dreams, Favonius Codex, or Wandering Evenstar can also work, though they won’t provide the same level of synergy as the Starcaller’s Watch. You could also experiment with a weapon that supports her main DPS playstyle or even opt for a full DPS catalyst if you want to explore her damage-dealing potential. However, I would advise against this approach, as Lan is primarily designed to be a shielding support character rather than a damage dealer.
Synergies
The Viridescent Venerer set is a key reason why Lan excels, but when it comes to synergies, that’s where the magic happens. Lan’s primary challenge is ensuring that she can consistently trigger Swirl with her main DPS’s Elemental Aura. Without this, Lan’s value as a support unit drops significantly. To make sure Lan remains effective, she works best alongside main DPS characters who can maintain their Elemental Aura when Lan is ready to swirl.
Characters like Raiden Shogun or Bennett are great choices for this, as they can either reset the Elemental Aura or provide off-field support, allowing Lan to take full advantage of her Viridescent Venerer set. Lan also pairs well with characters that thrive in Mono-Elemental teams like Lenny, where the elemental consistency aids in her ability to swirl effectively. The more consistent her reactions, the more impactful Lan will be in buffing her teammates.
Team Compositions
As a defensive support, Lan is incredibly versatile, making her viable in a wide variety of team comps. I’ll break down the main ones below:
Vaporize Teams: This is where Lan truly shines, especially with Bennett in the mix. Bennett can reset the Elemental Aura to Pyro, allowing Lan to swirl Pyro for consistent damage and providing massive support to the on-field DPS. In these comps, Lan becomes a powerful defensive anchor, boosting her team’s overall damage potential.
Melt Teams: Lan can also work wonders in Melt comps, especially with Ganyu as a main DPS. Ganyu’s ability to apply Cryo off-field pairs perfectly with Lan’s Viridescent Venerer set, although you’ll need to be cautious of Pyro oversaturation in these teams. Still, Lan’s Elemental Aura consistency can make her a very potent support in these setups.
Electro & Hydro Teams: Lan fits well in teams with either double Hydro or double Electro units. Using her Elemental Burst can group enemies together, making it easier for her team to apply Elemental Auras for resistance shredding. This makes her a strong choice for Hyperbloom comps as well, as long as there’s one Dendro unit to trigger the blooms.
Freeze Teams: Lan is an excellent choice for Freeze comps, particularly alongside characters like Kaeya, Fischl, or Ganyu. These characters can frequently apply Hydro or Cryo to enemies, making it easy for Lan to trigger Elemental reactions and shred resistance. Lan’s Viridescent Venerer set is especially valuable here, as Frozen targets often have both Hydro and Cryo auras on them, making her a crucial addition to the team.
Mono-Elemental Teams: Finally, Lan excels in Mono-Elemental teams, where there’s only one Element to focus on. With no worry about maintaining multiple Elemental Auras, Lan can easily apply swirl and provide her buffs without any issues.
Final Thoughts
To wrap up, Lan’s overall performance is solid but not extraordinary. Her damage output and Elemental Application are underwhelming, earning her a 1.5/5 and 1/5, respectively. However, she excels in offensive utility, with powerful buffs for the main DPS, rating 3/5, and her defensive utility is decent, especially at C2, but suffers from low uptime and lack of healing, earning a 2.5/5. Lan’s flexibility is one of her strongest traits, fitting well into various team comps and earning 4/5 for versatility.
Overall, Lan is a solid support character with great buffs and defensive utility, but her damage and Elemental Application hold her back. If you focus on triggering Viridescent Venerer reactions, she shines, but otherwise, she may fall behind other strong free-to-play defensive characters. I’d rate her 2.5/5 overall.
