Elemental Mastery is one of the main factors that determines the damage of elemental reactions in Genshin Impact. With the Kazuha rerun in the upcoming Genshin 2.8 Update, Elemental Mastery is once again a hot topic of discussion since Kazuha benefits the most from this stat. This article will break down the basics of Elemental Mastery and discuss how all elemental reactions depend on it.
What is Elemental Mastery in Genshin Impact?
Elemental Mastery is the stat that amplifies the damage done by characters when they trigger an elemental reaction. When enemies are afflicted with more than one element in a particular order or in specific combinations elemental reactions are triggered. While there are elemental reactions that depend on a character’s Attack and Crit bonuses, most elemental reactions rely on the character’s level and amount of Elemental Mastery to deal consistent reliable reaction damage.
Types of Elemental Reactions in Genshin Impact
There are essentially three types of elemental reactions in the game and all of them rely on the Elemental Mastery of the character triggering the reaction for reaction damage. While elemental reactions don’t have a cooldown and can be triggered as many times as one wants, the elemental skills of your characters have internal cooldowns that affect the rate of application of the elements- which in turn determines how many times it can trigger a reaction with your other party members’ skills. These 3 types are discussed below.
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Amplifying Reactions
When Hydro is applied to an enemy affected with Pyro, Vaporise is triggered. Similarly, when Pyro is applied to an enemy affected by Cryo, Melt is triggered. Both of these are Amplifying reactions as they replace the original elemental attacks and multiplies them by 1.5 to 2x to deal tons of damage. This damage is determined by the Attack and Crit bonuses of the triggering character with additional bonus damage from their elemental mastery. Players must be careful of the order of application, however, as applying them in the reverse order will yield lower damage.
Transformative Reactions
Swirl reactions and any reactions involving the Electro element are Transformative Reactions. These would include Overload (Pyro + Electro), Electrocharged (Hydro + Electro), Superconduct (Cryo + Electro), Swirl, and even Shattered (when a Frozen enemy is hit with a blunt weapon that shatters their frozen state). These reactions don’t depend on your character’s attack or crit factors and instead rely on your character’s level and Elemental Mastery points to deal consistent and reliable damage to your enemies. Here your base damage gets bonus damage depending on the percentage of your character’s Elemental Mastery. In these reactions, the order doesn’t matter except in the case of Anemo which only Swirls an already existing element in the battlefield. Shattered too first requires the enemy to be Frozen.
Frozen and Crystallize
These two reactions don’t damage the enemy but are still reliant on the character level and amount of Elemental Mastery they have. Frozen is when Cryo meets Hydro and freezes the enemies in place thus allowing for crowd control and keeping enemies in place. The more your elemental mastery the longer your opponent stays Frozen.
As for Crystallize, it’s when Geo meets any of the four main elements to spawn crystals on the battlefield which can then be collected for a shield surrounding your character. The durability of this shield also depends on the Elemental Mastery of the Geo character causing the Crystallize reaction.
Elemental Mastery is thus a stat that benefits all characters in the game in one way or another. The best users of Elemental Mastery are of course Anemo units like Sucrose, Kazuha, and even Venti to an extent. The best set for an Elemental Mastery-focused build is the 4-star Instructor’s Set but for Anemo users of Elemental Mastery, nothing matches the Viridescent Venerer set when it comes to Swirl damage and Elemental Mastery buffs.