Ayaka is a Cryo Sword character in Genshin Impact. Overall, she is a powerful DPS character, with multiple ways to apply Cryo from both her kit and her special sprint. Currently, she is one of the best DPS in the game as of the 3.5 patch.
In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase a complete Genshin Impact Ayaka build guide.
1. Ayaka's Kit and Gameplay
Abilities
Talent Priority: BURST > NORMAL ATTACK > SKILL
- Normal Attack: Ayaka has good NA/CA and mainly use the Normal Attack x2 + Charged Attack combo (N2C)
- Skill: Ayaka creates a circle of ice around her that will launch smaller enemies into the air. This is her main source of Energy, creating 4-5 Particles per use, and you ideally want to fit in 2 uses of it in a rotation to drastically lower her ER% needs.
- Burst: Ayaka’s strongest technique. Her Elemental Burst is the main shareholder of her kit’s damage by a long shot, and is one of the strongest Elemental Bursts in the game
- A1 Passive: After casting her Elemental Skill, Normal / Charged Attacks will deal increased DMG for 6s. This passive is solid for Ayaka’s DPS.
- A4 Passive: Makes spamming Ayaka's special Dash highly effective.
Constellations
Similar to other 5 star characters, Ayaka's constellations are extremely powerful. However, with the pulling low rate, it is highly unlikely that players would ever get more than C1 or C2. Her three power spikes are C1, C4 and C6:
- C1 - When Kamisato Ayaka's Normal or Charged Attacks deal Cryo DMG to opponents, it has a 50% chance of decreasing the CD of Ayaka's Elemental skill by 0.3s. This effect can occur once every 0.1s.
- C4 - Opponents damaged by Ayaka's Burst will have their DEF decreased by 30% for 6s.
- C6 - Ayaka gains a buff that increases her Charge Attack DMG by 298% every 10s. This buff will be cleared 0.5s after Ayaka's Charge ATK hits an opponent, which reset the cooldown.
C1 is probably the most valuable (and attainable) constellation. It allows Ayaka to recast her elemental skill much faster. With the Ayaka banner returning in 5 days (at the time of writing this article), it might be a good idea to pull for her C1.
Alternate Sprint
Ayaka's special sprint is even more powerful than Mona. Her special dash releases a cryo blast when reappearing and gets a short period of Cryo infusion. After unlocking A4 passive, Ayaka's Alternate Sprint dash costs 10 stamina, meaning that if you keep hitting an enemy upon the exiting of her dash, it will not cost any stamina.
2. Ayaka Best Artifact and Weapon
Overall, Ayaka's build are fairly straightforward. Below are her best weapons and artifact set.
- Recommended weapon: Mistsplitter Reforged
- Recommended artifact set: Blizzard Strayer x4
Alternative artifact choices: 2p of Blizzard Strayer/Gladiator/Noblesse Oblige with good stats.
Alternative weapon choices: Primordial Jade Cutter, Haran Geppaku Futsu, Light of Foliar Incision, Summit Shaper, Blackcliff Longsword, The Black Sword, and Amenoma Kageuchi.
3. Best teammates for Ayaka
Generally, Ayaka would team up with Hydro, Cryo and Anemo units.
- Aside from speedrunning teams, Ayaka will always have at least 1 Cryo teammate, for battery purposes at the very least.
- Hydro units will predominantly provide Hydro application for freezing. Uptime and AoE of said application are valuable.
- Anemo units will predominantly provide grouping and debuffs via Viridescent Venerer.
Shenhe
Shenhe can be considered the new premier Cryo support for Ayaka teams overall. Unlike other units who can take her slot who provide Energy and personal offensive value or defensive utility, Shenhe, while still offering good amounts of Energy, provides more buffs to Ayaka. Moreover, Shenhe’s damage from Icy Quills scales incredibly well with Ayaka due to her high amount of DMG% and Ayaka’s natural ability to deal Cryo damage very quickly. As such, teams with these two have no problem fully using allocated Icy Quills, even twice per rotation.
Ganyu
Most commonly played with a team core of Ayaka/Ganyu/Venti, Ganyu’s benefits are less about batterying and more about her Burst contributing to the blender of damage that this team creates. With a final teammate providing Hydro application for Freeze, this core is absolutely lethal in fights with high mob count.
Even though her purpose isn’t explicitly to provide Energy, Ganyu also isn’t a bad battery, especially since she can cast her Skill every 10 seconds, with it exploding whilst Ayaka is on the field. She also provides a valuable teamwide 20% Cryo DMG Bonus.
Diona
A very popular teammate for Ayaka, Diona can offer great battery utility with a Sacrificial Bow, and a strong shield + healing for solace. Perhaps still the most common choice for players of all skill levels.
Diona's biggest weakness is that her low damage can be a liability in a Freeze team, as the Hydro support usually also has low damage. In a mono-cryo team, on the other hand, Diona should be more useful.
Rosaria
Rosaria can be considered in teams where Diona’s defensive comfort is not needed when using supports like Kokomi or Mona w/ Prototype Amber as both can fulfill a similar role. Due to this, Rosaria sees common use, providing good team Energy while contributing good damage as an off-field DPS.
Additionally, Rosaria has noteworthy synergy with Favonius Lance, especially when R5, since it can empower her to generate high amounts of both Cryo and clear Particles every 6s, providing incredible utility for Ayaka.
Venti
Venti has high natural synergy with most of Ayaka’s popular teammates, particularly in Freeze teams.. Ayaka’s Elemental Burst, Elemental Skill and Charged Attacks can all reach inside Venti’s Elemental Burst, and the Energy refund from him helps a great deal as well.
He can proc Shenhe’s Quill damage himself with his Burst’s Elemental Absorption.
Kazuha
Kazuha has special synergy with Mono Cryo compositions, being able to increase the entire party’s Cryo DMG% which increases Shenhe’s Icy Quill damage tremendously. He can also proc Quill damage himself with the Elemental Absorption from his Plunge and Burst.
His grouping also pulls enemies towards him, and its circular nature has synergy with common Ayaka teammates, such as being able to pull enemies towards Rosaria or Shenhe’s Bursts.
Kokomi
Kokomi’s Elemental Skill lines up perfectly for Ayaka’s rotations and the AoE radius matches just right, overall making Kokomi a very comfortable option. She provides long lasting AoE off-field Hydro application. It doesn’t always hit but is as close to an ideal Hydro applicator as Ayaka can get.
Mona
Mona's role is to buff Ayaka and provide Hydro application. Contrary to popular belief, it is borderline impossible to build her for damage due to ER substats and Energy generating weapons taking top priority; she needs to Burst on demand every rotation. It is heavily advised to avoid attempting to build damage as lacking Energy to Burst in gameplay is the worst case scenario.
Her Omen debuff gets extended during Freeze, making her a premiere buffer for Ayaka, creating an insane pairing for bursting down enemies.
Xingqiu
Xingqiu is the preferred Hydro applier for more Normal and Charged Attack-based Ayaka playstyles. Although a far less common playstyle (and generally less efficient), Xingqiu is substantially more accessible than the previous two characters and therefore less resourceful Ayaka players may have little choice but to try to make this synergy work. And it very much works.
Although his rainswords are primarily single-target with a small AoE, Xingqiu is really good at keeping enemies frozen, and Ayaka’s N3C combo gets high value from the rainswords.
Yelan
Yelan's Ascension 4 Passive can provide a strong DMG% buff to Ayaka, which can heavily increase her Burst’s output. Use Yelan early in the team setup to allow this buff to ramp up close to its peak in parallel with Ayaka’s Burst. Know the buff only applies to the active character, meaning Ayaka must remain on the field throughout her Burst’s duration to fully buff it.
Her playstyle is similar to Xingqiu, requiring regular Normal Attacks by Ayaka and her teammates in order to maintain Freeze. However, unlike Xingqiu she does not have Rain Sword orbitals, meaning without these Normal Attacks you will not be keeping enemies frozen.
>>> Read more: Genshin Impact 3.6: Kaveh Ascension And Talent Materials Farming Guide