AlanDood
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7 Min read 
Genshin Impact’s new 2.6 character has just released, Kamisato Ayato. In this article, I’ll be going over my first impressions on him as a character, the best builds and teams for him, and whether you should pull.
Let’s jump right into the review.
Since Ayato has just been released, there hasn’t been enough time to really test out a lot of in-depth mechanics, teams, builds, and optimizations. However, based on initial testing, Ayato seems to be quite strong already.
As of right now, Ayato seems to fulfill a solid Main DPS role on teams like Freeze and Electrocharged based teams. We currently rank him as S-tier on our Genshin Impact tier list.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t wok very well with Vaporize teams like with Yoimiya or Hu Tao. But, he can work well with Xiangling to proc vaporize on her Pyronado. But to be fair, Xiangling is so good she makes other characters better as well.
Most importantly, Ayato is quite fun to play. His skills are simple and are satisfying to use. Many players will likely enjoy his playstyle and be more inclined to use him because of this.
So far, people have started to use Ayato in 3 different teams, and maybe a potential 4th. I’ll cover each variation as well as how you can flex certain characters to your own account.
From what we’ve seen so far, the electrocharged variants of Ayato teams are the strongest. Other teams like Freeze or Vaporize can also utilize him well, but doesn’t perform better than previous teams we’ve seen already.
Putting Ayato into a Freeze team will likely be one of the most popular variations. This is due to being able to pair him with Ayaka to form a brother sister team.
Ayaka is great as her burst does not require her to stay on the field, so you can switch back to Ayato and use his Elemental Skill. enemies will stay frozen, and you can output a lot of damage with this combination.
For the third slot, Diona is recommended for utility and Cryo energy generation for Ayaka.
For the 4th slot, an Anemo character like Venti, Kazuha, or Sucrose is recommended for more support damage through the VV artifact set.
Ganyu is a unit that can be used over Ayaka, but so far, it seems less promising. Since Ayato takes up quite a bit of on field time, there isn’t time for Ganyu to use charged attacks. While Ganyu can be a strong using only her skill and burst, there is wasted potential there.
While this team is strong and can definitely clear content, there is a question of how good this team is compared to what we already have.
If you already have Mona and Ayaka, you should know that those two are already very strong together. Replacing Mona, who has a lot of utility and damage, with Ayato can be a large tradeoff.
This team uses the “Taser” combination of Beidou and Fischl to provide constant off field Electro damage and application. With this, basically all of Ayato’s elemental skill attacks will proc electrocharged.
As usual, the 4th unit will likely be an Anemo unit like Venti, Kazuha, Jean, or Sucrose to proc Swirl.
Ayato can also be paired with Raiden Shogun for electrocharged as well. Another synergy is that Raiden will help refund energy to Ayato, making his energy recharge requirement much less.
Using Raiden’s burst after Ayato’s will make it so you are proc’ing electrocharged off Raiden’s attacks with Ayato’s burst providing off-field Hydro application.
Ayato can also be run in a Vaporize team with Xiangling as the pyro application. As previously mentioned, Ayato doesn’t really work as an enabler for other Pyro DPS units like Hu Tao or Yoimiya as his burst doesn’t apply Hydro quickly enough.
Even still, Xiangling and Ayato are a great combination, and Xiangling is someone everyone can have access to.
Similar to Ayaka Freeze team, you will want Bennett as a 3rd character to provide Pyro energy for Xiangling.
For your 4th unit, as usual, you will want an Anemo character.
Now that we’ve covered the teams, let’s go into what artifacts to use on Ayato. Before we go into specific sets to run, here’s a quick rundown of the stats you’re aiming for. Ayato is a fairly generic DPS unit, so these stats shouldn’t surprise you.
With that out of the way, here is a quick rundown of the sets that you can run on Ayato. Before going into each set, here’s a quick rundown of the best artifact sets for Ayato.
Best Sets: Heart of Depth / Gladiator’s Finale
Other Options: Thundering Fury / Blizzard Strayer
Other (not recommended): Echoes of an Offering
This set will be your go to set for Ayato. The 2-piece set will give a nice bonus to Hydro damage. The 4-piece set will give bonus Normal Attack Damage after casting an Elemental skill. This synergizes very well as you will be normal attacking a lot after casting his skill anyway.
The domain to farm this set also comes with the Blizzard Strayer set, which is also an amazing set in the game for Cryo characters like Ayaka or Ganyu.
These two reasons make this artifact set arguably the best choice to farm for Ayato.
Gladiator’s Finale is an artifact set that performs almost identically as Heart of Depth. It may vary based on your specific artifacts and substats, but for the most part, these two sets are ideal.
You can obtain this set through the Artifact Strongbox, or slowly build up a collection from fighting world bosses and weekly bosses. You can decide for your own account whether farming Heart of Depth or Gladiator’s Finale is more beneficial.
Echoes of an Offering
This new set was released with the 2.6 update, and also works decently well with Ayato. The 2-pice set gives a nice attack buff. The 4-piece set is quite lengthy, but basically, every so often, one of your normal attacks will deal more damage.
This set is good on characters who normal attack a lot, Ayato included.
The calculations for how strong this set is complicated, but there are two main reasons to avoid this set.
Hearth of Depth already is good on Ayato, but you can also use Blizzard Strayer if you plan to use Ayato in a Freeze team. The 2-piece bonus of bonus Cryo damage will be wasted on Ayato, but the 4-piece is extremely powerful. Getting 40% Crit Rate against enemies who are frozen is one of the best set effects in the game.
If you are farming for Heart of Depth and find a very strong Blizzard Strayer set, don’t be afraid to use it on a Freeze team.
However, assuming you are running a Freeze team, you likely will want the Blizzard Strayer set on your Cryo character.
This set will be an option you can consider when running Ayato in a taser or electrocharged team. Once again, the 2-piece bonus will be wasted on bonus Electro damage. The 4-piece set, however, will increase your electrocharged damage and also reduce the cooldown of Ayato’s skill. This will drastically reduce the cooldown and turn him into a slashing machine.
While this is a fun and strong option to use, it’s not greatly recommended unless you already have a strong set on your account. Farming for Heart of Depth and Blizzard Strayer simply offers too much value to justify farming for Thundering Fury instead.
As for weapons, I’ll go into a few options you have now.
This is the new signature weapon for Ayato and will likely be his best weapon. It was tailor made for him. the weapon banner is also currently a solid option as it has two strong 5-star weapons on it.
Even if this weapon is slightly worse than another 5-star, the matching aesthetic is simply too much to pass up.
This sword boasts a fat Crit Rate main stat and is one of the best swords in the game. It’s simply a good option on just about any unit that uses a sword. If you are lucky enough to already have this sword, you can likely pass up on the new weapon and just use this.
The Black Sword is a 4-star weapon that you can obtain from purchasing the battle pass. It’s a fairly accessible weapon, but it still is one that requires payment.
The Black Sword looks to be Ayato’s best 4-star weapon, but there are other options that will be strong as well. The weapon bonus is strong for Ayato, and the crit rate stat is very beneficial on a weapon.
This is a craftable 4-star weapon that you can make once you reach Inazuma. This is also an amazing weapon to use on Ayato and it helps him with his energy as well. Using this will allow you to need less energy recharge on your artifacts. Overall, this weapon will likely be the best F2P option for Ayato.
Now that we’ve looked at the potential teams of Ayato, it’s time to answer the “should you pull.”
As with most characters in the game, you should pull if you want the character. Coming from a meta perspective, it’s safe to say that Ayato is a strong character. He’s well equipped to tackle the Spiral Abyss, and his teams are both strong and fun to play.
If you enjoy his playstyle, you should have no regrets pulling for this character.
If you do decide to pull, good luck, and make sure to come back here to read up on how to build Ayato.
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