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The greatest magician of Fontaine, Lyney is about to put up a performance as he hops onto the stage of Genshin Impact version 4.0 update.
Lyney, together with his twin sister, Lynette are magicians who perform in the Court of Fontaine, dazzling audiences through shows of trickery and deception as magic uses a facade to reach the people’s hearts.
Lyney is a 5★ Pyro Bow user from the region of Fontaine, thus also possessing the new Arkhe alignment mechanic which aligns him with Pneuma.
Talents
Normal Attack – Card Force Translocation
Similar to Ganyu and Tighnari, Lyney’s aimed Charged Attack has 2 levels. Its Charge Level 1 fire off an elemental-infused arrow, much like other archers, but in Pyro element.
The Charge Level 2, however, will fire a Prop Arrow, and when successfully hitting an opponent with it, deals Pyro DMG and summon a Grin-Malkin Hat that inherits a percentage of Lyney’s max HP and taunts nearby enemies. When the Grin-Malkin Hat is destroyed or its duration expires, it will fire off a Pyrotechnic Strike at 1 random enemy to deal Pyro damage. Only 1 Grin-Malkin Hat can exist on the field at a time.
Additionally, when Lyney fires a Charge Level 2 while having more than 60% HP, he will consume a portion of his health to gain 1 stack of Prop Surplus, up to a maximum of 5. The lowest health Lyney can drop is 60% of his max HP and if he spends 30 seconds out of combat, remove all stacks of Prop Surplus on him.
Furthermore, at certain intervals, the Prop Arrow fired will cause a Spiritbreath Thorn to descend upon the location hit, dealing Pneuma-aligned Pyro DMG that will affect some of the new Fontaine enemies.
Elemental Skill – Bewildering Lights
When activated, Lyney will clear all stacks of Prop Surplus to perform a flourish with his hat, dealing AoE Pyro DMG to enemies in front of him. The total Pyro DMG dealt is based on the total amount of Prop Surplus consumed, and Lyney will also regenerate his HP based on the removed stacks.
If there is a Grin-Malkin Hat on the field, hitting it with Bewildering Lights can cause it to explode, dealing AoE Pyro DMG equal to that of a Pyrotechnic Strike. The DMG dealt through the Grin-Malkin Hat in this way is considered Charged Attack DMG and can benefit from any buff that boosts Charged Attacks.
Elemental Burst – Wondrous Trick: Miracle Parade
After casting, Lyney morphs himself into a Grin-Malkin Cat, not to be confused for the summoned Grin-Malkin Hat.
When Lyney is in his Grin-Malkin Cat form, players can move him around and send flames falling down onto any nearby enemies, dealing at most 1 instance of Pyro DMG to each enemy. Once the duration expires, Lyney will return back to his true self and ignite fireworks that deal AoE Pyro DMG to enemies while summoning a Grin-Malkin Hat and granting himself 1 Prop Surplus stack.
Players can actively cancel the Grin-Malkin Cat form at any time.
Passive Skill (1st Ascension) – Perilous Performance
If Lyney has consumed his health when firing off a Charge Level 2 Prop Arrow, the Grin-Malkin Hat summoned by the arrow will restore 3 Energy to Lyney upon hitting an enemy.
Additionally, the Grin-Malkin Hat will also gain increased DMG dealt by 80% of Lyney’s ATK.
Passive Skill (4th Ascension) – Conclusive Ovation
The passive talent increases Lyney’s based ATK by 60% when he is dealing damage to any enemy affected by Pyro. Lyney will then further receive an additional 20% ATK bonus for each Pyro ally in the party, up to a maximum of 100% increased ATK towards enemies affected by Pyro.
Ability Breakdown
Similar to Ganyu and Tighnari, Lyney is a Charged-based Bow user, yet unlike the aforementioned archers, his Charged Attack has unique mechanics and focuses mostly on single-target damage. Compared to Ganyu who is more forgiving to players as her Charged Attack hits a large AoE thus only requiring aiming at a general area, Lyney needs more precise aims to hit shots for damage and triggering abilities.
Lyney’s 4th Ascension passive, Conclusive Ovation, clearly explained to us that he should be played in a Mono-Pyro team, a composition that comprised mostly Pyro characters. In Mono-Pyro teams, Lyney should unleash damage that some characters could only achieve through Elemental Reactions.
Based on his kit, Lyney also relies on utilizing the Grin-Malkin Hat he summons through his Level 2 Charged or other means. The Grin-Malkin Hat not only taunts enemies but also fires off Pyrotechnic Strike at them when it is destroyed, expired, or replaced by another summoned hat, making it quite manipulable. Furthermore, when paired with Lyney’s Elemental Skill, Bewildering Lights, the Grin-Malkin Hat explodes instead, dealing more damage depending on how much Prop Surplus stacks Lyney has received through Level 2 Charged Attacks. Though it is hard to say how reliable will the taunt component be as previous abilities with such mechanics proved to be inconsistent.
Then, we have Lyney’s Element Burst, Wondrous Trick: Miracle Parade, which transforms Lyney into Grin-Malkin Cat, a walking volcano shower, dealing great Pyro DMG to nearby enemies during its duration. After that, Grin-Malkin Cat form explodes and Lyney returns to himself with a stack of Prop Surplus and Grin-Malkin Hat summoned, allowing him to jump right into action. This should allow him to immediately use Bewildering Lights after for a smooth transitioning combo. Note that the Grin-Malkin Hat created through the Elemental Burst will deal less damage than the Hat summoned through Charged Attack since it would not receive the benefits from Lyney’s 1st Ascension passive talent, Perilous Performance.
Constellations
Like some of the recent characters added into Genshin Impact, HoYoverse seems to moving into a trend of giving units early powerful Constellations to encourage players to pull for them and Lyney is no exception.
Lyney’s Constellation 1 is Whimsical Wonders, which allows him to have 2 Grin-Malkin Hats present on the field and additionally, causes Prop Arrows to summon 2 Hats and grants him an extra stack of Prop Surplus.
On the other hand, his Constellation 2, Locquacious Cajoling, grants Lyney a stack of Crisp Focus every 2 seconds he stays on the field, up to a maximum of 3 stacks. For each stack of Crisp Focus, increases Lyney’s CRIT DMG is by 20%.
Then we have his Constellation 4, Well-Versed, Well-Rehearsed, which further amplifies Lyney’s damage output by having enemies’ Pyro RES decreased by 20% for 6 seconds after getting hit by Lyney’s Charged Attack.
Lastly, we have Guarded Smile, Lyney’s Constellation 6, which causes him to also fire a Pyrotechnic Strike: Reprised that deals 80% of Grin-Malkin Hat’s Pyrotechnic Strike’s DMG while shooting a Charge Level 2. The new alternate Pyrotechnic Strike: Reprised is considered a Charged Attack as well, thus opening up more damage potential, and is likely the biggest damage gain for a Charged Attack you can find in the game.
From the first two Constellations, we can see that they give substantial damage increase as Whimsical Wonders improve Lyney’s overall damage every rotation by having easier Prop Surplus stack gain and more Grin-Malkin Hats to use, while Locquacious Cajoling can give him a significantly boost in damage, provided that Lyney lands a CRIT. This makes Lyney extremely powerful even at low Constellations.
That said, Lyney is fully capable of dealing great damage without additional Constellations unlocked.
Recommended Artifacts
When building Artifacts for Lyney, focuses on stats that enable him to be a main DPS such as hitting the recommended CRIT Rate CRIT DMG ratio of 1:2, then prioritizing on ATK stats after. As for the Goblet slot, target Pyro DMG Bonus as your main stat
The recommended Artifact set is a new upcoming Marechaussee Hunter, which seems specially made for Lyney.
Marechaussee Hunter will increase Lyney’s Normal and Charged Attack DMG by 15% when worn with 2 pieces, and when worn with 4 pieces, whenever the wearer’s health value is shifted, their CRIT Rate will increase by 12% for 5 seconds, up to a maximum of 3 increases. Since Lyney has an innate ability to consume and restore health through the Prop Surplus stack mechanic, he will have a solid uptime on triggering the Artifacts’ bonus effect.
Alternatively, you can go with 4 pieces of Lavawalker, which increases damage by 35% against any enemies affected by Pyro, a reliable source of damage since players would need to upkeep Lyney’s 4th Ascension passive by applying Pyro to foes.
Another way to build Lyney is to pair 2 pieces of either Gladiator’s Finale, Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, Vermillion Hereafter, or Echoes of an Offering with 2 pieces of Crimson Witch of Flames for an increased ATK% and Pyro DMG Bonus combination. A decent set but may not be as strong as the aforementioned Marechaussee Hunter.
Another alternate choice would be 4 pieces of Wanderer’s Troupe which gives a substantial boost to Charged Attack and the 2-piece Elemental Mastery bonus can still be beneficial if you decide to team him for Elemental Reactions.
Recommended Weapon
For recommended choices of weapon, the upcoming limited 5★ Bow, The First Great Magic would be Lyney’s signature weapon and his best-in-slot. The bow has a passive effect that increases Charged Attack but also another set of stat bonuses depending on the team members’ elemental types in the party. Each party member with the same Element grants the wielder a stack of Gimmick that increases their ATK. Additionally, each member with a different Elemental Type from the wielder grants the wielder a stack of Theatrics that increases movement speed. Both Gimmick and Theatrics go up to the maximum of 3 stacks.
The First Great Magic is an extremely good signature weapon for Lyney with a very easy buff condition to satisfy as he will be slot in a Mono-Pyro team more often for the ATK boost. It is certainly a must-pull weapon if you aim to maximize Lyney’s potential and make him your main hypercarry.
Another alternate premium 5★ Bow would be Aqua Simulacra, which is a generally good weapon for its CRIT DMG and damage increase but also the health boost that may benefit Lyney for his health consumption ability for Prop Surplus stacks which stops when his HP is at 60%. As such, Lyney would benefit from having more health to get more stacks before hitting the threshold.
If you are looking for a more free-to-play-friendly option, the upcoming forgeable Fontaine bow, Song of Stillness, is a great choice. The bow grants increased ATK% and additional DMG boost whenever the wielder receives healing which synergizes with Lyney’s ability to heal himself through Prop Surplus stacks. Other decent choices for Lyney would be Amos’ Bow, Royal Bow, Blackcliff Warbow, and Viridescent Hunt.
Team Recommendation
Among all the characters, there is no one who has a recommended team as clearly laid out to us as Lyney as his 4th Ascension passive talent, Conclusive Ovation, wants him to be in a Mono-Pyro team. While many people would scoff at the idea of a Mono-Pyro team since single-element compositions traditionally do not do well in Spiral Abyss due to the lack of Elemental Reactions.
That said, there is already a Mono-Pyro team that exists and is able to deal quite competitive damage. This team utilizes Klee as the main DPS for her powerful AoE damage while having Xiangling as the off-field DPS, and both Kazuha and Bennett as the supporters. Using the composition as a reference, Lyney serves as a good alternative to Klee as he focuses on single-target more.
As such a Mono-Pyro team consisting of Lyney himself, Xiangling, Bennett, and Kazuha would be a recommended choice. In this team, Xiangling and Kazuha will compensate for the lack of AoE damage by Lyney, using Kazuha’s Chihayaburu to pull enemies into a group for both Xiangling’s Pyronado and Lyney’s Bewildering Lights to do the damage.
If you do not own Kazuha, Lyney’s twin sister, Lynette is also an amazing option as she is able to deal good damage while having great utilities in her kit. Her Elemental Burst also has a taunting capability and may prove to be useful though it is hard to say much about the reliability of it. Another thing to mention is that Lynette is a Fontaine character with Ousia as an alignment so she will have interaction with Lyney’s Pneuma alignment to trigger effects on some enemies.
Another alternate team that you could run is to swap Xiangling with Dehya for stagger resistance as interruptions are Charged-based Bow users’ biggest weakness. Having Dehya’s Fiery Sanctum active allows Lyney to stay on the field longer, sacrificing some damage for comfort.
Final Thoughts
From everything we see of Lyney, he seems to be a great character that is expected to deal amazing damage. Though a lot of his damage potential comes from his 4th Ascension passive talent, Conclusive Ovation, which forces him to be in Mono-Pyro teams or lose the ATK boost. This limits his team composition variety and the Mono-Pyro team also relies on characters that are important to enable other types of teams such as Kazuha, Bennett, and Xiangling thus making him an unappealing unit to pull for. Mono-Pyro teams are also not a top meta choice now as they can be niche and only excel against very specific groups of enemies.
Another factor that may scare people away from pulling him is his aimed Charged attack playstyle, which requires more effort to use reliably, especially for mobile-only users. Genshin Impact also has a large group of enemies now that tend to move around a lot thus making it rather easy to miss a shot, making it difficult to use Lyney effectively. Since Charged-based archers lose most of their damage once interrupted, the more offensive variant of the Mono-Pyro team may not be for everyone and they may prefer to have anti-stagger support like Dehya or Zhongli, losing competitive damage output
Overall, he is a great newcomer who opens up a new playstyle while not replacing Klee in her role as a Mono-Pyro main DPS. While his Arkhe alignment mechanic may seem useful against Fontaine enemies but until it is a hard requirement for future Spiral Abyss challenges, he is not a must-pull and there are many more Fontainians releasing in the coming updates. However, if you like Lyney as his character, just go for it.
So what do you think of Lyney? Will you be pulling for him once he arrived in Genshin Impact? Join the GamerBraves Discord server and share your thoughts.
