Genshin Impact: What is Elemental Mastery, Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst?

Elements are one of the main cruces in Genshin Impact, as they are pretty much vital to how combat works and how to solve the majority of puzzles in the game. Without knowing what the elements are, or what they're capable of, you'll find the game pretty tricky to play. Albeit, it's not that simple, but it also is, you can easily get by with only the knowledge of the elements, but to deepen your understanding of the game, it's handy to know what Elemental Mastery, Elemental Burst, and Elemental Skill all mean. Don't worry; we've got the know-how!

What is Elemental Mastery?

No matter what elements your characters in your party wield, Elemental Mastery means the same to each one. As you begin the game, Elemental Mastery is not very important, as your overall damage output is pretty outstanding to kill anything that comes your way. However, as you progress through the game, and enemies get tougher, Elemental Mastery becomes more and more vital, so what exactly is it?

Elemental Mastery is a stat that indicates the overall damage of your elements. The lower the stat, the lower the damage, and the higher the stat, the more damage it inflicts. Sadly, it's rare that Elemental Mastery is improved when leveling up characters. The more reliable method of increasing it is through the use of Artifacts and Weapons.

Different Artifacts, even if they are the same Artifact, can have different stats to another; one might have ATK + 5.2% when another could have HP+420, some even have two buffs! It's completely random what Artifact will give what buff, but some types are more prone to a certain buff than others. The bonus that you want on an Artifact, especially for Catalyst users, is Elemental Mastery. Once you have an Artifact with this stat increase on it, keep it and enhance it. Every time you level up an Artifact, the bonuses are increased as well. This is how you can keep magnificent Artifacts from becoming useless.

The only thing that stays the same is the Set Pieces, as every Artifact is part of a Set, and wearing 2 pieces of a Set will earn you a bonus, and wearing 4 pieces of that set will give you a second bonus. An amazing set for Elemental Mastery is the Instructor Set:

• Wearing 2 pieces: Increases Elemental Mastery by 80
• Wearing 4 pieces: After using your Elemental Skill, increases all party members' Elemental Mastery by 120 for 8 seconds.

Weapons can also have different bonuses on them, such as Elemental Mastery. Like Artifacts, by Enhancing them and leveling them up, that stats will be increased the leveling up, so amazing weapons also don't become entirely useless.

What is Elemental Skill?

Elemental Skill is the main ability you'll use in a fight apart from regular attacks. On PC, an Elemental Skill is used by pressing the E key, and on PS4, press R2/RT. These skills use a cooldown function; therefore, once an ability has been used, it cannot be used again until it's ready. Cooldowns differ between characters, some characters have a really fast cooldown so that it can be used many times during a battle, but others might have a slow cooldown. Generally, the slower the cooldown, the more powerful the Elemental Skill is. Elemental Skills are essential when using a weapon that's not a catalyst, as this Skill is the only way to cause your character's element to occur, so if using all 4 characters, to apply Element Reactions, the Element Skill has to be used to cause the element to affect the enemy, before switching out to another element to cause an Elemental Combo to take place.

As an example, we'll use the Hydro user Mona. Mona's Elemental Skill is called Mirror Reflection of Doom, and when used, has a cooldown of 12 seconds.

• Skill name: Mirror Reflection of Doom
  • Description: Creates an illusory Phantom of fate from coalesced waterspouts.
  • Skill Attributes
    • DoT(Damage over Time): 32%
    • Explosion DMG (Damage): 133%
    • CD(Cooldown) 12 Seconds

All this information can be found in the character menu, then go to Talents, then on the right side of the screen, a list appears. The first on the list is your normal attack, and then your Elemental Skill is second. By clicking on the Elemental Skill, more information appears on the left side of the screen. You'll have two tabs, Talent Info, where it describes what the Elemental Skill does in detail, and Skill Attributes, where it tells you the Skill's overall damage and cooldown.

What is Elemental Burst?

An Elemental Burst is the characters' ultimate attack, which deals massive damage. This attack must be replenished by acquiring elemental energy particles, meaning it can only be used when the special attack gauge is full. When in combat, to gain these energy particles, use your Element Skill, and they should drop around the battlefield, though it takes some time to fill it. It makes sense as it's an ultimate move.

Once full, hit Q when playing on PC, or Triangle when on PS4, and your Elemental Burst will activate. Once again, as an example, we'll use the Hydro user Mona again. Mona's Elemental Burst is called Stellaris Phantasm.

• Skill name: Stellaris Phantasm
  • Description: Mona summons the sparkling waves and creates a reflection of the starry sky, applying the Illusory Bubble status to opponents in a large AoE (Area of Effect)
  • Skill Attributes
    • Illusory Bubble Duration: 8 seconds
    • Illusory Bubble Explosion DMG (Damage): 442%
    • Damage Bonus: 42%
    • Omen Duration: 4 seconds
    • CD(Cooldown) 15 Seconds
    • Energy Cost: 60

You can see the difference between the two, especially in Explosion DMG. Elemental Skill is 133%, but Elemental Burst is 433%!

All this information can be found in the character menu, then go to Talents, then on the right side of the screen, a list appears. Usually, the third one down is the Elemental Burst. By clicking on the Elemental Burst, more information appears on the left side of the screen. You'll have two tabs, a Talent Info, where it describes what the Elemental Burst does in detail, and Skill Attributes, where it tells you the overall damage, cooldown, and the energy cost.