Genshin Impact 3.3 banner evaluation: Is it better to wish for Raiden Shogun, Ayato or their weapons?

The second half banners of Genshin Impact version 3.3 will surely have a lot of players torn.

The first of this half's character banners features the almighty Electro Archon, the Raiden Shogun, while the other features Kamisato Ayato, who topped our rankings for all characters released in 2022.

Unless you've got a hoard of Primogems saved up, or willing to cough up some cash, we're sure it's going to be hard to choose which top-tier character to get.

But it all comes down to which role you’re lacking in your team compositions. Do you need a support who can deal very consistent Electro DMG and massive burst DMG? Or are you privy to a flexible Hydro DPS who can deal fast attacks and can buff your team with his burst?

Yahoo Gaming SEA is here to help you decide whether to pull for the Raiden Shogun or Kamisato Ayato, and if you should pull for their signature weapons, too!

Pull according to your playstyle

Raiden Shogun’s Electro element boasts more versatility than before due to the release of the Dendro element, letting you use even more elemental reactions in battle.

Although the Raiden Shogun isn’t the best Electro character in an Aggravate team since her build leaves little room for Elemental Mastery, she’s perfect as a support unit to trigger Spread for your Dendro characters if you main characters like Tighnari, Dendro Traveller, or even DPS Nahida.

You can also forego her normal build and go for Hyperbloom, building 4-piece Gilded Dreams instead and stacking as much Elemental Mastery as possible. And while that's a perfectly valid build, it's still a huge waste of her potential.

After all, the Raiden Shogun is iconic in Hypercarry and mono-Electro lineups with a team geared to fully supporting her.

Raiden also goes well in standard reactive teams like Electro-Charged or Superconduct, making her a must-have due to her consistent Electro application. Her skill can also buff your party’s bursts in accordance to their energy cost, and can battery your team with her constant production of elemental particles.

Raiden Shogun boasts a massively powerful burst, unleashing the iconic singular slash Mussou no Hitotachi that felled a god and a Fatui Harbinger easily.

If you’re into a team that goes at it with massive burst DMG and multiple Electro-related reactions, then the Raiden Shogun is the one for you!

Although not as open to support roles like the Raiden Shogun, Kamisato Ayato does offer Hydro support with his burst, which gives a Normal ATK bonus to the entire party while also applying Hydro in a wide area.

His burst also lasts a whopping 18 seconds, which is more than enough to duke it out if you’re going for reactions like Vaporize, Electro-Charged, Frozen, or even Bloom and Burgeon, whichever reaction you prefer. He’s also great at popping pure Hydro DMG too, if you’re more likely to prefer selfish DPS numbers.

More often than not, Ayato will fill in the Main or Sub-DPS role in your team compositions.

Ayato focuses more on dealing quick, consistent instances of DMG as opposed to one big nuke number like the Raiden Shogun, so if you’re into spamming buttons and seeing tons of damage numbers stacked on top of the other, Ayato’s the pick for you!

Make sure you have your supports ready!

Raiden Shogun and Kamisato Ayato both need specific supports to fully unleash their potential.

Raiden Shogun has a more expensive team, as she needs Kujou Sara with an activated C6 to get the most out of her burst. Kujou Sara provides a 60% Electro Crit DMG increase at full constellation. She also buffs based on her base ATK, so it’s best to have her at max ascension with a high base ATK weapon.

Besides Sara, you will also need an Anemo character like Venti, Sucrose, or ideally Kaedehara Kazuha to get the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer buff. Kazuha is most ideal because of his passive, which increases Elemental DMG based on his Elemental Mastery each time he swirls a certain element (which should be Electro).

And like any hypercarry team, Bennett is essential to the team composition, ideally at C1 or higher, as it gives him additional buffing potential with 20% his base ATK instead of only scaling at HP.

Ayato’s support team can be a bit cheaper. He needs Yun Jin, as she can buff his normal attacks with her burst, which scales off of her total DEF. Her buffing also gains additional scaling with a team that consists of different elements. You also only need to have her at C3, as C2 increases your Normal Attack DMG by an additional 15% while C3 increases the level cap of her burst for more buffing.

You can also go for an Anemo support with a 4-piece Viridescent Venerer set that can swirl Ayato’s element, like Venti, Sucrose, or Kaedehara Kazuha. It’s a tie between Venti and Kazuha, as you’ll need a good crowd control character if you’re duking it out with mobs, and of course, Kazuha’s Elemental DMG increase is a great addition to your team.

You can keep Bennett in this team, but Ayato’s skill leaves him vulnerable to attacks, so it’s a great option to also have a shielder like Thoma or Zhongli in your team. Thoma for Vaporize and to trigger Yun Jin’s passive, Zhongli for an Elemental RES shred and a stronger shield. Both can function just fine at C0.

Who’s easier to build?

Both Raiden Shogun and Kamisato Ayato are pretty easy to build, with weapon options that are attainable for free-to-play players and artifact sets that are tailor made for their kit.

Raiden Shogun’s best free-to-play weapon is the 4-star weapon The Catch, which you can easily get to R5 by just fishing all around Inazuma. The Catch increases the Crit Rate and Crit DMG of your burst.

Besides her best-in-slot Englufing Lighting, Raiden can also work well with Skyward Spine and technically any other generalist 5-star Polearms like Staff of Homa or Primordial Jade Winged Spear, if you have them in excess. For 4-star gacha, the Wavebreaker's Fin will be your best option, especially at high refinements.

But really, if you don't have a fully built-up The Catch yet, you better get fishing.

Her artifact set, Emblem of Severed Fate, also increases her burst DMG with its 4-piece set bonus and comes from arguably the most resin-efficient domain.

Kamisato Ayato can perform well with the 4-star craftable weapon Amenoma Kageuchi, which is easy enough to get to R5 if you have enough Northlander Sword Billets.

For 5-star swords, aside from his signature weapon Haran Geppaku Futsu, he’s great with Mistplitter Reforged and Primordial Jade Cutter. For 4-star gacha weapons, he can also work well with The Flute. The Black Sword, available from the Battle Pass, is also good on him.

Ayato can work with a variety of artifacts sets. His best is Echoes of An Offering, but if you’re not keen on farming a domain that only offers Ayato and Xiao’s best-in-slot artifacts, you can give him 4-piece Heart of Depth or a combination of Heart of Depth and any ATK increasing artifact set.

This weapon banner is one of the best to date, should you try pulling?

The weapon banner for the second half of version 3.3 is something you don’t want to miss either, as both the Engulfing Lightning and Haran Geppaku Futsu are up for grabs!

These weapons are great investments for your account, and will give you the strongest version of the Raiden Shogun or Ayato yet.

But if you’re only gunning for one specific weapon and end up getting the other, it’s not much of a problem!

Engulfing Lightning is a generalist polearm that can be used by your polearm users who are in need of Energy Recharge. The passive increases your ATK significantly and gives you enough particles to recharge your burst. It can be used by a variety of characters like Xiangling, Rosaria, Thoma, Shenhe, Yun Jin, and Candace if you didn’t get Raiden Shogun.

Haran Geppaku Futsu on the other hand, ascends with Crit Rate, which already makes it a desirable weapon for your sword DPS characters. The passive gives you an elemental DMG increase and can give you a maximum of 20% Normal DMG bonus. If you didn’t pull for Ayato, Kaeya, Kamisato Ayaka, Keqing, and Bennett can use this sword.

Genshin Impact is currently in version 3.3, which is expected to run until mid-January 2023.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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