Home Blogs Is Iansan the New Bennett Replacement in Genshin Impact?

Is Iansan the New Bennett Replacement in Genshin Impact?

Bennett is considered one of the most useful and beneficial characters in Genshin Impact. In fact, despite being available since the game’s launch, he remains highly relevant and is used in many team comps. But is Iansan the new Bennett replacement in Genshin Impact?

Genshin Impact players often say that HoYoverse accidentally made support characters like Bennett too overpowered (the others most frequently cited being Xingqiu and Xiangling), forcing the company to create new characters with more specific use cases to encourage players to use them instead. In Genshin Impact Version 5.5, launching on March 26, the 4-Star Electro Polearm character Iansan is set to debut. Many are calling her the “Bennett replacement” due to how similar her kit is to his. But how true is that? Let’s find out.

How Does Iansan’s Kit Compare to Bennett’s in Genshin Impact?

Iansan is a Natlan character whose primary function is support, providing DMG buffs and healing. Much like Bennett, her Elemental Burst, The Three Principles of Power, is the key to buffing other characters. However, unlike Bennett, whose field requires characters to stay within it, Iansan’s method is different. She instead summons a Kinetic Energy Scale, which follows your active character around and increases ATK based on her Nightsoul Points.

If Iansan has less than 42 out of 54 maximum Nightsoul Points in Genshin Impact, the ATK bonus scales off both her Nightsoul Points and ATK. However, if she has at least 42 Nightsoul Points, the ATK bonus increases and scales purely off her ATK. This means that Iansan should be built with ATK in mind.

The catch is that the active character being buffed by Iansan’s scale must move (both vertical and horizontal movements count). The scale logs the distance traveled, and every second, it restores Nightsoul to Iansan based on that distance.

Bennett’s field also heals the active character for up to 70% HP, whereas Iansan heals as well, but Bennett wins here by a large margin. Additionally, Iansan cannot heal herself, unlike Bennett. So, the healer part of the battle is won by Bennett by a long shot.

Another big difference is elemental infusion. Bennett can infuse Pyro into the Normal Attacks of the active character if he’s at C6, but Iansan doesn’t provide Electro infusion. Whether that’s a disadvantage depends on your team composition.

For exploration, Iansan has some advantages. She can consume Nightsoul Points to sprint a certain distance quickly without using stamina and can also jump longer distances in this state. However, for Pyro teams, Bennett remains the better pick due to Elemental Resonance, which grants a +25% ATK buff and Pyro infusion.

Should You Choose Iansan or Bennett in Genshin Impact?

Iansan is basically Bennett’s long-lost sister, considering how similar they look and how their kits function. However, rather than outright replacing him, she seems to be a strong alternative, especially for second-team comps in Spiral Abyss which require a similar support to Bennett.

Iansan’s biggest advantage is that you no longer have to play “Circle Impact,” which is a joke in the Genshin Impact playerbase about needing to stay within a fixed field for buffs, which Bennett’s Burst requires. With Iansan’s Kinetic Scale, you’re actually encouraged to move around with your active character, offering a different gameplay style from Bennett’s.

If you want to try out Iansan, you can do so in Phase I of Genshin Impact Version 5.5, which is dropping on March 26.

Genshin Impactis available to play now.

Articles View all