With its simple-to-grasp mechanics and beautifully written world, Genshin Impact is an RPG beloved by many. Whether you're a casual player or pride yourself in knowing the game's nuances, Genshin Impact has something for everyone. This can be seen best in its combat system, which revolves around choosing from an option of simple attacks to beat up enemies.
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PostsHowever, despite there being no difficult combos or skill-shots to aim, what goes into Genshin's combat under the surface can be quite complex. Snapshotting buffs is one of the first mechanics to learn if you want to maximize the damage your teams.
What Is Snapshotting?
Snapshotting is a way to make the most of your buffs by using specific skill attributes. This can be used to lengthen their duration or to grant the same buff to multiple characters by forcibly keeping the buff active even after you swap out to a different character.
Only certain skills can do this, though. These are skills with an attribute commonly known as Static Scaling, which means they calculate damage values upon cast instead of updating them in real time.
What Is Dynamic Scaling?
Buffs affect most skills in a very straightforward way in Genshin Impact. Usually, a character's skills are tied to themselves and their stats directly.
For example, if you're playing Eula and get buffs when inside Bennett's Burst, walking out makes it so your Lightfall Sword is no longer affected by the buff. Such skills are called skills with Dynamic Scaling.
Advantages Of Dynamic Scaling
Dynamic buffs and skills don't Snapshot. However, they still have their advantages:
- Dynamic Scaling skills can be cast at the start of rotations before you cast your buffs. This makes rotations easier.
- Since Dynamic Scaling skills can be cast before buffs, this means your on-field carry can make longer use of the buff.
- Buffs that take time to ramp up, such as Yelan's, can charge up during your setup, so your rotation can make use of the higher buffs near the end.
Disadvantages Of Dynamic Scaling
However, despite these limited advantages, Dynamic Scaling falls off quite quickly when compared to skills that have Static Scaling instead.
- Most buffs in Genshin Impact apply only to the active character. This means your off-field DPS units cannot make use of them.
- If a buff ends before your rotation, this means that you lose out on a large portion of DPS from staying on-field without buffs.
What Is Static Scaling?
Statis scaling is an attribute that certain skills have, and it works as the complete opposite of how Dynamic Scaling. This is what lets Snapshotting buffs work.
Put simply, instead of being affected in real-time by buffs and debuffs, skills with Static Scaling only take the stats your character has at the time of casting the skill into account.
Suppose you have a C6 Bennett who gives a 15 percent Pyro DMG Bonus to your characters and you use Xiangling's Pyronado inside the burst. Open up Xiangling's stat page to see how much ATK and Pyro DMG Bonus she has.
If you open the stat page after the Burst has ended or Xiangling has walked out, you'll notice that Xiangling has a lower amount of ATK and Pyro DMG Bonus than when the Bennett buff was active. However, despite lower stats, Pyronado's damage stays the same.
Advantages Of Static Scaling
Units with Static Scaling, specifically off-field DPS characters, are some of Genshin's strongest. Apart from being able to Snapshot buffs, they have some other things going for them as well.
- You can Snapshot buffs.
- Skills with Static Scaling can be buffed off-field.
- You can increase buff durations.
- Can turn on-field buffs into ones that apply to your entire team.
Disadvantages Of Static Scaling
While Static Scaling lets you make use of Snapshotting to make use of more buffs, it isn't better in every aspect.
- Since you need to use your buffs before casting skills, your rotations can be tighter.
- Buffs that take a while to stack up, such as Yelan's A4 passive, cannot be utilized the same way in shorter rotations.
- If your hypercarry requires more time to function, such as Neuvillette, spending buff uptime on other characters may lead to damage loss.
How To Snapshot Buffs?
Snapshotting can do wonders for your team's DPS since buffs that usually apply to a single character can be given to multiple this way.
For example, Bennett's buff is one of the strongest in Genshin Impact, but it only applies to the active character in his field. However, using a Static Scaling skill like Xiangling's Pyronado or Fischl's Oz can double the buff efficiency, resulting in higher DPS.
Another reason you might want to utilize Snapshotting is for increasing buff duration. For example, Gorou's buff has an extremely short duration. However, using Albedo's Elemental Skill lets you make use of it for a full 30 seconds.
To Snapshot a buff, cast the buffing skill first. Any skill withStatic Scalingthat you use afterward keeps this buff for its entire duration.
This applies even if the characters move off-field.
What Characters Can Snapshot?
We've mentioned some of the most notable characters with skills that can do it, but here's a complete table that includes every character that can Snapshot buffs.
Character
Skill
Albedo
Elemental Skill
Alhaitham
Elemental Burst
Amber
Elemental Skill
Amber
Elemental Burst
Ayaka
Elemental Burst
Ayato
Elemental Burst
Beidou
Elemental Burst
Charlotte
Elemental Skill
Dehya
Elemental Skill
Diluc
Elemental Burst
Diona
Elemental Burst
Dori
Elemental Burst
Fischl
Elemental Skill
Ganyu
Elemental Skill
Ganyu
Elemental Burst
Jean
Elemental Burst
Kazuha
Elemental Burst
Kaeya
Elemental Burst
Kirara
Elemental Skill
Kokomi
Elemental Skill
Klee
Elemental Skill
Kuki Shinobu
Elemental Skill
Layla
Elemental Skill
Layla
Elemental Burst
Lisa
Elemental Skill
Lisa
Elemental Burst
Lyney
Elemental Skill
Mona
Elemental Skill
Ningguang
Elemental Burst
Qiqi
Elemental Skill
Rosaria
Elemental Burst
Sayu
Elemental Burst
Sucrose
Elemental Burst
Venti
Elemental Burst
Wanderer
Elemental Burst
Yaoyao
Elemental Skill
Yaoyao
Elemental Burst
Zhongli
Elemental Skill
read moreWhat Buffs Cannot Be Snapshot?
The Genshin Impact team quickly realized just how strong Snapshotting can become. For this reason, not only have they stopped creating characters who can Snapshot their main sources of damage, but they also reprogrammed many buffs to be dynamic.
These buffs, such as Furina's Elemental Burst, work as an extension to your character's stats instead of a direction addition. When the extension is cut, even if a character would have otherwise kept the buff, the stats are removed instantly.
Character
Ability
Faruzan
Passive
Faruzan
C6
Furina
Elemental Burst
Gorou
C6
Kujou Sara
C6
Mika
C6
Raiden Shogun
Elemental Skill
Shenhe
Passive
Shenhe
Elemental Skill
Shenhe
C2
Yelan
Passive
Yunjin
Elemental Burst
All buffs in Genshin Impact, except the ones here, can be Snapshot by characters with Static Scaling.
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RPG Action Adventure Gacha Open-World Systems 11 8.6/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 81/100 Critics Rec: 87% Released September 28, 2020 ESRB T for Teen - Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference Developer(s) HoYoverse (Formerly miHoYo) Publisher(s) HoYoverse (Formerly miHoYo) Engine UnityWHERE TO PLAY
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