Layla’s hard work and tireless nights has finally earned her a place in our Traveler’s party, but she still has a lot of time to recover from her sleepless nights over at the Akademiya. She is an earnest student, but the amount of work she’s been willingly doing has taken a toll on her sleep health, and thus she tries to sleep whenever she can. Despite that, Layla is a powerful asset for anyone’s team, as long as Cryo is needed on the table, arriving as a support character for the second half of Genshin Impact 3.2, coming out on November 18, 2022.
In this Layla Guide, we will be discussing Layla’s abilities, best weapons, artifact sets, and ideal team compositions.
Layla Overview and Abilities
Elemental Skill – Nights of Formal Focus
Puts forth a shield known as the Curtain of Slumber, dealing AoE Cryo DMG.
The Curtain of Slumber’s DMG Absorption is based on Layla’s Max HP and absorbs Cryo DMG with 250% effectiveness. When the shield is deployed, Layla will have Cryo applied to her briefly.
Night Stars and Shooting Stars
While the Curtain of Slumber is active, it will create 1 Night Star that will be attached to it every 1.5s. When a character protected by this shield uses an Elemental Skill, 2 Night Stars will be created. Night Stars can be created once every 0.3s in this way. A maximum of 4 Night Stars can be accumulated at any one time.
Once the Curtain of Slumber has accumulated 4 Night Stars and there are opponents nearby, these Night Stars will transform into homing Shooting Stars that will be fired off in sequence, dealing Cryo DMG to any opponents hit.
If the Curtain of Slumber’s duration ends or it is destroyed, the Night Stars will disappear. If they are already being fired off as Shooting Stars, these Shooting Stars will last until this wave of shots ends.
This ability works amazingly well for characters with low-cooldown Elemental Skills, but still works fine for many teams if you keep cycling through different skills. This ability has immense value at little investment, providing great shields and constant Cryo application. It also has 100% uptime, which has been a trend for skills that Hoyoverse has been designing over the recent patches.
Elemental Burst – Dream of the Star-Stream Shaker
Unleashes a Celestial Dreamsphere that constantly fires Starlight Slugs at opponents within its AoE, dealing Cryo DMG.
When a Starlight Slug hits, it will generate 1 Night Star for nearby Curtains of Slumber. Each Curtain of Slumber can gain 1 Night Star this way every 0.5s.
This one is somewhat similar to Ganyu’s burst, but instead it uses HP scaling, and has less AoE application. However, it has an extremely low Energy cost of 40, and has 100% uptime at 12 seconds, making it very valuable for many teams that require lots of Cryo application without much investment into Energy Recharge.
Best Weapon Build for Layla
HP increased by 20%. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, you gain the Grand Hymn effect for 20s. This effect increases the equipping character's Elemental Mastery by 0.12% of their Max HP. This effect can trigger once every 0.3s. Max 3 stacks. When this effect gains 3 stacks, or when the third stack's duration is refreshed, the Elemental Mastery of all nearby party members will be increased by 0.2% of the equipping character's max HP for 20s.
It’s quite disappointing to see that very few weapons synergize well with Layla, and Nilou’s signature weapon might be her best one among the 5-star swords. The EM part of the passive is pretty much useless except for some wonky Layla Melt build, but the weapon’s total stats already provide 86% bonus Max HP–massive stat stick right there.
CRIT Hits have a 60% chance to generate a small amount of Elemental Particles, which will regenerate 6 Energy for the character. Can only occur once every 12 seconds.
This weapon’s huge ER stats are almost useless for Layla’s 40 Energy burst, but the passive can provide a great boost of Energy for the rest of your party. Just keep in mind that you have to build a bit of Crit for it to work, and Layla has to be on field when her stars hit to generate the Energy particles from the weapon.
Best Artifact Build for Layla
Tenacity of the Millelith (4-piece)
2-Piece: HP increased by 20%.
4-Piece: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased by 20% and their Shield Strength is increased by 30% for 3s. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5s. This effect can still be triggered even when the character who is using this artifact set is not on the field.
We finally now have a Cryo support who can make use of this set, which is good news for many perma-freeze players out there. This set’s passive synergizes well with Layla, thanks to its HP and Shield Strength Bonus. Just make sure to do your strongest attacks when Layla’s stars start to fire in sequence in order to get the boost in ATK.
2-Piece: Elemental Burst DMG +20%
4-Piece: Using an Elemental Burst increases all party members' ATK by 20% for 12s. This effect cannot stack.
If you don’t want to think a lot about timings and rotation, Noblesse Oblige works just as well as TotM on the offensive side of things, which is the 20% ATK boost. Layla’s 12-second duration and cooldown on her Burst perfectly lines up with the duration of this set’s ATK boost, so all you need to do is pop Layla’s burst whenever it comes off cooldown.
Team Composition for the Fantastical Evening Star
(Another) Morgana Variation
This team comp consists of the usual roles:
Main Cryo DPS: Ganyu/Ayaka
Hydro Freeze Support: Kokomi/Mona/Ayato
Anemo Shred Support: Venti/Kazuha
Cryo Resonance Support: Layla/Rosaria/Diona/Ganyu(if Ayaka main DPS)
However, Layla has many tricks up her sleeve: low upkeep, 100% Cryo uptime, and great mitigation. If you’re planning to make a Morgana team sometime soon, then Layla is the perfect candidate for the Cryo support your team needs.
Eula’s Companion
Layla seems to be the perfect Cryo Resonance support for Eula, since the Spindrift Knight wants as much Crit Rate as possible, to make sure that her one-instance burst crits as consistently as possible.
It sounds complex, but once you try it, Layla’s skill works amazingly well with Eula’s starting combo: Skill -> Burst -> Hold Skill. This immediately creates 4 Night Stars, which will fire the stars and constantly apply Cryo. This is enough for the Cryo to compete against an Electro support (for Superconduct) like Raiden or Fischl, allowing the Crit from the Resonance to still work.
Summary
Layla is a surprisingly competitive support character for someone who seems to be just a Diona or Ganyu clone. This is a good thing to ensure that Cryo gameplay can still have a bit of variance, outside of the usual and overused teams in the Spiral Abyss.
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