Elemental Mastery vs ATK% vs Flat Stats in Genshin Impact

Dante

Editor-in-Chief at BrandAnime

Dante is Editor-in-Chief (Lord Hokage), which means he runs editorial and operations at BrandAnime. That means this whole thing was his idea, and he spends...

Last Updated on June 3, 2025 by Dante

Choosing the right stat to build around can significantly impact your team’s performance.

While ATK% increases raw damage, Elemental Mastery (EM) boosts reaction damage. This guide compares how each stat functions and when to prioritize one over the others.

What Does ATK% Do?

ATK% increases your character’s total attack value, which is calculated by adding their base ATK (character + weapon) and applying ATK% on top of that.

Directly boosts Normal Attacks, Charged Attacks, Skills, and Bursts
Most characters rely on ATK% to increase their raw output
ATK% has no effect on transformative reactions (e.g., Swirl, Overloaded)

Best for:

Main DPS characters
Burst-focused sub-DPS units with high scaling
Any unit that doesn’t rely on reaction-based damage

What Does Elemental Mastery Do?

Elemental Mastery (EM) increases the power of elemental reactions triggered by your character.

Boosts damage of transformative and Dendro-based reactions
Scales with reaction type, character level, and EM value
Applies only if the character triggers the reaction (not just applies the element)

Most affected reactions:

Swirl
Electro-Charged
Overloaded
Superconduct
Bloom, Hyperbloom, Burgeon
Aggravate, Spread

What About Flat ATK?

Flat ATK adds a fixed number to your total ATK value.

Always contributes to your final damage output
Much less efficient than ATK% scaling at higher levels
Mostly appears in artifact substats or early-game weapon passives

Use cases:

Early game filler
Complementary stat when ATK% is already high
Some niche scaling (e.g., Bennett’s burst snapshot)

When to Prioritize Each Stat

Situation	Best Stat
Main DPS scaling with raw talent multipliers	ATK%
Reaction-based trigger unit (e.g. Hyperbloom)	Elemental Mastery
Early game or low base ATK	Flat ATK (temporary)

Characters That Prefer Elemental Mastery

Some characters deal more total damage by triggering reactions than relying on raw ATK scaling.

Kazuha – Swirl damage and team-wide EM buff
Sucrose – Swirl reactions and EM share
Nahida – Dendro reaction trigger and EM scaling
Raiden Shogun (Hyperbloom build) – EM-focused quick-swap variant
Thoma (Burgeon build) – EM used for off-field damage

Characters That Prefer ATK%

Most DPS characters scale primarily with ATK%, especially when reactions aren’t the core of their output.

Yoimiya – Charged attack scaling
Diluc – Talent and burst multipliers
Ayato – Skill and burst scaling
Xiangling – When built for Melt/Vape combos
Yae Miko – Burst and totem-based damage

Summary

Use ATK% for raw scaling and sustained damage
Use EM if your character is frequently triggering elemental reactions
Flat ATK has the lowest value late-game, but still contributes as a substat

What to Read Next

Now that you know how stats affect your build, the next step is learning how to keep your most powerful abilities charged — with Energy Recharge and Burst uptime strategies.

➡️ Energy Recharge & Burst Uptime

DanteEditor-in-Chief at BrandAnime

Dante is Editor-in-Chief (Lord Hokage), which means he runs editorial and operations at BrandAnime. That means this whole thing was his idea, and he spends his time making stuff work and covering the latest anime and games. When he's not doing 100 things at once, he's usually... watching anime or playing games. His life isn't that interesting, honestly.

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