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- Who is Baal?
- Baal's Attack Patterns, Elemental Skill, and Elemental Burst
- Baal's Passives and Constellations
- Baal's Playstyle and Team Compositions
Genshin Impact recently revealed a trailer for its 2.1 update showcasing new characters, events, and a weekly boss. As always, the new characters are the most exciting part of the reveals, and this was no different with Baal, the Electro Archon of Inazuma, being shown. Joining Venti and Zhongli as one of the playable Archons of Genshin Impact, Baal looks to be another strong character with plenty of flexibility for team compositions.
Genshin Impactplayers who have gone through the main story of Inazuma will likely have encountered Baal at some point. Baal oversees the region and is described as a fearsome, almost tyrannical ruler with her Vision Hunt Decree. Wielding a polearm and an Electro vision, the Raiden Shogun is one of the most hyped character banners for Inazuma so far.
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Who is Baal?
Baal should be familiar for Genshin Impactplayers who are caught up with the main story and have traveled to Inazuma. She currently serves as the Electro Archon of the region, and is a fearsome ruler that suppresses the people by seizing their visions. As a result, she's linked to a number of characters like Kazuha, Ayaka, and Kokomi who have motivations in stopping her.
While there has been plenty of information revealed about Baal's status as the Electro Archon, little has been revealed about her personal motivations or reasons for issuing the Vision Hunt Decree. With the newest 2.1 update coming to Genshin Impact, it's likely the story will center around Baal more and players will slowly discover the reason for her actions.
Baal's Attack Patterns, Elemental Skill, and Elemental Burst
Baal's standard attacks are similar to other Genshin Impact polearm users with a pattern of five consecutive slashes. She's the only 5-star polearm user to have a five-attack pattern instead of six, and her mediocre multipliers seem to emphasize her role as a support or quickswap DPS. However, Baal's elemental skill and burst seem to be where she shines. Baal's elemental skill is called "Transcendence: Baleful Omen," and it deals AOE Electro damage to nearby opponents while granting party members a buff called the "Eye of Stormy Judgement." When Genshin Impact characters empowered by the buff attack opponents, the Eye will also launch an attack that deals AOE Electro damage. The Eye is able to initiate one attack every 0.9 seconds.
Baal's elemental burst is called "Secret Art: Musou Shinsetsu," and it deals AOE Electro damage while allowing her to wield her tachi in battle. While Baal wields her tachi, she will infuse her standard, charged, and plunging attacks with Electro damage that cannot be overridden. Anytime these attacks hit opponents, Baal will also recharge Energy for all Genshin Impact party members once per second, and this effect can be triggered five times throughout the duration. Furthermore, Baal will gain resistance to interruption and immunity to Electro-Charged damage. The initial damage of the burst and her tachi attacks will scale based on the number of Resolve stacks she consumes. These stacks are passively gained whenever party members use their elemental bursts based on the energy they consume.
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Baal's Passives and Constellations
Baal has two main passives in Genshin Impact: "Wishes Unnumbered" and "Enlightened One." The "Wishes Unnumbered" passive allows Baal to gain Resolve stacks whenever nearby party members gain Elemental Orbs or Particles. This effect can occur once every three seconds. The "Enlightened One" passive allows Baal to gain a 0.6 percent increase in Energy restoration with her tachi and a 0.4 percent increase in Electro damage for each point in Energy Recharge she possesses above 100 percent.
As Baal is a 5-star Genshin Impact character, her constellations will be difficult to unlock but they offer significant bonuses. Baal has three notable constellations: her first, fourth, and sixth ones. Her first constellation is called "Ominous Inscription," and it increases her Resolve stack gain by 80 percent when Electro characters use their burst and 20 percent when other characters use their burst. Her fourth constellation is called "Pledge of Propriety," which gives party members a 30 percent increase in attack for 10 seconds after she finishes her elemental burst. Her sixth constellation is called "Wishbearer," and it allows her tachi attacks to decrease party members' elemental burst cooldowns by one second. Just like the Energy Recharge component, this can only activate once per second and can trigger five times during the duration.
Baal's Playstyle and Team Compositions
It's apparent that Baal's kit in Genshin Impact is designed heavily around energy recharge and firing off the elemental bursts of her party members. While Baal is limited in the main DPS role given her average multipliers, her ability to act as a battery for even the most Energy dependent characters means that players will have a lot more flexibility going forward. Her damage also scales fairly well with the Resolve stacks gained from other characters' elemental bursts. Once Baal acquires her second passive, she's the best battery in the game if players build Energy Recharge on her artifacts.
In particular, Genshin Impact characters who have the highest 80 energy cost on their elemental bursts like Jean, Eula, and Ayaka will be able to fire off their elemental bursts consistently. As Baal gains more Resolve stacks with more energy used from elemental bursts, players no longer need to worry about placing too many high energy cost characters on the same team. Furthermore, Baal's ability to scale her damage and output a decent amount of off-field damage with her elemental skill means she covers a lot of bases in one character.
Baal is certainly one of the stronger characters recently revealed in Genshin Impact, but that shouldn't be a surprise given the fact that all of the Archons are quite strong. While Baal likely won't be as meta-defining as Ganyu, she opens up a lot of potential team compositions with her abilities as a battery. In particular, she shines together with fellow Electro characters, and this should be an exciting prospect for players who want to obtain her bodyguard Kujou Sara too. As always, players who are unsure about her playstyle can try her out in the trial run when she's released.
Genshin Impact is available now for mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5.