Genshin Impact: The best characters for Polar Star

Polar Star is a brand new five-star Bow introduced in Genshin Impact 2.2. It was shown off in promotional material as Tartaglia’s new signature weapon, but how good is it on other characters? Let’s take a closer look at Polar Star and the best characters that can wield it.

Genshin Impact: Polar Star Stats

According to miHoYo, Polar Star has the following stats at Lv. 90 and Refinement 1:

• Base ATK: 608
• CRIT Rate: 33.1%

Polar Star increases Elemental Skill and Burst damage by 12%. When a Normal Attack, Charged Attack, Elemental Skill or Elemental Burst hits an enemy, you’ll get a stack of Ashen Nightstar that lasts for 12 seconds. You can hold up to four, and each stack’s duration from each type of attack is counted independently. For each stack, your character’s ATK will be increased by 10, 20, 30 and then 48%.

This Bow is great for fast attackers who use their entire kits. It’s made for Tartaglia, whose stance change can trigger the Normal, Charged and Skill stacks easily. His flexible Elemental Burst can be used to lead an encounter in Ranged Mode, restoring Energy and gaining an Ashen Nightstar stack at the same time. When it comes time to use his Burst in his Melee Stance, you’ll be at max stacks.

As a five-star Weapon, it’s better than most four-star or free-to-play options by virtue of its massive Base ATK stat and CRIT Rate bonus. Polar Star works well on most main/sub DPS builds for Bow users, like Fischl and Aloy.

Even Ganyu and Venti can make use of the high base stats and can reasonably trigger all stacks of Ashen Nighstar. Polar Star won’t be the best five-star Bow on them, but will still be extremely powerful for most players. The scaling on their Bursts is also extremely high, making full use of that 12% Skill and Burst damage boost.

Yoimiya has a similar kit to Tartaglia, but can’t use Polar Star to its fullest. She uses her Elemental Skill to make her Normal Attacks stronger, but the Skill itself doesn’t actually do damage. You’ll never get that particular stack, and won’t get that 12% damage bonus to your Skill despite using it often.

If your only Bow users are Support characters like Diona, Sara or the upcoming Gorou, then you’re better off using Bows that give Energy like Sacrificial Bow or Favonius Warbow.