On the surface, the placenames and geography of Fontaine appear to be based on France. But if France is the stage, then the actors and main performers seem to be very American (even British). Lyney is perhaps the ultimate example. There is just something very American about him.
In modern western history, perhaps some of the most famous people named Lyn/Lin are American: Ben Franklin (founding father of the USA alongside others such as Alexander Hamilton), Abraham Lincoln (16th president of the USA who led the union through the civil war, the one who freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the king of the USA who served 4 terms and guided the nation through the Great Depression and WW2). And then there are some modern people such as Bill Clinton and a certain Broadway star who created a play on one of the founding fathers of the USA. This play was based on a biography by Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of biographies on several people serving as the basis for certain Genshin characters.
Putting aside modern USA politics, perhaps most American historians would agree that Ben Franklin, Lincoln, and FDR count as some of the greatest Americans in the relatively short history of this new country. Is it a coincidence that Bennett works so well with Lyney now? Or how Lyney's top hat is like that worn by Lincoln?
So the USA media, FBI, and CIA's opinion on Lyney basically reflects their opinion on the 'heroes' of American history: Ben Franklin, Lincoln, FDR. Surely they would not want to be accused of treason and not being patriotic to their own country. It would be one of the greatest ironies of the world for the USA media to smear the history of their own country. A true patriot, just not our own.
As discussed the USA has historically had deep ties to Britain and France. It started as a British colony. It then declared independence, and Ben Franklin traveled to France to solicit support for the American cause. And the French gladly did support the USA to backstab the Brits, their longtime rivals. So in some sense, the USA is indebted to France. The USA may as well be a French colony rather than a British one.
There will be people who trudge through life looking at Fontaine and saying that it is France and France only without realizing the bigger picture: that the prevailing zeitgeist of Fontaine has American and British undertones as well. It is similar to how Sumeru synthesizes influences from various cultures.
Perhaps one character Lyney may be compared with is Cyno (both feature in Travail trailer).
The sound sai in Cyno's name (赛诺) has also been used to translate Zelda (塞尔达 Sai'erda), and indeed Breath of the Wild is another open-world game sometimes compared to Genshin. In this context, when reviewing the Genshin Teyvat travail trailer, the appearance of Cyno and Lynney reminds one of Zelda and Link.
The duo Cyno and Lyney epitomize two extremes of Genshin team-building: Cyno relies on reactions (quickbloom) to optimize his damage, whereas Lyney is the complete antithesis, preferring mono teams instead. Cyno tends to have more aoe damage and EM, whereas Lyney can get more dmg bonus and crit value. Cyno relies on his burst for his damage, whereas Lyney's damage is spread across his CA/E/Q. Both have some influences from Xiao's kit: Cyno's burst is reminiscent of C6 Xiao, whereas Lyney has the self-sacrifice mechanism and dmg bonus of Xiao.
Anyways, based on the USA's philosophy of prioritizing reaction teams, they should like Cyno more than Lyney.
Some other characters Lyney may be compared to are Amber or Yoimiya (pyro bow users). Yoimiya's single target damage is higher and can take advantage of Yelan/XQ because she is an NA dps. Lyney may have a bit more aoe via his E and Q, but his CA are still quite single target. His CA creates a taunt like Amber's bunny that can also be detonated.
Besides that, Lyney can perhaps start a fireworks show with Yoimiya.
But perhaps the character Lyney may be compared to most is hu tao. Both are CA pyro dps that sacrifice their hp and have self-healing mechanisms. Lyney can reach higher dmg bonus than hu tao. Lyney also synergizes better with Bennett than hu tao (who gets a buff from having lower than 50% hp). Lyney also has some more aoe with his E and Q than hu tao.
Funny enough, the Marechaussee set synergizes with Xiao and Lyney better than it does with hu tao. Xiao and Lyney can constantly drain their hp and gain stacks with the set, whereas hu tao only changes her hp once in a long time (longer than 5s). So the new set is actually not that good on hu tao, especially if she is going to be shielded when under 50% hp.
Lyney would be part of the destruction path in Star Rail, whereas another CA dps like Ganyu would be part of the erudition path. So the USA media's opinion on destruction compared to erudition is like how they think about Lyney compared to Ganyu.
Lyney also has some flexibility emblematic of the destruction path: Lyney can do both single-target dmg (his CA multipliers appear to be higher than Ganyu, but single-target) as well as aoe dmg (E and Q).
Some people might know about Lyney's connection to certain modern organizations in the past 20 some years. This history does go back to what happened in 2008 in the USA.
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) wrote a children's book called The Cat in the Hat, which appears to be what Lyney's burst is.
Le Chat Noir (the black cat) is considered one of the first French cabaret (nightclub performance), starting in the 1800s during the Alexandrina Victoria era. Lyney is known by his epithet the black cat, fitting for his role as a magician and performer. But there are also allusions to modern Chinese culture and politics.
There is an old saying by a leader educated in Paris on black cats and white cats related to a certain country's modernization program. Looks like Lyney is the black cat and Lynette is the white cat.
There were a number of political philosophies founded in France, a nation of revolutions. Some of these philosophies became quite influential around the world. Liberal democracy was not the only philosophy that originated from the 1789 French Revolution.
The 20th century was another era of revolutions, especially for a certain country where the homonymic play on words on cats and hats comes in, as well as for a revolutionary founder of a certain political party that created one of the largest unified states in that civilization's very long history.
Under the leadership of a certain 'cat', this civilization was able to defeat a world superpower in two occasions, once in a peninsula and another time in a former area of the French empire. During this time period, a lot of people were purged for treason or other reasons, including a general seemingly related to Lyney by name.
His CA drains his health (like Blade). It has 2 levels. The 2nd level creates a taunting cat like Amber's bunny. When the cat's duration expires or is detonated it will send out a pyrotechnic strike dealing single-target dmg to one enemy. Each time he consumes hp with his CA, he will gain 1 prop stack, up to 5 stacks (similar to Blade). One of his passives make it so that when he consumes hp, it will increase the scaling of his CA and give more energy.
His E is probably the best part of his kit: it does a high scaling aoe nuke that also heals him with cd 15s. This is basically a free nuke every 15s. The most important part is that it is aoe, unlike his CA. The nuke does more damage the more surplus stacks he has.
His burst is like Kirara's E, except he can deal at most one instance of damage per enemy (before a final explosion). The purpose is to apply pyro to the enemies first to activate his passive buff. At the end it will create a taunt on field and give 1 prop stack.
His key passive buff: If there is pyro on the enemy, he can deal 60% more dmg +20% for each pyro member in the party, up to 100% more dmg (so this can buff physical dmg too). First off, 100% dmg bonus is quite a lot. Very few characters can achieve this naturally at c0 (others being Xiao, Raiden, etc.). Second, this makes kazuha and lavawalker less useful for him as their dmg bonus buffs will hit diminishing returns. One would much rather have other stats like crit on him. One can view this as a positive since he is not reliant on kazuha, so kazuha can be used on the other abyss team.
Third point involves reactions. To vape or melt there needs to be hydro or cryo on the enemy first. So if he vapes or melts, he will not have this dmg bonus. Perhaps one can say getting a 1.5 or 2 times multiplier can compensate for 100% dmg bonus, but then one needs to consider things like icd of reactions and so on. Melt/vape need constant elemental application. They are not like quicken which can stick to the enemy and enable both aggravate and spread. There is a tradeoff. That is why this passive does encourage a mono-pyro playstyle as having elements like hydro/cryo can potentially remove this buff. The worst case scenario is if there is no status on the enemy: then Lyney will neither melt/vape nor get the 100% dmg bonus.
When playing Lyney in mono-pyro, his pyro element almost does not matter. He may as well be any other element, like anemo or geo. It is almost as if Lyney is an 8th or 9th element, 'super pyro'. Super pyro inherits all the reactions of pyro, but has one additional 'reaction': when it reacts with pyro (self-interaction), it deals 100% more damage.
Lyney's Achilles heels include: usually not melting/vaping despite being pyro, usually not being able to use Yelan/XQ, but perhaps most important of all is that his CA are very single target (compared to Ganyu's aoe CA).
His constellation can increase his NA by +3 levels. This is new. All previous units would either level their E or Q with their constellations. (Star Rail apparently also does this, giving extra levels to NA with constellations.)
Lyney's constellations are definitely good. However, none of them solve the fundamental issue that his CA is single-target. If his C6 made his CA aoe, then it would be much better. But it would not be broken since ganyu already has aoe built into her CA at C0.
As Lyney can get a lot of innate dmg bonus via his passive, sets such as Crimson, Lavawalker, Shimenawa, 2p pyro-2p atk are not as strong for him as for other pyro characters. They are definitely viable, but using Marechaussee for the crit buff would be a recommended option. The 4p Wanderer is ok, but again he does not need dmg bonus as much or EM as much if he is played mono-pyro. Some other interesting options include: 4p Vermillion, 2p atk-2p atk, and 4p Gilded (which gives atk for mono pyro teams, but he would need to proc a reaction, so may need a dendro, hydro, etc. unit as a slot).
For artifact stats: do atk, pyro, crit dmg (if using Marechaussee as he ascends with crit rate and Marechaussee gives him more crit rate). For substats: crit dmg, crit rate, atk, er. If played in mono-pyro he probably does not need too much ER.
Given that Lyney is a squishier glass cannon (lower hp and def) than other units and that he sacrifices his hp, it may be recommended to run defensive units like Dehya, Thoma, a shielder, Bennett so that Lyney does not get one-shotted. Moreover, it may make stats like hp and def ok for him (though not for boosting his damage, only for keeping him alive).
For weapons, the First Great Magic can work (although the movement spd buff is quite strange, the sussiest of all bakas). TP and Aqua Simulacra can also work for juicy crit dmg. Crit rate weapons such as Polar Star can also work, but if he has enough crit rate, a crit dmg weapon may be preferred. One of his best 4 stars could be the Prototype Crescent (which actually has a passive similar to the Great Magic).
His kit suggests using mono-pyro, so the usual suspects: Dehya, Bennett, Thoma, XL work well with him. Dehya does have some synergy with Lyney as he sacrifices much of his hp, so Dehya can provide some additional damage absorption and pyro app. Thoma also works well to shield Lyney while he does CA and has low hp.
He will benefit a lot from an anemo vv unit such as Venti, Sucrose, Jean, kazuha, or even the new Lynette. Morax can work for shield and res shred, but anemo vv will give greater res shred and damage.
Whereas Diluc, Yoimiya synergize well with the classic hydro supports such as Yelan, XQ, Lyney has a bit less synergy as a CA dps. To use him with Yelan, XQ, Lyney would need to weave in NA between CA, which can be awkward. Instead, Lyney works better with Mona or kokomi. The idea is that the vaporize damage should be able to compensate for losing his passive when the enemy is not affected by pyro. One can also try melt teams, pairing Lyney with someone like Rosaria, Kaeya, Layla, or burst spam ganyu.
Dendro units like Nahida, Yaoyao, Kirara can also work for burning.
Does fireworks work? In his 4.0 character trial, he is paired with Kuki. In general, an electro unit would proc overload or apply electro, which may cause Lyney to lose his buff. Dendro and anemo tend to synergize better with mono pyro, especially since Lyney is not usually built with EM (his bow gives mvt spd, smh).
Lyney is a character that has high scalings, crit, dmg bonus (in mono-pyro situations), and can buff atk with pyro resonance and certain bows. So he is a pretty complete character (in the mono-pyro situation). The only thing he really lacks is access to consistent aoe damage.
Lyney, being a CA dps, does not really use units such as Yelan or XQ, whereas other pyro dps such as Diluc, Yoimiya can. Most Sumeru dps such as Cyno, Alhaitham, Scaramouche can also use Yelan/XQ, being NA-focused. However, even Itto is a CA dps, so relying mostly on CA does not necessarily make a unit worse. There are still off-field supports CA dps can use such as Beidou, Nahida, Yae, etc.
We assume mono-pyro (3 pyro) where the enemy always has a pyro status on them. By not relying on reactions, Lyney's damage relies more on raw scalings and math rather than USA propaganda and color revolutions.
We assume lv10 NA, E, Q. His E has 15s cd. Within 15s, he can technically do 5 lv2 CA (in practice may be less if running around or switching party members, but assume 5 for now). Each CA reduces his hp by 20%. So usually, 2 CA will bring his hp to 60% and will not decrease further. But suppose he is being healed (by say Bennett's 12s burst), so that he can obtain more prop stacks and so that each CA has the extra scaling. This way he can get 5 prop stacks every 15s (again in practice perhaps harder to achieve). Obtaining the max of 5 becomes easier when using his burst too (which also has 15s cd).
To be realistic, suppose he does 3 CA and uses his Q every 15s (so 4 prop stacks). Using Q does take on-field time, as does switching between supports. This may be a bit generous given the above: in reality may only get 3 prop stacks if he is not healed after 2 CA. But besides Bennett, he could be paired with an E healer like Barbara or Kuki to make this possible (but they may remove the pyro status). Interestingly, as of version 4.0, there is no pyro unit that heals via E like Barbara or Kuki (Bennett heals via Q). Nor is there an anemo E healer. Such units would synergize with Lyney. But you can just use Yaoyao instead to burn the enemy.
For simplicity, suppose there is one enemy (in aoe situations, Lyney's dps per enemy tends to go down). Suppose dmg bonus from artifacts is 46.6% pyro. He then gets 100% dmg from the passive in mono-pyro. The total scaling of a CA with the extra passive is $$z_c = 223.2+311.04+80 = 614.24$$ The CA dps is $$x_c = 3*2.466*z_c/15 = 302.943168$$
The E dps with 4 stacks each time is $$x_e = 2.466(300.96 + 95.76*4)/15 = 112.4496$$
The Q scaling against a single enemy is $$z_q = 277.2+745.2 = 1022.4$$ The dps is $$x_q = 2.466z_q/15 = 168.08256$$
The total dps is $$x = x_c + x_e + x_q = 599.218272$$ This is higher than C1 hu tao, though lower than Yoimiya. But anyways this level of dps is not low at all and can clear content. So once again we have a character that does not need reactions outperforming another dps that relies on vape.
The above calculations show that the CA and Q contribute most of the dps, so making the constellations level the AA and Q makes some sense.
Creating a taunting cat with the CA is almost like creating a bloom core. The dendro core will explode a few seconds after it is created, similar to Lyney's taunting cat. There is a limit on how many dendro cores can exist in the world. Once that limit is exceeded, the core will explode automatically. This is similar to how when Lyney creates another taunting cat with a CA, any existing taunts will fire a pyrotechnic strike. And then the pyrotechnic strike is auto-aiming similar to a hyperbloom sprawling shot.
The 100% dmg bonus from his passive can actually do more damage than vape. Suppose Lyney has 0% starting dmg bonus. Then 100% dmg bonus will double his damage, equivalent to melt. Now suppose Lyney has 100% starting dmg bonus. Then another 100% dmg bonus will increase the multiplier from 2 to 3, meaning a 1.5 times increase in damage, equivalent to vape.
In a normal situation, with a pyro goblet and no other buffs, Lyney may have 46.6% initial dmg bonus (or at least less than 100% dmg bonus). Then adding 100% dmg bonus to that will give a buff between 1.5 and 2, based on the above. Specifically it gives a 2.466/1.466=1.68 times increase, which is more than vaporize.
So one can think of the passive as giving Lyney an additional reaction against pyro-afflicted targets. Moreover, this 100% dmg bonus can outdamage vape, meaning that vaporize Lyney can sometimes result in a dps loss. However, usually melting will result in a dps gain.