Foreword
This guide was written for difficulty level 401, so not all mechanics may apply if you are doing a lower difficulty. Higher difficulty skill alterations are also not included. If you are unsure, read the skill descriptions provided in this guide!
Adrianne Mechanics
The first most notable difference between Adrianne and other ESS is that Adri does not possess a groggy bar. This means that stacking CC isn’t necessary for this fight, however some CC is still required to avoid one of her high damage skills.
Charging Pierce
This skill, if unleashed, will have Adrianne charge at the furthest soul from her. It packs quite a punch so it’s typically best to stun her out of it if it is killing your units. At 320+ she gains 6 stacks of Vulnerability Protection which need to be knocked off with any attack that hits her (including basic attacks) before she can be stunned. Make sure her stacks are gone before using your stun skill or the stun will fail.
When you see her charging up, clear her Vulnerability Protection skills, then use a stun!
Spears of the Apostle
Periodically throughout the fight, Adrianne will summon 2 spears on the field. Whenever this happens, she becomes untargetable until the spears have been destroyed. At level 280+ these spears will each require 5 hits to break, and clearing them quickly is important as they apply stacks of an undispellable damage buff that persist throughout the fight to Adrianne the longer they are up. However, be careful not to waste important hard-hitting or stunning skills on the spears unless necessary, as the damage applied to them does not count toward damage on Adrianne.
End of Days
When there is approximately 35 seconds left in the battle, Adrianne will move to the center of the stage and begin charging her biggest attack yet. Instead of summoning 2 spears, she now summons 4 that must be destroyed as quickly as possible while she is charging her skill (this takes approximately 20 seconds). The longer the spears are on the field, the more buffs she will acquire from them, so clearing these spears as fast as possible is very important to avoid an early demise. To that end, using large AoE skills or an ultimate is ideal for a quick clear. Talia’s ultimate is most strongly recommended for this!
After she uses her tactical nuke, she goes into a stunned phase for 10 seconds, during which she takes 100% more damage. All your souls’ skills and ultimate will also be fully charged, making this the best time in the fight to dump your highest damage ultimate.
Skills
Main | Obliterating Bombardment: Heaven’s Strike | Basic | The Apostle of War flies to the sky, creates an empowering ring, and charges into the ring to obliterate everything. Deals damage equal to 450% of ATK for every enemy. |
Lv.201 | The damage is increased to 600%. | ||
Lv.301 | The damage is increased to 750%< and heals 3% of her HP. | ||
Lv.400 | The damage is increased to 900%, and depletes Ultimate Gauge of every enemy. | ||
Sub | Light-Penetrating Strike: Charging Pierce | Basic | The Apostle of War targets the farthest enemy and charges energy on her spear. If the energy is fully charged, she charges to the targeted enemy and deals damage equal to 500% ATK, and pushes the target to the end of the battlefield. During the energy charging, she is vulnerable to the stun effect. |
Lv.120 | The damage is increased to 700%. | ||
Lv.220 | During the energy charging, she grants 3 stacks of [Vulnerability Protection], which protects the stun effects. The effect consumes the stack per attacks she received. | ||
Lv.320 | The stacks of [Vulnerability Protection] is increased by 6 stacks. | ||
Lv.420 | The damage is increased to 1000%, and if she has more than 10 stacks of [Deep Darkness], she becomes immune to the stun effects. | ||
Sub | Raid Feared by Darkness: Fearful Raid | Basic | The Apostle of War jumps to the sky and descends to the enemy who has the most HP, and deals damage to the target and 4m around it. The damage is up to equal to 800% of ATK according to the enemies affected. |
Lv.140 | The damage is increased to 1000%. | ||
Lv.240 | The damage is increased to 1200%, and damaged targets are pushed away. | ||
Lv.340 | If there is only one target damaged by the skill, the damage is doubled. | ||
Lv.440 | The damage is increased to 1600%. | ||
Sub | An impact that penetrates the soul: Soul Penetration | Basic | The Apostle of War pierces the charged spear to the nearest enemy, deals damage equal to 300% of ATK in the enemies within 3m*10m area. |
Lv.160 | The damage is increased to 400%. | ||
Lv.260 | Targets affected by the skill grant [Penetrating Wound] debuff, and take 70% ATK damage per 2 seconds. The debuff is dispelled when the HP is full. | ||
Lv.360 | The [Penetration Wound] also decreases the healing effects by 50%. | ||
Lv. 460 | Damage changes to 600%, and decreases mana recovery by 50%, and “Soul Penetration” effect is granted, which makes the healing effect from leech effect is disabled. The effect is dispelled when “Penetrating Damage” is removed. | ||
Sub | A Termination to the Fools: End of Days | Basic | After a specific time has passed since the battle started, the Apostle of War moves to the center, pushes every enemy, and summons 3 Spears of Apostle. The Spear of Apostle is destroyed when taking attack 3 times, and the Apostle of War becomes invulnerable when the Spear of Apostle exists. Then gathers the energy of darkness to prepare for obliteration, and when the energy is fully charged creates a large explosion and deals damage equal to 800% of ATK to every enemy. If the enemy is not incapacitated by the attack, she loses all [Deep Darkness] buff, and loses all of her Mana, and takes 100% more damage for 10 seconds. |
Lv.201 | The Apostle of War summons 2 Spears of Apostle on a specific time cycle. | ||
Lv.280 | The Spear of Apostle’s durability is increased from 3 to 5, and the damage is increased to 1200%. | ||
Lv.380 | The Spears of Apostle summoned from [End of Days] is increased from 3 to 4 | ||
Lv. 480 | The durability of Spear of Apostle changes to 10, and heals 0.75% of max HP of self when “Deep Darkness” effect is stacked. | ||
Lv. 500 | Damage changes to 1100%, and summons 2 Spears of Apostle. |
Notable Characters
Since progressing through ESS has the option to build many teams, a lot of which will depend on your own roster and character investments on ascensions and artifacts, this guide will only include some team and character suggestions, not static team builds or play order.
Strongest DPS
Bar none, Lizelotte is the best option for this fight. Not only is she the queen of single-target DPS, but she also gets to benefit from the Demon faction bonus in this fight, as Adrianne is an Angel. Saving her ultimate for the DPS phase near the end of the fight is strongly recommended.
Replacing Lize in this fight will be difficult, but other strong single target DPS options would be your best bet if you don’t have her. Some suggestions include Aki, Edith, or Lute. Ayame and Eve are demon faction, so they are also good teammates to consider bringing along.
Buffers and Healers
As always, Yuria reigns supreme in the support category, as her kit provides way too much offensive and defensive power for your team. Since Lize also benefits from faction bonus here, her usefulness cannot be outdone.
Talia is also a strong option, as her defensive buffs and mana battery help your team significantly. She also doubles as an AoE provider through use of her ultimate to help clear the spears!
Eve is an amazing partner for your Lize, providing her with insane damage boosts, and feeding her mana so she can use her main skill more frequently. She also provides teamwide defensive boosts, and is a Demon herself, allowing her to supplement your damage.
Vivienne is also a contender, providing a much appreciated speed boost to your team, and bringing decent DPS on top of that.
Stuns
Daphne is easily the best option here, as she not only brings an on-demand stun, but provides your team with both offensive and defensive buffs, helping you stay alive if you are struggling to survive the fight.
Linzy is a frequently used option when stuns are required, as she provides strong DPS on top of her own ability to survive through her evasion-based kit.
Haru is always a great option, as long as your team has no issues sticking close enough to her to activate her passive, allowing her to provide huge teamwide DPS boosts while also being able to stun.
Other considerations
Without naming any specific souls, some other teammates you may consider are units that provide mana drain and units with large AoE skills. The mana drain will provide your team with more survivability, as it will decrease the number of times you’ll be hit by Adrianne’s main skill. AoE is of course to aid in clearing the spears before they buff Adrianne to the point of dealing too much damage for your party to sustain.
Example teams
THE team
The highest DPS and most successful team for this fight, if you can pull it off without needing stuns for her charge attack. This team is often able to one-shot the fight on its own, or if not, will only require some small damage from a second team to help it off. If more survivability is required, replacing Vivienne with Daphne will provide defensive buffs, damage sharing and a stun for the charge attack.
Disclaimer: Your results may vary, as this team’s success is specifically tied to the investment on your Lizelotte.
Cleanup Options
Honestly, there is no specific cleanup team, it really comes down to what you have in your roster that provides all the ingredients necessary for the fight. High single-target DPS, heals, a stun and some AoE. Mana control for bonus survivability.
