PhoebeBuild and Guide

Phoebe is a 5-star Spectro Rectifier DPS character who’s also the first one to exploit debuffs while dealing massive on-field damage. Her entire kit revolves around the Spectro Frazzle effect, a stackable damage over time (DoT) mechanic that’s currently only accessible to Phoebe and Spectro Rover. As such, her teams will revolve around this mechanic; other than that, she’s comparable to Camellya and Jiyan in the sense that a lot of her damage features massive AoE and even possesses a good amount of grouping. 

As a Rectifier character, she is able to attack and control enemies from a distance, and she doubles as a Hybrid and a DPS via her Forte circuit - the core of her kit. Unfortunately, the Hybrid part of her kit currently features no optimal partners, as a second Spectro Frazzle-focused DPS other than Phoebe would have to be released in order to use it effectively. As a result, her DPS mode will currently be the most used by far.

First let’s cover her Resonance Skill, since that’s one of the only parts of her kit unaffected by her Forte. Phoebe will summon a special zone called Ring of Mirrors at the skill’s target location, which has a pretty good AoE. This Stuns the hit target for 2 seconds. Additionally, Phoebe can re-use her skill to instantly teleport in the middle of this zone. When standing outside of it, her Basic Attacks will group enemies in its center with a small extra attack; when standing inside of it, her Basic Attacks deal greatly enhanced damage, roughly double their typical amount.

With that out of the way, like said before, her Forte Circuit is what her entire kit revolves around. Phoebe starts her fights with a full Forte Gauge called Prayer, and having full Prayer immediately allows her to enter one of two modes: Absolution (her DPS mode) or Confession (her Hybrid mode). This gauge is replenished fully every 24 seconds, meaning switching in between the two modes is typically not going to happen in an optimal rotation. The mode she is in is not reset or changed after switching out. Her DPS mode is entered by casting a Heavy Attack, which is enhanced into a Special Attack called Absolution Litany, while her Hybrid mode is entered by holding her Resonance Skill, enhanced into a Special Attack called Utter Confession, each consuming a full Forte Gauge.

Upon consuming this first Forte Gauge, Phoebe gains a brand new one called Divine Voice. It has up to 60 points, and allows her to cast enhanced Heavy Attacks, called Starflash, which has different effects depending on the mode you’re in. They’re cast by inputting a Heavy Attack after 3 Basic Attacks or a Dodge Counter. In her DPS mode, they cost 15 points each, so you can cast up to 4, and they gain 256% DMG Amplification if the target has Spectro Frazzle applied. This means she needs Spectro Frazzle applied on the target for really high damage. In her Hybrid mode, they cost 30 points each, so you can cast up to 2, and they apply 5 stacks of Spectro Frazzle without any amplification.

As for what else changes in between the two states: in her DPS mode, her Ultimate, which is a simple wide AoE nuke at base, has an unconditional 255% multiplier increase whereas in her Hybrid mode, it applies 8 stacks of Spectro Frazzle without any amplification. Additionally, her Outro, which is a simple small AoE nuke at base, will receive the same 255% multiplier increase in her DPS mode, while it reduces Spectro RES by 10% and grants Spectro Frazzle 100% DMG Amplification in her Hybrid mode.

So to put it very briefly: Hybrid mode - more Spectro Frazzle; DPS mode - more personal damage. Finally, her Inherent Skill buffs include a practically permanent 12% Spectro DMG Bonus (they just require her to be in one of her two Forte states), and that’s realistically it.

With her entire kit explained, let’s briefly talk about her Hybrid mode: her Confession state.

If you observe the details of her kit, you’ll be able to realize her Confession multipliers either use her abysmally low base multipliers - the case of her Outro, Ultimate, and enhanced Heavy Attacks, or receive extremely low damage buffs - the case of her Forte enhanced Skill. To provide a scale to compare it to, her Ultimate has a 401.60% multiplier at max level. She uses it once per rotation. That multiplier is lower than a single base Changli skill, not factoring in any extra multipliers, and she uses those 2 to 3 times per rotation while having substantially higher multipliers elsewhere. It’s barely above Sanhua’s skill and does less than half of Sanhua’s Ultimate - and that character doesn’t hold a reputation for her personal damage, rather her buffing potential.

These comparisons highlight a problem: sure, Phoebe in her Hybrid mode can apply and amplify Spectro Frazzle a ton. But until we get a character similar to Phoebe in her DPS mode that can properly exploit the Spectro Frazzle mechanic to deal massive damage, she finds herself lacking as a Hybrid, as she simply doesn’t sport the damage to justify it - even with Spectro Frazzle factored in for her damage. This means teams-wise, in her Hybrid mode, she doesn’t have realistic options, because none of her kit buffs any of your characters - it only debuffs Spectro RES of enemies, and her damage alone can’t justify her slot on your team.

Now, compare that to her DPS mode. Her enhanced Heavy Attacks have higher multipliers than Yinlin or Roccia Ultimates. Her Ultimate hits harder than Changli’s -  and even her Outro does. Obviously, just looking at multipliers is biased - as those characters that Phoebe supposedly beats will typically have Amplify effects impacting their high base multipliers way more. Phoebe can’t benefit from this since her base multipliers are amplified from a really low base or simply won’t be worth it to buff, so it’ll have less impact either due to diminishing returns or not contributing to enough of her kit’s damage. But it regardless speaks orders of magnitude to what her damage looks like. All of this is to say… she hits hard.

Additionally, one of her team slots is extremely flexible, because while Spectro Rover is necessary to cover for her lack of Spectro Frazzle application, they can be run on both Rejuvenating Glow and Moonlit Clouds. As a result, you can use a secondary Amplifier like Sanhua or Mortefi or a tertiary Generalist Healer like Shorekeeper or Verina to complete your team - that’s 4 options for 1 team slot, and that’s excluding expert Quick-Swap options such as Changli! This makes Phoebe one of the most flexible DPS characters in the game team options-wise; however that’s simply because we don’t have a Generalist Spectro DMG amplifier in the game - which would be preferable for Phoebe because a lot of her damage is split across multiple different types. This isn’t to mention that her enhanced Heavy Attacks are amplified so much, amplifying them with other characters’ Outro skills will amount to a drop in the bucket due to diminishing returns. It’s also ignoring the fact that Spectro Rover is a strict requirement to making her DPS mode work, because they cover for applying the Spectro Frazzle Phoebe needs to function. Realistically though, since Sanhua and Spectro Rover are characters acquired for free, and you can free up Sanhua by running someone like Verina, Mortefi or Shorekeeper instead, you should always have a meta team using Phoebe.

So in other words, her DPS mode features great multipliers on attacks that have a very wide AoE that can hit from a far distance - and that’s all Phoebe needs to cement herself at the top of the meta. Let’s face things how they are: Phoebe is an amazing meta character. This review has yet to mention how she has a tailor-made Echo set which gives her a free 20% Critical Rate and 37% Spectro DMG bonus, with a free Summon main Echo cast in the form of Nightmare Mourning Aix. This makes her builds super easy and comfortable - she’ll basically crit all the time, as weapons like her Signature and Stringmaster can go as far as make her overcap on Critical Rate. So add this, on top of super comfortable, massively damaging AoE attacks, and her access to many great F2P weapon options such as the Ocean’s Gift (event weapon) and Waltz in Masquerade (craftable), and you have a character who not only performs super well in fully F2P teams, but even with a fully F2P weapon, while still being able to be pushed further via limited 5-star weapons and more Quick-Swap oriented play styles with characters like Changli.

Unfortunately, though, Phoebe is a Spectro character, and that means dealing with quite fierce competition in the form of Jinhsi. Wuthering Waves doesn’t have its core mechanics revolve around elements currently - but enemies and stage buffs do. Phoebe and Jinhsi will struggle against the same Spectro-Resistant bosses such as the Fallacy of No Return and Scar, where a different element character like Jiyan wouldn’t. This means if you already have Jinhsi you may have less of a reason to build or pull for Phoebe.

To summarize, Phoebe is an amazing Main DPS and while her Hybrid mode leaves something to be desired she still shines bright as a top meta contender alongside the likes of Jinhsi and Carlotta. She deals stupidly high AoE DMG from a distance, can handle enemy grouping by herself, has flexible meta teams, is super easy to build and is F2P friendly in pretty much every way you can think of. This makes her one of the top DPS characters at the time of her release.