Glacio element who uses the Rectifier type weapon.
Zhezhi is a commissioned painter, quiet and shy with a dedication to her craft. She's not very eloquent, but her persistence and love for painting speak volumes.
To learn more about Zhezhi check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Video guide
Zhezhi has at least one video guide available, so if you prefer this sort of medium to learn more about a character, check it out:
Update tracker
Last review update
Patch 1.2
Last major build/calcs update
Patch 1.3
Last profile update*
November 13th, 2024
*Profile update means smaller edits to echoes, stats, synergies or teams that don't require new calculations.
To learn more about Zhezhi check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Review
Build
Gameplay and teams
Calculations
Profile
Skills
Active skills
Passive skills
Concerto skills
Basic Attack
Dimming Brush
Basic Attack
Perform up to 3 consecutive strikes, dealing Glacio DMG.
Heavy Attack
Consume STA to perform an attack, dealing Glacio DMG.
Heavy Attack does not reset the Basic Attack cycle.
Mid-air Attack
Consume STA to perform up to 2 consecutive attacks while in mid-air, dealing Glacio DMG.
Dodge Counter
Use Basic Attack after a successful Dodge to counterattack, dealing Glacio DMG.
Lv. 1
Stage 1 DMG
21.00%*2
Stage 2 DMG
10.34%*5
Stage 3 DMG
67.20%
HA DMG
56.70%
Mid-air Attack DMG
12.55%*5 + 52.70%
Dodge Counter DMG
14.62%*5
HA STA Cost
20
Mid-air Attack STA Cost
5 + 25
Resonance Skill
Manifestation
Deal Glacio DMG. If "Afflatus" is no less than 60, consume 60 "Afflatus" to summon Phantasmic Imprint - Left and Phantasmic Imprint - Right.
Tap the button on the ground to summon the Phantasmic Imprints on the ground.
Hold the button on the ground or tap the button in mid-air to summon the Phantasmic Imprints in mid-air.
Lv. 1
Press DMG
49.50%*3
Hold DMG
49.50%*3
Mid-air Press DMG
49.50%*3
Cooldown
6
Press Concerto Regen
8
Hold Concerto Regen
8
Mid-air Press Concerto Regen
8
Resonance Liberation
Living Canvas
Summon Inklit Spirit for assistance.
Can be cast in mid-air.
Inklit Spirit
When the active Resonator on the team deals DMG, Inklit Spirit will be summoned to perform a Coordinated Attack, dealing Glacio DMG, considered as Basic Attack DMG.
In the 3s after DMG is dealt, 1 Inklit Spirit is summoned every second. This effect can be triggered once every second. Damage dealt by Inklit Spirit will not trigger this effect.
Up to 1 Inklit Spirit can be summoned every second, and up to 21 in total.
This effect lasts for 30s, until max Inklit Spirits are summoned
Lv. 1
Inklit Spirit DMG
32.80%
Cooldown
25
Resonance Energy Cost
125
Concerto Energy Regen
20
Forte Circuit
Ink and Wash
Phantasmic Imprint
Zhezhi may summon Phantasmic Imprint at the cost of Afflatus when casting Resonance Skill Manifestation or Heavy Attack Conjuration.
Up to 1 of each of Phantasmic Imprint - Left, Phantasmic Imprint - Middle, and Phantasmic Imprint - Right can exist at the same time, each lasting for 15s.
Heavy Attack: Conjuration
The 5 moves below consume STA to perform Conjuration to attack the target, dealing Glacio DMG.
Hold the Basic Attack button shortly after Basic Attack Stage 3;
Press the Basic Attack button shortly after casting Resonance Skill Manifestation;
Hold the Basic Attack button shortly after casting Resonance Skill Stroke of Genius or Resonance Skill Creation's Zenith;
Hold the Basic Attack button while in mid-air; or
Hold the Basic Attack button after a Dodge.
If Zhezhi has at least 30 "Afflatus" when performing any of these, consume 30 "Afflatus" to summon Phantasmic Imprint: Middle
Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius
When a Phatasmic Imprint is nearby, the Resonance Skill is replaced with Stroke of Genius. When it is cast, Zhezhi will:
Move to the location of the Phatasmic Imprint, remove it, and then summon an Ivory Herald to attack the target, dealing Glacio DMG, considered as Basic Attack DMG. Refresh the mid-air Dodge counter if the target Phatasmic Imprint is in mid-air.
Gain 1 stack of "Painter's Delight", lasting for 8s and stacking up to 2 times.
Resonance Skill: Creation's Zenith
When a Phantasmic Imprint is nearby and there are 2 stacks of "Painter's Delight", Stroke of Genius is replaced with Creation's Zenith, which can be cast while in mid-air. When it is cast, Zhezhi will:
Lose all stacks of Painter's Delight.
Move to the location of the Phantasmic Imprint, remove it, and then summon an Ivory Herald to attack the target, dealing greater Glacio DMG, considered as Basic Attack DMG, additionally increasing the Basic Attack DMG Bonus by 18% for 27s. Refresh the mid-air Dodge counter if the target Phatasmic Imprint is in mid-air.
Afflatus
Zhezhi can hold up to 90 Afflatus.
Normal Attacks grant Afflatus on hit.
Casting Intro Skill grants Afflatus.
Lv. 1
HA - Conjuration DMG
41.75%*3
HA - Conjuration STA Cost
15
Stroke of Genius DMG
150.00%
Creation's Zenith DMG
60.00%*3
Stroke of Genius Concerto Regen
13
Creation's Zenith Concerto Regen
13
Inherent Skill
Calligrapher's Touch
When casting Resonance Skill Stroke of Genius or Resonance Skill Creation's Zenith, ATK is increased by 6% for 27s. This can be stacked up to 3 time(s).
Inherent Skill
Flourish
After Outro Skill is cast, restore 15 Resonance Energy to the incoming Resonator.
Intro Skill
Radiant Ruin
Attack the target, dealing Glacio DMG.
Lv. 1
DMG
43.34%*3
Concerto Regen
10
Outro Skill
Carve and Draw
The incoming Resonator has their Glacio DMG Amplified by 20% and Resonance Skill DMG Amplified by 25% for 14s or until they are switched out.
Resonance Chain (Dupes)
S1
Sequence Node 1
When casting Resonance Skill Creation's Zenith, Resonance Energy is restored by 15 and Crit. Rate is increased by 10% for 27s.
S2
Sequence Node 2
Max Inklit Spirits summoned by Resonance Liberation Living Canvas increases by 6.
S3
Sequence Node 3
When Resonance Skill Manifestation, Resonance Skill Stroke of Genius, or Resonance Skill Creation's Zenith is cast, ATK increases by 15%, stacking up to 3 time(s) for 27s.
S4
Sequence Node 4
When Resonance Liberation Living Canvas is cast, ATK of Resonators on the team increases by 20% for 30s.
S5
Sequence Node 5
For every 3 Inklit Spirits summoned by Resonance Liberation Living Canvas, 1 extra Inklit Spirit is summoned to perform a Coordinated Attack, dealing DMG equal to 140% of Inklit Spirit's DMG, considered as Basic Attack DMG. This damage dealt will not further summon Inklit Spirit.
S6
Sequence Node 6
When Resonance Skill Stroke of Genius or Resonance Skill Creation's Zenith is cast, an extra Ivory Herald will be summoned to deal DMG equal to 120% of Resonance Skill Stroke of Genius's DMG, considered as Basic Attack DMG.
Minor Fortes (Total)
CRIT Rate
+8%
ATK%
+12%
Stats
Include minor fortes
Lv. 90
HP
12250
ATK
375
DEF
1198
Max Energy
125
CRIT Rate
5%
CRIT DMG
150%
Healing Bonus
0%
Glacio DMG
0%
Upgrade Materials
Character Ascension (total)
4xLF Howler Core
12xMF Howler Core
12xHF Howler Core
4xFF Howler Core
46xSound-Keeping Tacet Core
60xLanternberry
170 000Shell Credits
Skill Upgrades (total)
25xLF Howler Core
28xMF Howler Core
40xHF Howler Core
57xFF Howler Core
25xLento Helix
28xAdagio Helix
55xAndante Helix
67xPresto Helix
26xMonument Bell
2 030 000Shell Credits
While the source of the materials can be quickly found in the game, when it comes Lanternberry you will have to gather them from the map. Check our Interactive map to find them quickly:
Offers constant and consistent Glacio-coordinated attacks while off-field.
Easy to play once you learn her one primary combo.
Can optionally fight Airborne with very little downside for the majority of her combo, invalidating some Boss mechanics and lowering the damage she might take.
Very powerful and at the time of her release features quite an exclusive Glacio and Skill damage Amplification Outro.
Grants Resonance Energy on Outro potentially aiding Energy hungry allies.
Does solid damage for a hybrid character when built with it in mind.
Does almost entirely Basic Attack-type damage opening up additional synergies with buffs of this nature.
Cons
Has no clear-cut Swap-Cancels to improve her rotation further at the time of her release.
Most comfortable to play when executing her full combo in its entirety at once, straining her synergy with characters who prefer to Swap constantly.
Faces high competition against other incredibly powerful hybrid characters who fulfill similar roles while having slightly different specialties.
Ultimate is essential to rotation plus kit and has a long 25-second CD limiting how often Zhezhi will want to switch in.
Review
Zhezhi is a versatile 5-star Glacio Rectifier wielder who blends DPS and support roles, making her a solid hybrid character. Zhezhi specializes in executing quick On-field combos, followed by sustained Off-field damage through coordinated attacks. This, combined with her powerful Glacio and Skill DMG amplifications via her Outro, makes her an strong asset for damage maximization.While Zhezhi does surprisingly solid damage when built with it in mind she’s most at home when supporting another primary DPS thanks to her Off-field capabilities, low field time commitments and supportive Outro buff. Before going more into how Zhezhi fits into teams and the meta let’s first check how her kit works.
All of Zhezhi’s gameplay revolves around her Forte Circuit Ink and Wash which allows her to accumulate a unique resource called “Afflatus”. "Afflatus" is generated through her Intro or standard Basic Attacks and is stored in a three-segment Forte Gauge, with each segment representing 30 Afflatus, capped at 90.
Once a segment of her Forte Gauge is full, Zhezhi can convert it into a Phantasmic Imprint using her abilities. These imprints are summoned onto the field near the target and are visually represented by turning a segment of her Forte Gauge into a rainbow color. While these Phantasmic Imprints are active, Zhezhi gains access to additional abilities that allow her to interact with the Imprints, forming the basis of her most powerful attack combos.
Given that Zhezhi’s Forte Gauge can hold up to three segments, she can maintain three Phantasmic Imprints on the field simultaneously. These are referred to as the Left Imprint, Middle Imprint, and Right Imprint in-game. However, for practical gameplay, these distinctions are not critical. The optimal way to play Zhezhi is to first accumulate 90 Afflatus to fill all three segments of her Forte Gauge. Once fully charged, she should convert these segments into Phantasmic Imprints to unleash her strongest abilities by using the Imprints in quick succession.
Now that we've unraveled the complexities of Zhezhi's kit, let's dive into the optimal strategies for building, consuming, and spending her resources efficiently!
To efficiently build up the Afflatus needed for Zhezhi's combos, the main part is her Intro skill. This skill can generate over an entire bar of the Forte Gauge on its own, making it the core of her resource accumulation. Following her Intro skill, Zhezhi's Basic Attack sequence, which consists of three hits, should be executed in full. This, when combined with the Intro, this sequence will allow Zhezhi to fill all three segments of her Forte Gauge, provided no hits are missed. Given the importance of the intro skill, it's advisable to hold off on switching into Zhezhi until you have the Intro skill ready. This prevents her from being stuck using multiple basic attack combos in succession, which can be less efficient for resource generation.
Once the Forte Gauge is filled, the next step is to convert the segments into Phantasmic Imprints. Zhezhi's Resonance Skill is used for this purpose. When used with at least 60 Afflatus (two segments), the Resonance Skill will consume both segments and spawn two Imprints. To convert the final segment, immediately follow up with a Basic Attack (tap, don’t hold), which will be empowered by Zhezhi's Forte Gauge, becoming the “Heavy Attack - Conjuration.” This attack not only deals good damage but also converts the last Forte Gauge segment into an Imprint.
With all three Imprints deployed, Zhezhi is now primed to unleash her most powerful combo, which involves three consecutive empowered Resonance Skills. While an imprint is active, Zhezhi's resonance skill is enhanced, transforming into “Resonance Skill - Stroke of Genius.” This enhanced skill causes Zhezhi to dash to the Imprint’s target, summoning an Ivory Herald to deliver strong Glacio damage.
Each time an empowered resonance skill is executed in this manner, Zhezhi gains a stack of the special buff called Painter’s Delight, which can stack up to two times. When Zhezhi has both stacks, her next enhanced resonance skill evolves , becoming “Resonance Skill - Creation’s Zenith.” This skill consumes both Painter’s Delight stacks to deal even more damage, ending in a strong combo that fully utilizes Zhezhi's potential.
Outside of Zhezhi’s Outro, Ultimate and Passives this sums up all of her kit and outlines the combo she’ll be using in most combat scenarios. To sum it up here it is:
Intro
Basic Attack Part 1
Basic Attack Part 2
Basic Attack Part 3
Resonance Skill: Manifestation (Converts 2 Segments into Imprints)
Heavy Attack: Conjuration (Converts Final Segment into Imprint)
Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius (Consumes 1 Imprint)
Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius (Consumes 1 Imprint)
Rounding out her kit Zhezhi’s Ultimate doesn’t have much to do with the rest of her combo but is still exceptionally powerful nonetheless. Unlike most other Ultimates using it doesn’t execute any flashy attack or deal any damage but instead summons a massive field around whoever your current character is for 30 seconds. While the field is activate when any allied unit strikes an enemy they’ll mark that enemy for 3 seconds causing them to be bombarded by 3 birdlike “Inklit Spirits” over the duration. Only one enemy can be marked at a time and only 1Bird will strike every second. Only 21 Inklit Spirits can be launched per Zhezhi Ultimate unless otherwise stated and if all the spirits are deployed before the duration expires it will expire early. Each Inklit Spirit is considered a Glacio Coordinated attack.
In addition to her Ultimate, Zhezhi also benefits from several Passive damage boosts woven into her kit, enhancing her utility as both a support and DPS. Whenever Zhezhi casts Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius or Resonance Skill: Creation’s Zenith, she gains a 6% Attack boost for 27 seconds, stacking up to three times. Moreover, when executing Resonance Skill: Creation’s Zenith, Zhezhi receives an additional 18% Basic Attack Damage bonus. This bonus is particularly valuable as all of the following abilities are counted as Basic Attack Damage making it one of her most crucial stats.
Basic Attack Part 1
Basic Attack Part 2
Basic Attack Part 3
Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius
Resonance Skill: Creation’s Zenith
Resonance Liberation: Inklit Spirit
Lastly, Zhezhi's Outro is massive! The combination of a 20% Glacio Damage Amplification and a 25% Skill Damage Amplification for the next character to switch in creates a strong value, especially for teams that rely on skill damage or Glacio-based attacks.
The immediate 15 Resonance Energy provided by one of her Inherent skills further boosts the next character, enabling a transition into powerful attacks. These bonuses, when paired with her quick combos and continuous coordinated attacks, make Zhezhi an ideal candidate for team formations centered around her.
Zhezhi stands out as a top-tier hybrid character due to her ability to deal solid damage while maintaining a minimal field presence—her combos typically take around 7 to 8 seconds to execute, features great supportive capabilities, and enjoys good synergies with many of the best DPS currently present in-game. Zhezhi’s kit is rich with many more tricks & nuances that we simply lack time or space to explain, such as her unique ability to launch herself Airborne and perform the majority of her combo in the sky, adding an extra layer of depth to her gameplay.
While her kit may seem complex and technical at first glance, once you perfect her main combo, she becomes a simple, powerful, and easy-to-play character.
Ratings
This tier list assesses characters based on their combat potential in Wuthering Waves current most demanding content Tower of Adversity (ToA). ToA is a mode similar to Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss or Honkai Star Rail’s Memory of Chaos and requires multiple teams, strong Echoes and good Weapons. This mode offers a reasonable mix of Boss encounters (single target), Elite packs (2-3 targets) and AoE scenarios (5+ Targets), allowing multiple characters to find a niche but in the end, there's a bias toward single target focused characters at the top-end.
Please keep in mind Wuthering Waves is a skill-based game and each character has a different playstyle, difficulty level and even special tricks and combos. Wuthering Waves is also a team based game and it's only by combining both these factors to the highest level a character can reach optimal performance.
T0.5
Tower of Adversity
Video guides
Build
Best Weapons
120.15%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 500 | CRIT DMG: 72%
Zhezhi's Signature weapon that is tailored for her and characters that deal a large amount of their damage through Basic Attacks. Characters that intend to use this weapon should also be able to frequently launch Resonance Skills - ideally every 6 seconds while fighting. As a baseline the weapon offers a tremendous 72% CRIT DMG main stat alongside an unconditional 12% ATK buff, all on top of its Basic Attack DMG buffing capabilities. When using any Resonance Skill, the wearer gains a stack granting 12% Basic Attack DMG for 6 seconds stackable up to 3 times. This effect isn't easy to keep active for characters that aren't Zhezhi but if you can it's a nice bonus. Upon casting an Outro, if the wearer has a full 3 stacks of the buff all of them will be consumed replacing the buff with a 52% Basic Attack DMG bonus for 27 seconds but only while that character remains off the field.
110.43%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 500 | CRIT Rate: 36%
Yinlin's signature Rectifier that stands far above all other options currently in the game for Rectifier damage dealers, thanks to its unethical amount of CRIT RATE and generic damage boost on top of a reasonably easy to active ATK% boost.
100%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 500 | ATK: 54%
An excellent Rectifier, only in competition with some 4★ Weapons with multiple dupes. Offers high base ATK, ATK%, a good amount of Energy Regen to save at least 1 sub-stat on gear to be reallocated to better uses and a stackable Basic ATK DMG% bonus that ramps up as you use more and more Basics.
87.42%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 412 | CRIT Rate: 20.2%
Outstanding generic Rectifier option, offering base CRIT RATE for excellent scaling but also an easily activatable and maintainable bonus ability granting ATK% after the wearer's Resonance Liberation is activated. Almost any character who can use CRIT RATE and ATK will be more than happy to have this weapon available only losing to 5★ options.
86.45%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 462 | ATK: 18.2%
-
81.89%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 387 | ATK: 36.4%
A good alternative 4★ Rectifier to Augment, offering an easy to maintain bonus ability granting ATK% after using an Intro skill and a good amount of ATK% as a main stat.
78.69%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 325 | ATK: 24.3%
Best Echo Sets
Moonlit Clouds set is the primary set you should be using and while it leads to lower personal damage, it helps the team more. Still, if you want to play Zhezhi more in the DPS way, you can use Freezing Frost, but it will lead to lower team damage.
100%
2 Set: Energy Regen increases by 10%.
5 Set: Upon using Outro Skill, ATK of the next Resonator increases by 22.5% for 15s.
114.13%
2 Set:Glacio DMG increases by 10%.
5 Set: Upon using Basic Attack or Heavy Attack, Glacio DMG increases by 10%, stacking up to three times, lasting for15s.
Best Main Echoes
Echoes in Wuthering Waves are an essential part of the character rotations, granting a large amount of Resonance Energy and damage but at the cost of high field time for the most powerful ones. But by using some Echoes right before you're about to switch out on the character, you're able to move to your next character while your previous one is still in the echo animation - it’s what we call an Echo Swap Cancel.
Echo Swap Cancel is almost always the optimal way to use Echoes, and will result in big reductions in character field time and large increases to DPS, but not all of the most powerful Echoes can be swap cancelled in this way. For example, the Feilian Beringal (Aero), Dreamless (Havoc), Tempest Mephis (Electro), Mourning Aix (Spectro), and Infernal Rider (Fusion) Echoes can all be Swap Cancelled.
The remaining element, so Glacio while having powerful Echoes has none powerful enough that can be swap cancelled, and to make things worse, no Echoes that generate sufficient Energy and damage for their field time investment.
The result of this is that you can expect Glacio characters to have higher field time and lower DPS in calculations than their other elemental counter parts until they receive better Echoes to use.
Moonlit Clouds
Supportive Echo that can be run at the cost of a sizeable chunk of damage for the character who equips, trading personal gain for team benefits. Should always be used and immediately switch cancelled right before performing an Outro, leading to another DPS. When done so will grant the next character switching in 12% increased DMG% which when combined with the 5P Moonlit set which also grants 22.5% ATK% under the same conditions makes for a sizeable boost.
While the echo does lower the damage of whoever wears it, it grants a massive chunk of energy on use usually saving 1 or sometimes even 2 Energy Regen sub stats that may otherwise be needed by the wearer allowing for some damage to be recovered.
Freezing Frost
Easy to use Echo that deals decent total damage in a small AoE, has good resonance energy generation and on top of all that inflicts a small crowd control freeze effect on hit enemies. The gigantic downside of this Echo is that, unlike most other powerful echoes, you must fully use its entire effect with no good opportunity to perform a switch cancel.
This one flaw means you'll be spending close to 3 seconds using this Echo each activation - compared to the near instantaneous echo activation's of most other elements. In endgame with highly invested characters, the time required to make use of this echo can actually result in a damage loss in an overall rotation, making this echo only recommended in the early game before high investment or for its AoE or freezing effects.
Alternative Glacio main echo to Lampylumen Myriad that offers a little bit of damage but without demanding any field time at all. Thanks to the low cooldown of this echo you can use it twice in the time most other echoes can be used once. Not a great choice but currently one of the best Glacio has.
Cannot be used while airborne (relevant specifically for Lingyang burst rotation).
Important! CRIT DMG has base value of 150% and Energy Regen has a base value of 100% when you check them in game. The recommended values below don't include the base value but rather show how much on top of it you need to obtain.
ATK: 1900-2500+
HP: 16500+
DEF: 1200+
GLACIO DMG%: 42%-72%+
CRIT RATE%: 50-70%+
CRIT DMG% 100-140%+
Energy Regeneration: 15-35%
Zhezhi's Ultimate is a massive part of the value she brings to fights and is incredibly important to her rotation but also has a very long cooldown of 25 seconds.
When building Zhezhi it's imperative you pick up enough Energy Regen to ensure you always have comfortable access to her Ultimate but building too much on the other hand can be wasteful. 25 seconds is a long time and depending on the teammates you pair Zhezhi with and how you play them, you may need more or less regeneration to keep things flowing smoothly.
If possible we recommend experimenting within a range of 15-35% Energy Regen to start with assuming you're using the Impermanence Heron echo. When you're confident you have too much or too little you can adjust up or down depending on your needs.
Skill Priority
Below you can find the order of leveling the abilities for Zhezhi.
Res. Liberation
Forte Circuit
Intro Skill
Res. Skill
Basic Attack
Gameplay and teams
Rotation
This is the optimal rotation for the character. The total time needed to perform it is 7.02 seconds. When selecting the rotations we prioritized achieving 100 Concerto as fast as possible and once that condition was fulfilled, we focused on maximizing the damage output. As or if new and more optimal rotations are found, we'll update the characters calculations as needed.
Zhezhi Standard Combo
Zhezhi features an incredibly simple and easy to execute combo, but does require having Ultimate cooldown available, sufficient energy generation from other teammates and an Intro skill ready for her use. If everything is ready, execute the following:
Execute her Intro skill, followed by Basic Attack 1, 2 and 3 to generate 90 Afflatus (Forte Gauge with 3 segments), as long as all these hit, you will get all 90.
Tap/Hold her Resonance Skill to convert 60 Afflatus into 2 Imprints, tap if you want to execute faster ground based combo, hold if you want to execute airborne combo instead.
Quickly follow up Resonance Skill with a single Basic Attack (tap) to convert the last 30 Afflatus into 3rd Imprint.
Execute 3 back to back Resonance Skills to consume all 3 Imprints and leave a short pause for final attack to complete the majority of its animation.
Activate her Ultimate followed by her Echo, immediately Swap-Canceling the same.(Some adjustment might be required if not using Impermanence Heron)
Combo
Intro Skill
Basic P1
Basic P2
Basic P3
Resonance Skill: Manifestation: (Tap to Execute Ground combo, Hold To Execute Air Combo)
Forte: Heavy Atk: Conjuration
Forte: Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius
Forte: Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius
Forte: Resonance Skill: Creations Zenith
Ultimate: Living Canvas
Echo: Impermanence Heron (Swap-Cancel immediately after activation)
Lingyang is our only Glacio Main damage dealer currently, making him an obvious choice to take advantage of Zhezhi's outro Glacio DMG Amplification. Lingyang's longer rotations without quick swaps also have no issues working well with Zhezhi's infrequent but quick rotations she executes every 25 seconds. Both Zhezhi and Lingyang synergise decently but more importantly each allow eachother to take up exactly how much field time they want.
Jinhsi thrives in teams with teammates that can launch consistent follow-up attacks from off-field, preferably without taking up to much field time and Zhehzi fits that bill perfectly. If that wasn't enough though Zhezhi also offers Resonance Skill DMG Amplification on her outro and Jinhsi is currently the biggest Resonance Skill damage dealer in the game with roughly 75% of her damage being of the type. Finally Zhezhi also provides Jinhsi a bit of extra resonance energy allowing for more ultimates which is always welcome.
Verina as a healing support can easily accommodate running the 5P Rejuvenating Glow set alongside a Bell-Borne Geochelone echo, offering the team a wide array of offensive and defensive buffs already bringing a tonne of worth just from that alone.
Additionally Verina's many rotational options to access her Ultimate and Concerto are all fast and relatively easy to execute, leaving ample field time for the rest of team mates to execute their combos. Verina's Outro is by far the most flexible and powerful Outro in the game granting all allies 15% generic DMG% "Deepen" for 30 seconds. Most units only grant 1 type and only for the very next unit to switch in locking them into staying on field less they lose the buff but Verina grants it to all allies completely unrestricted.
On top of this Verina grants an additional 20% ATK and a Cheat Death ability preventing one death every 10 minutes. She's universal, flexible, takes little field time and outstanding in every team.
Shorekeeper is incredibly flexible thanks to her generic buffs, lingering Outro amplification and relatively low field time requirements after her first rotation. Because of she she can be played as a support in most team compositions to great effect.
Don't use the damage output calculations as an indication on who is worth pulling or investing as those are just simulations and in day-to-day gameplay there's a lot variables and also the skill of the player is important - if you can't consistently perform the character's rotation, their damage will suffer.
As usual, don't compare the numbers between characters - especially between Main DPS and Hybrids as they fulfill different roles in the team.
Additional information
The numbers below show the character's DPS (Damage Per Second) and DMG (total damage done). When selecting the rotations we prioritized achieving 100 Concerto as fast as possible and once that condition was fulfilled, we focused on maximizing the damage output. As or if new and more optimal rotations are found, we'll update the characters calculations as needed. Listed character calculations are done without buffs or any damage contribution from teammates (full solo). They only include what the character, their Weapon, Echo and gear are capable of during their ideal Burst or Concerto rotation when starting with their Intro and Resonance Liberation available.
Important! In the Sequence calculations below we have assumed you'll be fightning enemies for at least 2 or more Zhezhi rotations and will be able to maintain and refresh her buffs that last for 27 - 30 seconds at a time without letting them expire. For shorter fights or if you're not confident keeping buffs active you can consider Sequence 1, 3 and 4 to be less valuable than is displayed as they'll have lower uptime for you than we assume.
Zhezhi in 1 Target scenario
Rotation time: 7.02s
Zhezhi (S6)
404,494 DMG (57,620 DPS)214.64%
Zhezhi (S5)
328,587 DMG (46,807 DPS)174.36%
Zhezhi (S4)
270,490 DMG (38,531 DPS)143.53%
Zhezhi (S3)
256,113 DMG (36,483 DPS)135.90%
Zhezhi (S2)
223,765 DMG (31,875 DPS)118.74%
Zhezhi (S1)
200,880 DMG (28,615 DPS)106.59%
Zhezhi (S0)
188,451 DMG (26,845 DPS)100.00%
Details about the calculations
Here's the rotation we have used to calculate the DPS (Damage Per Second) shown above. The total time needed to perform the rotation is 7.02 seconds.
Rotation
Intro Skill
Basic P1
Basic P2
Basic P3
Resonance Skill: Manifestation: (Tap to Execute Ground combo, Hold To Execute Air Combo)
Forte: Heavy Atk: Conjuration
Forte: Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius
Forte: Resonance Skill: Stroke of Genius
Forte: Resonance Skill: Creations Zenith
Ultimate: Living Canvas
Echo: Impermenance Heron (Swap-Cancel immediately after activation)
And here are the Echoes and Weapons used in the calculations.
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 500 | ATK: 54%
2 Set: Energy Regen increases by 10%.
5 Set: Upon using Outro Skill, ATK of the next Resonator increases by 22.5% for 15s.
Echoes in Wuthering Waves are an essential part of the character rotations, granting a large amount of Resonance Energy and damage but at the cost of high field time for the most powerful ones. But by using some Echoes right before you're about to switch out on the character, you're able to move to your next character while your previous one is still in the echo animation - it’s what we call an Echo Swap Cancel.
Echo Swap Cancel is almost always the optimal way to use Echoes, and will result in big reductions in character field time and large increases to DPS, but not all of the most powerful Echoes can be swap cancelled in this way. For example, the Feilian Beringal (Aero), Dreamless (Havoc), Tempest Mephis (Electro), Mourning Aix (Spectro), and Infernal Rider (Fusion) Echoes can all be Swap Cancelled.
The remaining element, so Glacio while having powerful Echoes has none powerful enough that can be swap cancelled, and to make things worse, no Echoes that generate sufficient Energy and damage for their field time investment.
The result of this is that you can expect Glacio characters to have higher field time and lower DPS in calculations than their other elemental counter parts until they receive better Echoes to use.
