Tier List Overview
Welcome to our tier list where we go over the best characters in Wuthering Waves. If you’re here for the purpose of rerolling, you can check out our Wuthering Waves Reroll Guide as well. Before we dive into the tier list, I want to provide many disclaimers.
Wuthering Waves is not a game where chasing the meta or top tier characters is required. It’s a single-player pve game where enjoyment is your goal.
Different characters have vastly different combat styles and aesthetic, and you should ultimately go for what you will enjoy. Even if your character is in the lowest tier, with enough investment and/or skill, you can still tackle endgame content.
Some players will enjoy games based on dealing the most damage possible or playing meta characters. Having stronger characters will also let you push through hard content faster or with less investment in levels or weapons.
Ultimately, this tier list is for your reference to draw your own conclusions about what you want to do.
Lastly, Wuthering Waves is still in its infancy. While there are tons of theorycrafters out there, the meta can shift dramatically when new techniques/strategies are learned.
Wuthering Waves Tier List
|
Tier |
Resonator |
|
S+ |
Verina, Yinlin, Jiyan |
|
S |
Encore, Calcharo, Rover (Havoc), Sanhua, Jianxin |
|
A |
Danjin, Mortefi, Baizhi |
|
B |
Lingyang, Taoqi, Rover (Spectro), Chixia, Yuanwu, Yangyang, Aalto |
Character Breakdowns and Reasoning
In this section, I’ll briefly cover every character that’s releasing. I’ll give a general idea of how their kit works, and why they’re rated the way they are.
Verina: S+Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spectro/Rectifier
Recommended Team: Anyone, Anyone, Verina
Verina is a Standard Banner character, meaning you can roll her on the Novice Banner/Selector Banner or any future Limited Banner.
Her main role is as a support. Verina’s passive grants an ATK bonus for the team when using her skill. Her outro skill further buffs the damage of your team. This outro buff also persists even if you swap between characters, making her buff one of the best in the game.
Verina’s Liberation heals the entire team while also marking enemies. While attacking marked enemies, Verina will perform a Coordinated Attack, meaning she deals off field damage as well.
Lastly, her second passive allows you to avoid fatal damage once every 10 minutes. While this may not be extremely useful, getting one free revive against a Hologram boss is nice to have.
Overall, Verina is the most flexible character in the game. She buffs every character’s ATK/DMG, provides healing, and deals off-field damage. Almost every team will ideally use their third slot for Verina.
Yinlin: S+Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Electro/Rectifier
Recommended Teams: [Calcharo, Yinlin, Verina] [Yuanwu, Yinling, Verina] [Rover (Havoc), Yinlin, Verina]
Yinlin is an Electro character that boasts high damage while also not taking up a lot of field time. You can only attack with one character at a time, so being able to spend less time on Yinlin is a big advantage.
Her Outro Skill buffs both Electro Damage and Liberation DMG, making her an excellent Sub DPS alongside Calcharo, an Electro Main DPS. There aren’t many strong Sub DPS characters in the game, thus, Yinlin’s value increases a lot because of this.
Outro buffs don’t persist if you swap away from the intro character, but combining her damage window with Calcharo leads to high damage output.
You can also play Yinlin with other DPS characters. Calcharo and Yuanwu simply make use of her Outro Skill’s Electro DMG buff. However, you can still run Yinlin alongside characters like Rover, Jiyan, Encore, etc.
Jiyan: S+Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Broadblade
Recommended Team: Jiyan, Mortefi, Verina
Jiyan was the first Event 5-Star character and is the only Main DPS currently in the S+tier. If you have Jiyan and his weapon, his damage is extremely high. Without his Event Weapon, you won’t necessarily outperform other DPS characters, but you have other forms of utility.
Jiyan is able to group light enemies with his Liberation attacks, helping out on stages with many enemies. His Skill and Liberation also attack very quickly, making it easier to parry enemy attacks.
Overall, Jiyan is a very strong DPS character with both ease of use and grouping.
Encore: S-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fusion/Rectifier
Recommended Team: Encore, Sanhua, Verina
When it comes to 5-star Main DPS characters, Encore has potentially the highest damage in the game. While she doesn’t have a dedicated Fusion DMG subdps, her damage is very high compared to the others.
However, this is “on paper.” Maximizing Encore’s damage requires precise timing, attack ordering, and animation cancelling. This doesn’t always pan out when you’re trying to target multiple enemies, dodge attacks, etc.
Even still, the fact that her damage is one of the highest in the game makes her worthy of S-tier. She’s also quite flexible, being able to be played as a hyper carry DPS or as a quick-swap DPS.
Calcharo: S-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Electro/Broadblade
Recommended Team: Calcharo, Yinlin, Verina
Like Jiyan, Calcharo is an on-field Broadblade DPS character. Calcharo is nerfed compared to his CBT state, but he’s still a strong Main DPS. While Calcharo + Yinlin make for a powerful combo, Calcharo doesn’t necessarily make Yinlin better, but rather vice versa.
When looking at his kit, his Skill and Liberation look to focus on his Skill and Basic Attack damage. His Liberation state empowers his Basic Attack, dealing more damage.
However, his Forte Circuit revolves around Heavy Attacks and Liberation Damage.
To try and summarize:
- Skills will grant Cruelty (Forte Circuit resource, max 3)
- Consume 3 Cruelty for an empowered Heavy Attack and recover energy (counts as Heavy Attack Damage)
- In Liberation State, Cruelty becomes Killing Intent (max 5)
- Empowered Basic Attacks in Liberation State grant Killing Intent
- Consume 5 Killing Intent for an empowered Attack and recover energy (counts as Liberation Damage)
With all of these mechanics, Calcharo deals a variety of damage through Basic Attacks, Heavy Attacks, Skills, and Liberation Damage. Having a support that buffs ATK or Electro damage will be ideal, since these buff all aspects of his kit.
Rover (Havoc): S-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Havoc/Sword
Recommended Team: Rover (Havoc), Danjin, Taoqi
Once you complete the available story, you’ll be able to unlock Havoc Rover (sorry if spoilers). This isn’t a novel concept, as we see similar concepts done in other games.
In the case of Rover, the Havoc version does a lot more damage compared to Spectro. The main differences are that Havoc Rover’s Forte Circuit has an enhanced state, increasing damage, and their outro skill also deals damage.
Havoc Rover’s Liberation damage also has extremely high scaling compared to other characters. Rover can be played as a hyper carry or as a Sub DPS as well.
Furthermore, the Dreamless Echo deals a lot of damage, and this damage increases if Havoc Rover used their Liberation. This applies to any Dreamless Echo, meaning you can use 3 Dreamless Echoes on 3 Havoc Resonators.
This is why Rover, Danjin, and Taoqi are a solid team to use. You won’t have the comfort of healing with Verina/Baizhi, but this team will do a ton of damage.
The team is very budget, as you only need Danjin and Taoqi who are both 4-star, and Rover is free. As of right now, you can only raise Havoc Rover to Chain Resonance 2, but with future updates, maxing that out will only increase the damage of Havoc Rover.
Sanhua: S-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glacio/Sword
Recommended Team: Anyone, Sanhua, Verina
Sanhua is a character that everyone will get for free on their 5th Day Login Reward. She is a Glacio Sub DPS unit, with a Basic Attack DMG buff on her outro skill.
This makes her a strong teammate for just about any character. Most characters will use Basic Attacks to some degree, but some prioritize other things like Heavy Attack.
Her Skill, Intro Skill, and Liberation generate Ice on the field, which you can detonate with her Heavy Attack. This allows her to play as a Sub DPS very easily, requiring little field time to utilize her abilities.
You can do a full rotation to fill her Concerto Energy, or quickly use her Skill/Liberation to deal quick damage and swap off.
Sanhua and Yinlin are both very universal Sub DPS units. However, Yinlin simply deals more damage with her off-field capabilities. If your Main DPS deals mainly Basic Attack DMG, then Sanhua may be a better teammate than Yinlin.
Jianxin: S-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Gauntlets
Recommended Team: Anyone, Jianxin, Verina
Jianxin is a jack of all trades but a master of none. Her kit provides a little bit of everything: Liberation DMG buff outro skill, enemy grouping, shielding, and healing.
However, her Forte Circuit generates quite slowly and takes a while to cast. This makes her a bit lacking when it comes to Sub DPS roles. Swap cancelling does appear to work for Jianxin, so this helps alleviate things a bit.
In terms of comfortable gameplay, Jianxin is one of the best. Grouping is currently quite effective in Tower of Adversity. While the hardest levels are single-target encounters, many stages have multiple enemies. Grouping enemies can help you clear and 3 star floors much easier.
However, I do think that once players are able to clear the Tower stages easier, Jianxin will lose value when the goal is beating the Hazard Zone, which consist of boss encounters.
Danjin: A-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Havoc/Sword
Recommended Team: Rover (Havoc), Danjin, Verina
Danjin is a strong 4-star DPS that can be played as both a Main DPS and Sub DPS. Her damage isn’t as amazing as in CBT, but it’s more than enough to clear content.
She plays a “berserker” style, where her attacks will drain her life in exchange for dealing high damage. She also has a bit of healing built into her kit, so she can also be played without a healer if you’re daring enough.
Her Sub DPS role also comes from her Outro Skill which grants a Havoc DMG bonus. This pairs her very well with Rover (Havoc) as a duo.
Mortefi: A-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fusion/Pistols
Recommended Team: Jiyan, Mortefi, Verina
Mortefi is a strong off-field DPS, which already gives him potential. You can only attack with one character at a time, so having damage while off-field is valuable.
His Liberation allows him to coordinated attack whenever the active character hits with a Basic or Heavy Attack. The coordinated Heavy Attack will deal more damage, and this has a short cooldown. Because of this, Mortefi synergizes with DPS units that use a lot of Heavy Attacks.
His outro skill also provides a large buff to Heavy Attack DMG. This makes him the perfect teammate for any Heavy Attack DPS like Jiyan.
While Mortefi is very specialized in his role, his current synergy with Jiyan makes him a meta Resonator. With low levels of investment, you can use him as a simple support. As you invest more levels into his abilities and Echoes, he can provide more damage and become a Support/Sub DPS.
Baizhi: A-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glacio/Rectifier
Recommended Team: Anyone, Anyone, Baizhi
Baizhi is the last character that you receive early in the story. She is a healer character with most of her kit revolving around healing party members.
Her Skill will heal party members while also dealing a small bit of off-field damage. Baizhi’s passive also makes it so that her Skill provides a small ATK buff, similar to Verina.
She can use the Healing Echo Set to grant an ATK buff to the team after healing. This is very easy to do since Baizhi’s Skill will heal allies.
Overall, Baizhi is a healer like Verina, but Verina has much more offensive capability with her ATK buffs and Outro Skill buff.
Even still, you can utilize Baizhi very well on a 2nd or 3rd team for Tower of Adversity, since options are quite limited right now for healing supports.
Lingyang: B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glacio/Gauntlets
Recommended Team: Lingyang, Sanhua, Verina
Lingyang was poorly received in the CBT, but his performance on release has been quite comparable to other 5-stars like Calcharo. He weaves his Skill and Basics together to form chains, and his Forte Circuit puts him into a mid-air state, empowering your basic attacks.
The main caveat to his enhanced state is that since you are mid-air, you only have access to one dodge. You can’t keep dodging attacks as if you were grounded. This can be clunky in some scenarios, but if you time things well, you should have ample time to dish out damage before going back on the ground.
Having empowered Basic Attacks also pairs him nicely with Sanhua, who will buff Basic Attack DMG with her outro skill. Unfortunately, Lingyang doesn’t provide much value outside of being another Main DPS option.
Taoqi: B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Havoc/Broadblade
Recommended Team: Rover (Havoc), Danjin, Taoqi
Taoqi is a defense scaling character, but she can definitely shine as a support character. Her Heavy attack puts her in a defensive stance. When hit, you will automatically perform a parry attack.
Taoqi’s skill will generate 3 shields for the active character and heal herself a little. When a shield is depleted, you will gain Forte Circuit resource (max 3). If the shield duration ends, you will also gain this resource.
Lastly, her outro skill buffs Skill DMG. So you can still use her as a shield-generating support character, but the sustain with healers definitely feel comfier than shields.
Generating her Outro Skill is also quite slow compared to other characters due to her slow attacks. To activate her Forte Circuit (Empowered Basic Attacks), you either need to perform Intro Skill or activate your Heavy Attack counterattack. This makes her noticeably more clunky to use compared to other supports.
However, she can still be a solid 3rd team support. Since her Skill heals herself, you can use the Rejuvenating Glow Set to provide a teamwide ATK buff. This allows you to use the “Turtle” Boss Echo, who provides a 50% DMG Reduction. If you combine this with her shield and Heavy Attack stance, you can reduce the damage of any attack by 100%. This can be useful for dodging Boss attacks that are difficult to dodge.
Rover (Spectro): B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spectro/Sword
Recommended Team: Rover (Spectro), Sanhua, Verina
Rover is the main character you start with, and you can pick between male or female. Overall, the kit isn’t anything superb, but it’s not bad either.
Rover’s kit is mostly based around dealing Spectro damage with your Forte Circuit. Empowered Basics (post Heavy Attack or after Basic Attack 3) generate their Circuit, which you use to empower your Skill.
Rover’s Outro Skill is also a 3 second time stop, allowing you to get in free damage. There isn’t too much utility, but Rover doesn’t demand a lot either. You can utilize them as your Main DPS or as a quick Sub DPS.
Lastly, since Rover is the main character, you’re able to get Resonance Chain 6 for free. (Although only RC4 is available as of the current version)
Sequence 6 makes it so Rover’s Skill will shred enemy Spectro RES. Verina is the only other Spectro character thus far, but this utility can be great when paired with a future Spectro DPS character.
This is nice because Spectro Rover lends themselves to more of a Sub DPS role. They don’t require too much field time, and once RC6 is available, the Spectro Res Shred can be a solid source of buffing.
Chixia: B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fusion/Pistols
Recommended Team: Chixia, Sanhua, Verina
Chixia is one of the free units you get early in the game, and she’s a Main DPS character. Being a ranged character has benefits, as you can attack enemies from a safe range. Enemies will move closer to attack you, but you can avoid by dodging and run around.
Damage wise, Chixia isn’t too far behind the other Main DPS characters. Her kit mainly deals damage with her Basic Attacks and Forte Circuit, which is essentially full damage uptime. Having a ranged DPS can also be a good idea for your 3rd team in Tower of Adversity, since there are only 2 healers in the game.
However, Pistol characters also have a downside. Outside of her Liberation, you can’t hit multiple enemies even if they are grouped. Chixia will be good in single-target encounters, but not as good in other content with multiple enemies. She also can’t parry attacks, which is important for “downing” bosses to get in free damage. Pairing her with teammate who can parry easily will help.
Yuanwu: B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Electro/Gauntlets
Recommended Team: Yuanwu, Yinlin, Verina
Yuanwu is somewhat similar to Mortefi in that he provides off-field damage, this time for the Electro attribute. He places down a totem which will launch coordinated attacks, and his ultimate buffs the entire party.
However, other parts of his kit lend him to being a Main DPS, with an enhanced state Forte Circuit and damage dealing Outro Skill. This puts him in a weird spot as his damage is lacking compared to other Main DPS, and his Sub DPS role is lacking as well.
What he lacks in damage he tries to make up in utility. Yuanwu excels at breaking shields, letting you stun an enemy for a window of burst damage. His kit also provides Anti-Interruption, letting you tank boss attacks without interruption.
With his Defense scaling, you can play Yuanwu as an “easy mode” Main DPS. He can often tank Hologram boss attacks with enough investment, making the fight easier.
You just need to invest enough for his damage to be enough to clear.
Yangyang: B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Sword
Recommended Team: Anyone, Yangyang, Verina
Yangyang is another free character from the early story, and she’s a simple DPS unit with a bit of utility. Her Skill and Liberation summon cyclones that pull in enemies around it. This is very helpful when dealing with lots of weak monsters in the overworld. The range is quite small compared to Jianxin, but the grouping can still be valuable in the Tower of Adversity.
Her outro skill is her other piece of utility, granting Energy for the character you swap into. Outside of that, her kit mainly consists of dealing Aero damage.
Her damage is lacking compared to other Main DPS, so most will use her for her grouping utility as a Sub DPS/Support role.
Aalto: B-Tier
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Pistols
Recommended Team: Jiyan, Aalto, Verina
Aalto is mainly a Sub DPS Aero Resonator. His kit doesn’t require too much field time, and it allows you to gain movement speed, letting you dodge attacks or move to favorable positions.
His passive grants him a guaranteed Crit every 30 seconds, which counts down even if he’s not on the field. While you can play him as your main on-field character, you make make use of his quick firing and 30 second Crit much more as a secondary DPS.
Lastly, his outro skill buffs Aero damage, making him a good teammate for other Aero characters like Jiyan. Unfortunately, Mortefi is a better Sub DPS/Support compared to Aalto, even when paired with Jiyan.
Methodology
For this tier list, we try to consider a variety of use cases like Tower of Adversity and Holograms. However, the tier list generally focuses on Tower of Adversity. This is because the Tower rotates and generally requires specific things while Holograms are skill tests for players. This tier list is mostly comprised of three factors: Value, Strength, and Utility.
Value
When it comes to value, it’s somewhat of a catch all term. To put it simply, a character is more valuable if their role cannot be easily replaced or replicated.
For example, Verina is extremely valuable, because she is the best sustain/support in the game. She can fit onto any team, and with the lack of healing options, Verina’s value is immense.
A character can also be valuable if they’re flexible. Sanhua is a great example. There are a variety of sub DPS units like Mortefi, Aalto, etc. However, Sanhua’s Outro Skill buffs Basic Attack DMG, which is almost universally good on any character.
This makes her extremely flexible like Verina, thus increasing her value. So while Mortefi might be a better sub DPS for Jiyan, Sanhua is a strong investment as she can work with just about any character.
Strength
When it comes to strength, this part is fairly self explanatory. If a character outputs the highest damage in the game, that should be worthy of a higher rating.
The same goes for Support characters if their buffs are stronger than other buffs.
Utility
The last factor is utility. This refers to things a character provides outside of simply strength. For example, Jianxin provides grouping, which can be extremely useful on some floors in Tower of Adversity. She can be the difference between 3 starring a Floor vs just clearing it.
Another thing to consider are parry windows. Jiyan’s Skill and Liberation both attack very fast, allowing for easy parrys against enemies. Conversely, a Pistol character like Chixia can’t really parry at all.
Closing Words
This wraps up our Resonator Tier List for Wuthering Waves. As with all tier lists, things are definitely going to change as the community learns more about the game and optimizes.
Tier lists are also not the ultimate truth. There is enjoyment in tackling fights with weaker characters, and it might even help you improve your combat skills.
Remember that tier lists are always meant as a reference and point of discussion. You should ultimately decide what you want with your account and play the characters that you enjoy.
Thanks for Reading! For more resources, be sure to check out our other Wuthering Waves Guides.
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