Published , by Aidan O'Brien
Published , by Aidan O'Brien
As the latest character to arrive in Wuthering Waves, Zhezhi is capable of doing huge damage numbers. There is a lot to balance in her kit that we will get to later in the article, but for now, we will focus on the very best weapons and Echoes to use with her.
If you cannot roll on the banner for the Rime-Draped Sprouts and already have something like Stringmaster or Cosmic Ripples, they are very solid 5-star options. If you are looking for a good 4-star option for her weapon, I would suggest Augment from the Battle Pass instead. Just make sure you hold off on the use of her Resonance Liberation until you can fully take advantage of the fully built-up Forte Gauge, which we will discuss shortly. The Freezing Frost Sonata is a must, however. There is no way around that for me.
For substats on the Echoes, you want to build into Critical Rate and Critical Damage where possible, and then ATK% as well. Anything that bumps Glacio damage is welcome, along with energy regeneration, because there will be a lot of ability spamming in Zhezhi's rotations once you get the Forte Gauge built up.
Every basic attack that Zhezhi lands will help build Afflatus on her Forte Gauge at the bottom of the screen. You can also earn some with her Intro skill. A full bar holds 90 Afflatus, which she can then spend by summoning Phantasmic Imprints. When you are close to these imprints, you can hit the skill button to dash to them, performing a highly damaging attack against nearby enemies as you do so.
You can place one Phantasmic Imprint for every 30 Afflatus, and this is where a tremendous amount of your damage and on-field maneuverability comes from. Each time you use an imprint, you get a stack called Painters Delight, and the third one will consume all the stacks and give you a further 18% basic attack bonus. As such, a solid cycle becomes building a full Forte Guage, using the Afflatus to generate three Imprints, dashing between them all to get the bonus, and then using your Resonance Liberation while fully buffed.
When it comes to putting a team together for Zhezhi it is not hugely surprising who some of the best options are. Verina is a superb support for her, benefitting from the instant energy regeneration from Zhezhi's outro skill and also keeping her crown as one of the best healers in the game. I also really like using Zhezhi for pure damage, and that means Sanhua is a great third member of the party.
Sanhua will benefit from the increase in Glacio damage from Zhezhi's Outro skill, while Zhezhi will benefit from the dramatic basic attack damage boost from Sanhua's Outro skill. The reason this is so impactful for Zhezhi is that her damage through Afflatus and her ultimate all count as basic attack damage.
The main key to running Zhezhi is to practice using her Phantasmic Imprints and setting them up correctly. I would highly recommend using the tutorial from her Resonator page to really get to grips with how they work.