Best Characters and Teams in Wuthering Waves: Tier List

A list of the best characters in Wuthering Waves and their combinations to help you decide who to use in your team.

As the game develops and new updates are released, the top characters may change. Also, keep in mind that any tier list represents a subjective analysis.

Creating a team is an important task in games like Wuthering Waves. Players would like to optimally form their group to ensure that the main DPS hero can deal the maximum possible damage, without missing out on potential additional DPS from the team.

In WuWa, dodging is an important part of the game, meaning players can avoid damage if they continue to improve dodge timing. However, if dodging hits becomes too difficult, the third team slot should be filled with someone who can protect and heal the group.

The guide takes into account how desirable it is to have a character in all combat scenarios, not just in their ideal settings. This includes progressing through story content, fighting tough bosses, and battling in the Tower of Adversity and Depths of Illusive Realm modes.

Additionally, if there are two characters performing similar functions but one does it better, they are unlikely to be placed in the same tier — but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use a lower-tier character!

Be sure to read the reasoning for why we placed a character at a certain tier, rather than just basing your decisions on their ranking when deciding how to build your team. Often, lower-tier characters can do a lot, but not as well or as quickly as similar characters rated higher.

Below is detailed information about the character rankings. Keep in mind that even secondary characters can be great in some situations or with a well-matched team.

Below is detailed information about each character:

Verina — a character who does many things very well, including healing and boosting attacks. She can even prevent an ally's death and provide them with a shield. Add to this that her boosts apply regardless of the element your teammates belong to, making her easy to fit into any group.

Jiyan — one of the highest DPS characters in Wuthering Waves, so it's a useful bonus that he has a very simple playstyle with the ability to deal damage both in area and single target. This makes him versatile for almost all combat scenarios. But keep in mind that you need to activate his Resonance Liberation skill as often as possible to make the most of his equipment.

Calcharo — although he is an excellent DPS attacker (in fact, one of the best), you need to learn his features to reach his huge damage potential. This includes performing almost perfect combos using the trick of switching to another character to stop his combat animation playback and deal even more damage with your rotation. The character is as good as the person playing him.

Baizhi — an excellent healer and attack booster, whom you get for free just by progressing through the story. As a bonus, she can even protect an ally from death once you unlock her sixth resonance chain.

Danjin — for a 4-star hero, she deals huge damage and can help you pass even the most difficult endgame content. However, she is a high-risk, high-reward type of damage dealer, as Danjin uses her own health as part of her equipment. If you can dodge, parry, and read enemy attack patterns, you will likely really enjoy her fast, berserker-like playstyle.

Encore — an excellent hybrid long-range and melee damage dealer whose skill set revolves around activating her ability as often as possible to deal massive burst damage. She is quite easy to play, but at launch, she doesn't have the best additional damage per second. However, if you add characters that synergize well with her, Encore will become one of the best heroes in Wuthering Waves.

Mortefi — is the king of 4-star attack boosters, especially when paired with a main fighter who uses heavy attacks, such as Jiyan. Even without a heavy hitter in the team, Mortefi provides useful boosts with Resonance Liberation. Keep in mind that while Mortefi is very useful at Resonance Chain 0, he has incredible Resonance Chain upgrades that make him even better.

Rover + Spectro — you need to upgrade the Spectro Rover resonance chain to unlock their true potential, but this is not a big problem. While Rover's version for Spectro didn't really excel in any role, they are an excellent support option due to the positive effects for teammates and their healing abilities.

Jianxin — Jianxin herself is perhaps the most resilient character in the game, as her kit has everything needed to survive alone. However, this is a downside when it comes to team building, as she does not offer enough support to help allies or excel in an attacking role. Jianxin is not a bad character; she just lacks true synergy in the current roster.

Sanhua — her value lies in incredibly fast energy accumulation, allowing her to frequently activate her skills to increase her own damage and provide attack boosts for allies. However, there is a catch: you really need to pay attention to the unique Forte Gauge bar as it requires you to time her hits at the right moment as shown on the panel.

Yangyang — her skill provides energy for the next character, which is very useful for those who rely on unique damage and positive potential. She can also group mobs with her Resonance Liberation. These are useful abilities, but not the most useful.

Yuanwu — the hero offers vibration power depletion with his skill, helping you immobilize enemies, but his main appeal is his electro sub-DPS capabilities. Generally, you need to activate his Resonance skill as often as possible to create a thunder field that deals electric damage when allies hit the target. This is useful, but the overall attack boosts provided by other supports are more beneficial than this bonus electric damage.

Aalto — his skill increases Aero damage, making him a worthy ally for your Aero-attacking characters. You need to create the Gates of Quandary to shoot through them and increase DPS, but even this does not elevate his damage potential to the heights of other characters. He has a very fast and agile playstyle, but it's not enough to make him a contender for the best support or sub-DPS character in Wuthering Waves.

Chixia — a long-range character who needs to spend a lot of time on the field to make the most of her equipment. Both of these reasons make her very easy to play, but at the expense of your team's overall damage. While she may not be your first, second, or even third choice for a team, you can use her if you just want to have fun while progressing through the story.

Lingyang — placing a 5-star character so low in the ranking may seem harsh, but the hero's kit makes him very inconvenient to play. You need to activate Resonance Liberation to get the most damage out of him, but this will make him fly. This may sound cool (and it definitely looks cool), but maneuvering and fighting this way is incredibly difficult. He also doesn't deal as much damage as other 5-star characters, so we recommend using Lingyang only if you really enjoy his flying attacks.

Taoqi — there is simply no place in the game right now where Taoqi fits. She increases resonance skill damage with her ability and provides shields, but other than that, Taoqi doesn't do anything that others couldn't do much better.

As with teams in Genshin Impact, team building in WuWa also revolves around character roles. Ideally, players need to have DPS + Sub-DPS/Support + Healer/Shield to fill the three slots. However, it is also possible to play with two main DPS heroes or completely skip the Healer/Shield slot and just rely on skillful dodging.

Here are some examples of WuWa team compositions:

Jiyan, Calcharo, and Encore all have the best damage per second stats. In the second slot, players can use sub-DPS/Support, such as Mortefi, who deals coordinated damage with his ult, or Aalto, who can boost damage, or Yinlin, who provides electro boosts, or Sanhua, the only booster available for Encore as there is no suitable Fusion booster yet, or Yangyang, who can provide crowd control for Encore, especially when she activates her skill and deals massive damage after a short pause.

Meanwhile, in the Healer/Shield slot, players can use Verina or Baizhi or Jianxin, who works as a sub-DPS with minor healing.