As of this time of writing, Wuthering Waves has 20 characters. Of course, some players wonder how your favorite characters fare in a tier list. In this page, we will feature our own tier list for the currently available characters in Wuthering Waves.
Please be reminded that Tier Lists are not “definite” measures of the character’s strength and potential. There are a lot of factors to be considered like the characters’ availability, their synergy with your team, their skill set, weapons, etc. As such, please use our tier lists as what they’re meant to be - a guide. Use tier lists to help you decide whether you’ll want to invest resources and time to build a character. At the end of the day, it’s you who will decide which ones you’ll use based on preference and performance.
In this list, you can find our tier list below. We will also provide a quick description for the rank S characters in our list, in their own individual sections.
Verina is Spectro rectifier user and the only standard 5-star character in this list and for good reason. She's one of the two healers currently in the game (the other is 4-star Baizhi) and she does it well. She's very versatile and you can just include in any team composition. She also doesn't need her signature weapon to shine since her base kit is significantly effective enough to keep your team alive. This versatility also makes her quite F2P (free-to-play) friendly, especially if you picked her from the 5-star resonator selector offered at the start of the game.
Verina's Forte Circuit builds up to four stacks whenever she performs full basic attack combos, using her resonance skill, or hitting enemies with her intro skill. Whenever she performs a heavy or mid-air attack, these stacks are consumed to recover Concerto energy and heal HP to all party members. Verina's Resonance Liberation inflicts Spectro Damage while healing the entire party. This also tags a target hit with a mark; when this marked enemy gets attacked by any member of your party, Verina will follow up and inflict Spectro damage while also healing the HP of the active character. Overall, you can't go wrong with Verina, she'll be invaluable to your party even if a new healer is introduced later on.
Yinlin is a 5-star Electro rectifier character who's capable of dishing out consistent damage both on field or off-field. She can mark enemies thanks to the effect of her Forte Circuit. When these marked enemies are attacked, they're automatically targeted and inflicted with Electro DMG. Her Outro Skill increases the Electro DMG and Resonance Liberation DMG of the next character that switches in after her. Calcharo can take advantage of this buff immensely being a Electro Main DPS. Even if you don't have Calcharo, setting Yinlin as a main DPS is still a viable setup though she'll definitely shine in other quick-swap teams.
Jiyan is an Aero broadblade user who is introduced at the launch of the game and still remains a strong DPS as of this writing. His kit has an efficient, synergized combination of hard-hitting attacks and great crowd control. His basic attacks will fill up his Forte Gauge that buffs his skill and ultimate. When using either of skill or ult, a portion of his Forte gauge is used up to enhance the skill and ult's damage. The bulk of his damage will come from his using his Resonance Liberation (ult) and entering Qingloong Mode for a few seconds. While this mode is active, he has enhanced anti-interruption state. Additionally, his Basic Attack, Heavy Attack and Dodge Counter are transformed into a special condition that performs 3 continuous hits (aero damage) and treated as Heavy Attack DMG.
Jinshi is a 5-star Spectro DPS wielding a Broadblade who utilizes an unconventional combat style involving managing her special resource called Incandescence and unleashing tremendous burst damage. She also excels in aerial combat and can repeatedly execute high-damage combos when allies trigger their Concerto Skills. Her Forte Circuit allows her to generate Incandescence through her and her allies' attacks, which she can consume to enhance her abilities, especially during her empowered Incarnation State. Her ultimate skill deals massive Spectro damage and can be triggered even while in mid-air. Jinshi has unmatched cleave and single-target damage while having access to various versatile team synergies. Her kit is complex but is easy-to-execute once you've learned her flow and rotation.
Changli is a 5-star Fusion sword resonator that boasts probably one of the most fluid and satisfying combat animations in the game yet. She's quite flexible too, capable of taking the roles of main DPS or sub DPS as needed. She can chain her attacks consecutively quickly and simply (even while in mid-air) which is necessary to build up her Forte. In turn, she can then consume all her Forte stacks to inflict high Fusion DMG and give her a brief damage reduction. These Forte stacks can be easily achieved through the continuous use of her basic attacks and skill. Her skill descriptions might look complex but when you actually execute them in combat, her kit is quite newbie-friendly. The only downside is that she's extremely fragile so unless you have a support resonator that can apply shield and/or heal her up, you better get the timing of her evasive maneuvers and combo cancels right.