Test:75/Guide

From GRAY RAVENS
Main


This guide is meant to explain War Zone in general! Please check out the external resources linked for additional info.

Jump to:
Resource Recommendations / Introduction / Basics / Advanced Techniques / Competitive

Resource Recommendations

We recommend you check out these resources before proceeding!

  • War Zone - The main page for War Zone
  • Beginner's Guide - Useful for those who are starting out/General Info
  • Team Compositions - Team compositions for each element, especially important for those who want a high score

Introduction

Achieving high scores in War Zone is reliant on efficient gameplay. It should not be considered a straightforward rush for high DPS. Players should aim to balance out their wave-clearing speed without overcommitting resources to clear each wave, and trial and error is needed to optimize scores.

War Zone is not a static gameplay loop. No two cycles are identical; players will encounter differences in Full-Realm Support buffs (aka Weathers), Wave Coefficient, enemy spawn patterns, and more basic factors such as RNG in Orb generation. As such, there is no one correct rotation that can be followed that accounts for every possible variable. Players should consider any examples provided here only as examples, not rotation guidelines.

With that being said, the following information outlines both the foundations of a good run and advanced techniques that can further increase potential scores.

Terminology

Important Terms

Cycle - Refers to a Construct's complete DPS phase.
Rotation - Refers to a single loop of a team's full DPS phase (i.e. every party member completes their respective cycle once.)
Shred - Debuffs (Reduced Extra DMG Reduction, Defense Reduction, Elemental Resistance Reduction, etc.)
Burst - a large spike in DPS within a short period of time

Shorthand Terms

Ult - Signature Move
Timestop - Time Lag Calculation
Weather - Full-Realm Support buff
DV - Da Vinci

Basics

Zones

War Zone's schedule is based on biweekly "cycles." Two cycles occur every week, with each cycle containing two stages, meaning four teams are required per week.

While players can use Constructs whose Energy Types do not match the Environment, this is heavily discouraged due to matching Energy Types being granted Bonus DMG%. Weathers also discourage off-element teams as many provide buffs to only a single Energy Type.

The damage gap further increased in Sands of Wrath; Energy Types that do not match the Environment incur a severe reduction to damage output.

The Long Goodbye brings an update to War Zone's weekly cycles. Instead of two cycles with two zones, War Zone will instead have a single cycle that lasts all week with two zones. Hero and Legend brackets will also contain a third zone with two Environments, with score dictated by the Environment that the player scores higher in. Each zone will also have its own Weather, rather than a single Weather for all 3 zones.

Rotations

Players should first ensure they know how to play every Construct in their team effectively. Optimized rotations take every part of a character's kit into account: maximizing each member's damage output, the time needed to perform each cycle, the resources they generate and spend per switch-in (such as Signal Orbs and Signature Energy), and important external factors like QTE cooldowns. Not utilizing proper rotations can lead to downtime that forces players to rely on sub-optimal options like basic attacking to upkeep resources.


Switching between Constructs is essential for effective resource management. Switching between Constructs will:

  • Generate 4 Orbs per switch-in
  • Allow effects like 4 set Hanna and Deadline Timing to go through their cooldowns while a unit is off-field
  • Refresh the buffs given by an Amplifier
  • Allow certain off-field/synergistic effects like Karenina: Scire's Thermal Field to be triggered
  • Allow effects that reset upon switching in to be used multiple times during a run, like the extra Sight Point generation from Lee: Hyperreal's Signature Weapon

Proper rotations take into account these mechanics for characters to expend necessary resources much faster and subsequently output more DPS.

In contrast, teams that do not switch between members suffer from a lack of resource replenishment and thus rely more on micromanaging their resources if they want a good flow of damage and clear speed. These teams are much more susceptible to downtime from a lack of resources and often rely on lowering their damage output to regain said resources.

For example, Lucia: Crimson Weave's solo cycle is slower to ensure that she does not run out of Orbs needed for future cycles and that the QTEs of her teammates are available in time for the burst timings of the cycle.

The general solo cycle is as follows:

  • Resolute Blow
  • Weave: Splashing Thunder
  • 3-Ping
  • ~3-4 waves of Blazing Radiance
  • 3-Ping (only when Crimson Weave has two 3-Pings remaining so her next cycle can be performed smoothly)
  • Resolute Blow
  • Unquenchable Flare
  • Weave: Karmic Inferno

This cycle takes ~10 seconds of in-game time to complete

The general rotation cycle (For SS3-Rank and above) is as follows:

  • Weave: Splashing Thunder
  • 3-Ping
  • Resolute Blow
  • Unquenchable Flare
  • 3-Ping
  • Weave: Karmic Inferno
  • Blazing Radiance until enough energy is obtained to perform the cycle once more

This cycle takes ~6 seconds of in-game time to complete

Resource Management

Another important part of effective War Zone play is how well players can manage the resources such as Signal Orbs available to a Construct. Generally, players should minimize the spending of any limited resources to prevent future downtime spent on regaining over-consumed resources.

For example:

  • Lucia: Plume may be able to clear a wave with only a single Red 3-Ping. In this case, players should attempt to do this instead of using two Blue 3-Pings which consume more Orbs and take longer to execute.
  • Vera: Garnet may be able to clear a wave with two stacks of Electric Charge that only cost two 3-Pings. With this, a 3-Ping that would have been used to build up the third stack of Electric Charge can now instead be utilized to deal greater damage to a fresh wave.

Matrix is an invaluable mechanic for resource management. Triggering Matrix consistently can greatly reduce the Orbs consumed per rotation while providing the secondary benefit of freezing enemies. Good use of Matrix can mean the difference between having a surplus of Orbs the following cycle versus a fully depleted Orb bar.

However, Matrix availability will be inconsistent if a Construct does not have an on-demand Matrix trigger in their skills – those characters must activate Matrix by dodging the lightning bolts/bombs that spawn during waves or enemy attacks. Therefore, players should not always rely on them and instead use them to supplement their cycles, unless using a particularly Matrix-reliant Construct like Karenina: Scire (Pre-Leap) at SS3-Rank. Players should also avoid triggering Matrix when its effect would be wasted. Examples include situations in which an Orb bar only has 3-Pings available or the Construct will immediately use a skill with a long animation time that causes the Matrix Ping to expire before it could be used.

Wave Spawn Delay

After clearing a wave, there is a slight window of time before the next wave spawns. Players should always keep this delay between spawns in mind as it can greatly affect or outright end a run if not managed properly.

Within these gaps, players should avoid switching or casting skills. Switching the on-field Constructs will waste their switch-in skill due to it not being triggered, which can severely disadvantage Constructs who depend on Signal Orbs for mechanics like Core Passives or the Energy generated from pings. Casting skills similarly wastes resources and damage that could be used to clear the next wave. Skills with high movement are particularly damaging to a run as they can displace the player’s position on the map, forcing them to waste time moving back closer to the enemy.

This delay can also affect certain units that provide persistent off-field application of debuffs. This will be covered in more detail in the Debuff Management section.

QTEs

QTEs can provide multiple effects such as:

  • Buffs (eg. Fire DMG Bonus, ATK increase)
  • Shred (eg. Extra DMG Reduction, Defense Reduction, Lightning Resistance Reduction)
  • Utilities like Gather.

While QTEs should not be used haphazardly, they should be utilized as much as possible, especially with Constructs that can forcibly trigger available QTEs with certain Rank passives.

Shred is particularly important as it exponentially increases damage and clear speed if used well. Ideally, every wave should have debuffs applied and every Construct cycle should be buffed.

Unless playing at a highly advanced level where certain strategies utilize nonstandard QTE timings, players should not sit on available QTEs and waste their usage. Not activating QTEs frequently enough causes cooldowns to not line up properly with future cycles, lowering overall DPS. In this case, players will either be forced to play sub-optimally to reset timings or simply suffer the loss in damage output.

Targeting/Grouping

Good targeting is necessary to ensure maximum application of damage, QTEs, and other supportive effects like Gather. On the other hand, bad targeting leads to enemies being left out of range, debuffs not being applied due to a QTE missing an enemy, or misplacing a Gather skill. All lead to inefficient play that wastes time and resources cleaning up stragglers instead of immediately progressing to further waves.

For this reason, switching to Manual Lock is recommended over PGR’s unwieldy Auto-Target system.

Generally, players should target an enemy positioned at the center of the group – this provides the best AoE coverage against the entire group and allows effects like debuffs and Gather to be used as effectively as possible. Good application of Gather is particularly important here, as bad targeting can lead to the Gather’s AoE not reaching every enemy. Depending on the center point of the Gather skill, this can lead to splitting up a group entirely, leaving part of the group out of range of both damage and debuff application.

Duo Challenge stages are an exception as there is no central enemy to target. Optimal targeting in these stages is more variable and instead depends on trial and error to figure out what allows for the best progression.

Da Vinci Basics

Da Vinci is a strong supportive Memory Set that can be applied in multiple ways in War Zone. Its 4-set effect allows the holder's QTE to trigger the other off-field party member's QTE, regardless of whether it is available or not. This effect has a cooldown of 8 seconds. When 3 Constructs are present on the field at once, DV also provides a 20% ATK buff along with the 10% ATK buff already gained from the 2-set effect. Until Polaris Bond, the 20% ATK buff will only last so long as all 3 members are present on the screen and does not freeze during Timestop. Polaris Bond reworks DV’s 4-set effect to an ATK buff that lasts for 2 seconds once all 3 members are on-field. This buff can be frozen by Timestop skills and is no longer reliant on strict timings.

While this buff is extremely powerful, the main value of 4 set DV in War Zone lies in its ability to reset Tank QTEs. Tanks are typically limited in their options to apply shred, usually only having a single instance of shred on their QTE. As shred does not carry over between waves, this can leave certain waves without shred debuffs.

However, equipping a non-Tank Construct with a 4-set DV allows the Tank’s shred to be reapplied through the QTE reset effect of the memory set onto a new wave. This should also ideally be triggered alongside bursts to capitalize on the ATK buff.

At the same time, this is not always applicable, especially in higher brackets where enemies have significantly higher HP. Certain waves may take too long to clear, leading to potentially wasting QTE cooldown time. In these cases, it can be better to immediately use DV in order to trigger the ATK buff while starting up cooldowns as early as possible.

It is also possible to time QTEs in a way that allows Constructs with extremely fast burst skills to achieve both effects, maximizing the shred application without any potential waste of buffs. This will be covered in a later section.

Advanced Techniques

This section will cover advanced techniques that can be used to further optimize scores once players have a good grasp of the basic techniques and concepts outlined above.

Positioning/Map Management

Positioning your on-field Construct properly allows for immediately setting yourself in range of the next wave to cover or chain waves. (Chaining will be covered later in this guide)

Without proper positioning, players will have to waste valuable time and/or resources to return to the immediate range of enemies while also attempting to make sure their Area of Effect (AOE) skills are not misplaced. Certain Constructs also have skills that work against optimal positioning well if not used carefully: for example, moving unnecessarily while using Karenina: Scire’s Radiant Whirlwind can pull enemies along and displace them. Some enemies may simply move by themselves by walking towards the player or by using attacks that involve movement.

To avoid this, players should attempt to find ways to orient themselves properly, whether through memorizing the general spawn location of waves, using landmarks in the stage as a reference, or “resetting” their position on the map. Enemies should always be kept as close as possible to the wave spawn point by keeping their movement to a minimum and with debuffs such as Gather and Rigidness.

Damage Management (Resources and Overkill)

High-level War Zone gameplay is heavily reliant on careful management of a run throughout its full duration, including the resources players use (Orbs), timers (Buff and Shred duration), and damage output. Much of the variance between runs comes from efficient play that can adapt to different situations rather than repeating basic rotations over and over.

Generally, players will want to clear waves with as little cost as possible. For example, Bianca: Stigmata may only need to use Glowing Lanternlight and 3-Pings to clear one wave, allowing the damage from activating Blade Abyss to be spent on the following wave. Players should aim to balance out their wave clearing speed with as little resources spent as possible.

An important concept in War Zone, dubbed "Overkill", discourages playstyles that solely focus on damage output. Overkill can be summarized as dealing more damage than necessary to clear a wave, wasting potential damage output that could have been used against a fresh wave.

Players should avoid overkill even if it means taking slightly longer to clear the current wave. Utilizing the entirety of a skill’s damage against a fresh wave brings much more benefit than overkilling the current wave and thus wasting half of the skill’s damage to the delay between wave spawns. It may not always be possible to avoid overkilling a wave, but players should prevent it as much as possible.

There are multiple means to mitigate overkill. These methods include but are not limited to: extending certain parts of cycles (e.g. using an extra 3-Ping), allowing a switch-in skill to perform its full animation, or using a QTE to clear a wave before a high-damaging skill can hit. Constructs who utilize stacking mechanics can intentionally keep them at a lower amount to have the output line up closer to the necessary damage.

Certain skills also have built-in answers for overkill by having multiple bursts during their animations. If used at the right time, these skills can “chain” to hit two waves in one cast. This will be covered in detail in the Chaining Waves section.

Managing overkill is where much of the variance in each War Zone run can come from. Overkill is not a static metric that can be avoided in the same way each cycle, as War Zone changes stat values and buffs every week. Knowing how to properly deal with overkill is a matter of trial and error.

Timer Management (Animation Canceling and Pre-Inputs)

Animation Canceling refers to prematurely ending an animation to use another action earlier than intended. This can include dodging to cancel an Orb animation, using a skill to cancel out of a Basic Attack animation, etc. Animation Cancels are very closely linked to good rotations – many Constructs depend on them for their cycles to line up with cooldowns of QTEs and other external effects. The importance of canceling comes down to two main points: managing timers and improving DPS. This section will focus on timer management, as the latter is simply a matter of being able to perform the high-damaging parts of a cycle earlier and within the duration of more buffs/debuffs.

When competing in higher brackets like Hero or Legend, only the first few waves are generally able to be cleared without the application of buffs and debuffs. However, the duration of these effects are very short, typically lasting 8-10s, and some lasting as little as 5s. By shortening cycles through animation canceling many Constructs can cast more skills within these durations. This becomes especially important with Amplifiers in the team as their 10-second Class Passive buff timer begins as soon as a Construct switches in, without any method of reapplication besides switching Constructs again.

However, some skills will not deal damage if their animation is canceled. Depending on the Construct, players should avoid canceling if a Construct can only clear or chain a wave by allowing the skill’s animations to resolve and apply damage. For example, Constructs Lee: Hyperreal generally should not let their Orb animations play out fully while others like Bianca: Stigmata have more leeway in this regard.

Another way timers can be managed is through Pre-Inputs. As the name implies, this refers to making inputs early, usually before a skill deals all of its possible damage. This ties into Mapping Runs as it requires players to "predict" a chain or clear being possible and assumes they do not have to delay a part of a cycle to apply shred. This mainly applies to teams with persistent off-field shred mechanics that do not apply during Timestop, like Vera: Garnet's Flag or Karenina: Scire's Thermal Field.

Debuff Management

When optimizing a War Zone run, players need to gauge which waves do and do not require the application of shred through trial and error. Many Tanks face the issue of having very limited sources of off-field shred application, typically being limited to their QTE which will only apply shred once. When playing at advanced levels, players may end up clearing waves too quickly, causing QTE timings to be misaligned with both rotations and waves that require shred application. Due to the aforementioned lack of persistent application and the variance in enemies’ HP pools, there are situations where triggering a QTE should be avoided.

The following scenario outlines a situation in which not applying the Tank’s shred through QTE on a wave is optimal:

  1. The Tank’s QTE is used to clear wave 6
  2. The QTE’s cooldown ends, but it is not used on wave 7 as the enemies have lower HP and do not need shred applied to clear
  3. The QTE is saved and used on wave 8, which has a higher HP pool and needs shred application to clear efficiently.

This also extends to Constructs using certain memories that provide debuffs such as 2-set Einsteina. While Tanks typically hold memories that provide shred, certain compositions require a Construct of a different class to use them. Similar to managing Tank QTEs, players should avoid wasting their shred effects while retaining other benefits from these QTEs, like buff application

Some Constructs have skills that provide alternative/persistent methods of shred application. These Constructs include:

These skills do not entirely negate the need to manage shred application.

Note: A * denotes an ability that does not apply shred during Timestop. To get around this, players should delay the use of skills with Timestop until the wave has spawned unless their Tank’s QTE is available, as QTEs performed during Timestop will still apply shred. Nanami: Starfarer is an exception – players should instead rely on her QTE when using 4-set Unimate to supplement the lack of synergy with Timestop. This is due to long intervals between each set of missiles firing and the inability to immediately go into effect and apply shred when a new wave spawns.

For Constructs without these abilities, 4-set Da Vinci can be used to have a pseudo-persistent shred application as explained previously.

While this section covers shred, these principles can also apply to buffs. Buffs also have situations where delaying application may be optimal if they are not necessary to clear a wave. However, situations where buffs should be delayed are rarer than delaying shred.

DV Advanced

As mentioned above, DV can be timed to simultaneously reset the non-DV holder’s QTE and apply the ATK buff.

The timing will vary from team to team due to QTEs having varying durations. The information in this section only applies when a team’s DV holder is not the Tank and consists of Constructs that have very fast bursts.

Example of using DV to reset QTE while applying buffs to a burst:

  1. Begin with both QTEs active
  2. Perform the burst skill that will be buffed
  3. Trigger the Tank’s QTE late enough that it will still be active when the skill lands, but early enough so that it can be reset with DV Trigger the DV holder’s QTE right before the skill lands to create a small window of time where the ATK buff is applied and clear the current wave
  4. Apply shred to the next wave with the reactivated QTE

The above strategy is only possible when the current wave can be cleared with the buffed skill or is left with little enough HP that it can be cleared before the Tank QTE deactivates.

Note: This section will become partially outdated with Polaris Bond, as DV's 4-set effect will be changed to have its ATK buff last 2 seconds after all 3 Constructs are on-field, rather than only applying when all 3 Constructs are on-field.

Chaining Waves

Wave Chaining refers to the act of “covering” 2 or more waves with a single cycle. Chaining is a staple in managing Overkill as it distributes the cycle’s damage across multiple waves,.

There are two main methods of chaining:

  1. Spreading out individual “parts” of a cycle between multiple waves.
  2. Using certain skills with longer animations that distribute their damage into multiple bursts.

The first method involves clearing a wave with one part of a cycle to immediately apply high damage to the following wave. Examples include:

  • Clearing a wave with Orbs then performing an Ult on the next wave
  • Clearing a wave with Orbs, waiting for the following wave to spawn, then continuing to use Orbs on the next wave
  • Clearing a wave with the first part of an Ult, then performing the second part of an Ult on the next wave

The second method takes much more trial and error as it requires two conditions: enemies’ HP pools to be lowered to a certain threshold, and it is only possible with certain skills. These skills must deal their damage in multiple, smaller bursts rather than a single, high burst in order to chain. These skills can also be further divided into two categories: “split” and “distributed” damage.

“Split” refers to skills with their damage divided into two distinct bursts. The first burst will be used to clear the first wave, allowing the second burst to land on the next wave. Examples of split bursts include:

“Distributed” refers to skills with their damage distributed close to or entirely equally across its duration. These do not necessarily need to clear a wave early, they only need to be able to clear a wave early enough so that the skill does not deal its full damage before the next wave spawns. Examples of distributed bursts include:

Ending a Run

During the last 15-20 seconds of a run, players should consider modifying rotations to expend resources faster and deal as much damage as possible before the timer ends.

For example, ending a run with a skill that has Timestop can even result in an additional 50,000 points due to clearing a wave and allowing the next to spawn.

Other ideal run-enders include:

  • Performing another cycle with the current on-field unit if the next switching-in Construct’s cycle would take too long and/or not deal enough damage within the remaining time
  • Switching to a Construct with frontloaded burst to deal high amounts of damage within the short remaining time frame

These methods are used on a case-by-case basis, as some rotations may not provide sufficient time to perform an entire cycle or even activate QTEs.

Competitive

Tech/Bug Use

The following section will briefly cover techniques or bugs used by multiple Constructs at competitive levels. Concepts specific to individual Constructs will not be covered unless directly related to one covered here.

SP Delay

SP Delay is the term for a bug that occurs when a 3-Ping is used at nearly the exact same time as an Ult. If timed correctly, this will cause energy to “overflow” by tricking the game into recognizing the 3-Ping’s energy generation as happening after the Ult. This provides more energy since the game accounts for the Energy cost of using before accounting the 3-Ping’s Energy generation.

SP Delay can also lend itself to other techs for specific units due to the way it functions (Ayla: Kaleido’s “Paint Duping”, Bianca: Stigmata’s “Instaexcal”, etc.).

Basic Weaving

Basic Weaving is a tech that takes advantage of the Signal Orb generation mechanic, allowing certain units to utilize Basic Attacks to create more Orbs in between other actions.

Orbs are generated based on a timer. The game will run a check for Basic Attacking in intervals every ~1 second. Players can exploit this by only performing Basic Attacks at these points. Between each interval, players are free to perform other actions such as 3-Pings. As long as players continue to perform Basic Attacks at every check, the game will continue to generate Orbs. This is very useful for Constructs with particularly high rates of Orb consumption, like Lucia: Plume, Luna: Laurel, etc.

Routing/Mapping Runs

Routing or Mapping Runs takes every concept so far and compiles it into a single, optimized run, providing a direct route to take instead of leaving entire sections up to guesswork.

To map a run, players should take note of everything that happens in a run. Some examples of what players should keep track of include:

  • How quickly can this wave be cleared?
  • Is it worth it to expend the resources needed to clear as quickly as possible, or is there a slower method that benefits the run more in the long run?
  • Is there a way to adjust this part of the rotation to clear or set up a chain?
  • Should I animation cancel this skill for better buff/shred uptime, or is the damage from the full animation needed for a clear/chain?
  • Does this wave need QTEs? Can they be saved for a tougher future wave?
  • How will this rotation line up with waves? Would this cause any waves to be a significant problem, and how can this be dealt with?

…and much more. Run Mapping pushes a War Zone run to its limits and cuts down on as many variables as possible. Players should be open to breaking static rotations in favor of other actions for optimal progression.

Retrieved from "https://grayravens.com/wiki/Test:75/Guide?oldid=32397"