Wuthering Waves: Best 5-Star Character Selector Options

Lingyang is a melee primary damage dealer with one of the most distinct play styles in the game, which you'll either love or despise.

Lingyang, like Calcharo and Encore, deals the majority of his damage during his Ultimate, which gives him a massive damage boost and speeds up his access to his unique enhanced state, which fuels all of his normal combos.

Pros

• Can fly
• Unique playstyle not found anywhere else
• Button mashing friendly playstyle where you can’t really mess up

Cons

• Falls behind other damage dealers
• Flying can be disorientating for some players
• Some bosses have unusual hitboxes which can make striking them while airborne a challenge

Jianxin is a melee hybrid character who falls somewhere between the support and damage dealer roles. She provides the most diverse team benefits of any character currently on release, which is simultaneously her greatest strength and weakness.

Jianxin has it all, with her most distinguishing characteristic being her incredible sustain, which makes her virtually immune to all damage in overworld gameplay with the exception of Holograms.

Pros

• Loaded kit - can nearly do it all
• Operates as a one-woman army in the overworld
• Easy to play

Cons

• Jack of all trades and master of none
• Wants to stay on the field all the time which clashes with her support-like kit
• Long animations that require her to remain stationary for up to 6 seconds

Encore is a ranged main damage dealer who can turn into a melee powerhouse with her self-empowerment Ultimate. Encore provides most of her damage during her Ultimate, with the goal of fitting as many boosted skills as possible into its duration.

Encore herself has one of the highest single target DPS windows in the game but currently has the one downside of lacking an exceptional hybrid character to pair with her.

Pros

• A mix of ranged and melee in one character, offering good flexibility
• One of the highest single target burst damage 'windows' in the game
• Great Resonance energy generation
• Ultimate burst rotation is easy to understand

Cons

• Cannot parry while in non-ultimate form with standard attacks
• Finishes her rotation off with a massive charged heavy attack
• Currently, there's no perfect Hybrid character that can empower her

Calcharo is an ultimate-centric Electro main DPS who specializes in executing some of the game's longest combo sequences. At the same time, Calcharo boasts some of the best, if not the biggest, damage potential of any team (after the release of Yinlin).

It should be noted that Calcharo's ultimate damage window is extremely difficult to master, especially when attempting to avoid monster mechanics. Failing to correctly execute will lose him a significant portion of his DPS.

Pros

• Exceptionally high damage when perfectly played
• Very active gameplay - there's always a button to press or combo to perform
• High-skill ceiling with huge rewards
• Great synergy with Yinlin, but he still has good team options before she is released

Cons

• Hard to play with all the combos and skill-weaving
• Requires constant focus as there's very little room for error

Verina is the strongest Support character available at launch, with global buffs, healing, and the ability to avoid team deaths through a Cheat Death mechanic. Most endgame teams on release include a Main DPS, a Hybrid character, and Support.

The 1.0 patch has relatively few Supports available, and those that do exist have limited capabilities or are more challenging to play than Verina.

Pros

• Strong team-wide heals and buff
• Barely takes any on-field time
• Easy to use
  
• Cheat Death mechanic
  

Cons

• Her design might not be to everyone's liking