NathennBuild and Guide

Nathenn is a Kinetic, Hollow Affinity Damage Dealer/Debuffer hybrid who exploits his extreme SPD, ACC and high HP to deal considerable damage to his enemies while reducing the impact of their attacks.

Skill 1

Nathenn’s S1 is divided into an Active and a Passive: his Active is a 2-hit single-target attack that deals good damage based on his Max HP, and has a moderate chance to inflict a 2-turn [SPD-] to his target with each hit.

His Passive, Running Bolt, gives him multiple bonuses based on his SPD. For each point of SPD above 200, Nathenn gains 1% CDMG and 1% ACC once the skill is level 5. Also, when attacked, Nathenn has a 20% chance to obtain the [Swift Volt] buff before the attack deals damage to him, and this buff prevents the attack from Critting on him and gives him Immunity during the attack only. The chance to trigger this buff increases proportionally to the difference between Nathenn’s SPD and his attacker.

While the attack itself is already strong for an S1, the passive is simply amazing and improving it is more than worth the Lattices. Get that skill to level 5 as soon as possible.

Skill 2

Nathenn’s S2 is another single-target attack that deals good damage based on his Max HP, with the added effect of triggering an Execute if the target is under 20/25% HP after the attack. On top of that, Nathenn heals himself by a huge amount if the attack does not kill, and if it does kill, he heals his entire team by that amount instead.

Although this skill represents a very powerful momentum swing when successful, it falls a bit short compared to the value of improving his Passive and the big AoE damage and crippling effects of his S3. In a bruiser-heavy meta, raising this skill to level 5 is important but not the highest priority. Has the lowest priority among his skills (still very high for high-end PVP, though). 

Skill 3

S3 is a powerful 3-hit AoE with high damage and a high chance to apply 2 turns of both [SPD-] and [Forgetfulness] with every hit, to each enemy.

Very simple and straightforward, this skill can cripple an entire team thanks to Nathenn’s naturally high ACC, while also dealing huge damage in AoE thanks to the CDMG from his passive. Unless you can end your fights in less than 3 turns, bringing this skill to level 5 is very important to have a good uptime on the debuffs. This skill has the 2nd highest priority.

PVE

Nathenn might be a PVP beast, but unfortunately his perks don’t translate as well to the PVE modes. Amazing SPD is largely irrelevant on Damage Dealers since most teams run powerful Turn Meter/SPD manipulators. Still, his Damage itself is nowhere near competitive when put next to the heavy hitters that have been sitting at the top of the meta since their releases. His main strength is the raw power of his AoE to clear waves on enemies like in Dokidoki,  but sadly those small wave scenarios are pretty much the only place where he shines. All in all, neither his damage nor his debuffs justify using up a slot for him unless you’re punching below your level and then it doesn’t really matter what you do anyway.

PVP

Nathenn’s greatest strength is his ability to superbuff himself and cripple the enemy team simply by having more SPD than them. Problem? You want a LOT of SPD. That means you need top-tier SPD gear across the board, and you also can’t neglect HP, Crit Rate, and even ACC if you’re not confident in your SPD and want to rely on his Debuffs consistently. To the average player who can’t make him a “fast as fuck boi”, Nathenn is just Potential Man. For those who can afford to equip him with a full BiS setup though, you’ve got your hands on your own Superman. Nathenn’s got everything: SPD, Damage potential in both AoE and ST, crippling Debuffs that can ruin poorly prepared teams before they even get to play, natural bulk from HP scaling, Debuff Immunity and Anti-crit self-buff, and even an Execute. The whole package is there. You get it by now, but Nathenn is one of those rare characters who can single-handedly open and close a game by themselves if the conditions are all there.

When your Debuffer + Damage Dealer + Executioner moves at about 380+ SPD, there really isn’t much in terms of counters. Be faster or extremely resilient, cripple his SPD before he devastates your team, and if you’re not confident, the best way is unironically to simply not even give your opponent a chance to pick him. When it comes to synergies working well with Nathenn, anything that lets him cycle his Turns/CDs even more is appreciated, and in the same vein, redirecting the enemy or controlling them to stop them from attacking him works wonders too.

Beware that Nathenn is incredibly reliant on his gear, to the point that you may have to completely change your loadout if you can’t confidently outspeed your targets, in which case you might want to focus either on some SPD alongside one either his damage dealing aspect or his debuffing aspect, losing some reliability from his many self-buffs, and missing out on a lot of value in the process.

Conclusion

Nathenn is an incredibly strong but conditional PVP Animus, whose only weaknesses are his extreme reliance on top-tier gear and his need to out-stat his opponents. In the right conditions, you’ve got a character capable of defeating a whole enemy team by himself, but on the other hand, the moment you play against opponents stronger than you, then he loses much of his advantages. His lack of relevance in PVE isn’t a big problem; otherwise he’d likely never leave your teams ever again.