Cherrie (Romantic)Build and Guide

Swapping her guns for a katana, Cherrie (Romantic) is an AOE DPS centered around Burn. Her skills read like a thesis, but we will do our best to summarise them:

Keyword: Burn type Damage - treated the same as Burn Damage over Time effect (such as Gaia’s gimmick and skill effects that affect it), but can crit.

• Ultimate: Liquor-Blade Convergence - Enters a super mode which powers up her subskills, ATK, DEF, Damage Dealt and Damage Reduction. She also inflicts Burn-type damage every 2 seconds to all enemies near her. Cherrie periodically inflicts herself with a stack of “Sloshed” (Cleansable), which lowers her speed per stack and stuns her at 3 stacks (resetting them).

• Passive: Romantic Swordfighter - Permanently increases her Critical Rate. Basic attacks and skills also increase her DMG reduction and Crit DMG per stack (caps at 7).

• Main: Swift Draw - Deals massive AOE damage. Cherrie enters an animation where she slowly unsheathes her katana. While in that animation, Cherrie taunts all enemies and gains Damage reduction and CC immunity. For every hit taken, Cherrie deals massive AOE Burn-type damage when that animation ends and inflicts Burn.

• Sub 1: Full Moon Sword Dance - Cherrie attacks the nearest enemy, gaining stacks of Full Moon, which increases her DMG reduction (removed whenever she takes a hit). When her ultimate is active, she deals additional Burn damage and increases her Lifesteal.

• Sub 2: Fire Dragon Slash - Winds up before charging towards the furthest enemy, dealing AOE damage, Knock Back and Stun to all enemies in her path. Deals additional Burn damage when the Stun expires and increases her ATK and DEF. When her ultimate is active, she deals bonus damage to the main target of the skill and lowers their DEF.

• Artifact Skill: Song of Romance and Liquor - Increases Cherrie’s Critical Hit and CDMG whenever she uses Basic Attacks and skills (up to 10 stacks). Whenever she deals Critical Hits, she increases her Damage Dealt (Legend+) and inflicts additional damage (Origin). 

DOT-type damage (especially Burn) continues to be the flavor of the year, which Cherrie has in spades on top of her massive multipliers and buffs. Cherrie has a short ramp-up time before her ultimate and Sixth Sense stacks, where she is quite squishy. Still, once there she becomes an unstoppable juggernaut.  

Cherrie shines in AOE situations, but her raw damage can compete in single-target DPS Raids. Her kit is expected to pair well against Gaia (vulnerable to Burn Damage), Charite (Human typing) and Dark Knight (AOE) raids, and can brute force Rudra’s Crit Resistance. Cherrie might fall short a bit at Pluto due to her long animations and low hit counts. 

In the PvE arena, her personal damage before her Ultimate can quickly end shorter fights. If there is one drawback, Cherrie lacks access to fast tools to quickly increase her own DMG reduction. Her S2 also has wind-up time and can easily be interrupted. In longer fights (such as Strive), Cherrie’s raw damage and carry potential are solid enough to compete, but she must be protected until then to reach that point.

Synergies

Cherrie is blessed by the abundance of Burn-oriented support that can amp her various Burn multipliers - Catherine (Radiance) and Rose (Prominence) chief among them. Cherrie also appreciates any defensive support and tanks that draw attention away from her while she ramps up or uses her impactful AOE skills. 

Investment

As a DPS, we always recommend Eternal+/ Origin as a baseline with Legend+ Artifact being the first stopping point. Any further investment will increase her personal DPS, with Legend+ and Origin Artifacts being major spikes in her damage.

Conclusion

With the Anniversary being a month away, Cherrie is bait, but a very strong one. You do get 2 copies of her from her event, and the areas where she’s expected to shine are quite some time away, so we would suggest waiting for the upcoming anniversary details before making a decision.