HazelBuild and Guide

Our long-awaited lightning queen has finally arrived, Hazel brings some much needed shock damage to the roster as she conducts a symphony of storms.

As would be expected, Hazel's kit revolves around having Shock DoT stacks on the enemy, however her kit itself provides very little in the way of Shock. Despite this, she is still able to function and keep her passive stacks up on her own, though she does perform quite a bit better when paired with another unit that applies Shock, such as Claudia.

Her passive, "Rhapsody: Thunderbolt" is the central function of her kit. It provides her with "Energia" stacks which enhance all of her skills and her auto attacks. She gains 5 stacks at the start of battle, 1 stack every 3 seconds passively if any enemy is receiving Shock damage, and gains 2 stacks from auto attacks against a target with a Shock DoT. This is improved by her artifact, which reduces the time it takes for her passive stacks to be gained. At 5 stacks, her auto attacks become small AoEs, striking all enemies within 3m around her main target. It also increases the damage her auto attacks deal by 180% of Atk, and ignores 50% of enemy Def. She can gain up to 50 stacks at once, though many of her skills will use these stacks for added effects, draining her reserve as she builds it, which makes her kit kind of a balancing act.

Her only source of Shock application comes from her subskill "Prelude: Lightning Flash", which is a line attack aimed at the nearest enemy. It applies Shock for 8 seconds, or, if she has 5 or more Energia stacks, it will consume 5 stacks and apply shock for 2 seconds longer. The boosted version will also provide her with the uncancelable "Conductor" buff, which allows her to gain an extra stack of Energia from each auto attack against Shocked enemies.

Her second subskill "Capriccio: Retribution" deals damage to the nearest enemy and stuns them for 2.5 seconds. At the cost of 5 Energia stacks, the powered up version of the skill will stun for 3 seconds, and place a "Lightning Strike Alert" debuff on them, which calls down a follow-up Lightning Strike 5 seconds later, hitting the target and any other enemies 3m around them, stunning all those hit for 3 seconds. If she hits a Shocked target with the boosted version of the skill, she will reclaim 3 stacks of Energia, reducing the effective cost of the skill to 2.

Her main skill, "Requiem: Devastation", is an 11m long line attack that hits the closest enemy and any other enemies in a line behind them, stunning all enemies hit for 2.5 seconds. When cast at 5 or more Energia stacks, the skill will consume 5 stacks to deal 150% bonus damage, an effect that can stack up to 3 times, consuming 15 Energia at max. If cast while having more than 15 stacks, the stack cost is reduced to 10.

Of all her skills, her Ultimate is the biggest drain on her Energia stacks, but is well worth the cost. It targets the nearest enemy, hitting them and all enemies within 3m around, dealing damage and stunning them for 3 seconds. The main target is given the "Lightning Rod" debuff, which, after 10 seconds, will hit the target and those within 2.5m around them with a Lightning Strike, dealing damage and stunning them again for 2.5 seconds. This will continue repeating every 10 seconds thereafter, consuming 5 Energia each time. The skill will continue until either Hazel runs out of Energia stacks, the target dies, or she recasts her Ultimate. Each time the target is hit with a Lightning Strike, Hazel also acquires a stack of "Encore: Denouement", which at 3 stacks will increase the Lightning Strike damage to 825% of Atk. This buff will persist until the skill ends via any of the three previously listed methods.

Her artifact is quite strong, providing her with all the things a DPS wants. Each time she uses a subskill that is boosted by Energia she gains stacks of Intermezzo, up to ten times. Each stack raises her Atk, Crit Rate and Crit Dmg by 5% at Legendary+, providing her with a whopping 50% increase at max stacks. The stacks do take some time to build up, however in longer content such as raids, this isn't a particularly big issue. Her artifact further enhances her damage potential by reducing the time it takes for her to obtain Energia stacks from her passive.

The trick to using Hazel effectively lies in being able to keep up her Energia stacks, and build up her Intermezzo stacks as fast as possible. To that end, she is somewhat needy when it comes to choosing teammates, and very needy when it comes to Artifact ascensions. Firstly, she greatly benefits from having another source of Shock application, since her own uptime is pretty lacking. Claudia is her best friend on that front, though Erusha, Adrianne or Claire are also options. She would also benefit quite well from Supports that can boost her Speed, allowing her to cycle through her subskills faster and deal faster auto attacks, increasing her Energia generation. Secondly, ascending her Artifact is essential. Without at least Legendary+, her Energia generation is nowhere near good enough.

Her AoE damage and the ample amount of Stuns in her kit make her an amazing asset in 5v5 content, though it's generally not worth pulling units for that since we've already got many viable options and the content isn't particularly challenging. She does have the potential to shine in guild raids - especially Dark Knight, where paired with Claudia, the duo can wreak havoc. She's likely going to be quite good in other raids as well, though without extreme investment, keeping her Energia stacks up may prove difficult. Once she uses her Ultimate, it is possible to keep her stacks up enough so that it persists throughout the entire fight, but it requires heavy Artifact investment and a team with Speed boosts to support her. Either that, or you just use her main skill sparingly to preserve stacks, at the cost of DPS.

At the end of the day, Hazel is just another DPS added to the pile, albeit a particularly good one. Though if you're not able to invest heavily into her, you're better off saving for the next Angel, Demon or Chaos unit.