Wuthering Waves (WW)JianxinBuild and Guide

Jianxin is a 5-star Aero Gauntlet character that can fit absolutely every role: DPS, Hybrid, Support. She can have a position as all of them at varying degrees of success, and this solidifies her as the ultimate multi-purpose character.

This makes her amazing for any Overworld content: she can group enemies, she can generate shields, she can heal herself, she can deal passable damage. Arguably the worst as a DPS, usable as a Hybrid but mostly being useful as a Support, most people tend to judge her based on her Support grouping capabilities in endgame content. However, do keep in mind she is amazing as a comfort Hybrid option in the overworld; arguably one of the best at that.

Jianxin has a few points of interest: her Outro skill, her Forte circuit, her Resonance Skill, and most importantly her Ultimate.

The simplest of these is her Resonance Skill: entering a Parry stance when using it, she is able to counter any enemy attack that comes at her, generating Concerto energy along with a good chunk of her Forte bar. This comes at a problem: requiring you to know when an enemy is going to attack to optimize its usage, which would simply be met with a regular dodge anyways and as a result serving little purpose, and making you forfeit a potential parry, reducing the rate at which you reduce the enemy’s stagger bar.

Her Outro skill amplifies the Resonance Liberation damage for the next resonator you Intro into by 38%, which is a huge multiplier for characters such as Calcharo and Xiangli Yao who primarily deal that type of damage. However, Jianxin has trouble generating the Concerto energy that gets her there in the first place: as a result, this Outro skill sees little use, especially when considering both of the characters mentioned earlier can enjoy quickswapping to an extent, which this Outro is incompatible with as it expires on swap.

Her Forte circuit is one of her kit’s fundamentals, as it allows her to heal herself, enter a stance that reduces all incoming damage by 50% (which can stack up with other damage reduction buffs, such as the Bell-Borne Geochelone which completely nullifies all incoming damage for 3 hits), deal a good chunk of sustained damage to enemies in a small radius, and most importantly generate one of the most potent shields in the game after 6 seconds of channeling in place, which can prove very useful for sustainability purposes. However, the aforementioned 6 seconds of channeling are a big problem: enemies can and will often move out of the range, the time is wasted by lengthening a rotation of an often supportive character who most likely deals little damage (depending on her build), and staying in place tanking enemy hits often shreds a good chunk of the shield - not to mention, it’s entirely unusable in Hologram boss fights unless paired with the Bell-Borne Geochelone echo, in which you aren’t guaranteed to be able to withstand hits for 6 seconds - which defeats the purpose in certain situations.

Finally, the only part of her kit that isn’t problematic much is her Ultimate, which pulls in enemies while dealing constant damage for roughly 3 seconds. While it comes at a hefty cost of 150 Resonance Energy to cast, that can be patched up by running higher Energy Regen echoes; the short enough 20-second cooldown isn’t problematic, the pull range is generous while not being perfect, and it generates a good amount of Concerto Energy which allows her to access her Outro skill faster. This grouping ability is rare as it’s accessible by very few characters, and only one other support in the form of Shorekeeper.

Because of how the Tower of Adversity fundamentally works, she finds herself usable in the niche of a grouping low investment support, which can sport constant, easy-access healing with the Originite: Type IV weapon. This niche is viable for the middle floors of the side towers of the Tower of Adversity’s Hazard Zone, often focused on AoE damage which Jianxin can help with greatly by grouping the small enemies often present. Due to the way the Tower’s energy system works, one team can be ran on all floors 2&3 of the side towers, while heavier-hitting teams can handle floors 1&4 and the middle tower in its entirety, which are significantly harder to clear. This makes Jianxin hold a viable meta niche. In this build, the 3 star Originite weapon requires her to do a single basic attack every 30 seconds to trigger the effect of the Rejuvenating Glow set, which can buff the ATK of all your party members while costing minimal field time. Energy Regen is the only necessary stat to build on your Jianxin, making her require very low investment allowing you to allocate those resources to your other, heavier-hitting teams, and enabling you to clear the middle floors of the tower swiftly and easily thanks to her grouping.

To summarize, Jianxin is a very comfortable character for the Overworld if you wish to invest in her - arguably one of the best Hybrids for that purpose thanks to the many roles she can fill. However, she is spread too thin and excels at none of the roles she tries to fit in a team, restricting her to being used either in the Overworld or as a low-investment grouping support in the Tower of Adversity, focusing on her Ultimate. While this renders Jianxin viable, she comes with some flaws that will need to be circled around.