Phoenix Best Build Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Phoenix is a Fire Anomaly Agent who can grant her entire team the ability to CRIT with Anomalies, all the while being “immortal”, packing both self-heals and a revival passive that triggers once per fight.

On top of all that, she can also trigger occasional Ablooms and manages 2 resources: the “Pyre” gauge - built by landing “Combustion” skills - and the “Ascension” point. The former of which can be used to unleash an enhanced Basic Attack, and the latter leading to an alternate EX Special that uses up no Energy, helping streamline her rotations.

Her gameplay loop is all about using her Combustion skills to generate Pyre, all the while cycling through her various EX Specials to build-up as much Anomaly as possible on enemies, being a very dominant unit to Vortex teams.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Phoenix’s Core Passive provides both personal and team-wide buffs. At max, it gives her an unconditional 85 Anomaly Proficiency, and inflicts the “Sear” state on any enemy that takes Attribute Anomaly DMG dealt by her squad.

Any Anomaly DMG to Sear state enemies then has a chance to CRIT for 25% DMG at base. If her Additional Ability, which needs Anomaly or same faction characters, is active, then this is increased to 40%.

The base CRIT Rate is 30%, but every point of initial Anomaly Mastery over 155 gives her an additional 0.7%, so she’d need 255 Anomaly Mastery to get 100% CRIT Rate. This can be achieved by using an S-Rank Anomaly Mastery W-Engine, an Anomaly Mastery D6 and a 2-piece Anomaly Mastery Drive Disc set effect.

Sear will also apply a Fire DoT to enemies, which ticks every 8 seconds. This is regular damage, not Anomaly damage, but it’s considered an EX Special Attack, so it can be used to trigger Drive Disc set-effects (e.g. Freedom Blues).

If Phoenix then uses an EX Special Attack, she enters a “Wither and Bloom” state, which gives her access to an enhanced EX Special after using her regular EX Special.

Her Core Passive also gives her Combustion attacks Anti-Interrupt resistance and makes them generate Pyre, one of her unique resources which is capped at 120. Combustion attacks include her Basic 3 and 4, her alternate Basic, any of her EX Specials, as well as both her Chain Attack and Ultimate.

She also gets additional 5 Pyre when triggering a Perfect Block, which can be achieved with either her Special or any of her EX Specials, having a cooldown of 10s. Although her Special has a slight wind-up to it, if done after a Combustion attack, this animation can be skipped, making for easier parries.

The last aspect of her Core Passive is the Rebirth effect: if Phoenix takes fatal damage, when next swapped into by any means, she will resurrect and heal 50% of her Max HP. 

This does have a very long cooldown however, at 1200s, so even in modes like Operation Bagel it will likely only trigger once.

Specials

Phoenix has 1 Special and 3 distinct EX Specials.

Her Special is a short step back (which can be bypassed if used after a Combustion attack) into an upswing, and if she’s attacked during the swing, will trigger a Perfect Block, benefitting from her Core Passive’s 5 Pyre bonus.

After use it’ll either lead to her alternate Basic, or her Basic 3, depending on if she simply hit the enemy or triggered a Perfect Block respectively.

All of her EX Specials are Combustion attacks, and have Perfect Block properties at different points, but they will also trigger if hitting enemies that flash red or yellow. They also lead into Basic 3 regardless of Perfect Blocks.

Her regular EX Special is Dazzling Flare, and it costs 40 Energy. It’s a spin into a stomp, with the parry point being on the spin.

As part of her Core Passive, this puts her in the Wither and Bloom effect, so the next EX Special within the next 20s is enhanced to Falling Sun. This also costs 40 Energy and has a longer animation but better values, with a parry property on the rising portion.

It will build an Ascension point, which has a cap of 1. This transforms Phoenix’s next EX Special to the alternate Blazing Slash, which costs 0 Energy and instead consumes the Ascension point.

On use, Phoenix will retreat back, and holding the Special button lets her charge the attack, but doing this does not increase its values in any way. Once released, it’ll lead to an upswing that can Perfect Block enemies, but if the skill is used after a Combustion attack, the retreat portion can be skipped entirely.

This generally amounts to a cycle of regular EX Special Attack: Dazzling Flare -> enhanced EX Special Attack: Falling Sun -> alternate EX Special Attack: Blazing Slash.

Basic Attack

Phoenix’s Basic Attack string is split into 4 parts, with her Basic 3 and 4 being Combustion Attacks and building a decent amount of Anomaly.

After her Special, she can shortcut into an alternate Basic if it fails to Perfect Block. This both has similar values to her Basic 3, and shortcuts into the Basic 3 after use.

Lastly is her enhanced Basic, which can only be used after she has 90 or more Pyre built up. It’s the only move that consumes it, building up a lot of Fire Anomaly and triggering an Abloom on its last hit that gets an extra 40% CRIT DMG boost when triggered (for 80% total when coupled with the bonuses from Phoenix’s Core Passive and Additional Ability).

Dodges

Phoenix’s Dodges are unremarkable, with a weak Dash Attack and standard Dodge Counter, however as her Dodge Counter has good values and shortcuts into Basic 3, it can be better to use than a Perfect Block with her skills if the Pyre generation is on cooldown.

Assists

Her Assists are similarly unremarkable, but both her Quick Assist and Assist Follow-Up will also shortcut into Basic 3.

Chain & Ultimate

Both Phoenix’s Chain Attack and Ultimate are Combustion attacks. Her Chain Attack is as standard, building a lot of Anomaly and Decibels, and it has the added benefit of shortcutting into her Basic 3.

Her Ultimate is unique as not only does it build a lot of Anomaly, but it consumes all of Phoenix’s HP on use. This then puts her in the “WIther” state (this is not the “Wither and Bloom” state from her Core Passive!), and triggers a Quick Assist to the next character.

While in the Wither state, Phoenix cannot use her regular moves. She can only be swapped out of, or use “Soul-Searching Blaze”, an Ultimate follow-up that deals damage, builds Anomaly, and recovers all of the HP consumed by her Ultimate + an additional 10%.

The final hit of this attack will also trigger an Abloom, which like her enhanced Basic, gets a 40% CRIT DMG boost. Like many of her other moves, it can shortcut into her Basic 3.

The Soul-Searching Blaze attack will also happen automatically if no move is used while in the Wither state for a few seconds, or when Phoenix is swapped into by any means other than a Chain Attack.

Phoenix has multiple resources but they all tie into one another, leading to a relatively simple flowchart:

• Use her Basic 3 and 4.

• Then cast her Special to make use of the Combustion attack shortcut, and loop into the alternate Basic, then Basics 3 and 4 again.

• As needed, cycle through her EX Specials for additional Anomaly build-up, making use of the free alternate EX as it comes.

• When there’s enough Pyre available, make use of her enhanced Basic Attack for its high Anomaly build-up and the Abloom trigger.

• If Ultimate is ready, use it + the Soul-Searching Blaze follow-up for high Anomaly build-up and an Abloom.

  • The Quick Assist triggered by the Ultimate can be used during Soul-Searching Blaze if looking to swap out of Phoenix.

Many of her skills also have rather long animations, like her Basic 4 and enhanced Basic Attack. On teams with Remielle, or other Anomaly Agents that may have field-time demands, this is an opportunity to swap out of Phoenix to use their skills.

As Phoenix’s CRIT DMG does not apply to Disorders, her teams should ideally have a Wind Anomaly Agent to enable Vortex. Optimising the number of Vortexes then becomes the primary goal, trying to avoid overcapping on Anomaly build-up to get more triggers.