BoreasBuild and Guide

Boreas is the first advanced Support added to the game, and also a staple to most future endgame team comps and strats. The reason for this is his ability to reduce Elemental Resistance to Ice, Water and Lightning (mainly Ice). He grants high amounts of CRIT Rate to his allies and shields to save them from mechanics that otherwise would kill most Echomancers with one hit. He is often used alongside Freda, either in tandem or alternating between one another for a maximum of buff potential.

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Boreas's healing is different from other healers. He will put a shield on his allies, which will be converted into healing. His S status is mainly due to his burst ability, which can provide 50% CRIT Rate for allies and 100% CRIT Rate for summons, making him a perfect match for Cen Ying, Elpis and many other Echomancers with summons. In addition, his buff can make allies deal Ice elemental DMG. The change in attributes combined with the choice of Traces opens room to many possibilities.

Boreas is a unique healer who focuses on giving shields to his allies instead of directly healing them. This can guarantee that your team will survive certain attacks and mechanics that otherwise would instantly kill them, but it may be tricky to manage in the long run without proper investment on Boreas' skills.

Every 10 seconds, he'll passively apply his [Cryo Contract] shield on all allies. This shield is very distinctive, as it scales both with Boreas' HP and the damage he takes, making him a suitable Echomancer to have at the frontline, unlike most Supports. His first skill, “Cryonic Calculations”, works as a 'panic button', by instantly applying a larger shield on all allies and healing them if their HP is below 100%. However, it only has 4 uses.

“Full Encryption”, the second skill”, grants 50% Crit Rate to an allied Echomancer and 100% Crit Rate to all summons, turning Boreas into the best friend of every summoner. It also applies [Arctic Test], which allows allied Echomancers to unleash AoE Ice DMG attacks. Do take note that “Full Encryption” only affects one target, and you have to manually select the target. Otherwise, the buff will only go to Boreas. For this reason, he’s mainly suited for teams who focus on a single hyper-carry, such as Cen Ying and Feng Qingxue.

His Seed skill, “Sub-Zero Protocol” can act both as another panic button or burst window opener, as it applies everything Boreas does all at once. Much like “Full Encryption”, this one also has a special condition to be fulfilled: it will only grant the [Arctic Test] buff to Water, Lightning, or Ice Echomancers. This is important to keep in mind since “Full Encryption” has a very limited use amount of 3, which means that when it comes to the Summoner Team, Boreas will be at his best in shorter battles, such as Simultaneous Raid. For longer content like the challenge version of Synced Return, try to favor teams with one of the three listed elements when bringing him.

As a final addendum, it's worth mentioning that thanks to [Cryo Contract] and [Arctic Test], Boreas enables many possibilities of combos with Memory Traces that require a shield, as well as enabling more Elemental Reaction possibilities to many characters.

• Boreas can offer a complete experience without dupes. In fact, for most teams, his dupes aren't needed at all. However, both his first and third dupe can significantly benefit teams who rely on Ice DMG or Ice Elemental Reactions. If you plan to invest on those teams in particular, his dupes are recommended. Otherwise, it's an easy pass.

• Boreas works better with teams who rely heavily on Auto-attacks (or summons' attacks), as most of his buffs will directly affect the allied Echomancer's next attack or trigger more often with higher ASPD. For this reason, he's often paired with Begonia.

• Boreas is particularly powerful in Wet environments, where his [Arctic Test] buff and “Sub-Zero Protocol” ultimate can instantly and steadily create Ice zones without the need of a Water zone.

• The skill 1 “Cryonic Calculations” is recommended as priority. Being an unorthodox healer, the bonus granted to Shield and Healing by leveling this skill is necessary to allow Boreas to act as the only healer in the party.