Petra (Awakened Soul)Build and Guide

Just like her original counterpart, Petra (Awakened Soul) (APetra) is an Undead Defender whose role is to take the pressure off the rest of her party. This is where the similarities end, as APetra takes a completely different route from the traditional tank, mitigating damage with her support skills and debuffs instead.

• Passive: Awakened Soul is Here: Petra applies the ally with the highest ATK with Token of Protection, increasing their DEF. If that ally’s HP falls below 50% (and does not die), Petra will consume the buff and grant “Invincible” to that ally, teleporting over and granting all allies within 3m a shield while inflicting AOE Damage and Silence to all enemies within 3m.

• S1: Soul Strike: Petra attacks the nearest enemy, inflicting damage and Curse. If the enemy is already cursed, she deals bonus damage and decreases their speed.

• S2: Soul Absorption: Petra inflicts AOE Damage to all enemies within a 3m semicircle and lowers their DMG dealt. She recovers HP and gains a massive shield.

• Main: Whirlwind of Death: Petra inflicts AOE damage to all enemies within 3.5m, inflicting Curse, knocking them back and stunning them. She also gains a shield, which grows stronger if any of her enemies attacked are already Cursed.

• Ultimate: Wretched Soul’s Blade: Attacks the enemy with the highest ATK, inflicting them with “Wretched Soul” which reduces their mana every 10 seconds. She also creates a “Wretched Soul Zone” which inflicts Curse to all enemies in the Zone and decreases their ATK and DEF.

• Artifact Skill: Token of Debilitation: Permanently inflicts “Token of Debilitation” on the enemy with the highest ATK, reducing their DMG dealt and SPD (Origin Art) as long as Petra is active.

APetra still runs up and takes aggro from her allies by just being in the way, healing up where necessary. However, two things stand out in her kit. APetra’s passive uniquely allows her to cover her strongest carry in a fight, being capable of being used both defensively and offensively depending on where your DPS is in the fight. Her Artifact skill also allows her to immediately cripple the enemy with the highest ATK, greatly reducing their damage dealt and Speed. 

APetra lacks any form of Resistance or DMG taken reduction for herself, requiring support from her allies to make up for that weakness. She also has very minimal offensive utility besides her high Curse DoT uptime, meaning she is strictly meant for PvE content. These strengths and weaknesses put her in a unique position as a support off-tank - her powerful debuffs and coverage allow her to mitigate damage in unique ways, but it would take a bit of work for APetra to take up a solo tank position.

Synergies

APetra can easily be slotted as a defensive pivot in many teams, but also appreciates defensive support. Wheri, Honglan (Peerless) and Onyx all help to keep APetra alive where she can continue to wreak havoc with her debuffs. Ideally she is also paired with a 2nd tank who can help to take some aggro off APetra.

Investment

The vast majority of APetra’s support capabilities are available to her immediately, but as a tank, we always recommend some level of investment. In our tests, we have used her to some success at lower investment (Eternal+) ascensions, but emphasis should be on her artifact, as it holds 2 very powerful utilities at Legend+ and Origin level.

As such, we recommend getting her to Eternal+ Ascension with Legend+ Artifact at least, with Origin Artifact being a strong long term goal. Any investment on her Ascension will also boost her own longevity.

Conclusion

APetra is an interesting pickup if you want to build up further defensive capabilities - her unique kit gives players more angles to mitigate damage. That being said, the banner being this close to an upcoming Angel Soul Banner, it would be hard to recommend investing deeply on APetra. APetra also lacks offensive raid utility and there isn’t much immediate incentive to getting APetra for competitive play unless you wish to get a further edge in PvP, Eden Ops or Strive.