PhrolovaBuild and Guide

Phrolova is a 5-star Havoc Rectifier DPS character whose main goal is to make you read essays simply trying to understand her kit - sorry. We mean that her main goal is to deal Havoc damage from both on and off-field by executing relatively quick in-and-out rotations that allow her partner Hecate to attack from off-field, dealing massive Havoc DMG to enemies. In this process, Phrolova will also stagnate and/or group enemies depending on your selection in her rotation.

Due to our unamusing joke in this intro, you probably understood that Phrolova’s kit is a scientific journal. This might be the worst case we’ve had yet, above Cartethyia. However, we did read it so you don’t have to, and we’ll explain things as briefly as we can while glossing over a ton of details that are irrelevant to her rotations.

Everything you need to keep track of in battle while playing Phrolova is a few key attacks you’ll access at certain points in her rotation, as well as her Forte gauge, which resembles sheet music! To better understand her kit, let’s discuss music theory. Phrolova is playing a melody in treble clef, visible on her Forte gauge. This clef is used to sheet higher-pitched sounds (above the middle C on a piano). This clef is the most commonly used as it covers sheets for a wide variety of popular instruments including a lot of well-known string, wood and brass instruments such as pianos, violins, clarinets, saxophones, flutes, mandolins, recorders, guitars etc. Phrolova uses a wand iconic of orchestra conductors to command Hecate, her partner who does attacks depending on the kind of notes she’s playing. She plays 3 quarter notes (also known as crotchets) in every bar. This is a time signature commonly used for Waltz Dancing! We could analyze further, but overall the notes she’s playing on her Forte bar would actually sound rather flat in real life. Oh well.

Regardless, in Wuthering Waves, this translates to about 1.2 to 1.5 seconds per Hecate attack (given the time signature and the fact she’s playing 6 notes total, we’re pretty sure she’s playing the slowest music we’ve ever seen when trying to find a BPM for this. We don’t recommend Phrolova and Hecate at concerts, they’re total beginners).

So, moving on from pointless music theory knowledge (we’re sorry), Phrolova can actually play different melodies depending on how you operate her rotations in game. She acquires notes in a few ways, and has 3 different types of notes she can play.

• String note: This is acquired by performing Basic Attack 3 or Enhanced Basic Attack and it has the effect of stagnating enemies;

• Wind note: This is acquired by performing Skill or Enhanced Skill and it has the effect of grouping enemies;

• Cadenza note: This is executed once per rotation by using any Intro or Echo Skill and it has the effects of both Wind and String notes at once.

We mentioned Phrolova has enhanced Basic Attacks and Skills. She accesses them by casting Basic Attack 3 or Skill (12s cooldown), so you can essentially chain notes one after the other. Her enhanced Basic Attack gives higher damage while her enhanced Skill is better at controlling multiple enemies, so what kind of note you choose with your Enhanced attacks should depend on what kind of encounter you’re facing (Privilege Wind notes in Whimpering Wastes as well as waves of small enemies in Tower of Adversity, and privilege String notes against all boss encounters). Some notes simply won’t be changeable as they’ll be acquired by doing Basic 3’s and Skills which are the quickest way of accessing Phrolova’s Ultimate — which is your end goal, so you should always be rotating in that manner.

Speaking of her Ultimate, it has a strict 25s cooldown as it requires a Forte Heavy Attack to be cast before using it. It costs 0 Resonance Energy and Phrolova does not have any Resonance Energy of her own (even though she generates a small amount for other characters, comparable to Cantarella). Hence, instead of waiting for her Ultimate’s cooldown and simply using it at the right time with enough Resonance Energy, Phrolova’s Ultimate first needs to be unlocked (with a 25s cooldown) and then be cast to finish her rotation. Phrolova’s Ultimate gives her a massive 120% off-field self-ATK buff and enables her off-field attacks with Hecate, representing about half of her total damage (the rest being dealt on-field). 

So Phrolova’s goal is pretty clear: get your 6 notes up via Basic 3’s and Skills (3 total), cast your Forte Heavy Attack, finish all of that off with your Ultimate, Hecate does off-field attacks while you’re out. There’s however more to consider, such as how to access that quickly:

• Basic 3 can be immediately cast after Intro. Without Intro available, Phrolova’s rotation requires more Basic Attacks, but it is best to cast her Ultimate first and have her start as the first member of your party in the rotation (to maximize uptime on off-field attacks and access her Enhanced Intro).

• Switching her in from any other character while in combat immediately starts her at Basic 2, skipping Basic 1 entirely.

• Her Intro has 2 variants, one being accessed without having cast her Ultimate, another with having cast it prior. The latter is significantly stronger than the former in terms of damage and acts as her Ultimate finisher and this instantlh ends her Ultimate stance (otherwise, she takes 24s to cast it which is an exceedingly long amount of time).

So essentially, the idea for her rotation is:

• Open your rotation with Phrolova by switching her in from any other character to cast Basic 2 and Basic 3. If Intro is available, do Intro into Basic 3.

• Do Enhanced attacks dependent on the situation after every Basic 3 and Skill.

• After your first Enhanced attack, cast Skill, then Basic 3 to access the following ones.

• Finish the rotation off with your Ultimate then switch out, don’t forget to use your Echo during her rotation as well (the best timing after her second Forte Enhanced attack).

Doing this will access Phrolova’s full kit and buffs, the rest is dependent on her teammates and happens off-field. With that being said, she has a lot of mechanics we didn’t mention, being:

• All of Phrolova’s Enhanced Skills/Basic Attacks are good windows to Swap Cancel. However, her Forte Heavy attack is her best window by far (be mindful that any Outro effects will expire if you do this);

• Phrolova gains a massive 120% self-ATK buff while in her Ultimate state (ended after Intro or 24s) — this makes her scale with ATK buffs and Echoes much less than other characters as she already has so much of it;

• While Phrolova attacks with Hecate, she gains stacks of Aftersound each time increasing her CRIT DMG by 2.5% up to a cap of 24 (she also gains 10 stacks when entering battle). Additionally, each stack of Aftersound increases the DMG Multiplier of her Forte Heavy Attack by 82.55% (additive). Each stack exceeding the cap of 24 will increase CRIT DMG by 1% (Not having this fully stacked right away is what makes her first rotation much weaker than the following ones). This extra CRIT DMG keeps ramping up as long as Phrolova isn’t out of combat, meaning she keeps getting stronger as the battle goes on;

• Phrolova’s Outro amplifies Havoc DMG and Heavy Attack DMG by 20% and 25% respectively for 1 character (expires on swap), it also casts 2 extra off-field attacks instantly based on the first note Phrolova has generated (most often a Cadenza note)

• When any character casts an Echo Skill and Phrolova has cast her Ultimate, an Enhanced Attack from Hecate is triggered (This is what gives Phrolova synergy with Cantarella);

• Phrolova’s Enhanced Intro also has a stagnation effect on enemies;

• Casting an Echo Skill grants Phrolova 30% Damage Taken reduction and increased Interruption Resistance for 15s.

This should be all of the info needed to potentially keep in mind when playing Phrolova. A lot of the information in the list above is details, and can for the most part be kept in the back of your mind when playing her on the team. As can be seen by her kit and mid-length rotation which is dependent on the field time of other teammates, Phrolova’s main use will be in Havoc teams where she can buff other Havoc characters to do damage on their own while she aids them by dealing off-field damage of her own. Phrolova also deals high damage during her own field time, which is not to be underestimated. Finally, Phrolova can be used to buff Heavy Attack-based DPS and general Havoc-based DPS, even including Jiyan, as her own personal damage is really strong. However, this assumes she has her Signature weapon equipped.

Indeed, while Stringmaster, being the general best option for Rectifier DPS units time and time again is great on Phrolova (which makes sense given the weapon’s name), her own Signature is much, MUCH stronger. It’s a huge power leap for Phrolova due to the sheer amount of stats it provides to her kit— which is unprecedented and only approached closely by Brant. What this means is Phrolova’s damage is balanced around her Signature weapon equipped, and in other words, without it her damage falls off drastically. This is her biggest issue. Phrolova is a package deal that requires 1.5x the pulls any character normally would take to function, the best example of this being the fellow Havoc DPS Camellya who is completely functional on the 5-star Permanent Banner Sword, being Emerald of Genesis. Without that weapon, it’s extremely difficult to justify Phrolova as a competitive option to the contenders for top DPS in the game — and yes, this includes Camellya. 

However, Phrolova makes up for this by having good flexibility in teammates; Cantarella is her biggest damage boost, providing Echo Skills as well as Havoc-Skill Amplification which is the kind of stats that Phrolova needs. Cantarella’s poor Resonance Energy generation is compensated for by Phrolova not requiring any, and Cantarella deals good personal damage while taking more extended field time. In other words, they are perfectly synergistic with each other. However, beyond this big power boost, Phrolova can work with a plethora of teammates to roughly the same degree of success, being Roccia, Danjin, Shorekeeper, Havoc Rover and more (Jiyan could even be considered). And even without Cantarella, so long as Phrolova has her own Signature weapon, she’ll be more than okay. Without it is when problems arise in terms of competitiveness in damage though.

In conclusion, Phrolova is undoubtedly the best Havoc DPS in the game with Signature weapons included. She has amazing crowd control abilities and damage, which is sustained all throughout and even beyond her rotation, which makes her one of the top wave-clearing units for Whimpering Wastes. Boasting amazing on-field and off-field damage as well as buffing potential, she has a lot of flexibility in her teams but lags behind in power significantly compared to the rest of the cast without her Signature weapon. With that being said, provided she has her Signature available, she will be one of the more flexible and powerful options to add to your Wuthering Waves character roster.