Rover (Havoc)Build and Guide

Havoc Rover is a free 5-star cleave DPS everyone can gain access to after completing Chapter 6 of the main story quest. Unlike a lot of Main DPS characters who have their combos locked behind their Ultimate, they use their Forte gauge to access a stance that lets them deal the bulk of their damage. With that being said, Havoc Rover’s ultimate hits like a freight train, just like a lot of their many abilities.

Havoc Rover’s kit is not centered towards a single type of damage, nor towards a single ability. Their Skill, their Ultimate and their Forte Circuit are all components that contribute towards their strength as a DPS. However, the most central part of their kit is the Dark Surge state provided by their Forte circuit. Recharged by their Intro Skill, their regular Resonance Skill and their Basic Attacks. When full, they can cast a special Heavy Attack called Devastation which lets them enter said Dark Surge state. In this state, the Forte gauge will start depleting slowly until it’s completely empty. You can swap out and come back and still be in the Dark Surge state. They also possess increased Havoc DMG Bonus, they recover additional Resonance Energy, their Basic Attacks are replaced by new, enhanced ones and their Resonance Skill’s cooldown is instantly refreshed (when their second sequence is unlocked, which all of their sequences are given out for free) and it is replaced by a new, enhanced one that not only deals more damage, but also that extends their Dark Surge time very slightly. 

The quickest and most effective way to access this Dark Surge state is to use a Resonance Skill before you do your Support and/or Hybrid’s rotations depending on your cooldowns, then use an Intro Skill and a second Resonance Skill when you enter the field with all of your buffs. This method is what will be used in all of Havoc Rover’s optimized rotations. Note that if you don’t use this method, you may need to perform a full Basic Attack string off of your Dark Surge state, which is suboptimal.

An interesting perk of the enhanced skill Havoc Rover acquires, linked to replenishing the Dark Surge gauge, is the fact is that their Intro Skill during the Dark Surge state does the same, which when paired with a cast of their Dark Surge skill allows them to use two enhanced skills per Dark Surge rotation, extending the state’s duration even more, which can be useful in quickswap teams where Havoc Rover acts as a Dual DPS who does big bursts of damage over short periods of time. Additionally, with one Enhanced Skill alone it barely allows Havoc Rover to cast 3 full Basic Attack chains if they aren’t interrupted, useful for Main DPS rotations.

They are also unique in the sense that they have one 4-cost Echo that is tailored towards them specifically: the Dreamless. That Echo, when equipped on Havoc Rover and used within 5 seconds of Havoc Rover’s Ultimate, possesses 50% increased damage. Already sporting huge damage at base, this wide AoE transformation damaging Echo turns into a very powerful burst of damage rivaling the strength of Yinlin’s Ultimate, which is unheard of by Echo Skill standards. As a result, as the Echo Skill is a lengthy transformation that can be near-instantly swap cancelled, when swapped out of at the end of Havoc Rover’s rotation once their Ultimate is used enables them to deal a huge amount of damage in a short period of time in a wide AoE at the cost of almost no field time and no chances of being interrupted or hurt during the long transformation period. As the Dreamless effectively gives them two Ultimates in one, this is a huge selling point for Havoc Rover and a good chunk of the reason why their damage is very good, whether used as a Main or a Dual DPS.

Speaking of Ultimates, Havoc Rover’s ultimate is extremely simple: an insanely high-damage cleave nuke they can launch at a ridiculous 125 Energy cost on a 16 second cooldown. Similar abilities usually cost 150 Energy and have higher cooldowns, which for a 1520% multiplier at level 10 is costs that are absolutely unheard of, and that’s setting their additional Dark Surge Energy generation aside. To compare to Jinhsi, one of the best DPS characters in the game with one of the highest Ultimate nukes, she has a 150 Energy cost and a 24 second cooldown for a 1666% multiplier at level 10. As a result, aside from when they’re played as a burst-focused Dual DPS, they barely ever need any Energy Regen on their build despite their Ultimate being this powerful, which usually costs similar characters to build some Energy Regen on them. This is another huge selling point for Havoc Rover.

These massively damaging attacks are desirable in a Dual DPS position as they enable for quick windows of huge damage in short periods of time, meaning that role is one Havoc Rover can definitely sport in a team. Running them alongside someone who doesn’t particularly want someone massively buffing their damage (which would be someone like Jiyan or Camellya) and instead can appreciate someone quickswapping with them (someone like Changli, Xiangli Yao or even Jinhsi to a degree) when used with Verina as a support for the lowest support field time possible is an option you can very much consider when trying to slot your Havoc Rover into a team aside from their standard ones. They will perform if you can effectively manage two DPS characters’ cooldowns at once; only problem being that is rather difficult to execute, but when learnt properly it can be amazing.

Unfortunately, despite all of those selling points, they have to have a flaw somewhere because they’d be top tier otherwise (which they currently aren’t), and that flaw is their Dark Surge Basic Attacks. Now those attacks aren’t bad by any means; but their relatively slow time to execute doesn’t justify their multipliers being on the average end of things, at least when compared to the high tier DPS characters.

This isn’t problematic for Dual DPS Havoc Rover, but in that instance, they are still in a losing position compared to a lot of other optimal team options because they don’t have a buffing Outro skill and instead have a damaging one, something that a character in a similar position - Changli - outclasses Havoc Rover in, which is practical in specific Dual DPS teams built around her such as Chixia and Encore; additionally, Changli can enjoy many swap cancel windows, something Havoc Rover barely does, only limited to their Resonance Skills and their Dreamless Echo, swap cancel windows being typically desirable in a Dual DPS. Their previous huge selling points mitigate this issue, but it remains an issue nonetheless.

Now, please understand that this is taking into account Havoc Rover at S3, which is the current max; all of Havoc Rover’s sequences will be free eventually, we just don’t know when, and their S6 has the potential to make them roughly 30% stronger than their current form; this would instantly make their damage comparable to Jiyan, Xiangli Yao and Encore at S0. However, until that happens, Havoc Rover will sit comfortably below them, nonetheless still in a position of relevancy, but waiting for their time to truly shine.

To summarize, Havoc Rover is a character who has insane potential at S6 when we finally get access to it; but being stuck at S3 for now keeps them from being the beast that they’ll eventually become. Until then, they remain a very strong choice for a Main DPS carry but also a Dual DPS burst damage-focused option, a niche they very comfortably sit in despite not being top tier at the moment.