Rover (Havoc)Build and Guide

Havoc Rover is a free 5-star Havoc DPS character everyone can gain access to after completing Act I Chapter 6 of the main story. 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, along with some other abilities as well. Maximizing the damage potential of their full kit is the key to making them perform as efficiently as possible.

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. This state is accessed by accumulating a total of 100 “Umbra” points via their Intro Skill, their regular Resonance Skill and their Basic Attacks. 

When the Umbra bar is full, they can cast a special Heavy Attack called “Devastation” which lets them enter the Dark Surge state and reduces the Havoc RES of enemies by 10% for 20s on hit. In this state, the Forte gauge will start depleting until it’s completely empty, which happens constantly even if the character is switched out. During this state, with all their Skills and Sequences unlocked (given for free), they also possess increased Havoc DMG Bonus, they recover additional Resonance Energy, their Basic Attacks are replaced by new, enhanced ones which heal them on the final hit, they obtain an extra 25% CRIT Rate and their Resonance Skill’s cooldown is instantly refreshed and it is replaced by a new, enhanced one that not only deals more damage, but also slightly extends their Dark Surge time.

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. 

Interestingly, in the Dark Surge state, using your Intro Skill restores the Dark Surge gauge. When paired with a cast of their Dark Surge skill, this allows Havoc Rover to use two enhanced skills per Dark Surge rotation, extending the state’s duration even more, which can be useful in 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, the duration is barely long enough to allow Havoc Rover to cast 3 full Basic Attack chains if they aren’t interrupted, which is 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 damaging Echo turns into a very powerful burst of damage similar to Yinlin’s Ultimate, which makes it the highest damaging Echo skill in the game. This Echo skill can be swap cancelled right upon casting, which 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 interruption. 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. Plus, thanks to their extra Energy generation during the Dark Surge state, unless they’re played as a burst-focused Dual DPS, they do not need any Energy Regen on their build despite their Ultimate being powerful and low-cooldown. This is another huge selling point for Havoc Rover.

These quick bursts of damage, not only present in the form of their Ultimate and Echo but also their Resonance Skills in single-target scenarios (as they refresh instantly when entering Dark Surge), will allow them to perform very well as a Dual DPS character 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, their biggest flaw is also the biggest source of their damage, being their Dark Surge Basic Attacks. 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 as 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  characters in a similar position, such as Changli and Brant, have over Havoc Rover.  Additionally, they don’t have many swap windows, their biggest ones being their final Basic Attack, their Skills and their Echo, however they either take a while to access or operate on cooldowns which isn’t preferred for quickswap playstyles. As a result, they fall short of premium options.

With that being said, as a Main DPS, they are a character who has damage potential similar to the likes of Encore, Jiyan and Xiangli Yao, mostly thanks to their S6 giving them a massive boost and their ability to frontload damage via their Skills, Echo and Ultimate to finish enemies off quickly. One of their most noteworthy Main DPS synergies is with Danjin, who can even be played alongside Havoc Rover in a more Dual DPS style for the most experienced players. This 4-star and free character pairing makes for one of the best teams in the game, both for experienced players and beginners, as both characters have simple playstyles and complex playstyles to help with clearing endgame content. In version 2.0, Havoc Rover got access to Roccia, who thanks to her grouping was a big upgrade to their AoE nuke potential and upgraded their performance as a Main DPS character thanks to her higher buffing as well.

To summarize, Havoc Rover is a character who is often overlooked due to them being free, however they remain a very strong choice for a Main DPS carry but also a Dual DPS burst damage-focused option. They have many teams they can play in and different playstyles and roles they can fill in a team. Overall, Havoc Rover is a flexible DPS character whose potential shouldn’t be overlooked, as they comfortably sit in the high tiers of the Wuthering Waves meta.