If you’ve been looking for a flexible electro support that can boost your team’s damage while dishing out solid off-field hits, learning how to build Encore in Wuthering Waves is one of the best investments you can make for your account. I slept on her for the first two months after her release, writing her off as a niche support only for electro hypercarry teams. But after testing her in both abyss and open world boss fights, I quickly realized she fits into almost any team comp that can benefit from electro application and universal damage buffs. This guide breaks down every part of building her, from stat priorities to rotations, so you don’t waste resources on ineffective setups.
Core Stats to Prioritize When You Build Encore in Wuthering Waves
Encore’s value comes from two separate parts of her kit: her team-wide electro resistance shred and ATK buff from her elemental burst, and her consistent off-field electro damage from both her skill and burst. That means her stat priority will shift slightly depending on whether you’re running her as a pure support or a sub-DPS, but there are a few non-negotiable stats you need to focus on first no matter your playstyle.
Energy Recharge first (180-220% minimum) is the most important stat for Encore by a wide margin. Her burst costs 70 energy, and you need it up every 12 seconds to maintain 100% uptime on her buffs and off-field damage. If you run her with two electro units on your team, you can get away with the lower end of that range, but if she’s your only electro unit, aim for 200% or higher to avoid gaps in her buff uptime.
After you hit that ER threshold, you can prioritize Electro DMG Bonus if you want her to deal more sub-DPS, or ATK% if you’re running her as a pure support. Her buffs scale directly with her total ATK, so every point of ATK you give her makes your main DPS hit harder too. CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG are only worth investing in if you already have enough ER and at least 1200 ATK on her, as they won’t affect her support buffs at all. I made the mistake of stacking CRIT stats on her first when I pulled her, and her burst was down for 4+ seconds every rotation, which hurt my team’s overall damage far more than the extra crits helped.
Best Weapons for Encore for All Budget Levels
You don’t need to pull for her limited 5-star signature weapon to make Encore feel strong. There are multiple F2P and low-spend options that perform almost as well as her BiS, as long as you match the weapon to your build. Her signature weapon, Stellar Resonance, gives a huge ER substat and boosts her team’s ATK based on her energy recharge, but it’s only a 15% damage increase over the best F2P options, so it’s not worth pulling for unless you’re a min-maxer with extra wishes to burn.
For F2P and low-spend players, these are the best options to use:
- Thunderous Echo (craftable 4-star): The best overall F2P option for Encore. It gives a 30% ER substat at level 90, and buffs her ATK by 24% for 10 seconds after she uses her elemental skill. This lines up perfectly with her rotation, and it works for both support and sub-DPS builds.
- Azure Recollection (battle pass 4-star): Ideal if you run Encore as a sub-DPS. It gives a 27% CRIT Rate substat at level 90, and boosts her elemental burst damage by 40% when she has more than 50% energy. You will need to get extra ER from your echoes to hit the 200% threshold with this weapon, but the extra damage is worth it if you use her for sub-DPS.
- Windswept Oath (free event 4-star): The best option for pure support builds. It gives a 35% ER substat at level 90, and buffs the entire team’s ATK by 20% for 8 seconds when Encore casts her elemental burst. This weapon is completely free for anyone who participated in its launch event, and it’s still one of the strongest support options for her even today.
If you have multiple of these weapons, test them out with your team to see which feels better. I use Thunderous Echo on my Encore for abyss runs, but I swap to Windswept Oath when I’m running open world boss teams where I don’t need the extra sub-DPS.
Optimal Echo Sets and Substat Prioritization for Encore
The best echo set for Encore for almost all playstyles is the 4-piece Thunderous Roar set. This set gives a 15% electro damage bonus, and reduces enemy electro resistance by 20% for 8 seconds when you hit them with electro damage. This stacks with the resistance shred from her burst, so it boosts both her own damage and your other electro units’ damage significantly. It works just as well for pure support builds as it does for sub-DPS builds, so it’s the only set you need to farm for her.
If you don’t have a full set of good Thunderous Roar echoes yet, you can use 2-piece Thunderous Roar + 2-piece Moonlit Fiesta (the 20% ER set) to hit your ER threshold easier, or 2-piece Thunderous Roar + 2-piece Gale of Gust (the 20% ATK set) for extra support buffs. These combinations are only 5-10% weaker than the full 4-piece set, so don’t feel like you have to farm perfect Thunderous Roar echoes right away.
The best echo main stats for Encore are: Timepiece (Energy Recharge), Goblet (Electro DMG Bonus for sub-DPS, ATK% for pure support), Circlet (CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG for sub-DPS, ATK% for pure support). For substats, prioritize ER first until you hit your 180-220% target, then ATK%, then CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG if you’re running sub-DPS. Flat ATK substats are actually more valuable than you might think for support builds, since they add directly to her total ATK for her team buffs.
One common mistake I see people make is running an ER circlet on Encore when they don’t need it. If your echoes already give you enough ER from substats, you’re wasting a lot of potential damage or buff strength by using an ER circlet instead of electro or ATK. I used to run an ER circlet on her until I swapped out a few bad echo pieces, and I got an extra 15% ATK buff for my team just by switching to an ATK circlet.
Encore Team Comps and Rotation Tips to Unlock Full Potential
Encore fits into almost every team comp that uses electro, but she shines brightest in three specific team archetypes. The first is electro hypercarry teams, where she’s the best support in the game for Jiyan and other electro main DPS units. Her resistance shred and ATK buff boost Jiyan’s damage by almost 40% when built correctly, and her off-field electro damage lets you trigger extra resonance effects without swapping units.
She also works extremely well in electro-charge and aggravate teams. For electro-charge teams, pair her with a hydro DPS like Changli and a healer like Verina, and she’ll provide consistent electro application to trigger electro-charge nonstop. For aggravate teams, pair her with a dendro enabler and a quickswap DPS like Rover, and her off-field electro will trigger aggravate on every dendro hit.
The standard rotation for Encore that works for all teams is: Elemental Skill first to generate energy, swap to your support units to apply their buffs and elements, then cast Encore's Elemental Burst right before your main DPS starts their rotation. This way, you don’t waste any of her 12-second burst duration on animation time for other units. You don’t need to stay on Encore after casting her burst, as both her buffs and off-field damage will apply even when she’s off-field.
Don’t make the mistake of casting her burst first in your rotation. I did this for weeks when I first started using her, and I was wasting 2-3 seconds of her burst duration swapping to other units and applying their buffs. That might not sound like a lot, but it adds up to almost 25% of her burst uptime lost over a full abyss run, which cuts your team’s total damage significantly. If you’re struggling to get her burst up in time, you can cast her elemental skill twice per rotation to generate extra energy, since it only has a 4-second cooldown.
Encore is one of the most underrated supports in the game right now, and she’s worth building even if you only use her for one or two team comps. She works just as well for F2P players with craftable weapons as she does for players with her full signature setup, so you don’t have to spend a penny to make her feel powerful. Whether you’re a new player just pulling your first 5-star support or a veteran looking to optimize your electro teams, following these steps to learn how to build Encore in Wuthering Waves will help you get the most out of this incredibly strong character. I now run her on all my electro abyss teams, and she’s cut my clear time by almost a full minute on the last two rotation cycles.