Hello again everyone, welcome back to another article on Eternal Return. Now there are many characters who do many different things, so to compare them would be considered folly. But folly is something I excel at so in this article we will be trying to pick the 5 best characters in Eternal Return.
I know that I have written one of these before but this time, It's a whole new season with changes and new characters so let's see if they remain on top even after the changes.
To give some ground rules on this, I will be basing them as characters played in solo mode. The other game modes have too much deviance in performance due to how the respawning system works. With that in mind we begin at.
5. Felix
New face and new toys.
Felix makes it into the list, toting a spear he is riding the buff that spears got due to their low popularity and now he has entered the domain of the top five in solo. This man is so strong that he builds damage while tanking tank Augments and still manages to wreck everything in his path.
Spear users are naturally on the tanky side. Pair that with the crazy power he got as one of the newer overturned characters and you make someone who can both dish respectable damage and take a reduced amount at the same time. Let's talk about why Felix in particular stands out as a Spear user.
What makes him good
- High base damage
- Deceptively simple kit
- Extremely Efficient
- Skills go off cooldown fast
- Fast skill rotation
One of the better builds is Eighteen Foot Spear + Changpao + Imperial Crown + Plasma Arc + Bucephalus + Jolly Roger. Pair that with Diamond Shard, Embolden, Cavalcade, Thorn Shackles, and Assembly and you create someone who can spam skills and weave auto attacks while doing it. The entire time nearly unfazed by the opponent’s attempt to kill him.
What makes him unique is that all of his basic skills share a cooldown but that decreases when he managed to land auto attacks on anything, so hypothetically so long as they remain within range he can keep spamming his skills over and over all the while stacking his passive. The passive gives his basic skills an empowered version that does extra effects.
Personally, he is very strong and makes it into the 5th slot on the list. A good showing from the new characters especially since most of them is surprisingly bad. However he stays at 5th because of the changes made to weapons, the other characters are oldies but have become even sharper than before.
4. Yuki
Our main boy has returned and this time higher on the list.
Plenty of what I will say still remains true to this day. Yuki makes it higher on the list because he has switched over to the dual sword build, forgoing some tankiness in exchange for more damage. He is still easy to learn and if anything paired with a second dash he can keep up and catch up much easier than before.
His skills have remained untouched but now that he is using knives rather than just one sword he can proc the true damage on his passive much faster stacking up the damages to go with the generally less tanky character that has stormed the meta. His Augment has remained at Diamond shard though perhaps to let him duel even just one moment longer.
What makes him good
- Easy to Learn and Master
- High burst potential
- High sustained damage with knives
- Does True damage (no mitigation)
- Extremely swift
As you can see the meta has changed and Yuki has changed along with it. He has become closer to an assassin than before, especially with his new build. Divine Dual Swords + Changpao + Diadem + Radar + Bucephalus + Aether Fringe. It increases his chances for a crit so that when he crits the True damage is also multiplied.
In my opinion, he has become much more reliable in a solid 1 vs 1 but the change leaves him open to getting third party. However unlike before he can escape ganks with his increased mobility and a point and click stun. Truly the best boy can only get better from here.
3. Rozzi
A new face on the list belays the veteran within.
Rozzi was an older character that suddenly shot up in the rankings as more players began to see that the changes made her incredibly good at dealing damage from a distance and maintaining that distance away from all enemies in every direction.
She uses a pistol to great effect as every time she casts a skill she auto attacks twice, with her weapon skill she instantly refills her ammo count. Every basic skill allows her to dash, jump, or move faster while shooting. And finally her ultimate allows her to slow someone while dealing tons of damage. All of these together with fixing her lack of damage and healing changes her from above average to top tier in the hands of someone who knows how to kite.
What makes her good.
- Good Sustained DPS
- Extremely mobile
- Has an ultimate with a low cooldown
- Ranged attacker
- Attacks nearly twice as fast as other characters barring Assault Rifles.
All in all, with the new changes her build has become an On hit build that abuses her insane attacks per second. Electron Blaster + Optical Camouflage Suit + Crusader Helmet + Plasma Arc + Bucephalus + Aether Fringe. This maximizes her crit chance while also buffing her attack speed and damage on hit, all of this at the sacrifice of defense and health but what can they do if they cannot reach you?
Personally, She is only 3rd because the top 2 can actually reach her and kill her before she manages to escape, however, if she dodges well and kites well she can absolutely destroy everyone on the list. It just makes it hard to learn since kiting is all about tempo and distance.
2. Jackie
I can’t tell if I want her to be here or not anymore.
Much like before Jackie makes it into the top 3 with her Dual Sword build. Since she already had lifesteal before they decided to hard pivot into that and attack damage. With the idea that so long as she never stops attacking she will gain life forever. Admittedly this works to great effect since with her W’s movement speed, the jump on her E, and the dash on the Dual Swords she will always stay attached to you.
Rather than focusing on damage players have swapped her over to healing since the nerf of healing reduction took into effect. This means that you will literally see her life bar increase as your fight with her continues.
What makes her good.
- Insane base damage
- High mobility on demand
- Crazy life steal
- Has an inbuilt attack steroid
- Will never be found at low life.
With the switch over to Healing Factor, Assembly, Theia, Stopping power, and Quench; paired with Divine Dual Swords + Crusader Armor + Diadem + Radar + Bucephalus + Laced Quiver. Basically means that she will attack often, most likely not die in one combo, and gain life whenever she hits you including critical hits.
Personally, if she was a menace before she is near unstoppable now. With the animal spawns changing to be in the final zones more often, if she has control of the zone fighting she is basically a lost cause due to her incredibly high life steal on animals. She will show you true despair this time.
1. Luke
Cleaning Up the competition Part 2
So if Jackie could lifesteal on hit for a solid amount imagine if you could lifesteal for more than the damage dealt. Pair that with his naturally high damage as an assassin and in-built stun for being a bat user and you’ve made someone who can fight you at 50% and end the fight at 100%.
I used to have a bias for Luke since he was my main, but even I have to admit how broken he has become with the recent changes. With the healing reduction nerf implemented he is an absolute unit on the battlefield especially since his lifestealing Q is on an incredibly low cooldown now.
What makes him good.
- Lifesteals for more than 100%
- High damage
- Puts his lifesteal skill off cooldown very fast
- Can stick and attack enemies easily
- Crazy Burst.
So every skill of his does damage, and in exchange, he has no movement skills. However at the same time every skill of his puts his life stealing Q off cooldown solely by landing the point and click abilities. Pair that with slows every auto-attack and a pseudo teleport on enemies and cameras and you have a true blue assassin that cannot proc alerts on the map.
He has fully switched over to Support and Fortification rather than Havoc; Healing Factor, Assembly, Head Starter, Embolden, and Steadfast make him practically immune to soft CC and incredibly fast out of combat and just slightly slower than fast in combat.
His new item build also reflects this emphasis on damage and skill amplification with Vajra + Rocker’s Jacket + Imperial Crown + Creed of the Knight + Maverick Runner + Revenge of Goujian. Basically focusing on these two stats along with a small sprinkle of defense.
All in all so long as he hits you with one of his slows you best pray that he misses his Q, otherwise there is no way you can escape this assassin.
And that is the list of characters I believe to be the best at Solo. This is excluding personal skill of course because an extremely skilled player will usually trump a noob at the game no matter the character.
