Highlights
- Viessa is a popular character in The First Descendant who specializes in debuffing enemies with her ice-based powers.
- Her passive skill, Ice Sphere, allows her to create spheres of ice that damage enemies and apply the Ice Shackle effect.
- Viessa's skills, such as Frost Shards, Frost Road, Ice Wave, and Cold Snap, synergize well together to freeze enemies, deal damage, and provide strategic advantages in combat.
The First Descendant has plenty of different characters with differing awakened Arches that have changed their lives forever. Viessa, who is among the most popular Descendants, is one of the three characters that fans can choose from and immediately unlock at the start of the game.
Viessa's role in The First Descendants is primarily to act as a team's debuffer, in which she uses her ice-based powers to slow enemies, trap them, and even freeze them completely. Aside from that fact, Viessa is still very capable of dealing damage as well, whether it be with her ice-themed skills or by using the best weapons.
1 Passive Skill — Ice Sphere
All of Viessa's skills revolve around her ability to manipulate moisture in the air, create freezing winds, and overall the ability to use ice. Ice Sphere is Viessa's passive skill, which allows Viessa to create spheres of ice around her body.
This is done by creating Ice Shackles (Ice Shackles are created by Viessa's various skills), and the Ice Spheres appear over time. The Ice Spheres will deal damage to enemies in Viessa's vicinity, as well as apply the Ice Shackle effect to the same hostiles who are close to Viessa. Though it has a small effect, the damage and Ice Shackle effect help contribute to Viessa's overall role as a debuffer and slow/freeze The Vulgus whenever necessary.
2 Skill 1 — Frost Shards
Frost Shards is the very first skill that Viessa will have automatically unlocked after players collect the Descendant. When activating Frost Shards, Viessa will launch a blast of ice toward enemies. True to Viessa's character, Frost Shards not only deals damage in the Frost Shards' vicinity but also applies the Ice Shackle effect. The Ice Shackle infliction is Viessa's most important tool that no Viessa player would ever want to forget. That is especially true considering that Viessa is meant to be played as a character who offsets her enemies.
Ice Shackle inflicts opponents with the slowness effect, and with enough Ice Shackle stacked, will freeze them entirely. When an enemy is directly hit by Frost Shards, their Ice Shackle infliction goes up by two stages, but if they are hit by the radius of the blast, it only goes up by one stage. With Viessa's moveset, which has a considerably faster cooldown time than other Descendants, Frost Shards can be synergized wonderfully to apply enough Ice Shackles to freeze an entire army and dish out enough damage to support the defeat of larger opponents.
3 Skill 2 — Frost Road
Frost Road is no doubt one of Viessa's most impressive abilities, as it buffs Viessa and debuffs the enemies inflicted by the move. When activating Frost Road, Viessa will be able to move much quicker than before as she manipulates ice at her footsteps, giving her a 30% increased boost to her movement speed. Alone with the movement speed increase, Frost Road not only looks cool but allows Viessa to speed her way out of certain situations that may have left her defeated otherwise.
Frost Road also gives Viessa a 10% increased boost to her maximum shield capacity, making it much harder for Viessa to go down. As Viessa runs around with Frost Road active, she leaves behind a trail of ice that, when enemies step into it, inflicts opponents with Ice Shackles (two stages). This is one of Viessa's best options as a character, as it buffs, debuffs, and helps Viessa in tight situations that may require her to swap positions.
4 Skill 3 — Ice Wave
Much like Frost Shards, Ice Wave is a skill that dishes out both damage and the Ice Shackles effect. That fact makes this move not as relevant as others, especially since Ice Wave has a shorter range than Frost Shards. But, this move's casting time is fairly short, making it a great option to consider when running up close on opposing threats.
When hit by Ice Wave, enemies will have two stages of Ice Shackle applied to them, instantly slowing them down to freeze. Using Ice Wave in combination with her other skills, especially Frost Road, helps to completely synergize Viessa's set as a whole and provides a lot more pressure on opposing forces.
5 Skill 4 — Cold Snap
Cold Snap is easily Viessa's best move in The First Descendants, as it completely freezes all enemies in an AOE (multiple times). Cold Snap may have a longer casting time than the other skills, but the time spent waiting is well worth it, as when Cold Snap is activated, Viessa will create a small blizzard in an area; said blizzard consistently explodes over time. When enemies in the blizzard are hit by the smaller explosions, their Ice Shackles effect jumps up by three stages.
But if the unlucky soul were to remain in that blizzard on its final explosion (which they most likely will, considering they would be frozen), their Ice Shackles effect jumps up by four stages. Cold Snap is Viessa's best option when it comes to fighting hordes of enemies or even a singular boss so that the team can focus their DPS much easier with a slower/frozen villain.
The First Descendant will be available on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One & Series X/S, and PC. The release date is TBD.