The water virtue is the only attribute in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty that designates two types of weapons as receiving benefits from investing in water. This gives players some more wiggle room when it comes to choosing their loadouts.
The eater virtue is also the top choice for gamers looking to get more stealth kills. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is filled with areas that sometimes have multiple mini-bosses. Being able to take those out from the shadows with the correct weapon selection is going to be critical to making the build work.
Primary Melee Weapon: Dual Swords (Gan Jiang And Mo Ye)
The dual swords explicitly receive a benefit from the water virtue. This benefit is further increased by the Gan Jiang And Mo Ye dual swords which have the highest benefit from water levels, more than any other weapon in the game.
Wielding two swords may sound laborious, but the technique has some of the fastest swings in the game, able to take advantage of very tiny windows in an enemy's exposed defenses. Then, when it's time to block and parry, the swords are equally quick to react.
Secondary Melee Weapon: Staff (Golden Staff Of King Yufu)
The dual swords are strong but it's always smart to keep a hard-hitting weapon for when enemy spirit defenses get drained. If players get one lethal hit in, make it a good one. The Golden Staff of King Yufu hits harder than the dual swords and still gains a lot of damage from water virtue.
Get used to switching melee weapons quickly. Use the dual swords to drain the enemy's spirit bar. Then, when the opponent gets stunned, pull out the staff to deliver a massive lethal blow. This is far superior to just using dual swords to deal lethal blows. If players don't switch, they leave damage on the table.
Ranged Weapon: Repeating Crossbow (Bamboo Repeating Crossbow)
Ranged weapons all benefit with maximum strength from the water virtue. As a result, players should simply take the strongest one available. The highest damage ranged weapon is the Bamboo Repeating Crossbow. No gun deals more damage per hit.
The fact that this weapon is repeating only adds to its power. Water builds, once they get their embedded jewels and upgrades squared away, can potentially have a mostly ranged build. Players don't get this particular weapon until further along, so plan on using an early-game build in the meantime.
Thrown Weapon: Poison Throwing Knife
The build has melee weapons that hit hard and fast. At range, the repeating crossbow can take out groups. The final need is damage over time. Spells can help with this, but for brief attack windows, it's hard to beat a Poison Throwing Knife. Toss one quickly, especially if the window is too short to get an arrow off in time.
The damage isn't going to be more of a burst than an effectively timed Divine Beast cast can do, but they can do just as much damage throughout a long encounter. With a full stack, using them every so often is the equivalent of getting free hits in.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.