Full Build Friday - Ellen Joe [Human Exemplar] (Patreon)

When this post has its public release, it will be the Friday of Shark Week! And since I already built Jeff, I thought I should just finish off the Victoria Housekeeping Company with its final member. Ellen Joe references classic shark horror movies - sharing her first name with Ellen Brody, the wife of the main protagonist from Jaws. She has a highly mobile combat style, flipping around the battlefield with her gardening shears and tail as her main weapon, which should make for a fun build!

As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choices may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.

Let's take a bite out of this build for Ellen Joe from Zenless Zone Zero!

ELLEN JOE

SOURCE Zenless Zone Zero

BUILD GOALS

o    A shark thiren hailing from New Eridu, Ellen splits her life between school and work as a maid for Victoria Housekeeping Company where she specializes in security management and garden maintenance

o    Mechanically, she is an attack agent that wields the ice element, and deals the bulk of her damage through direct attacks

o    She fights with a spear-like pair of gardening shears and can enter a Roaming state. From Roaming state, she can unleash powerful, spinning attacks that grant her Flash Freeze Charges

o    If she has these charges, her basic attacks consume them to deal additional ice damage that culminates in a freezing wave. Her charged attacks deal increased critical damage

o    Her special attack is a Tail Swipe that can be chained into a Sharknami that deals powerful slashes all around her

o    Endless Winter has Ellen crash down from above and unleash an ice storm around her

o    Expanding on her skills allows her to build of Flash Freeze Charges quicker and to greater effect

o    Through the Deep Sea Visitor W-Engine, her crit rate builds up with each hit, increased by a greater margin when she makes a dash attack

Summary of Goals: The idea behind this build is a highly mobile combatant that wields a spear that can be infused with ice damage. She can unleash waves of frost, conjure ice storms, and also lash out with a tail strong enough to shatter bone. The idea of charging up her attacks with ice damage is something that I want to explore, coupled with her unleashing more powerful blows.

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Ganzi Human

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Strength, +Dexterity

o    Ancestry Feat: Smashing Tail

Background: Student of Magic

o    Ability Boosts: +Wisdom, +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (T), Academia Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Recognize Spell

Class & Subclass: Exemplar

o    Class Ability Boost: +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Athletics (T), Deception (T), Religion (T)

o    Ikons: Gaze Sharp as Steel, Noble Branch, Thousand-League Sandals

o    Class Feat: Energized Spark – Cold

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +4, Dex +2, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +0)

To start off the build, Ellen Joe represents her own nature as a shark thiren with the ganzi heritage, which allows her to gain a Smashing Tail inspired by her own tail and attacks with it such as Tail Swipe. Given her present schooling within the game, I went for a student of magic background to provide her with Academia Lore. There were two classes I considered when it came to building Ellen and both could work very well, but I think the better of the two is the exemplar. Gaze Sharp as Steel certainly describes some of her glances, Thousand-League Sandals gives her the increased speed of her Roaming state, and then she can represent her scissors with a Noble Branch, likely using a naginata given its deadly trait meshing with some of her crit ability. Since Ellen is an ice agent, she can use Energized Spark for cold damage, which means that when she Shifts Immanence into her Noble Branch, she can change that spirit damage to cold damage to represent the extra ice damage she inflicts when she has Flash Freeze Charges.

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Fighter Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Underwater Marauder

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (T)

o    Gear: cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Root Epithet: The Brave

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E), Stealth (T)

o    Gear: +1 naginata, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Steel on Steel

o    Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare

o    Gear: bracelet of dashing, +1 naginata, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Charisma (Str +4.5, Dex +3, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +1)

o    Ancestry Feat: Skillful Tail

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (E)

o    Gear: +1 striking naginata, bracelet of dashing, bracers of missile deflection, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

Despite it never being a base class that I considered, the Fighter Dedication makes a fantastic fit for Ellen’s build. Admittedly, it’s not doing much right now because we need to then immediately pivot back to exemplar to pick up Steel on Steel. With Energized Spark swapping in cold damage, the emanation is actually a great way to represent her Endless Winter while the cone can resemble the final swing of her charged up attacks. Further related to her class is the Brave epithet. I always use this one and it’s mostly because it’s one of the best options especially with the extra mobility that it provides her, along the lines of her Roaming. So that she’s even faster, she can use the Fleet general feat. Then on that topic, with her being a shark thiren, I felt as though she should use the Underwater Marauder skill feat and that is a little something that I will expand on as we get deeper into the build. She certainly earns Intimidating Glare with some of looks she gives with you needing to look no further than her ult animation. One final factor of her thiren nature is Skillful Tail, which is mainly building up to something else and grants her a handy extra appendage.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Basic Maneuver – Vicious Swing

o    Skill Feat: Intimidating Prowess

o    Gear: +1 studded leather, +1 striking naginata, lifting belt, bracelet of dashing, necklace of knives, handwraps of mighty blows (+1)

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Ganzi Gaze

o    Dominion Epithet: Restless as the Tide (Water)

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (M)

o    Gear: lesser grub gloves, +1 studded leather, lesser boots of free running, +1 striking naginata, bracelet of dashing, handwraps of mighty blows (+1)

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Advanced Maneuver – Flip

o    Skill Feat: Quick Swim

o    Gear: ash gown, sure-step crampons, lesser grub gloves, +1 studded leather, +1 striking naginata, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Ganzi Gaze

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (M)

o    Gear: +1 resilient studded leather, ash gown, boots of bounding, lesser grub gloves, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), +1 striking naginata

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, + Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +3, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +2)

o    Class Feat: Additional Ikon – Titan’s Breaker

o    Skill Feat: Battle Cry

o    Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient studded leather, frost weapon rune, ash gown, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), +1 striking naginata

This block is a little fighter focused with Basic and Advanced Maneuver. The Vicious Swing is meant to resemble the charged up scissor strikes that she can make from her Roaming state. For a more defensive option, I also included Flip from the fighter as a way to resemble her dodge. That is an admittedly standard effect of ZZZ, but I think it’s important to note for Ellen specifically since it is how she starts Roaming. She does return to the exemplar for Additional Ikon to gain a Titan’s Breaker. She’ll actually be using her tail as this ikon, empowering her tail strikes for when she uses her Tail Swipe though I think that Hands of the Wildling could also work for this. I just think that the Transcendence is a bit better. For her dominion epithet, she does pick up something new with Restless as the Tide, playing to her piscine heritage while also applying some of the area damage she inflicts, coming from the critical effect. It further provides her with even greater mobility. On the topic of mobility, the shark maid obviously needs Quick Swim but then focuses on Intimidation options with Intimidating Prowess and Battle Cry increasing her Intimidation effectiveness. With Ancestral Paragon allowing Ellen to double down on Ganzi Gaze in this block, she gains low-light vision and then heightens it into darkvision, which should help her on the hunt.

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Fast Recovery

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (E)

o    Gear: +2 striking naginata, armbands of athleticism, greater bracers of missile deflection, +1 resilient studded leather, ash gown, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Advanced Maneuver – Furious Focus

o    Skill Feat: Terrified Retreat

o    Gear: +2 resilient studded leather, +2 striking naginata, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, energy robe (cold), frost weapon rune

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Mischievous Tail

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (M)

o    Gear: +2 greater striking naginata, +2 resilient studded leather, greater ash gown, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, greater bracers of missile deflection

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Flow of War

o    Skill Feat: Kip Up

o    Gear: propulsive boots, +2 greater striking naginata, moderate grub gloves, +2 resilient studded leather, greater demon mask, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking)

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, + Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +5.5, Dex +4, Con +3, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha +3)

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (L), Nature (T)

o    Sovereignty Epithet: The Last Ruler

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient leather, keen weapon rune, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking naginata, greater ash gown, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking)

There’s some more fighter featuring with Furious Focus enhancing her Vicious Swing ability this round, which lets her better unleash follow-up attacks to her Vicious Swing. Normally, that would only be one additional Strike, but with Flow of War, she could make herself quickened to squeeze in two Strikes following her Vicious Swing. I went with the Last Ruler dominion epithet yet again since she has the Intimidation investment, which also led to her gaining Terrified Retreat to send enemies running for the hills. Kip Up is also just super useful and since she became a master in Acrobatics, there wasn’t anyway that I was going to miss out on it. She sticks with some speed, or at least conceptually, with Fast Recovery and Incredible Initiative, but then grabs Mischievous Tail so that she can add the disarm and traits to it, which allows her to better knock around enemies.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Advanced Maneuver – Swipe

o    Skill Feat: Scare to Death

o    Gear: greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, soaring weapon rune, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking naginata, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Stubborn Persistence

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater striking naginata, earthglide cloak, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Seven-Colored Cosmic Bridge

o    Skill Feat: Cat Fall

o    Gear: commandant’s scabbard, +3 greater striking naginata, quickstrike weapon rune, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Feather Step

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient leather, commandant’s scabbard, dread blindfold, +3 greater striking naginata, greater frost weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, + Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +6, Dex +4, Con +4, Int +1, Wis +4, Cha +4)

o    Class Feat: Advanced Maneuver – Cut from the Air

o    Skill Feat: Slippery Prey

o    Gear: +3 major striking naginata, +3 greater resilient leather, sandals of the stag, dread blindfold, quickstrike weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking)

Ellen has a couple of wide-ranging area attacks in her kit that she can try to represent through the fighter’s Swipe feat. When the enemies are too far away or spread out for that, she can unleash a Seven-Colored Cosmic Bridge, which perhaps better fits the wide arc of ice that she unleashes as part of her empowered attack combo. She can use Energized Spark to deal cold damage with this and can also teleport herself within its area, which is pretty great. I want to demonstrate her ability to deflect incoming ranged attacks when she’s Roaming, which led to the usage of Cut From the Air. I also don’t think too highly of any of the exemplar capstone class feats, which also influenced this option. Scare to Death is always a great pick when it comes to skill feats while Cat Fall and Slippery Prey fixates on her Acrobatics a bit with the former being especially handy since she has legendary Athletics. The use of Stubborn Persistence is just a little fun specifically themed around Ellen who has a tendency towards tiredness, but she can push herself to stay awake for the sake of her friends.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: Obviously, a free archetype game could grant Ellen the ability to expand on her Fighter Dedication and likely picking up some more generally useful options. Getting a Reactive Strike would be great, but outside of that, you might maybe consider a magus. I think it’d be hard to make work with the way I went, but it was my first choice of a class that I ultimately passed on because there is a single spell attack that deals with cold damage. The lack of snow spells could also make the Gelid Shard archetype less than useful, so one final suggestion I’ll make is the Staff Acrobat Dedication, which can be used with a spear or polearm to fantastic effect. Also, the High Seas book recently gave us the Marine Marauder archetype, which rather fittingly features a feat called Shark Attack.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Ellen Joe is a ganzi human exemplar who has a background as a student of magic to reflect her own current position as a student. Despite this and her role as a maid, she is a highly capable combatant, which the exemplar class helps to demonstrate. By investing in the Energized Spark feat for ice and snow, Ellen can install her spark in her Noble Branch to dole out cold damage or can enter her Roaming state by swapping her spark to her Thousand-League Sandals, which provide her with a speed boost. For the charged attack she can make in this state, she could use a Vicious Swing or representing some of her sweeping strikes through the likes of Swipe. Gaining her Flash Freeze Charges is likely best represented through simply using Shift Immanence to imbue her weapon while the freezing wave she unleashes as part of her empowered combos is best represented through a cold-infused Steel on Steel or Seven-Colored Cosmic Bridge. One of my main reasons behind using the ganzi heritage was representing Ellen as something not entirely human and also getting her a tail attack that she can use for her Tail Swipe or maybe even her Sharknami. We return to Steel on Steel for its emanation to represent Ellen’s Endless Winter while options such as Flow of War enhance her swiftness by supplying her with extra actions.

This Carcharodon cutie carries clippers to cause cryo calamities, carpeting kingdoms in a continual cold and kicking creature keister in copious quantities.

Have a fin-tastic Friday!