Something has to be done with Senja's skillset

[Adradox]

While I really enjoy playing the character and it feels extremely satisfying when your buttons "hit just right", it also feels incredibly awkward to pull a large group of enemies, use taunt and just watch them to do nothing. If enemy does not attack you Senja cannot get bonuses and healing. If vast majority of enemies have magic abilities that overlap with affixes Senja feels nearly unusable. I cannot really think of the good reason to use her over Wingrave for tanking or Grendel for DPS she happens to be in the middle of the road for both while not excelling in any. Picking her as 3rd character just for buffs and pulls does not feel right.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Senja can feel a little clunky, which is why she got buffed twice across both QoL patches to try and make her feel playable.

The crux of Senja's playstyle is to fill the Crowd's Favor (the bar across the bottom) to give her a boost to her Weapon Power and Ability Power. You do this by intentionally leaving yourself open during certain abilities in order to Showboat, whether during Pummels or Gain Favor. If you get hit during these Showboats, Senja is compensated with reduced damage and a heal; it's not intended to be a form of self-sustain so much as it is a compensation for being hit while engaging with your core mechanic. Pummel is her primary damage ability, Gain Favor is an AoE taunt and its own dedicated WP/AP buff for herself and her party for 10 seconds, Lightning Grasp is her reverse gap closer, and her ultimate gives her chain lightning on her attacks.

As a Warmaster, Senja is intended to be on the frontline, but she requires a bit more finesse than her stablemates Wingrave and Grendel, who have much simpler game plans - Wingrave naturally has tons of sustain for himself and his party, while Grendel powers up when he breaks an enemy's guard and just bulldozes opponents. Meanwhile, Senja has to build her Crowd's Favor to do her real damage, then she can use Gain Favor to buff the party, Gain Favor and Lightning Grasp for crowd control, and Pummel for damage, on top of her weapon swings. It's a bit more technical.

[Aegix Drakan]

Yeah, my one try with her has her requiring some real finesse.

I don`t really know how to get the most out of her (Am I supposed to alternate her Both Bumpers personal ability, then use Pummel, then repeat?), but I do like the big chonky sword hits.

Given I'm only playing Solo (no friends wanted in on the game), I didn't pick up the Taunt yet, which seems to have been a mistake?

[Noxious]

Hm. I really like playing her, so I'm not sure what to say. Probably my favorite character right now, with Venomess a close second behind.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Your first order of business is to fill the Crowd's Favor, which you do by charging both Pummel and Gain Favor. Crowd's Favor falls off relatively slowly (moreso if you have the affinity talent that reduces Crowd's Favor attrition), but it's still something to top off as you get into a fight. Gain Favor isn't just a taunt, but also a notable WP/AP buff (especially if you have one point in it to increase the buff from a full charge by 50%), so make sure to refresh that when you're in the middle of a melee. If you have at least one point in Pummel, you get a quick Weapon Power buff on your next attack within 5 seconds, so you're encouraged to at least weave Pummels between your weapon swings. Lightning Grasp is ranged damage and a reverse gap closer, so use it to avoid having to run everywhere and take quicker advantage of your buffs. Tanking blows with Showboating is more credible after the latest round of buffs, to say nothing of blocking if you're using a two-hander or sword-and-shield. Her ultimate isn't just chain lightning when she lands attacks, but also yet another WP/AP buff for her and her party, so use it when you want to supercharge your damage.

As mentioned elsewhere, Senja provides a middle ground between defensive bulwark Wingrave and offensive juggernaut Grendel. She can be moderately tanky and deal respectable damage, on top of having more crowd control and plenty of buffs to share. You can do work with her, but it's a little less straightforward than others in her class.

[Adradox]

I understand that and my point was not about her general playstyle. It's more about the way monsters behave when you're using Gain Favor or holding Pummel. Sometimes you expect to stack a heal and damage reduction in the battle but monsters simply stand around and do nothing, half of your effective skill usage goes nowhere. Not to mention that despite being very fancy crowd control skill, lightning pull does nothing against beefy and boss enemies, there is simply no point in utilizing this skill in any situation besides basic trash mob cleanup which is a huge shame. Some minor tweaks would make playing her 20x times more enjoyable. Also, please add long braid hairstyle for her, pretty please!

[Wavuvi]

Senja seems like a nuanced character at a glance, but I've found she plays best *for me* as a high aggro brute.

Weapon: Scythe. Queen's Pyre is optimal for stats and a niche useful weapon ability, but the other 2 scythes are fine for 95% of what you're using it for.

Stat Focus: WP/BP/HP/AP followed by PD/RE/MD. Ignore both crits entirely.

Talents: Top right that heals for using wayfinder ability (it procs twice off pummel) and the one towards the bottom right that makes her unflinchable while guard broken. Go with whatever suits you otherwise.

Affinity:
15 in focus for slower crowd meter decay
25 in Discipline for more juicy WP

Gameplay:
Get your crowd meter up before a fight. With 15 in Focus Affinity, it should stay relatively full as you go room to room. A fully charge Gain Favor is a good way to top off before you go in. If there is a target with a resilience bar easily accessible, you can often get away with opening with a pummel charged just enough to top off the crowd meter and potentially break its guard (pummel is 2 very fast hits with great BP).

Heavy Swing Block Cancel spam. This is why I chose scythe. The standing (make sure you are NOT dashing) heavy swing comes out very fast and can be canceled immediately by tapping block. So you can mash the heavy button and rhythmically tap block to fire off heavy hits at dagger speed.

Showboat only when you have to wait or it's favorable over blocking. In between waves of an ambush. Tanking through big choreographed attacks you know you can survive. When a hollow horror has a damage shield on. Waiting for a seer/oracle to come back from teleport, etc. Otherwise you tap pummel to keep the meter up and get micro heals mid combo.

Lightning Grasp is pretty self explanatory. You don't pull things to showboat on them, you pull things to hit them either with a heavy swing or a jumping heavy. They should die with the skill maxed for the 30% increased damage and slow to make them sitting ducks.


Pummel and Lightning Grasp are great.
Her ultimate is a dull but effective with far too long of a charge time.
Gain Favor is really the dud of her kit now. It's just too passive and takes too long to fully charge for how small and short the buff is. 1 heavy swing or pummel are usually a better choice, and she's rarely starved for pummel charges. It made sense once upon a time when there could be more then 3 players in a fight, but since most people will play solo now it would be nice to see this replaced with a move offering more utility (movement, stun, snare, etc) or burst damage.

Her damage output is noticeably higher then Wingrave and Grendel when you're rocking 24,000+ Weapon Power while also easily hitting 8k+ break power and still being reasonably tanky with self healing. You don't need to heal much if most things are dropping in 1 hit.

[Blinky Dorf]

I haven't had any trouble with her rotation; just pull in enemies and wait for them to begin their attack animations before showboating. She easily claps back with 10k damage a hit even without much optimization, and you can punch several targets at once if they are clumped together. But because her heal is based on the number of attacks instead of the strength of the attack, she's way better in fights with lots of little guys to keep her HP up. I mostly run AP and HP, with a little bit of armor for the retaliation perk that deals damage to enemies that strike you.