Zhao Yun Build - Help

[Legacy]

I would like some advice/help regarding a build for Zhao Yun to tackle Ultimate difficulty.

Current Stats

Level - 150
Health - 1000
Attack - 1500
Defense - 1000

Weapons

1 - Dark Dragon Spear (Heaven): Aggression, Flurry, Frenzy, Jubilation, Roar, and Velocity
2 - Heavenly Dragon (Earth): See Above

Skills

Accuracy
Attack Boost
Havoc
Mighty Roar

Here's what I need help with. I know Cyclone is a must, but how useful is Flash for Zhao Yun? I'm thinking about removing Aggression because I don't want to do a musou-spam build (which I don't use much anyways), but rather an attack build.

Anyways, I would just like some advice on how to spec Zhao in terms of weapon attributes and skills. I'm open to testing; currently sitting on one-million plus gold and about four-thousand gems, so I have the resources to build.

Thanks,

- Legacy

[MemPhiZ ZX - #NewYear2025]

My usual build for every weapon type: Velocity, Slash, Jubilation, Cyclone, Induction, Explosive

Haven't tried on Zhao Yun, so not sure how it works.

[Sigmar's Faithful]

I don't see why you'd need a build... get recovery and jubilation on your most powerful weapons, take Health Springs as one of your abilities.
You may want to Max out your defense too, it will help against officers' normal/special attacks, but useless against Musou attack since they mostly one-shot you (and failing that, the immediate next hit from the same Musou attack would). It is recommended for you to always save a Musou bar for an unique officer as you are invincible during a Musou attack; running away or blocking is highly risk, though with both Rigidity and Awareness you block will become much more proofed against those attacks.
Ultimate is for masochists: the only reason it's difficult is that the enemies hit harder; they don't get smarter nor act any differently (except for perhaps a bit more aggressive) than in lower difficulties. Any tricks you found useful in other difficulties are likely equally as useful (unless it's tanking damage, in which case find another one).

[Aranea]

Ok so i hope you trust me since i got over 280 hours of gameplay in this game and also engage on forums discussion of this kind a lot for other hardcore players (not on steam forums though, sadly)

(just in case you are impatient -> TL;DR keep your build for both weapons and use rage and musou springs instead of havoc and accuracy.)

First off all forget elemental builds. Cyclone isn't a must, that was for dw8 vanilla where elemental builds ruled the world because cyclone worked in any case, now on dw8xl cyclone only do damage to blocking officers and most people use musou builds or hybrid builds which are basically musou without frenzy and using cyclone or induction in it's place. Your build is the standard musou setup and you should keep that in this case.

Also there are still some great characters with elemental setup like Ding feng and Sima shi but both of then don't need cyclone to work (put flurry there instead). Sima zhao is also great with elemental but needs cyclone and can also do cyclone + musou build (use his charge-6 and charge-4 for great results)

Second you don't need havoc and accuracy doesn't affect musou damage, which is the bread and butter of Zhao Yun. Use rage and musou springs in it's place. To fill musou faster i recommend just using your switch attack, if you get bored of spamming that you can do whatever but just try to keep your chain then since the bigger it gets the more rage and musou you will gain

Third: His first musou does awesome damage, his r1 musou is one of the best musous in the game but doesn't clear a crowd as fast as his first musou. His air musou does mediocre damage and should never be used unless you are trying to dodge a musou or something else.

Fourth: Elemental build for Zhao Yun is extremely unsafe and you need luck to get the best from it, but there is this video from a fellow forum member of mine in case you really want to insist on it i'll see if i can find it for you or if he deleted it Edit: Sorry the video is gone. You gonna have to trust me on this one.

[buddymanson]

You have the same build as my Zhao, but the skills I use are Attack Boost, Musuo + Rage Springs & Mighty Roar. I replace Mighty Roar with Havoc when not playing on Chaos/Ultimate difficulty.

[Legacy]

Originally posted by Bodevan:

Ok so i hope you trust me since i got over 280 hours of gameplay in this game and also engage on forums discussion of this kind a lot for other hardcore players (not on steam forums though, sadly)

(just in case you are impatient -> TL;DR keep your build for both weapons and use rage and musou springs instead of havoc and accuracy.)

First off all forget elemental builds. Cyclone isn't a must, that was for dw8 vanilla where elemental builds ruled the world because cyclone worked in any case, now on dw8xl cyclone only do damage to blocking officers and most people use musou builds or hybrid builds which are basically musou without frenzy and using cyclone or induction in it's place. Your build is the standard musou setup and you should keep that in this case.

Also there are still some great characters with elemental setup like Ding feng and Sima shi but both of then don't need cyclone to work (put flurry there instead). Sima zhao is also great with elemental but needs cyclone and can also do cyclone + musou build (use his charge-6 and charge-4 for great results)

Second you don't need havoc and accuracy doesn't affect musou damage, which is the bread and butter of Zhao Yun. Use rage and musou springs in it's place. To fill musou faster i recommend just using your switch attack, if you get bored of spamming that you can do whatever but just try to keep your chain then since the bigger it gets the more rage and musou you will gain

Third: His first musou does awesome damage, his r1 musou is one of the best musous in the game but doesn't clear a crowd as fast as his first musou. His air musou does mediocre damage and should never be used unless you are trying to dodge a musou or something else.

Fourth: Elemental build for Zhao Yun is extremely unsafe and you need luck to get the best from it, but there is this video from a fellow forum member of mine in case you really want to insist on it i'll see if i can find it for you or if he deleted it Edit: Sorry the video is gone. You gonna have to trust me on this one.

First off, thank you for your thorough response! Second, I'm sorry if my original post needed more clarification. What I should have said was that I was looking for a build other than musou spamming that would likewise be effective with Zhao Yun. I had originally spec'd Zhao Yun with Musou Springs, Rage Springs, Attack Springs, and Havoc--however, I wanted to change it up.

Back to your points, I know Accuracy does not affect musou damage, but I was trying to do a pure melee build, literally spamming combos, haha.

I agree with you on everything else though. Pretty much, Zhao Yun is BEST with musou spamming?

Plus, I trust you! Thanks for your response.

Originally posted by buddymanson:

You have the same build as my Zhao, but the skills I use are Attack Boost, Musuo + Rage Springs & Mighty Roar. I replace Mighty Roar with Havoc when not playing on Chaos/Ultimate difficulty.

Haha, awesome. I originally had musou and rage springs but I wanted to switch it up and try experimenting (failed). I only used havoc because of the pesky peons. Thanks for your response!

[Aranea]

Originally posted by Legacy:

First off, thank you for your thorough response! Second, I'm sorry if my original post needed more clarification. What I should have said was that I was looking for a build other than musou spamming that would likewise be effective with Zhao Yun. I had originally spec'd Zhao Yun with Musou Springs, Rage Springs, Attack Springs, and Havoc--however, I wanted to change it up.

Back to your points, I know Accuracy does not affect musou damage, but I was trying to do a pure melee build, literally spamming combos, haha.

I agree with you on everything else though. Pretty much, Zhao Yun is BEST with musou spamming?

Plus, I trust you! Thanks for your response.

You see if you don't want to musou spam and do awesome melee damage with combos i can recommend some characters:

*c means charge or strong attack.

*The build you would use with them is still pretty much your zhao yun build replacing frenzy with induction, but they don't actually need to use musous unless for finishing a low health target or recovering health with jubilation. Here it goes.

Ma Chao -> His c3-ex does amazing damage and his c6-ex on top of doing amazing damage also fills rage and musou reaaaaaallly fast, plus after some time playing him you will notice that you can naturally include his r1 and ground musou into some combos, it may need some learning though, also remember that his c2 is a really good grab that breaks guard. His Rage Musou is strong too.

Sun Ce -> doesn't have a amazing filler like Ma Chao but can destroy officers without musou or elements and his strong c6-ex attack.

Ling Tong -> C3 can destroy most stuff in this game, both his ex attacks are strong but not necessary, he also has one of the best rage musous in the game, btw remember that you can just activate rage and use c3 for extra damage instead of just activating rage instantly (You would not believe how many times i see people that don't realize that).

Zhou Tai -> is as musou spammer but him can work without it using this musou plus induction build too.
His c4-ex breaks guard which is amazing for making sure his ground or air musou won't get blocked plus his ultimate activates induction by the end of the animation (in his particular case i decided to replace roar with induction and keep frenzy, just because i always recover my musou using his c3-ex and his rage musou isn't good so i don't keep roar to increase it's duration (which is a secondary reason for having it). The only reason i would keep roar is if you are trying to get the best time possible in a stage (which i believe would be faster, never actually tested it since the difference in time wouldn't be big enough and it can be caused by mistakes or wasted musou))

I also use a induction + musou build with Lu Meng, but i think he has weak musou and attacks. The only thing that he does really well is c1-ex into switch attack, which grabs the target enemy officer and activates the bombs if you are doing this correctly and can one shot a lot of officers in this game.

Well that should be enough for you to get started. Have fun

[Legacy]

Originally posted by Bodevan:

Originally posted by Legacy:

First off, thank you for your thorough response! Second, I'm sorry if my original post needed more clarification. What I should have said was that I was looking for a build other than musou spamming that would likewise be effective with Zhao Yun. I had originally spec'd Zhao Yun with Musou Springs, Rage Springs, Attack Springs, and Havoc--however, I wanted to change it up.

Back to your points, I know Accuracy does not affect musou damage, but I was trying to do a pure melee build, literally spamming combos, haha.

I agree with you on everything else though. Pretty much, Zhao Yun is BEST with musou spamming?

Plus, I trust you! Thanks for your response.

You see if you don't want to musou spam and do awesome melee damage with combos i can recommend some characters:

*c means charge or strong attack.

*The build you would use with them is still pretty much your zhao yun build replacing frenzy with induction, but they don't actually need to use musous unless for finishing a low health target or recovering health with jubilation. Here it goes.

Ma Chao -> His c3-ex does amazing damage and his c6-ex on top of doing amazing damage also fills rage and musou reaaaaaallly fast, plus after some time playing him you will notice that you can naturally include his r1 and ground musou into some combos, it may need some learning though, also remember that his c2 is a really good grab that breaks guard. His Rage Musou is strong too.

Sun Ce -> doesn't have a amazing filler like Ma Chao but can destroy officers without musou or elements and his strong c6-ex attack.

Ling Tong -> C3 can destroy most stuff in this game, both his ex attacks are strong but not necessary, he also has one of the best rage musous in the game, btw remember that you can just activate rage and use c3 for extra damage instead of just activating rage instantly (You would not believe how many times i see people that don't realize that).

Zhou Tai -> is as musou spammer but him can work without it using this musou plus induction build too.
His c4-ex breaks guard which is amazing for making sure his ground or air musou won't get blocked plus his ultimate activates induction by the end of the animation (in his particular case i decided to replace roar with induction and keep frenzy, just because i always recover my musou using his c3-ex and his rage musou isn't good so i don't keep roar to increase it's duration (which is a secondary reason for having it). The only reason i would keep roar is if you are trying to get the best time possible in a stage (which i believe would be faster, never actually tested it since the difference in time wouldn't be big enough and it can be caused by mistakes or wasted musou))

I also use a induction + musou build with Lu Meng, but i think he has weak musou and attacks. The only thing that he does really well is c1-ex into switch attack, which grabs the target enemy officer and activates the bombs if you are doing this correctly and can one shot a lot of officers in this game.

Well that should be enough for you to get started. Have fun

Thank you! I will definitely try these builds out. Just beat Lu Bu during the Battle of Hulao Gate, which is probably the only stage I can think of where he is XTREMELY deadly.

[Aranea]

Originally posted by Legacy:

Thank you! I will definitely try these builds out. Just beat Lu Bu during the Battle of Hulao Gate, which is probably the only stage I can think of where he is XTREMELY deadly.

He is also pretty deadly on the battle of ten eunuchs (first stage of his story) and the first wei stage, but you shouldn't test your builds fighting against him, since those are the only 3 stages where you will get enemies that ridiculous strong, in those especifics cases elemental builds would be better since they do percentage health damage no matter how strong those officers get. If you doing it just for fun then nvm all that i just said.

p.s. There's actually officers that strong on the last stage of the second part of ambition mode too and the find the beauties stage (last of the xl stages for wei, but you problaby already did that one), just in case you go do one of those stages choose a elemental character that is really safe and can fight multiple officers like ding feng (remember to use his weapon special ability; the "just frame" mechanic; or you will never notice how good he is) or zhurong (zhurong c6 activates elements 12. Yes. TWELVE. Freaking times. It's pretty crazy)

Edit: Forgot to add, a "full elemental build" would be this -> cyclone-slash-flash-thunder-jubilation-velocity. Cyclone can be replaced for flurry but i would only do that if you're using a elemental character with a grab that activates the elements (thus the officer won't block and cyclone will be useless) like previously mentioned sima shi

[Legacy]

Originally posted by Bodevan:

Originally posted by Legacy:

Thank you! I will definitely try these builds out. Just beat Lu Bu during the Battle of Hulao Gate, which is probably the only stage I can think of where he is XTREMELY deadly.

He is also pretty deadly on the battle of ten eunuchs (first stage of his story) and the first wei stage, but you shouldn't test your builds fighting against him, since those are the only 3 stages where you will get enemies that ridiculous strong, in those especifics cases elemental builds would be better since they do percentage health damage no matter how strong those officers get. If you doing it just for fun then nvm all that i just said.

p.s. There's actually officers that strong on the last stage of the second part of ambition mode too and the find the beauties stage (last of the xl stages for wei, but you problaby already did that one), just in case you go do one of those stages choose a elemental character that is really safe and can fight multiple officers like ding feng (remember to use his weapon special ability; the "just frame" mechanic; or you will never notice how good he is) or zhurong (zhurong c6 activates elements 12. Yes. TWELVE. Freaking times. It's pretty crazy)

Edit: Forgot to add, a "full elemental build" would be this -> cyclone-slash-flash-thunder-jubilation-velocity. Cyclone can be replaced for flurry but i would only do that if you're using a elemental character with a grab that activates the elements (thus the officer won't block and cyclone will be useless) like previously mentioned sima shi

Yeah, the Wei and Ten Eunuchs stage were what I forgot! Lol, I did not know that about Ding Feng or Zhurong, much to the fact that I only played with several characters. Thanks for the help!

[Aranea]

So did you play the characters i listed to you?

[Clever Cloaks]

My typical set-up for weapons goes as:
1. Ex 6-Star Weapon: Cyclone, Slash, Flash (pretty much a beefed up Explosive), Induction(is to Thunder what Flash is to Explosive), Velocity/Gale(some weapons just don't work well with Velocity), and Jubilation (especially needed for Ultimate on low Level and Ambition Mode).

2. Ex 5-star Powerful Weapon: Cyclone, Slash, Flash, Induction, Jubilation, and Thorns (If you're playing on Ultimate, there's a good chance named officers could deal massive damage, maybe even kill you in a single combo. Thorns lv.10 stuns and returns the damage to anyone attacking you, saving you from being locked into a combo you can't escape from).

[Aranea]

Originally posted by TheOverlyMadHatter:

My typical set-up for weapons goes as:
1. Ex 6-Star Weapon: Cyclone, Slash, Flash (pretty much a beefed up Explosive), Induction(is to Thunder what Flash is to Explosive), Velocity/Gale(some weapons just don't work well with Velocity), and Jubilation (especially needed for Ultimate on low Level and Ambition Mode).

2. Ex 5-star Powerful Weapon: Cyclone, Slash, Flash, Induction, Jubilation, and Thorns (If you're playing on Ultimate, there's a good chance named officers could deal massive damage, maybe even kill you in a single combo. Thorns lv.10 stuns and returns the damage to anyone attacking you, saving you from being locked into a combo you can't escape from).

No offense, but you shouldn't use this on everything. Weapon setups should vary on a character by character basis, also most elemental setups in dw8xl are inferior to musou setups. Especially compared with dw8 because cyclone was nerfed to work only on guarding officers so it won't activate flash nor it will proc together with slash and thunder. Plus koei made so that unique officers will spam musou a lot more and they also made a lot of musous way stronger since dw8.

About induction and thunder, flash and explosive. They work in completely different ways. Induction is great depending of build, but if you're going to have flash on your weapon you should run thunder, since flash procs based on a set damage that Thunder and Slash can activate, making your chances on doing great damage higher. Also If you have some peons around the target officer while using a good elemental character it will one shot everytime because of flash proccing too since it actually does aoe damage. This won't work nearly as well with induction or explosive since the actual set damage for flash to work is quite high

In fact if you want i could link you to some great discussion i have in forums with other hardcore koei fans so that you can see a lot of talk and videos about each character best or close to best setup since we are making a tier list for this game as a lot of other did for other warriors games.

[Clever Cloaks]

Originally posted by Bodevan:

No offense, but you shouldn't use this on everything.

Well, of course, that's not what I use on EVERYTHING. I have builds for Musou/Rage Spam, and if I see something doesn't work well with a certain moveset, I'll probably make changes.

But, you really seem to know your stuff. Thanks for the pointers.

[Aranea]

Originally posted by TheOverlyMadHatter:

Originally posted by Bodevan:

No offense, but you shouldn't use this on everything.

Well, of course, that's not what I use on EVERYTHING. I have builds for Musou/Rage Spam, and if I see something doesn't work well with a certain moveset, I'll probably make changes.

But, you really seem to know your stuff. Thanks for the pointers.

no problem, i'm glad you didn't take offense on it here, if you want to see where our discussion in the forums is now (not all characters have been discussed yet, but you should look around for some info, i recommend watching all videos by the user WarriorsXL as he really likes to break this game with some unorthodox builds):
This is the third topic on the tier list since in gamefaqs we are limited to 50 pages.
Apothecary DW8XL Tier List v.3
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/730572-dynasty-warriors-8-xtreme-legends-complete-edition/69872106

This is a video demonstration topic that is a bit weird since the creator varies between trying to make the best build go well and just trying to have fun for what fits him best, the tier list topic also has a lot of videos.
DW8XL Video Demonstrations
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/730572-dynasty-warriors-8-xtreme-legends-complete-edition/69848452

If you want to see the other two archived topics that reached the 50 page limit.
Apothecary DW8XL Tier List
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/730572-dynasty-warriors-8-xtreme-legends-complete-edition/69369708
Apothecary DW8XL Tier List v.2
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/730572-dynasty-warriors-8-xtreme-legends-complete-edition/69670879?page=48

[FilthyCasual]

If you're going to have a Slash+Flash, you're going to want Thunder over Induction. This would allow you to create a perfect elemental build. Of course not every character has good elemental procs, so going into Apothecary's topic is good because alot of the users are testing on elemental hybrid builds that might work well. Doesn't really compare to the well-roundedness of having a standard musou build however, since WarriorsXL's obscure builds tend to be too focused on speedrunning Yu Province, which isn't always useful for stages like Mt. Qi.

For Zhao Yun, he's just R1 Musou spam, so the above advance and build is perfect. C4 is probably his best filler, then get up close and R1 Musou any officers. Hyper officers are best combated with Yun's Rage Musou which is fantastic.