Viessa

The First Descendants "Cold-Blooded" Femme Fatale.

Her cold based abilities make her an excellent Descendant, as she freezes the environment around her.
Viessa is also one of the starting characters and the Frost-Themed Crowd Control Descendant.

This guide goes over her backstory, character, gameplay, cosmetics and modding options.

Overview

Viessa is one of the 16 playable characters currently in the game.
She also has an Ultimate version and is one of the three choices new players have when selecting a character in the beginning.

Her role is based around debuffing enemies by freezing them to death or long enough for you and your team to take them out.
Her kit provides her with decent baseline effectiveness in form of crowd control. It makes her an ideal starting character with enough utility to be useful in high level as well.


Viessa lacks healing and high damage dealing abilities, nevertheless she synergizes well with teamplay and coordination.
Her fast shield recovery allow you to quickly get back into action, if you manage to successfully disengage with her. She offers a lot of gameplay complexity and depth, which is unusual for a starting character.
Choosing your fights on higher levels is important with her. Your CC is strong but in base form limited in range, duration, cooldown and partially MP cost. Correct Modding impacts her effectiveness more than other Descendants. You can choose to focus on her DPS, her CC or both.
Her CC is her trademark however and should be prioritized in your first build.

"Stay where you are!"

"This could get messy!"

Disclaimer: Content will be added and things may change. Images that are connected to this might be outdated due to some of them being from the Open Beta. They will be updated if that is the case. This guide in general will be kept updated.


Interesting to know/Fun Fact: Viessa has like the other Descendants an unique sitting animation in the starting screen. Her casual and laid back character is perfectly encapsulated in the starting menu screen, as she is sitting in a more relaxed and dreamy manner.

Personal Note: Thank you for the amount of positive feedback :)

I. Story

From smuggler to Albion's Finest...
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This chapter doesn't provide gameplay information.

First iteration of her story [Old]

Viessa tends to give others the cold shoulder, because she has lost everything that once meant something to her.

After a smuggler band that she was part of was disbanded by the Albion Posse, Viessa was forced to toil as a digger at the Snowfield of Dawn. She had to serve her sentence there to be reinstated as a citizen.

Her job was to dig up the Colossi buried there, but disaster struck not long after she began her sentence. A Collossus buried everyone in a deluge of snow. Viessa was barely rescued, and her Arche was triggered during the treatment that followed.

Then on the condition that the sentence be commuted, she began her service in the Descendant Corps.
Viessa didn't use to belong anywhere but is now considered a capable Descendant. If her face looks flushed, it means that a teammates has just complemented her.

Second iteration [New]

Viessa

Hailing from Albion's underbelly, Viessa was a runner for a smuggling gang that brought in banned goods from the old, abandoned lands. During those years, Viessa was known for her ability to bring in items that were more luxurious and expensive than what the other gang members brought in.

Viessa's sphere of activity was a city that was frozen a century ago by a Colossus called the DeadBride. The place was eerie. filled with frozen corpses and the fallen Colossus, but items deemed expensive have been preserved, remaining intact. Moreover, because of the cold, the other gang members coudn't even get near it. But for her it was her own paradise; she couldn't understand why everyone would shiver so much in the cold.

But this paradise turned into a cold hell overnight. The Colossus DeadBride, which was thought to be destroyed, was simply lying dormant, and the slight change in temperature caused by Viessa's presence awakened it. In the end, viessa was forced to fight the Colossus. She was barely able to defeat it, thanks in part to the Descendant Corps, who joined her and were deployed after an anomalous energy generation had been detected. Of course, their encounter was awkward to say the least.

5 years? 10 years? Viessa let out a frosty sigh as she contemplated her sentence in the Albion prison, but for the second time that, she experienced something she never thought would happen in her life. Her sentence? To join the Descendant Corps. Viessa's peculiarities piqued the interest of the Magisters, who conducted an Arche Factor Test on her and discovered that she was indeed a Descendant.

For the first time in her life, Viessa broke out in a cold sweat, but quickly regained her composure. Become a Descendant? Beats being in a prison. No biggie, let's give it a shot.

Ultimate Viessa

The Ultimate Descendant Project refers to a plan in which either the Ancestor's technology and equipment found throughout Ingris, or their special Arche genes, are refined to suit the characterisitics of active Descendants, then applied to them. The ultimate goal being to enhance all Descendants to reflect the Ancestors, the powerful predecessors of humanity.

However, the Ultimate Project for Viessa was stalling. Viessa's Arche was neither an enhancement-type nor an application-type, but rather, an emission-type that directly uses elementalized Arche. And, there was no information on any Ultimate equipment that could be adapted to this type of Arche. Of course... if "Absolute Zero", the Arche emission battlesuit that caused the death of a Descendant who was testing it, could be counted officially, some information might be available.

This Ultimate equpiment was discovered in the early days of the war, and during a test run, it went into overdrive, taking the Descendant's Arche to the limit, causing his body temperature to drop to subzero temps, and causing death. That's when it was given the name Absolute-Zero, and this cursed battlesuit was put out of commision, effective immediately.

Fortunately, Viessa's analysis was correct. Absolute-Zero was a model optimized for the Ice Arche element, and the enhanced suit started to synchronize with her body without any disruptions. What's more, the refrigerant-releasing drones that hovered around Viessa could also be controlled more deftly trough the computing device attached to her helmet. This was the moment a very old curse finally became a blessing for the next generation.

Arche Refrigerant Release Drone

Additional information considering her passive ability:
The Arche Refrigerant Release Drone is a battle sub-system modified specifically for Viessa. It uses thermal sensors to automatically track down and attack the Vulgus who become colder than their surroundings, i.e. enemies that have been attacked by Viessa.

The drone is linked to Viessa's Arche; when Viessa uses her abilities, the drone is summoned automatically.
Various drone technologies have been researched to enhance Viessa's battle capabilities. The very first fruit of such efforts was the Arche Refrigerant Release Drone. Since then, it became possible to link the Arche of other Descendants to dedicated drones and turrets, and Viessa would sometimes joke that she was what started the Arche drone technology.

"That's why I told you not to let your guard down.
Once I freeze you, my drone will start attacking you. Until you're dead."- Viessa

"Successfully neutralized"

Her story continues...
... and her destiny yet to be unraveled.

II. Profile

Hardship builds character ...
and an unlikely Descendant.
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This chapter doesn't provide gameplay information. Useful side information at end of this chapter.

Character

The Cold-Blooded Beauty
While Viessa's character description is rather minimal in the lore available to her, there are also her voicelines which indirectly give more information about her as well as underline the existings bits of her traits.
Viessa's description depicts her to have suffered from great loss in the recent past, leaving her emotionally scarred.
Her behaviour towards her comrades is deeply influenced by this, as she "tends to give others the cold shoulder" to avoid deep emotional bindings, since she tries to avoid being vulnerable in this regard again. She therefore behaves rather distant towards other Descendants in her interactions with them. However this does not reflect her inner feelings towards the other Descendants, as she does indeed care for them and even does them favors sometimes like making shaved ice (see Trivia).


This also leads to Viessa being seemingly overwhelmed when receiving a compliment for her work as she "blushes" when receiving praises, which were rare in her criminal past or due to the work as smuggler had a bitter aftertaste as she on the other side of law and society.

Added by the second iteration.
Viessa has a talent for finding valuable items and is portrayed as being rather pragmatic in terms of her occupation, joining the Descendants simply to avoid punishment.

She also enjoys extreme cold as a result of her being a Descendant.

This reflects in several of her voice lines, as their undertone is often a mix between calm and detached, even when reviving other Descendants.

,,Don't hate me later."

There are exceptions in which she is more open with her feelings towards other Descendants or generally speaking especially when Viessa is critically injured, however she is still more restrained or less vocal over her feelings unlike most of the other Descendants f.e. Bunny who is more direct.


At last one detail of Viessa's character information and lore is written in the description of one of her outfits, which is the "Assasin" Outfit.
It says:,, Rumor has it that Viessa, who worked with Freyna, was so pleased with the results that she wore matching outfits with similar designs

Interesting to know/Fun Fact:
This also means that Viessa and Freyna are probably close friends.

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Appearance

Like the other Descendants Viessa not only stands out for her abilities, but also for her look.
In contrast to her shy and closed off personality Viessa's default outfit as well as her other cosmetics are slightly more open.
By default Viessa has blonde shoulder long hair and wears a short dress with longs sleeves with an open chest and a pantyhose. Additonally she wears a crop leather jacket with metallic long-gloves and shoulder protectors as well as metallic knee-high boots with heels.

Besides these base clothes she wears two belts and has bags attached to them or other parts of her uniform to carry equipment or additional ammunition.

Her Ultimate Version deviates from this by her wearing a completely new outfit, with the biggest differences being that her clothing featurs a hood with mask and the used materials being a mix of metalls and synthetic material with minor changes in Viessa's Make-up as well as wearing no long gloves anymore.
Her Ultimate Version also changes the appearance of her Passive.

However Viessa also has an Ultimate Epic Cosmetic/Skin which is one full set called "Everlasting Honor" giving her a new appearance.
With this set she not only gains a completely different outfit but also her hair changes drastically in color, style and length, since she wears a splendid helmet that covers her face with some space on top for her hip long silver-white hair to show.
She does wear her typical crop jacket as well as long gloves and knee-high boots with heels again as a reference to her default attire. However beneath she wears a skin-tight suit that covers her body.

One additional change is that she wears a metal abdominal plate for protection. an additional layer of leather for cosmetic purposes, as well as for slight protection for her belly.
This set almost fully commits to emphasizing Viessa's body with the exception of her face as its (currently) not possible to open the headware. Cementing Viessa's position as one of the first Descedants, with an unambigious name for this outfit("Everlasting Honor"), as well as The First Descedants Frosty Femme Fatale.
*Update*: Rereleased during the Christmas time in 2024. Viessa's Everlasting Honor received a visual overhaul/buff by having a cleaner design and adding more details to the suit, helmet, jacket and boots.
They also added some lore to the suit and helmet, which shows that the suit was build for Viessa's Ultimate Arche version, but wasn't able to handle Viessa's power leading to it being outdated. It now serves as reminder to the Ancestor's legacy and more directly of Viessa's beauty.
,,A cryogenic helmet/ A suit with a refrigerant-releasing function, created when the Ultimate Project was in full swing. However, its specifications were insufficient to handle Ultimate Viessa's enhanced Arche, and it was reworked into a decorative helmet. Though it is only decorative, the honor and value of the Ancestors' legacy will live on."

Interesting to know/Fun Fact:

1. Viessa's appearance from top to bottom went through several minor changes to make her even more appealing in comparison to the first test version.

2. She also received a huge quality of life improvement in terms of her voice line usage, since in the first test Viessa commented literally every reload with "Why now?" and so "So annoying!" to the annoyance of everyone playing her.
The voice lines itself were also replaced with different ones that were more fitting to her character.

3. Her default suits energy colour is blue and her ultimate is a green blue colour.

4. Her voice actress is Maria Louis.

5. Her full name is Viessa Morfiel.

6. Her eye colour is green.

6. Her Everlasting Honor outfit is the first only alternative dress that is focused specifically around her body feature, as it serves to glorify her. Being skin tight as a result. The consequence of it being that it shows Viessa's underlying underwear.

7. There were two Prefixes and two Suffixes related (Ultimate) Viessa, which were: Icy and Cold Blooded, as well as Witch and Beauty. However the Suffix Beauty was later changed to the Prefix Beautiful, making it now three to one. It can be speculated that the most likely reason being that the Devs didn't want to associate Beauty only with Viessa.

II. Ultimate Viessa

Ultimate Viessa is the seperate Ultimate version of Viessa, featuring small enhancements to her survivability and a new look. The abilities stay the same. She does not keep the installed enhancements of her Default version.

Stats

II. Unlocking Ultimate Viessa

"Watch carefully!"

Aquistion
You can aquire Ultimate Viessa in two different ways:
The first and fastest one by purchasing her Bundle with Caliber (real money).
The second one by going through the grind. In other for that you will have to spend a lot of time on getting the right Amorphous Material Pattern or for short "AMP".

AMP drops are changing over time. This guide cannot guarantee to be always up to date in this matter.

Short Version: As for now the following AMP's have the best drop chances to reduce RNG as much as possible. However keep in mind they require you to play on the Hard Difficulty in order to aquire them. There are materials for the Normal Mode as well and while their Rng is worse for Ultimate Viessa's parts, the way they function remains the same.

AMP for Ultimate Viessa's Code: 125 AA, 075
AMP for Ultimate Viessa's Enhanced Cells: 114, 086, 056
AMP for Ultimate Viessa's Stabilizer: 107, 091
AMP for Ultimate Viessa's Spiral: 118, 108, 070

Important Note: 125 has been retired and been replaced by 125 AA. Therefore the Aquisition Info won't show you any drop location. Keep this in mind for future Ultimate Character releases, as they will replace older AMP's as well.

Quick tips:

• Press G (on default key binding) and go to "Access Info".
  
• Then you go to Amorphus Material.
  
• It will show you all current AMP's including those with (Ultimate) Viessa's parts.
  
• Just use the "Search" option to quickly find what you're looking for.

One final Note: In order to get the AMP 125 AA you will have to do the Quarantine Zone Mission on the Fortress Level on Hard Mode. However this mission also offers you AMP 124. In order to switch you have to click on "Change" and then select the specific AMP.

III. Gameplay

"Wanna feel a little chill?"

Balancing DPS and immense Slowdown,
Viessa can support the engagement with overwhelming and deadly crowd control. She has tools, that can be used offensively as well as for defense of important points. In downtimes she can quickly cover ground with Frost Road. Alone however being the single target the lack of defense cannot only slow down your momentum, but also be extremely deadly in Dungeons.

When working together, staying alive with energy reserves as Viessa keeps the team's momentum, in difficult rounds.

On the tricky side you have to be close to the enemy as her.
With her relative fragility and limited energy reserve in mind is experience the key to success, since mistakes will be harder punished on Viessa when compared to a lot of other Descendants.

Keep in mind!

In terms of survivability for Hard content; ~10-15k Hp and 20~25k Def will carry you through anything with her an example build will be in the "Modding" category).

You can mod her for more resilience and this is recommended when fighting most bosses. In your day to day Vulgus fights, this is more of a side thought, when you have spare Mod Capacity on harder levels or when playing solo. Some missions like Dungeons reset your progress at the boss stage when dying meaning, so you can't force your way through it by using some of the free retries, each mission provides you. These mission types are safer, when having additional modifications to your health types.

In terms of gunplay you need to focus on close range weapons like shotguns or best of them all revolvers/handguns. They allow you to deal massive amounts of damage in a short time, when being next to an enemy. With Viessa's abilities you will need to get close to use them effectively. Having at least one weapon for this close engagements will help you get the most damage out of one freeze, especially with headshots and high critical damage.

Viessa's abilities are cold themed. Her skills focus not only on dealing damage to enemies, but also on debuffing them. Her role as Debuffer is to freeze enemies. Currently she is the only one filling the role to this extent. The status effect of frozen enemies is called "Ice Shackle".
Do not confuse it with "Frostbite", which happens when you get frozen. Despite her freezing expertise Viessa is not immune nor resistent to Frostbite

Addendum/Exception: Freezing enemies with Chill ATK is considered to be Frostbite.



















There is a Mod to prevent Frostbites, granting you total immunity.
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Stats

Viessa's only defences are her high shield capacity and regeneration.
Her abilities offer only little or no boost to this.
High shield capacity is secondary to her regeneration as her shields are still significantly lower than her health pool.
The effectiveness also depends on the enemies level as well as your defence stats.
This means Viessa is not a tank.
Her shield recovery bonus is sizeable and the core of her survivability. In combat the difference is noticable and it is recommended to disengage for a moment with her to recover her defense.
Noticable is her mediocre MP pool. Leaving you with small reserves when using her abilities frequently. With ler lack of tanking you can run into the problem of being cut off and out of MP with the remaining MP drops being in enemy lines.


Her viability can suffer when being solo. Her effectiveness is the highest in a well coordinated team.

Fun Fact/interesting to know:
Viessa went through a lot of changes considering her defensive capabilities.

Final Technical Test 2024


Open Beta 2023


Closed Beta 2022
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IV. Abilities

Viessa has four active abilities and one passive ability.
All of them help with Debuffing and crowd controlling the enemy, while providing decent damge output. Especially in combination with her passive skill. Every ability deals damage, the only exception being Frost Road.
Her Ice Shackles (the freezing effect) add additively to each other.
This means f.e.:
Stage 1 Ice Shackles + Stage 3 Ice Shackles = Stage 4 Ice Shackles; which is the highest stage (90% slowdown) meaning essentially you froze them completely for a short moment. The duration is refreshable.
Counting her passive ability, Viessa has three Fusion type and two Tech type abilities.

This is important for modding as some mods only work for specific types or categories.

• 1. Frost Shards-Fusion

  MP Cost: 22
  Cooldown: 7 seconds
  Damage Modifier-Projectile/AOE: 160%/119% of Skill Power Modifier
  Viessa fires an exploding shard of ice in front of her, dealing Skill ATK damage first, then dealing additional damage from the following explosion to all enemies within a 3.5 radius of the epicenter. Direct hits apply two stacks of Ice Shackle, and the explosion applies one to all enemies within its radius.
  -Simple and useful for priming your enemies with Ice Shackles. The damage is significant against cannon fodder.
  

• 2. Frost Road-Fusion

  "Smooth as Ice!"
  MP Cost: 24
  Cooldown: 25 seconds
  Duration: 19 seconds
  Shield Recovery: 10%
  Grants Viessa a 30% movement speed boost and causes her to emit freezing fog all around her. Moving leaves a trail of frigid ice that applies two stacks of Ice Shackle to any that dare come in contact. In addition, Frost Road recharges around 10% of Viessa's shield when activated.
  It is possible to maintain permanent uptime on this ability if you have enough Skill Cooldown Reduction.
  -This ability provides a lot of utility and helps you if you find yourself about to be surrounded, looking for a quick way to escape. The 10% shield increase is useful to tank incoming chip damage on your retreat.
  

• 3. Cold Snap-Fusion

  MP Cost: 30
  Cooldown: 7 seconds
  Damage Modifier: 250% of Skill Power Modifier
  Viessa fires a sheet of ice in a cone in front of her, dealing high damage, and applying two stacks of Ice Shackle to any targets hit by it.
  -Due to its short range, this ability is essentially another melee attack with a wider hit zone and slowdown. However it pairs nicely with Frost Shard, as you can easily freeze a group of enemies if this ability is followed up right after it.
  

• 4. Blizzard-Tech

  MP Cost: 38
  Cooldown: 40 seconds
  Viessa conjures a centralized snowstorm in front of her that lasts for six seconds. Any enemies caught within are dealt massive ice damage over time (DoT) and suffer constant application of Ice Shackle. After six seconds, the snowstorm explodes, dealing a burst of ice damage to all enemies within six meters of its radius.
  -High damage potential and good crowd control. Only limited by its range (both ability and casting range; leaving you exposed).

Passive Ability

Ice Sphere-Tech

Cooldown: 15 seconds
When Viessa inflicts a level two Ice Shackle on a target, she gains a charge of Ice Sphere. When an enemy comes within close proximity of her, a shard of ice shoots out, dealing a percentage of Viessa's Skill ATK to the target. There is a 15-second cooldown on this effect.
-This passive provides additional damage and crowd control rounding up Viessa's role as debuffer. It helps directly with your survivability as it only attacks enemies close to you which are most of the time the biggest threat to you.
Note: Currently the Ice-Sphere decays after a short time. This means you won't be able to save them for another fight.

Important Notes:

• Your Ice Shackles slow down bosses as well. However at a much reduced rate (10%).
  
• Most of her abilities can be cast mid air. The only exception being Cold Snap.
  
  Interesting to know/Fun Fact:
  Viessa's slowdown against bosses was cut in half compared to previous versions.
  
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V. Modding

This section will be further expanded when relevant content is added.

This is about modding priorities and what you need to look out for.
Ability wise you want to prioritize skill range and skill cooldown reduction for your abilities. Without enough range your CC is severly hampered. Skill Cooldown is especially useful on Frost Road Enough cooldown reduction and you can keep up Frost Road indefinetely (if you have the MP). Skill Power is worth to be modded as well, since her abilities deal good damage as well. Nowhere near as Bunny for example, but you can use it to kill cannon fodder and deal helpful chip damage to tougher enemies. If you have to make a decision because of a lack of ressources then go for:

1.Skill Range
2.Skill Cooldown
3.Skill Power ("Focus on Tech" is recommended)
etc.(f.e. Skill Cost)

Hint: Keep in mind, that in higher levels your ability damage won't be enough to one-shot anything, therefore range is a priority as your Ice Shackles will always have the same effectiveness.
The advantage in comparison to "Nuker" and "Damage Dealer" Descendants is that Viessa's abilities keep their effective value even in high level missions. Making Viessa more important the higher the level gets, as she keeps a higher baseline effectiveness.

Survivability wise you should mod your shields and defense to capitalize on Viessa's shields as much as possible. Modding HP can be helpful, but if you have to make a decision between the three stats then go for:

1.Defense
2.Shield
3.Health

Note: This counts for Ultimate Viessa as well.

This example is not fully representative, as this build was also revolving around protection against the toxic damage from the Obstructer and was from the Beta with a lack of ressources as well. However the core function of it can be used for guidance.

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Skill Module

Viessa has several Skill Modules. They either give a slight enhancement or sidegrade to one of her abilities. They require a lot of capacity and therefore shouldn't prioritzed, especially since the sidegrades can hinder you when not used or understood correctly.
Hypothermy f.e.: "Replaces Ice Shackle with Ice Needle, which no longer slows down enemies but instead deals continuous damage to the target. The damage increases with each stack, up to 5."
It changes Viessa from a Crowd Control Descendant to a DPS one.

Example Build for Hard Mode

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Stats

Note: You will need to level Viessa a lot for this.
Meaning you need Crystallaziation Catalysts en masse.

However the result will be a Descendant that can both deal a lot of damage with abilities alone, while also providing slowdown to protect your team, your objective and or yourself.


While Viessa's role certainly isn't the one of a medic, she technically does save a lot of HP with her slowdown as the decreased DPS of the enemy does make a huge difference when things are getting hot (or cold in her case).

"You can't escape!"

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Build

V. Reactors, Skill and Sub Power

In general terms of what Reactor to choose, you should prioritize the "Frozen Mixture Reactor".

It has the Chill Skill symbol on it, so it should be easy to recognize. In comparison to the other Reactors it boosts your skill power's damage much more effectiveness.

This counts even in cases where the level is slightly lower compared to other Reactors that you may have at hand, if they boost a different element skill like Electric.

The only difference in these case will be that your Base Skill Power and Sub Attack Power is lower with the latter being important for your melee damage.

This means depending on the build and the Reactors requirements, it can be more useful to choose a Reactor with a difference Elemental Skill Power, however this is entirely up to your build and your desired strategy.

Interesting to know/Fun Fact: It will be highlighted which parts of your power are currently being buffed or affected by your reactor.
In this case only Fusion Skills will be buffed.

Recommended Mods and Builds

Cold-Bloodedness and Absolute Zero (AZ) are Viessa's strongest personal mods, depending on your preferences you can choose between massive cooldown reduction, being able to spam your abilities as much as you want or turning your abilities into an even deadlier force.

Both are completely viable and fun to play. Howoever if you tried out both mods you realize that not only the modding changes but also your playstyle.
Cold-Bloodedness Viessa thrives in hordes of enemies, while Absolute Zero Vieesa is basically an upgraded version of your default playstyle, since all your abilities keep their default characteristics with the difference being a more crit.hit orientated damage output.
With Cold-Bloodedness your abilities cooldown is massively reduced, if you activate your second ability.
However you lose the ability to create Frost Roads, which also means you gain no longer a speed boost. You only gain the enhanced Cooldown and Skill Cost reduction.

I'll recommend going for both and trying them out although you will gain access to Cold-Bloodedness first, as AZ only drops from fusing mods together or by defeating the Frost Walker Colossus.

Note: I did not create that graphic but it is a helpful tool for what mods to use on what build.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFirstDescendant/comments/1eodr6i/viessa_cold_bloodedness_and_absolute_zero_maxed/?tl=de

VI. Tips, Tricks and Synergies

• Foresight will be your best friend. You should always plan your engagements, as well as coordinate with your team.
  Knowing enemy spawn patterns and being quick high on your toes heels will keep you alive. To sum it up, on Viessa especially knowledge is power.
  Not only will this greatly increase your survival rate, it will also help you with your CC abilities by preparing your set up correctly.
  
  
• The most critical thing to improve in terms of her abilities is range. Your entire role builds on it. Cooldown is also a top priority, if done correctly Viessa can be extremely good at spreading CC and Damage.
  
  
• Teamwork is important and so is looking out for your teammates. Not only to support your team with crucial crowd control, but also to help them survive. In case of reviving due to Viessa's vulnerability, you shouldn't be the one going for a revive, if there is another mate available. Try to support by providing cover fire. Otherwise you can find yourself being the on ground as well and because of your lower health pool you are prone to be immediately incapacitated again. Retreat if you can't help them by your own. There is no use in one more being on the ground.
  
  
• Consider equipping one hard hitting handgun. Mod on high damage, high critical damage/chance and weakpoint damage. I recommend Assasins's Edge. However the choice is yours. For the reason why read the next tip.
  
  

• Your grappling hook is a great tool on Viessa in combat. More than on the average Descendant. Besides the obvious mobility aspects it can be used for fighting and espcially stunning as well. Combine this with your CC and you are very effective at stunning elite versions of your enemy.
  To execute this you will have to look on an enemy and be in grappling hook range. With these conditions met you will now grapple on to the enemy and perform a melee or sub attack. Congratulations you stunned (or killed) the enemy (with style). Now besides the obvious style points this way you will always guarantee a stun with your melee attack. This is perfect for fighting f.e. elite targets. However to get the most use out of it, you should use Frost Shards before the attack and afterwards Cold Snap. The combined Ice shackles from these attack guarantee a stage 4 freeze on the enemy allowing you to line up easy and quick headshots with your handgun.
  Not important for the execution but I recommend using the Kicking Module, as it feels and looks pretty good on her and this form of use.
  Important:This does not work on Boss type and Commander type enemies.

  
  
• Beware of Cryo soldiers and Trackers! While they are closer to being cannon fodder, they pose a threat when allowed to mass up, as they are essentially your counterpart on the enemy side.
  Their freeze can be refreshed so you can be chain stunned.
  Additionally their mortar like projectile arc (in case of Trackers) allows their projectiles to hit you behind cover and splash hit allies close to you.
  Finally they cause constant chip damage in addition to freezing you. This means that even if they aimed for someone else and don't continue to attack you, they will prevent shield regeneration, removing your most important life insurance.
  Fortunately they only appear in the Sterile Lands. However you will have to go there if you want to farm material for Viessa's Ultimate version, so you better get used to spotting and fighting them.
  
  
• Don't forget that Viessa can cast most of her abilities in the air. It allows to get better angles but also helps with your mobility and survivability in combat.
  Holding her four mitigates the short stun, when falling from a great height.
  
  
• Fire Frost Shard at the invincibility granting orbs of the commander. You will usually hit all four of them for some easy damage.
  
  
• While difficult sometimes with her lack of survivability, you should try to stay in close range.
  One reason is because of your CC, while the other reason is because of their melee synergies.
  Adaptive and nimble behaviour will be more rewarded with her than static gameplay.
  
  
• Valby's Laundry Bomb synergizes really well with Viessa's Blizzard. Look out for Valby players and together you can get some crazy damage.
  
  
• While not as fast as Bunny, Frost Road gives you a decent boost and is best used as an escape or utility (f.e. collecting loot) ability, be careful when using it early, as it could have been your or your teammate's lifesaver.
  The small boost to your shields is there to protect your health pool on your retreat.
  

  "How dare they break MY SHIELD!"

  
  
• One of the ultimate weapons grants you a stackable damage buff every time you debuff an enemy.
  The weapon is called Divine Punishment and it has several buffs, most important in this case is the Glory buff. It triggers with debuffs.
  You can enhance its unique ability. Therefore the buff would be more significant then it first looks on this screenshot

Media and Trivia

Viessa has her own soundtrack when fighting similar to other Descendants.

Her abilities can hit weakspots of the Colossi, but not reliably.

When Viessa's shield is breaking or about to break, you will hear her heavingly breathing. Similar happens when she is at critical health.

Viessa's Character Overview Video

Over the span of all three Betas and Playtest Viessa's look has been tweaked. In particular the devs like to change her hair.



Viessa stands out not only for her abilities.
Her body characteristics make her stand out visually.
This reflects even behind the scenes outside the player's grasp, as was shown by an user on reddit.



Viessa appears and is talking to the player directly in the last area of the world map called "The Fortress". together with the other three starting character as you progress through the last parts of the main story.


Viessa was prior to the release of Hailey the only Ice/Cold-Themed Descendant.

Shortly after the release Viessa like many other other Descendants had her ability icons reworked to be more indicative of the power's effect.

The cooldown of Blizzard starts before the animation of her casting it is finished, which means there is a small window for her ability to not be cast, but still go on cooldown, if she is being stunned at this exact moment.

Viessa appears occasionally in some of the loading screens with one being even entirely dedicated to show her face and upper body.

Viessa was asked to be a distraction in the Serena Quest, which she accepted helping the main team in discovering Serena. It also appeared in that scene that Viessa frequently makes shaved ice for Lepic and possibly other Descendants, as Lepic asked her for some during this scene as well.

[Finni]

Thank you and same here!

[RoguePrimeKilla]

Very well made she is by far my main and most favorite descendant!

[Finni]

Thank you for your nice words

[destroyhimmyrobot]

Wow so much info, thanks for putting all of this together, and sharing it with everyone!

[Finni]

They probably would see even 100$ as too generous xD

[Multigun]

Ah, well guess they need to add that as a cosmetic option eventually :P Though I'm sure it will only be able to be bought in some $100 package and thus I'll never see it on my account.

[Finni]

That comes from the lighting during the cutscene.

[Multigun]

Question, where the heck is the white hair in the Gameplay section? I splurged on the outfit, so I know where that's from, and you obviously dyed it white. But the white hair I cannot for the life of me figure out where it came from.

[Multigun]

Thanks for the guide x2

[Finni]

Components are too trivial and dependant on player preference that it is hard to give any recommendation there, besides maybe to go for shield increase. Considering Frostbite: ,, The status effect of frozen enemies is called "Ice Shackle".
Do not confuse it with "Frostbite", which happens when you get frozen." Frostbite is the enemy's version of Ice Shackle.