Zio

Zio's defining trait is his guaranteed opening: a battle-start Combat Readiness surge, plus immunity to CR-reduction, lets him act first regardless of Speed — he can run very low Speed and still move before the entire enemy team, with only Harsetti's field-wide Speed cap able to get ahead of him. He opens by dispelling two buffs, stripping the target's Combat Readiness, and Deifying himself for the rest of the fight (an undispellable +50% Crit Chance / -50% damage-taken stance), then deletes a single target with 100% Defence penetration that scales on the target's current Health. That first-turn silence and CR-strip pre-empt setup-reliant and second-turn carries before they can act. He is a fast, self-sufficient single-target nuker and disruptor, fragile mainly to pre-emptive hard CC, CR-gain suppression, and anything that blocks his Deify.

Counters

• High-HP tanks and bruisers — His S3 ignores 100% of the target's Defense, cannot be reduced by crit-denial since it never relies on crits, and deals more damage the higher the enemy's current Health is, so beefy frontliners are exactly what he punishes hardest.
• Buff-stacking and shield-reliant enemies — S3 dispels two buffs before it hits, stripping attack buffs, barriers, or other protections off a key target so they cannot ride their setup into a safe turn.
• Fast openers and cleave teams — His passive grants opening Combat Readiness and ignores effects that reduce his Combat Readiness, while S3 pushes the target's Combat Readiness down, letting him outpace and deny the enemy's first-turn burst.
• Effect-resistance and 'can't be killed' setups — His S3 pierces 100% of the target's Defense and pushes their turn gauge down, and his deified Disappear refunds 50% Combat Readiness on a kill, so once a target is open he can take extra turns and finish through stalling.

counterSpirit Eye Celine44%counterLady of the Scales38%counterSaria51%counterElena46%counterRuele of Light37%counterAubade Ludwig50%Witch of the Mere Tenebria57%

Countered by

• Cleanse and buff-removal on himself — His whole engine depends on the Deify stance from S3 — but Deify is undispellable, so it can not be cleansed or stolen; deny it by CCing or out-tempoing him before S3, or simply outlast the 3-turn window.
• Buff-duration reduction — Deify lasts only 3 turns and can not be dispelled, so beat it by surviving or out-tempoing that window rather than removing the buff.
• Effect Immunity — While he ignores Effect Resistance, an immunity shield blocks the Combat Readiness-down he applies through S3, blunting the tempo theft that sets up his snowball.
• Single-target reach and a 6-turn cooldown — He damages and controls only one enemy at a time and his key S3 sits on a 6-turn cooldown, so wide teams, multiple bruisers, or a protected backline can absorb his one big hit while the rest of their side answers back.

hard counterHarsetti57%counterBelian60%counterDisciplinary Prefect Aria57%counterSea Phantom Politis56%counterPolitis60%counterTori57%counterAbyssal Yufine55%counterRequiem Roana49%counterGenesis Ras57%counterAki49%counterPerfumer Byblis64%counterSuccessor Taeyou50%

Who counters Zio? — full guide ›