Serena

Learn about Serena's healing and defensive magic, spells like Omniheal, and abilities like Snap, Crackle, Poof in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age.

Serena specialises in healing and defensive magic and can use wands and shields or spears. Her healing spells get better as her levels increase. She is one of two characters who (eventually) gains access to Omniheal and (Ka)Buff is always useful. She gains access to the Whack line of instakill spells but they are too unreliable to be useful. Apart from those, you'll almost never want to use Serena as an offensive caster because the Woosh line is risible in its damage output.

The really good active ability in the wand tree is Snap, Crackle, Poof. Ailment immunity can be a lifesaver against certain boss enemies. You'll certainly want the magical mending passives from the wand tree but nothing else is essential.

The Hymn abilities in the Harpistry tree are situationally useful at best. They get really good, however, when you gain access to Holier Hymns. At that point the elemental resistances can trivialise certain boss encounters that depend on elemental attacks.

While you can use Woosh or whack an enemy with a wand, if you want Serena to do some actual damage, she needs to use a spear. She's nowhere near as good as Jade so give her your second best spear as a backup weapon. Party Pooper allows her to do semi-respectable group damage and Thunder Thrust allows her to participate in your frantic attempts to kill metal slimes before they flee.

When you get her back in act 2, she will have access to all Veronica's spells and abilities. The additional abilities unlocked are extremely expensive but Serena will gain loads of skill points on every level up. For this part of the game, develop Serena like you would Veronica, except you can ignore whip abilities since spears are better for physical damage. You'll want to unlock Channel Anger and Be Like Water at this stage. If you have enough points for Enchanting Echo, that's even better.

In act 3, Serena will lose all the abilities and spells that she gained access to earlier and will have her own expanded skill tree. At this point, she does gain access to a genuinely damaging spell, Divine Restitution. Kaswooshle (strangely at the end of the spear tree) is totally rubbish, however. Gift of the Goddess is not bad and may help avoid a party wipe if you're playing with Draconian Quest options.

The expanded Harpistry passives are good but once you gain access to Omniheal, magical mending becomes kinda redundant. Serena also (re)gains access to a very good ability in the Spear tree, Be Like Water which is better than the similar Counter Wait since the effect lasts longer than a single round.

Spells (Serena)

• Heal (Level 12, MP 3): Restores minor health to a single ally.
• Squelch (Level 12, MP 2): Cures a single ally of poison.
• Buff (Level 12, MP 3): Raises a single ally's defence.
• Dazzle (Level 12, MP 3): Blinds a group of enemies.
• Accelerate (Level 13, MP 2): Raises a single ally's agility.
• Woosh (Level 14, MP 5): Deals wind damage to a group of enemies.
• Fizzle (Level 15, MP 3): Prevents a group of enemies from using magic.
• Midheal (Level 16, MP 6): Restores moderate health to a single ally.
• Acceleratle (Level 17, MP 3): Slightly raises agility of all party members.
• Zing (Level 18, MP 12): 50% chance of resurrecting a fallen ally.
• Anathematise (Level 19, MP 4): Reduces the spell resistance of a single enemy.
• Tingle (Level 20, MP 2): Cures all party members of paralysis.
• Kabuff (Level 23, MP 6): Slightly raises the defence of all party members.
• Whack (Level 24, MP 5): Instakill a single enemy.
• Moreheal (Level 27, MP 12): Restores large amounts of health to a single ally.
• Swoosh (Level 28, MP 10): Deals medium wind damage to a group of enemies.
• Multiheal (Level 35, MP 32): Restores moderate health to all allies.
• Kazing (Level 45, MP 24): 100% chance of resurrecting a fallen ally.
• Thwack (Level 49, MP 10): Attempt to instakill all enemies.
• Fullheal (Level 50, MP 24): Restores full health to a single ally.
• Kerplunk (Level 55, MP 32): Kills Serena to revive and fully restore HP to the rest of the party.
• Kathwack (Level 63, MP 20): Attempt to instakill all enemies (better success rate).
• Omniheal (Level 66, MP 64): Restores full health to all allies.

Abilities (Serena)

Wand Abilities

• Devil's Delight (Cost 8, MP 3): Deals additional damage to demons and occasionally beguiles them.
• Alma Mater (Cost 13, MP 8): Enables a single ally to avoid instant death when above half-health.
• Snap, Crackle, Poof (Cost 13, MP 8): Protects a single ally from status ailments.
• Grace of the Goddess (Cost 20, MP 10): Brings the caster back to life if they die.
• Divine Restitution (Cost 20, MP 32): Deals very high light damage to a group of enemies and bestows regeneration.
• Divine Intervention (Cost 25, MP 12): Enables a single ally to avoid instant death when above 1 HP.
• Grace of the Goddess (Cost 65, MP 10): Brings the caster back to life if they die.

Wand Passive Abilities

• MP Absorption +2% (Cost 3)
• Magical Mending +10 (Cost 4)
• Restore 1-2 MP after battle (Cost 6)
• Magical Mending +30 (Cost 10)
• Dual Wielding (Cost 13)
• Restore 3-5 MP after battle (Cost 14)
• MP Absorption +4% (Cost 14)
• Pep-Up Power Up (Cost 16)
• Maximum MP +30 (Cost 16)

Spear Abilities (Serena)

• Cattle Prod (Cost 3, MP 2): Deals heavy damage to beast family.
• Deliverance (Cost 7, MP 2): Deals heavy damage to undead.
• Party Pooper (Cost 16, MP 4): Attack a group of enemies.
• Crushed Ice (Cost 16, MP 16): Four ice attacks against a single enemy.
• Thunder Thrust (Cost 18, MP 6): 50% chance of critical hit (misses otherwise).
• Be Like Water (Cost 20, MP 12): Greatly increases parry chance and allows the user to counter.
• Counter Wait (Cost 20, MP 8): Evade and counter all attacks for one turn.
• Kaswooshle (Cost 25, MP 50): Deals high wind damage to a group of enemies.
• Be Like Water (Cost 25, MP 12): Greatly increases parry chance and allows the user to counter.