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Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition

Serena

By
Jarrod Garripoli

Serena will join your party at the same time as her sister, Veronica. She could be considered your main healer, although that kind of loses some effect depending on whether you use Sylvando or Rab. Despite that, though, Serena does have some tremendous support for your party in other areas. She has two weapons she can use in the game, one-handed wands and spears. While spears do have some use for a short amount of time, Serena should be sticking with wands. The only reason to go with spears is because of hunting Metal Slimes and nothing more, since you’re not going to get much else out of that tree.

Serena in Dragon Quest XI

It should be mentioned that during the middle portion of the game, Serena’s skill trees and spell list will be expanded greatly. This expansion is only temporary and will shrink some once you reach the final portion of the game. Due to this expansion in the middle portion, though, you will likely need to change the focus on your Serena build.

Categories Total Skills Total SP Needed
Wands 15 195
Harpistry 15 203
Spears 15 201

Spells

Serena can be considered the healer of your group, but she is also a good buffer. She learns a variety of healing spells, but they are all single-target until level 35, which is when Serena learns Multiheal. This will put her a little behind both Rab and Sylvando, especially if you head straight for Hustle Dance. Despite this, though, she will probably be your main healer for a while, since it takes a while to get to Hustle Dance and the fact you get Serena earlier than the others. She also gets a bunch of support spells, like Squelch to get rid of poison, Buff/Kabuff to increase defense, and much more. Do not neglect the support spells with Serena, as they have a variety of uses.

Her offensive spells leave a little to be desired, since her Magical Might won’t be much, due to her healing abilities requiring Magical Mending. Also, her Whoosh line of spells only target a single group of enemies, so you’re better off leaving the damage to others. The Whack line of spells can prove useful, though, provided the enemy is susceptible to them. These might help against the more bigger enemies, although Serena tends to be on the slower side, so she’s almost always going last.

Name Effect MP Acquisition
Heal Restores small HP to single ally 3 Default
Dazzle May blind group of enemies 3 Default
Squelch Cures single ally of Poison 2 Default
Buff Increases defense of one ally 3 Default
Accelerate Boosts Agility of a single ally 2 Level 13
Whoosh Deals light Wind damage to group of enemies 5 Level 14
Fizzle May prevent group of enemies from casting spells 3 Level 15
Midheal Restores medium HP to single ally 6 Level 16
Acceleratle Boosts Agility of all allies 4 Level 17
Zing Revives fallen ally with some HP; Doesn’t always work 12 Level 18
Anathemetize Lowers spell resistance of single enemy 4 Level 19
Tingle Cures all allies of Paralysis 2 Level 20
Kabuff Increases defense of all allies; Stacks twice 6 Level 23
Whack May instantly kill a single enemy 5 Level 24
Moreheal Restores large HP to single ally 12 Level 27
Swoosh Deals medium Wind damage to group of enemies 10 Level 28
Multiheal Restores medium-large HP to all allies 32 Level 35
Kazing Always revives single ally with some HP 24 Level 45
Thwhack May instantly kill all enemies 10 Level 49
Fullheal Restores all HP to single ally 24 Level 50
Kerplunk Kills Serena, while reviving/restoring all HP to allies 32/All Level 60
Kathwack May instantly kill all enemies (better than Thwhack) 20 Level 63
Omniheal Restores all HP to all allies (does not revive) 64 Level 66
Kaswoosh Deals heavy Wind damage to group of enemies 20 Event-based

Serena’s initial skill tree

Wands

Wands is one of two weapons that Serena can use in the game and is probably her preferred one. All of the wands for Serena are one-handed, so she is able to use a shield with them. It is possible to learn Dual-Wielding with her, meaning you can equip two wands, but the lack of a defensive option for Serena means that it might be best to just stick with a single wand. Apart from that, the rest of the passives are your typical ones you will see in pretty much every tree, with an emphasis on Magical Mending and MP.

The highlight of the Wand tree is definitely Snap, Crackle, Poof, which allows you to make sure a single ally doesn’t get debuffed or have an ailment on them for four turns. Of course, if they already do have one on them, then this doesn’t cure them, but there are some fights where this comes in super handy. Once her tree opens up later in the game, Divine Intervention allows an ally to survive a killing blow, no matter their HP, with Alma Mater requiring them to have more than 50% HP in order for it to count. Grace of the Goddess is a nice fail-safe, as it applies an auto-revive buff for Serena, just in case something goes wrong. Lastly, Divine Restitution gives Serena a HP regeneration buff, while also deal some big damage to a group of enemies.

Name SP Notes
MP Absorb When Wielding +2% 3 -
Magical Mending When Wielding +10 4 -
Devil’s Delight 8 -
Magical Mending When Wielding +30 10 -
Snap, Crackle, Poof 13 -
Alma Mater 13 -
Minor MP Recovery After Battle 6 -
Dual-Wielding 13 Secret Panel [?]
MP Absorb When Wielding +4% 14 -
Maximum MP When Wielding +30 16 -
Divine Restitution 20 Secret Panel [?]
Moderate MP Recovery After Battle 14 -
Pep-Up Power-Up 16 -
Grace of the Goddess 20 Secret Panel [?]
Divine Intervention 25 Secret Panel [?]

Harpistry

The Harpistry tree, at first glance when you get Serena, is a purely support one. You have various Hymns to get, which help protect your characters from those elements. There is nothing else, besides a few minor passives, in this tree, until it fully opens up later in the game. While the Hymns might seem very useful from the start, they do get a lot better once you learn the two Holier Hymns passives with the full tree. The only other ability in this tree is Doleful Dirge, allowing you to deal more elemental damage to an enemy, but the skill doesn’t always hit.

Name SP Notes
Hymn of Fire 8 -
Hymn of Ice 8 -
Max MP +10 8 -
Magical Mending +10 8 -
Hymn of Air 10 -
Hymn of Earth 10 -
Hymn of Thunder 12 -
Hymn of Light 14 Secret Panel [?]
Minor MP Recovery After Battle 14 -
Maximum MP +20 16 Grants 10SP for unlocking
Holier Hymns 20 Secret Panel [?]
Doleful Dirge 25 Secret Panel [?]
Magical Mending +20 14 -
Magical Mending +30 16 -
Holier Hymns 20 Secret Panel [?]

Spears

Spears are a bit of an oddball for Serena, as they can be extremely useful early on in the game, but once you obtain Jade, there is pretty much no point to them. For this reason, it’s probably best to just avoid them, unless you plan on doing early Metal Slime hunting in Gallopolis and need Thunder Thrust for the critical hits. You’ll find a lot of similar abilities here to Jade’s tree, although there are others that are exclusive to Serena. Be Like Water and Counter Wait will allow Serena to evade and do a counterattack, which might be nice, but she’s likely not going to be doing a lot of damage with those counters. The odd choice of a skill in this tree is Kaswooshle, which is a strong wind-elemental spell.

Name SP Notes
Cattle Prod 3 -
Attack When Wielding +10 4 -
Deliverance 7 -
Critical Hit Rate When Wielding +2% 9 -
Party Pooper 16 -
Attack When Wielding +15 13 -
Parry Chance When Wielding +4% 6 -
Thunder Thrust 18 Secret Panel [?]
Parry Chance When Wielding +5% 14 -
Attack Power When Wielding +20 16 -
Be Like Water 20 Secret Panel [?]
Critical Hit Chance When Wielding +2% 14 -
Crushed Ice 16 -
Counter Wait 20 Secret Panel [?]
Kaswooshle 25 Secret Panel [?]

Character Build

When you first get Serena in your party, you do have a bit of a choice to make, depending on whether you want her to focus solely on Wands or dabble in Spears for a bit. If you choose the latter, then your goal is to unlock Thunder Thrust and Party Pooper, the two best spear skills for Serena at the beginning. Once you get Jade, who is by far the better spear user, you can respec Serena to send her back on the Wands path. Your primary focus should be to stack her with Magical Mending for the first portion of the game, as that is needed for her healing spells.

In fact, you should send her down the Wands tree and grab Snap, Crackle, Poof, since it’s probably the best skill from her initial selection in all three initial trees. The Harpistry tree isn’t bad, as the skills there can come in handy, but they aren’t super useful until that tree opens up at the end of the game. Once you get to the second portion of the game, you will have a lot open to you, as well as the addition of possibly investing in some Magical Might.

Show SpoilerShow Spoiler

You will gain access to all of the skill trees for Veronica, which is why Magical Might will come into handy. There’s really no need to invest in the Heavy Wand tree, though, since you’re not going to get much use out of it. However, the Vim tree is where you will be focusing on here, with both Channel Anger and Enchanting Echo being the big winners. You will also probably want to grab Hypnowhip, solely to make it viable to unlock the one Holier Hymns panel.

In the final portion of the game, once Serena’s trees open up all the way, you can go back to Magical Mending. You can grab the two Holier Hymns in the Harpistry tree, as well as all of the Hymns. You will also want to look at snatching all of the passives in the Wands tree, as well as Divine Restitution skill. Whenever you learn Omniheal and start using it regularly, there is really no need to worry about Magical Mending too much, since that spell will always heal your party to full.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Square Enix
  • Platforms,
    3DS, PC, PS4, Switch
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    4 September 2018
  • Last Updated
    7 October 2021
    Version History
  • Guide Author
    Ben Chard

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An epic battle between Light and Darkness is about to begin as the Luminary awakens on his 16th birthday. Join a diverse cast of characters as you traverse the world of Erdrea on a quest to discover why you’ve been branded the Darkspawn and the many mysteries of the Luminary.

The most complete guide for Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age features all there is to do and see in the world of Erdrea. A step-by-step walkthrough featuring every item, quest and side activity illustrated with gorgeous screenshots.

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