SS13 Terra Skills And Selena

Before playing Selena, accept the testing cost

Selena and Terra Skills are the clearest SS13 push, but not every player should start there. The season hero requires a paid unlock, and new skills plus new supports need player testing. In the first week, you may need to change skills, change Activation Mediums, respec talents, and rebuild gear.

If you only want to push difficulty safely, a stable old build may be a better league-start tool. If you want to play Selena, first decide whether you can accept the cost of this system: Terra Charge, core Terra coverage, Activation Medium side effects, Crimson Tide / Crimson Shade links, and Spell Burst consumption all matter together.

Selena is not a hero that gives all skills generic damage. Core Terra Skills cast around the player and follow the player, while non-core Terra Skills cannot deal damage. You need to decide which Terra Skill is the core output first, then build around Terra Charge, area, duration, curse, and Spell Burst links.

If you do not settle the core skill first, stacking Terra affixes can make the build more complicated without actually putting damage on the target.

Key terms

Term	Practical meaning	Build check
Terra Skill	Main output that works through a Terra area	Coverage, movement following, boss uptime
Terra Charge	Resource used by Terra Skill payoff	Recovery speed, maximum stacks, per-consumption value
Activation Medium: Terra	Automatically uses supported Terra Skill and adds damage	Sealed resource, movement penalty, trigger stability
Crimson Tide	Moves inside the Terra area and increases damage taken	Whether it covers priority targets
Crimson Shade	Uses your Terra Skill based on Spell Burst maximum	Shade count and damage penalty
Dance step	Random state for speed, recovery, or control payoff	Whether it lines up with boss windows

Read new skills by league-start risk

The new active skills can be read like this first:

• Thornfield: physical DoT that scales with maximum life, but you take true damage per second while the Terra area exists. If recovery and mitigation are not solved, the self-damage can hurt early progression.
• Tidewell: cold hit Terra Skill. Multiple torrents can hit the same enemy with shotgun falloff, so check boss hit density instead of only clear visuals.
• Fallen Star: drops comets periodically inside the Terra area. Strength depends on bombard waves, falling speed, and whether monsters stay in the covered area.
• Storm Field: lightning can connect to the player and minions as targets without damaging them. Clear and single target both depend on target count, and minion count may affect feel.
• Nether Grasp: corrosion DoT and periodic hits, with a center-area reap cull. It suits builds that can keep monsters inside the center.

Do not choose only by element. For league start, prefer mechanics that are direct, have stable coverage, and do not whiff on bosses. More complex links can wait until resources and guides settle.

Terra Charge has two first checks

The first check is recovery speed. If recovery is too slow, the loop gets stuck and Activation Medium: Terra does not feel smooth.
The second check is maximum stacks. Maximum affects consumption scale and links to Selena traits, Terra Charge maximum affixes, and Spell Burst maximum.

The patch adds or adjusts Terra Charge recovery speed and maximum stacks across gear affixes, Pact, Memories, and panel display. That means Terra Charge is not a hidden background value. It is a number you should directly check when building Terra Skills in SS13.

Why Spell Burst matters here

Selena's trait lets Spell Burst maximum increases and reductions affect Terra Charge maximum, and Crimson Shade count also depends on Spell Burst maximum. Several new supports consume all Spell Burst stacks at maximum, then add extra hit damage to this torrent, area damage, comet, fire projectile, or lightning strike.

So a Terra Skill page cannot only look at Terra. The real checks are:

1. Does Spell Burst maximum become Terra Charge maximum?
2. Does the main skill consume Spell Burst?
3. Does the consumption payoff affect the main damage segment?

For details, read SS13 Channeling And Spell Burst.

Starter judgement

If you are not familiar with Terra Skills, start with a more direct mechanic instead of chasing the most complex link immediately.
Use this order:

1. Is clear coverage good enough?
2. Does the boss stay inside the Terra area?
3. Does Terra Charge recovery feel stuck?
4. Are Spell Burst and Crimson Shade core damage or only bonus value?
5. Can you accept self-damage, sealing, and movement penalties?
6. Would using a stable old build to push difficulty be faster?

Terra Skill strength is not the size of one tooltip number. It is whether the full loop keeps real damage under the target's feet.