Kingyo

Kingyo (release May 30, 2018) – 金鱼姬

Stat Rating

Max Stat

Soul

Position 2/4/6: SPD/HP/Crit DMG or SPD/ATK/Crit DMG

Discussion:

Kingyo is a quite a versatile.  She’s obviously a defensive support but giving her some attack power can be quite a headache to the enemies.

Jizo Statue – Kingyo’s skills are natural counters to single target DPSs.  With Jizo Statue, the team is protected against AOEs as well.

Soul Edge – Kingyo’s Goldfish shares damage before Soul Edge takes place.  If Soul Edge takes effect as well, then the devastating single target attack is essentially non-existent.

Tree Nymph – This soul is an annoyance no matter who has it on.  Kingyo has high survivability so having the Soul on her would ensure the enemies are being haunted longer.

Fortune Cat – This Soul takes advantage of the SPD build of Kingyo.  Kingyo by herself is a low profile orb consumer so having Fortune Cat basically neutralized her use.  This fits high orb consuming teams.

In terms of stats, SPD is pretty much a must for position 2 since Kingyo will need to be able to summon Goldfish whenever it’s KO’ed.  There are possibilities to focus on ATK and build SPD in substats but this takes some high-quality Souls to pull it off.  HP in position 4 will increase Kingyo’s, as more importantly Goldfish’s, survivability.  Crit DMG is more difficult to build.  If you don’t have the Souls, use Crit % in position 6 and build Crit DMG in substats.

Substats are harder to juggle with.  Depending on your Souls, you may need to focus on SPD, Effect RES, Crit %, or Crit DMG.  I would suggest focusing on Crit % = Crit DMG > Effect RES (and SPD if you don’t have it for position 2)

Rating

Fan Dance

Goldfish: Counter

Goldfish: Aid

Sample Team

Kamaitachi, Momo, Ame Onna, Kingyo, Higanbana, with Hiromasa

If you are running a fast team, you probably won’t have a place for Kingyo.  She’s more suited for mid to slow teams where orb consumption is high.  If she was able to drag the fight out for a few ATK buffs, her damage is actually very sizable, especially at low orb consumption.  I am inclined to use Hiromasa for his attacking skills and buff to increase Crit DMG.  There are several good partners for Kingyo and one of them is Maestro.  He can work with Kagura to give SPD and ATK bonus to Kingyo and her Goldfish as well as let her move immediately.  This can help bring her out of control effects too.

PvP

Kingyo is weak against control effects.  She needs to put the Goldfish out there or there isn’t really that much use.  Therefore, she’ll need high SPD to shake off control effects as well as teams to support.  She’s a worthy counter to fast teams since the more the enemies act, the more chances the Goldfish has to attack.  Of course, you’ll need quite a bit of patience for her to start doing serious damage but the annoyance of the Goldfish alone can greatly deter enemies.  One key to note is that her Goldfish is a summoned unit, which is the same as Ebisu’ Carp Banner, Kosodenote’s Needle, etc. so they are in conflict.  Just remember not to use Ebisu and the likes when Kingyo is on the team.

Soul

Having her around would increase the survivability of the team.  It’s not a good idea to drag the fight on for too long when you are challenging Soul stages so I would suggest building her defensively with the focus on damage sharing.

PvE

Many of the attacks from Bosses are single targeted so Kingyo is very useful in these situations.  She has similar roles to Shouzu in this case.  Just keep in mind that Kingyo is not compatible with Ebisu so if Ebisu is your main healer, Shouzu would be a better choice.

Shikigami Comparison

In addition, Kingyo also has a higher damage output to Shouzu’s essentially non-existent damage.  On the flip side, Kingyo is less defensive than Shouzu.  Goldfish only takes 40% of the damage and that damage is calculated by the target’s DEF.  In the case of DPS who does not have high DEF, he/she could potentially still be OHKO’ed along with the Goldfish.  Once Goldfish dies, there is no one to stand between you and the enemy, unlike Shouzu whose link can also be up if she’s not controlled and has enough orb.  In other words, Shouzu is more preferred by Shikigamis that needs low HP to do damage, namely Vampira and Kuro.  If you are using Scarlet counter, then for sure use Shouzu.  Otherwise, Kingyo is a very good alternative with low orb consumption and high attack.

Acquisition

Wanted Quest

Verdict

Farming (1.0/5.0)

Kingyo is notorious for having a long warm-up period so she is not fit for high-speed farming

Duel/Raid (4.0/5.0)

Kingyo adds quite a bit of variety to PvP.  All of a sudden, we now have another strong counter to Lord Arakawa, who is considered the strongest single target DPS.  Not only that, she is able to fulfill the offensive roles.  If you are running turtle teams, she’ll be a value-add.  However, if you prefer speedy teams, she’ll be too slow.

Boss Battles (3.5/5.0)

I could see her being used in quite a bit of Boss fights, especially the long ones.  She’ll be able to fulfill Shouzu’s role and could even do a better job.  The reason is she acts as another firepower to the team and that is valuable when you try to do as much damage as possible in a given time frame.  She also has lower orb consumption, which would fit well in teams with multiple orb-consuming DPSs.

Soul (1.0/5.0)

Kingyo is too slow to fit into the Yamausagi-Zashiki-3 DPS teams.

Overall, I think many people underestimate her.  Of course, I wouldn’t say she’s one of the Shikigamis that you would prioritize to G6.  Even at G5, she’ll be able to contribute to the variety of the team.  This will be increasingly evident as we have much faster Shikigami release in Global in other servers.  More team compositions will become available before players get used to the existing ones.  Having more variety will be more likely to catch enemies off guard and of course, much more fun.  Kingyo can be used as is but will definitely require skill ups as you climb up the PvP ladder.