Juzu

Soul

Position 2/4/6: SPD/Effect RES/HP or DEF

Discussion:

The main use of Juzu is her ability to dispel status effects.  Therefore, our Soul setups will need to focus on keeping her alive and active.

Fortune Cat – This is a very universal Soul for Support Shikigamis.  Since Juzu would need to be fast, Fortune Cat can take advantage of that and generate a few more orbs for the team.

Dawn Fairy – Even though Juzu has the ability to push back enemies’ Move Bars, having Dawn Fairy increases the chance of that.  This is especially so when Juzu activates her passive and does AOE attack.  Another advantage is that Dawn Fairy is pure chance and not taking Effect HIT into account.  This suits Juzu for her Pos. 4 is reserved for Effect RES.

Mimic/Temptress etc. – Control Souls are also usable but need to rely on a bit of luck the fight.  The main reason is Juzu needs Effect RES for Pos. 4 so her Effect HIT is not high enough to make the best use of these Souls.  The good thing is that Juzu’s passive can attack often against high speed teams so there are more chances to proc.  In addition, enemy DPS and control units often have low Effect RES.

Stats – SPD is very much a must for Pos. 2.  You’ll need Juzu to meditate as soon as she can before enemies try to control or take her out at the beginning.  Effect RES also needs to be as high as possible.  Juzu cannot do too much if she got her passive sealed by Hannya and dazed by Hououka.  Pos. 6 can either be HP or DEF.  Arguably, Juzu has an S rank DEF for DEF bonus would fit her more but her healing ability is based on HP so that is the more popular choice.  I don’t think it matters all that much so suggest to go with the Soul that has better sub stats.  While Juzu’s main role is to support, if you have high-quality Souls, there is the option to build some attacks for her.  After all, her passive can trigger quite often against fast teams so having extra ATK helps a lot even if her ATK is just C rank.

Rating

Holy Staff

Karma

Zen

Sample Team

Juzu is very PvP oriented and can work with many teams in the mid to low speed range.  She has the ability to keep allies alive and functional for a long time so is a bit contradicting in fast teams.

The sample set up is a typical counter team with Shouzu and Vampira as the core defense and attack.   Kamaitachi is there to make sure the team don’t fall too far behind and gets a chance to act.  In addition, the extra Effect RES buff helps.  I don’t think I have to stress how useful Kamaitachi is in PvP.  Chocho is there as insurance in case one of the units is in critical condition.   With Chocho’s single target heal, she won’t heal Vampira by mistake.  There are other choices to replace Vampira so the healer can be switched to other more appropriate choices if that’s the case.  As for Juzu, she needs to make sure the team does not get controlled.  Juzu can debuff nearly all debuffs except Daze and Morph so she would work very well against many control teams.  In addition, she has the ability to push back enemy Move Bars and this could break enemy’s attack sequence and control rhythm.  This is to ensure Vampira or any other DPS has a chance to take out enemies one by one.

PvP

Her main role is to dispell debuffs and push back Move Bars.  This is a strong counter against many control teams.  For obvious reason, control units such as Samurai X and Hannya are less dominant.  Furthermore, her ability to mess up enemy sequence is another effective way to counter fast teams which SPD and action sequence is detrimental to success.

Another not so obvious use for Juzu is to be a DPS when she hits G6.  While it is true that she has less than optimal ATK, her passive allows for frequent AOE counter attacks.  At lower grade, this is negligible but at G6 and long fights, she does a fair bit of damage as ATK buffs stack.

Soul

Juzu specializes in long fights so Soul is not exactly a good place for her.  Soul enemies are more attack-oriented rather than control oriented so Juzu has less use here.

PVE

On top of my head, Juzu does not really have much of a place in PvE except maybe for some high-level Secret Zone.  Juzu can potentially be used for bosses such as Odokuro and Tsuchigumo but she’s hard to replace any of the DPSs, healer, and orb generator.  I would build her with PvP in mind.

Shikigami Comparison

Ame Onna – Juzu has a very similar role to Ame Onna for that their main role is to dispel debuffs and keeps the team functional.  Ame Onna’s dispel is more immediate as she AOE dispels the whole team whereas Juzu has the wait till teammates act.  There are pros and cons for both.  Ame Onna needs to time herself so she can dispel after enemy control.  In Juzu teams, controlled allies risk losing the chance to activate passive due to them being still in control status when passives proc.  In terms of messing up enemies, Ame Onna does so by slowing them down and, more importantly, partnering up with Hououka.  Juzu has a chance to push back enemy move bars.  While they are both similar, Juzu has the upper hand since she has more functions by herself.

Kamikui – The main comparison with Kamikui is the ability to push back enemies.  Other than Seimei’s shield and some Bosses, I don’t think Kamikui’s pushback can be blocked.  This makes Kamikui an excellent choice to replace Yamausagi in Double Pull teams.  Though his skill would trigger passive and soul effects in PvP so is less used.  He is a popular choice though in Soul 10 to partner up with a good Ibaraki to clear crowds efficiently.  In comparison, Juzu is very PvP focused.  While her skill is not a 100% push back like Kamikui, she is able to attack outside her turn making her total damage output quite a bit higher than Kamikui.  In addition, she has more diverse skill so is much more suited than Kamikui in PvP.

Kingyo – There is not much resemblance between Kingyo and Juzu except for the fact that their passives can trigger AOE attack outside their turn.  Kingyo takes 8 turns for every attack while Juzu only takes 6 turns.  Kingyo protects allies from physical harm and Juzu counters status effects.   As a matter of fact, they can both be on the same team to increase survivability and counter attacks.

Acquisition

Wanted Quest

Verdict

Her normal attack has the added effect to lower enemy Effect HIT by 10%.  This may not seem much but a normal attack with added effects does not come often.

Her passive is her weapon to counter as well as trying to sneak some control in.

Her special attack is the key feature that allows her to provide support to allies.

This is the main reason she is so good is keeping the team alive in long fights.

Farming (0.0/5.0)

No use in farming since she does not have the skills nor stats to effectively carry fodders

Duel/Raid (4.5/5.0)

If you are not running a fast control team, chances are you’d want to use her to counter enemy controls.  She can dispel, speed up allies, disrupt enemy sequences, heal, and attack.  You can’t really ask much more from a Shikigami.

Boss Battles (2.5/5.0)

Juzu is not very useful in PvE in the sense that controls are not as disturbing as PvP.  There are better supports and DPSs for the team in most PvE cases.

Soul (1.0/5.0)

I don’t think Juzu has a place in Soul 10 runs.  Most of the time, you are running 3 DPSs with Yamausagi and Zashiki.

I would get a few copies of Juzu and level her skill up for use.  Ideally, you would want to have her second and third skill maxed.  She’s available in shrine so getting her is not too much of a problem.  The trick to using her is to know her abilities and understand her synergy with your own team set up.  Another concern would be any future skill adjustments.  Her skills are different on the Chinese server so there is quite a bit of chance of skill adjustment.   In the Chinese version, she is more focused on her role to dispel debuffs and one noticeable difference is that she does not speed allies up by 50%.