Hannya

Hannya (release May 9th, 2018) – 般若

Stat Rating

Max Stat

Soul

Position 2/4/6: SPD/Effect HIT/HP

Discussion:

Although Hannya has an S rank ATK and Crit along with high damaged skills, his value really lies in his ability to control.  Therefore, I would focus on his Effect HIT.

The most popular and easiest way is to use a mixed set maximizing Effect HIT.  This way, Hannya can maximize his potentials.

Other popular choices include Clam for protection against the first wave of attacks.  Senecio can deter enemy DPS from hitting you and getting Dazed themselves.  Since Hannya would have high Effect HIT, Senecio Daze would have a higher success rate.  Scarlet is also viable especially when coupling with Shouzu to increase control duration and inflicting some damage.

As mentioned, Effect HIT is Hannya’s key stats and is pretty universal no matter the build.  SPD is important for control Shikigamis so they can catch up to the Accelerators (e.g. Kamaitachi) to inflict the status effects.  At the same time, you would want Hannya to have enough HP to sustain a few hits so he doesn’t get taken out too early.

If you are into a DPS Hannya, you could use ATK and Crit instead of SPD and HP.  This would mean that he would be slow and be a target of enemy DPS.  In this case, you would want to have a speed boosting team to ensure Hannya gets a chance to act.

Rating

Fiendish Mask

Jealous Heart

Demonic Strike

Sample Team

Kamaitachi, Yamausagi, Yuki Onna, Zashiki, Hannya, with Kagura

Maestro, Shouzu, Zashiki, Hannya (Scarlet), Momo, with Seimei

Yamausagi, Shouzu, Hannya, Zashiki, Ubume, with Kagura

Being a control unit means Hannya performs best when he acts before the enemies.  Therefore, Accelerators are almost a necessity.  Other than the familiar Kamaitachi and Yamausagi, Maestro is an excellent choice to let Hannya act immediately to inflict control.  Having Maestro will also be a huge help if you are using DPS Hannya due to the lack of speed.  Being able to act right after Maestro means Hannya can sacrifice SPD for ATK.  The rest of the team should focus on keeping Hannya alive.  SPD would be a determining factor in how to build the team.  If you are confident in SPD, you could put in control units or additional DPSs to control the battle.  Otherwise, bring a few healers and supports to keep Hannya alive.  Though with control Shikigami, SPD is very important so if you don’t have a set of fast Souls, using Hannya is quite difficult as enemies will target him first.

PvP

Hannya is made for PvP.  By sealing Passive and Soul effects, he’s a counter to pretty much all Shikigamis.  Imagine a Vampira without increasing damage when losing HP, or a Hitotsume without being able to reflect damage.  With more reliance on Passive and Soul, the Shikigami would be more vulnerable to Hannya.

Soul

Although Soul is not really Hannya’s specialty, he does have the AOE skills and stats to do some damage.  There are better options out there and Orochi is immune to effects.

PVE

Most bosses are immune to status effects so Hannya is really limited in PvE.  He does have some use in Secrets where the enemies have some troublesome Soul effects.

Shikigami Comparison

Hououka – This is more like a comparison with other control units in general but I used Hououka for that they have one key difference in mind: her Daze effect is not dispellable.  In that sense, Hannya and Hououka can somehow counter each other and it boils down to who acts first.  If Hannya can seal Hououka first, then she can’t Daze him, vice versa.  Hououka also needs to have a debuff in place to trigger her Daze.  In regards to their skills, both can actually by-pass Shields because the effect comes from the Shikigami.  Shields can only block effects from Soul despite the description states otherwise.  Though this is more like a bug in the game so NetEase might fix anytime.

Acquisition

Wanted Quest

Verdict

While a counter to many Shikigamis himself, Hannya is also vulnerable to many out there.  For one, everyone knows how strong his control is so he’ll draw a lot of enemy fire.  High damage ST DPS such as Ibaraki Doji, Hakuro, Arakawa, etc. would also target him first.  Without enough HP, Hannya can’t take even one hit from these guys.

For another, Hannya would usually lack Effect RES to withstand enemy controls.  This is the same across all control Shikigamis since they will use Effect HIT in position 4 and not Effect RES.  Therefore, it comes down to SPD to determine who can inflict control first.  In some odd cases such as Tanuki, this raccoon’s Taunt is actually tied to his normal attack and therefore immune to Hannya’s seal so is another good counter.

Ame Onna is worth a special mention here since she’ll be a popular counter to Hannya.  Hannya’s all-powerful seal can be dispelled by Ame Onna’s passive but at the same time, he can seal her passive.  Although this really doesn’t have a point unless she is under another effect so that she couldn’t use [Sky Tear] to clear the seal.  Against Ame Onna, it’s better to be able to inflict as many effects as possible so that she couldn’t dispel all of them.

Farming (3.0/5.0)

He does have the skill and stats to be a decent farmer by equipping Shadow.  The only drawback is that you would probably have to switch souls back and forth since Hannya doesn’t always wear Shadow.

Duel/Raid (4.5/5.0)

As mentioned, this guy is born to be a PvP king.  This is especially true in high-level Duel where control is becoming increasingly important.  To me, this is the fun part of Onmyoji where the release of a new Shikigami triggers players to think about how to counter it.

Boss Battles (3.0/5.0)

Many Bosses are immune to status effects so Hannya is kind of irrelevant.  There is an option to make him into a DPS but you probably have other better choices available.

He does have a use in Secret Zones where he can seal enemy Soul effects.

Soul (2.0/5.0)

Potentially he can do quite a bit of damage but realistically most players would leave him at G5 and use as a control rather than leveling to G6 and use as a DPS.

Hannya will be popular for obvious reasons: he’s highly effective and does not require too much investment (can be used without leveling up Skills).  He will cause a shift in team strategy in the server.  Players would use him to counter current popular teams (e.g. Hitotsume) and that would have a ripple effect of increasing use of other Shikigamis to counter him (e.g. Ame Onna).  I would say getting a G5 Hannya is a no-brainer as he’ll remain relevant for quite a while to come.