Tamamonomae

Tamamonomae (Release Aug 22, 2018 in Global) – 玉藻前

Stat Rating

Max Stat

Soul

Position 2/4/6: ATK/ATK/Crit % ro Crit DMG

Discussion:

Being the deadliest attacker in the game, Tamamo should really focus on offensive Soul to maximize her power.

Shadow – Tamamo works quite similarly to Ibaraki Doji in that killing off one enemy would lead to follow up attacks.  This means being able to inflict a devastating initial attack is very important.  This is why Shadow as a soul choice is unmatched.  This soul will greatly ensure Tamamo being able to take out an enemy in one hit.

Claw – Overall I don’t think Claw is as effective as Shadow but if you have a better Claw set than Shadow then free feel to use it.  One advantage this soul has over Shadow is the use in longer fights.  Though, this is only if you don’t use Ushi no Toki on Bosses.

Seductress – Seductress is less suitable for Tamamo in my opinion since she does not really have multi-hit attacks.  Of course, potentially you could have her doing more attacks upon killing off enemies but this is less certain without Shadow.

Temptress/Shy Soul/Snow Spirit – In the odd case where you want to use Tamamo as half DPS half control, these souls are better choices with higher innate Effect HIT.  She may not be the ideal choice for a control unit but will surprise many by using a good set of Souls.

Odokuro – In PvE, I would suggest Odokuro’s 2-set effect to further increase damage deal to Bosses and their minions.

Stats – To feel the full power of Tamamo, you would eventually want a good Crit DMG set.  But first, we need to make sure to have close to a high Crit % along with the right primary stats.  In addition, you would want some SPD to be faster than the Onmyojis towards the end game, but this is more for a faster run in Soul 10.  Think of it as icing on the cake rather than necessity.  Being able to collect a good Crit DMG Shadow set would be the biggest challenge in building her/him.

Rating

Soul Burst

Fox Fire

The Falling

Sample Team

This is our familiar Double Pull team with the addition of Tamamo.  As always, the key is, of course, being able to act first since losing the chance to act first often means a loss for this team.  The key advantage of Tamamo is obviously her strong attacks.  She should have no problem taking out the more fragile control or DPS even at high-level duels.  Tesso here can use control soul here to act as support/control that inflicts status on enemies while lowering their DEF for Tamamo to pick one or two off in the first round.  There are many other ways to structure the team by substitute in Maestro, Ushi no Toki, Red Imp, etc.

PvP

To a certain extent, Tamamo’s powerful attack can make Double Pull work at high-level duel.  Double Pull is a very quick build that is notorious in getting owned in high-level Duel unless your Shikigamis clearly outclass the opponent’s.  The key reason is the bonus HP in Duel that makes taking out enemies in one wave highly unlikely.  Tamamo’s attack should now be strong enough to wipe out or significantly damage enemies in the first round to make Double Pull viable.  Of course, Shouzu is still a very hard counter.

Soul

With the right team, Tamamo Soul 10 run is one of the fastest and can carry fodders.  The key is being able to get a good Crit DMG set and adjust SPD.  In the best case scenario, the DPSs may act before the Onmyoji to speed up the fight by 3-4 seconds.  Of course, this means giving up on Seimei’s Star.  One set up that could work is Yamausaig, Tamamo no Mae, Kisei, Fodder, Fodder, Seimei.

PVE

She shares similar characteristics with Ibaraki or Susabi.  Any place you are using Ibaraki or Susabi, Tamamo can fill the role.

Shikigami Comparison

Ibaraki Doji – Ibaraki Doji is probably the Shikigami that overlaps with Tamamo the most in terms of functionality.  They both have a powerful single target attack that turns into AOE.  The difference is Tamamo also have an AOE that could turn into a single target attack.  In theory, she could chain her attack a few times.  Tamamo also doesn’t have passive attacks so is less prune to Hannya.  Finally, Tamamo is able to inflict higher damage consider no ATK bonus stacked on Ibaraki’s passive.  Ibaraki is still very useful though.  He still faster than Tamamo in terms of animation and he does not need to max skills to be useful as opposed to Tamamo.  At the end of the day, Tamamo can replace Ibaraki in most cases.

Susabi – Susabi, at the max number of hits, is still considered as the best attacker with the highest damage output.  The problem has always been his orb consumption and the need for that much damage.  In terms of PvE contents, there are some cases that he would excel but Ibaraki/Tamamo could get the job done just as well (e.g. quickly clearing off minions at Demon Encounter Bosses).  With Tamamo’s dominance in PvE at only a fraction of the orb, there really is very limited use for Susabi going forward.  I don’t recommend investing in Susabi if you have Tamamo.

Acquisition

Wanted Quest

Verdict

One key feature of Tamamo’s skills is her follow up attack triggers on Summoned units with The Falling.  This is what makes her feasible in Double Pull team with Ushi no Toki.  Ushi’s Doll is considerably weaker than the enemy it’s attached to.  Therefore, Tamamo is quite likely to kill off the Doll with The Falling and chains Fox Fire afterward.

Farming (5.0/5.0)

Tamamo is on par (possibly faster) with Ibaraki Doji as the fastest farmer in the game.  She’ll have no problem bringing fodders.

Duel/Raid (3.5/5.0)

Tamamo will appear very dominating when she comes out.  The main reason is many of the supports in high-level Duel are still G5 (G4 even) at this point.  These units would have trouble withstand so much firepower from Tamamo.  I would still only use Tamamo when you don’t see the opponent brings out any of her counters.  As time goes on, Tamamo would slowly disappear from Duel just like many other DPSs.  She’ll be very useful for Raid by being able to finish off enemies quickly.  Afterall, we are all trying to quickly run through Raid and get back to our Soul runs.

Boss Battle (4.0/5.0)

With all her might, Tamamo does lose out to the multi-hit Shikigamis that can make full use of Seductress.  With a high HP for Bosses, Seductress’s damage output is really unmatched.  If you don’t have enough multi-hit attackers, Tamamo still makes a very good teammate.

Soul (4.5/5.0)

She is one of the best DPSs to run Soul 10.  Though I believe she is a bit slower than Ibaraki by a small margin.  Kisei or Inuyasha are good partners with Tamamo to speed run S10.

Tamamonomae is the Shikigami everyone, including myself, is waiting for.  The reason is simple: she is extremely powerful.  As opposed to Ibaraki Doji, skill level is very important to Tamamo.  Therefore, make sure you have enough Skill Darumas before getting too excited.  Given max skill and powerful Soul, she’ll be your biggest weapon in the game right now.  Eventually, she’ll become obsolete in PvP but she is still the queen of many PvE contents.  If you are starting out the game and happened to get her then congratulations, the game will be much easier if you raised her properly.  For more established players, I would say she is not that necessary.  This is especially so if you are already using a good Ibaraki Doji.  On paper, Tamamonomae is more powerful than Ibaraki Doji, but in most cases, she’ll probably just save you a few seconds each run.  There aren’t that many situations where Tamamo is significantly better.  Therefore, if you are already doing well with Ibaraki, I see no hurry in maxing Tamamo unless you are really into this Shikigami.

To clarify: Since I received emails on this, I think I should clarify why I address Tamamo as a “she” rather than a “he”.  When doing the write up on her, I decided to be more gender sensitive and address her according to what she represents.  If Tamamo is dressed as a female, I would address her as what she wants to represent.  I believe this is consistent with how we address crossdressers in real life.  Members of the LGBT community please correct me if I am wrong.