Yuki

Yuki (Release Aug 22, 2018 in Global) – 雪童子

Stat Rating

Max Stat

Soul

Position 2/4/6: ATK/Effect HIT/Crit % or Crit DMG

Discussion:

Yuki’s skills have two focus: to inflict Freeze and to deal damage.  There are many better control units out there so I would suggest making Yuki into a DPS

Seductress is the first one that comes to mind with Yuki’s three-hit attack.  Seductress would greatly increase Yuki’s damage output.

Other common offensive Souls are also suitable for Yuki to take advantage of his S rank ATK and built-in Freeze effect.  With such a high ATK, a Shadow Yuki has a good chance of taking out enemy DPS at the start of the fight.  House Imp is very useful in this case since there will be quite a bit of frozen status.  In addition, House Imp’s damage is multiplied by Yuki’s passive.

Scarlet is more of a strategic consideration to disrupt enemies as Yuki counters and freezes the attackers.  One thing I would like to point out is that Scarlet would cause Yuki to break the ice when damage is transferred through Shouzu.

If you are going for a full control Yuki, the natural thing to do is to maximize Effect HIT.  Yuki is very fast by default so in some situations you may be able to free up SPD at position 2 and change the Souls around, say use ATK to increase his damage.  Needless to say, control Shikigamis need to stack some HP to help them survive few more rounds.  Senecio is a good choice in this regard.

As an attacking Shikigami, Yuki has high ATK and a high-damaging special attack.  In this case, Crit DMG is preferred if you can get a decent Crit % with substats.  As with many pure DPS, just keep stacking ATK for maximum damage.  In this case, I would try to aim for Effect HIT in substats to try to land some Freeze.  After all, the ice shatter damage is quite significant.

Rating

Snow Chaser

Snow Weaver

December Snow

Sample Team

Shouzu, Ushi no Toki, Ebisu, Yuki, Hako Shoujo, with Seimei

While a great attacker, Yuki is quite weak at the defense side having Cs in both HP and DEF.  Therefore, he would want some protection from teammates.  Shouzu is a good choice to avoid Yuki to be killed in the first round.  Yuki Onna is a very good partner for Yuki since she can Freeze the enemies first and Yuki can burst them down one by one. With the release of Oitsuki, orbs should be manageable even though all of these Shikigamis are big orb consumers.
Ushi no Toki is another notable partner for Yuki in PvE.  Most Bosses are not affected by status effects so Yuki cannot directly freeze Bosses and shatter ice for the extra damage.  This is where Ushi no Toki comes in.  Her straw doll can actually be Frozen and shattered by Yuki so using this damage transfer is a great way to deal damage to Bosses.  In this case, Yuki’s Effect HIT should be around 65% for a sure chance to inflict Frozen.  All other Shikigamis would be there to protect Yuki so that he can keep pumping out damage.

PvP

Other than being fragile, Yuki is especially afraid of Temptress.  A Confused Yuki can attack fellow teammates.  Different from ordinary confused Shikigamis, Yuki can also inflict Frozen and is therefore double the trouble for the team.
Yuki is often used as counters to Shouzu since his Freeze can transfer through Water Circuit.  In this case, you may want to be mindful of Scarlet Yuki since Freeze can be shattered by himself, leaving the control useless.

Soul

Yuki has enough damage to play a role in challenging Soul stages.  As a ST DPS, he’ll have hard time multi targeting.  Kosodenote in this case can help diversifying damage and effects.

PVE

With such a high damage output, Yuki is useful in going up against many Bosses.  His inability to Freeze Bosses can be mitigated by using Ushi no Toki.

Shikigami Comparison

Yuki Onna – Yuki Onna is the only other Shikigami with the ability to Freeze.  She comes with a 3-hit AOE at a lower innate chance to Freeze.  Being able to hit more targets means she has more options in terms of Soul choices.  Comparatively, Yuki is more focused on attacking.  With the release of many shield Shikigamis lately, Yuki Onna would have trouble breaking their shields which could reduce her usability.  Yuki should have an easier time inflicting Freeze.  All in all, these two are more likely to work well together rather than competing for places on the teams.

Acquisition

Wanted Quest

Verdict

Farming (1.0/5.0)

Despite having high damage, Yuki would have hard time carrying fodders as a ST DPS

Duel/Raid (3.0/5.0)

Although tricky, he is still usable in PvP.  He’s mainly used against Shouzu and he’s good at that.  Another key is his speed.  At SPD 150-180, he should be able to act after enemy Ame Onna and before enemy DPS.  This way, he should be able to control the enemy’s core unit while avoiding Ame Onna dispel.   Yuki’s shield can be used to fend off against Hannya a bit.

Boss Battles (4.0/5.0)

This is one situation where I think he could be valuable.  The key is to use Ushi no Toki to mitigate the Boss’ immunity to Freeze.  After that, Yuki’s passive should produce crazy amount of damage.

Soul (2.5/5.0)

With the help of Kosodenote, ST DPSs is now able to run Soul 10.  Still, the concern is the time as we are all under limited buff.

In my opinion, Yuki is definitely one of the underwhelming SSRs.  I would hate to lose my unlucky streak over him.  To use him, I believe the best way is still an attack build with some Effect HIT.  This is also why PvE is more suitable for him right now.  To be useful in PvP, Effect HIT has to be over than 100% at the very least (depends on your tier I guess).  Achieving that high of Effect HIT is not that hard.  What’s hard is to juggle around ATK, Effect HIT, Crit %, Crit DMG, and maybe SPD.  With this high Soul requirement, there really is not enough return to justify.  I mean, Arakawa, Ibaraki, or Shuten are so much easier to equip and probably more effective.