Images for thumbnail purposes
Intro
Kuki Shinobu will be the first Electro healer in the game. But what else can she provide to her team? Is she viable as a damage dealer?
Conclusion
[Inserts infographic here]
Kuki’s best build can be split into two categories: Best healer build, and best damage build
Artifact Main Stat:
Healer Build
• Timepiece: HP%
• Goblet: HP%
• Circlet: Healing Bonus%
EM on Timepiece and Goblet also works. It’ll give 500-1000 less healing per tick.
Damage Build
• Timepiece: EM
• Goblet: EM
• Circlet: EM (or Healing Bonus% if using Ocean-Hued Clam)
I’d refrain from Electro as it’s not worth it, especially considering her split-scaling.
Artifact Set:
Healer Build
1. 4-Tenacity of the Millelith: The best option for Kuki to buff the team
2. 4-Maiden Beloved: Best healing option
3. 2-Maiden Beloved + 2-Ocean-Hued Clam
4. 4-Ocean-Hued Clam: Less healing, but you’ll get some damage in return
Damage Build
1. 4-Ocean-Hued Clam
2. 2-Tenacity of the Millelith + 2-Wanderer’s Troupe
3. 4-Tenacity of the Millelith: Less personal damage, but greater team damage
Best Weapon For Kuki Shinobu:
Healer Build
1. Freedom-Sworn
2. Primordial Jade Cutter
3. Iron Sting
Damage Build
1. Freedom-Sworn
2. Primordial Jade Cutter
3. Haran Geppaku Futsu
4. Iron Sting
5. The Alley Flash
6. Mistsplitter Reforged
7. Lion's Roar
Kuki Shinobu's Mechanic
Elemental Skill
Kuki sacrifices 30% of her current HP to create a grass ring. This skill won’t bring her below 20% HP. The grass ring has the following properties:
• Heals and damage nearby opponents every 1.5s (8 triggers on C0, 10 on C2)
• 12s duration (15s on C2), 15s cooldown
• With normal ICD, she can (theoretically) do 5 Electro applications on C0, 7 on C2
• The damage scales with ATK while healing scales with HP
• EM affects damage and healing after unlocking her A4
Elemental Burst
Creates an AoE that continuously deals damage to opponents in it. The AoE lasts longer if her HP is 50% or less.
• 60 Energy, 15s cooldown
• 2s duration, 7 hits (>50% HP)
• 3.5s duration, 12 hits (≤50% HP)
• With normal ICD, she can (theoretically) do 3 Electro applications on >50% HP, 5 on ≤50% HP
• The damage scales with HP
Talent Level-Up Priority
1. Elemental Skill
2. Elemental Burst
3. Ignore Normal Attack
Elemental Skill is the best option to level both for damage and healer build. Burst can be completely ignored if you’re playing with Elemental Reaction.
Kuki Shinobu's Constellations
C1: Elemental Burst has a 50% larger AoE
Priority: Low
C2: Kuki Shinobu’s Skill has 3s longer duration
Priority: Must-have
• Kuki Shinobu’s C2 means she can have her Skill at 100% uptime.
C4: When Normal, Charged, or Plunging Attack deals damage (while Kuki’s Elemental Skill is active on the character), extra Electro damage will trigger, dealing damage based on 9.7% of Kuki Shinobu’s HP. It can only occur every 5s.
Priority: Medium
• This Constellation has a separate ICD from her Skill, so you can trigger extra Elemental Reaction every 5s.
C6: Every 60s, When Kuki’s HP goes below 25%, she’ll gain 150 Elemental Mastery for 15s. Additionally, when Kuki takes lethal damage that kills her, she won’t die (also once every 60s).
Priority: Low
• While the EM addition isn’t terrible, it’s still highly limited and situational. Since Kuki’s C5 is also unnecessary, it’s best to stop pulling after getting C4 Kuki.
Choosing the Artifact
Tested Sets:
1. 4-Tenacity of the Millelith
2. 4-Maiden Beloved: the 4-piece effect is always active
3. 2-Tenacity of the Millelith + 2-Wanderer’s Troupe
4. 4-Ocean-Hued Clam
Tested Main Stat:
1. HP/HP/Healing Bonus
2. EM/EM/Healing Bonus
3. EM/EM/EM
I also tested Crit instead of Healing Bonus. I’ll include the result in the Result Overview.
Choosing the Weapon
Tested Weapons:
1. Freedom-Sworn
2. Primordial Jade Cutter
3. Haran Geppaku Futsu
4. Iron Sting
5. The Alley Flash
6. Mistsplitter Reforged
7. Lion's Roar
8. Skyward Blade
9. Amenoma Kageuchi
10. The Black Sword
Simulation Assumptions
1. Kuki Shinobu is level 90
2. Enemy is a level 90 Hilichurl
3. Talent level 9
4. Elemental Skill hits 16 times in the simulation (2 casts)
5. Simulation is done assuming 2 Skill casts + 1 Burst cast. Kuki will trigger 10 Elemental Reactions in the rotation.
6. Kuki’s HP is below 50%
Stat Overview
Damage Overview (Average Damage)
Note: OCH Bubble = Ocean-Hued Clam damage on every Skill cast
Simulation Overview
Note: Healing Total is 8 ticks of healing (1 Skill duration)
Result Overview
Crit Build Result
Here, you can see that:
1. Iron Sting is a great weapon for F2P players.
2. Ocean-Hued Clam can maximize Kuki’s damage, but it’s still better to increase the team's overall DPS using the 4-Tenacity of the Millelith.
3. Burst damage is not worth pursuing.
4. EM and HP are rather close in healing but distant in damage.
5. For damage build, EM EM EM > EM EM HB (Clam only) = EM EM Crit > HP HP HB (Clam only) = HP HP Crit.
Personal Opinion
For now, Kuki seems highly niche. She’s good if you need an Electro and a Healer in one slot, but not much more. Hopefully, Dendro offers a promising Elemental Reaction pairing with Electro.
If I have Kuki, I’d build her with either EM/EM/EM or EM/EM/HB with 4-Tenacity of the Millelith.
Penny for your thoughts
Are you having fun with Kuki?
Is she easy to use, or is she too suicidal for your taste?
Do you think Kuki is underwhelming?
As usual, if you have any questions, corrections, or feedback, feel free to throw them in the comment!
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