I currently don’t have either Inari or Mitsuko but that might change before the weekend is over.
Inari: tl;dr Offensive raid specialist with titan hitter possibilities as she has the highest attack strength of any yellow hero released so far. Possibly a game changing hero in that people may start considering tile damage strategies in forming teams.
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She has significantly above average attack, below average defense and health.
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Because of those defense and health stats, she will not be as difficult to kill with tiles at the start of a raid as Guinevere is. But due to her SS I expect people will try to work her in as a flank at most.
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Her SS is short lived (3 turns), deals no damage, doesn’t heal, and has a questionable chance at success. The payoff could be very good if the defenders all have AoE abilities. Less so if the defenders tend to buff themselves and not do anything targeted to the attackers.
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SG seems to be creating heroes who focus on tile damage and strategies built around tile damage as opposed to direct damage through SS. Most notably Tarlak, Aegir and Ameonna are prime examples of this. I’d put Inari as yet another hero who’s existence encourages players to consider tile damage strategies. It’s just that this is now true even if you don’t have Inari.
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I have to compare her to Kadilen, but the design of Inari shows that more thought was put into the effort. The only sure fire way of getting around Inari’s ability is to use no heroes that target the enemy. This is similar to strategies to tackle the Dense Fog levels of Season 2. If players have a deep enough bench to buff their heroes and and color stack appropriately, they have nothing to fear from Inari. Of course relying on tile damage to kill the enemy has a whole lot of drawbacks of its own.
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Strategies to include Inari on offensive raid team are interesting because yellow has no attack buffers that can be trusted. Yes I fed my Wu Kong to Tarlak and you should too. I think Inari would work best in a 2-2-1 formation but not as the oddball color. Normally that oddball should be a healer and/or buff / debuff specialist. Inari’s lack of healing makes her a less than ideal choice for this position because you would still need a healer somewhere in your team. But, her high attack strength makes her ideal for color stacking so pairing her with a healer who has a strong attack (i.e. Delilah or even Vivica) works well. An attack buffer like Tarlak, Zim, BT or even Khiona would also be good for that oddball color slot.
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Inari on a titan team is pretty straightforward and she would replace whoever your current tile damage king/queen is. Inari’s SS might protect the team from the titan’s SS but at a 56% chance of dodging it’s not what one would call a plan.
Mitsuko: tl;dr Red tank that can’t replace Gravemaker but could almost replace Ares on defense. On offense, she’s a niche hitter that hits below average and can be very useful against blue AoE hitters. She’s another hero that encourages players to think of tile damage strategies.
BTW, the third bullet point of her SS is worded ambiguously.
“All allies reflect all status effects and 115% damage from Ice Special Skills back to the attacker for 4 turns.”
If a nitpicky grammarian parses everything before the word “and” as one effect and everything to the right as another effect you get something much more interesting that what was intended.
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Below average attack, above average defense and health. This is generally the traits of a tank and her defense & healh stats are comparable to Ares.
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Refelect blue SS. Blue is the strong color vs. red therefore Mitsuko is designed to be a defensive hero. Offensive oriented heroes deal extra damage vs. their elemental weak enemy. The nature of this buff is unique in that it reflects only SS. Mitsuko appears as a boss on several Province 12 levels and I tried dispelling her SS w/ Sonya but that got reflected back.
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The design of Mitsuko deviates from the best of tanks in that she does not heal. That puts her at a disadvantage compared to all other tanks. All of the best ones heal in one form or another with the exception of Gravemaker. He’s the hitter that proves the point of the best defense being a good offense. Anyway, Mitsuko doesn’t hit hard enough to defend the way Gravemaker does. Without healing, she won’t last as long as any tank that does heal.
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Her mana steal is annoying but it sometimes misses the mark and that somehow makes her less scary than Guin or even a Li Xiu.
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The big gaping hole in Mitsuko’s defense is tile damage. Her ability only reflects SS and if you color stack blue heroes against her, she isn’t that painful to take down when she’s the tank.
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If she’s a flank or wing, there’s a fairly good chance that you can take her down before her SS goes off. Or you could take her down using something other than blue SS. When she’s not the tank, you could simply color stack to take down the tank and opposite flank and not pack any blues. This works around her SS so well, one hopes that players realize how bad she is outside of the tank position.
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Outside of raid defense, her SS is pretty decent and is likely to pack about as much of a punch as Scarlett. The mana steal is less useful on offense since the enemy starts recharging with the next set of tiles sent their way. The blue SS reflection however could be really useful against a blue AoE hitter like Grimm, Athena or Isarnia.