MMM - Tengu-Taught, Tall-Toed Tactical Tensai Tumbles into Trap, Transforms into Tempting Turncoat (Little Big Tengu)

Opening up on Kagekiyo’s active skills, we start already with a spicy one.

Actually focusing on the “Hatred for those who wronged them” part of the class, Kagekiyo pulls out an absolutely vicious +200% Effective Damage buff versus those of the Genji trait for 3 turns. For those not in the know, Genji in this case refers to those of the Minamoto bloodline, descended from it, or serving those in the former category. Hence not only the capital M Minamotos like Raikou, Ushi, and Kagekiyo herself are under it, but also Yagyu (the Tokugawa are meant to be descended from the Minamoto), Tsuna, and Benkei.

So putting aside how +200% damage on a pretty broad trait for 3 turns is crazy, this skill isn’t done. It also provides a huge +100% critical buff to Kagekiyo for 3 turns, charges her gauge by 30% AND applies 100% critical star gather rate down to her allies, which might seem strong at first, but it’s more of a reset button.

You see, critical star distribution in this game is based on the characters’ individual star weight, but there’s also something of a random element. Each turn, 3 cards in the hand of 5 are given bonus star weight - one gets 50, and two others get 20. On top of that, while generally stars are distributed evenly based on the proportion of the star weight of each card (i.e. a 200 star weight card with four 50 weight cards will get the same amount of stars they get combined), it is still done randomly via weighted chance.

The point that matters here is the actual size of each Servants’ star weight - if your Berserker has +6000% star weight, that’s 610 star weight. Even if an ally Caster gets the +50 on one of their cards, it’s still 610 versus 100 weight, over a 6:1 ratio. But regardless of her allies, Kagekiyo will bring them to 0 base star weight, compared to her 30. Which means even an allied card which gets the +20 random bonus will nearly match her own cards for star weight.

It’s useful if you intend to run her alongside high star weight allies like Reines, but compared to personal star focus-increasing effects it’s a little weaker. Still good for an Avenger focused on crit to have, but not as good as it sounds.

So, I’ve written up a lot, but the bottom line is this skill is amazing. A colossal crit boost, an incredibly good Effective Damage buff, a gauge charger, and a bonus to her critical consistency, all on an 8-turn base cooldown.

Next is Kagekiyo Shall Not Die EX.

Putting the icon aside, there’s no prizes for guessing this skill’s effects.

Providing a 3-turn 3k HP Guts that stacks with other Guts effects, this skill is practically the golden boy (sorry Kintoki) of the Guts skills.

The reason being? It has a 6 turn base cooldown. At max skill level, Kagekiyo’s Guts only has a 1 turn downtime. The icing on the cake for this is the free 100% Death Resist to hopefully avoid getting cheesed, as well as the unique Grudge of Vengeance buff stack you get each time she procs a Guts in the duration.

I say “each time”, since the nature of this skill’s nonstacking Guts means you can run it alongside Necromancy or just any normal Guts CE, or supports who provide normal Guts like Paracelsus, Scheherazade, or Irisviel, and she can still gain Grudge of Vengeance from triggering it. While I wouldn’t exactly recommend the latter half of that, using Necromancy to cheese fights solo is pretty common, and Kagekiyo gets a notable advantage off that.

Well, the stacks themselves do nothing, since they relate to her NP, but onto that later.

Low CD Guts can be obscenely broken, especially if you have good offenses and other defensive tools. It’s a damn fine skill.

Hey look, it’s “other defensive tools”!

Mist of the Circle-Mark is our fan favourite discount Protection from Arrows, since DW has decided to never give non-expiring multihit Evasion or Invulnerability to any Servant ever again. Unless it’s Europa, apparently. Not that it got her anywhere.

Naturally, having a hard defensive tool, even when you have another one, is a good thing. This skill goes a little further, providing Kagekiyo with a respectable 30% attack buff for 3 turns, and a less-respectable 500 damage per turn Curse on every enemy for 3 turns. Do they want us to run her with Van Gogh-chan or something?

For the record, she doesn’t have the Threat to Humanity trait, in case your thoughts went that direction.

At any rate, a straightforward offensive boost was something Kagekiyo was missing, and this skill’s Evasion combined with her Guts makes Kagekiyo very, very hard to kill.

The only real complaint I could have for it is the (fair) 8-turn base cooldown, since it feels so shameful compared to her absurd Guts skill. It might find annoying to not have the two align often in a Challenge Quest if you’re depending on them.

First on Kiichi’s skill lineup is Sword of Ten-Thousand Worlds Under Heaven. Now, I’d complain about this being mouthy, but I’m the one who translated her skills for gamepress, and they’re not very easy to cut short. Unless there’s some succinct english term for “Heaven-Under-Ten-Thousand-World no Sword”, I’ll roll with it.

Since DW likes the thing so much, we have another 2-hit, 3 turn Evasion skill in the same event. It even has the same expected but disappointing 8-turn base cooldown. The addition to this, however, is Kiichi’s generic 3-turn Quick booster, providing her a moderate 30% Quick card boost at skill level 10.

So hey, it’s an offensive booster, doesn’t cost much to pop instantly, and gives vital defensive benefits. It’s plain as potatoes, but sometimes you don’t have to be fancy to be good - it’s a solid skill.

Next on the list is Onmyoudou (Law). Since Welfares aren’t ever allowed to get a 50% gauge charger since Rider Kintoki, this is your traditional pittance 20% targetable gauge charger on a non-support Servant. But hey, it’s still a gauge charger.

This thing also comes with a situationally-useful star focus boost, increasing the target’s star weight by 200% for a turn. Not going to do much if the target is a Caster, Avenger, or Berserker, but it’s still a bonus for critical consistency, especially if you’re in a Challenge Quest scenario instead of farming.

But let’s be real - Kiichi is a Quick AOE Servant, and she has a gauge charger. We’re using this thing for farming, and it’s good to have around for that purpose. Has a solid cooldown for its purposes, too, at 7 turns base.

Last, but not least, is Six Secret Teachings - Tactics. For those unaware, the Six Secret Teachings was a military treatise written by Lü Shang, a Chinese General during the Zhou Dynasty. Said text has something of a mythical reputation like the Art of War, and was featured in the tales involving Kiichi Hogen, since Japan loves adapting Chinese language, myth, culture and so on.

But for this skill itself, it’s just a fusion of Charisma and Nobu’s Strategy skill, providing small but respectable buffs to both attack and NP gain to the team for 3 turns.

And heyo, that’s it. Not like there’s anything bad about a straight offensive boost, but with how simple Welfare kits have been historically, I feel I could predict each one’s kit pretty accurately. Because Welfares aren’t allowed crazy gimmicks or complex skills. Well, I guess Chacha and Irisviel are, but we know how they turned out.

Charisma good. Roll tide.