This could be a really good role with a lot of potential, but Kuki’s kit is just very lackluster. Her utility as a healer and buffer is easily replaceable by other units, and she has very poor damage multipliers. There’s basically no meta reason to pull or build her. She’s simply a character that you use because you like her, not because she’s good. And if you do build her, she’s definitely still viable. Kuki is very easy to build – she functions well even at low investment. Plus her skill’s periodic attacks make her a great wielder for the Tenacity of the Millelith artifact set. This lets her slot in many teams that want a healer or ATK buffer. More on her pros and cons are explained below. Note: This is based on meta only. If you like Kuki regardless of her power level, don’t let this stop you from pulling her.
Pros & Cons
Kuki Strengths
Kuki has a very low investment floor – just enough of Elemental Mastery (EM) or HP is enough to put her online. These are generally uncontested stats, thus making her a bit easier to build. She doesn’t have to compete for rarer artifacts with double CRIT substats. Plus, her buffing abilities and extra utility don’t rely on her character or talent levels. Even an unleveled 4pc. Tenacity of the Millelith set already makes her a viable buffer with decent healing. Basically, Kuki is very easy and relatively cheap to build. She works well even at low investment, but a bit more investment is still recommended. Kuki has decent, consistent Electro application both off-field and on-field. Her skill periodically deals AOE Electro damage every 1.5s. Although this is a bit slower than most Electro units, it’s still a consistent source of Electro. This is often enough to enable some Electro-related reactions – most notably superconduct. Superconduct functions as an enemy debuff that lasts for 12s. So although Kuki has slower Electro application, it’s enough to maintain 100% uptime on superconduct for Physical teams. Her burst is also a notable source of Electro. It deals multiple instances of damage for a short duration. It can basically apply Electro at a much faster rate than her skill. This is especially useful for breaking elemental shields – and it also helps with proccing Favonius Sword’s passive.
Kuki Weaknesses
Kuki consumes 30% of her current HP every time she casts her skill. Since her skill is the core of her kit, you do cast this ability very often. But unlike Barbara, the healing tick of her skill starts a bit after its cast. This means that you have to spend a few seconds of field time on Kuki if you want her to regenerate the sacrificed HP. This is the only way of healing her – she has no other sources of healing in her kit. It’s often not recommended to spend field time on her, so it’s very likely that Kuki will stay at low HP. This can be a problem since it does make her more squishy. She can easily get one-shot by an opponent when hit at the wrong time. Basically, Kuki is a healer who needs healing. Despite filling a newer niche role, Kuki isn’t really an upgrade to any existing teams. As a healer, she’s often viable – but she’s definitely not the best-in-slot. This is also because she’s often just a damage loss. If you want to play Kuki, she can usually fit into most non-freeze teams that need a healer, buffer, or an Electro unit. Otherwise, she isn’t valuable in any meta teams.
Are Kuki’s Constellations Good?
Kuki has pretty good constellations, but she’s already a complete unit at C0. So it’s not recommended to actively pull for her constellations – you’ll just naturally get them while playing the game or pulling on gacha banners. But if you insist on pulling for her cons, here’s a closer look at each one.
C1: To Cloister Compassion
Increases her burst’s AOE by 50%. This is a decent constellation. Kuki’s burst has a smaller AOE and stays in one place for its entire duration, so it can miss more mobile opponents. In this scenario, her C1 can be useful.
C2: To Forsake Fortune
Increases her skill’s duration by 3s. This is a great constellation. Kuki’s skill is the bread and butter of her kit – it’s her main source of utility. C2’s duration extension allows for virtually 100% uptime on her skill. Similarly, it increases the buff uptime of 4pc. Tenacity of the Millelith. Plus, it lets Kuki deal 2 extra ticks per skill. This offers a bit more healing, damage, and Electro application.
C3: To Sequester Sorrow
Increases her elemental skill talent by 3. This is a good constellation. It’s basically just a free minor boost on her healing and damage.
C4: To Sever Sealing
When normal/charged/plunging attacks of the character affected by Kuki’s skill hits an opponent, Kuki deals an extra attack on the opponent’s position. This deals 9.7% of her max HP as AOE Electro damage. This can only occur once every 5s. In a full HP build, this extra attack deals a decent amount of damage – which is always a nice bonus.
C5: To Cease Courtesies
Increases her elemental burst talent level by 3. Kuki doesn’t deal enough damage to justify a DPS build, so the damage gained from this constellation is pretty insignificant – and generally useless in support builds.
C6: To Ward Weakness
When Kuki takes lethal damage, this instance of damage will not kill her. This effect also automatically triggers when she reaches 1 HP. This can only be triggered once every 60s. And when Kuki is below 50% HP, she gains 150 Elemental Mastery for 15s. This can only be triggered once every 60s. The first effect is situationally really good. It basically lets Kuki tank lethal hits when necessary. Whereas, the second effect is pretty decent. The more you cast her skill, the lower Kuki’s HP will be. It’s very easy for her to reach below 25% HP, so she can easily proc the second effect and gain its buff. This increases both her healing and damage. But because of C6’s long cooldown, it will really only trigger a few times in Spiral Abyss.
