Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Juju Strategy

Since it's kind of late to e-mail Sylicas late, being that the card challenge is already half over, and a lot of people probably won't be expecting an update, I've decided to just write one separately.

So anyways, Juju is an interesting card to say the least. He's sort of tanky, with 80hp and 4 light/5 dark defense. His stats coupled with his innate allows him to take a beating before dying. He even has a healing move, making him able to possible dish out some damage, heal, and leave unscathed. His versatility at close and far (unless the enemy can counter ToD) makes most enemies just pass against you, allowing you to go close/far pretty much whenever you want. Be sure not to do this all the time though, since they might catch on. He's not really considered high ranked in most tier lists, but that doesn't make him completely bad as a character. Noobs will say he too good due to touch of doom, pros might say say he's not as good as the others. In any case, Juju can be used effectively, if you know how to play him right.




Thanks to nekopawed for the easy screenie! (Click to enlarge)


Recommended Items

Elusive Feather - Since that 0 physical armor is Juju's main weakness, feather would help soften that weakness, and make Juju even more annoying. Even though the 25% might make this item seem more reliant on "chance", a miss vs Juju can be the difference between life and death. This is especially good against stuns/interupts (Helene's shield bash especially, Hig's open palm too I guess).

Death Mask - Might let him get a ToD off despite its low speed, and is a solid choice. Sometimes that 1 turn can be completely useless though.

Quickening Powder - One of Juju's weaknesses is his slow attacks. This would make him somewhat faster, and able to maybe get off an attack that he normally wouldn't be able to. Healing is also a more attractive option. Makes him somewhat "predictable", but you can always play mindgames :P

Strategies

ToD - ToD has two main uses: the actual effect (killing someone instantly in 4 turns), and the intimidation factor. ToD costs a crapload of energy, but is pretty much a guaranteed kill, and probably is Juju's main way of killing. If it lands, good for you: you can stall with heals and switches and the opponent can be helpless.

Another use of it is just its presence on the skill bar. No one wants to get hit by ToD: it's probably one of the most feared skills in the game (even though 4 turns is a lot of time, though it's getting buffed to 3 turns). So by just being in Juju's skills causes your opponent to play differently than usual. Ashi might reconsider sig slicing (and even switch out), Corn might go far, etc. Therefore, you're going to have a lot more opportunities to intercept: because your opponent figures that if i dodge ToD, Juju is screwed, and I escape a move that would own me. SO, ToD gives you an opportunity to think "hmm, how scared is he of ToD" and "is he willing to stay in for 3 turns without switching (most people will switch out at close vs a full en juju within 3 turns if they dont go far)?" Since I'm not a big fan of ToD (or Juju for that matter), if I played him, I probably would intercept/hex/heal more than i used ToD. After all, it's kind of like power lash or chi blast: you generally wont be hit by it, but just the threat of it changes your opponents game plan.

Hex - Hex is a really cheap energy move that can do 48 damage for only 30 energy. Sadly, it's 8x5, dark typed, and slow and lots of popular characters have high dark defense, so it's useless versus a majority of the characters in play. Still, this shouldn't be ignored. Sometimes it might be better to get far and hex rather than try for a ToD.

Healing Touch - This move is kind of weird. I haven't seen much use of it, but it's good versus the characters that deal less than 25 damage per attack. You can use it to stall, or lead to a switch out, or even actually use it for its intended purpose and heal 25 hp. It works best versus intercept attempts: definitely a mind game move. It's not that good if you're just about to die though, since a 4 speed move gets outspeeded by just about everything.

Staff Strike - Meh. I'd rather rest so I can hex/curse.





4 comments:

Malachi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Malachi said...

Nice detailed write up, Northern. The first paragraph in the strategies section gets a little confusing, but I understood you ;D

NorthernPolarity said...

Let me rewrite that then.

James said...

Nice post with everything about Juju. I found it pretty helpful.