BattleCON: Online

BattleCON: Online

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"Another challenger for my title?" A BattleCON Guide for Kimbhe
By parchmentEngineer
If you're looking for tips on how to play a character that's both versatile and strong, then this is the place for you.
   
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Introduction
As the Archmage of Relecour, Uleyle Kimbhe is a powerful opponent. Capable of a diverse array of options, and bringing her fabled staff to provide power to all of her attacks. However, should the opponent steal her staff from her, she'll quickly find herself out of options.

When playing as Kimbhe, you'll want to pay attention to her styles. She has some of the best styles in the game from all categories, from lightning quick to tank-like defenses, and all of her styles have at least effective +0~1 range. More than that, she possesses an large amount of tools for dealing with opponents at range, where she can keep them safely away from her staff. However, as stated previously, letting the opponent take control of the staff can spell disaster for her.

As Kimbhe, I like to play her as a corner-based ranger. With your back to the wall, opponents can't dodge around you, and you possess the tools to keep them at whatever range the opponent can't deal with. I'll go into specific stats and strategies for each of her cards later in the guide.
Unique Ability
Kimbhe's Unique Ability is simple, yet powerful. It places a staff in the center space of the board that gives any player on it +2 Power when they hit the opponent. While this in theory would apply equally to both Kimbhe and her opponent, Kimbhe possess an array of tools to reposition her staff wherever she wants it. In fact, two out of her three staff movement abilities let her place the staff wherever she wants it. Using these abilities, she should consistently have control over her staff. Yet, as I've already said, her UA is a double-edged staff. Giving the opponent +2 Power each beat, in addition to whatever tricks they might have, is a recipie for almost certain doom. If the opponent has the staff for more than 2 beats, then it's your job to do everything in your power to take it back.
Caster
Kimbhe's Unique Base, Caster, is one of the most powerful Unique Bases in the game. It's a 5 power attack with effectively full board range and Stun Immunity. However, it has 2 big downsides. First of all, you have to give the opponent the staff to make the attack hit. Caster's low base priority makes the opponent almost always go first, so they'll be able to make use of the +2 Power for at least this beat, turning Caster into roughly a 3 power base. Secondly, Caster has one big built-in weakness: Drive. Since Caster is slow, it beats most SoB movements, but loses hard to BA movements. Luckily, you have too backup options if it's clear your attack is going to miss. If the opponent has one space where they can hit you, and it's clear you'll trade up with it, place your staff on that space. They'll be forced to either trade down or miss you alltogether. If such an option doesn't exist, or you feel attacking would be a bad idea this beat, you can always place your staff directly under you, allowing you to use it next beat. One last thing to mention before moving on to her styles: Every one of Kimbhe's styles works well with Caster, so I'll be mentioning this base again a few more times.
Expulsion
Expulsion is Kimbhe's reset style. With -1 Priority, and no defenses to speak of, it's diffucult to land a hit using the standard bases with this attack. However, it's After Activating effect is what makes you want to play this card. The ability to drop your staff at your feet, no matter how far away it is, is an invaluable boon. Aditionally, it's Start of Beat allows for minor repositioning of the opponent.

For attack pairs with this card, I reccomend playing Dodge or Caster. An Expulsion Dodge should be the only type of Dodge you use (unless you think the opponent will clash it), as it allows you to place yourself at the perfect position regardless of your staff's position. In addition, you can use the pull effect to yank opponents out of the corner, ensuring a dodge no matter their position. Expulsion Caster serves two uses. First of all, it brings your staff back to you after you attack with it, saving you the trouble of fetching it youself. Secondly, you can use the combined Start of Beats on theses cards to place the staff adjacent to the opponent and pull them out of range, which is always fun to do. Just be certain to remember what cards make your opponent immune to forced movement.
Fulminating
I'll get this out of the way right now: Fulminating isn't Kimbhe's best style. With the +0~1 range being replaced by an BA: Advance up to 1, and boasting Kimbhe's only negitive power, it's not as strong as Kimbhe's other styles. However, it's BA staff movement makes up for that in a big way, especially when paired with Caster. You see, the ability to move the staff into the opponent's space before the attack fires not only lets you keep the power bonus away from the opponent, but also lets you beat drives. Fulminating Caster is one of my two favorite Casters, and is the one I play most often. Other than Caster, Fulminating also works well if your opponent already has the staff, as you can pull it out from other them with a fast attack like Drive or Grasp.
Penumbral
Now we're starting to get into Kimbhe's good styles. Penumbral is a slow attack, but it has magical stun guard 3 (thanks, Marco), and if you're standing on your staff, you get an additional Soak 2. Although you no longer get the bonus from the staff this beat, Penumbral gives you a +2 Power by itself, and you don't need to be anywhere near the staff for that.

In terms of attack pairs, Shot and Caster work well with this card. Shot can be played for almost full-board range, and SG5 Soak 2 isn't easy to break through. If you can hit with Penumbral Caster, it deals a full 5 damage and doesn't give the opponent a power boost, and even if the opponent drives, you can still place the staff on your space to gain the Soak 2 for yourself.
Quake
Quake is Kimbhe's power style. It has a slightly akward hit confirm, but you can read it as +0~1 from anywhere except the corner. What you need to note about it is that it has +2 Power, +4 Stun Guard, and the ability to gain even more power from your staff makes this style an attack to be reckoned with.

For attack pairs, I reccomend Quake Strike, Caster, and Drive for the pure power. Quake Strike is nigh-unstunable, and can deal up to 8 damage if the staff is behind you. Quake Caster is obviously a 7 damage attack if it hits, but it has one other trick up it's sleeve. Using Quake's OH ability not only lets you get the opponent off your staff, but also lets you put them where they feel the least comfortable. Quake Drive, while not having as much power as the other two options, still packs a considerable punch, and by using the two movement effects together you can move around a lot.
Quickening
I've saved the best for last here. Quickening, by itself, has an impressive statline. However, if you're standing on your staff, it gets another +2 Priority, giving a total priority of +4. This is an insane boost, and it means you're going to go first almost all the time. However, it does have a mandatory move 1 space, so getting the staff and the speed is going to be a bit diffucult.

Nearly any card makes a good attack pair with Quickening, but I'm going to focus on Drive, Shot, and Caster. A Quickening Drive is 6 prio even without the staff boost, and 8 prio with it, giving it enough speed to go first. In addition, the combined effects of the two movements give it either the ability to stay still on your staff, to lunge almost all the way accross the board, or move anywhere in between. Quickening Shot has a respectable priority, and hits the entire board from the corner. Quickening Caster is actually Kimbhe's worst Caster, as there's other uses for Quickening, but going fast enough beats out drives and stuns the opponent before they get a chance to attack with your staff.
Archmage's Ambition
Kimbhe's Finishers both depend on the position of the staff to hit. Archmage's Ambition only hits if you're in the staff's space, but if it hits, it deals loads of damage. With Stun Immunity and range 1~4, it's very diffucult for most attacks to stop it. It's only weakness is Grasp, which will throw you off the staff and make you miss. One more thing to note about this attack is that it technically is 11 power, since you get the +2 from your staff.
Mage Hunter
Kimbhe's other finisher is a nasty supprise for opponents who think that they've stolen your staff. With 9 power and priority, not many opponents will be able to recover from this attack. However, despite having the same range as Caster, Mage Hunter wins against what Caster loses to (Before Activating movement) and loses to what Caster wins against (Start of Beat movement). If your opponent has any Start of Beat movement in your hand, it's best not to use this attack and let them move off of it themselves.









Anyways, that conlcudes my Kimbhe guide. I hope you learned a lot from this guide, and that you contiune to improve.
2 Comments
Foolswalkin Sep 26, 2018 @ 12:46pm 
I think Quake Grasp is worth calling out as a great application of Quake in specific situations. If your opponent is in center board position (for example, if they're a short-ranged fighter who needs to maximize hit confirm) and you're adjacent to them, you can go from there to range 5 or 6 at Prio 3, Power 4 (without staff), SG 4. This gives Kimbhe a pretty respectable ability to shut down some otherwise very hard to deal with moves (including the gold standard for annoying moves, Clockwork Shot) and is great for setting up a follow-on rotation of Expulsion Caster into Penumbral Shot, Quickening Shot, or Quickening Drive.

Quake Drive can serve as a high SG, low prio corner cross.

Finally, I also quite like her prio spread - it's worth drawing special attention to her ability to underspeed counterattackers through Quake and Penumbral and also outspeed all but the speediest of speedsters with Quickening.
dennettlander Sep 7, 2018 @ 5:05pm 
A little OP, maybe? I don't figure out how I can defeat her as Hikaru, for example. Damn Caster!! :P