6 months ago
1
Patch 6.4
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Free Agent - NA

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Who knows how long this guide will stay relevant, but I've managed to get Kasumi to level 60-ish and I sucked all the way until RANDOMLY one day I got really good with her. So here's a guide with 4 playstyles!!!

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS FOR KASUMI AS OF THE STREETSTYLE WORLD TOUR UPDATE!

Let's go over some universal notes:

1. Yokai Doll
Remember this isn't a shooting weapon as much as you willing damage onto your opponent. This means sometimes it shoots through counter states. It ignores Zhin's counter for one instance, then triggers his counter on the second instance. It's going to take practice to figure out the timing in order to actually be able to hit people. It's not as brainless as it used to be, but it's still easy once you get the hang of it.

2. Curse Stacks
Curse stacks don't give you DR. They make the target have reduced damage output. They also boost ALL of Kasumi's damage, not just Yokai Doll and Savage Tear. Your Spirit Bombs are also affected by the Curse stacks, making her Spirit Bomb Dmg increase card worthwhile.

3. Engaging

Kasumi requires a bit more patience to get value out of. She's a trapper-dualist with very short range. You're not going to win by going in headfirst. You need to wait for them to come to you, or sneak up on them. Most interactions you'll want to start off by using a Spirit Bomb to apply Curse stacks, which will let you get your damage up faster. Savage Tear is a great finisher for fleeing enemies. If you activate it before they leave LOS, it will still deal damage once they're gone. Be aware of characters that can cleanse your Curse Stacks (Koga, Mal'Damba, Grohk). Just wait to use Savage Tear until AFTER they cleanse and you're good.

4. Disengaging
Body and Soul is really weird and mostly bad. You have to be very early to get real value. Typically, if you set a Spirit Bomb, it misses, and they notice you, you should probably run away immediately. If they don't notice you, you can still get the drop on them and try it out.

5. General Playstyle

If you're alone, you literally can only fight in a 1v1. You can literally only attack one target at a time. Two or more targets in your face will spread out your damage and make you pretty much useless. If you're ever in a situation where it's you against more than one opponent, immediately leave. In general, her Ultimate is best used to secure a kill on an escaping target. It's really not that impactful, so don't put too much focus on it. She flat out can't hit invisible champions unless you're close enough to them, so don't try to engage with them if you can.

6. Items
Items are VERY loadout dependent with Kasumi as many of her cards can substitute items. I'll go into more detail in the specific builds. The ones I use most often are:

Nimble, Rejuvenate, Chronos, Armor Plating, Bloodbath, and Veteran.

IMPORTANT NOTE: NEW REJUVINATE WORKS EXCELLENTLY WITH KASUMI AS SHE HAS STRAIGHT SELF HEALING, NOT LIFESTEAL

Now for her cards worth mentioning:

Body and Soul Cards:
All of the cards are pretty viable in specific builds. I usually don't find Soul Siphon (Increase duration of Body and Soul) very useful as more time just gives the enemy more time to kill your husk.

Savage Tear Cards:
Her nerfed Essence Drain (increase Savage Tear dmg) is worthless. At 5 points you get a whopping 75 extra damage at MAX Curse stacks with NO DR. Not worth it in the slightest.
Cursed Doll is also useless due to its short range.

Betrayal (Cooldown reduction) isn't usually worth it on an ability that you're going to use once per interaction anyway.

Unseen Eyes (Increase Healing) is nice cause it works with Rejuv. Not great in every build, but a solid filler card.

Spirit Bomb Cards:
Blood Mist (Increase speed) is useless with Haunted Ground, but otherwise it works nice!
Deadly Trap (Reduce cooldown/increase dmg) is great with Haunted Ground, not much else.
Soulfire (Heal upon trigger) is too small of a heal to be worthwhile. I don't find much value.
Unwilling Victim (increase dmg radius) is good on Spirit Bomb-centered builds, but not worth it elsewhere. Her bombs are usually just a way to get curse stacks moving faster and nothing more.

Armor/Weapon Cards:
Surrounded By Fear (Extra curse stacks) EXCELLENT filler card. Have it at 1 in every deck, and it's even greater at higher levels. By far one of her best cards that can REALLY save you by making your stacking faster.

Sudden Death & Sealed Fate aren't very useful. The default duration is fine, and healing that late into an interaction isn't very helpful due to anti heal.
Folk Tales (Base HP) always solid, even at 1.

Hagwitch - Mobility
Build Section
Notes

TALENT - HAUNTED GROUND

This is my personal favorite build because it reminds me of Hag from Dead by Daylight, who is my fave killer :3

The biggest thing about her Haunted Ground talent is that it gives you VERTICAL mobility. Usually I'll pick it with the map in mind.

Place your traps around the corner of doorways and entrances and ALWAYS have as many as possible out. Often you can get away with hiding them in plain sight, but it's better to be safe than sorry. You need to have FAST reaction time to get value from this talent, and be prepared for the traps to not trigger fear on the target. Zip around the map, secure a kill, and play safe while your Cooldown is up.

Max out Nimble, then get Armor Plating and Chronos, then Bloodbath or Veteran.

Hagwitch
Spirit Bombs

Spirit Bombs

Spirit Lures become timed mines and can no longer be reactivated, exploding a small duration after being triggered to deal damage, Fear, and apply Curse stacks. Your trap placement now has increased Cooldown

Level 5

Deadly Trap

Deadly Trap

Decrease the Cooldown of Spirit Lure's reactivation by 2.4s.

Level 4

Surrounded by Fear

Surrounded by Fear

Hitting an enemy with Yokai Doll applies one extra stack of Curse once every -20s.

Level 4

Unwilling Victim

Unwilling Victim

Increase the area of effect of Spirit Lure's explosion by 25%.

Level 5

Betrayal

Betrayal

Reduce the Cooldown of Savage Tear by 0.5s.

Level 1

Folk Tales

Folk Tales

Increase your maximum Health by 50.

Level 1

Nimble

Nimble

Armor

Gain 21% Movement Speed.

Level 3

Haven

Haven

Armor

Reduce the Damage you take from Direct and Area of Effect attacks by 18%.

Level 3

Chronos

Chronos

Armor

Reduce the Cooldown of all your abilities by 30%.

Level 3

Kill to Heal

Kill to Heal

Armor

Getting a kill or elimination heals you for 600 Health, unaffected by Anti-Healing.

Level 3

Cursed Gait - You're a Damage Again!!!
Build Section
Notes

TALENT - EMPOWERED CURSE

This is a super easy build to turn your brain off with. Pretty much play like a backline damage or sideline support. I recommend using this one whenever the enemy team is beefy with not as much mobility to counter.

Her ult is nothing too great, the real benefit of the talent is the movement speed. The idea of this build is to focus on Chronos and get your other necessary items through your cards. Just spam your Spirit Bombs to keep your stacks and movement speed up and you're good to go! After that you can throw in some nimble and survivability items. Veteran is nice because of the health card.

Cursed Gait
Empowered Curse

Empowered Curse

Increase your Ultimate charge rate by 3% and Movement Speed by 5% per stack of Curse currently on enemies.

Level 5

Blood Mist

Blood Mist

Increase your Movement speed by 40% for 2s after one of your Spirit Lures triggers.

Level 4

Sudden Death

Sudden Death

Increase the duration of Curse stacks by 0.6s.

Level 1

Unseen Eyes

Unseen Eyes

Increase the duration of the Disarm applied by Savage Tear on hitting an enemy with maximum Curse stacks by 10%.

Level 1

Folk Tales

Folk Tales

Increase your maximum Health by 200.

Level 4

Surrounded by Fear

Surrounded by Fear

Hitting an enemy with Yokai Doll applies one extra stack of Curse once every -25s.

Level 5

Chronos

Chronos

Armor

Reduce the Cooldown of all your abilities by 30%.

Level 3

Nimble

Nimble

Armor

Gain 21% Movement Speed.

Level 3

Haven

Haven

Armor

Reduce the Damage you take from Direct and Area of Effect attacks by 18%.

Level 3

Veteran

Veteran

Armor

Increase your base maximum Health by 16.5%.

Level 3

Haunted One - Dualist
Build Section
Notes

TALENT - UNFINISHED BUSINESS

This build has a combo behind it. Great for Kogas.

1. Spirit Bomb to get Curse stacks
2. Body and Soul to get their cooldowns out of the way

3. Yokai Doll to 5 stacks and Savage Tear till they're dead.

If you don't get the Spirit Bomb, you can usually still finesse a win since they've burned their abilities on your husk. Still, make sure to strike with Savage Tear at 5 stacks to get as much healing and damage out as possible.

Rejuvenate is a must with this one. You'll get more healing from all your cards as well as Unfinished Business. It's always better to go Veteran instead of Armor Plating with Unfinished Business because of diminishing returns AND the more HP you have the more you'll heal. After Rejuv, go for Chronos, Veteran, and Bloodbath to be nearly unkillable.

Haunted One
Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business

Extend the duration of your Body and Soul by 1s. After the ability ends, Heal for 70% of the damage your body took (minimum of 15% max health) while traveling, unaffected by Cauterize

Level 1

Unseen Eyes

Unseen Eyes

Increase the duration of the Disarm applied by Savage Tear on hitting an enemy with maximum Curse stacks by 40%.

Level 4

Moonlit Haunting

Moonlit Haunting

Heal for 85 every 0.25s during Body and Soul.

Level 5

Limitless

Limitless

Decrease the Cooldown of Body and Soul by 2.4s.

Level 4

Folk Tales

Folk Tales

Increase your maximum Health by 50.

Level 1

Surrounded by Fear

Surrounded by Fear

Hitting an enemy with Yokai Doll applies one extra stack of Curse once every -5s.

Level 1

Rejuvenate

Rejuvenate

Armor

Receive 30% more Healing from other players.

Level 3

Chronos

Chronos

Armor

Reduce the Cooldown of all your abilities by 30%.

Level 3

Veteran

Veteran

Armor

Increase your base maximum Health by 16.5%.

Level 3

Kill to Heal

Kill to Heal

Armor

Getting a kill or elimination heals you for 600 Health, unaffected by Anti-Healing.

Level 3

Undead Again - Anti Burst
Build Section
Notes

TALENT - UNFINISHED BUSINESS

This is my least-used build, but it still works if you're going against very bursty champions. It's entirely based around getting as much value from Unfinished Business as possible. Just time it right to soak up as much damage and beat them while their cooldowns are down.

Go Veteran and Rejuvenate first to get max talent value. After that go Nimble and Bloodbath or Chronos. Up to you!

Undead Again
Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business

Extend the duration of your Body and Soul by 1s. After the ability ends, Heal for 70% of the damage your body took (minimum of 15% max health) while traveling, unaffected by Cauterize

Level 5

Folk Tales

Folk Tales

Increase your maximum Health by 250.

Level 5

Limitless

Limitless

Decrease the Cooldown of Body and Soul by 2.4s.

Level 4

Deadly Prey

Deadly Prey

Increase your Movement Speed by 40% for 2s after Body and Soul ends.

Level 4

Betrayal

Betrayal

Reduce the Cooldown of Savage Tear by 0.5s.

Level 1

Surrounded by Fear

Surrounded by Fear

Hitting an enemy with Yokai Doll applies one extra stack of Curse once every -5s.

Level 1

Veteran

Veteran

Armor

Increase your base maximum Health by 16.5%.

Level 3

Rejuvenate

Rejuvenate

Armor

Receive 30% more Healing from other players.

Level 3

Nimble

Nimble

Armor

Gain 21% Movement Speed.

Level 3

Kill to Heal

Kill to Heal

Armor

Getting a kill or elimination heals you for 600 Health, unaffected by Anti-Healing.

Level 3

Counters
Champion Section
Good Against
DrogozWilloSaatiOctaviaVivianZhinBuckCorvusYingJenosIoPipImani
Notes

Floaty characters are SO easy to hit if you're in range. You can shoot through some counters, and deflect heavy burst damage nicely. You can also use Savage Tear to finish off any teleporters.

Bad Against
KhanTorvaldFernandoNyxYagorathRaumAzaanInaraMakoaEvieKogaSkyeLianKinessaStrixCassieMal'DambaGrohk
Notes

She's awful against pretty much EVERY tank. They have too much health for her to really do anything, and if they have a LOT of health AND DR you're basically running into a wall. Anyone with a cleanse or invisibility should make you weary, and distanced pokers are awful.

For tanks, go Cursed Gait

Cleansing, go Haunted One

Pokers, go Hagwitch.