[The House of Spiders: The Index Nursefather] Yi Sang NEW!

The House of Spiders: The Index Nursefather Yi Sang, who will be referred to as Index Yi Sang in this review, is an exceptionally strong Poise Sinking Damage Dealer and the first Identity to have a skill with 9 Coins.

Index Yi Sang's whole kit is rather lengthy and wordy, which is why we need to talk about his passives first, as a lot is going on. Like other Index Identities, Yi Sang has to follow the Prescript and do certain things in order to accumulate Grace of the Prescript and, like Index Don, to also gain further levels of Unlock, further strengthening him throughout the fight. The Unique parts in Yi Sang’s kit are the “Procuration [Hermes]” status, passive “Oracle Device [Caduceus]” with its 9 weapons associated with that passive and unique to self status “Wound-casing Mask”. 

Let's start with the first passive. Procuration [Hermes] is accumulated through multiple methods, consisting of using skills marked with “Mark of the Prescript”, hitting the enemy with Unbreakable Coins or if the enemy dies before the skill finishes, the number of stacks gained for the third condition is equal to the number of remaining Unbreakable Coins halved. The number gained per turn is capped by the level of “Unlock” status. Procuration by itself does nothing as it is rather sort of “countdown”, that upon reaching 9, allows Yi Sang to use his and as far as the game goes at the time of this review, a VERY special 9 Coin Skill.

Alongside Procuration, we have “Oracle Device [Caduceus]” passive that upon doing damage with Coins, will assign a random weapon out of 9, each of which has different effects associated with it. Explaining them all would be a bit too much, but the most important one is the last weapon, the Scythe, as it not only has the highest damage boost among the others, that is 30%, but it is also a guarantee Critical Hit if used on the Unbreakable Coin that has won the Clash. 

Last to explain is the “Wound-casing Mask”. This effect makes Yi Sang take less damage from Unopposed Attacks and provides him with +2 Offense Level at the cost of -2 Defense Level. Also, once per battle, this status will recover Yi Sang from Stagger and convert itself into “Sizzling Wound”. “Sizzling Wound” boasts better Damage Reduction for Unopposed Attacks, +3 Offense Level, -3 Defense Level and +15% damage boost to damage dealt with Unbreakable Coins. Oh, and 1 Bleed and Burn per turn, but that part barely matters. Same with - Defense Level, as that is offset by the Unlock that provides +3 Defense Level at stage 3. Additionally, when “Sizzling Wound” is active, and his Signature Skill is on board, Yi Sang will gain bonus effect of “Indulgence in Prescripts”, that ensures he is the fastest thanks to +5 Min and Max Speed, does even more damage because why not, inflicts more Sinking and gains more Poise for the turn his Signature Skill is available for use.

Now, before we talk about skills, it needs to be said that all Skills have an effect of converting their Coins into Unbreakable Coins (for the purpose of accumulating “Procuration [Hermes]”) based on the Unlock stage. The higher the stage, the more the Coins. 

Additionally, all his base skills have 1 damage type associated with them and the higher “Karmic Consequence” is (status obtained by not following the Prescript that barely does anything for other Index Identities), the lower the chance is for “producing” weapons associated with the skill’s damage type. For example, Skill 1 is Blunt, so it will try and produce Blunt Weapons for its Coins from the passive “Oracle Device [Caduceus]” and the higher the Karmic is, the lower the chance will be.

• Skill 1 - "Enwrap 330 times in Long Swaths of Frozen Blood" - 2 Coins - 11 Min Roll - 15 Max Roll (16 Clash) - High damage Skill 1, as far as those go, and once ramped up, it is a Poise Neutral skill.

• Skill 2 - "Revel with Soundless Applause, Impale in Voiceless Sorrow" - 3 Coins - 16 Min Roll - 23 Max Roll - Same situation as with Skill 1, very high damage and Poise neutrality later on.

• Skill 3-1 - "Raise and Laugh the Blade, Cry the Waterfall Like the Scent of Fallen Leaves" - 4 Coins - 16 Min Roll - 24 Max Roll - High damage Skill 3 that is also Poise Positive once ramped up. Try to use this skill before the Special one comes up, so you maximize the damage Yi Sang can put out

• Defensive Skill - By Unpredictable Whim - Evade - 1 Coin - 14 Min Roll - Max Roll 14 - Evade that lets Yi Sang skip into Unlock - II stage instantly, on top of providing Poise and Poise Count for next turn.

Now the main “dish”:

• Skill 3-2 - Furioso-Replica - 7 Atk Weight - Unfocused Volley - 9 Coins - 30 Min Roll - 32 Max Roll (Clash 35) - While this skill can get more Final Power and roll higher than written, it is mostly achievable only in Mirror Dungeon. So let's leave that part out and focus on the truly important thing. Furioso-Replica is only usable when “Procuration [Hermes]” reaches 9 stacks. Then, even if skill is not present on the Dashboard, the game will first convert Skill 1 or Skill 2 into Skill 3, or if Skill 3 is already on the Dashboard, it will be converted into Furioso-Replica, meaning this skill will always be available on 9 Stacks of Procuration are reached, ensuring reliability. Now, how often can this skill be used back-to-back? First use will come at turn 5 usually, then every 3 or 4 turns. While it is not “spammable” as Mao Faust S3-2, its damage more than makes up for it. 9 Coins itself guarantees serious damage, but then damage boosts from different weapons, all damage buffs he has in his kit come into play, which allows numbers to get absurd. Especially on the last Coin, which is guaranteed to Crit (even without Poise) and nearly doubles its damage on Crit, thanks to Scythe being fixed as the 9th Weapon. And if the enemy was not dead once this skill ends rolling, the enemy gets inflicted with 5 Burn (cosmetic really), 3 Bind (they are staggered most of the time or dead, so it won’t matter), and 3 Fragile that ensures whoever survives, won’t next turn. Oh, and if the enemy died mid skill use, “Procuration [Hermes]” will be partially refunded, allowing faster usage of the next Furioso-Replica.

The only ID comparable in Index Yi Sang damage output is Mao Faust, another pretty much “broken” Identity, thanks to her ability to spam her enhanced Skill 3-2. While Yi Sang can’t spam his Signature Skill, he makes up for it with straightforward high damage on every skill he throws at the enemy, not only his Furioso-Replica. He works both in the Poise team and in the Sinking team, which is focused on the “Manor” debuff.

Index Yi Sang is an ideal generalist who can be run in any team to perform exceptionally well, no matter the situation. Even if the fight is short, where he can’t use his Furioso-Replica, his own skills do high enough damage that it won’t matter that 9 Coins were not unleashed. 

No notable E.G.O. Synergies