Kasumi is Paladin’s Latest Ghostly Champion

Paladins has released their latest champion, Kasumi the Death’s Howl, who brings a new form of status effect called Disarm.

When studying her abilities, it can be assumed that she will be quite a tough champion to fight against.

Passive - Curse

Kasumi’s primary fire and abilities apply a stack of Curse onto enemy champions. Enemies marked with the Curse deal 2 percent less damage and take increased damage from Kasumi’s abilities for each Curse stack.

If other enemies are targeted, a number of Curse stacks will be taken from the initial target and applied onto them.

Primary Fire - Yokai Doll

Unlike traditional primary fires in Paladins, Kasumi’s is not a projectile. Instead of shooting at your enemies, you apply damage directly on your enemies.

Compared to other heroes who have to aim and shoot at the enemies, Kasumi can simply point their target reticle on the enemy, then press Primary Fire button to apply damage.

With help from her Empowered Curse Talent, this ability has increased attack and move speed for each stack of Curse.

She can now apply her Curse more quickly and switch between targets more easily thanks to this Talent.

Alternate Fire - Savage Tear

Using her alternate fire, Kasumi deals a burst of damage to marked enemies, applying stacks to them as well.

If used on enemies with a full stack, this ability disarms them and prevents them from attacking for one second.

Paladins is a shooting game, so if you are unable to shoot in the middle of a fight, it is a huge disadvantage to you and could determine the outcome of the match.

Imagine you are in the final round and just as you were about to clutch, the enemy Kasumi Disarms you, causing you to lose that game.

This ability is a good counter to other Damage champions like Tyra or Cassie. But why stop at those two? If used against Raum, it could give you some reprieve from Raum’s seemingly unending machine gun fire.

First Ability - Spirit Lure

Using the first ability, Kasumi can use it as a trap to prevent fast-moving enemies like Maeve or Vora from flanking from behind.

Kasumi places down up to three traps and when they are triggered, she can teleport immediately to the most recently triggered trap, damaging enemies, applying three stacks of Curse and Fear them for 1.5 seconds.

Her traps, however, are now timed mines thanks to her Spirit Bombs Talent. After being activated, they now detonate after a short delay.

A good Kasumi player will put down these traps before they start the gunfight, because who likes it when they get flanked in the middle of a fight?

As soon as the match begins, Flankers will immediately go straight behind the enemy lines so they can target the backlines like Supports or backline Damage champions.

With these traps,Kasumi could slow down enemy Flankers from attacking allies.

Second Ability - Body and Soul

Kasumi’s second ability allows her to traverse an area quickly. It works similar to Seris’ Spirit Travel but instead of becoming invisible, she becomes Ethereal and leaves behind her physical body and traverses in spirit, literally.

When recast, Kasumi teleports back to where her physical body is, ending her spiritual journey.

This ability can be used to relocate to a different location to attack an enemy from a different angle or it can be used to set up traps.

Unfortunately, this ability does not make Kasumi invulnerable as enemies can still damage you, at a reduced rate.

Players must be aware of their surroundings before using this ability because should the original body be killed by the enemy, you will die too.

Thankfully, with the Unfinished Business Talent, this ability’s duration is extended by one second. After the ability ends, she heals 70 per cent of the damage her physical body took.

Using this Talent, she can trick her enemies into healing her by using it when she is low on health or when retreating to another location.

Ultimate - Bitter Betrayal

When Kasumi uses her ultimate, the targeted enemy will explode in projectile form after a short delay, damaging any enemy allies nearby.

The ultimate applies five stacks of Curse to the initial target and nearby affected enemies, while also dealing damage overtime.

This ability is best used when the enemies are grouped up as you can damage multiple enemies at once. Why use it on a single enemy when you can use it on the entire team?

Tanks and healers of the group tend to stick together especially in game modes like Siege or Onslaught, where players have to hold one area to get points. So you use your ultimate on one of them and you can get two or more of them in one go.

This ability is also preferably used on less mobile enemies. If it is used on more mobile enemies such as Flankers like Maeve or Androxus, they could just run or dash away from their teammates, rendering your Ultimate less effective.

This is why it is best used on Healers or Tanks so you could target the enemy backlines.

With all of these abilities at Kasumi’s disposal, she can truly be the stuff of nightmares for her opponents.

Kasumi is now available on all platforms and she costs 60,000 Gold or 300 Crystals.