"KILL JOY" - Strategy and Discussion

[BallotBoxer]

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KILL JOY VALENTINE
Element: Light
Variant: Silver
Palette: original (exclusive to SGM), based on Nurse Joy from Pokémon
First Appearance: 3.3 (June 2019)
Quote: "It's you and me, I know it's my destiny!"

Signature Ability
PRIDE AND JOY
SA1 - Teammates gain permanent REGEN when first dropping below 25/35/50% HP at ELEMENTAL ADVANTAGE
SA2 - Once per match on DEATH, RESURRECT all defeated teammates with 15/20/25% HP

For more tips and tricks see the Kill Joy Valentine wiki page.

 

[BallotBoxer]

Now there is a thread, I can get down to business:
How do you stop Kill Joy from auto-resurrecting her team?

Picture this:
Ms. Fortune Gold Prize Fight, 39 fight streak. Both teams are down 2, only Valentines remain. My Kill Joy Valentine vs. Last Hope Valentine. I smugly take my fingers from the phone surface. "Ho ho, go ahead bring back Buzzkill Painwheel and Meow & Furever Ms. Fortune and seal your fate!"

Not paying full attention, I let the enemy get close. A couple smacks later, Kill Joy dies, but instead of dead teammates leaping to action, the DEFEAT overlay descends.

What Happened?
Other than over-relying on a newly-golded fighter's SA, what went wrong? I did a Forbidden Procedure BB on Painwheel mid-match, does that interfere with the SA's resurrection? Or was it something Last Hope did? A bug?

 

[Blimeylimey]

Did Last Hope have precision stacks? She could get them from the Ms Fortune gold prize fight modifier.

 

[BallotBoxer]

Damn, I think you've got it. When I think of Precision, I think "guaranteed critical hit" but looking at the wiki it also has a "Defensive SIGNATURE ABILITIES do not activate on this hit" property.

*cue stunned silence as revelation sinks in*

Huh. If anything, I got a new respect for Precision.

 

[fanghoul]

Damn, I think you've got it. When I think of Precision, I think "guaranteed critical hit" but looking at the wiki it also has a "Defensive SIGNATURE ABILITIES do not activate on this hit" property.

*cue stunned silence as revelation sinks in*

Huh. If anything, I got a new respect for Precision.

Yeah, I don't think people have generally figured out the value of Dragon Brawler and Summer Salt on this front yet.

 

[BallotBoxer]

Time for the Kill Joy Valentine Marquee throwdown. Which MA makes the most sense?

In the red corner:
Trauma Center - While Valentine is alive, teammates gain FINAL STAND for 5 seconds when suffering a HIT that deals more than 10% HEALTH.

In the blue corner:
ICU - Valentine gains HEAVY REGEN for 10 seconds when suffering a DEBUFF.

To me, it comes down to offense vs. defense.

Trauma Center is great if you are attacking and you want to preserve your two fighters. Final Stand will keep them in and delay actually using the double revive upon death SA.

ICU is superb for a defense team in Prize Fights or the Rift. If you've ever seen a G. I. Jazz Big Band tagging out just as his armor and heavy regen activate, you know AI can be cowardly and dumb. I saw fanghoul's argument against Trauma Center based on AI Kill Joy's being tagged in after Final Stand allies retreat to the bench, ruining the revive strategy.

For me, deciding Marquee Abilities for Valentines come down to the question "will she fight or support?" For my weak gold Kill Joy I'm still leaning towards Trauma Center because she's on the team to level-up and use her SA skills.

So which MA do you choose and why?

 

[ZeoW]

I'm leaning towards Trauma Center myself for rift purposes. With both her SAs being support SAs, most people place her on the back to support the first two fighters. And then it's simply a matter of outtakes and RNG to get her out. Once she's out, she doesn't really do much.

One of the hardest Rift boss node I've fought was a Triple Valentine (Assassin's Greed, Last Hope and Kill Joy) with Light Weight, Hexy Time and Auto-Immune. As both AG and LH had ICU, Trauma Center from Kill Joy helped a lot with the time-out strategy (especially with Last Hope's SA).

 

[fanghoul]

I suppose it can depend a little. I'm mostly in the ICU camp though. I've fought her way too many times with Trauma Center, and it's generally made those fights easier. I could see some edge cases where that doesn't happen, such as the one ZeoW is describing, but in general keeping her on her feet as long as possible seems like it might be the best way to go. I wonder if the Last Hope/Assassin's Greed/Kill Joy team might not be even stronger with AG having Trauma Center instead of KJ, since KJ not dying and tagging out is a nightmare in that scenario.

I'd also like to see KJ in a situation where she's maxed out, has ICU, and is paired up with Surgeon General. Then there could be a real challenge of who do you kill first?

She *is* an interesting tool on offense. She's better than average at helping you come back from making a terrible mistake if you're going the route of having one high FS fighter helping level up two lower FS characters. I still have mixed feelings about Trauma Center in that case. She doesn't often provide healing so all it does is leave you at exactly 1 HP after at most 15 seconds, though this isn't nothing. I want to point out the risk of being forced to tag out in this situation, but I don't think I actually know a player other than myself who equips tag-outs on defensive teams.

 

[Dusty00]

I'd also like to see KJ in a situation where she's maxed out, has ICU, and is paired up with Surgeon General. Then there could be a real challenge of who do you kill first?.

That’s my boss node. KJ still at 58 but close enough I guess. Come fight me and you’ll find out.

 

[Kurokazeee]

Did Last Hope have precision stacks? She could get them from the Ms Fortune gold prize fight modifier.

Does anyone know what happens if KJ was killed with precision first, then revived by another valentine, and then killed later. Does her SA still proc then? or does the precision kill on KJ consume the "once per match" count?

Another thing that bugs me is that Last Hope with last words on rift defense. I see the last stand proc but also her SA revive at the same time... should the last words prevent her from dying first, and then have the SA proc separately another time? If not then last words doesnt really help for Last Hope, since last stand expires as you whittle down her 50% revive hp. It is a huge difference in actual stalling...

 

[stale cheeto]

Every time you see kill joy you need to be careful, try to get someone who can inflict Hex or just tag someone out so KJ can be in... then you beat the crap out of her and you profit