Overview

Shaolant is an interesting support in that most of its supportive qualities come from the Welcomer trait, an incredible up-front increase to an ally's defenses by providing them with evasion. Shaolant compliments this by being a fearsome offensive attacker of its own, and a great user of Sensei Robe to amp up its damage. Shaolant does lack strong priority, however, and has no particularly powerful coverage options to compliment Soul Shout and Inner Spirit.

(1.3 DUKE'S NOTES - KIVKENSKI OR TETOA NOW IF YOU'RE READING THIS I ACTUALLY HAVE NO CLUE HOW YOU WIN WITH THIS THING STILL, ESPECIALLY AFTER THE SENSEI ROBE NERF, SEND HELP)

Shaolant is the epitome of "great on leads, not so great from the back." Welcomer is a very powerful trait to start a game with, protecting a crucial piece of your gameplan while Shaolant itself demands attention due to a high-powered set of melee techniques.

Soul Shout and Inner Spirit take full advantage of Sensei Robe, crushing opponents with huge damage. There's not too much to say about them, except that it's often worthwhile to add a little more stamina to this set if Mom's Lunch or Marbles are stopping you from getting off Shout-Shout-Spirit as a rotation. Hook can be a great finishing move with priority, as can Dim Mak. 5PPEH is an interesting option on defensive teams, as well, punishing opposing defensive lineups that opt to ignore Shaolant.

0b10 is a particularly notable partner for Shaolant. Fake Beard and Welcomer can have their positive statuses passed from 0b10 to Shaolant, giving their player Sparks + Soul Shout with low stamina cost and a high degree of protection. Carries like Seismunch and Yowlar appreciate Welcomer as well.

Shaolant's Welcomer trait gives it excellent support value on leads for most teams, as it instantly protects an important ally with evasion. Shaolant's movepool allows it to play an offensive support role, where its value in a match beyond the initial Welcomer will be its damage output.

Soul Shout allows Shaolant to consistently deal strong damage, although its high stamina cost means its moves are not at all spammable. This sometimes makes Shaolant equally as much of a threat as the ally it's trying to protect with Welcomer. Inner Spirit gives an even larger damage nuke than Soul Shout, which is great for picking off threats in longer games. Dim Mak allows Shaolant to deal true damage at 3 priority, chipping down buffed up walls or sniping low HP targets, as well as hitting Mentals and Melees when needed. For the final moveslot, Hook can function as consistent 3 priority damage - it will deal slightly less to most unbuffed opponents compared to Dim Mak, but can also deal 2x or 4x effective damage and is 0 hold. Double Edge can be taken on neutral-heavy bulkier teams to support its allies more, however max Spatk investment means it will hurt a fair amount without synergy

The gear we take is Sensei Robe to give all of our attacks even more of a punch

Whilst almost any Tem can make use of the free evasion from Welcomer, it is especially powerful when paired with Madness Buff and Heat Up users who are allowed to set up for free behind its protection. In general, many frail tems also appreciate the protection. Seismunch benefits especially well from the free Heat Up setup as well as Shaolant being a synergy partner for Wreck. Tyranak's Intimidator trait is the only way to prevent Shaolant's Welcomer going off - and if Welcomer fails infront of a Tyranak is still consumes the trait's one use per match. For this reason, Shaolant usually shouldn't be picked directly into a Tyranak unless you already know the Tyranak's trait is Frightening.

This simple TV spread puts Shaolant at max speed so that Shaolant can outspeed as much as possible with both its 2 and 3 priority attacks, and the max Spatk is for maximum damage output. The leftover points are in HP.