TLDR.: Ame-no-Uzume sucks, almost 0 pickrate + abysmal winrate in higher ranks. No immediate value, underwhelming MU, bad/situational techs. Minakatatomi is still OP.
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The 3 japanese classic age minor gods are very unbalanced atm; Ame-no-Uzume is by far the least picked and the worst while both Inari Ōkami and especially Minakatatomi are (imo) too strong. This is very evident in higher ranks.
I have tried playing Amaterasu with Ame-no-Uzume for quite some time now, and even though it should (in theory) be a good fit for Ama (solar shield + kamaitachi, inf. focus), its just so much worse compared to simply picking Minakatatomi, which is both the safer and far stronger option atm.
Same goes for Inari Ōkami vs Ame-no-Uzume on Tsukuyomi, but with this classic age god choice it at least makes sense to see better results for Inari Ōkami on Tsuko because of the innate synergy between the two. Still, Ame-no-Uzume on Tsuko is even worse than its on Ama, being borderline 0% pickrate coupled with probably the worst classic age minor god winrate in the entire game.
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So whats the problem with Ame-no-Uzume?
Imo, there are multiple issues:
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As I mentioned above, the other japanese classic age minor gods are simply too good compared to Ame-no-Uzume
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Goshinboku tree is a backloaded GP on a civ with weak early game (= you dont get immediate value from it)…which should ideally be compensated a bit by the minor god’s unique MU and techs. However…
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Kamaitachi are very underwhelming; they appear as “glass-cannon” MUs but in reality they just die very fast without having much impact. Being a 4.8ms MU with only 30% (!!!) ranged armor doesnt help their (sub-) role as raiding MU either. I understand that there is a very real chance that these units can become an obnixious early game threat again if their stats are changed in the wrong places (namely speed and/or AoE) so my suggestion would be to lower their AoE even further but in turn increase their battle stats so they function as a real frontline MU similar to minotaurs.
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The techs…they are simply very, very bad compared to what Inari Ōkami and Minakatatomi offer.
A 10% favor boost which adds a negligible shrine LOS boost ? (This is also one of the weakest favor techs in the game).
40% bonus dmg on a unit that usually dies if you sneeze at it… for a whopping 20 favor ?
10% inf. hp and bonus bushido XP that you only get after losing a fight (which also has anti-synergy with Amaterasu’s signature unit, the samurai)…on a minor god that already got almost 0 immediate boosts ?
And last but not least…oh wait for some reason they thought the god with the worst techs should also get one less…
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Lets just compare that with Minakatatomi…
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Who gets an incredibly overpowered GP with Shrine of the Hunt. As mentioned, japan as a civ has a weak earlygame and this GP basically bypasses this weak state completely. The second you age up with Mina, your hunt/gold, 2nd tc, etc. are basically secured. Additionally you instantly get 800 food thats safe inside your base aswell as 240 more for every minute that passes.
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Couple this with Saltwater Spring and you will outboom almost every other civ while you are both on 1tc. I have tested this numerous times with Amaterasu - even on a map with a very close, accessible 2nd hunt like marsh, this + Shrine of the Hunt will make sure that you are basically up by ~1000res @8mins compared to Amaterasu + Ame-no-Uzume. This is a massive difference.
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2 very strong archer techs that scale very well into mid/lategame.
Imagine a civ that had access to Arcus in classic age…Yumi archers with Hunter’s Strength are basically that. Additionally, these techs also work on Yumi Horse Archers, arguably japan’s best midgame unit. And you get Oyumi for 15% less resources on top, nothing to sneeze at. -
Wanyūdō are by far the best classic age MU for japan, being very spammable (wood cost) and giving access to a very rare, classic age siege option. This makes Minakatatomi also very flexible on top of the abundance of strengths he already has - the sole existance of this MU forces a reaction from your opponent and disallows certain strats like 2tc. And with the unique upgrade, these guys melt archer balls like its nothing.
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I could go over Inari Ōkami aswell but I think you get my point (and I think Minakatatomi is far more problematic). Its frustrating seeing Ame-no-Uzume being completely overshadowed by her competition, to the point where she is even heavily outclassed on Amaterasu.
