Emperor Cat is a great generalist Super Backliner and CC Support unit with 5000 DPS at 551 range and a 30% chance to inflict each of Knockback, Freeze, Slow and Weaken for 4s to all Traited enemies, or 4.8s with the appropriate treasures maxed. In addition to this, he has 54k HP and 4 KBs as well as a 161s Cooldown and 4500 cost.

Emperor Cat has two jobs and he's good at both. His first job is to dish out damage from a safe place deep within your backline. He safely outranges all but a few recurring enemies, mostly Camelle variants who stand just a bit too close at 550. His 5000 general DPS would be considered ok for a conventional ranged attacker standing at 450ish, but is decently above average for his huge standing range. His second job is to help suppress enemies with his wide range of status effects. Each one at 30% is not too reliable, but the chance of at least one of his four status effects activating is a much nicer 76%. This is intended primarily as supporting control, passively interfering with the enemies as they try to advance to buy time for your other cats to do their own jobs more effectively. The high duration of Emperor Cat's effects means he actually works well with many other CC units, even if they overwrite each others' procs. This usage synergizes well with his unusually high range, as he can usually CC the enemy frontline before they have pushed up to his massive 550 range to be able to disrupt him. Even when he is under attack, good HP and KB count keep him alive in most cases.

One thing that "76% chance of an effect" does not reveal is that some effects are better than others, and which one you want can depend on the situation. Often, Knockback is undesirable and Weaken is not significant enough. You rely on a certain amount of randomness, hoping that Emperor delivers the type of control you need when you need it. His somewhat long attack cycle at around 9s can leave you unsupported for an unpleasantly long time with bad luck, and his high foreswing means that if you do find yourself under pressure to the extent that your super-backline is in danger, he can be interrupted or juggled with no chance to recover. Additionally, the low ~50% uptime of his procs means that they are not enough to hard counter anything alone, really limiting him to a supporting role. His DPS is good for his range, but if you can outrange an enemy with a regular Backliner or Midranger instead, you likely own one that will score the kill faster than Emperor Cat, making him your first choice only against very specific backline enemy types (not that you can't just use him in addition to your regular units to great effect). Wave/surge and Omni/LD enemies who can bypass his range advantage are his biggest threat, and can be threatening to use him against those as his CD is around average.

Range is arguably the most role-defining stat for a unit, determining what enemies they can and cannot safely attack, and so it is a wonderful area to excel in; below average stats in other areas can be made up for with high range as it is so impactful. Emperor Cat does not suffer from below average stats in other areas, and so his general performance as a high-range damager is uncommonly good. His range also makes him superb as a supporting CC, making up for his lower than typical uptime and proc chance with greater safety and consistency, as well as coverage of all Traits. Some reliance on good luck to see him perform at full potential is certainly a drawback, but you can often afford it as you have plenty of time to wear down standard enemies before they can even dream of pushing 551 range through your defenses. He can be thought of as a Luga or a Li'l Nyandam type ranged CC unit, but without the abysmal stats to hold him back. The decline in relevance of non-LD Backliners in late game hurts him as much as his peers, but with his unique properties and wide range of compatible enemies you will never fully run out of situations in which he can at least offer some good support, or outrange a pesky Professor A.

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