How meter dependent would you say King is? I'm considering replacing Kensou with her instead.
I don't have much experience with fighting games, but I've found that King doesn't really use up all that much meter. A lot of the time I just use her as a battery.
I think the problem with using King as a battery, is that she doesn't build meter very well. Chances are, you're going to be shooting a lot of venom strikes, which only build meter on hit/block, and even then its very small. If you're getting in and getting small combos, etc, then yeah, she builds meter ok, but I feel like she definitely benefits more from coming in behind somebody who has already built up some meter for her to use.
Like a number of other guys said, if she gets put in the corner early in the match and doesn't have meter to escape, then the only way shes going to be playing battery is gaining the meter she gets from being killed.