On my team at least (Kensou/Maxima), both my other characters are better with bar than King is. By process of elimination she is point. Besides that, she can actually hold her own there. People can't use bar to escape Venom Strike pressure, so spamming it is harder to fight against. Damage isn't really an issue if she's on point either, seeing as most good point characters have subpar damage too. Their strategy doesn't revolve around damage or meter usage. She does her job well...which is to slowly chip away at your opponents life bar, poke efficiently, control space with well-placed ground/air venom strikes, and use DRIVE meter to do combos. At most you should use one bar to combo and half a DC for punishes, maybe two if it will kill. IMO she's right at home on point.
Though they are better than King with meter, Kensou is by far a better battery character. He has a much safer zoning game. Keep in mind that projectile zoning in general isn't as strong in KOF as it is in other fighting games, thanks to overall system mechanics. Because of this, King has a hard time zoning against wary opponents and she is very vulnerable unless actively baiting particular situations in her favor. Coupled with the fact that her normals are relatively slow startup and low priority, she has a hard time mounting an offense at times without exploiting meter. Against strong, viable point characters like K' or Kyo, who have heavy rushdown games, without a proper reversal, King can get easily locked down for the duration of the match if she doesn't have meter to get out safely.
I think people are falling into this pitfall believing that teams require a battery character on point that doesn't necessarily use meter. A point character can be self-sustaining. However, if it works for you, then it works for you. Just stay mindful of the inherent risks involved with playing King with little to no meter. It's pretty scary when you're backed into a corner as King and you have no answer to pressure.
i agree with most of what you posted. However for my team, using Kensou as a battery serves no real purpose. Why would I try to give King meter on second, when Kensou is so much better when he has it himself? Granted, Kensou is better than King in both positions...but hear me out. King's metered combos are usually spacing specific, with corner positioning being a prerequisite for the better ones. Kensou has more ways to land a hit, and more damage per combo if he does - regardless of where he is. In fact most of his combos carry to the corner, which can lead to even more potential hits.
Her normals being "slow" on start-up is an exaggeration. st.C is pretty damn fast, and active for quite a while. Most AAs have to be pre-emptive anyways (aside from anti-hop st.As), so that's nothing new. If anything she has an easier time than most AAing with st.C / st. D/ hop j.B / hop j.CD because of her amazing ground/air fireballs. Once you condition your opponent to look for a specific fireball, you can steal bits of their life by cutting off their movement routes with your AAs. I think you're underestimating how good her neutral game is.
Mounting an offense using meter isn't what King is about. She's not equipped to bumrush in ala K' / Kyo / Kula and fish for hit confirms into big damage for little to no bar. Her offense is, by nature, not as good as most characters (with or without meter)...so imo this point is negligible.
Regarding her defense. I got nothin' LOL. I agree, she's can't do shit about people rushing her down unless she has meter.
I'm completely aware that some characters can be self-sustaining on point. But MY strategy is to save the bar for Kensou who will translate any st.BC target combo confirm into half life. But again I agree with you on this, you don't HAVE to save meter with your point character.
