Heroes of the Month

So the stats have had 15 months to come along, the % damage is better atop that.  Dvalin doesn't buffblock like Mene, but throws attack down for three foes and significant attack up for nearby allies.  Both of them recharge from enemies taking Frost damage so... they might work decently together (or with other Frost-throwing heroes), even if one Frost type overwrites the other.  Mene was pretty decent for her time, which bodes well for Dvalin today.

How does Dvalin stack up against a more premium hero, albeit from nine months ago?  Well... the raw stats aren't too bad compared to Song Jiang, the initial hit not quite as big (but is closer to parity if the damage-over-time takes).  Dvalin's debuffs and buffs aren't as potentially devastating as Song Jiang's silence, who also throws heal and defense down, but that the comparison isn't completely lopsided means that Dvalin is actually a reasonable budget option.

Another point of comparison:  how does Dvalin compare to, say, Richard with various costumes?

Base ATK/DEF/HP stats at 4/80 no emblems
Dvalin 1221/1186/2084
Toon Richard 955/854/2070 (assuming “only” 3 costumes)
Glass Richard 1222/1084/2288 (assuming “only” 4 costumes)
Stylish Richard 1374/1211/2495 (with full bonus from all 5 costumes)

Damage
Dvalin 370% to three, plus Corrosive Frost DoT/debuff
Toon Richard 515% to one, minor to nearby, hates fire, atk debuff to three
Glass Richard 575% to one, minor to nearby, ignores defense buffs, atk debuff to three
Stylish Richard 585% to one, minor to nearby, hates wounded foes, atk debuff to three

Other
Dvalin Attack boost to nearby, element link, recharges mana from Frost damage
Toon Richard Superior Talent, Toon immunities
Glass Richard Superior Talent, Glass reflect
Stylish Richard Superior Talent, Stylish reversals (including “I don’t autolose to the free-ever-growing-fiends-forever Veggiepocalpyse”)

Overall, I’d argue that Dvalin is mostly a heavier attacker than Toon-only Richard, at least moderately comparable to Glass-only Richard, and admittedly smaller than Stylish Richard.  Still not shabby, given that Dvalin is ready to go after being leveled up once, not four, five, or even six times!

So how's Dvalin's use case overall?

Attack debuffing is a less immediately, obviously devastating effect to throw than some, but for folks who are punching up (which is many people who would actually level and use a Hero of the Month), it can be lifesaving, especially against premium heroes with big walloping hits, especially when combo'd with a big attack boost on Dvalin's adjoining heroes.  Suddenly, your opponents' bigger guns aren't quite so big, and your own biggest guns have a chance to punch up.

And Dvalin's damage is... decent.  Sure, he's not going to match the latest hitters on his own, but boosted by his own attack buff (plus the boosted hits of whoever's next to him), and you got yourself a scrappy dwarven underdog.

you'll want to keep your eyes open for foes that are immune or heal from Frost, of course, like some UT2 heroes

Verdict?

Like most HotM, he might not impress you if you have The Latest and Greatest, but if you don't have big summoning luck and/or budget, and you'd like a decent hit-3 hero who throws attack buffs and debuff to tip the odds a little back in your direction, it might just be hammertime.

Good hunting!

2026 January: Andre de Clermont

First, let's get the obvious out the way:

To be completely fair, of course, not every player automatically has or can easily get glass!Khagan, and for folks who do have him, well, you do have to level him five times (sure, four costumes, but still) to get him up to his full costume-bonus power, whereas Andre only takes leveling once. 

Having said that, if you're going to use a Slow-speed hit-three hero... come on; Khagan hits harder by both % and by stats, bypasses defense buffs in Glass form, buffs nearby allies, and arguably has better passive to boot.  (And of course there's the option to use the Toon form with its passive instead, as desired.)

The comparison to Eliane -- who is herself a HotM nearly a year older -- is perhaps even more troubling.  Sure, her stats don't quite keep pace with Andre's, but she's faster, hits all instead of hitting three, and while her hit by % is less than Andre's (in addition to the stat difference), she also applies damage over time AND recharges her own mana from the fire damage (or any other fire damage applied to enemies) AND dispels all.

So... is there a use case for Andre?

• stats: if Andre just has bigger numbers than anything else on your roster, and you're not exactly picking up hordes of more recent red 5* heroes, size does matter at some point

• tank: if you're gonna roll a Slow hero on defense outside of Rush, most of the time you want that hero to be tanking.  If your foe is going to color-stack against you, having a defense buff against incoming blue (strong damage) could help.  Andre's Cover ability might help buy you a little extra time for another of your defenders (who might matter more, because of a more devastating Special or the ability to heal/revive) from getting sniped by damage.  It helps a bit that Andre can't be tagged by defense-down ailments.

Having said that, note that Cover is assigned randomly (and thus may not be as helpful as you think) and that Andre is putting himself in the line of fire to use Cover (which means he will get burned down faster.. and his HotM stats generally may not stand up well to premium heroes' damage when he's taking MORE damage by using Cover).

And defense against blue might theoretically help Andre as a tank defender, but is likely to matter less on offense (since defenses tend to be less color-stacked anyway, and you are less than likely to bring him against a blue-heavy or blue-tank team, since red is weak on attack vs blue).

"Boost Health on Enemy Special" is nice in principle, but even if it fired 100% of the time an enemy Special went off, boosting health by 100 is something you might scarcely notice during an entire fight.  (And for some unfathomable reason, it only works 50% of the time -- and if your foes are firing a bunch of Specials all at once, you're likely already toast anyway.)

I'm generally a pretty firm believer that many heroes - and even most HotM - do have a use case for at least some players, even if they attract scorn from those players who have the luck and/or budget to attract premium-portal alternatives.

But I find it pretty hard to defend Andre in his current state.  Doubly so because this month, the new Fated Summon offers Daemon as a choice -- who is almost certainly a better (though lower stats, but Very Fast with superb utility) 5* red project to work on for free-to-play, cheap-to-play, and/or newer players than Andre.

If you're lacking in red 5* at all, or anything like Andre's stats, he may have some place in your roster - but when a Fated Summon offering is perhaps a viable alternative, you might want to at least wait to see if Andre gets a buff before investing the effort and resources to level him.