Heroes of the Month

First things first:  how does Cordelia's cursing compare to the recent HotM Dvalin's freezing smacks?

* Both hit three with a damage-over-time rider. Their hits are actually pretty similar in size... but Dvalin's is at Average while Cordelia's is at Slow!  What gives?

* Dvalin's Corrosive Frost is more likely to be resisted than Cordelia's Curse... but if Dvalin lands his DoT, it comes with an attack ailment for the foes. Curse doesn't carry any extra rider effects.  Sheesh.. but we're not done.

* Dvalin also throws a nice attack buff for himself and nearby... but Cordelia's not done with her damage yet, with a weird contingent effect:  if her primary target drops in the next 4 turns, then all foes receive flat damage (around 1000 up to around 1500, depending on her stats).

There we go.  If you're thinking of running Cordelia, that last bit is your huckleberry.  But.. it's weird.  Cordelia doesn't start by hitting all, she hits three, but then follows up to all.  If she actually drops her primary target, then the flat damage won't even have a chance to go off -- so you'll actually want to target someone who doesn't die from her initial hit!  But if her Curse damage, or a teammate, finishes the job, then you get more damage output.  (And it is worth noting that flat damage doesn't care, unlike regular hits, about relative attack/defense ratings, it just does damage, modulo any damage reduction effects.)

Here's the deal though - you need to land Cordelia's effects without them being ailment-blocked or cleansed away before they do their thing.  Some of Cordelia's best friends are going to be dispellers (to tear down ailment blocks), buff blockers (to prevent ailment blocks), "ailments become uncleansable" inflicters (to prevent cleansing,natch), and even... snipers (to knock out troublesome counters or just hit that one particularly Cursed primary target to trigger her contingent damage).

Can you build a necro dream team around Cordelia?

Let's consider a second take, a premium but older Slow hero: Tamlin (of the Woodland Faun family, released Sep 2024).

* Despite his age, Tamlin's "better than your heroes" status means that his stats are awfully near to Cordelia's, and his initial hit doesn't mess around -- he just hits all, and harder than Cordelia does.

* Tamlin doesn't have followup DoT, but he does lay down a nasty "you are in a bad way against the next Special that goes off" ailment.  For the next six times you get smacked by Specials. (Which... will probably be less than six times, since any hero marked with that is probably not going to survive six enemy Specials at -64% defense.)

* but if you DO outlast Tamlin's insidious ailment - or manage to cleanse it - then instead six turns of Silence.  Um, goodbye.

If you have fast or auto safe cleanse, you still have to deal with Tamlin's initial hit.  If you don't -- and you're not packing immunity, natively or applied before Tamlin fires, you better aim to make sure Tamlin just doesn't fire.

Yes, of course Tamlin is from a hilariously strong family, but that a year and a half later he's still packing so much more devastating a Slow purple smack than Cordelia.. oof.  Contrary to what some players may think, Slow heroes can be useful -- even outside of Rush -- but ideally they should turn the tide. Tamlin can.  Cordelia.. arguably significantly less so.

2026 March: Gilda

A Fast multihitter with some utility?  Worth a look.  How does this dwarf stack up for everyday use?

Gilda does a chain hit, so let’s compare her straight up against a recent Insanity release from this January:  Wilcox

…and a recent HotM, to see how she might work out for you!

So how's Gilda's use case overall?

That depends on two things:

1) How much do you value blind (and, to a lesser extent, being able to sneak damage past minion/megaminion meatwalls) to multiple targets?

and

2) How well can you work with the chain-hitting mechanic?

The irony here is that the more of an underdog you feel like when facing bigger heroes, possibly the more interesting Gilda becomes -- if you're unlikely to be able to knock out the enemy tank early in a fight, there's a good chance Gilda could successfully target, smack, and blind the entire enemy team, giving you the chance to better survive the enemy response.

Again, you'll want to watch to see if you're facing "never miss" heroes of course, and Gilda might help more against summoners if you don't already have strong countermeasures for such. 

Verdict? 

A lot of it comes down to if you think you can make the chain-targeting mechanic work for you -- it can take some care to use, more than "just targets all," and especially against classic PvP V formation --  and depends on what kind of foes you're facing.  In PvE, against elite waves and boss waves she should hold her own, and in PvP, if you find yourself fighting uphill against powerful foes who can't shrug off a blind, this holy dwarf might make some of them see the light!

2026 February: Dvalin

A relatively fresh breath of air, this month:  reasonable damage plus utility?

Actually reminiscent of a previous HotM (Mene, November 2024)

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.