Soul Exchange

... following previous posts and in response to previous requests, I will also look to the 15-soul choices, offering a few thoughts about each of them: why folks on at least a bit of a budget and trying to decide “take a moderate option” or “pass” might lean toward the former... or the latter. 

15 souls

🔵 Pophit 

take: defense-down (with a penalty for cleansing) and damage to three, plus Softskin to three -- and note that Softskin is not only (temporary) protection against ailments, but also against Insanity and mana cuts, while it lasts

pass: one of the smallest choices in this SE, you'd want to look at this critter as support rather than a hitter in itself

Note: A terror in its own time, stat decay (and flat cleanse-penalty size) has taken its toll, but defense down and Softskin remain evergreen.  Is the chassis big enough for your purposes?

🟢 Peregrine

take: a bit dated but still respectable damage, but the super-Dodge is the headline here: instead of lasting a number of turns, it lasts for five successful dodges. (Sure, you could dispel the dodge but oh wait the dispel might get dodged.) And if and when the dodge is gone, big ol' attack buff.  --Then, there's the passives/family bonus (notably free blinding of minions and megaminions, Insanity-proof, and super-mana-cut-proof); yowza.

pass: There are a fair number of heroes with "never miss" Specials that will ignore dodge; Peregrine's dodge is for nearby heroes, not for all allies.  You might be sorry if thieving minions eventually yoink your super-Dodge (despite their blinding) and you start whiffing yourself.

Note: If you want a Dodge specialist, Peregrine is your boy.  Someone with a well-equipped roster will have counters, and Peregrine can't save/protect your whole team -- but Peregrine is good at what he does and has a tasty raft of side-card abilities always active.

🔴 Iocantha

take: Very Fast sniper/hit-three (bypasses defenses to hit the target, and two random foes -- which can be a nasty finishing move on a single target), and each hit reduces buff durations (notable against otherwise undispellable buffs).  Also, even though Iocantha only starts with a starter-mega-minion and doesn't summon one unlike many Garrison heroes, she still has the Garrison anti-Wither passive.

pass: Iocantha doesn't win your fights, but she is a contributing tactical striker... except that two of her hits are random, not chosen.  SE generally is better at supplying support than hitting power, but compare her hitting power to your current roster.

Note: First, ask if you have any (or "enough") Garrison heroes to take care of incoming Wither effects; if you don't, Iocantha is already worth a look "just" for that.  If you're frustrated at counterattack or damage-reducing wards, Iocantha can help slice through that (while taking a bite out of the duration).

🟣 Swiftpaw 

take: respectable sniper that locks down a vulnerable target with silence.  Also: keeps popping dodgy sneak-thief Fox minions (instead of "only" starting with start-of-fight Fox minions).  But OMGWTFBBQ Fox Passive: nerfing enemy heals as a constant effect as long as the Fox lives?  If you don't already have this ability in your roster, it may arguably be worth taking a Fox (either Swiftpaw, or Silverpaw below) even if you never fire the Special, especially when facing heavy-healing foes.

pass: don't underestimate snipers - but if you feel you have plenty of snipers already, or you want the Fox passive but Silverpaw (below) is more tempting....

Note: saying "no" to a really nasty enemy is always a nice option - but check to see if the foes you really want to shut up are vulnerable to silencing.  Swiftpaw summoning more minions can wreak havoc with enemy buffs (see, e.g., Peregrine above).  But... do compare Swiftpaw to Silverpaw.

🟡 Silverpaw 

take: DIFFERENCE MAKER. First, Silverpaw has the Fox passive (see Swiftpaw, above). Silverpaw can steal particularly obnoxious minions and megaminions (especially when they are extra chunky meat shields and/or have nasty effects) and the Curse DoT is non-negligible and seldom specifically resisted, but the headline here is lasting Greed.

Silverpaw will Gordon Gekko the living daylights out of your foes -- Greed restricts any "friendly effects" from anyone but the target: buffs (including dodge, taunt, wards, etc), healing, minions/mega-minions, or even revive. Atop everything else, this makes it harder for foes to deal with the Curse DoT, if they can't heal or revive.  If your foes can't cleanse -- because their team doesn't have it, or because you lock down or knock out their cleansing - they can be stuck, and even if they can cleanse, they can only cleanse the Greed-victim first, until Greed is gone.

added very specific note: if you have Meg Giry?  oh, ho, ho-ho-ho.  now lasting Greed is uncleansable. oh, my.  Note: this isn't completely bulletproof, thanks to Dance effects or the new/current Fortune Dancer family that can explicitly cleanse the uncleansable, but it does make the lasting Greed a lot stickier

pass: Silverpaw is largely not a regular gameplay hero: he does not do direct damage, and he has to land status ailments to do his thing (so you have to watch out for ailment-block or immunities like Toon or Monk class).  Silverpaw is very much an offense hero and less of a defense hero; compare Swiftpaw (above) if you are primarily interested in the Fox passive (which you should strongly consider if you don't already have it).

Note: Silverpaw can single-handedly turn a fight in a way few other heroes can match, but you have to be able to play his game.  That said, "just" the Fox passive almost makes him worth having even if his Special itself is useless in a given situation -- stealing minions/megaminions is also good -- his DoT is harder to handle if he lands Greed, and (Lasting!) Greed can cripple certain sorts of teams.  That said, Silverpaw's effectiveness varies by whom you face, and if you're looking for a defense hero... well Silverpaw is a little more tactical than that.

On the 20 tier:  I usually focus on the cheaper choices because the general SE discussion tends to address the full-price heroes more often – and also the kind of folks who might have trouble affording a 20-tier hero (or justifying emptying the kitchen sink to get one) are the ones perhaps most interested in squeezing every bit of value out of the SE they can do. 

But what if you’re asking yourself, “is this the time to go all in?”  Well, if you’ve been playing the game for long at all, a lot of these names may well be familiar to you, but read on…

20 souls

🟡 Wealhtheow

take: Not your regular kind of healer: Wealhtheow is Fast (and a little faster every time she receives a buff!), but instead of a straight % heal, she heals everyone to half hp and then does a significant boost-heal-over-time.  She also does random buffing-over-time, but check out those numbers (+100% Special skill damage and +33% mana generation, whew).  She also has a sneaky family bonus cleanse (activates for free whenever she receives Special damage vs one random ailment, for all allies)

pass: this Queen does a lot, but does she do what her team needs when needed?  This is power at a price - Wealtheow does a lot of really nice things, but it's up to you if the conditional and/or random nature of her abilities is too high a price, or suits your style. SPECIAL NOTE: Beowulf heroes have a particular specific vulnerability - the Family bonus cleanse is automatic and not safe cleansing; this particularly matters when faced with Moth heroes, who poop out Moth dust all the time "passively" which puts heroes to sleep when cleansed non-safely.  Upshot - when facing Moths, every time a Beowulf gets hit by a Special, it can wind up putting several of its own teammates to sleep!

Note: How's your healing roster?  If you have some decent healers, but need more "oomph" and your existing healers are a bit same-y, then this lady just might be your Queen.  If you prefer your healers to be a little more predictable (e.g. when playing offense), see Maegwyn instead below.  Wealtheow's more random/conditional nature suggests she might be more defense than offense, but then you'll want to consider whether your opponents are the sort who are likely to have Moths on roster to draw upon; if so, you'll want to pair her with some safe cleansing and/or ailment blocking to reduce the potential for healing friendly fire!

🟢 Maegwyn

take: sturdy healer, with a very respectable heal plus follow-on boost heal plus damage reduction, all at Average speed.  That dwarven brew is some pretty strong stuff!  (And good luck stopping her from healing herself; see that stack of passives and family bonus.)

pass: Maegwyn doesn't cleanse, doesn't dispel, and doesn't throw any damage.  She "just" straightforwardly heals and throws damage reduction.  She's not fancy, she's just really good at her job - do you want something fancier or don't need a pure healer/buffer?

Note: Again -- how's your healing roster?  An obvious comparison this Soul Exchange is vs Wealtheow (see above): for straight up healing and protection, Maegwyn is simple and strong - so your question is do you have (A) even newer healers (B) plenty of healers generally that are at least "close enough" to Maegwyn's size (C) a need for a healer who cleanses, throws some damage while healing, or something else?  If you aren't at "Yes" on all three counts, consider Maegwyn's brew pretty carefully!

🟣 Gooldron 

take: smacks three pretty decently and leaves them with fiends who steal your foes' buffs and/or Growth.  That last bit could be especially something given the current dominance of Mahayoddhi cheesemongers with their "lol I Growth myself for free constantly" bit.  Also?  Gooldron is a Slime, which means he's annoying to take down since he poops out megaminions for free (for himself every time he gets smacked too hard, or for adjacent when he finally dies)

NOTE: fiend hp caps at 1000hp until and unless you 2LB the hero, so one more reason to fully limit break Gooldron (not that you wouldn't if you want his full attack power anyway)

pass: there’s not a *lot* of downside, outside of if you (A) already have newer, bigger hitters (stat decay is always some issue for Soul Exchange) and/or (B) you're weighing Gooldron vs cDomiventus vs Hrothgar (see below; e.g. Dom is just bigger, if more generic).

Note: There's no single answer to the Mahayoddhi dynasty currently in place (other than "wait them out for something worse that will come up"), but pulling the teeth of their auto-Growth is a potentially tempting option.  Gooldron isn't quite as big as cDomiventus, but his fiends make it harder to heal away his hit, and his slime megaminions means he's more survivable than his base stats might make you believe at first glance.

🔴 cDomiventus


take: smacks three and then some, and with his costume, his stats are nothing to sneer at unless you have Everything Ever already (in which case, Soul Exchange is maybe a bit lackluster/very niche).  Dom is the stats king of this Soul Exchange, and while Gooldron's hit can about match Dom's first hit, Dom's second and successive hits (though possibly slightly slower due to Changing Tides, but also see Dom's passive) are just bigger:  doubleplus true if he takes advantage of his own defense-down via Corrosive Burn (which also adds some fiery DoT).  Also? Insanity-proof.  Hmmmm....

pass: You'll want to watch out for fire resistance, especially UT2 heroes who heal from fire.  Dom may be a bit bigger than Goldroon, but Goldroon has a bit more utility, while Dom brings more boom (especially if he and/or other hitter teammates can capitalize on the defenses of your foes burning away).

Note: "I want damage from SE" can be a bit lacking in general, depending on your current roster, but Dom is nothing to dismiss even currently, and defense down is always nice.  Dom's advantage -- and disadvantage -- in the current SE is that he's one of your more straightforward choices; he'll work well in a lot of teams, especially against foes who can't just ignore (or heal from) his Corrosive Burn.

🔵 Hrothgar

take: smacks all pretty respectably at Average speed (and never misses!) AND cuts their mana AND curses their mana gen AND hands out free chonky buffs over time to allies.  He free-heals some whenever an ailment is cleansed - including that he can autocleanse for free (and hit harder!) whenever someone messes with him.  It's good to be the King!

pass: vulnerable to Moths (see Wealhtheow's SPECIAL NOTE, above), and you have to pay attention to whom you're fighting to know if they CAN be mana cut (some heroes are resistant/immune)

Note: May be seen as a premium version of cMeresankh (10 souls, above). Note that because of the very specific Moth thing, like Wealhtheow you may want to give him a safe-cleansing and/or ailment-blocking buddy if put on defense.  In terms of hitting power, he hits all -- unlike Gooldron and Dom -- but doesn't have the Slime's megaminions to hide behind or Dom's bigger overall stats.  If you can manage a long fight, though, Hrothgar has some advantages: more time to keep handing out his buffs-over-time, and big vengeful attack-buff stacks that increase every time he takes direct damage from a Special.  (And since Hrothgar mana cuts, he can potentially help make fights longer, and more to his - and your - liking.)

Summary:

No one choice is the right one for everyone, but a few general points:

-- there are... a number... of Insanity-proof choices and at every level (cThalassa, Peregrine, cDomiventus; also Pophit hands out temporary immunity with Softskin) this time around.  If this is something you are lacking, it's worth considering.  Between this and Fast healing choices (Odile, Wealhtheow), is SG trying to tell us something?  Hmm....

-- speaking of "stuff you maybe don't have", don't sleep on the Fox passive (constant heal nerf!) or Silverpaw's OMGWTFBBQ lasting Greed (and suite of other goodies)

-- mana-cut comes in a pretty good budget version and premium version, depending on the souls you have to spare

-- your choice of super-Dodge, Wither-busting, reflect red, and buff stealing (the latter through Swiftpaw's minions or Gooldron's fiends)

-- a possible partial Mahayoddhi counter (Growth-stealing via Gooldron)

-- decent healing choices; two different kinds of ailment-blocking at the budget 10-soul level, and two pretty big (and quite different) healers at the 20-soul level

-- decent "boom plus" choices at the 20-soul level (Hrothgar's mana cut and buff, Gooldron's sticky-fingered fiends, Dom's burning defense down)

-- parting thought: if you're thinking of combining this Soul Exchange pick with Hero Coach, the following heroes should be eligible by March 2026:  all the costumed picks in this SE; Pophit, Odile (the latter is pretty close, but likely in under the wire).  NOTE:  Hero Coach only levels the base hero, not the costume, but it still helps!

And remember, these aren't supposed to trade blows toe-to-toe with the Latest Monster Heroes, they're to give you a general leg up on play (including PvE) and the chance to punch up against those monsters in PvP by stealing their mojo! 

Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown VI (Nov 2025 edition) 

10 souls

🟡 Ogima 

take: minion busting that throws mana-gen-curse stacks as punishment, bard mana bonus

pass: Ogima is the oldest, smallest of the current SE choices, and by a fair bit and cGormek exists (the latter actually has similar stats — as a 4* — if you have most/all his costumes) if you generically want “minion-busting plus”: note that cGormek in his abacus form is a S1 wizard with all the free tile dispelling that entails

Note: minion busting is good to have generally, but it tends to matter most when facing lots of minions AND they aren't on costumed W3K heroes, which tends to matter most during Bloody or Minion wars/tourneys.  Given that Gormek's abacus costume is about the same size as Ogima, how much do you want to invest in a 5* that has the stunt of throwing mana generation curses if you bag a lot of minions together in very specific situations?

🟣 Phantom of the Opera 

take: because he is there inside your mind 🤪 Not least of all if you are lacking an offense-dance hero, and would like one to counter defense-dance heroes or enemy buffs. (Note that offense dances wipe all existing buffs AND ailments — unless ailment block is up first — and effectively acts during its duration as both buff-blocking and ailment-blocking, other than to other dances.)

pass: he’s one of the older choices even by SE standards, countering dance isn’t as common a thing now as it used to be, and you need to watch out for bards like Astrid who lower dance durations to 1 turn

Note: Phantom is showing his age a bit, but he can still provide a interesting counter option, e.g. when playing wars.  Be careful not to bring along a bunch of other ailments of your own, though!

🟢 Nogu

take: you want anti-boosting tech, between Nogu’s passives that benefit him whenever enemies try to boost-heal, but notably, Nogu turning boost healing instead into max health reduction -- jujutsu can be an effective and satisfying strategy against more powerful foes!

pass: Nogu’s damage isn’t the headline, and Nogu’s anti-boosting may not matter so much if you have other anti-boost tech (e.g. S4 costumes or Goblin family, which don't reverse boost healing but can tear it down)

Note: if you're reading this guide for advice and not just entertainment, chances are at least at times, you're punching up (even punching WAY up) in PvP.  Making your opponents defeat themselves can sometimes be your best play (see also: any hero that gives reflect [color])

🔴 Eliane

take: the newest of the SE choices, actually still throws respectable damage (to all) for her tier of hero …and dispel (all)… and can self-mana-charge off burning foes

pass: obviously, as a HotM, if you already have her; but also watch foes who resist fire (or even boost heal from it), or enemy teams that throw lots of ailment-block

Note: I use her actively currently.  Her hit is actually decently functional for me, and having more dispel options is always nice. (Yes, yes, it would be nice if she dispelled first, but she's still a pretty respectable HotM and respectable hero overall.)

🔵 Lysanor 

take: you want a reviver with more modern stats than, say, cMother North; high revive %; as a Monk, she resists a lot of ailments that might otherwise try to disable her; does well in a buff-happy team (gaining health and mana with every buff and positive stack); if she fires before you need revive,  you still get a pretty hefty attack bonus and boost-heal over time

pass: unlike some revivers, doesn’t do any direct immediate heal; is a stat upgrade over many revivers, but still doesn’t match the size of, e.g. Astrid, Mother Lemminkainen, or cNadezhda (and on PvP defense you should expect that a reviver will be a Priority Target for anyone not bringing revive-blocking); revive-blocking Specials *and Bard passives* do exist (potentially making her better on offense than defense,  unless your alliance runs many war defenses all using revive)

Note: This is one that I'm personally considering, though it's tricky - I find I currently don't use revive much on my account, but that's in no small part because of having a biggest reviver of... um... Dabria; my toon Cyprian has better defenses.  D'oh.

15 souls

🟢 Daroga

take: sniper-plus (the DoT is not insignificant, and spreads; potentially further interesting if you can amplify or extend ailment damage; Bleed not as commonly resisted as other DoT types); attack-buff stacks can get significant especially if fires more than once

pass: if you just no like snipers I suppose, or you face a lot of near-constant ailment block, or your PvP fights are over fast enough that Daroga often won’t fire more then once

Note: you might have heard that I actually don't mind snipers; I don't have this one, but he's got enough "plus" on his sniper that I'd notice more than "just" his direct damage.

🔵 Satori 

take: while his damage isn’t as devastating as it used to be, he really doesn’t like cleansers and dispellers (slapping them significantly harder plus doing all sorts of stuff when enemies try to dispel), plus his “chance to say lolnope to all damage” for nearby allies

pass: you don’t want to have to do a tax return to keep track of all he does and when to bring him (two parts of his Special have special conditions and he has three different “passives”)

Note: I don't have this guy, but during the era in which he was predominant about my only answer to facing him was "reflect blue" (and even then, I still had to deal with his damage-block buff left behind on his buddies).  These days he's more vulnerable to straight nuking, of course, but even that is still potentially covered if he gets his "no to damage" buff up.

🔴 Sparklight

take: he’s a hit-3 that also does some DoT-that-heals-you and notably, reflect buffs for 3 foes, plus he has all the Elf stuff (never misses, immune to poison, family-bonus freebie chance to dispel a foe who hits him with a Special, and, elfiest of all, will smugly push his teammates under the bus to take some of his damage)

pass: if you face a lot of ailment-block you can’t stop/deal with/beat to the punch, alternatively if you DON’T face much enemy buffs, or possibly if you face a lot of natively fire-immune (or even fire-healing) foes

Note: given the number of super annoying buffs out there, being able to reflect them to you is A Very Good Thing against certain heroes.  Since you can't count on necessarily getting his reflect up before some smug enemy ailment blocker, pair him with a dispeller in those cases.  (Even "just" Eliane, who is a convenient match...)

🟣 Carta 

take: solid purple healer (heals and then boosts heal from repair core); can’t have its Special blocked (the way foes would like to do to your healer); does at least a bit of a cleanse plus redistribution; mana buff

pass: cleanse isn’t a full cleanse nor a safe cleanse (the latter can matter with some ailments, notably moth dust); as a non-Cleric healer, vulnerable to mana cuts (but note, due to passive, is immune to effects that would stop Special skills)

Note: often, it's generally hard to have "too many healers" overall given events, wars, W3K, tournaments with different color restrictions, etc, and different healers have different extras.  Carta is a respectable purple workhorse, so how much you want him depends on how much overall strength in healing (and in purple) you already have

🟡 Alvar 

take: plays the buffs/debuffs minigame pretty hard, cleansing your own ailments, throwing them to foes while refreshing foe ailment durations AND making them reflect their buffs to you.  Oh yeah, and he hits-all at Average to boot.

pass: if your foes have ailment-block up first, that will stop a fair bit of what Alvar does (you’d want to pair Alvar with a dispeller, ideally a similar-speed yellow); note that Alvar’s cleanse isn’t a safe cleanse (can matter with some ailments, notably moth dust)

Note: this guy is really tactical, especially when it comes to timing, but pair him with a similar-speed yellow dispeller on offense and he can be effective against a lot of problems. Also plays well if you have serious DoT... of your own... or your enemies' (note that Alvar refreshes ailment duration after handing ailments you've suffered back to foes).  DoT is a tricky game to play in PvP to say the least, but watching every turn burn/freeze/bleed/drown/poison your foes inexorably down into oblivion while none of their smug superiority can save them can be pretty satisfying when you can pull it off.

20 souls

🟢 Mena

all your mana are belong to us

take: while Lemonwood blasts a whole bunch of mana in one fell, but random, volley — this annoying plushie takes steady little mana bites.  Also? Softskin (so Mena can’t be easily hoist on its own petard, once it gets going)

pass: random gonna random with those mana hits, though there are more individual hits over time than Lemonwood's burst.  Vulnerable to pre-emptive buffblock (and dispel, especially from a mana-uncuttable foe)

Note: I probably don't need to tell many of you this, but man this thing is annoying. Smug stupid plushie with his too-often-suspiciously-targeted "lol you never fire special" poofballs while everything rolls off his Softskin.  Timely buffblock is a good antidote to this annoying goof, but the key word there is "timely" - which means that's an ingredient you wanna watch for if you take and use Mena.  --Additional note: naturally, you'll want to watch out for foes who just can't be mana cut, but (special thanks to ValiantFrog) also that 25-emblem Clerics have a chance to self-heal on attempted mana cuts!

🟡 Lemonwood 

i will burn your heart in a fire

take: seriously?  mana-nuking machine-gun madness, with all the elfy smugness of his family

pass: random guy gonna random, depending on whether Lemonwood starts a Chain of Doom targeting a foe with at least 50% mana… or just goes “plink” at a single foe

Note: If facing Mena annoys me, then facing Lemonwood still evokes for me the hatred of a thousand burning suns what with his "oh no, you just had a tile cascade and every one of your heroes is over 50% mana now but it's my turn and my arrows will blot out the screen enough to cause your game to stutter and lag and your heroes to be buried in a wooden-shafted carpet of despair"

*eyetwitch*

it's possible these days Lemonwood's damage might not be as world-ending as it once was, comparatively, but "your mana is doomed" kinda doesn't go out of style.  And against those immune to mana cutting, Lemonwood ... just keeps shooting.  (No, it's not actually an infinite loop, but it's not a lot of fun to be on the receiving end of either.)

anyway, if you're gonna use this guy yourself on offense, be tactically minded in the timing, and try to catch as big a chain as possible to screw over as many of your foes' heroes at once as possible.  Patience....

🔵 cHetepheres 

you... can't touch this

take: with the costume bonus, the chonkiest SE choice; also throws a good-size heal at Average speed (*plus* a guaranteed small boost-heal and cleanse-one from the costume-boosted passive), defense up vs green (useful if running cHet as a healer tank, or together with another blue tank), and, oh yeah, blind all.  Also potentially handy that you can choose whether to run Cleric version (to resist mana cuts) or Monk version (to resist ailments)

pass: depends how many healers you have (does one ever have enough?), whether you are likely to run a healer tank, and how often you face “never miss” opponents (who don’t care about your blind, and .. so can touch this)

Note: as a tank, cHetepheres might suffer a bit from people who can choose to bring "never miss" heroes to ignore the blind (and elemental defense matters less if opponents just don't color stack against you because they are packing Phenomenal Cosmic Power and care not for puny tile damage) but if you bring cHetepheres on the attack, well, well, not every defense can afford to be packed only with "never miss" heroes now can they? ahahahahaha....

🔴 Daemon

i don't believe in the no-win scenario

take: Very Fast denier: current buffs, class talents, incoming buffs and debuffs?  nope. pretty-boy can smack the smug grin right off the stupid faces of OP heroes with just two tile matches.  (Oh yeah, he also actually stabs them, too.)

pass: well, he is a sniper, so he only gets to say “nope” to one foe at a time.  Fantastic tactical use, but probably not so much a defense hero as one you’re driving on offense.  Note that he doesn’t stop everything; a tagged hero still fires, and raw damage, straight up healing, mana cuts, and anything from a passive or family bonus still all work just fine.

Note: this guy is actually pretty fantastic against a lot of popular heroes that have Real Problem Abilities.  As noted above, he can't stop everything, but he can stick a pin in a lot of You Lose buttons -- Song Jiang/Ceres silence or Bearnadette's paintings shutting down your team, or whatever latest megataunter or ailment-blocker from doing their job, or just keeping a freaking enemy fighter from reviving for the 32192nd time, plus on top of everything else he is dispel-then-hit and so can open a window of vulnerability on a hero you Really Want to Take Off the Board Right now.

He may not be full jujutsu and make enemies smack themselves, but being able to say "no" to a lot of problems is a pretty evergreen ability.

🟣 Darkfeather 

we don’t make a lot of the heroes you summon; we make a lot of the heroes you summon… better

take: decent size heal, but stacking Growth bonuses is fantastic for PvE events and titans, and still handy in PvP, plus the whole “every time a Special is fired, more hits go off” thing.  Also?  the Goblin “passive” can do a light hit-all *and* blind, and the family bonus nerfs foe boost-healing.  Wow.

pass: there’s not a *lot* of downside, outside of “many people who can afford 20 souls to trade for Darkfeather may already have him”… and he’s not quite as stats-sized as some of the other SE healer choices this time around, even as a 20 (due to his general utility)

Note: While it may be tempting to look at Darkfeather's stats and be a bit concerned, overall he has aged remarkably well, not least of all because one of the things he does is boost stats with Growth, ameliorating some of his own problem of age, and everything he does is great... and even better when his allies are better.  Get Darkfeather rolling with some kind of mana hax and a lot of quick firing heroes, and the extra free hits that Darkfeather grants might be enough to punch many foes right now.  If you have gotten this far without Darkfeather and can afford the 20 souls, he's a great all around choice.

Summary:

No one choice is the right one for everyone, but a few general points:

-- decent healing choices at all levels, whether you're looking for revive, a "straight" healer, or a Growth/buff healer

-- also, more than a few manipulation tricks (dance, boost-healing-busting, general buffing, buff/debuff switchery and reflection, mana cutting in different flavors, denial specialization, and Growth) -- if you already have all you want of all of these things, then you've got a deeper roster than most!

-- remember, these aren't supposed to trade blows toe-to-toe with the Latest Monster Heroes, they're to give you a general leg up on play (including PvE) and the chance to punch up against those monsters in PvP by stealing their mojo