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Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown VIII (May 2026 edition)
Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown VIII (May 2026 edition)
A lot of attention gets focused on the high-end choices, especially for folks who want to clear a whole bunch of roster space even first and foremost, but once again I’m looking first to the 10-soul choices, offering a few thoughts about each of them: why folks on a budget and trying to decide “take a cheap option” or “pass” might lean toward the former... or the latter.
Before we get going, let’s be super clear: if your roster is sufficiently strong that you regularly - or almost always - find Heroes of the Month to be disappointing compared to your other choices, then Soul Exchange is unlikely to excite you. By definition, these are “yesteryear’s greatest hits” sorts of heroes, which means stat decay (compared to current premium heroes) makes them generally relatively small by comparison — and even many of the Specials (and passives and family bonuses) that were powerful upon first release may have any number of counters now that didn’t exist then.
This is primarily a guide for “the rest of us” — who don’t have a lot of the most premium heroes and/or who are missing important, useful abilities represented by heroes on this list. If you are lucky and/or deeply-budgeted enough to not need any of these abilities, then this event and this guide may not be for you (other than, I hope, some entertainment value).
On some heroes, I will include personal notes from my own experience. By definition, your mileage may very much vary depending on your roster and gaming experience!
IMPORTANT NOTE:
This is the start of a NEW format by SG, instead of having Soul Exchange heroes cost 10, 15, or 20 souls, the costs will now be 5, 15, or 30 souls. You may also choose up to one hero from each tier (if you like and you have that many 5* heroes to trade in).
Without further adieu:
graphic below via empuzzled.com/soul-exchange
5 souls
🔴 Charmione
take: Hits three, dispels buffs/Growth on three, paralyzes three (four turns). Paralysis is nasty -- no attacking, no mana gain, and take +50% damage. Yikes. Also? The whole slime thing (pooping out megaminion when taking significant damage in one go, pooping megaminions on adjacent when slain).
NOTE: megaminion hp caps at 2000hp until and unless you 2LB the hero, so one more reason to fully limit break Charmione if you take (not that you wouldn't if you want full survivability anyway)
pass: Um, Charmione is... Slow. Not only Slow speed, but the Paralyze part of the Special has an additional 1-turn onset. Ouch. Also you'll want to check foes to see who might be immune to Paralyze, and anyone with a chance to resist ailments (Monks, Toons, etc.) will typically have two chances to resist the effect, once before the onset, and the next turn at the onset.
Note: Nasty effect, but you have to be able to land it. Charmione's dispel will wipe away ailment blocking, so that helps, but being Slow *with additional onset time* is definitely going to make Charmione better on offense (when you can target non immune, non resistant foes, and when automated defense likely won't have a cleanse queued up ready to go) than on defense, but especially in Rush.
🟢 Theodosius
take: are you sick and tired of enemies nailing your heroes with Wither, and you're low on anti-Wither (or enough Growth of your own) to counter, especially if you never just landed many Garrison heroes? Theo gives you a budget way to get that
...plus Theo smacks all, significantly buffs allies' defense, hands out defense-down to foes, and takes a decently big bite out of the durations of ailments on your heroes and buffs on your foes. (Note that this means it can do a number on "undispellable"/"uncleansable" buffs/ailments, because it doesn't actually dispel/cleanse them, though it can reduce their duration to 0, which is effectively the same thing.)
ADDED NOTE: Theodosius is Hero-Coach-compatible.
pass: The price, of course, is that Theo is... Slow. (Though he can't be mana-cut either, like Frank, and does gain a bit of mana when tagged with an ailment.) Also, while he has a starter megaminion, he doesn't summon one with his Special.
Note: There's a lot of Wither heroes out there, so if you're low or entirely lacking in anti-Wither technology, Theo -- or Frank, above -- is worth considering. Theo is Slow, but does quite a lot -- obvously moreso in a Rush format.
🟣 Asketel
take: KLAATU... BARADA... *coughcough*necktum*cough* because you actually don't mind a touch of Insanity as a way of trying to make your foes defeat themselves, plus a decent hit-3 for the soul cost, plus makes ailments uncleansable. (If you took Silverpaw last Soul Exchange, or otherwise have him or other Lasting-ailment heroes, you might want to really pay attention to that last bit...)
Note that Asketel is one of the more recent hero releases, so getting a hero his size (bigger than his card looks, due to his "boring" stat-boosting Family Bonus) at 5 souls is not to be entirely sneezed at.
pass: Insanity is not a plug-and-play mechanic, you kind of have to design around it -- to either pile on Insanity on foes faster than you accrue it yourself, or by healing/being immune to it. If that gives you a headache, this might not be your guy. Also... in a world of heroes increasingly defined by the power of their Passive abilities... Asketel somehow doesn't have any.
Note: His hit really is not exactly wimpy, especially for a budget hero, and his Insanity application is fairly straightforward (he just applies Insanity by hitting, not through indirect means, and hands out 3x40 Insanity while accruing 45 himself, putting him ahead in the Insanity race, all else equal.) Are you willing to try to make your opponents defeat themselves?
take: by raw stats, the biggest of this Soul Exchange, and at 5 souls. Her schtick is ailments - non-negligible frost DoT (which especially rips up minions and megaminions), attack down, and mana stealing. Also? Insanity-proof.
ADDED NOTE: Atlanteia is Hero-Coach-compatible, if you want to get her base form up to 4/90 while spending no alpha aethers etc. (You'll still have to level/ascend/limitbreak her costume yourself.)
pass: everything depends on landing her ailments, so you'll have to work around ailment-blocks, dodge, blind, taunt, and anything else that would keep you from doing so -- and of course, cleansing. (She'd do better on offense than defense, for starters.)
Note: the conditional nature of her effects make Atlanteia - even with costume - less popular, but when they land, if they aren't cleansed quickly, they can chew up a team. A dispeller helps, as does "makes ailments uncleansable" effects, obviously!
🟡 Moonbell
take: How do you heal without healing? Moonbell can especially shine during Bloody, when summoning chunky-sized minions plus damage reduction plus mana gen boosting can just about replace healing. Even outside Bloody, Moonbell's buffs are respectable... and help chew up enemy boost healing. (Also, a bit of free dispelling when tagged by enemy Specials can be a bonus.)
NOTE: minion hp caps at 1000hp until and unless you 2LB the hero, so one more reason to fully limit break Moonbell if you take (not that you wouldn't if you want full survivability anyway)
ADDED NOTE: Moonbell is Hero-Coach-compatible. (That helps with the 2LB thing, if you don't mind waiting for the next HC!)
pass: As the note above suggests, Moonbell is showing some age in terms of base stats... and is vulnerable to anti-minion tech. Probably not a defender so much, but if you choose your attacks wisely using Moonbell, it can be another story. Also, if you want something proactive at all, Moonbell is pretty much passive; even many actual healers these days can sometimes throw some damage (and Moonbell's minions are meat shields, not for significant damage).
Note: If Moonbell gets going, damage reduction plus multiple meatwall minions can be a pain to take down. On defense, Moonbell is vulnerable to the right tech, but on offense, if you can get Moonbell to fire the first time, you've just increased your whole team's survivability significantly -- as long as you aren't facing counters, or just enough overwhelming brute force to send this elf to the Grey Havens before getting started. Still, at the cost of 5 souls, Moonbell can be a pretty good defensive bargain!
... 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
🟡 Frank "Fangs" Brimwell
take: Frank has anti-Wither tech, like Theo above, does a straightforward hit-3, can't be mana cut, and does have a megaminion meat shield...
ADDED NOTE: Frank is Hero-Coach-compatible.... but in August. (probably two HCs for now)
pass: well, frankly (so to speak), Frank is one of the more lackluster Garrison heroes. His hit-3 is okay, and weakly dependent on having more Garrison heroes on the same team (yawn). His megaminion is middling, neither a "special ability" type (auto-safe-cleansing or auto-dispelling) or an "offensive" type (giving free random fair-sized hits plus Bleed damage).
Note: There's a lot of Wither heroes out there, so if you're low or entirely lacking in anti-Wither technology, Frank -- or Theo, above -- is worth considering. But it's honestly a little mind boggling to me that Frank is a 15 and Theo is a 5: Frank doesn't do as much as Theo, but he is faster and can resummon his meatshield to help keep himself alive...
🔵 Modthryth
take: Counterattack (that also saps attackers' mana) and buffs (attack stacks plus buffs-over-time, and if you have big and/or Slow hitters, that +100% Special attack and +33% mana gen, oof!) --Notably, she can't be buff blocked, which is pretty useful for a counterattacking buffer!
She also has a sneaky family bonus cleanse (activates for free whenever she receives Special damage vs one random ailment, for all allies), and is not only immune to mana cuts but powers up when someone tries. (And gains mana from buffs to boot.)
pass: if you want something more proactive than counterattacking, then you'll of course want to check out your other choices.
SPECIAL NOTE: Beowulf heroes have a 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: counterattack can make for an obvious tank (but watch out for Moths, as noted above) - but also counterattack is one way to deal with Big Nuclear Hit-Multiple-Target foes. Of course, there's the small detail of living through the hits as you counterattack but that's a team thing.
🟢 Fungustine
take: significantly-sized Boost heal, plus steals enemy buffs and Growth (that last part might be pretty significant against cheese-tastic Growth-for-free Mahayoddha heroes), plus all allies are dispelproof (including stolen buffs). Also? The whole slime thing (pooping out megaminion when taking significant damage in one go, pooping megaminions on adjacent when slain).
NOTE: megaminion hp caps at 2000hp until and unless you 2LB the hero, so one more reason to fully limit break Fungustine if you take (not that you wouldn't if you want full survivability anyway)
ADDED NOTE: Fungustine is Hero-Coach-compatible.
pass: One of the smallest heroes in this SE... though mitigated somewhat by the slime-megaminion thing... which is itself mitigated by the fact that there's a lot more anti-megaminion tech now than when Fungustine first appeared.
Note: Mahayoddhas are everywhere it seems like -- anything that helps counter the free stat growth is pretty welcome! Buffstealing is also useful against Dodge, Taunt, ailment-blocking, and others. Fungustine's boost-heal isn't actually *that* much smaller than many regular heals. If you want to help keep Fungustine alive on your attack teams, though, watch out for the array of defender Passives and effects that nerf or do extra damage to megaminions.
🔴 cHathor
take: if you've been around the game for a while, you're probably familiar with this longtime mainstay -- boost healing plus, crucially, ailment block at Fast speed -- the latter of which can prevent all sorts of nastiness, including "Passive" effects like Corrosive Frost and Moth Dust.
Don't sleep on her own Passives, though: while her Special's fixed-size boost heal is admittedly pretty small compared to most modern hp totals, her Passive throws another 10% boost on top of that (100% chance, due to costume), and she hands out a bit of free mana to her allies, and her own mana generation can't be stopped and she has a chance to throw a small defense-down and a spritz of water damage (it ain't much, but it's still a bit of damage from a healer)
NOTE: Hathor can be a 6-tile hero, but you'll need to stick to her Sorcerer form (which you might anyway, for the burst boost heal) and pair her with a Bard (and not use any other S5 Moon hero on the same team) and give her a 4* troop with +20% mana instead of a 5* troop. Firing in six tiles on offense is a big deal! But you have to have the team to do it and be willing to roll the dice on Hathor's survivability (not using a Legendary troop means sacrificing +40%hp as well as additional defense and other goodies).
ADDED NOTE: Hathor is Hero-Coach-compatible, if you want to get her base form up to 4/90 while spending no alpha aethers etc. (You'll still have to level/ascend/limitbreak her costume yourself.)
pass: if you want a main healer, Hathor/cHathor (even with her costume and passives) probably isn't going to take care of your needs by herself. Also, if you took cThalassa last Soul Exchange, you might wonder if cHathor is... well, more expensive but similar (unless you're going to go all-in on "Six Tile Hathor")
Note: Hathor, with her costume bonus, is still respectably sized in terms of stats and she has an encyclopedia of effects. What you will have to decide is whether her heal is still big enough to be useful (but remember, it's boost healing, which is pretty much always smaller than regular healing because boosting is much more rarely wasted on already-healthy allies). Ailment blocking is a pretty clutch ability to have, so the other question is how much of it do you already have, and do you want to invest in more? ONE MORE NOTE: if you're really not sure, there's a chance that S5 heroes... including Hathor.. might start showing up in Fated Summon. Grabbing her there, then Visiting Outfittering her costume, would be a cheaper way to get her, but there's no guarantee of when or even if she'll show up in Fated Summon.
🟣 Mortewitch
take: A Slow-speed sniper? Well... even now, Mortewitch is more of a true sniper -- when she tags someone, they're probably toast. 800% damage will get your foe's attention, slicing right through their buffs, tagging them with +damage and a chunky megafiend that will finish the job on its own (and making it hard for most healers to save the target). Bonus: she heals your team a bit based on her damage.
Also, passive Dodge makes her harder to take out before she does her thing, and Moth Dust is a nasty "Family bonus" that slows your foes' mana gen and potentially puts them to sleep, making them sitting ducks (say, for Mortewitch's hit).
pass: don't underestimate snipers - but if you want to hit/debuff more than one target at a time
Note: Mortewitch is a railgun. She takes her time to set up her shot... and she is vulnerable to blind/dodge, so you'll want to mitigate those as defenses... but if you land a hit, good night. Add in cheese-tastic Moth Dust and she's pretty solid still even outside of Rush. And in Rush? Yowsa - yeah, she doesn't hit all like some Rush champions, but Mortewitch doesn't hit, she kills.
On the new 30 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 30-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…
Please note that I'm addressing these heroes a bit more briefly in part because I'm looking at them from the point of view of a "I have to save and scrimp to get to 30" player. If you're more a "I really need the roster space" sort of player, you're more likely to just pick the hero and/or ability you're missing to clear 29 spots.
30 souls
30 souls
🟡 Astrid
take: Sure, she's a respectable reviver, but even when you don't need a revive she's got a decent size heal with a buff. Nice! Her anti-dance passives are situational but really matter when they apply.
pass: It's a good thing her stats are the right way around; it helps, but mighty Astrid is now just "really good" and vulnerable to concentrated mass damage. (She doesn't qualify for HC until November, and if you're gonna spend 30 souls on her you probably don't want to wait for exponential power rush to move along that much more.) You don't want the healer/reviver you want to rely on dropping! (It also doesn't help that she's a Sorcerer rather than a Cleric or Monk, with the defenses those classes entail.)
Note: Let's be frank, Astrid is still a really good hero. The question is, especially at her age, is she worth 30 to you? Compare her to last SE's Maegwyn, who went for 20. Astrid at 20 would be a pretty great deal still; Astrid at 30 is a little bit more "the people who could most afford her are the ones most likely to already have her."
🔴 Ceris
take: if she targets someone with less than 50% mana, then she's "just" a hard-hitting Average speed sniper who also silences them for 4 turns (and then Withers everybody). But of course, that's not what happens, is it -- when she targets someone with over 50% mana, then she just keeps smacking and silencing even more victims. (Also, her Special doesn't miss, and slips right past minions and megaminions.. and minions/megaminions with nasty abilities don't affect her with those abilities.)
pass: While her Special is still scary and her stats are not to be scoffed out, she's mostly fallen out of Borg-class defenses because, well, stats suffer stat decay -- and there's the issue that she may be more of a defense hero (where she seems to fire against a "every hero has 70% mana" attacking team freakishly often) than on offense (where you get to manually choose her target... but if you try to get her multiple hits rolling, you're one tile cascade away going from "Ceris smacks multiple targets" to "the entire enemy team is firing and you are in a smoldering crater."
Also there's the issue of keeping track of who's silenceproof these days....
Note: Look, Ceris has a very strong Special and still-respectable stats, but trying to make sure you can hit multiple targets, ideally on which Silence will take, make her ability sometimes a little more conditional than it might look. Make sure you are good at making this work for you if you're going to go all in at 30.
🟢 Fafnir
take: Solid never-miss hit-3 at Fast speed (uses Frostfall Strike, which means attack buffs/defense debuffs no good, Growth/Wither very good) plus "you take more damage now" plus make your foes reflect buffs. Oh yeah, and there's that Corrosive Frost DoT/attack debuff "passive." (and absorbs/boosted by Frost damage) Yowsa.
pass: Depending on your roster, are you going to go all in on offense (Fafnir's hit right now is still pretty good, for the time being) or, with an eye to the inexorable march of time, emblem Fafnir as a utility hero? It's nice that Fafnir does both, of course, but which role do you want to emphasize now vs long-term?
Note: Fafnir is still quite strong and relatively recent by SE standards! The question again is.. 30 souls? (cf, e.g. cDomiventus at 20 last SE.) Again with the "people best positioned to afford Fafnir have a decent chance to already have this hero, or similar."
🔵 Riverfang
take: Priority dispel then smack-3 respectably hard then DoT (with some self healing) then Lasting "extra damage from DoT" (his own, and from allies). Oh, and, a Fox, so unavoidably cuts all enemy healing in half just by being alive.
pass: Works best in a combo with other DoTters, if you have them (but... that's not strictly necessary). Probably the closest thing to a downside here is why this Fox is worth 30 compared to two Foxes each at 15 last SE.
Note: Is Riverfang packing more raw punch than either Silverpaw or Swiftpaw from last SE? Yes. Is it worth twice as many souls to you? That depends on how much excess roster wealth you have.
take: Hits one hard, adjoining less hard, at Fast, and tags them with mana-cursing Corrosive Poison, and flips certain buffs into uncleansable ailments. (And nasty Passives: seriously nerfing megaminion hp and free dodge/mana-gen boost via Flight Momentum.)
On top of all of this, the actual headline? No revive for you. (Note, though, that this explicitly does not work on Wild Cat Nine Lives ability. Sorry.)
pass: Honestly, there’s not a *lot* of downside, outside of (A) you want a hero who can change the whole fight by firing once or maybe twice (but Agadh is Fast) or (B) the cost.
Note: This feels to me the most "30" of the 30 tier - the most recent choice with modern passives - Flight Momentum's dodge seems to kick in freakishly often when I face one of these Magic Carpet folks on defenses, and Agadh nerfs megaminions just by existing and nerfs reviving (including Fighters etc) with some good timing.
Summary:
No one choice is the right one for everyone, but a few general points:
-- Honestly, the 5 tier makes bargain shopping more of a treat; there's some good value to be had at often-F2P-accessible costs. Will they go toe-to-toe alone against Borg-class defenses? No. But in the right team, they can still be pretty useful for a bargain hunter.
-- The 15 tier was advertised as "better than previous 15 tier heroes" but ... I don't know if I buy it overall. There's some decent utility to be had, but if you look at last Soul Exchange's 15 tier, I'm not sure most of those heroes aren't pretty close to the same as this time's choices. Still, Fungustine is potentially interesting because Mahayoddha is so ubiquitous currently, "Six Tile Hathor" is a potential risk-and-reward play if you can pull it off, and Mortewitch is still pretty mighty if you don't mind working with a Slow railgun (with Moth Dust).
-- The 30 tier has heroes that would be indeed very nice for many players to have. But... if you're a budget SE shopper, 30 can be a lot. (Honestly, 20 is a "stretch goal" for many players, so it feels like the 30 should be a lot more "is this worth having to take a pass on future SE.) If you're not hurting for tradeins, or there's one of these heroes that jumps off the page at you, don't let me dissuade you -- but if you're a scrimp-and-saver, well, this new SE tiering is... new. It might be worth keeping your powder dry if one of the premium-price heroes won't change your game.
Also, as noted above, a number of these heroes are/will be Hero Coach compatible (cAtlanteia, Moonbell, Theodosius, Fungustine, cHathor), if that makes a difference (i.e. "this hero I would like but can I spare the time/mats/aethers?"). The upside is getting to insta-level with gems, the downside is that, well, the hero is that old.
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!
BETA ALERT! (March 2026)
BETA ALERT! (March 2026)
Further update: as of the end of April 2026, the 50 tier has been at least postponed! The next SE will presumably feature the old 10/15/20 tiers as normal for now. Where this goes... we'll see, but Small Giant has LISTENED to player concerns, at least for now!
Reported changes to the Soul Exchange from Beta:
(for forum discussion, see: https://empiresandpuzzles.site/topic/654-early-information-on-soul-exchange-updates-part-of-the-beta-beat-v85/
for Discord discussion on the main E&P server, search up "Early Information on Soul Exchange Updates [Part of The Beta Beat V85]")
1) Players will be able to take one hero from each tier, not just one hero. This might be okay for those who can afford it, though it's arguable that for those who can afford to trade in so many heroes, multiple SE choices might not be so attractive.
2) The lowest tier of SE cost goes from 10 souls to 5. This could be potentially nice for folks seeking a cheap option, assuming that the lower-tier hero choices don't get weaker. (Some players already find many 10-soul choices "too weak," so reducing the cost to 5 might not help a lot, but we'll see?)
3) The highest tier of SE cost goes from 20 souls to 50. Yes, fifty. (I am not making this up.)
If you think the latter of the proposed changes would prompt a rant from me... you'd be right.
Here goes.
Given my penchant for “Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown” looks at Soul Exchanges over the years, I’d argue that shopping for a bargain has long been part of this event — and a welcome one — and one player’s “outmoded” is another player’s godsend.
I mean, by construction even most, if not all, of the 20-soul choices are largely “outmoded” in the frame of reference of someone with at least some number of really-recent heroes.
One of the most fun things about Soul Exchange is that it has been an event for “the rest of us” — especially C2P and dedicated F2P who could, at least once in a while, make the decision to push a bunch of dupes and “eh” and even “maybe” heroes into the pot to get something we really want.
Yeah, okay, SE has never aimed greatly at the biggest spenders — but it didn’t need to. Pretty arguably a large chunk of the game, from the constant onslaught of new often hard-to-match heroes vomited forth from a panoply of portals, to anything competitive (PvP or PvE ranking), ALREADY has leaned first and foremost to those both budgeted and lucky enough to have both a deep but especially ever-refreshing fully-upgraded modern roster.
It’s one thing to *maybe* make the top tier of heroes *slightly* more expensive in order to have significantly more recent choices — though given the ever-increasing pace of hero release and power, even that’s arguable.
But FIFTY SOULS?!?
Come on.
This all but puts a literal graphic between the first two tiers and the third tier marked “PAYWALL.” There’s already plenty of this game that already increasingly feels that way, but this takes one of the handful of the actual proletarian-feeling events in the game and slaps the majority of the playerbase in the collective face with a chiding “ah ah ah! not for you.”
Even having a cheaper lower tier of Soul Exchange isn’t going to make up for this, especially given the bevy of already-expressed opinions that “10-soul choices [almost] always just suck.”
And? To be honest? A player who summons so much that they have fifty spare 5* heroes to throw in, much less four times a year? Is actually unlikely to benefit much from ANY POSSIBLE Soul Exchange.
In summary:
Hero Coach, Visiting Outfitter, and Soul Exchange are nice E&P features in no small part because they are accessible to a lot of players and not just those who can summon the absolute most.
Replacing a 20-tier with a 50-tier in Soul Exchange feels like taking a chunk of something specifically "for the rest of us" and handing that to the biggest customers too.
--
If you feel strongly about this, please sound off to SG -- especially on their official Discord, where they might actually see, or write in directly (especially, say, if you happen to be a member of their Elites Club, which is presumably supposed to solicit feedback from particularly "valued customers").
With luck, perhaps we can argue SG into at least toning down this proposed change. SE is one of my favorite events generally, much less to write up, and I'd like it to continue to be an event that engages much of the E&P community.
Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown VII (Feb 2026 edition)
Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown VII (Feb 2026 edition)
A lot of attention gets focused on the high-end choices, especially for folks who want to clear a whole bunch of roster space even first and foremost, but once again I’m looking first to the 10-soul choices, offering a few thoughts about each of them: why folks on a budget and trying to decide “take a cheap option” or “pass” might lean toward the former... or the latter.
Before we get going, let’s be super clear: if your roster is sufficiently strong that you regularly - or almost always - find Heroes of the Month to be disappointing compared to your other choices, then Soul Exchange is unlikely to excite you. By definition, these are “yesteryear’s greatest hits” sorts of heroes, which means stat decay (compared to current premium heroes) makes them generally relatively small by comparison — and even many of the Specials (and passives and family bonuses) that were powerful upon first release may have any number of counters now that didn’t exist then.
This is primarily a guide for “the rest of us” — who don’t have a lot of the most premium heroes and/or who are missing important, useful abilities represented by heroes on this list. If you are lucky and/or deeply-budgeted enough to not need any of these abilities, then this event and this guide may not be for you (other than, I hope, some entertainment value).
On some heroes, I will include personal notes from my own experience. By definition, your mileage may very much vary depending on your roster and gaming experience!
Without further adieu:
10 souls
🔴 Abigail
take: you like, or want to try, the Insanity mechanic; you have at least one other good summoner, or dodge or taunt, to team her up with (to help shield her relatively small if nasty little minions); you like to, and are able to, run more slow-paced battles; you want a summoner who can also hit a bit (many summoners do no actual direct damage; Abigail does a medium-light hit to all at Average, and her minions will keep applying Bleed atop their little hits and Insanity)
pass: obviously, if you have no patience for Insanity, or if you find yourself in more fast-paced, rocket-tag sort of battles, not least of all against heroes who drop big hits against your whole team
Note: It's worth noting that Insanity heroes are different from many heroes that you can't just drop them into an existing team and expect optimal results - you kind of have to build around their particular Insanity-giving mechanic. In Abigail's case, you really are looking for long fights; her minions are individually puny, but handing out fresh Bleed and Insanity every turn from every minion can add up if your foe can't address it / if you can actively prevent your foe from doing much about it. Abby has a poor reputation because this is a very particular playstyle and requires you to be in a long fight with someone who doesn't have frequent healing and/or cleansing, so she is probably more niche than even some other Insanity heroes, but she might have a place in the right context.
take: decent-size Power rating, mana-cutting hit to all, and can hit harder than you might think (not only does it scale with enemy mana, but the "passive" means an average of a bit over +120% damage on top of the main hit, plus a dose of sand DoT... much less the boost to the first hit), and the mana generation penalty, while small, can be enough to knock enemy heroes off any carefully calculated mana checkpoints
pass: well, you've gotta check for mana-cut immunity (as a class Talent or intrinsically), and mana-cutting can tend to be more effective on defense (against heroes who largely depend on correct-tile-matching to charge mana) than on offense (against heroes who charge mana a little for free constantly plus all incoming tiles)
Note: Meresankh is tanky in principle, but while her stats are respectable - is she big enough to tank against the foes you'll face (and will your foes be unable to pack a bunch of mana-cut resistance?) If signs point to "yes," she might just might help disco attackers into submission. May be seen as a budget alternative to 20-soul Hrothgar (see below).
🟣 Odile
take: because your other heroes can benefit from being held closer by this tiny dancer -- with the right teamup; Dance effects are odd in that -- unless first buff-blocked -- they wipe and prevent all ailments AND buffs and then can only be overwritten by other dances. (Watch out for more recent Bards who drop Dance durations to 1 as a passive -- but also watch for, if you obtain them, for the current Fortune Dancer heroes, whose dances STACK with other dances, e.g. Odile's!)
Odile does a small boost heal at Fast and the "auto-punch" every hero does small additional boosts - plus damage. What this means is that Odile shines when paired with bigger heroes and/or Growth (making each of those auto-punches hit harder!). Be careful about bringing other buffs, though, since Odile's dance will wipe and prevent your own buffs on everyone but herself.
pass: I didn't reference Elton John for nothing; Odile is, well, the smallest by raw Power this SE. If you want to enjoy her dancing mojo, you have to keep her alive (note, again, that Odile herself doesn't dance). If you have other buffs you really want to use (attack up, counterattack, taunt, reflect, etc - note that Growth is okay becuase it's considered separate from a buff) they won't run while Odile gets her teammates dancing, so you either need to forgo them or make careful tactical choices about when to buff and when to dance.
Note: If you don't mind running heroes who don't otherwise buff much, if you want to prevent/wipe incoming ailments, and if you want to grind your foes down slowly with auto-punching via big/Growthed companions, Odile can be deviously effective support. If you're playing rocket tag, then her Dance Dance Revolution might be too slow, or she might get taken off the board too easily.
🟢 cAhmose
take: you get one of the biggest power ratings in the SE, and respectable (if Slow) damage for only 10 souls -- note that while cAhmose's base hit is 410%, with his "passives" he may average close to a total of 560%, with "passive" damage avoiding targeting issues like dodge and taunt; but notably, of course, undispellable reflect red. (Note that reflect [color] is already natively undispellable by that [color], but cAhmose's reflect is explicitly undispellable regardless of other colors.) If it feels like you are facing heinously OP heroes, well, jujutsu can be an effective and satisfying strategy against such powerful foes!
pass: Ahmose is... Slow. Which means that getting his reflect up to time to make your foes blow themselves up may be a bit of a challenge (unless you have mana-gen-boosts and/or direct-mana-granting-hax to team Ahmose up with).
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; the question is whether you can get Ahmose's reflect up in time, and at the right time, to watch your foes punch themselves?
take: you want a respectable sized boost healer who ALSO provides ailment block AND MORE -- in size, cThalassa is actually one of the bigger heroes for this SE by pure power rating, and at only 10 souls; ailment block can be invaluable against many effects, enough that you should strongly consider Thalassa if you don't have ailment block from a reasonably recent/sized 5* hero already (and even if you do, you may want more than one, for different attack teams even on raids, much less wars)
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL: the second, and every subsequent, time Thalassa fires she resets the duration on ailments on enemies, which makes her nasty when teamed when you are applying your own debilitating ailments or substantial DoT and/or they already last a long time. PLUS? with her costume, Thalassa is an insanity-proof healer -- which is pretty tasty if you are facing incoming Insanity (from enemy heroes, from your own heroes, or in Insanity wars), and her speed is effectively Fast/Average (with Changing Tides). Plus: she has the potential to do a light hit (even as a healer) and buff, or throw a buff whenever hit by enemy Specials (likely, since as a healer she may be a priority target).
pass: for all the cool stuff Thalassa does, she doesn't actually cleanse. (Or dispel.) Ailment block can at times be better than cleanse, but you do have to fire it first. Also: while boost healing is very nice, the raw size of Thalassa's heal (topping out at a flat 800hp before any heal-boost effects) is relatively small compared to most percentage-based healers; as good as Thalassa is, if you are going to bring only one healer on a team, you might be more inclined to bring someone who throws bigger heals.
Note: The two biggest questions to ask when considering cThalassa this SE are arguably "do I already have ailment block / enough different ailment block heroes?" and "do I have nasty ailment or big DoT heroes to pair Thalassa with?" A close third would be "am I okay running a smaller-sized heal on a team... or bringing two healers on a team, one of whom is Thalassa?" This is a pretty good bargain to land this SE if your answers are favorable for Thalassa.
... 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
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).
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.
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
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)
NOTE: there's a sneaky little clause in the Queen's "heal to half" ability - THAT healing "ignores heal steal, healing modifiers and fiends." This can make her even better than might first be apparent at "coming from behind."
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!
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)
Bob’s Brief Bizarro Budget Breakdown VI (Nov 2025 edition)
10 souls
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?
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
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...)
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
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!
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....
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.
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
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