To be honest, I’m one of the voters who favor some (reasonable) power creep. It keeps the game dynamic. In this case, Aaron is a first gen HOTM who is what, 2 years old now? It’s not so unreasonable for me that a costumed Rigard (a few months old) is at par or arguably superior. As others have pointed out, costumes themselves are a power-up.
Now Neith, who is very new vs costumed Li Xiu (or the older Drake) … or even JF 2.0 vs GM …
Yes I stated as much. Your original statement didn’t specify that they had to have similar skills, so I misunderstood your intended meaning.
In theory any 5* should work better than a 4* that makes the same thing, however some times the special skill of a hero can’t just be simply upgraded to a 5* without being OP.
Then, when trying to balance the 5* hero, sometimes devs end up with a subpar performance.
Here a few examples where I saw this phenomenon: Wu/Ranvir, Gunnar/Aegir, Grimm/Thorne.
Ok let’s be real here, there have been lots of 4 stars that have been better than lots of 5 stars. The only thing a 5* guarantees you is higher overall stats.
Costume Rigard does take it to a new level though.
Unemblemed aeron and +14rigard do pretty well at increasing survivability with the pairing of % heal and HoT both hitting at 9 tiles. Full team cleanser and partial cleanser plus immunity for 3.
I used the pair before emblems as well but after emblems, definitely a much more solid duo
Point is
I had enough tabbards for double aerons
Don’t have enough emblems for 4 rigards + my other clerics
2 emblemed rigards was what i could manage without denying any emblems for others
Eventually I’ll have monk emblems for aeron after i recover from the +19 jabber
Guess what I’m sayin is:
I have no regrets and both teams are pretty consistent
I do something similar with Zimkitha and Grazul (although the HoT from Zim and the direct heal from Graz are much smaller).
Aeron’s primary value (like Grazul’s), isn’t in his heal (although his is much better, though slower), it’s in the resistance to status ailments that he offers. Completely agree that combining that with Rigard’s immediate heal and cleanse is a great way to buy yourself some time to work.
I do prefer Grazul to Aeron due to the speed in which I can get my defenses up, but in a longer fight, Aeron has advantages.
Plus I can’t tell you the number of times it would’ve come in handy for Grazul to slough off a Vela drowning or a Gravemaker burn when she fires–like Aeron does.
Dapper Noble is good, but Aeron isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, and he’s more sturdy at base stats.
Admittedly some older videos, and I couldn’t find the exact attack I was looking for, but there’s one where he plays out of a terrible starting board against a Grave/Zeline combo delaying the fire of those to abilities to bring his team back from the brink of death.
Wouldn’t be too disappointed about the Aeron pull no matter what the haters say.
I have both costume Rigard +20 and Aeron +10. They both have their uses, but if I had to keep just one (and 4* tournaments weren’t a thing) then I’d keep Aeron. Blocking undispellable status ailments is a much rarer ability and, when timed well, is an absolute game changer.
Rigard is great though, and yes, his costume in particular represents real power creep. I’d argue it’s a good thing as it puts newer players in a better space to compete. As long as the “weaker” older hero still has something powerful going I really don’t mind it.
Perhaps a better example of bad power creep would be Thoth-Amon versus Seshat. The latter does just about everything better: crazy self-replicating minions, dispel, better sniper, etc. The former… hits target and nearby for half damage. That’s not an advantage. Thoth needs something to keep him in the game. Aeron though? He already has something good going for him.
I don’t have Aeron, but do rely heavily on Costumed Rigard. I tried to vote but I think the questions have much more nuanced answers than the binary options given.
I don’t think some power creep is bad, but original JF and original Clarissa (not reading the thread but I assume she has been or will soon be changed) are clearly too much. No power creep would also be okay with me, though I get how that’s less financially enticing to SGG.
If I had Aeron I can think of many instances where I’d use him instead of or with Costumed Rigard. No one on my roster has the pre-resist mechanic, so it’d be a very valuable addition. But if I could only make space for one in a raid it’d depend on the opposing team.
Lastly, the whole idea of Costumed Rigard representing power creep: I don’t think so - as others have pointed out, costumes are kind of anti-power creep. I’ve also written elsewhere that having a widely available four star be that strong is actually INCREDIBLY F2P and C2P friendly, so I very much approve of him from that standpoint.
