🧪 Early information on the October 2021 HOTM -- Russell

Gameplay Help & Tactics
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NOTE: Please do not, under any circumstances, share IMAGES OR VIDEOS from Beta in this or any public Forum thread. Violations can cause players to lose their Beta accounts, or threads to be closed down.

This thread is to provide early insights and discussion on the October 2021 HOTM, Russell.

All Information from Beta is Subject to Change!

Don’t get attached

Details from beta, especially brand-new beta content, don’t tend to be very reliable for actual hero release.

It’s incredibly common that heroes are changed during beta testing, or sometimes even after testing but before release. That is, after all, the purpose of beta testing.

So I wouldn’t get too attached to any of this — it’s not unheard of for entire portions of skills to be removed or reworked, or for radical changes to stats to be made.

Russell Beta Info & Stats (Extremely Likely to Change)

Gender: Male
Power: 795

Attack: 795
Defense: 739
HP: 1322

Element: Fire :fire: (Red)

Class: Wizard

Innate Resistance: Resist Attack Ailments
This hero has an innate resistance against status ailments that affect Attack.

Innate Ability: Mana on Burn
This hero gains 5% mana each time an enemy receives Burn Damage

Mana Speed: Average

Special Skill: Sure-Fire Combustion

  • This Special Skill never misses its targets.
  • Deals 350% damage to the target.
  • The target and nearby enemies receive 264 Burn damage over 3 turns.
  • Element Link gives +10% increase for any healing received for all Fire allies for 4 turns. This effect can’t be dispelled.

:money_with_wings: Avoiding Overspending & Heartache :broken_heart:

Or: How many summons are needed to get a HOTM?

Special thanks to @Garanwyn for assistance on summoning odds and proofreading for this section.

It’s important to remember that HOTM have very low summoning odds. No amount of summoning will guarantee a HOTM.

On average, in a 10-pull, you have a 12.3% chance of summoning the HOTM.

But that statistic can lead our minds astray in exactly how our odds play out as we continue summoning.

Some useful insights:

  • 73 times out of 100, you’ll get a HOTM by pull 100
  • 95 times out of 100, you’ll get a HOTM by pull 229
  • 99 times out of 100, you’ll get a HOTM by pull 352

Putting that in Perspective

  • 27 out of every 100 people won’t get the HOTM by the 100th pull

  • If 1 Million players each summoned 100 times, 270,000 of those players wouldn’t get the HOTM

  • 5 out of every 100 people won’t get the HOTM by the 229th pull

  • If 1 Million players each summoned 229 times, 50,000 of those players wouldn’t get the HOTM

More Insights & Reading

I highly recommend reading these two threads for more information and context on summoning odds:

If you’ve read them a million times before, you may consider reading them again before deciding on your budget for summoning. A little time spent deciding on how much money you want to risk on summoning goes a long way to avoiding disappointment, frustration, and regret later. :slight_smile:

For a full list of items currently in beta testing, as well as their related threads, please see the master #beta-beat thread:

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At first I was going to say this hero is very meh. 350% damage and 264 damage over 3 turns just seems like a slower Marjana.
However, then I started thinking about pairing him with Wu/Ranvir and this hero could get pretty powerful.
Also good against Drake/Moreau defenses.

Elemental link doesn’t help either. Overall an okay hero, but I’m not too excited.

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@RkHunter and @Kevin1 here is the early information about the October HoTM.
(November and December HoTM information is still not available)

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HAHAHAHAHAHA! Special effect, the herp!

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Thx. I have fixed it.

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How about pairing him with Yang Mai? Mana on burn + Yang Mai’s element link seems like those two could really get rolling with a decent starting board. I need another red project, and I have Yang Mai. Thinking this dude may be “good enough”.

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I’d rather pair with other burn dealers. Costume Kelile is the one that comes to mind most. There’s up to 25% mana.

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Thanks for the morning laugh! Gotta love funny typos.

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Does this happen once per turn or is it per enemy with burn? For instance, they are hit 3, at the end of the turn do you gain 15% mana for each enemy burned or 5% because at least 1 enemy had the burn effect? If it is the 15% it could be really good to pair with Emilio, 25% mana each turn for 5 turns would be insane.

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Good plan. If only Costume Kelile hadn’t been avoiding me like the plague. I’d be stuck with slowbies like Colen or Azlar.

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Haha I don’t have her either. I don’t have Emilio or Gravemaker either. But even if I had those, would I use Russell over Marjana? Better stats, but has to be part of this niche team.

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This guy you really have to analysis his stats well. 350% for an AoE hero is actually pretty good. Use him with Zimkitty for +25% to help him hit harder and I can see him pairing with a few different reds. He essentially has 3 Innate resistances if you think about it.

+10% healing may seem wimpy, but if you have Grazul who is very fast with a low heal percent, def. a decent buff considering how fast you can pop her off over and over.

I def. won’t complain if I get him as he seems like a sleeper hero.

1 Like
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He is rather weak. Special skill is similar to Costumed Domitia, but:

  • C Domitia deals 390% to on target instead of 350%
  • C Domitia deals 324 poison damage over 4 turns, Russel does 264 burn damage over 3 turns
  • C domitia dispels status of caster and nearby, russell doesn’t

As stated above, his special skill is weaker than C Dominia, which is a decent, but not best hero.
Mana on burn can be fun, and pairing him with burners can give him some advantage.

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Target, not target and nearby. He’d be too good if he hit 3.

Also 10% heal is multiplicative not additive (see Alexandrine thread). It’s the worst elemental link they’ve ever created.

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interesting hero, but not sure if is worth a pull

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Eh, I run mono most of the time anyway, so that wouldn’t really give me pause. All he has to do to make my mono team is be better than Khagan/Elena/Azlar.

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Personally, this is the selling point. Does that mean, dodges are ineffective and blind does nothing? If so, he can do some damage against reverse and double formations. His burn damage is a bit behind J-F’s 302/2 turns, but seems pretty decent, with the average speed tradeoff. Of course, when the special hits, he’ll get a mana boost.

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Sounds like a job for Reuben? (Still hoping.)

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True, but he is still AoE as his burn will hit 3. I should have been more specific in that respect.

+10% may not seem like a lot, consider other elemental links like Zimkitty recovering 4% health for all allies for 6 turns, may not seem like a lot but it adds up and has made a difference for me in the past. Or other ones like 4% mana for however many turns also doesn’t seem like much, but has also made a difference in whether or not one of my heroes can fire a special or not before they get killed off.

I feel like this guy is another Noor, you’ll either see his potential, or hate him.

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So with Russell, I can keep my Costume Marjana in costume while using Emilio. Emilio is VF, puts burn damage on targets, boosting Russell’s Mana, Russell goes off, hits for sure, puts burn on at least three targets and now Emilio is ready to go with his full skill which adds a heal over time that is boosted by Russell’s skill… Sounds like Russell and Emilio should work pretty well together

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