Except for most HotMs, I can actually see what the situation is that the HotM might apply to. (Granted, Balur’s situation is probably “you really need that anti-fiend element link and he’s the only one you got all year with it” which is…weak.)
An issue I’m seeing with Gilligan is that his situation is either (A) nonexistent (B) hilariously narrow or even (C) does not exist yet (maybe future heroes will spam out pseudo-“buffs” onto enemies which are functionally deleterious??).
As it is, taking advantage of Gilligan’s passive seems to require letting yourself get into a hole against enemy buffstacks, then, what, firing his Special into a heavily buffed enemy (if you want to maintain the passive benefit)?
Maybe for someone who summons often enough that they virtually always get multiple copies of every HotM, it’s fine to just salt one copy away against the hypothetical chance of Gilligan filling some obscure niche at some point (and using the rest as SE points).
I… don’t.
I don’t get even one of most HotMs. I can’t really afford to spend my limited chances to gain a HotM on one who is so limited that his situation—if he does have one or ever gets one—may well never be meaningful for me, especially if going on a summoning hiatus now can increase the chances of me instead drawing a HotM next month I can actually use (VF sniper).
Alpha Aethers will give buffs for 6 turns at the beginning of each battle and Gilligan should get mana every single turn - as long as they last. Maybe they designed him for this?
I won’t chase him for sure, but I will do a few summons here and there and I don’t mind getting him.
I’ve seen many estimates, ranging from 0,3 to 0,8 tiles. But even if it is the low end, one buff on each enemy increases his speed to more than average.
Probably the best source of info is this:
Potentially interesting but… would it actually help in practice?
Gilligan’s Special doesn’t appear devastating, especially when fired into the active buffs of enemies who were already better than Gilligan even before their 2LB.
If Gilligan was supposed to be designed to be a counter to OP pre-buffs, then maybe his Special should actually dispel those buffs? (Granted, that would leave Gilligan back at base Slow and meh, but at least the buff advantage would be wiped?)
I’m just saying, for someone with limited summoning capabilities, it feels like it could be a waste to maybe summon someone who may be almost sort of a half-baked counter to some future situation rather than to maybe summon someone else who is “boring” but practical.
With the cards that are currently in defense, they need to be eliminated quickly. You can’t let them buff to gain mana for a character that won’t get anyone anyway. Compared to the January Hotm, this one looks pale. A very situational card that will work in very few cases. In my opinion, it will only be useful to those who have an excess of artifacts and nothing specific to do at this time. Can act defensively when attacked by a team that gives a lot of raises. Then it will fire faster and, with the help of the defense down, do some damage. It won’t be your first choice though. Hotm so-so. Fun fact. That’s my opinion.
I guess situationally ok, depends on how well the passive works. If I understand it well, against buff heavy teams he can be functionally average, maybe even faster than that in some cases. 300% to 3 at average is not great but also not laughable. The only problem is 60% bypass chance which makes him useful only if paired with a dispeller.
For most people - SE feeder, unless you have no yellow to work on …
Cause it is the passive that “justifies” that he is as he is.
You want him to be a great hero without this passive and only then put this kind of passive on top of it.
Not that I think, that the concept behind this hero is useful in gameplay, but the hero with this kind of passive cannot be built in much different way and be balanced.
Came here to say this. I’m kinda mad that they wasted good art on what appears to be such a bad hero, but…
I do kinda wonder about this. I remember thinking how much Grimble sucked when he was HotM because there were so few minion summoners. Maybe this is a hero designed with the 2LB future in mind. And I’m not sure he’s great, even then, but it seems like some heroes are test labs for new mechanics that then apply to better heroes.
Russula’s hiding mechanic where she attacks heroes who used special skills while it was active came back in a big way with one of the recent flood of new heroes… I forget which one. Russula’s is just “deal some piddly little damage to anyone who used a special while the hero was hiding”. Supposed to make you hesitate before firing a special, but the damage is negligible, so it doesn’t really work. But this new hero was like, “if an enemy uses their special skill while this hero is hiding, they get -34% defense, -34% attack, -24% mana generation, and all of the hero’s allies fart in their general direction” or something ridiculous like that.
He reminds me of the slayers who are purposely set to slow as they have stacks to compensate the mana speed, in this case it’s his passive that compensates for the slow speed. To me he’s just a slight upgrade to slayers, and slayers do generally have plain skills
He does not fall into the category of awful heroes that deserve that kind of mocking.
There are so many buff heavy top teams in defense these days that i feel he will have his use. His hit at VF would probably br considered good, and i think he can be that fast or even faster. Waiting for someonr to post a video…