Jean-François – 5* Fire/ Red - February 2020 HOTM (Hero of the Month)

I believe there is already a “Nerf JF” topic somewhere on the forum. It seems like I saw one, and yes, he is dynamite, especially in a standard defense. I’m shocked that I’m actually GAINING cups now from defensive raids more often now since I was able to get those last two Tonics for Telluria that allowed my defense to go from Boldtusk-Kingston-Seshat-Neith-Misandra to Seshat-Neith-Telluria-Jean-Francois-Misandra. Was waiting for the opportunity to incorporate JF into my defense. Really glad it’s working out so far.

I guess this has already been discussed but wouldn’t JF be quite nice in a red stack against the hundreds of Telluria tanks flanked by Vela?

Telluria is not only annoying because she is awesome herself, but also because she is so often flanked by Vela. I tend to want to stack red against her obviously, but then Vela comes along and make my life a misery.

Stacking red against Telluria while still keeping not becoming too fragile against water should help a bit, no?

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Even better is to bring BK who effectively shuts down Telly and Vela provided he goes off first. Grazul helps as well. Unfortunately neither of those heroes are easy to obtain. But yeah, JF has high enough tile damage alone to contribute to a strong red stack. But if you don’t have a hero who can protect your reds or don’t get Vela off the board quick and JF hasn’t upped the ice def already, then your reds are in trouble JF or no JF. And I think JF ice defense protects only against initial Vela hit. I believe the DoT still applies regardless of the ice def up. If somebody knows otherwise please feel free to correct me.

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Not sure that’s an accurate description of what happened here. What happened to Jean was more akin to commenting in January that you felt like you have been working too many hours lately, then the virus hits and your job shuts down completely. Careful what you wish for.

Nobody, to the best of my recollection, called for him to be cut fully in half.

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True, it all depends if I manage to fire before Vela or not, but that goes for most heroes I guess.

Would be really interested to know more about what you said regarding the dot not being affected by his defense though!

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Damage over time doesn’t seem to typically be affected by def buffs. Vela has the initial hit followed then by a set DoT. Morgan Le Fay and her life drain special does the same amount of damage on a hero regardless of def up or def down. Same with JF, his burn DoT is a set amount of HP drain as well that bypasses defensive buffs or debuffs. The only way to block it prior is to have a hero who is immune to burn aka Kingston or to cleanse before the damage takes effect. JF is also resistant to life drain specifically as Morgan Le Fay applies it or Victor. So my reasoning is based on how DoT has worked prior with def up or down. To the best of my knowledge there is no hero currently who resists water DoT, but being as though it’s fairly new I wouldn’t expect there to be. And for the record I have taken JF to many a Telly/vela fight. Hope that helps :slight_smile:

Edit: adding a link with more about DoT

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Any suggestions if I should final ascend JF or Marjana? I already have Grazul emblemed, am worried both are quite similar defensively. I dun have any 5 star rogue at the moment so Marjana will fit nicely.

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Thanks a lot for the explanation!!! Made me slightly less enthusiastic about leveling my JF. Luckily, I only got him to 2/1 so far…

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You can’t lose either way imo. The more I use JF the more I like him. His burn can get crazy with emblems focused on attack path. Marjana is a great sniper as well and being as though you don’t have a maxed 5* rogue she is well worth the emblems imo. Sorry, I know that doesn’t help but I think the decision should come down to whether you need a red sniper or aoe hitter?

Don’t write JF off :slightly_smiling_face: He is part of my main raid defense currently and he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t have value.

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That’s what got me thinking as well.

My Defense team consist of Abby, Neith, Ursena, Telluria and Grazul or sometimes Magni if i wanna be rainbow. So basically they perform quite well, keeping in diamond is not a problem and i dun chase cups.

Raid offence wise, I prefer Mono, so my Red Teams consists of Wilbur (+20), Grazul, Guardian Falcon(+7), Elena and JF (3/70) at the moment.

I have Khagan who’s sitting at 3/70 for the longest time tho, not considering him.

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Sounds like Marj is the red sniper you’re currently missing :grin: as an aside, Scarlett is well worth maxing for a red team as well provided you have her and/or haven’t maxed her already.

Yes, I already have Scarlett at +7, so once my Majana is maxed I can transfer Emblems to her.

You are correct Palm, AOE vs. Sniper, Sniper will get preference.

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I won’t. Have to think a bit though. Right now I don’t really know. JF would be my first red 5* but I also have Marjana and Elena on the bench.

Not too impressed by Elena apart from her tile dmg so for me it’s between Marjana and JF (maxed 4* Scarlett, Wilbur, Falcon and BT).

Maybe I will just take them both to 2/60 (lack some daggers ATM) and wait for Atlantis and hope for a miracle Gravemaker, I have a lot of coins saved. Then I can postpone my decision :sweat_smile:

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Totally forgot about GM coming up. Good thinking @Meck :+1: And good luck with your AR summons!

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I made the same decision as well. My Marjana and JF are sitting at 3/70 and waiting for the company of GM.
If he fails to appear then I’m leaning towards Marjana as she offers little bit better synergy with BT / Wilbur / Falcon…however I’m 2 rings short from maxing both Marjana and JF so he is next in line anyway…
Unless God Of Burn pops up :wink:

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Hi. I think this not resulting on very good option. My jf gave - 94% against ice. And Vela sit 2 times in a row killing me all. That’s not seem that defense is working good., the screenshot is form the second atcak of Vela. If that’s - 94% I realy don’t wanna see the normal, damage without the defense. Unless the Vela special isn’t blue color and the dot too.

Jean-François increases defense against Ice by 94% (to notice that Azlar and Elena have a very low defense) but Vela does 70% extra damage against Fire heroes… for this reason you still get a solid hit.

And sadly DoT is unaffected by defense modifiers, so Vela would deal the entire 70%-boosted DoT damage to your red heroes.

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Sadly on atack there’s no good defense option against Vela. Normal atack is around 500 to all. That’s a beast, great little water young lady. Note that Zim is +12 emblems and jf +18

There are many options but they aren’t easily obtainable.

As far as red heroes are concerned:

  • Absolute best is Mitsuko, Atlantis portal
  • Useful when timed properly is Grazul’s status aliments immunity
  • Useful when ready to fire is Zimkitha’s cleanse
  • A bit less ufesul is Jean-François’ bonus defense

Absolute best: she alone can counter her
The others just mitigate her effects but can’t save your team completely… they need to be together to negate her.

If for example you had a Zimkitha ready to fire while having Jean-François buff active you would have recovered with her HoT to red allies and the weak link were your slow heroes:
If you had Marjana to exploit her strong damage with G. Falcon’s combo you could have won.

I’m not defending Vela… she is very strong when against reds and a difficult hero to defeat.