I tried to do a google for this question, but came up with not much. I am a CH2P player and managed to get JF back in February. He is the only 5 star red I have, but he seems very underwhelming to me. My question to the community is whether he’s worth the rings (I’m one short now) or should I hold them for a better five star red down the road? I’d rather not run into a situation where I regret wasting the materials later. Thanks for any advice you can lend guys.
Underwhelming compared to who?
Couple additional questions:
- Do you have other options?
- how many rings do you have?
- You said C2P, do you plan on staying that way? By C2P is that just VIP? or VIP + some deals…?
Personally (if it were me) I would pull the trigger. He may seem underwhelming but he’s one of those sneaky good heroes. When you have him in your hands on offence, you can time him & make use of him when there isn’t a cleanser about to fire. The fact that he hits all and does a considerable amount of damage over 2 turns is pretty powerful.
In terms of use on defence, if you peruse the top 100, you’ll see that the second most common Red Flank to Telluria (behind Gravemaker) is Jean-Francois… At times, he’s actually more common than GM…
So yeah, if it were me I would pull the trigger… after all, a bird in the bag is better than 2 in the bush.
5 Likes
He is really pretty good. He is NOT a great defensive hero as a cleanser literally renders him useless, but on offense he can wreak real havoc. He has the blue defense, flips defense down ailments, and has that full team burn at fast mana. He is way underrated by this forum because he is weak in defense. Level him and don’t look back. He’ll serve you well.
Have you gotten him as far as he can without max ascension? If not, I strongly recommend that. He serves me well, and you may come to love him too. If you take him to level 70 and he’s still underwhelming, though, then maybe he’s just not your style. I just max ascended mine because I like him (and because I had 11 rings anyway without a better alternative). I might use him forever. But if you’ve gotten to know him and he’s not your thing, then I see no reason to pretend to like him enough to give him rings. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Another question: How many rings do you have? If you have 10+, then yeah, you might as well anyway
Further assessment: I didn’t level Jean-Francois for his defense block. It’s really fun for me to watch things wither in flame. Remember, you may be pleasantly surprised by how much he actually burns once the troop attack bonus boosts his burn damage. It’s quite often I look at an opponent’s HP, see that the flames will take him anyway, and then simply turn to attack someone else. I really like that feeling.
Now, if you’re lucky, that defense guard will come in handy. I enjoy pitting JF and Tiburtus against heroes like Wilbur. Once I activate JF and then intentionally aggravate the opponent’s Wilbur, I suddenly have +63% defense. Then I use Tiburtus, and next thing they know, I’m using their own power against them. I really enjoy pulling stunts like that. With a variety of heroes, you can do that more often. I also stack my Neith against opposing Wu Kongs to give my enemies -70% accuracy. Great fun!
I also often use Hansel & Gretel to shut down practically everyone in an offensive raid. Tricks like that will make sure they never get to cleanse the flame. If you have nothing to put a cork in their cleansers, I don’t know how good Jean-Francois would be. But I always have such a cork, so I am never disappointed.
3 Likes
When you have a lot of options, you can question. But JF is a fine hero. If you can’t be with the one you love honey, love the one you’re with. Love the one you’re with. Do do do do do do dodo!
In my honest opinion, and I have this hero, he is not underwhelming at all. He really is good. So worth the mats 100%.
I am just waiting for two rings to max him out and then he will flank my green tank Telluria.
Good luck
Thanks for all the great responses. The reason I’m asking is because he seems underwhelming to me, but it might be all in my head or maybe I’m not using him correctly. Or maybe he’s a good hero that just happened to get sandwiched between two of the best heroes in the game (Vela and Telluria). I have a Malosi at 2-60 and I think he’s good, I have Lianna at 3-70 and I think she’s great, I have Joon at 3-70 and I think he’s great, I have King Arthur at 4-38 and I think he’s great. I just got a Kageburado during Atlantis and I have him at 2-33 and he’s great. I have Horghall at 2-60 (costume, but that hasn’t been leveled yet) and I’m kinda ho-hum on him.
I actually have 2 copies of JF (those are my only 5 star red heroes). One hasn’t been started yet and the other is at 3-70. He’s on my defense team on the flank with a bold tusk in the grid on the other flank, with Kashrek as the tank.
I have a total of 5 rings right now. PoV should net me another soon and the rare quest will come back around. I went hard after Gravemaker or Mitsuko for Atlantis, which ended up being a huge mistake. 76 pulls and just Kageburado was a bummer, but live by the RNG, die by the RNG.
I’m a CH2P player most of the time (I admit Gravemaker and Clarissa pushed me to go over for Atlantis). I try to stick to VIP and the first offer of Atlantis and the first offer of Valhalla per month. So that’s 3200 gems a month plus VIP.
How JF works flanking Ursena ? The other flank would be Vela. I know the optimal tank for him is Telluria but i couldnt pull her so i have to play with the heroes i have
I think JF is somewhat unfairly maligned because his early beta form was so much more destructive, and because he isn’t an oppressive force on D, which is how many people judge heroes they don’t have. Still, he fits very well in the current meta and I think he’s only behind two red heroes on D in a Telluria+Vela core: GM and Black Knight. His overall stats are solid, his DOT damage scales well, his defense-down protection is very useful, and his spirit link can really help in a stack.
That being said, I do think he is somewhat lackluster if you don’t have the emblems to boost his damage. Before Telluria came along he was also somewhat hampered on offense by being practically useless against one of the best green heroes due to Kingston’s burn resistance, though that is now less of an issue. I find it somewhat annoying that he gets practically nothing out of the Wizard talent, although he isn’t alone in that. He can also feel frustrating when his special gets shut down by a monk resisting it, but the flip side of that is ignoring all defense, attack down, and riposte.
Ultimately, the only red heroes I’d always recommend prioritizing over him are GM, Black Knight, and Mitsuko. Plenty others can join that list based on individual rosters. If he’s going to be on D then I think he really suffers on the wing and I’d even rather have Marjana out there, I think.
Def worth rings max him
I think that’s a pretty high compliment and it seems most people are fairly high on JF. I’m at TC19 right now and I was gonna push to 20 to possibly get some S1 five star heroes. It sounds like no one is recommending any of the original five star reds in place of JF (Marjana, Elena, Azlar, or Khagan).
I’ll push forward with JF. Thanks everyone for the help and any other opinions wouldn’t hurt my feelings.