Things aren’t all bad, then, mi compadre? And we learn to appreciate what little we have.
The HoTM I have on my roster is heavy on the Class of 2020 (Vela, JF, Malosi, Noor, and Glenda), and these I don’t use together often. For the rest, Gravy (2018), Frida (2019) and Chuck (2021) - Working on Gravy, Frida get used most with Vela in my Red Titan team and so the most I can make do is their elemental link, and haven’t even touched Chuck yet and his bonus won’t be available until the end of the year.
7 in like 3+ years is …. “Okay”. It’s better than not having them, that’s for sure. Although I feel like I am not maximizing Zim’s abilities yet TBH.
I was just counting who could benefit from the boost. My understanding is:
If you have a single HotM hero that hero can give itself the family boost.
If you have 2+ all family member get the boost.
If you have 2+ the elemental link for each HotM applies to the entire team regardless of HotM status. So, for example, with my Glenda Raff combo all 5 heroes would get Glenda’s minion and Raffaele’s special D boost as those are their elemental links.
This is mostly for my own clarification because they made it somewhat confusing. If I did a team with my 2019, 2020, and 2 other hero if they all fired every hero would have 4 active elemental link abilities. That’s where combos can probably get insane.
Yup, and I think there are screenshots of people with stacked elemental links. You can get some interesting buff boosters. I have a few “orphan” HoTMs like Athena and Zimkitha, but I also have a bunch from 2020 (Malosi, J-F, Clarissa, Bai Yeong) and 2021 (Devana, Uraeus, Chakkosrot). I always use Malosi, but now I may throw in Clarissa now. Devana and Uraeus are ones I usually pair against purple minion generators, so that works well. But I don’t had the tail wag the dog, if the combo makes sense, I’ll use it, otherwise, no point in putting in a subpar option just for the sake of elemental/family links.
I thought this too, but I’m finding a surprising synergy with some unexpected combinations.
I’ve been raiding a lot with Alby/Hel in combination with Raffaele/another 2020 + one other (usually Caed or Sonya)
I thought the only “other 2020” would always be Vela, but sometimes Clarissa works too if I think I need more purple. So I’ve gone from always 3-2 or 4-1 to sometimes 2-2-1 or 3-1-1 which can be a lot less board dependent.
So I suggest playing around with it. There might be some surprising results
Clarification
Alby & Hel have the same element link, as do Raffaele & Clarissa. So they don’t stack, but they still get the family bonus and share those element links to everyone
Oy I had opted out of war since completing the POV war requirements so yesterday war for the first time with family bonus. I’m going to need to rethink all my war teams
That is the change I am making now with both HotM families and my big final ascension party. I now have a lot more viable 5* with more abilities. Given how formations work I am really leaning towards rainbow or 2-1-1-1 or 3-1-1 mixes.
The biggest thing I noticed was the raids go slower. Without the atomic tile damage of mono, or a heavy stack, you’re grinding a lot more. In a lot of ways it’s more satisfying to get those wins though too.
Oh for sure. I mean, I’ve dragged J-F off the bench sometimes, though the 2020 family link isn’t that great (increased healing), and unfortunately his elemental link is the same as Malosi’s. But Clarissa and Malosi work pretty well because she gives the defense against specials, while Malosi gives the crit. I do pair Clarissa and J-F on my raid defense.
Personally, I’d love to get anyone else in the 2017 HoTM to pair with Athena. Her elemental link of +15% atk/def is something I can’t resist. I’ll even take Perseus since his elemental link is mana generation.
Likewise, I could use a 2018 to pair with Zimkitha to give the defense family bonus and her health elemental link. Ideally, it would be Gravemaker which would make a decent fast red stack. But we can always dream.
Either of you regularly run Raff/Vela? It would be the same element links as @Quinn3 mentions. It’s also about the only 2020 pairing I can do that makes sense, since my only other 2020 is Zulag.
Not really seeing a lot of synergy with my 2021s, either (Bertila, Devana, and Yang Mai), but if the rumored +30% crit chance with three family members is the family bonus, maybe a late war rainbow team could make sense.
The Family Bonus, as far as I have gone testing (what little I have to test with), goes something like this.
If you have just one HoTM, say for example Gravemaker, a 2018 HoTM. With just him on the roster, he gives just himself a 10% Def bonus (So that means I had to back-track a little about what I said earlier about Family bonus of zilch effect if you don’t have more than one of the same year, it will at least give you the 1 hero bonus). If you have another of the same year, say a Alasie on the team, there is the 2018 HoTM family bonus of 15% for both Gravemaker and Alasie.
If you have two from the same year (see the above) GM + Alasie example, their elemental link effects off of their specials would affect the entire party instead of just themselves or their same elemental allies, regardless of elemental affiliation.
I tested this with Glenda (2020) and Gravemaker (2018) both still work in progress, by having just them on the team, they give their own family bonuses to themselves and no one else. e.g. Gravemaker got 10% Def and Glenda gets her 10% healing bonus. But when their specials activated, it doesn’t do anything different than pre-family bonus status, e.g. Glenda generates Ice Minion for herself (unless you also have other Ice heroes). Gravemaker gives the Attack/Def up bonus for himself and only (unless you also have Fire heroes).
The next test would be to have +2 from the same year, I swapped out Gravemaker and subbed in Malosi. When Malosi fires, everyone on the team gets his elemental link (Crit Up), and when Glenda fires, everyone on the team gets the Ice Minion.
In the example you gave with Glenda and Raff, they themselves are benefiting from the 2+ same HoTM family bonus (15% heal), they are already getting the Ice Elemental Link for both being Ice heroes (this is pre-family bonus), their effects would just extend to the other 3 on the party, regardless of whether they are ice or not.
Pre-nerf Vela was a staple on my mono blue teams; man, she was brutal against any troublesome red hero. But for the moment, I usually go with Krampus - Thorne - Isarnia - Sonya (with or without costume) - C. Kiril. In the rare case where I don’t need either dispel or cleanse, I swap in Vela. I’m always a bit afraid running Raff as my only healer, because he is slow, and mono can go sideways in a hurry.
I’ve almost got enough for a second mono blue team, though with Raff - Vela - Frank and some combination of a second Sonya, Boril, or Valeria. Maybe I ought to consider Krampus - Isarnia - Thorne - Vela - Raff sometime. The element links don’t stack, though, right? It’s one or the other, if they are both the same color.
Element links stack if they are different. Vela and Raff have different element links so they stack. But Raff and Clarissa both have def against special skills don’t stack. So when I use Alby and Hel their element links are the same and don’t stack, but having both of them extends that element link to the whole team
So I was thinking whether to keep saving my EHTs for Christmas, or spend them now on Halloween. Decided to spend them now because -
Francine costume (Green elemental defense down, albeit only to Blue ) and Vanda/costume (ailment block) are key missing skills from my roster (I do have cleansers and ailment blockers, but none in Red!)
Christmas skills won’t add as much to my roster (I’m lucky enough to have Anton for resurrecting, so Mother North becomes less crucial; already have Santa; and already tank with Richard-C and have good blue snipers in Lepus/Magni so not as much need for Krampus and Pengi; and Marcel covers normal defense down in Green so less need for Buddy)
Thinking about it another way - two skills that I would really like are the Green and Purple elemental defense downs.
For Green, there’s Almur. Among the 5*s, Francine-C is probably the most likely simply because I can collect EHTs more easily than, say, Tavern coins (for Evelyn). Now, Valhalla coins are a pain to collect so I’ll probably need to save Gems up.
For Purple, there’s Sergei. I can at least collect Tower coins more easily than Valhalla coins… but it might come down to Gems too, in the end. Panther is the other possibility, but a 5* so…
Well anyway, that was my reasoning. I used up all 20 EHTs left in my inventory…
One Valeria, One Kelile, and the rest 3*s (5 Halloween and 13 vanilla). whoopie!
Sorry for your bad luck, however the odds for getting a seasonal 5* are pretty low as you may know.
I didn’t touch any of my EHTs (keeping all for Christmas), however I aim to get Buddy, a 4*, as green defense down. As opposed to that you aim for 5* so it’s up to you to decide which ones you like best.
As a side note, I did make a lot of EHT summons from my alts. Got a number of Vlads, one Valeria and one cFrank…so I guess it’s about the same.
Yeah indeed, I went into it expecting nothing and got nothing. It’s too bad EHTs can only really be used in the seasonal portals, as my top targets now are outside those portals.
Same here. It’s really sad that the most important heroes that remain behind a paywall are the elemental def down heroes. Additionally there are also the green heroes that buff attack, the good yellow average speed healers and the yellow def debuffers.
Yeah, I think SG does that on purpose to drive revenue . Especially, they don’t want to make them available in Hero Academy, so summoning is the only way. They know that spenders will pay to summon these (and others), and they want non spenders to target those certain portals…
Also now the only 3* Purple healer is locked behind that alliance quest paywall…
Sorry @sleepyhead for your bad luck! And at a once-a-year event… These chances are horrible.
I am saving my EHTs for next Springvale. I don’t think I would have much chance to draw either Krampus, or MN with the costume, using 15 EHTs which is probably what I will have by then. They have been dropping extra slowly this last year.
These chances are horrible.