Francine
This is not optimal since the theory behind family bonuses are the heroes are a set and a complete set is more powerful than a lone hero.
I would rather 2x 4*+18 Valeria on a team ( no family bonus but good synergy ) than Vanda 5* 4.80 and Francine 5* 4.80 on the same team.
Since Victor, and Vlad, were not buffed, I do not expect Francine and Vanda to ever be synergistic.
From a Dev point of view, Empires is very anti balancing. It takes so much resources to summon a 5* hero and level it to 5*+20 that game play cannot be easily adjusted over a wide range of heroes. Unlike games with easier access to 5*+20 heroes ( weeks or months instead of Empires’ years or never ).
Vanda
Vanda, and Francine, are basically anti status ailment heroes. But both have positives and negatives.
Francine is more forgiving with timing ( slightly larger window of use/ duration, fire before or after ailment) but less powerful ( only works if ailment can be cleansed and only reduces duration of some ailments like defense debuff ).
Vanda is more powerful ( works on all ailments) but more finicky with timing ( fire before ailment and smaller window of use/ duration).
Frank
From a very good friend of mine
To bring Frank in line with costume purple 4* Tiburtus, and purple 3* Guardian Bat. I would change to average mana speed.
From another topic
Definitely not impressed with Frank.
Though rumor from Beta, Frank is better than Beta version 0.1 so at least the Devs know his concept is not great.
On the plus side, the new Halloween heroes make Valeria ( after Devs buffed her direct damage ) look even better. Especially because 2x 4*+18 is easier to summon and level.
Jack
A discussion of both Carol ( Christmas, still Beta ) and Jack ( Halloween, released ).
Huh.
Just realized Jack’s delayed DOT is actually LESS effective if Jinx triggers since more likely to kill the target thus nullifying the delayed DOT damage to the nearby enemies. So you only want Jinx to trigger on normal/ matching/ tile damage.
That was a less than optimal design decision.
Valeria as a monk is very handy ( especially against mana control like Hansel, Proteus, etc. ).
As a side note, Carol ( Beta Christmas hero ) has zero direct damage, reduces mana and has Delay ( Sorcerer ). All of which improve, and are synergistic, with Empires’ version of delayed DOT ( even though delayed DOT could still use a buff to the basic mechanics. see above link ).