Season 4 of Empires and Puzzles was officially kicked off on March 25th 2021. I used the gems I’ve saved for a few pulls, shooting for one of the featured new hero “Phileas Fogg”, and end up getting one of the non-featured new 5* heroes: “Lepiota”
My first impression is: the spell looks weak on the paper. After some thoughts and tests, I find her to be extremely useful in an offense line up. Before I explain why, let’s walk through the skill description again:
Mana Speed: Fast
Special Skill: Curse of the Abyss
- Removes all status effects and stacks from the target. Removes even those status effects which are otherwise undispellable or uncleansable.
- Deals 158% damage to the target.
- The target switches into Abyss Ghost form.
- While in Abyss Ghost form, the target received 88damage per turn.
- While in Abyss Ghost form, the target cannot gain mana, can’t do normal attacks and can’t cast special skills but is immune to normal attacks, special skills, status effects and stacks.
- Abyss Ghost form lasts 4 turns.
- Last enemy left in the battle can’t be shifted to Abyss Ghost form.
I’m not wrong about “it looks useless on the paper” first impression right? She reminds me of Ameonna (my first 4* hero) hence the “useless” impression.
But I was completely wrong: she’s a beast in offense. And here’s why:
- The tank (center position in standard formation) is the key to a good defense team, and how fast you can take down this hero almost single-handedly decides whether it’s a W or L. This is mainly tiles charges the mana at 1x speed normally, but if not hitting anything, will charge at 2x speed (without a tank). For very-fast spell heroes (with a level 11+ mana troop), this means a single match (3 tiles) charges ur mana to full to cast your spell. I’m sure players who have played raid or guild war can fully related to this. Fighting a full team is difficult, but if the tank position is gone, no matter how strong the wing and flank heroes are, it’s much easier to win the game. “ target switches into Abyss Ghost form” gives you the full benefit of tank being gone without committing heavy tile / spell damage to kill the tank hero. 7 tiles (8 if you don’t have a level 23+ mana troop) from any lane will guarantee open the mid lane for you. In short, the reason can be summarized as “Increased mana speed”.
- During abyss ghost form, the target is basically removed from the game. Not dealing any damage, nor taking any (other than the ones from Lepiota’s spell). You have 4 turns to take this number advantage and very likely you can charge enough mana for Lepiota to cast the spell again at the end of 4 turns.
- I tested this out today and found out that, if the enemy’s mana is fully charged, and Lepiota cast the spell on this enemy, the enemy will go into ghost form with full mana, but not casting the spell. This is equivalent to silencing the target for 4 turns. You should always time your Lepiota’s spell: save it for the hero you worry about the most.
- Dispell the target: this should be easily understandable to most people who has played the game. It’s a good way to deal with taunt (BK or Grampus) or resurrection buff (Tyr or Atomos).
- On top of all of that, it does a 158% + 88*4 damage.
I’ve changed my mind about this new hero almost completely within 2 days, and I hope this analysis help whoever feels the same about the hero.
