Jean-François – February 2020 HOTM
Stats:
Attack 737 | Defense 723 | HP 1332
Class: Wizard
Resist: : Health Steal Ailments – The Hero has an innate ability to resist status ailments that Steal Health.
Element: Fire/Red
Special: Seal of fire
Mana Speed : Fast (8 tiles)
- All enemies receive 302 Burn damage over 2 turns.
- All allies get +94% defense against Ice for 4 turns.
- All allies get Defense Status Ailment Protection for 4 turns. New status ailments affecting defense will be replaced by +42% defense for 4 turns.
- Element Link gives all Fire allies +10% critical chance for 6 turns. This effect can’t be dispelled.
Jean-François Hero Review:
When talking about Burn damage, the first hero that comes to mind would definitely be Gravemaker. Gravemaker has been an insanely popular hero –
“GRAVEMAKER remains the undisputed “KING of the HILL” for 36 consecutive collection periods! Dating back to August 2018.
#1 Gravemaker in 51.14% of the Top-100 teams; same spot, 1 duplicate use.”
Source: titanmafia.com
Gravemaker does 298 burn damage over 2 turns to 3 targets & 135% attack damage. While Jean-Francois does 302 burn damage over 2 turns to 5 targets, and being 1-2 tile slower.
Burn damage is affected by attack increment on troops (not affected by other buffs and defense modifiers.)
For those who have used Gravemakers, or fought against Gravemakers before, you will know that the initial damage isn’t really much – its the burn over time that really hurts.
This means that Jean-Francois will deal a minimum of 302 damage per hero once his special skill lands. At a fast mana speed, this amount of damage is really significant, as much as every other fast aoe heros (Zeline, Vela) which usually averages about 300-400 damage per hero.
The rest of Jean-Francois buff’s are really icing on the cake. The damage already makes him highly viable for a placement in most raid teams.
There are downsides to having burn damage instead of direct damage. Jean-Francois will not be able to prevent enemy heroes from activiating their special skill / attack on offensive raids (Damage over time on enemy heroes ALWAYS take place AFTER special skill and attack)
Jean-François in Offense
On offense, you should be able to maximize the damage output of Jean-Francois easily. You simply have to avoid status ailments resist and status ailment cures on the opponent team (Rigard, Ariel, Vivica, Zimthika etc).
Along with his fast mana charge, you should be able to take out your opponent with relative ease and speed.
The downside is that Jean-Francois is unable to prevent opponents from firing their special skills as the DoT will only take place at the end of the opponent’s turn.
Jean-François in Defense
For the attacker, Damage over time effects take place BEFORE special skill activation and tile matching.
This means that Jean Francois has a high probability of taking out opponents healers before they are able to activate any special skill. This is what makes Gravemaker such a royal pain in the *ss to play against.
Jean-Francois has further defensive buffs that make it difficult for your opponents to take him down, considerably harder to kill than compared to Gravemaker.
Jean Francois is significantly weaker in the Wing position. Wing positions usually build up mana over turns, instead of absorbing tiles like the tank and flank positions.
This means that Jean Francois will only be able to fire late into the raid, when you really want solid damage, snipers to finish off enemy heroes.
Tank Position – A
Flank Position – A+
Wing Position – B
Jean-François against Titans
Choice of heroes on titan fight are based on the following criteria
1. Does the special skill allow me to deal more damage?
2. Attack Stat
In this case, Jean-Francois has a Critical Damage buff for his teammates, and a relatively decent attack stat.
Sadly, his defensive buffs against Green/Nature titans does not do much, neither does his special.
Jean-François Hero Grade/Rating
Offence – B
Defence Wing – B
Defence Flank – A
Defence Tank – A
Titan – B
Tournaments Bloody Battle – B
Tournaments Rush Attack – A
Tournaments Buff Booster – A+
Overall A
Hi!
I’m in total agreement with you on the score, and I was lucky enough to pull JF as my first HOTM (so I might be a little bit biased). Then for good measure I pulled a second one
Anyways: Other reviews says he’s a B, amongst them is Anchor, which I find rather offensive!
Why is there such a big difference in your guys’ reviews? Any thoughts on that? 🙂
I’m still waiting for hidden blades to take him up to 3.70 (after which there’ll be an extremely long wait for rings as I just did Marjana in January..), but when I’ve used him in wars he’s been a lifesaver! Looking very much forward to use him at full strength, he’ll be a real killer for sure!
Hi Ban,
I really really like him, I think that he can be quite good.
However, he does pale in comparison with Gravemaker – and I think that is the reason why the grades are so different. It is easy for gravemaker to fire his special at 6 tiles, while it takes a lot of effort for JF to activate his special at 7 tiles.
That is already a significant difference. However, if we look at it objectively, JF does the same amount of Damage Azlar would do at fast speed, with defensive buffs. So to me, that is what makes JF good.
I really like this blog. Informative and helps me a lot on how to use heroes. Great stuff man! Keep it up!
Thank you for your kind words!
Keep it up I will!
Hello!
I have both JF and Telluria. I was wondering who to ascend first as I have limited materials. I personally think Telluria performs better than JF but your review states otherwise. JF is rated A+ and Telluria is B. May I have your expert opinion on this?
Both heroes are great, I like JF more than I like Telluria.
That’s because I tend to prefer offensive plays to defensive heroes. You can use an offensive hero in a defense position, but you seldom want a defensive hero in a raid attack. That’s the way my playstyle goes..
Get them to 3-70, play around with them, see which you like better and decide from there!
Thanks Athena!
Ok that makes more sense..I guess I have to give JF a chance ..I was just bummed about his DOT which only lasts 2 turns 🙁
I thought Colen could do a better job than that.
Then again, I am still new to this game..
Thanks for your input!
DOT that lasts a shorter time is better. It’s more damage within the same turn. This also means that you are less likely to “waste” the damage from a succession of activation of JF’s special!
Good luck to you that you have both… I have neither… 🙁
Great review! How would you talent grid him? I keep going back and forth on defense or attack. Thoughts? Thanks!
Hello! Attack stats does not increase the burn damage.. but increase attack by x amount increases the burn damage. Since Jean Francois main damage dealer is from the burn damage, which is not affected by the attack stats, then you will want to go defense to increase the chances of J-F surviving long enough to activate his special skill multiple times..
is that so? so jean francois burn damage will be increase if hes pairing with boldstuck, rigard or kirin how have increase attack team skill? is that right?
Hi Rvn,
Attack buffs does not increase burn damage – i am not sure why they designed it this way.
Only troops and emblems affect the burn damage.
So if raise talent skill JF with emblem attack/sword it will raise DoT JF? Tq sir
What max DoT jf with max atk skill & troops?
The increase will approximately be 35% of the base damage