Empires and Puzzles August Update (Winners and Losers)

Yesterday, Empires and Puzzles got its August 2022 Balance Update. And today, I’m going to run down the exciting list of heroes who got blessed.

Let’s find out who the Winners and Losers are!

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The August Balance Update ~ Empires and Puzzles

If this is new news to you, you can check out the particulars direct from the source.

This time around, we saw a bunch of individual heroes buffed & nerfed, so no Family Units (🙂).

Also, a few older heroes managed to get into the buffing queue and weren’t turned away! Impressive stuff.

Anyway, let’s dive in…

Winner: 3-Star Tourneys (Treevil)

A friend suggested Treevil should receive his eulogy, but I don’t think this tree is dead yet.

His Damage was increased to 280%, from 250%, -so a slight buff there. Then comes the pain:

• Attack Ailment reduced from -54% to -34%
• Defense Ailment reduced from -56% to -34%, and
• Mana generation Ailment reduced from -44% to -34%

While this will diminish his scope significantly, he’s still gonna be a go-to for 3-Star Rush Tournaments.

However, now when he fires, One has hope that it is not the end.

Loser: Costumed Alasie

Costumed Alasie has been a popular Mana controlling element for a while now, but yesterday SG decided to put her on ice. Here’s a direct quote:

Costumed Alasie has been a bit too powerful based on our metrics and we have to tone her special down slightly.

Small Giant Games (E&P Forum -link above)

And, I think the keyword there is, ‘slightly’.

While they did increase her Special Attack (up to 436% from 412% before), they also thawed out her Mana manipulation Skills:

• Reducing her Mana reduction to 10% (down from 20%), and her
• Mana generation Ailment can now be Cleansed.

I imagine the 10% reduction in Mana will allow opponents to bounce back slightly quicker than before.

And if they happen to have a Cleanser on staff, they’ll be able to shake off that pesky Mana Ailment and crack on with energizing their mystic powers.

But it remains to be seen how much impact this will have on C. Alasie’s overall usage.

What are your thoughts?

Winners: Jade, Vela, Noor, and Myztero

In this Balance Update, a few old heroes got some love, which is great to see.

There was no way these guys were ever gonna be brought up to code, but they have seen some reasonable improvements:

Vela, probably the most famous of the lot, received a buffed Special Attack (from 130% damage to all, to 150%) and an improved Ailment (from -24% Attack to -34%).

Vela was actually nerfed way back in the day, but this afternoon was seen weeping in the parking lot of SG-HQ, as news of this wonderful occasion disseminated.

“Finally”, she whimpered, “I have my justice”.

Nobody had the nerve to explain that she’d still be on the bench.

In other news, Jade got a hit! Now 115% damage to all on her first Ninja charge, then 210% on the second, and 300% on the third. Woah…

Jade’s a badass now… Winner

That’s awesome stuff.

Here’s her second Ninja charge (10 tiles):

• Deals 210% to all
• Reduces Mana of all enemies by 15% (Where’s Costumed Alasie at?)
• Caster and nearby allies Dodge Special Attacks that do damage by 50%

And the third charge is crazy (15 tiles):

• Deals 300% to all
• Reduces Mana of all enemies by 25%
• Caster and nearby allies Dodge Special Attacks that do damage by 75%

Back to our scheduled programming

Noor got a nice little heal attached to her Special (10% for all allies), and Myztero got a small boost to his Special Attack damage (from 107% to 157%).

Not a bad haul at all.

Loser: Cao Cao’s Archangel Hero Grade

It was a real challenge for me grading Cao Cao first time around. His Minions are pretty badass, but as a package, he was sitting somewhere between Archangel and Deity for me.

I went with Deity in the end, but my readers quickly made a number of good points, more than enough for me to reconsider and drop him to Archangel.

But now SG has stepped in, significantly buffed him, and turned him into a big hitter (From 275% to all, to 330% to all), added a Skill (+30% Defense for 4 turns), all the while his Talented Minions have remained the same.

If published today, Cao Cao would rank 9th in my Minimum Potential Big Hitters list.

He has done very well indeed.

Winner: Old Cynic (Esme)

Esme has always shown great potential. Even as a child, they would often remark on what a great person she’d grow up to be.

Her childhood home was littered with crayon drawings (often collected to replace the last stuck to the fridge door). Her art projects took pride of place on the Living Room mantel, and her certificate for winning the 50-meter dash was framed and hung in her father’s Den.

But in adulthood, things took a turn for the worse.

She had done everything she was ‘supposed’ to do, but nothing seemed to work out the way she’d been prompted to expect.

It was a great achievement to enter the realm of Empires and Puzzles, but it was soured by the fact that she wasn’t important or noteworthy.

In fact, nobody really liked her at all.

She’d call home on the weekends, and it was only her father who could console her. Often reminding her of all the potential locked up inside.

And yesterday, in between her normal duties, she cut herself on a piece of discarded Treevil. She went to heal herself, as she had done a million times before, but this time…

BOOM! 😄

That’s sooo silly. But it’s staying in.

TLDR: Esme got buffed, -is now an Overhealer and Fiend super queen. 650 for Ave is like a truckload… please see Rhys and, C. Ariel, Garnet (520/400 for Ave) for comparison. Heimdall=Slow does 500 Overheal. Old man cynic’s got a copy of Esme, so is happy. Azmia is also looking forward to working with Esme in the more immediate future.

August Balance Update (Empires & Puzzles)

I liked this update a lot. Of course, I have Esme, but also, it was refreshing to see some older heroes take a buff.

That said, I do need to go back and revisit Cao Cao and Esme to make it all make sense…

So while I’m doing that, why not share your thoughts in the comments below?

[Please always check in-game Hero Cards to confirm details and never chase Heroes]

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Images used by way of review/tutorial – Copyright owned by Empires & Puzzles: Small Giant/Zynga Games