Suzuna Empires and Puzzles HotM May 23

Suzuna is Empires and Puzzles’ May 2023 Hero of the Month (HotM), an unconventional HotM, offering unique skills that are usually reserved for the elite.

Let’s not waste any time loitering; let’s jump straight to it! … But first, please share a link to this post somewhere. Cheers!

Suzuna’s Stats and Special Skills (Hero Of The Month)

Key Facts: Ice (Blue), Fast, Cleric, Legends 2023

Special Skills (Easy-breezy Aura): 1. Cleanses Status Ailments from the caster and nearby allies. 2. Caster and nearby reflect Status Ailments and negative Stacks for 3 turns. 3. Caster and nearby regenerate 600 HP over 3 turns 4. [Element Link] Recovers 4% health for all Ice allies for 4 turns (can not be dispelled).

Passive: 1. RESIST FIENDS ~ This character can’t receive Fiends. 2. RESIST HEALING AILMENTS ~ This character has an innate resistance against Ailments that affect healing.

Talent: MANASHIELD ~ +35% chance to resist any negative mana status effects or effects that prevent the use of Special Skills.

Aether Power: DEFENSE UP ~ +20% Defense for 6 turns.

Legends 2023 Family Bonus: 1/2/3 Heroes: +10%/+15%/+20% Defense. Bonus for 2+ Heroes: Element Link affects all allies.

Suzuna’s Surprise (Empires and Puzzles)

First off, the only difference I’m seeing from Beta is the Element Link, and thank goodness for that.

Now Suzuna recovers 4% health for all Ice allies for 4 turns, instead of that pointless Ailment Dodge we’ve been seeing with the others.

Still, on paper, Suzuna can be a tough sell.

After all, in isolation, she’s easy to pick apart:

• She only helps 3 Heroes (herself included)
• She only reflects back for 3 turns
• She only heals for 600 HP

And in truth, I was trying to get her a cheeky Buff in Beta; asking for a small amount of healing first, followed by the incremental 600 HP. Or adding a small increase in Defense for the Heroes that she affects.

But it doesn’t really matter because what we have here is a very useful Hero.

When you look at her Special, and the order of it, you’ll see exactly why Suzuna is useful in the current Meta.

Let’s break it all down, starting by taking a look at her more luxurious rivals.

Suzuna Vs. Empires and Puzzles

There are so few Heroes in Empires and Puzzles with this ability that we can review their Special Skills without requiring an extensive table.

First, here’s a reminder of what Suzuna brings to the table:

Fast (Easy-breezy Aura): 1. Cleanses Status Ailments from the caster and nearby allies. 2. Caster and nearby reflect Status Ailments and negative Stacks for 3 turns. 3. Caster and nearby regenerate 600 HP over 3 turns 4. [Element Link] Recovers 4% health for all Ice allies for 4 turns (can not be dispelled).

Furdinand Vs. Suzuna

Average (Bark of Protection): 1. Cleanses status ailments from all allies. 2. All allies get +63% defense for 4 turns. 3. All allies share received damage with each other for 4 turns. 4. All allies reflect Status Ailments and negative Stacks for 4 turns. 5. All allies regenerate 732 HP over 4 turns.

This may be the last time I refer to Furdinand, if he is to be sent for the snip. Let’s list his elite skills Vs. Suzuna’s rather budgeted copying. -Highlighting where she fails to meet the mark.

• Cleanses first, just like Suzuna ✔
• Increases Defense by a massive +64% for 4 turns ✗
• Shared damage ✗
• Reflect Status Ailments ✔
• Healing 732 (Vs. 600) ✗
• To ALL allies for 4 turns ✗ ✗

Suzuna is a poor variant of Furdinand.

Hawthorn Vs. Suzuna

Average (Medicinal Fumes): 1. All allies regenerate 672 Boosted health over 4 turns (can exceed max HP). 2. All allies receive a moderate amount of Mana over 4 turns. 3. All allies reflect Status Ailments for 4 turns.

The comparison isn’t as distinct here, but as we can see, Hawthorn offers boosted healing and the lifeblood of the game, Mana. Oh, and he also reflects for 4 turns.

Milady de Winter Vs. Suzuna

Slow (Masterful Manipulation): 1. Deals 385% damage to all enemies. 2. The caster regenerates 918 HP over 6 turns. 3. All enemies reflect Status Effects Buffs to a random character on the opposing team for 6 turns. 4. All allies reflect Status Ailments to a random character on the opposing team for 6 turns.

Milady de Winter is more of the same, offering a different skill set, however, a much more potent mixture.

Kitty Vs. Suzuna

Average (Flowers of Kindness): 1. All allies regenerate 450 Boosted health over 3 turns (can exceed max HP). 2. All allies reflect cleansable Status Ailments they would receive to a random character on the opposing team for 3 turns. 3. The caster gets +30% Defense for 3 turns.

And finally, Kitty, a 4 Star Hero from the Musketeer Family. She’s quite similar to Suzuna, although is lacking the ever-so-vital Cleanse.

I can’t think of any other Heroes matching the profile, but this will suffice, I think.

Before we move on, go back and check the Speed of all these Heroes, and then reflect on Suzuna again… She’s Fast!

How To Use Suzuna (Empires and Puzzles)

Suzuna has two main functions she can perform at any given time.

First, she can simply act as a basic classic Cleanser and Healer, like Rigard, or Pro. Lidenbrock, or she can do more by reflecting some of the game’s most potent Ailments back.

The key to her value is found in the order of her Special:

• First the Cleanse
• Then the Reflect Buff
• Then the Healing

On Offence, where you can control the timing of her Special, I’ve found her to be of great use, especially by protecting key members of the Squad against the likes of C. G. Panther and Cupido.

And while Suzuna is a weaker, more downtrodden version of her elite counterparts, I was impressed by the protection she could offer to the likes of Ludwig.

She can also present an offensive threat against powerful Ailment-driven teams.

Of course, there are core issues here, mostly concerning the fact that she only covers 3 Heroes.

But with so few Heroes who actually offer the ability to Reflect Ailments and Negative Stacks, in honesty, picking up Suzuna as a HotM can only add to the depth of a F2P/C2P roster.

And in future, I expect to see more destructive Ailments in E&P, and so in turn, expect to see Suzuna’s value improve over time.

Suzuna’s Build, Passive, and Element Link

The main difference I can see from Beta is the change in the Element Link as mentioned above.

And that’s fantastic news for Suzuna because now she’ll heal all Ice Heroes, and potentially, ALL Heroes (when the Family Bonus goes live), for an additional 4% each turn, for 4 turns.

So, that’s an additional 16% healing over 4 turns, -which is close to what Milena will be left with after the Big Balance Update.

As for the rest of her Build, we see that she can’t receive Fiends, -a powerful bit of protection given Suzuna’s core skills (meaning, Fiends can’t influence her or take her healing).

And also, Suzuna resists Healing Ailments. -Again, ditto, x2, as above.

Ha! And her Cleric Class gives her a +35% chance to resist negative Mana effects and effects that prevent the use of her Special Skill. -Just what you need from a Hero capable of Cleansing her closest confidant(/e)s.

Finally, her Aether Power is Defense Up (by +20% for 6 turns).

On paper, Suzuna doesn’t look fantastic, but I would try her out. If you’ve got an elite version of this type of Hero, then you know what’s what.

But otherwise, run her Unleveled/low level to see how it feels. You might be pleasantly surprised (as I was).

Suzuna Empires and Puzzles – Hero of the Month May 23

My final thoughts:

In my view, the goal of a good HotM nowadays is to achieve Archangel. The days of getting monsters seem to be well and truly behind us.

The question is, Can this Hero help me be competitive?

A secondary question for me is, Can I use this Hero to complete Maps and Stages?

And the answer to both is, Yes.

Suzuna has a short window (3 turns) in which to operate, so timing is crucial. And she’ll only cover 3 Heroes; however, she presents a unique and scarce set of skills. And she does it all at Fast.

I’ve gone from being underwhelmed by Suzuna to not wanting to grade her too low, as I expect she’ll be a great Hero for the teams she finds synergy with.

As always, thank you for reading! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Hero Grade for Suzuna (Empires and Puzzles)

So for my grading, the question is:

Is this hero’s Special capable of/likely to change the outcome of a battle? No.

If not, do they still bring enough to the party to help defeat the deities? Yes.

Old Cynic’s Hero Grade: Archangel

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

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