th, 2019, the Hall of Heroes for the water Death Knight Fedora (yeah, that’s legit his name) was announced. We knew this HoH had been incoming for a while now – I mean, he’s prime HoH candidate: looks good on paper, not so good in practice, and really just good for skillups to be honest. Did you know that the Death Knights is probably the second monster family to have four members be Hall of Heroes? The other family is the Undines. Before we begin, Hall of Heroes is a lot like Trial of Ascension, so that means you can use Trial of Ascension strategy and monsters (e.g. attack bar pushbacks, stuns and continuous damage are king). I strongly advise bringing your regular Trial of Ascension team. In my case, I’m using Baretta (L), Frigate, Maruna, Shaina, and Charlotte. Let’s cut the chatter and get on with it!

Is Fedora Usable?

He is…definitely not. I mean, he sounds pretty good on paper, because of his third skill, Decline. He’s a bit like a budget Velajuel – he’ll cleanse all allies of harmful effects, grant Endure on everyone for one turn, and Immunity for two turns. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, there are things setting him back. For one thing, Decline has a really high cooldown, meaning you’ll have to put him on Violent or a really fast Swift set and pray he cycles a lot of turns. Because of this, he also requires really good runes, and for early-game and mid-game players, it’s a lot of hassle, and just generally not worth it. There are far better monsters who basically do the same thing as Fedora, and if you pull a Velajuel, you can just completely stick him in storage. In other words, do not build Fedora. Rune Recommendations: I just said do not build, but if you want to torture yourself, Violent/Swift + Endure; SPD/HP%/HP%

Stage 1

Away we go to Stage 1! Here, we have three Arnolds (fire Death Knights) and two Aquilas (wind Brownie Magicians) The Threat: I’d definitely say that Arnold is the biggest threat here. He’s basically Mo Long before Mo Long was introduced into the game. His third skill, Extortion, will drain life from an enemy and add a healblock for 2 turns onto them. Now, the amount of HP he drains is equivalent to 30% of his total HP. Granted, Mo Long’s third skill deals 70% of the enemy’s HP and reflects it back onto him, but still. Double Arnold used to be a huge meta, way back when Summoner’s War had been first released in 2014. Can you believe we’re almost at SW’s 5 year anniversary now? I know I can’t! …Anyway, let’s get back to the article, and talk about why Aquila isn’t something you should just ignore, either. Did you know that he and Soha are the only two four-star monsters who have an AoE strip? It’s true; Aquila’s third skill Unexpected Exposure attacks all enemies and removes the beneficial effects off of them. This means that if you have, say, Attack buff and Defense Buff, Aquila will attack all your allies, go through the accuracy/resistance check (but more likely than not be able to remove ALL the buffs off of everyone), which leaves you vulnerable to Arnold. …Even though if he uses Extortion, it’s flat damage that can’t be mitigated from what I’m told. The Solution: Kill Aquila first. I know what my usual advice is: “go for the nukers and the target the supports” but this time, going for the supporters is key here. In the meantime, keep Arnold stunned while you chip away at the HP of those pesky hamsters. I’m not too sure about it (so don’t quote me on this) but I’m pretty sure that if you use a monster that destroys Max HP, it’ll be less damage that Arnold does with his third. If someone’s already tried this out, let me know in the comments if this works or not.

Stage 2

This time in stage 2, we’ve got three Briands (wind Death Knights) and two Aegirs (water Barbaric Kings) The Threat: Oh, Aegir. Definitely Aegir. Does anyone remember when this guy was Hall of Heroes? I was a wee little nooblet back then who was still building her first DB10 team, and I remember asking in the Summoner’s War subreddit if Aegir was a good replacement for Megan. A lot of people told me “no Sara, he’s pretty much useless” Well, look at him now! He’s been buffed and now he’s become a huge part in the Season 8 meta of RTA. His kit is just really overloaded now. His first skill provides two Continuous Damage on one enemy, his second skill lands a Brand for 2 turns on another and increases his attack bar by 50%, AND his third skill’s pretty hard to sum up in one sentence, so I’ll just go into the next paragraph. Confiscate will attack an enemy twice, each attack having a 75% chance to steal a beneficial effect from an enemy, like how Chilling likes to steal buffs and place them on himself. If the enemy has no beneficial effects on them on that attack, he’ll absorb 50% of their attack bar. Basically, if your monster has an attack buff and 50% attack bar, he’ll take that buff for himself and then absorb that attack bar. On top of that, he deals damage too! Just when you thought you were free from Aegir, though, Briand comes smashing through the wall with Supply! People think Briand is the best of the elemental Death Knights because of his reviving skill, where he revives a dead ally at 1 HP, and then evens the HP ratio of all allies. Basically, if he has one dead ally and all three allies have 100%, he’ll revive that ally and then balance everyone’s HP out so it’s equal, meaning everyone (including the now revived ally) will be at, like, 70% HP. The Solution: Kill Briand, all three of them. Revivers are literally the worst thing to deal with. My usual advice is to kill revivers, then healers, damage dealers, and then supporters. This you should know if you’ve been following my Hall of Heroes articles while now, and this is no different. Admittedly, Briand isn’t the most overpowered of the revivers – there are far stronger, like Iona or Eladriel – but in Hall of Heroes, every reviver is a terrible reviver who must die immediately. Remember that with Briand around, the Aegir you just killed could be revived with 50% or more HP! If you’re like me, that’s another guarantee that you’re dead.

Stage 3

WHO DARES TO TRY AND DISGUISE THEMSELVES AS THE BEST GURL CHARLOTTE – ahem, sorry. I’m…a bit of a Charlotte fanatic. Anyway, miniboss time! You don’t have to kill the lackeys in this stage. The boss herself is Anavel (water Occult Girl) and two Antares (fire Liches) The Threat: Usually, it’s the miniboss themselves themselves that are the threat; the one who does the most damage. In this case, though, Antares is the one who’s got a good chance to kill you. His passive Transcendence doesn’t let you sacrifice him to get a Transcendence Scroll, sadly, but instead he has a 15% chance to gain an additional turn. When he does get this turn, his attack power and Critical Rate will also be increased for that turn. Also, he deals a lot of damage. His second skill Sinkhole will attack all enemies multiple times, and will heal himself for 50% of the damage dealt to each enemy. Additionally, he has a 25% chance to absorb 15% of the enemy’s attack bar per hit. This doesn’t mean Anavel is a sitting duck, though; she herself is really good too. Her third skill Water Guardian Angel attacks all enemies thrice, decreasing their defense for 3 turns. On top of that, she has the Girl’s Prayer second skill of the Occult Girls, which cleanses all allies of harmful and inability effects, and will heal them all based on her attack power. I myself would really like an Anavel, but if I never get another Occult Girl after Charlotte, I’m okay with that. What I’m trying to say is that Antares will be the one who nukes you a lot, but Anavel herself has damage she can dish out. The Solution: Well, I know I say “kill the boss and ignore the lackeys” but this time, I think you really should get rid of Antares first. Usually, keeping the lackeys stunned would work just fine, but Antares can actually proc out of those stuns! In other words, if you’re feeling lucky, you can ignore him, but y’know what? It would honestly be helpful to just kill him. Once both Antares’ are dead, then you can work on Anavel. In the higher floors, she’s got good chances of oneshotting your mons with Water Guardian Angel, but as long as you keep her defense broken, you should be good. That doesn’t mean that she won’t cleanse out of it with Girl’s Prayer, but otherwise you should be alright.

Stage 4

Oh, and here comes the stage that probably took me the most time to clear. Here we have three Diases (dark Death Knights) and two Figaros (light Jokers) The Threat: There’s no monster that’s an outright nukers, but they’re all very annoying to deal with. Dias decreases the damage all his allies take by 15%, and decreases his chances of being hit with a Critical Hit by 50%. This doesn’t stack up with any damage reduction passives, but even when you kill a Dias, you’ll still have two more to kill. Aaaaaand then there’s Figaro. Before Garo was buffed, his passive was a lot like Figaro’s is now. Camouflage gives him a 25% chance to cancel any incoming damage he takes. He’ll also remove one beneficial effect from each enemy he attacks. He also happens to have the Surprise Box second skill too, so that’s annoying. The Solution: Oh, definitely kill all three Diases before anyone else. People say that Dias and Darion can frequently fight for the role of “who’s the best R5 damage reducer” and it’s not very hard to see why. It’ll take you a little while to kill them all, but at least they don’t have random chances to just straight-up not take damage at all. When Dias is down for the count, you can safely work on Figaro. Figaro is also be difficult to deal with, due to his chances of just not taking damage, but at least he doesn’t reduce damage on all allies. When all five enemies are dead, you can then move on to stage 5!

Stage 5

We’re almost at the boss, people! Just hang onto your hats, and we’ll be there shortly! This stage consists of three Conrads (light Death Knights) and two Icares’ (dark Sylphids) The Threat: Definitely Icares. She’s one of the best LnD nat4s out there, next to Frigate, Betta, and a few others. Her third skill is flat damage too, like Arnold’s – Dark Recovery will steal life from an enemy and heal (the amount of damage she deals is 50% of her Max HP), and if the enemy dies from this damage, she’ll instantly get another turn. Oh yeah, did I mention that Conrad is also a reviver? He’s one of the most unreliable revivers out there, yes, but nevertheless he can revive people, ladies and gents. His third skill Trade will attack an enemy, and if the enemy dies from this attack, he’ll revive one of his allies randomly with 30% HP. If there are no dead enemies, he’ll grant a shield on all allies for 2 turns – the amount of damage is absorbs is proportionate to his level. The Solution: Definitely go for Conrad first. Yeah, Icares can kill you, but again, there’s a chance of one of the enemies you just killed reviving if Conrad manages to kill one of your allies. After that, you can keep Icares stunned while you chip away at her HP, and when everyone’s dead, away to the boss stage you go!

Stage 6

IT’S BOSS TIME, everybody! This floor has the most variety of all the stages, because the lackeys differ in elements every floor. The Threat: See above. The threat differs in this stage, because the lackeys differ. In the case in the picture, though, I would say that Arnold is the biggest threat, followed up by Briand. Remember that you don’t have to kill the lackeys in the boss/miniboss stage anymore, so you could completely ignore them if you wanted to. One threat that will never differ, though, is Fedora himself. The rules of things being good or not doesn’t carry over to Hall of Heroes or Trial of Ascension. He could just be like “Nope! Declined.” and then everyone of his allies can’t die for a turn. It sucks. The Solution: Again, the solution differs because the lackeys differ. You could just completely ignore the lackeys and go about your business, or you could kill one or both of the lackeys before the boss. In this case, I would personally kill Briand first, stun Arnold, and then kill Fedora. With that, you have successfully cleared a floor of the Fedora Hall of Heroes! I hope you all enjoyed your Dias skillups/six-star material/Legendary Pieces, because I certainly enjoyed writing this article! I’m Sara Ann, and I’ll see you in the next article!]]>