The Cowardly Lion Fusion Announcement

Next Wednesday, August 19th, Plarium kicking off a Mixed Fusion for a new Echoes of Oz Champion, The Cowardly Lion.

Faction: Skinwalkers
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Defense
Affinity: Magic

Plarium describe The Cowardly Lion as a fearless (the irony) damage dealer who makes his opponents the ones trembling in fear. Excelling in both PvP and PvE, he supports his team with Reflect Damage and Counterattacks. Fear and True Fear debuffs are no match for him, every attempt to land these debuffs only emboldens The Cowardly Lion, letting him reset his Cooldowns and take an Extra Turn to punish his opponents. There’s nothing cowardly about this Lion, and even less that can stop him.

The event is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, August 19th, giving players the chance to add a Fear-proof frontliner to their collection.

Leonine Pounce

Attacks 1 enemy 3 times. The damage inflicted by this skill increases by 10% for each skill successfully activated by allies and enemies under [Fear] or [True Fear] debuffs (stacks up to 100%). Each hit steals 5% of the target’s Turn Meter.

• Lvl.2 Damage +10%
• Lvl.3 Damage +10%
• Lvl.4 Damage +10%

A very solid basic skill. The 3-hit, Turn Meter steal on every hit is already useful for a things like Fire Knight normal, but the real upside is the scaling damage. The more Fear and True Fear are flying around the battlefield, the harder this hits. The question is what can we realistically expect to get out of this in places like PvP. However, there is potential when paired with someone like Fabian, this can end up doing some serious damage for a basic skill.

Primal Roar (Cooldown 4)

Attacks all enemies. Before attacking, places a 60% Increase DEF buff and a Fervor buff on all allies for 2 turns. Will ignore 20% of each target’s DEF. Has a 75% chance of placing a True Fear debuff on all enemies for 2 turns.

• Lvl.2 Damage +10%
• Lvl.3 Damage +10%
• Lvl.4 Buff/Debuff chance +10%
• Lvl.5 Buff/Debuff chance +15%
• Lvl.6 Cooldown -1

This is a great skill. Increase DEF is nice but the Fervor is the kicker. As a newer buff, options are limited. This gives players easy access to team wide Fervor allowing your allies to be tankier and hit harder. We then have the True Fear, which not only is a annoying debuff but enables his damage scaling on basic. This is useful in a variety of content.

Strength in the Pack (Cooldown 5)

Places a Counterattack buff and a 30% Reflect Damage buff on all allies for 2 turns.

[Passive Effect] While under these buffs from this Champion, allies will ignore Shield and Strengthen buffs when counterattacking. Allies will also ignore Shield buffs when reflecting damage.

• Lvl.2 Cooldown -1
• Lvl.3 Cooldown -1

There was a time where AoE Counterattack was very rare. Whilst its more widely available, that doesnt make it any less good for progression. Pairing it with Reflect Damage on the whole team and we’ve got a strong defensive ability. The passive attached to it though is what is really intriguing, it could be sneaky good in PvP, Factions Wars and other wave based content. Especially in a Protection set.

True Courage [P]

(Cooldown 4) [Active Effect]

Whenever a Fear or True Fear debuff is placed on this Champion, removes all debuffs from this Champion, resets all cooldowns and activates an Instant Turn effect on this Champion.

[Passive Effect]

Whenever this Champion is under Fear or True Fear debuffs, their skills will always activate. Increases the chance of enemy skills not activating when they are under Fear or True Fear debuffs by 15%. If there are multiple Champions on the team with this skill, only one will activate. This skill will not activate on duplicate copies of this Champion, if this particular Champion is dead.

This passive is the whole identity of the Champion. Trying to Fear or True Fear The Cowardly Lion instead results in a full cleanse, a cooldown reset, and an Instant Turn, this could be a huge tempo swing. On top of that, he’s immune to Fear debuffs which could make him decent for Hydra and he makes your Fear’s more effective, this Champion could be an absolute nightmare to play against.

The Cowardly Lion looks like a genuinely strong Fusion. With a kit that’s brings some fantastic team-wide buffs, some Crowd control of his own and a passive that turns not only makes your Fears better, but attempts against him turn into free turns. Gives him real value in many areas of the game.

He’s a solid, versatile Defense Champion worth picking up from the Fusion Event.