Vallaryn the Equalizer Loyalty Champion Announcement

Vallaryn The Equalizer will be joining the game as part of the Web of Corruption event, giving players the chance to pick up this Legendary Champion through the upcoming Loyalty event.

Faction: Undead Hordes
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Attack
Affinity: Magic

Plarium describe Vallaryn as the following: A true all-rounder, ready to support your account’s progression across a wide range of content. Effective in both PvP and PvE, its expected he will be useful in the Cursed City, Grim Forest, and other wave-based encounters, making him a valuable companion for early- and mid-game players alike.

His kit has some built in self sustain, debuffs, self-cleansing and HP manipulation. This appears to give him a lot of flexibility, but some of his value will depend on his multipliers so we will have to stay tuned for that. There is definitely enough here though to make him worth paying attention to.

Violent Harmony

Attacks 1 enemy 2 times.

Each hit heals Vallaryn by 20% of the damage inflicted. Each hit also has a 50% chance of placing a 100% Heal Reduction debuff for 2 turns.

A decent A1 for sure. It gives Vallaryn some self sustain, while the double hit gives him two chances to land Heal Reduction. That debuff you might think is a bit situational, but it actually has a variety of use cases from Spirit Keep, Spider, Mimic, Amius and Isheth! It also has some synergy with his passive,  counterattacking with this skill to try and shut healing down going forward.

Precise Intervention – Cooldown: 4 Turns

Attacks all enemies.

Has a 75% chance of placing a 25% Weaken debuff and a Leech debuff on all enemies for 2 turns.

AoE Weaken is always useful because it helps your whole team deal more damage, while Leech gives your team some extra sustain without needing to rely entirely on a dedicated healer. Both of these debuffs also help his basic heal himself for more which is nice too.

For early and mid-game players, this skill could be helpful. Once booked, it goes to 100% chance and drops to a 3-turn cooldown, which will make it much more consistent in longer fights.

Outcome Assured – Cooldown: 5 Turns

Attacks 1 enemy 2 times.

Before attacking, removes all debuffs from Vallaryn and swaps HP with the target.

This skill will ignore 15% of the target’s DEF. It will instead ignore 30% of the target’s DEF and any Shield buffs if Vallaryn’s current HP is greater than the target’s.

This is the most unusual part of Vallaryn’s kit. The self-cleanse is obviously very nice, especially if he himself is under Heal Reduction or other annoying debuffs. The HP swap is the interesting part. It gives him a strong comeback mechanic, allowing him to potentially go from being on the brink of death, too taking the enemy’s health, being fine and then attacking for the kill. But the swap itself likely wont work on bosses. The DEF ignore and ignore Shield is also pretty sweet.

This is very much one of those abilities that could feel amazing in practice or pathetic. Either way, the utility is definitely there.

My True Purpose – Cooldown: 3 Turns

Active Effect:
Decreases the cooldown of one of Vallaryn’s skills by 2 turns whenever he loses 30% or more HP from an enemy skill in a single turn.

Passive Effect:
Vallaryn counterattacks with his default skill each time an enemy is healed by a skill. This can occur once per turn.

We’ll start with the passive effect. If enemies are healing, he gets to counterattack with his A1, which can then place Heal Reduction. That is a nice bit of built-in kit synergy and gives him a clear purpose against teams or waves that rely on healing to stay alive.

The cooldown reduction is the interesting part. Yes, it helps him cycle back to his stronger skills when he takes a big hit, but I do have a few concerns. First off is that Vallaryn is an Attack Champion, so you will still need to build him with enough survivability to actually benefit from this effect rather than simply falling over. And if you are doing that, hes doing less damage overall. Secondly, we do not get to pick which of the skill cooldowns get reduced. If you have taken a big hit, you probably want the HP swap and not the AoE Weaken and Leech.

Aura

Increases Ally ATK in all Battles by 28%.

Its fine, especially for players who do not already have stronger universal damage auras available.

It gives Vallaryn some usage in wide range of teams, it also makes it easier to build some defensive stats into his kit for his passive, without harming damage output too much.

Vallaryn the Equalizer feels like he lives up to his name. He doesn’t feel super OP but certainly not terrible for a free legendary either. Everything is equal and balanced.

He brings a good mix of debuffs including AoE Weaken and Leech. Has a lot of self-healing and sustain and even some DEF and Shield ignore. That is a lot for one Champion to offer, especially for players who are still building out their accounts.

For PvE, he should be useful in wave-based encounters, Cursed City, Grim Forest, and general progression content where his combination of damage support and sustain can help teams survive while dealing more damage.

For PvP, he doesnt appear to be a champion best suited for this. But we will need to see how he performs once he can be tested properly, his value will likely depend on how hard he hits and how reliably his HP swap can swing a fight.

Overall, Vallaryn looks like a decent free Champion. He may not be a straight-up nuker, and he may not be a pure support, but that is what will make him good foe earlier players. He sits somewhere in the middle as a damage dealer with useful team utility and some annoying mechanics for enemies to deal with.