[Hero Wars Guide]Merlin

Contents

Pet Guide
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Pet Guide

A cat named after a legendary sage.
Merlin is one of the first pets offered in the game, but is not recommended for beginners.
Essential for players who focus on magic DPS and control heroes.

Merlin’s Advantages and Teaming Theory

Upon reaching level 40, players can choose their first pet. Options include Oliver, Fenris, and Merlin. However, Merlin is the least advisable choice for beginners.
Increases the activation speed of magic damage skills for pet heroes. This applies to all magic damage skills, not just those labeled “Wizard”. Skills that do not deal magic damage, even if labeled as magic, are excluded.
A fully developed Merlin (☆ 6 at purple +3) provides a +50% acceleration, affecting both skill activation intervals and initial speed.
Acceleration also affects Ascension skills.
The acceleration of skills significantly means the acceleration of debuff activation. Therefore, it often fits well in scenarios where players want to effectively use heroes that have only leveled up their skill levels.
Improves Magic Attack and Magic Penetration for pet heroes. As one of the few pets that increases Magic Penetration, Merlin is invaluable to partially developed heroes.
Best for heroes like Mojo, Orion, Lars, Phobos, Faceless, and Thea. Especially critical for Orion, Phobos, and Faceless; raising Merlin alongside these heroes is highly recommended.
Essential for unlocking Orion’s first Ascension skill, greatly increasing his chances of victory. Orion’s rework make Merlin increasingly important.
Essential alongside Mara for building control teams. Thanks to Merlin’s power, Faceless, which has only leveled up its skill level, can often be deployed in actual combat.
Thea is a healer, so it may seem meaningless at first glance, but the silence from the third skill is enhanced. Therefore, adjusting the timing of silence occurrence by whether or not to attach Merlin can increase the patterns in which one can win. Note that Thea does not originally have magic penetration stats, so it cannot be expected to deal sufficient damage.
As a patron for Celeste, it is possible to aim for a scenario where the opposing team’s Dante tank does not activate skills even once.
Increases team-wide magic damage, especially effective in guild raids.
Manual timing of Merlin’s first skill increases accuracy and damage output.
Boosts team firepower in magic DPS-heavy setups and works well with Aurora.

Merlin’s Disadvantages

Although Merlin may seem accessible to beginners, it is better suited for players with advanced skills.
A Merlin that hasn’t been fully developed offers limited skill acceleration benefits.
The number of skills that benefit from Skill Acceleration is quite limited. Even among the heroes that Merlin can support, it’s common for only one skill to effectively take advantage of the boost.
Merlin’s abilities are limited to supporting heroes with Magic damage-dealing skills. For example, Heidi, a pure physical damage dealer, cannot benefit from Merlin’s patronage.
In general, few players have a wide range of well-developed Heroes that can benefit from Merlin’s support. As a result, the use of Merlin often limits team composition options for many players.
While there are many Heroes that can benefit from Merlin’s patronage, many of them are difficult to use effectively. In addition, heroes like Aurora and Lilith often eliminate Merlin as a viable support option.
While Merlin’s patron effect increases magic penetration, this increase is often ineffective in practice. As a result, the lack of meaningful stat boosts can lead to insufficient combat power and frequent losses.
While Merlin can increase magic damage through companion skills, the effect only lasts for 5 seconds. As a result, relying on automatic activation often leads to inconsistent combat results.
While he can reduce magic defense through companion skills, there are few situations in which this is effective.
Even in magic teams, Merlin is only an optimal choice as a team pet in certain situations. While there are times when Merlin can shine, Khorus or Axel are often better options. As a result, many players feel that it’s not necessary to raise Merlin-and they’re mostly right.
Even after you start playing Merlin, it takes time to see the effects of his development. It often feels like there are fewer opportunities to feel the effects compared to other pets. While this can vary depending on the player’s progression and opponents, it’s hard to consider Merlin a high priority pet.
In the context of the 2025 environment, players primarily raise Merlin to use Orion. Beyond that, however, its other uses aren’t considered essential, making it a pet that players want but have a hard time prioritizing.