Bolton

A powerful wizard with elemental powers. Bolton travels with the storms and appears on the battlefield in a burst of lightning. Bolton's connection to the natural world guides him, and he'll destroy any enemy who threatens it.

Unlocked at **World 1** Level 12, Cost **1500** Gems and starts at Awakening Rank **R1**.

## Skills / Abilities

Basic Attack - Ranged

**Active skill: Lightning Bolt**

* Calls forth a crashing lightning bolt dealing massive area damage.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, chosen location anywhere on map
* Lvl1 effect: deals stat-based Magical Damage and shocks enemies for 3s.
* Lvl2 upgrade: World 1 Campaign Level 12.
* Lvl2 effect: increase damage by 50%.

**Passive 1: Chain Bolt**

* Bolton's attack creates chain lightning between multiple enemies.
* Targets: Ground and Flying
* Lvl1 effect: every ranged attack will bounce once for a small amount of flat (not stat-based) damage.
* Lvl2 upgrade: World 1 Campaign Level 25.
* Lvl2 effect: double the initial flat damage amount of a bounce, and allow a second bounce for half that damage.

**Passive 2: Shock Orb**

* Shock orb sends a projectile that shocks, stuns, and damages enemies.
* Targets: Ground
* Lvl1 effect: stuns enemies in a small AoE range for 3s.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S11.
* Lvl2 effect: extend stun length by 1/3rd and adds a tiny amount of stat-based Magical Damage.

**Passive 3: Master of the Storm**

* Summons a cloud of energy that does continual lightning damage to any enemy that passes through the storm.
* Targets: Ground and Flying
* Lvl1 effect: deals a small amount of stat-based Magical Damage.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S27.
* Lvl2 effect: increases the amount of Magical Damage by almost half again.

## Talents (Awaken)

**Lightning Lord (start with)**

* Enemies damaged by Bolton's Lightning Bolt will be shocked.
* Effect: affected enemies shocked for 3s.

**Lightning Master (rank 3)**

* Bolton's active ability cooldown is drastically decreased.
* Effect: cooldown is reduced by >80%.

**Negate Immunity (rank 5)**

* Lightning Lord and Shock Orb gain the ability to shock Bosses
* Effect: affected bosses shocked for 3s.

**Brothers (rank 6)**

* Obsidian (if he is owned) will appear as your fourth hero.
* Effect: summons Obsidian at start of battle, whereupon he acts as normal.
* Notes: daily missions that require Obsidian will (currently) *not* be fulfilled if Obsidian is summoned in this way, but in all other ways Obsidian is as normal - e.g., he will receive the blessed bonus from tournaments if it is his week.

**Static Shochwave (rank 7)**

* Ground units in an area around Bolton get shocked and are damaged
* Effect: cool down is 3s and shocks for 1s. Will work when Bolton is moving too.

See also Awakening suggestions.

## Additional information

**Roles**:

* **Official**: Ranged, Nuker, Disabler
* **Unofficial** (player type / game mode):
	+ **Veterans** (tournaments): **CC**, Ranged, Anti-Air
	+ **Middle** (RS, events): support(disabling)
	+ **Early** (initial campaign): AoE damage & disabling, anti-air

**Comparisons / Rankings**:

* **Life / HP**: extremely low - literally dead last in the game
* **Armor**: none
* **Move & Cast speed**: average

* **Damage capabilities**:
	+ **Amount**: extremely low - literally dead last in the game
	+ **Speed**: extremely low - literally dead last in the game, though R3 makes his active cycle quickly
	+ **Range**: extremely low
	+ **Forms**: magic only, as a purely magic ranged disabling hero
	+ **Affects**: ground+air, prioritizing air over ground and then those furthest ahead

* **Greatest strengths**: (1) seriously...? um okay well...he's a "cheap" way to deal magical & disabling AoE damage; (2) at R3 he can quickly kill weak enemies

* **Greatest weaknesses**: (1) almost too many to count: health, defense, damage, speed, range, the list goes on and on; (2) not "great" for anything really (in comparison to other mages), except when blessed in tournaments

**Daily Trial**: visit Bolton's Daily Trial page

**Skins**: visit Skins page

**Short Tips**:

* Even Bolton's melee damage is dealt as magic! (though it is *shockingly* low) Like any ranged hero, it's a good idea to keep him away from enemies b/c his passive abilities will not target while he is doing that - although his ranged attack will not target cloaked enemies, so perhaps using his body to engage them isn't *always* a bad idea?

* Like many mages, Bolton's ranged attack will target air enemies over ground ones - neat! (Use this fact to your advantage when trying to decide where to position him)

* Like Efrigid, his abilities are far more important than his normal attacks, and have higher range - so *don't put him in dangerously short range only to attack*.

* Many people get Bolton, and then regret it. Don't stick with a bad choice - switch to a good one instead. His R6 ability to bring a 4th hero to battle sounds cool, but it is not - i.e., it *is* cool, but it is not *enough*. In campaign, RS, and basically every game mode except when one of them is specifically blessed in tournament, there are (much) better options.

Detailed Skills, Talents and Stats Info here.

## Ideal Ranks & Teams

* **early game**: level 20 or so and R3 for the fantastic reduction of his cooldown - although a strong alternative is to leave him at stock R1 merely to attack the occasional armored enemy in W3, until you replace him with a better hero.

* **ideal rank for tournaments**: mostly R6-or-bust, because of the several forms of delay that each offers to one another's blessed week situations, and you also need Obsidian to at least R2-4 to begin to get much out of that even. This is a very expensive duo - needing 2 R6s to win 2 weeks (plus Yan's R6 for Bolton's week), but with little pay-out until the end (almost 4/5ths of the way to their maximum rank, and almost 90% of their total gem costs) - so do not embark on this lightly, unless/until you are ready to finish it.
* **ideal team for lower leagues**: R6 Bolton (& R4-6 Obsidian) + R6 Koi + (R6 Yan or R6 Shamiko)
* **perfect team for a GM**: R6 Bolton (& R6 Obsidian) + R6 Koi + (R6 Yan or R6 Shamiko)

* **Leveling guide:**
	+ For his tournament blessed week: **normal priority** => his abilities power up far less than all other heroes - e.g., his shock orb deals only 10% of his ranged damage, and his chain bolt does not scale with stat increases at all - so he is mostly about delay, which is limited by his poor range. That said, on his week his damage (especially lightning bolt and master of the storm) is important, and all the more so when Yan and/or Koi further increases it.
	+ For other situations: **no priority** => despite providing many forms of delay to Obsidian's blessed week, his stats hardly matter at all for that.

## Commentary

The attack of this pompous magician is at best average, though he offers AoE & disabling (stun). Hide him behind meat-shields (multiple barracks and/or a tank) where he can reach forward past them to deal damage. Like all early-game wizards, he has extremely poor range, making it a frustrating exercise to constantly try to move him forward enough to do anything while keeping far back enough to not die - fortunately his abilities (active & passive) have a much greater range.

* **Cost**: a nice cheap hero.

* **Initial (early game)**: ★★★★ for the earliest worlds in the game. He's a basic mage who if free would be great, though it's debatable if he's worth his cost. You can skip him and get a better mage (Efrigid in W1) sooner, or lean on him for awhile and get an even better one (Helios in W3, or even Yan in W4) later on.
	+ **Campaign & Shattered Realms** (& daily missions): barely sufficient, providing minimal help at R1, and while at R3 he does much better, that utility does not remain for long before he needs to be replaced
	+ **Realm Siege**: one of the worst heroes - offers only a stun not dealt quickly enough to be of much use
	+ **Advice**: overall not the worst hero - in fact one of if not the best of the 1500-gem cohort - but not a *great* one either, basically a cheaper knock-off of Efrigid who costs less to fully power up (e.g. his abilities do not require access to a Challenge section to be upgraded - just Shattered Realms), but also delivers less.

* **Later (mid game)**: ★ due to his many deficiencies, which matter more against tougher foes. Even if he were already R6 and could bring Obsidian as a 4th hero, you still would not choose him.

* **End game****:** ★ he's not one of the better heroes.
	+ **Tournaments**: ★★☆ offering ever-so-slightly more utility than other 1500-gem heroes, since he can also bring along Obsidian and therefore can also be used when Obsidian is blessed, and even a little bit beyond that. When either is blessed they are an unbeatable duo in tournaments, but otherwise not so much. Bolton used to also be useful on Fee's week, though his own rank hardly matters in that case, and soon after her R6 she'll reach her R7 where other heroes offer better utility, so that's a narrow range (maybe his R7 will change that?).
	+ **Realm Siege & events**: horrible.
	+ **Weekly missions**: no, just...no.

Overall: a hero worth far more in his own eyes than he has any right to think - a MVP he is not - plus easily skipped, though many people get him as their third hero (in campaign) before reading this. If so, no need to feel much regret: he has a few uses - such as providing easy/cheap/quick awakenings to unlock future worlds with. In tournaments, he's just as easily skipped.:-) If you start in on him though, make sure that you finish his entire synergy network (Yan's R6 and Obsidian's R4 minimum) or you will not get the full benefit, b/c after all the expense has been paid, he's as good as most and better than some other single-week heroes (e.g., Masamune), so the only hesitation to avoid him is the large expense and delayed pay-out to have to get two heroes up to usable ranks.

## Leveling

It costs 10554 Elixir to level up Bolton from level 1 to 20, a further 69076 to reach 30, and another 722272 to the maximum level of 40, or 801902 elixir total.

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