Lazara, The Grand Slam Champion: Cleansing, Crushing, and Home Runs

Overview

Lazara is a 5-star Holy hero from the Champions family, originally hitting the field in March 2024. She brings a unique "baseball" theme to a world of swords and sorcery, proving that sometimes a good old-fashioned bat is mightier than a magic staff. Her primary role is that of a "Safe Cleanser"—a specialized support hero designed to counter the nasty trend of status ailments that punish you for removing them. While she can hit hard, her true value lies in her utility and her ability to turn the enemy's cleansing attempts against them.

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Hero Art & Visuals

Lazara stands out with one of the most distinct visual themes in the game. She's a green-skinned Orc geared up in full baseball attire—helmet, pads, and a massive wooden bat slung over her shoulder. The art is dynamic, capturing her mid-swing or ready to strike, with a baseball flying in the background. It's a playful, sporty aesthetic that breaks the mold of high fantasy, and her special skill animation—literally hitting a home run—is widely considered one of the most satisfying in the game.

General Info

Hero Stats

Lazara's stats reflect her release era (early 2024). With a Limit Break 2 (LB2) Attack of roughly 1282 and Defense of 1254, she falls significantly behind modern powerhouse heroes who push 1600+ in primary stats. Her HP of 2133 is also low compared to the 2800+ behemoths released in late 2025. While she was once a stat monster, she now sits firmly in the "average" to "below average" category for raw numbers. However, her utility often outweighs her raw stats.

Special Skill: Home Run

This skill is the reason you draft Lazara onto your team.

• Safe Cleanse: The phrase "without triggering secondary effects" is the MVP here. In a meta filled with heroes like Pepperflame, Erlang Shen, and Starwalker—who deal massive damage if you cleanse their ailments—Lazara is the hard counter. She wipes the slate clean without triggering the punishment.
• The Hit: 325% damage to all enemies is a respectable slap. While it won't one-shot modern teams due to her aging attack stat, it softens them up significantly.
• The Debuff: Reducing healing by -50% and blocking the enemy from cleansing or reallocating ailments for 4 turns is a powerful control tool. It ensures that whatever damage or ailments you land after her swing will stick.

By the Numbers

• Mana Speed: Average (10 tiles). With the Champions Family Bonus, she is designed to be paired with others, but she doesn't gain innate speed. To make her functionally fast (9 tiles), you need a Level 23+ Mana Troop (or Level 11+ Magic/Styx) + the 2% Emblem node.
• Damage Potential: With ~1280 Attack (LB2) x 325%, she deals roughly 4,160 raw damage spread across 5 enemies (before defense mitigation). This is solid chip damage but not a wipe mechanic in the current era.
• Healing: Her passive provides 300 Boosted Health to all allies whenever any ally attempts to cleanse. Since her own special is a cleanse, she self-triggers this, effectively making her special a Hit All + Cleanse + 300 Heal package.

Family Bonus, Passives, Aether Power & Unique Abilities

The Champions family is all about aggression and punishing the opponent's support actions.

Family Bonus

This is one of the strongest static attack buffs in the game. Just having Lazara alone grants her +35% Attack. Paired with one other Champion, that jumps to +50%. This massive multiplier helps keep her damage relevant despite her aging base stats.

Passives

These passives are incredibly active:

1. Mana on Ailment: Getting hit with a debuff speeds her up, helping her fire her cleanse faster.
2. Health Boost on Ally Cleanse: As noted, this triggers on her own special, giving her a pseudo-heal. It also triggers if another ally cleanses, providing amazing sustain.
3. Damage on Enemy Cleanse: If the enemy tries to wash off her anti-heal or other ailments, they take 300 damage. It's free chip damage.

Aether Power

Dodge is a top-tier defensive Aether Power. It gives her a chance to completely avoid special skill damage, keeping her alive to swing that bat one more time.

Legacy & Modern Relevance

• Historical Context: Upon release, Lazara was a direct response to the "Punish Cleanse" meta. She was a must-have for players struggling against Pepperflame and Erlang Shen defenses.
• Power Creep Analysis: Her stats have clearly aged. A base power of 1015 is quaint compared to modern heroes pushing 1300+. Her damage ceiling has lowered relative to enemy health pools.
• Modern Viability Verdict: Viable Utility Pick. While she isn't the nuker she once was, her "Safe Cleanse" mechanic is timeless. As long as developers release heroes that punish cleansing, Lazara will have a niche. She is excellent for War Attack teams facing specific trap defenses, though she struggles to survive as a defensive tank in the modern era.

Emblem Path Analysis

Lazara is a Barbarian, which gives her a chance to apply bleed on basic attacks.

The Slugger (Attack Path)

• Path: Attack > Defense > Health
• Pros: Maximizes the output of her "Home Run" hit-all skill. With the huge family attack bonus, every point of base attack is amplified significantly.
• Cons: Leaves her squishier, and at Average speed, she might die before swinging.

The Designated Hitter (Balanced/Survival)

• Path: Defense > Health > Attack
• Pros: Keeps her alive to perform her primary duty: Cleansing. If she dies with full mana, her cleanse is useless.
• Cons: Sacrifices some of her AOE damage potential.

Final Recommendation

For modern play, we recommend a Balanced Path favoring Defense/Health first, then Attack. Her damage is secondary to her utility as a Safe Cleanser. She needs to survive the initial barrage from faster enemies to reset the board for your team.

Strengths

• Safe Cleanse: Removes ailments without triggering "On Cleanse" damage or effects.
• Self-Sustain: Heals the team for 300 HP passively every time she fires.
• Healing Control: massive -50% healing cut to enemies that cannot be cleansed.
• Family Synergy: Massive attack boosts make her hit harder than her stats suggest.

Weaknesses

• Average Speed: Can be too slow against Very Fast rush teams.
• Aging Stats: Low defense and HP make her vulnerable to modern snipers.
• Passive Reliance: Needs to fire or have allies fire cleanses to provide healing.

Best Game Modes

• War Attack: Specifically against teams using Pepperflame, Erlang Shen, or Starwalker.
• Bloody Battle: Her 300 damage passive and healing reduction are excellent here.
• PvE: Great for auto-farming due to the hit-all and passive sustain.

Advanced Strategy & Team Compositions

Lazara loves friends who cleanse or buff attack.

Sample Team Ideas

• The Cleanse & Mend: Lazara + Rigard (Costume) + Main Healer. Lazara fires (300 passive heal), then Rigard fires (Cleanse triggers another 300 passive heal + HoT). You get massive burst healing just from passives.
• The Champion Stack: Lazara + Satori + Norman. Trigger the +65% Attack family bonus. They will hit like freight trains despite older stats.

Counters & Anti-Synergies

• Buff Dispellers: While her clean blocking is uncleansable, her own buffs (if she had them) are vulnerable.
• Mana Control: As an Average hero, she is susceptible to being shut down by fast mana controllers like Waterpipe or Luna before she can cleanse the team.

Advice for New Players

If you pulled Lazara, you have a gem. She is a "problem solver." Don't worry about her stats being lower than the newest shiny goblin; her ability to safely remove ailments is invaluable for completing hard map stages and winning raids you shouldn't be able to win. Prioritize leveling her!

Advice for Veterans

Lazara is a situational tool. She shouldn't be on your main defense anymore—she's too soft. However, keep her in your War chest. When you see a heavy ailment defense that relies on punishing cleansers, she is the key to unlocking it. She is likely not worth a second Alpha Aether reset if you have newer options, but she is certainly worth keeping at 85+20.

Community Corner: Hot Takes & History

• The Confusion: On release, players were baffled by the "without triggering secondary effects" clause. One user noted, "I don't understand the first skill not triggering... can't think of anyone off the top of my head that has it." It took time for the community to realize she was the ultimate counter to the specific "Trap" meta.
• The Gender Swap: Players noted her design looks like a gender-swapped version of a standard Orc brute. "Nice pics. Can you make him also as he is?" joked one user regarding fan art.
• The Animation: Universally loved. "Lazara has the best animation out there - smashes them with a baseball," said one fan.

Final Thoughts

Lazara is the Babe Ruth of Empires & Puzzles—a heavy hitter with a specific talent that changed the game when she arrived. While her stats have gathered a bit of dust, her "Safe Cleanse" technique is a fundamental skill that remains relevant. She might not be your everyday starter anymore, but when you need a pinch hitter to clear the bases (and the status ailments), she's the one you call.

Final Verdict: A situational MVP who has aged gracefully into a vital utility role.