Ruel the Huntmaster — guide

In short

Ruel the Huntmaster is a Legendary Attack champion of the Dark Elves, and his whole kit revolves around Hex: he spreads it across the enemy team himself, then hits the marked targets and pushes his debuffs onto them. He shines in Hydra and in the Arena. Build him for Speed, crit and Accuracy — without Hex and without a turn he loses half of his damage.

Strengths

• A3 Chase the Prey places Hex on all enemies, gives the team Increase ACC 50% for 2 turns and fills his own Turn Meter by 50% — a debuff and a speed-up in one skill.
• A2 Start the Hunt hits all enemies, lands an extra hit on Hexed targets and ignores 25% DEF when at least 4 enemies are Hexed — real wave clear.
• Passive Mark of the Victim: -5% SPD and -10% RES, +10% damage taken and -30% healing received for everything under Hex. A free buff for the whole team.
• Aura of +20% C.RATE in all battles — universal and saves gear stats.
• A1 with Decrease DEF 60% (up to 65% chance) plus a debuff transfer onto Hexed targets, so it is never a dead button.

Weaknesses

• 97 base SPD at 6★ is slow for a nuker; without a team that speeds him up he often never gets to attack.
• 980 DEF and 13,545 HP — he folds to any focused fire, especially in the Arena.
• His passive does not stack with other Ruels, and without Hex his A2 loses both the extra hit and the DEF ignore.
• He is close to useless against the Clan Boss (2.0) and in the Doom Tower (2.5).

Where to use

Hydra (4.5) is his home ground: many targets, Hex sticks for a long time, and the passive keeps cutting healing and SPD on the heads. Arena (4.5) — the A3 into A2 combo can delete a team on the first turn. Dungeons and Faction Wars (4.0) — solid as a plain damage dealer. Chimera and Hard mode (3.0) — usable, nothing special. Clan Boss (2.0) and Doom Tower (2.5) — skip him there.

Stats and gear

Priority: SPD → C.RATE → C.DMG → ACC. Rough targets: Speed 200–230 (250+ for Arena), C.RATE 100% (his aura helps a lot), C.DMG 200%+, Accuracy 200–250 so Hex actually lands in Hydra and Arena. Put leftovers into HP and DEF to survive until his turn. Sets: Savage or Lethal (DEF ignore), Cruel, Speed, Perception/Accuracy for the Accuracy.

Masteries and blessings

PVE tree — Attack + Support (Hydra, dungeons, Faction Wars); PVP tree — Attack + Support built for Arena 1v1 and 3v3. Key picks: Helmsmasher at the top of Attack, plus Eagle Eye and Sniper in Support so Hex and Decrease DEF land more reliably, and Master Hexer to extend Hex. For blessings, Cruelty for extra damage; if he keeps dying, look at Survival Instinct.

Tombs

Book A3 Chase the Prey first — cooldown drops from 6 to 4 turns and the whole Hex engine runs off it. Then A2 (4 → 3 turns) so the AoE comes around more often. A1 can stay unbooked.

Verdict

A strong nuker with the rare Hex + DEF-ignore combo, but the house call is the vault: build him only if you have no better option for Hydra and Arena. He hits hard, but narrowly.