Cleaver Rework and Relics Overview | Hero Wars Alliance

A few days ago we looked at Cleaver’s rework and asked one simple question: after all these years, could Cleaver finally become a serious endgame hero again? The rework was already interesting — more Pure Damage, more Strength, a stronger Putrefaction, a far more dangerous Rusty Hook. But something was still missing. Cleaver was waiting for his Relics. Now we have the sneak peek, and this Cleaver Rework and Relics Overview breaks down exactly why they might change everything.

These may be one of the most intelligently designed Relic sets we’ve seen in Hero Wars: Alliance so far. They don’t just hand Cleaver bigger numbers — they complete his rework, attack some of the strongest mechanics in the current meta, and open up brand-new Chaos synergy. Let’s start from the beginning.

A Quick Recap of the Rework

Before the Relics, the rework itself laid the foundation. Rusty Hook now deals Pure Damage, and so do Cleaver’s basic attacks. Putrefaction was extended, Mutilation now deals Pure Damage, and Heavyweight gives Cleaver significantly more Strength. That’s the base the Relics build directly on top of — and once you see how they connect, it stops looking like four random bonuses attached to an old hero.

Relic Level 1: Miasma

At Relic Level 1, Cleaver gains a completely new skill called Miasma. It applies an effect to the central enemy for seven seconds, dealing damage to all enemies around that target every half second. Immediately, Cleaver becomes much more than a tank standing at the front swinging at whoever’s in front of him — he can now create pressure deeper inside the enemy formation.

Remember what Cleaver already does. Rusty Hook pulls a distant enemy toward him. Putrefaction pressures nearby enemies. Mutilation hits the area in front of him. And now Miasma adds another source of damage around the central enemy. Everything starts to connect — Cleaver wants the battlefield compressed around him, because the more enemies he can affect at once, the more dangerous his whole kit becomes.

Relic Level 10: Putrefaction and the Anti-Heal

At Relic Level 10, Putrefaction gets an upgrade. Enemies inside the area of Putrefaction, or enemies affected by Miasma, restore sixty percent less Health to themselves and their allies. And it gets better: if an enemy is affected by both Miasma and Putrefaction at the same time, that healing reduction is doubled.

This could be enormous for the current meta. Think about what we’ve been seeing lately — Dorian, Byrna, sustain teams that survive huge amounts of pressure simply because their recovery is ridiculous. Cleaver now attacks exactly that. He isn’t trying to out-damage the healing; he’s reducing the healing itself, and that distinction matters. If Dorian is letting a composition recover constantly, Cleaver can interfere directly with that cycle. If Byrna is keeping a team alive, that recovery suddenly becomes far less effective — and Aidan has to be careful on the wrong side of Cleaver too.

Relic Level 20: Heavyweight and the Cleanse

For me, this might be the most important part of the whole set. At Relic Level 20, Heavyweight gets an upgrade: whenever Cleaver or one of his allies takes damage from their own skill or an allied skill, all negative effects are removed from the damaged hero — and this stays active as long as Cleaver is alive.

Read that again. We’re talking about stuns, silences, weakness, burning effects, debuffs. The sneak peek even specifically calls out Iris’s burning effects. Suddenly heroes like Iris, Tempus, and Phobos — whose effectiveness depends on applying negative effects and keeping them on target — run into a wall. They apply the effect, Heavyweight’s condition triggers, and Cleaver cleans it. Another effect lands, the condition fires again, and it’s removed again.

There’s an important detail, though: this isn’t an unconditional permanent cleanse. The hero has to take damage from their own skill or an allied skill to trigger it. And that’s exactly where Cleaver’s Chaos synergy becomes beautiful — heroes like Xe’Sha and Aidan naturally create the kind of interactions Heavyweight needs. Something that would normally look dangerous, taking damage through your own team mechanics, becomes an advantage because that damage triggers the cleanse.

Relic Level 30: Carnage

At Relic Level 30 Cleaver gains his second new skill: Carnage. It’s beautifully simple — Cleaver deals more damage for each enemy around him. That’s it. But think about everything else in his kit. Rusty Hook pulls enemies in. Putrefaction wants them nearby. Mutilation wants them in front. Miasma creates area pressure. And Carnage rewards having more enemies around him.

That’s a complete cycle: pull them in, group them, pressure them, reduce their healing, deal Pure Damage — and the more enemies surround Cleaver, the harder he hits. That’s how you design a Relic set around a hero’s identity rather than bolting stats onto an old kit.

Best Chaos Synergy Partners for Cleaver

This is what we actually mean by synergy at Olympus Alliance — not the game telling us two heroes belong together, but their skills genuinely interacting, one mechanic activating another, five heroes behaving like one composition.

Xe’Sha & Aidan

These aren’t random recommendations. Their mechanics can naturally create the self or allied damage that Heavyweight needs to trigger, keeping Cleaver’s cleanse cycle running consistently.

Kayla & Kendle

Both fit beautifully into this Chaos ecosystem, adding extra layers to the composition and helping it function as a single unit rather than five separate heroes.

Dorian

Dorian can provide the sustain to keep the composition alive while Cleaver does the dirty work of pulling, pressuring, and cleansing up front.

Cleaver Relic Set at a Glance

Cleaver Rework and Relics Overview: Is He Meta Now?

Not yet. The Relics look amazing on paper, but the battlefield is what really matters. We need to see how consistently Heavyweight can trigger, how oppressive that healing reduction actually becomes, which Chaos combinations get the most out of the cleanse, and whether Carnage can turn Cleaver from a durable tank into a genuine damage threat when enemies surround him.

But one thing has clearly changed. Cleaver doesn’t need to be the strongest hero in the game for this rework to succeed — he needs a purpose. Heavy healing? Cleaver may have an answer. Negative-effect pressure? Cleaver may have an answer. A Chaos composition built around self or allied damage? Now he has a reason to be there — and he still brings the Hook, control, Pure Damage, and frontline presence we’ve always associated with him.

If these mechanics perform in real battles the way they read on paper, Cleaver might not simply return to the meta — he could force the meta to make room for him. The legendary Heroic Chest hero may finally be getting the treatment he deserves. As always, we’ll put him through real matchups the moment these Relics go live.

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