Phrasing is awkward here.
Having 30+ heroes has nothing to do with number of troops. I seldom use more than two heroes of one color, so I try to level up one mana and one crit per color.
Having five troops of one color is good for mono attack teams, but do not waste ham on lower level troops. First feed 4* then 3* to level 11.
Also, for AW, when your team gets killed, the heroes die but the troops are available to reuse.
I understand that there are three kind of damage:
Tile damage (through matching 3 or more same colored tiles)
Special damage (through firing special skill)
Normal Defense damage (I donā know what is the correct term but it is the normal attack by defender which they did each few turns)
I have seen critical affect tile damages but I never seen special damage affected by critical, I have read somewhere in the forum that critical do not affect special skill.
What I wanted to know is whether critical can also affect normal defense damage? I donāt remember seeing a normal defense damage being critical. If it canāt be affected by critical, doesnāt it mean critical troops are not good for defense team as the critical stat become useless?
Sorry if it has been asked before, I have try to look at the forum but have not been able to find the answer. Thanks
Yes. What youāre calling ānormalā damage is often called āslashā damageāitās the timed attack that defenders make when their little timers click to zero. And, yes, there is a chance that slash damage is doubled as a crit.
There is a fourth kind of damage: damage over time (DoT). DoT is not subject to crit boosts.
May I add that all tiles to titanās weak spot are automatic crit, so they are not affected by crit bonus, in the sense that they already have 100% chance to crit.
Is you have both a 4* critical hit troop and a 4*mana speed troop, where should the focus be on for an average or fast hero?
For very fast Iād put the emphasis on mana speed since level 11 is pretty attainable relatively early. But for other troops, is critical hit and other stats more worthwhile?
Iām sure this has been talked about before too, would appreciate a link to a reliable post if anyone has it offhand. Thanks!
@Goblue333 There is indeed a lengthy thread on this topic that may be of use:
(@Kerridoc @Rook @Coppersky Possible Merge of Topic)
Merged. 
So well said about troops. People I think get scared away from building them up due to cost but by showing those numbers plainly and simply like ya just did should give an idea as to their REAL value.
Crits are useful also at lower levels, but if you reach a troop level with really faster mana charge, theyāll slightly becoming better than crits.
All in all the differences are not very big I think.
Ok Iām just really old or really dumb but I couldnāt figure out how to message you to tell you good raiding!! I wasnāt going to raid back because I didnāt think I could win but I thought what the hell. Have a good night!
The +mana_gen buff from Ariel/Khagan/Lancelot are additive to the troop +mana_gen bonus. If youāre using L29 mana troops (+15 mana_gen) and Arielās buff is active (+24) you get +39% mana_regen, i.e. each tile adds 139 mana instead of the usual 100.
Simply additive; thereās no hierarchy.
@Kerridoc @Garanwyn @zephyr1 some smart people advised that I needed lvl5 mana troops for Kage to fire on 6 tiles with one other Sakura member.
Can someone advise what lvl mana troops needed for Inari to shave a tile? She would be getting the 2% Sakura bonus from Kage.
Once Alby is maxed, can you share his impact in terms of # tiles or mana troop lvl? Some smart people were explaining for attack stats between the two troops types with the math exponential curve thing but that just confused me more 
Hereās my current defense, planning to insert Alby and remove Eve. Iād want lvl17 mana troops for Alby to shave a tile right? Thank you.
This table has all the relevant info on mana troops, emblems and tiles on offense. The 2% Sakura bonus isnāt quite enough to change the math.
Weāre currently a bit unclear, as a community, as to how mana exactly works on defense.
As for Alby, Iām unsure what actual percentage āa moderate amount of manaā translates to. So I donāt know how to answer your last question. Perhaps one of the others can help. @Dante2377, @LucasDAOC, @Gryphonknight, @General_Confusion you all tend to know whatās what on mana as well. Any insight?
Thanks! Inari being Rogue should be able to get class 8 for the 2% + 2% Sakura bonus so thatās already 4% lowered from whatever mana troops bonus right?
And this doesnāt factor in Alby nor Inari minions mana buffs.
Might be time to max Mitsuko and oh while Iām dreaming, imagine Ariel.
Ariel Alby Mitsuko Inari Kageā¦ Just need Ariel.
I believe the research shows that Alberich adds 0.8 tiles of mana per round.
He also ads more or less depending on if a hero is very fast to very slow mana and if you have mana troops the buff affects how much mana he ads.
I thought Alby was 7%, but Iām just starting to set up calculations for mana on defense so I canāt be too much help yet.
