5* Elkanen

I have the 5* elkanen but been keeping him on the back burner for now since I cannot ascend him past T2. Would like to experiment more with but am iffy about his stats. Anyone else has and have used him? Thoughts on how he can be useful to any team?

I have been seeing Elkannen more in the higher level raids. He can be a pain in the butt at times. He’s not a staple no brainer hero to ascend, but he is effective.

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Good to know thx. Now if I can only get the items to ascend him j might be able to make some good use of him!

While I agree with Otto, I’d put in a few words of caution:

  • Elkanen is not awe-inspiring. At upper levels of the game, he’s on no one’s “won’t raid against that hero” list, or even the “kill that one first” list.
  • The steal-back-health skill is nowhere near as valuable as it appears at first.
  • Lianna is far more powerful; if they re-release HotM, both of the green ones (Alberich and Zeline) are excellent. Tonics are very scarce.
  • where are you on 4* greens? I would rather have, say, Caedmon at 4/70 than Elkanen at 3/70.

Your decision should be informed by how often you do summons, and how far along towards TC20 you are. If you don’t get many new heroes, then work on Elkanen by all means.

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Let’s say that if you are a casual F2P player, every 5* is worth ascending and funny.
But if you are a competitive spender (or very patient) you better wait for someone else.

…anyone else, probably.

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Elkanen stats were raised from 285%to 300% & 25% steel back to 33%. I know still not awe inspiring but decent. I play religiously. A little competitive. For now I have master lepus, elena and elkanen. I have some 4* but working on getting a 5* roster. If I understand correctly, Avalon event should be coming up?? I am hoping to get Arthur. None of my 5* r leveled past T2. We all know how hard it is to get ascension items. I am spending now during the spring event but after that’s it. I am saving what ever gems for a 10x pull and hoping to get Arthur.

Agreed, Elkanen has definitely improved. Kudos to SG for all the recent tweaks to heroes, which has helped make many of them more valuable. I’ve been seeing a lot more of these “B” heroes in lineups of late, which frankly is fun for me. Provides some nice variety in raiding/wars from the all-too-common top lineups.

Yes, we all expect to see Avalon next Thursday. Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and Lancelot are all great additions to any roster. Everyone talks about Arthur and Guin, but Merlin has added a fun factor to my roster that no other hero has. Morgan le Fay, not so much–she’s another example of a great boss but so-so hero.

@FullMetal2 - So late response here… What did you do?

So I had my 5* team except for Nature, and really wanted to fill that with a 5*, Caedmon was my man in the interim. Very pleased with him fully ascended/leveled - loved when I could strip Ares and the like by removing buffs with him. After not being able to pick up Alberich during his month, I was really hoping for Lianna. Just nothing happened for a long time then I got Elkanen and started leveling. Then I got Kadilen and started leveling. When I had the 2 of them at full 3rd debating a 4th ascension between them - I got Horghall. I didn’t want to wait for Horg so I impatiently decided to go with Elkanen over Kadilen (I do believe that was the better choice between those 2). So long story to get to the point. I really have not been pleased with Elkanen, in any way fully ascended. Nothing to put out there for you. Being ascension items for 5*'s are slim, I wish I would have held out. I now have Gregorian at full 3rd ascension and he will be replacing Elkanen asap. The recent 5% healing buff he got didn’t have a noticeable effect… Here is where I’ve witnessed Elkanen shine from the opposite end (vs him not using him)… As a front man in the Wars, when he has the Arrow Barrage behind him… (he certainly is not a first choice in center, but effective in this scenario). So he is a keeper for that! And he is filler when you need Nature in your lineup and you don’t have any other real choice. Otherwise hold out if you can - take to Ascension 3 and hold him. Caedmon is a better use of your time and materials fully ascended, depending where you are at in the game. Hope this helps a bit. You can also try out plugging in some of the Heroes you have into the Hero Utility @ EnPHero.com, you might end up being more pleased to have 2 of an element that are more A rated than this guy who I consider a C+/B-. Raz

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I have found that a 4/80 Elkanen or Kadilen, when paired with level 15+ green defense minded 4* troops can be a royal pain. Sneaky tanky, fast mana, and both can be really annoying if the board isn’t great, Elkanen with his healing and Kadilen with the special defense for all. Yes, Lianna is the best common 5* green overall, but they have their place too.

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I have Elkanen at 3/70. I use single color teams so he’s paired with 4/20 Lianna, 3/55 Gregorian, 4/70 Melandor and either 4/70 Wu or 4/80 Horgwall. He does his job.

They buffed up Leonidas’s heal back special to 75%, now he’s way more useful than originally. Why not give Elk the same boost? He would be much better at those numbers and probably used way more.

Mainly because Elka hits 3 where Leo hits only 1. With same % of heal elka would heal way more.

…but his hit is 300% to the target and minor damage to the nearbys. Leo is 365% to the target. I’ve not done a side by side (my Elk is still 2/50 or so), but that seems like it would be about the same damage overall. I wish they would quantify the minor damage part, but I’m sure someone has calculated that by now.

“minor damage” i believe is 50%

EDIT. and by 50% i mean of the main target. ie if the main target is 300% dmg then minor is 150%

the only thing worse than elkanen is kadilen, it seems a lie that has not been touched yet. I would not use kadilen nor with 6 rounds of defense

Minor damage is half of the damage done to the target. Thus Elkanen hits for 150%, 300% and 150% respectively, for a total 600% damage. His vampiric percentage is 38% so he would heal for 0.38 * 6 = 2.28 times the raw damage.
Leonidas hits for 365% and heals for 75% so he heals for 0.75 * 3.65 = 274 times his raw damage.
Considering that Leonidas attack is higher (731) than Elkanen’s (675) the raw damage of the former will on average be higher too, so higher raw damage times higher regeneration multiplier: Leonidas wins the regeneration competition.

There are cases in which one can’t take full advantage of his life steal, Leonidas when his hit overkills (steal depends only on actual damage to push the target to death), Elkanen when he does not hit 3 targets (some already dead, or targetting the wing). I’m not even considering the case in which Elkanen overkills. Anyway, I think the 2 cases on average may even out.

Leonidas also reduces a fair amount of mana, so his special is in general more efficient, but it is slower, so… I don’t know. I think it is a matter of taste, I prefer a slower hero with a better special, maybe with tactical effects (like mana control), but some prefer fast heroes any day of the year.

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Thanks! I did not realize the minor damage was so high. I thought it was 50% or something, not 150%. Leo used to be way, way worse originally. I think his heal back was 40% and they buffed it to 75% (I could be wrong). If Elk got some sort of reasonable buff as well he would likely see more use than “good for a war team”.

I would say Kadilen is better, only if you have Isarnia to weaken them first. Otherwise, they’re about the same, depending on usage.

Even with Elkanen’s improved stats, he still seems “meh” for a 5*. I’ve yet to get him to 2nd tier. I’m also waiting on Lianna, or Gregorian, or Zeline.

Most of the “…and minor damage to nearby enemies” and “damage to all” heroes aren’t very good unless there is another effect with it.
Zeline has 2 negative effects. Even if she didn’t deal damage, she would probably be just as useful as Elkanen :joy:

Damage spread out is much less effective because it can be often be negated by a healer.

To be clear, “minor damage” is 50% of what it would be if the nearby foe was instead the target. This is NOT the same thing as saying that the attack % is halved (e.g. that Tibertus attacks the nearby as though it were a direct attack at 295% / 2 = 147.5%). It’s better than that, because the damage dealt is exponential to the ratio between the attack value and the defense. The actual damage is calculated as though the nearby is actually the target (e.g. using 295% attack), computing the damage, and then halving it.

FWIW, learning how many HP points the “nearby” damage is likely to do is a really essential game skill. You’re facing a badly injured foe with special fully charged. Do you target that foe or the healthier one next to it? This is something the AI does badly and so an area where you as an intelligent human can gain an edge.

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Seems to me they buffed the wrong stats when they changed elkanen, they should have just upped his base attack. The other problem from a defensive perspective is that the ai is an idiot and you cant count on it to maximize multi target attacks. How hard is it to program:

Can I kill something do that otherwise hit 3 enemies. I realize there could be even a better ai but it is pretty sad th hat the current one cant even do what I listed.