That would be very fair at this point.
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I found a place for him in events as an Attack buffer to other heroes.
But yes, sadly his application elsewhere is limited.
No red, 4* rush tournament is probably the only other use I could think for him
It would also keep the game interesting for me. Currently, my TC20s keep spitting out vanilla 3* feeders and the occasional vanilla 4* dupe. Portals mostly the same. Almost always vanillas; if not vanilla, it’s a 3*. I don’t have a single 5* from S2 or S3, and they’re already releasing S4? LOL ok. They might as well just send me a message in my mail saying “based on your spending history, we’ve determined that you have a snowball’s chance in hell of keeping up with the META. We recommend you uninstall the game now for the sake of your own mental well being.”
You mentioned some heroes that I used to hate in different ways in the past.
Margaret was my first HOTM. By that time, I had been playing for 4 months and I hardly understood her special. It was so useless for me that I used her as food (yes, a beginner mistake 
). However, I don’t regret about that, even though she got a buff.
I used to be scared of Gadeirus and Kashrek in wars. That lizard was a heavy tank. Now I see him (in both versions) and he’s barely a joke. Not afraid at all.
Regaeding vanilla heroes, I had to get used to them. Obviously, they always lose if we compare them to the new heroes, but nowadays they are part of my attack teams (I’ve got just Kadilen without costume in my defense team) as I only have one 5* hero from the S2 and S3 and some 5* from the special events. In fact, I have more HOTMs.
My girlfriend pulled Margaret early on, and I apologized to her. Even though I barely had any 5* heroes myself at the time.
Kash used to terrify me, now he’s a joke - less of a joke when costumed, but still easily beatable with my current roster.
My current roster is almost entirely vanilla. It fares okay in most situations, but I’m finding many of the newer heroes to be insanely overpowered compared to mine. Not even just the new heroes, some older ones have come back to rear their ugly heads (I absolutely despise Alberich with a passion… Alby + fast mana wars? What sadistic ***** came up with that combination???)
When I face an opponent that is almost all vanilla heroes, I know I have a decent chance of winning. When I face an opponent that is mostly S3 / event / ninja etc.? I might as well just jump off a friggin bridge.
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Shale when fully emblemed (defence-health path) is very resilient and often the last hero to fall, give him a chance.
CMelendor is useful and when he charges his skiils make me certain that some of my heroes will last longer than normal.
Margaret’s not the best, but I still love mine 
she plays a keep role keeping frailer heroes like Hansel, Melendor, Proteus etc. alive and she hits HARD with her tile damage, so always on my Titan team when I stack Green.
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I did, I was excited, I stored emblems… and he’s dreadful.
Compare him to c.rigard, I cannot think of a single situation in which he is a credible alternative.
If he was your only 4* hero or you’re desperate for a red… maybe?
Here they are side by side
Poor old Shale had worse sats, a useless class and takes longer to provide 15% more healing. He has no attack buff.
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Or you need a 5th hero for your “K-Pop does a Ninja video” inspired raid team
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I know Shale is not the ninja people desire. I am after the better dodge and minor riposte chances of 3 ninjas than 2. That could be fun while raiding.
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I use him for fun together with ametrine and sapphire. The dodge and counter is nice to use. Also, if you use him for S3 hard, he works well since you just store his special till you need it.
I appreciate the effort, but that sounds just like a bit of a novelty, like farming with Gobbler because of his silly grin animation.
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He is basically used as filler for the 3rd ninja spot so just used him that way. 
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I always hated him. We never were able to get along.
I HATE the idea of making a weak on Def, strong on Atk healer. What’s the point?
The costume fixed him a bit but I’m Team Rigard and Team Kiril all the way. Costume Sabina is now very good too.
This doesn’t happen every time on a sniper hit. But think of the teams you want to take C Mel for - one or more of these - C Kadilen, Krampus, BK, Garnet, Vanda, Sif. Freya or Bera are likely there. Probably a Heim or MN in there and some hit alls. I would expect 1 or at the absolute most 2 snipers - if there are more then you likely don’t need C Melendor anyway. So a 50/50 chance of dying form a sniper hit that has a 1/5 chance of hitting him assuming the sniper has charged before C Mel has used his special or one of my other heroes has buffed or debuffed? I will take those chances any day of the weak. He is extremely critical in my Skadi team. All snipers? He can have a good snooze back in the barracks.
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C Sabina is better than very good. She blocks buffs! Krampus/BK are completely neutered, C Kadilen is spayed, Freya can’t drop her defense up, etc, etc. C Sabina is fabulous!
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I actually don’t use cMel against any of the heroes you mentioned, mainly because I prefer Malosi as he does a better job at neutralizing them. He singlehandedly turns most of the heroes on that list into nothing more than giant meatshields (particularly cKad, BK, and Krampus) and his very fast speed greatly helps him achieve that.
Freya I prefer to counter with cTibs to completely flip that defense buff, Bera is more of a threat with her minions so someone like Grazul/Garnet would work better. Sif I counter with Ametrine (because no Kage 
), and cKad I honestly just try to wait it out because the dodge isn’t limited to offensive specials and I do not feel like wasting my special while boosting the defense’s HP.
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I have 3. Also 3 C Rigard and 3 C Boldtusk (although him I prefer uncostumed for the extra attack boost). All 3 sets get used quite frequently.
Agreed, Shale is the tissue paper that Garnet blew her nose with and threw away.
I mean a character that heals and cleanses only themselves at roughly Very Fast (roughly) speed, themselves and nearby heroes at Average (roughly), or the whole team at Very Slow (roughly)…no thanks. Pointless hero that is beaten out by virtually every other healer in the game, including 3 star ones.
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I will not disagree. Rigard costume or not is unique as a free to player’s healer hero needs to be.
But do not compare him with every healer you counter on or else you will end up play with him every time in every situation which is boring.
Shale is unique in his own. He heals himself very fast so can not fall easy and in the course of the battle will have the chance to heal more or all.
You decide when you use him accordingly.
I like this abiquity and uncertainty of his usefulness…