Best war defense I can muster

Gameplay Help & Tactics
#1

Hello all,

So I’d like to get some advice crafting the best war defense I can muster as of right now. Given my performance of E in tournaments, I’m pretty sure I have a lackluster understanding of the basic mechanics of defense. This is the current defense I’m running due to how I distributed emblems.

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A bit sad, right? It’s mostly held due to a combination of intimidation and our varied, minor league war opponents, but it rarely holds up to an actual assault from a top heavy hitter player opponent. We as an alliance don’t coordinate teams and only occasionally fight alliances that do. We’re really minor league at best, but I’d like to make a strong defense to stave off field resets as long as possible.

So I’m thinking and willing to move those Paladin emblems around a bit since I think they’re wasted on Ares, and I JUST finished maxing and putting a few emblems on Seshat, so here were my thoughts.

First, wing Vivica is probably a waste of a slot (barring healing aid but even then a bit questionable), but I don’t think +18 Chao can hold that spot any better, so of those three, Ranvir is probably the best option for defense being fast and having decent defense. If I keep Ares as center, he needs good flanks to have much of a chance, so this is what I was thinking:

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Shoving Seshat and Elkanen into the corners to be the most annoying hanging-on wings imaginable means I need to have Ranvir up front and hope the defense lucks out. Alternatively:

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Move the emblems to Richard who could probably do some serious damage (and would make him more potent in raids) and flank with Ares and Queen of Hearts which could be a serious pain in the neck.

I’m going to at some people who’s opinions I highly regard. Respond if you can, but if you’re busy, don’t know, or don’t care, no biggie.

@Kerridoc @Gryphonknight @zephyr1 @Garanwyn

I’d also like @Scarecrow to give his opinion since he often boasts of rolling Ares tanks, and that way I can blame him if it fails :joy:

In all seriousness, your defense advice in tourneys seems better than my intuition, so I’d like you’re opinion too.

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#2

Personally i find ares and guin as 2 of the Best Tanks in the game

That being said i find them to be 2 of the Worst Flanks in the game and simply wouldn’t flank them

I think your rainbow setup with ares tank is probly your best bet

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#3

I would prefer your team 2.

Panther not great on defense and wasted Ares critical on her.
Seshat would be better.

Vivica - Seshat - Ares - Richard - Elkanen

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#4

Well @MD-DC, for me it is, like I said many times before. The people have trouble even with Boril, which is a joke for me. The same thing for Ares. Though is a great hero, imo is ONLY offensive hero and as tank in one of the worst choices a player may do. The day I won’t be able to defeat a defense with Ares tank, is the day I should uninstall the game because clearly I lost my mind :rofl:

That being said, I would give all the emblems to Richard. I have Ares too, but I would never give him emblems. For attack is very good how he is. And I gave the emblems to Richard choosing only the atk path. He may be average, but is designed to be tank and at the same time to be lethal. How many heroes are like him in the game, lethal tanks? Only Yunan, but is slow. Maybe Ursena… I don’t count Azlar because he dies from 3 tiles running 3-2, not even mono. I always use Richard in raids, wars, tournaments and hard missions. But this is me. You know better which hero suits you better. If you are battling high level titans (I don’t), then go for Ares. He is one of the best heroes for titans and everyone knows that. Then keep Ares emblemed and build your defense around him. Many players don’t know how to fight him. Advantage you.

P.S. ALWAYS Seshat on wing, no matter left or right.

1 Like
#5

Another thing… Having Ares as tank doesn’t allow you to use QoH (because her unique position is flank; any other position is a mistake and a waste for her ability). These are all your 5*? Seshat is great on left wing. Then obviously Richard and Ares. Having red tank, you should set Elk right flank. And the only choice for right wing is a fast hero, Ranvir.

#6

That’s my maxed 5* heroes. I do have a Frida too, but I don’t think she should be on defense. I have more 5* except they’re all 3/70 or lower. I have enough tonics to ascend another green but am hoping for either Kingston or Evelyn, so that’s basically the only pool I’ve got.

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#7

Have you considered giving your paladin emblems to another hero? I had mine on Ares for a long time, but didn’t really notice a difference. Ares is a passive/proactive tank, but he doesn’t have any bite to him. The QoH, Frida and even Richard are far more dangerous at the tank position than Ares is.

I know some of you would disagree, but, imo, Ares is great on offense but horrendous on defense.

2 Likes
#8

So yeah.

20 characters

3 Likes
#9

How is ares crit wasted on panther who has a pretty high base attack and slash attacks/tile damage are the only things that can crit?

2 Likes
#10

It isn’t wasted, per say, I just think he chose the wrong words to explain. Ares should be flanked by snipers to give them the best shot at killing an enemy with one hit. Panther almost certainly couldn’t do that if her life depended on it unless the enemies she strikes are near death anyway.

@MD-DC if I were you, I’d go
Vivica, Seshat, Richard, QoH, Elkanen

3 Likes
#11

That boils down to buffing attack, not crit

And if ares was buffing 2 hit 3 heroes attack by 50% it would leave a noticeable mark if both fired. Sure snipes u may lose 2 heroes. But 2 hit 3s you’re lookin at anywhere between 2 to 5 that are reasonably damaged and now 3 out of 5 opponents have buffed slash attacks as well and panthers would do even more damage due to -dark buff + crit chance + att boost

Theoretically

Also sayin if he had 2 fast mana hit 3 flanks btw. Drake, gm, eve, kestrel, etc etc

Panther used to run rampant in defense, mainly as guin flanks/wings. Which for the obvious yellow/dark mix. But she still has the highest base attack stat of any elemental dropper and most darks in general

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#12

Oh, I didn’t consider the crit part. I totally glossed over it. In that instance, the hero beside Ares doesn’t really matter, no.

And your theory works on paper, but from what I’ve seen and personally experienced, Ares isn’t good tank on defense and even less when not flanked by snipers. I actually tested Zim vs Ares with Magni and Joon flanks for both. Zim did considerably better as tank, losing far less trophies over night than ares.

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#13

In theory one of the best flanks to Ares is Zeline who can punish the inevitable blue stack brought against him. Alas, she’s not an option for me.

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#14

Personally, you don’t have to stack blue against Ares and anytime I see a Zeline next to him, I stack reds. The issue with Ares is that you can stack greens against him with no fear from him.

This is a list of greens that destroy Ares and the ones with a * completely reverses his special:

Zeline*
Morgan La Fey
Lady Locke
Mad Hatter*
Evelyn*
Caedmon*
Melendor*

Can these same heroes be used against other tanks, yes, depending on which one’s you’re talking about, but the fact remains, that most of the other tanks are not the superior color.

1 Like
#15

Reroll and Skips

War has severely limited number of attacks and no rematch with same ten heroes. You can not see rerolls for raid defense. You cannot see war skips. So really hard to see how effective a war defense is without access to enemy plans.

Resets suffers from lots of issues ( that is another rant), but in your situation you are in a tough spot because enemies will avoid you or forced to take you out. So a good alliance with select the teammates most likely to take you out and then coordinate to their resets.

Ranvir

Ranvir works best with attack all enemies or chain attacks, so better to just drop yellow unless you want to use a center Vivica.

Ares

From what be say ( my Ares info is sparse), the big problem with Ares in the current meta game:

Crit only effects normal/ slash attacks.
Heal Over Time and attack buffs are dispellable.

Ares and Queen of hearts are average mana speed, so both on flank will sometimes solve the dispellable problem since taunt minions can not be dispelled, only killed.

Minions, can crit. But putting them together not great.

Panther

Only 5*+3 Panther 1/5 Revive, but it would be interesting to try

Melendor
Richard
Panther
Ares
Elkanen

Basically using the Paladins to shield your corners. Matching Melendor with Richard for heal and hitting then Elkanen with Ares for the same.

or

Melendor
Queen of Hearts
Panther
Ares
Elkanen

Three Paladins all in a row

Panther
Ares
Richard
Queen of Hearts
Seshat

Panther and Seshat in corners gives two fast heroes.

Three Paladins in the middle is throwing up
a wall of defense stat and HP.

Perfect

None of these are perfect, and different war rules will effect what defense you should put up. But because of Empires’ business model most players are severely handicapped when it comes to 4* / 5* defense.

Tourney defense

Tourney defense is broken ( but that is another rant).

#1 tourney defense factor is X*+20 heroes. This helps defense survive combos and good attacker boards.

3 Likes
#16

Also increases odds of getting attacked which increases chances of scoring above E

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#17

That’s exactly the kind of insight I was hoping for. Glad to hear pretty much all of that. It does explain why in wars it feels super hit or miss. Some of that could be just even matches, but it never occurred to me that the enemy team might just coordinate strikes like that.

:clap::clap::clap:

2 Likes
#18

They really should have made you fight each defense 3 times to buffer issues with matchmaking and board RNG.

Many sports like baseball even have series between two teams during the regular season.

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#19

Great on offense but defense still a single sniper is better IMO since he was asking for defense especially when he has Seshat.

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#20

True enough but boil it down to sesh more damage on 1 with buffed attack and defensive minions instead of crit wasted on panther

New players read the forum and misinformation spreads like wildfire so that’s why i wanted to clarify

Tho brings up the panther+sesh debate as sesh minions would do more damage when panther debuff active

But would be more effective with yellow tank and idk the math behind the minions so unsure if it’s enough to prove viable but would be worthy note i think in gryph breakdown above where he paired the 2 on the wings. If it was already and i missed it then oops.

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