I’m fairly new to the game and though I’ve become very addicted, just ask my wallet, I still have tons to learn. I use these teams for defense and have no clue which is better so I wanted to get some opinions.
Welcome to the game. Tough for me to tell which of your defense set ups is best. I remember when I first started a team with a lot of healers was difficult to beat, but that changes pretty quickly as rosters mature.
You have a couple of good things going for you though.
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phileas fogg on the far left seems to be the best green option atm his dispell to one will fire first if multiples heroes are charged which can be an advantage.
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left of tank red would provide color protect for the green if they stack blues against that flank. But IMO I would put one of your blues. The riposte healer might be okay, it would make your opponent bring a dispeller, but I would personally put Ariel.
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At tank in the middle I would go with Hannah (I think rigard would be to passive next to another healer) she will fire fast and at least do some damage. Alternatively you could put Malin here. To punish a purple stack if it fires.
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at right flank if you run a purple tank put eset if she fires it will weaken a yellow stack. If you go with the Malin tank I would put Hannah here (or another purple)
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at right Wing it looks like the option is c. Wilbur so stick him here it’s okay if he fires last it only boosts the normal attacks which fire after all available specials.
The big the at your stage is to experiment with defensive set ups. Run a purple tank with two yellow flanks or the reverse. Run your riposte as a tank. Run defenses where you consider tile splash damage, and run aggressive defenses. As you get new heroes your defense will change so at this point I don’t think you need to form a “best defense.”
Something to keep in mind: how well you can ascend all the heroes in question.
Many 4*, once fully ascended and especially once they start getting a few emblems, can be stronger than a 5* which is stuck at 3/70 waiting for ascension materials. (That’s not to say you shouldn’t get your 5* up to 3/70; certainly use them as you wait for materials!)
In particular, Azmia, cRigard, and Wilbur/cWilbur are all great 4* and staples of your roster that you will always find use for. Azmia is a respectable tank!
(That said, Ariel is a good staple healer too once you get her up and running, and when feasible you’d probably prefer not to run a main blue healer next to a blue tank.)
On the 5* end, Malin throws a lot of scary stuff in that Special, but at Slow speed, I agree with @Dryzden that on defense you probably want her to tank… or to save her for Rush war/tourney defense. Fogg’s speed does make him great for left wing, and in general for standard raid/war defense formation you want your wings/edges to be Fast (or Very Fast) when possible, since they usually won’t get hit by many tiles early on to charge them up. (A big exception, of course, is resurrecting heroes, which usually wind up on the left wing, so that dead heroes with full mana who get brought back fire immediately!)
I’m thinking possibly (depending on your other 4* heroes versus how fast you can get materials for your 5*)
Fogg - cRigard - Azmia - Wilbur - Hannah
or
Wilbur - Ariel - Malin - Hannah - Fogg
(in the latter case, if you can fully ascend your 5* quickly; also notice that defense-down, as well as elemental defense down, can be a Big Deal for devastating damage combos!)
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Don’t put Azmia and Wilbur in one team. They don’t work well together. If you don’t have another red for def team, hold to Ariel as a blue.
So I would suggest:
Fogg - Wilbur - Ariel - Eset - Hannah
Maybe, if your alliance wants to run a purple tank, you can try Fogg - Wilbur - Hannah - Ariel - Malin, but with this setting it would be better to use a faster yellow - your both yellows are slow, so would not work well on wings.
Thanks for the replys. For reference here is my roster currently. I have a lot of 3 and 4*s I need to level. My big mistake so far is leveling too many at once I believe. I probably need to focus on one at a time.
Also if anyone wants to list top 5 3 & 4*s I haven’t leveled that would be great
Regardless of hero choice, the basic recommendation is to build some good teams of 3* first. When leveling, use the same color, so level a rainbow team in parallel. Have fun!
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Hi there 
I really want to echo that too - it will require so much money to be able to level heroes that fast while your base is still ‘young’.
It’s easy to feel that we want to move up and ahead as fast as possible, but it’s sadly not something that can be done in this game, unless you’re spending a lot. (And a lot in this game is, again, sadly, not ‘just’ a few hundred bucks a month - it’s way more.)
And even then, the materials required to ascend the five star heroes fully are very rare and often paywalled. And they take a long time to level too.
Not to mention what it’ll do to your matchmaking in tournaments etc - the system takes your strongest heroes into consideration.
I highly recommend to build teams of your three stars first, then four stars, then five stars. Collection depth is vital in this game too. Ideally spread evenly across your heroes.
You got many great ones to level already - congratulations and enjoy them. 
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@Tarheels4life51
Honestly this is a game of patience and you have a lot of good heroes to level up. So it’s going to take a lot of mats …
With that in mind I would ease off the spending. Mainly because of the power creep here. You will find that as you level a lot of heroes they sometimes become outdated as a new shiny release hero takes one of the top spots…
So my advice would be to level off 3 x 3* rainbow teams (one hero of each colour in a team) followed by 4 x 4* rainbow teams ….
They will get you the mats to level up your 5* heroes…
For your 3* I would focus on levelling up …
Edelaide, Ribbit, Poppy, Kvasir, Sally
Jarif, Nordri, Helo, Yao
Fianna, Gnomer, Gramps, Shrubbear, Mnesseus, Faiez
Dante, Li, Hawkmoon and costume
Greel
For your 4* heroes I would focus on level up …
Waddles, Gretel, Gullinbursti, Bogart, Brynhild
Azmia, Kiril, Sapphire, Sonya and costume, Grimm
Rigard and costume, Proteus, Merlin, Tiburtus
Ptolemy, Hansel, Melendor and costume, Caedmon and costume
Bold and costume, Sun Shangxiang, Junaid, Guardian Falcon, Kelile and costume
Whichever heroes you choose good luck
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I agree you will want to focus your leveling on heroes you can finish maxing out first, which at the beginning means some of your best 3* — not only are they faster to level, but you can get all the required materials through regular map stages.
I would qualify this by saying once you have your first full team of maxed 3*, you don’t necessarily need to concentrate on only building a 3* roster before starting any bigger heroes; I’d keep working on more 3* options while also working on the occasional 4* once you have the relevant materials needed — find a good balance. (If you shift to only working on 4* — or even 5* — “too soon,” progress grinds to a crawl and you are seriously limited by materials; if you stay in “3* only” mode a long time, you rapidly get diminishing returns in most regular PvE map stages.)
I’d also agree that you could probably just not summon any new heroes for a while because you have a lot of great stuff to work on already, and - as others have noted - that’s a long haul.
If you do want to spend to move things along, consider rerouting money from summoning to getting ascension materials and eventually even emblems, as you start maxing out your first heroes. Generally, in terms of overall bang for your buck, getting VIP and then paying for the basic PoV pass tend to get you the most while playing the long game.
—Having said that, the game will always have more to sell you, so decide what you can afford and what you most want within your price point! A lot of “special sales” can be subpar, so don’t be afraid to be choosy (and if you’re looking to spend and trying to figure out what’s best, there is of course a thread for that).
Of your 3*, Helo and Faiez are both excellent healers, Mnesseus and his costume give you the choice of cleanse or dispel, Gnomer and Poppy shoot things fast, Greel and Sally smack multiple foes more slowly. You’re looking for a nice mix of abilities (and over time, the ability to switch in different combinations of abilities, colors, and even classes).
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Thanks for all of the great advice. Im definitely going to listen. I’ve learned very quickly that trying to buy good heroes gets expensive fast and the great ones probably aren’t coming anyway. Plus I haven’t even been playing long enough to know how to spend as you all have stated. It was fun while it lasted but I’ll probably be creating a budget lol. they’re very good at targeting people like me. The covenant portal and now this Atlantis portal with costumes is almost too hard to pass on and they got me for a hundo. But you guys are right. I can’t even level the 5*s up enough to make them competitive yet and could do it way faster with my 3 & 4s. Thankfully my spending spree landed me with some good ones to level.
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They really are - it’s great to be aware of this. 
You are definitely not alone feeling like that.
There are a few good threads around the forum, that could be worth a read, just to be careful not to fall into their trap of spending.
This one thread here, among others, describe it so well (and how it just won’t matter, how many great heroes we might get - as they quickly can become outdated, and that the rng of the board matters most of all too)
All the best to you, good luck on your journey in the game