Considering neither will be on defence team, and both can be lightly emblemed, which one to max? I am not planning to save tabards, have 8 in the bank for now and I see no point in hoarding, since I am not summoning that often.
Other max purples: Jabberwock +17 and Sartana +6
Grimble felt good at 3/70 in the undead horde war, so I’m tempted to up him for the first time.
Zulag seems underwhelming, but not Obakan levels of underwhelming (my only other 5 star purple at 1/1) so, she’s the second alternative. Her special can be dispelled, but I feel like thats not a huge issue in my mono purple attack team. Other than Seshat, I can’t think of top level defence heroes with dispel specials.
My vote is for Grimble. I run him in an effective anti-tel purple stack where one of his main benefits is if he specials after tel then he is able to charge C Quintus to max and that is the final volley required to decimate the enemy team. The other members of the team are C Rig, Tiburkiss, and Proteus.
In the last undead minion war he destroyed 10 minions and charged up about 80% of everyone’s mana.
I also use him in titan fights because of his crit up, although I don’t have a particularly strong purple line up.
He is super sturdy so you wont need to emblem him for surviability. Once upon a time I got him to +18 on attack path and he was doing decent damage especially when boosted with C Rig and Tiburkiss, but since then he has been stripped as I just have too many clerics to emblem. But otherwise you are not getting him for his damage but for his minion destroying abilities.
Nobody really wants Zulag in their team, and that includes Zulag. I haven’t seen a sadder look on any other hero in this game. On offense I think you could get some value out of her, but there are better options.
Oh - I did use Grimble as a tank some time back in a top 500ish alliance, and he was servicable in that role due to his sturdiness
Another vote for Grimble. The game meta finally is moving in his direction, with more minion spawners coming out, and the minion wars. His tankish base stats also mean you could in theory tank him if you need a purple tank. That after all would be the real purpose of leveling up Zulag - for use as a tank. So, all in all, it seems Grimble is the way to go even if you needed a purple tank. Would he be a better purple tank than Zulag? Maybe depending on who else you have.
Grimble should also be good in rush wars against Telly. Grimble + C. Rigard to cleanse the mana reduction should fill everyone mana halfway with 4 minions if you have mana troops.
For offence, I can only echo the others here it’s Grimble. I ascended him early on because I had loads of tabards. Never regretted it despite what people said about him!
He’s very niche but what he does, he does very well. Sturdy, average speed hit all and against summoners the mana gain for removed minions is very nice. Very satisfying when you clean a whole team who are 2-3 minions deep and charge up all your heroes
Forgetting crit up and mana up abilities - just looking at pure damage. If you trigger him (maxed, unemblemed) when the opponent has an average of 1 minion per hero (e.g. Tel has just cast), then you are doing the equivalent of 400ish damage to each hero I think when you incorporate the minion destruction. That is definitely decent. To give some context, Tiburkiss’ special doesn’t even kill off the minion with its damage output (this was pre last Tel minion nerf, not sure about now)
Will need to double check the exact damage he does though it has been a while since I last had a good luck at it.
. Also have Clarissa. Tempted to test out all those element links