The last tiers are different for each class, some not worth the amount of emblems needed for 19 and 20 completion. I weigh the last 2 tiers according to hero, and if they dont assist my hero accordingly, (i.e critical attack 4% for Buddy) I opt out. On the other hand, a defense up and health bonus to Grimm, to me, was worth it.
To me, the last 2 tiers for Hansel are negligible and not worth the 110 emblems that could be used for the initial 5-6 tiers of another 4* hero.
I agree that the most accurate and least useful answer is “it depends.”
For Hansel, maybe +19 if the 2% crit is useful, but in general I’d move on to another cleric. My Rigard is going to be at +18 since the crit/mana and healing is pretty much useless, imho.
My Proteus is at +17. I went the HP/defence route with him so the 18th and 20th nodes (+attack) are not needed for me, nor is node 19, which is a choice between +2% healing received and +2% mana recovery. Change them to +5% or more, and maybe we can talk.
Paladin gets a huge defense boost at X*+20. I do not currently have a Paladin X*+1, but if I get Falcon, I would definitely take Falcon to 4*+20.
But as others have said, it depends on you roster, how many Class quests you are completing all three stages, the individual hero, and how you feel about reset emblems.
For most heroes I am stopping at X*+15 to X*+18 because I would rather add emblems then have to reset them an lose all the iron I have used. This may change when Stronghold 25 is finally released.
I do it because of OCD. I know most heroes don’t get the mana speed increase until node 19 so that imo is an automatic yes. And even if the last node costs so much but might not do much, I will still farm for the food, iron, and emblems to fill it. I know I personally have a long road ahead to maxing out Grimm’s grid. As he is gonna require 505 emblems to max it out and barbarian emblems are hard to come by for me right now. I get choke monk and cleric emblems. Monk is a little over 100, Cleric is 155 last I checked.
Bottom line, I fill em even if the node itself is useful or not.
Probably I’m not going to make all heroes +20 but my BT waiting for emblems at +19 now. I’m using him on green titans and I gave him all atk+ (I think I miss one by accident), +20 is +atk so I need this.
Another thing to keep in mind is not just the hero but how close your mana troops are to the breakpoint and whether they’d benefit from the talent or not.
According to the first mentioned chart, this is 11% for slow and 13% for average. Fast heroes gain no realistic benefit until lvl 29 mana troops and that’s still not a practical benefit (8 tiles to 7).
So for instance, the mana talents on a Hansel cleric or Caedmon druid are meaningless, so it makes no sense to pursue those benefits. But for an average mana Rigard or Melendor, it drops the troop requirement for a tile benefit from 23 to 17 (for Rigard who only gets +2%) and 23 to 11 for Melendor since he gets +4% at +20 talents. A +19 Vivica also would gain a benefit at a lvl 11 mana troop as well (12 to 11 tiles).
Much more math intensive, but some heroes benefit differently.
Edit: some classes also get mana benefits sooner up the tree, Rangers get one at +8, so someone like Red Hood might be able to take advantage sooner than another class.
Doing that math did change my mind on whether or not to do +19/+20 on my Rigard, Wilbur, and Sabina since those classes all benefit from having lower level mana troop requirements. I wasn’t planning on going beyond +18, but my purple mana troop is easily within working range or beyond, and my red is past it since monks get +4%. Hmm…
