I am at mid-game with a few strong 4* teams and a couple of 5* heroes.
Like many other players, I have kept many less-useful 4* and 5* heroes “just in case”.
Examples:
Elkanen (I have a pair)
Obakan
Justice
Kadilen
Horghall
Mok-Arr
Agwe
Little John
Hu Tao
Gaderius (maxed and emblemed one, but why another?)
Danzaburo
and more… let’s call them C-grade heroes.
Since ascension mat. is so rare - these heroes are out of the question of investing in them.
If I find I have redundant materials - I will invest in some B-grade heroes, those that are useful, although not a clear-cut material worth such as JF (my only HOTM), Leonidas, Azlar - whatever…
I really hoped some “C grade” heroes will be fixed - but this doesn’t seem like the direction the game goes toward.
A costume can be a “fix” - but now hero comes with the costume, so why keep any?
Instead of repairing flawed heroes, making them a fair alternative - new heroes are being released. E.g Mok-Arr and Atomos are not really viable as 5*, but more (and much stronger) heroes released a while after: Poseidon, Ariel, Ursena- you name it.
With season 3 ahead, releasing more heroes every month - I can’t see how heroes will get “fixed” any time soon. The method is to release more and better heroes (at least most of them) so players are expected to “convert” - to the new stronger and more useful heroes. This also adds to SG’s bottom line, so why change?
In short, I am about to clear ~20 copies of C-grade 4* and 5* heroes I held for many months.
Am I going to regret that?
Thanks in advance!
(It a bit of a pitty, since so many of these C-grade heroes can become B-grade or even A-grade, with little effort or risk.)
In my honest opinion, it depends on what hero roster you have, what you want, what play style you go with. And how you use your emblems.
That said, I personally think every hero has a place / role - but I wouldn’t necessarily keep duplicates for all of them.
Justice with emblems is a good tank
Kadilen is a good support hero
Elkanen with emblems can be a beast
Good luck.
Due to tourney and events I’ve kept and levelled at least 1 of every 4* and 3* hero. Every hero has a place it can be used well ( except maybe gobbler).
Bench space isn’t expensive even for cheepskates like me and you will reach a point where 3* mats are not an issue and want something to do while waiting on Damascus blades or that last tonic!
Finally never get rid of 5* even if you think you dont want to level it as heroes can be buffed/ get a great costume.
4* dupes eat away as you’ll likely get it again from portal or tc20
I am not about to drop All my 4*. Still have 15+ copies of 4* worth leveling. There are plenty of B-Grade heroes (Scarlett, Colen, and Sumitomo didn’t get materials yet. Would level a second copy of Boldtusk first).
Wrt. emblems - specifically Kadilen and Justice are sort of options (Throne or Richard may be more promising Paladins IMHO), but I assume I will get Season 3 heroes on that time or another - that will be far superior, and get the emblem priority.
I recently trimmed my roster pretty mercilessly. I used only two guidelines:
All five stars get to stay
All four stars that are duplicates are gone, as long as they are Season 1 heroes (so for example Gobbler gets to stay, that second Scarlett does not) - another way to say this is that I’m more inclined to keep event, seasonal, and Atlantis heroes
Essentially, the harder a hero is to get, the more likely I am to keep them.
Turning to what you listed, only Little John and Hu Tao are subject to the chopping block, and only if you already have another copy of them kept. Both are far from worthless. Hu Tao dominates the four star rush tournament, even with no emblems. Little John does very well in blue tank wars, in a useful support hero in Barbarian trials, and if emblemed can fight in Diamond (I’ve hard this last from others, I think Olmor).
Edited to add: I guess I’d chuck the dupe Gadeirus, unless you fight blue tanks all the time in war.
Exactly - they all have their place and they all have teams that make them viable.
And there’s occasionally buffs that make the particularly “meh” hero’s viable… Even if public (forum) opinion takes time to catch up.
In this vein… I’ll defend a few on the list in the OP:
Kadilen seems to be turning up more often in diamond defences recently, and she can be irritating if your AoE hero is ready to fire but your dispeller isn’t ready (especially as AoE hero’s tend to be squishy and you don’t want to keep them waiting!). She’s not a killer, but she is a delayer and at fast mana this has utility on attack and on defence. Underrated without question.
Mok Arr in the right teams is an absolute beast on attack… 250% to 5 at average is huge, an unlike Ursena it doesn’t drop in half once enemies have <50% health). His damage to teammates is a quirk, but when paired with a spirit linker (Wilbur, Aegir) and a beserker (BK, Khiona) it becomes a perk; equally, it’s a non-issue in a dark mono.
Mok is seriously underrated because he’s seen as a poor man’s Ursena, and in some ways he is, but as a poor man’s version of arguably the most OP card in the game, he’s actually really powerful - it just takes a bit of team-building nouse to turn his advantages on.
On a personal level, I’ve been running him at 3.70 on raids on a 3-2 (with Wilbur+20, BK, G.Kong and Kage) with such success that I’m going to max him… I tend to run those three reds everywhere, sometimes in mono and sometimes in 3-2, so having 2’s that play well with it is valuable to me…
I’d grade him a solid A in the right teams, and a B- in the wrong team. He’s not for defence, though, IMHO.
Take him to 3.70 and you’ll see what I mean.
Justice is tough as old boots and quite a formidable flank… But if your defence is set in stone (I like to tinker with mine!) then possibly not so valuable.
Definitely keep Justice. She only comes into her own on that final ascension. Then she can be a beast as a tank or paired with any of Poseidon, Drake, Leonidas in offensive raids. But the big thing to consider on Season 1s with costumes is emblems elevate BOTH. You’re getting double talents of different types for the same number of emblems.
For me personally, I keep every 5*, duplicates and all, and at least three copies of every 4* unless they are non-Season 1, in which I’ll hold onto more. I keep at least one of every Seasonal/Challenge Event or non-Season 1 3* hero, as well. I know I need to keep room for feeders, but I also want to hold onto these others for when Hero Academy rolls out just in case they might be useful there.
@IvyTheTerrible, I’d agree with your statements but also wanted to add that LJ is also quite a boss off the 4* Rush tournaments. Hits like all like a truck, has that -64% mana generation for three turns as a bonus and it’s likely the only time he ever gets his special off
Literally the strategy on one of my war teams is to pair him with Mother North, watch him die, revive him, fire him to great effect, (optional) watch him die again.
Hmmm… I can imagine him useful for the 4* rush, but I can’t imagine myself emblem an hero for such a narrow role.
Wrt. “hitting like a truck” that’s rather descriptive, number-wise he hits about like Skittleskull and Agwe.
Overall the only question imho is Alternatives:
Is it better to level additional Melendor or Caedmon - or little john?
To me, each of both seem more useful, or Brynhild, Buddy, or Peters - if I get them.
Overall my post is a bit forward-thinking and provocative. For now, I do keep my all 5* and most non-S1 4* heroes. I think the time will soon come when this practice will also change.
I would say it depends on how you play and what your bench strength is like for wars. I have multiple LJs (mainly because I kept getting multiples), but he does have a relatively high attack. At 3/60, he has an attack of 615 where Caedmon is 635 at 4/70 and Melendor is 593 at 3/60. I leave a bunch at 3/60 to help deal with alliances that go with blue tanks. I run 3-1-1, so I’ll pop in LJ as my third green just for the tile damage. The other greens would be the fast and special purpose ones. Leveling to 3/60 doesn’t require any special ascension materials, and would only be something if you run out of heroes to level, or if you want to increase your bench strength. Unless you are really hurting for roster capacity.
@brother_north, one LJ is quite enough. Emblems I would suggest against. Unless you plan to use the glass cannon in a mana slow/stop team?
As for hitting like a truck, hitting all with 185% is pretty significant when you include the -64% mana generation for 3 turns. The trick is to keep the slow witted Goliath alive that long.
I’d say level one, he has his uses. But you’d be better off with another Melendor if only for AW’s
@Quinn3 and @brother_north, my lone LJ maxed with 4 nodes is at 741 attack. So YES he can pack quite a punch
ConsiderBig my Grimm with 15 nodes has 782 attack I think that’s justifies LJ to be pretty close to hitting “Like a truck”. Grimm hits one HARD, LJ takes the whole team and ■■■■■ slaps them across the battlefield.
I leveled him simply because he was one of my 1st nature attackers. I learned quickly that he didn’t last very long, but if he did and fired it would bode well for my chances in that particular battle.
I got rid of my maxed 3* and 4* dups right before Alliance wars were introduced. 
