Shame
How was a post made about Telluria tanks and NO ONE TAGGED ME??? Shame on all of you.
Double Greens
Let’s first address putting another green on the field with Telluria. I will address this question and all subsequent ones using data ONLY from Telluria post-rebalancing, which unfortunately cuts my sample size in roughly half.
I have 27 raids against such teams, and they have gone 4-23 against me. That’s too small a sample size to feel super confident about what’s going on, but it doesn’t immediately suggest this strategy is without merit. That win rate is in line with Telluria’s overall win rate against me. And, while it seems silly to cut that sample up more, most of those teams did NOT have the protection of Vela (only 1 of the 4 losses I took did).
I would theorize that Telluria is so powerful that, if the attacker gets to the point that they’re able to leverage their red tile advantage against the second green defender, they were likely going to win that fight anyway (since likely Telluria and the flank on the second green defenders side would both have to be down).
Flank by Mana Speed
First, I’m going to take Vela OUT of consideration here, since we all know she’s the ideal flank (and because OP doesn’t have her). In my first raid edition about Telluria that she may be BETTER off with a slower blue hero (when she can’t have Vela). Here’s what I said then:
Telluria’s mana slow is so powerful that even an average speed flank is now likely to fire, so the superior damage / effect of a, say, Richard, may actually be better than a Magni (whose shield is more redundant with Telluria’s HoT and minions) at that point.
Fast blue flank (excluding Vela): 3-32, ~8.6%
Average blue flank: 2-23, ~8%
Slow blue flank: 1-7, ~14.3%
N.B. the comment I quoted was about Telluria BEFORE the rebalance. I will never have enough data to investigate if that was true. And the reduction to Telluria’s kit certainly changes things - so I don’t know if my speculation was correct of not, and and even if it was it may no longer be (post balancing).
While this is too small a sample to draw any conclusion, I confess to being intrigued.
Again, I’ll offer a theoretical explanation: if Telluria protects her flank long enough for them to fire, you want maximal effect from that flank (in terms of shifting the win probability). Fast heroes may not give that, as their primary effect is often to snipe an attacker. Because Telluria is passive, it’s very possible no attacker was in sniping range (or that the AI missed them).
In contrast, an average hero often gives more total damage (e.g., Richard and even Thorne), which may be more disruptive at that point in the match. I used Richard as my example because his attack debuff can be particularly crippling in terms of the attacker trying to combat Telluria’s HoT and minion.
The slow heroes: that’s 1-6 for Isarnia and 0-1 for Miki. If Isarnia fires (and it is not reflected), that fight is probably over. I have long felt slow heroes (and Isarnia in particular) are undervalued on the forum. They’re not as flashy and their impact isn’t always as obvious, but they fare far better than most realize. I would cite the fact that Elena and Isarnia consistently rank as elite tanks in my raid stats, and that Isarnia graded out as one of the best classic (S1) defenders when SGG published data (you know, that ONE time they did share some data with us). When they fire, the impact is massive. I’d roll with Isarnia for now and see if the defense performs the way you hoped.