I don’t have Kingston. I can only speak from playing against him on defense in diamond, but he’s struck me as “slightly better Lianna”. So if you need a fast sniper green immune to burning, and you plan to use him on offense regularly, sure. But I’m not sure from seeing him on defense A LOT that there aren’t a ton of sniper type characters that aren’t all that different from him (yes, he may be minor to moderately “better,” but if you line up a bunch of snipers, is he that much different?).
Mother North I run everywhere. Emblemed she’s sturdy enough to withstand a lot of damage, she heals a good chunk for the party and provides shields, and can bring back the dead (she works exceptionally well with Alby; I take them both often on offense and they feed into each other). Her slow Mana speed is a negative, sure, but there are a lot of battles I’ve won because she brought back the team or kept them alive long enough to finish a battle.
You have to decide what you need more; I’d go MN just on the basis of having a somewhat unique ability that can bail you out whereas there are more heroes similar to Kingston that may replace him in a line up, but you probably can’t go wrong either way.
Depends on play style. I don’t stack in terms of a traditional 3-2 or heavier stack in raids, but I do bring her and Alby along with Onatel and some combo of Joon/Sesh/Misandra and do just fine. A lot of strategies can work with her beyond needing her paired with fast all the time to make her viable on attack. Like you note, it just depends on the synergy of your squad, but she can be viable.
I’m not sure North cares what colours her support heroes are - she’s an equal-opportunity-reviver.
The fact is; rainbow, 2:2:1, 3/2, 4/1 - north can revive a nearly dead team and pull a win out where no other hero in the game could.
Kingston is a really strong sniper among a field of many other really strong snipers. He’s replaceable by others who do the same job as (or nearly as) well. North is absolutely unique (her durability and higher revive chance even sets her apart from Alby)… and I’d want that on my team ASAP.
I have both maxed, Kingston with emblems. I team him with Evelyn on every raid and quest that I can. I use MN twice a week for war. What do you need is the question, cuz you cannot go wrong.
MN will singlehandedly bring you back from death and win you raids you should have lost. I’ve won countless raids because of MN. Kingston will not. He is just another dime-a-dozen sniper. For me there is no question here.
It’s still a hard question to answer. If I take mostly fast heroes I win 80+% of my raids. You say MN helps you win raids you wouldn’t have but with a fast hero you might never be in that position where you’re losing.
Slow MN doesn’t help your early raid thus necessitating the need for the revive. 5 fast might still be better.
I can’t speak with authority on MN on offense. I do have another really powerful slow green in lady of the lake. She wins me a lot of raids. But I would still do Kingston over her for my 1st green because having 1 fast sniper in each color is massively important for offense.
Fast rules on offense for the most part. You need a base of fast snipers before you supplement them with slows.
Mother North all the way! you can get another good snipers, but not another good healer/reviver (but Alby)… so I would go for her. During this tournament (mana very fast) Im using her on every attacks and… MN very fast is a gift of the godes haha
I think MN saves you more in the raids where you get a really bad board and the tank/flanks go off before you even get to a fast special. You end up getting rid of the tank but you lose 2 heroes first. That often leads to a loss because you’re behind on heroes and your snipers can’t deal damage as fast as they’re taking it.
But if you have MN, as long as she’s still alive you have a chance to reset the fight.
I’ll never understand why so many people judge Mother based on her defence.
I mean, she’s really good on defence for sure - but you’re right, when being raided she doesn’t go off a lot.
But In the second half of war, when your enemy is Running out of strong vs Tank colours, your team often gets more time and she fires more frequently.
But that’s all just Empires & Puzzled version of ‘look over here at this Jazz hand’… because the real story of Mother North is on offence, where I think she is arguably the most powerful hero in the game.
We know two things about attacking: 1) In Empires and Heroes synergy among heroes and specials is of prime importance and 2) in any conflict you should always aim to be on the strong side of the most unfair fight possible.
North’s special synergizes with absolutely every other hero in the game.
You want to run 2 Kages, 2 Drakes and 2 GraveMakers? Impossible - except with North (or Alby). For her, it’s a breeze. With her revive you’re effectively running more heroes than your opponent. In fact, it’s almost an unlimited number. I’ve certainly had heroes revive 3 or 4 times in a match. My Liannas with Costume are strong. I run a pair. They’re stronger still when I effectively have six - two; plus four clones.
North is arguably as or more unbalancing to the game on offence than any other hero.
No, she’s not as effective at defence as Ursena, who is certainly OP.
But on offence… no one I have I’d rather enter a fight with because I know she’s gonna a) stay alive as long as is possible for any hero, and b) she’s gonna make whoever else I bring much, much more powerful.
I’m not sure who you’re raiding, but even with 3 costumed Liannas, Kingston and Evelyn, you can easily lose in high Diamond to the defences found there if you start with a bad board.
But not with North. I remove a costumed Lianna (which is a huge amount of Alpha strike); replace her with North who doesn’t even tickle the enemy; and yet still my team gets more successful by 10-15 percent.
Any time my green team loses now is a shock. The boards have to be abysmally bad or pretty bad and every early hit has to be on North for me to whiff with her.
I’ve run both variables for 14 months. I have a ton of experience that tells me 5 fast heroes is a good strategy. For sure. But 4 fast with North is better.
However the OP has zero fast snipers (Arthur, Hel, Tarlak, Neith as only 5*)
MN crazy powerful. But there’s still a case to be made that having a first fast 5* sniper might be more important. I’m making the case. You’re making the opposite. You’ve made a very strong case.
I can’t imagine not having a single fast 5* sniper. I mean I win probably 90% of my raids and I don’t have MN. But heroes like Panther, Seshat, Kingston, Joon have been invaluable for me.
It’s an interesting discussion. I don’t have experience with MN on offence so I’ll defer to yours. But the OP having zero fast snipers certainly has to play into the decision.
I agree the lack of snipers is disconcerting, but the thing is 1 good 5 star sniper isn’t going to let him hang in diamond or anything. If his raid teams are like 2 five stars and 3 four stars, your biggest weakness is going to be the squishiness of the 4 stars. A single sniper can’t do enough damage to make up for the four stars getting waxed. But MN can give you a chance to bring them all back.
I would go MN. She is one of my favorite heroes when raiding. I can’t tell you how many times I have been down to just her on my team in a raid and end up winning with a full team…
I think the case for a fast sniper over North would be stronger if it were a second sniper - especially in the same colour. If the OP had Lianna maxed and was considering Kingston or North, you could argue that Lianna/Kingston is a guaranteed kill as soon as they’re charged; but a single sniper… it’s just not enough to be a difference maker.
North, on the other hand, works with whatever she’s played with - so adding her to the team will make them more viable and win more right now - and then in 2-3 months when Kingston is added the team will keep getting stronger and stronger.
And playing North on war defence will make a big difference too.
All that said, this is like arguing over Magic vs Bird or Gretzky vs Lemieux … at the end of the day there’s only the right answer and the other right answer.
