Ludwig, without a question. I have all of these heroes, except Kunchen, and Ludwig improved my gameplay in all aspects by a margin like noone before. Six rounds taunt is just a cherry, but mana boost to characters nearby is what making him unique and useful everywhere.
I agree with all the posters, even though you already have a taunter, Ludwig still seems miles ahead of the other choices and it can never hurt to have another taunter (possible the best one)
good evening everyone, i would choose ludwig, and too ahead of other heroes, with 2 good heroes with multiple attacks by his side, the game is over before starting, much better than krampus
if the heroes on either side of Ludwig have zero mana when Ludwig first fires, and receive ZERO tiles, they will still fire three times each in the next six turns
Arguably the biggest effect of Ludwig’s taunt is that a single dispel is not enough to stop this Mana Avalanche of Doom — and if there are any other Wolf heroes on the board, there is a chance for Ludwig’s buffs (mana bombs, taunt) to be literally undispellable.
Probably the single strongest possible argument against leveling Ludwig is that he is so strong that he merits a nerf as much as pretty much any hero in the game; since he’s basically paywalled, though, that presumably greatly reduces the chance that SG actually will nerf him.