With Morlovia coming, I’ll have my 6th tabard and a decision to make. The options for the level up are Grimble, Quintus and Sartana.
My current maxed dark heroes are
Alfrike +11
Seshat +20
C Domitia +19
C Rigard +18
C Tiburtus
Proteus +13
Sabina +20
Merlin
Cyprian
While I know Sartana is the likely choice, she has a lot of competition for wizard emblems as I have Alfrike +11
Isarnia +7
JF +7
C Kiril +9
Proteus +13
Quintus as a sorceror, has very competition for emblems. I could bring him to +19 immediately after maxing him.
So the question, is a +19 Quintus better than a unemblemed Sartana and worth the tabard?
IMHO, in most instances, that would be in the negative. My reasoning is that Quintus takes time to charge his mana and may be prone to getting killed while doing so whereas Sartana may already be plucking off the enemy heroes one by one. However, if your Quintus has costume, it may be a different matter as he gains additional stats and a mana bonus, making him a lot sturdier for him to be able to fire his skills.
But based on your post alone, it appears you have already made up your mind and just went here seeking confirmation.
Well, it doesn’t mean that you have tons of heroes unused, you need to max a subpar legendary just for those emblems just to get utilized. As @PeachyKeen has said, you can allocate those emblems to very good rare and/or epic heroes to improve your raid tourney ranking and challenge events.
How will either one fit into your roster? Will an unemblemed Sartana make your yellow titan team? Your raid team?
I use Quintus for tile damage on yellow titans, because he’s my 3rd highest attack even without emblems. I do have Sartana but no costume, nor do I have Seshat or Domitia.
I’m actually seeing this at a different angle and looking at your third choice. Sorry if it’s not related but I would go for grimble instead, only because of the 10% elemental link crit chance. You already have fast snipers like seshat and also c domitia who can poison. Grimble can work in a dark stack
Currently my yellow titan team is Miki +13, Domitia +19, Seshat +20, C rigard +18, C Tiburtus. Sartana would probably replace Rigard or tiburtus.
I raid mono and Sartana or +19 Quintus would definitely make that team, replacing tiburtus.
I use him on titans over sartana and the benefits on the rush attack tourneys and now wars can’t be understated (I am thinking more on offense than defense, as an FYI).
To be fair, my maxed unemblemed Sartana rarely sees action for months now. Not because she’s inferior to Quintus (started working on him but got stalled because most of my feeder heroes go to MN), but because I have better heroes, i.e. Kageburado+19, Guardian Panther+7, Seshat+7, costumed Domitia+4, maxed unemblemed Clarissa and Tiburtus+20 with maxed costume bonus and original Rigard+18 with MCB and costumed Rigard+18. I have 22 tabards in my inventory that can be used on 2nd Sartana, 2nd Clarissa, Kunchen, and Grimble, all at 3/70. I am at the stage where I am picky which heroes to ascend, waiting for the good ones to land on my lap using FREE pulls, i.e. Onyx, Killhare, Ursena, Jabberwock, Freya, Bera, Alfrike, etc.
I was in a similar situation a few months ago and was all set to give Quintus my next set of tabards. Then I drew Zulag and decided to hold off and give them to her instead, since I needed a tank. Then at Christmas, Krampus showed up, beat up my Quintus 3^70, took his lunch money, and put him on notice that all sorcerer emblems would be his personal property for the foreseeable future. So I’m no longer in that situation, but I think your line of reasoning makes some sense. I was hoping to get to try C. Rigard + C. Tiburtus + Quintus w/ emblems to see if it just decimated a raid defense. Probably be a while before I get to test it now - if ever - but you’ve got the personnel to try it if you choose Quintus.
How much summoning do you typically do? As FTP, I’m naturally inclined to level and use heroes that other folks wouldn’t give the time of day. Using the heroes you have is fun. Sitting on mats hoping for better heroes to show up is not (says the dude with a Thorne +16 that he uses on the reg.) HA 10 has given me a bit more pause, since the next great thing could be less than a week away, but even that’s a long shot. If you are doing a fair bit of summoning, waiting until you have more tabards has some merit. If you know you aren’t doing many pulls for a while yet, don’t overlook some of those “lesser” heroes. They have their uses.
Even three-stars? Before Krampus showed up, I took Chochin to +19, and I was all ready to do Gill-Ra and even Jahangir as well. If you aren’t sold on your five-star options in a class, might as well build up some depth for events and certain raid tourneys. They go fast and are cheaper. Did this with my barbarians also, since I wasn’t sold on Azlar. Now, I have a Nordri +20 for titans, an Azar +c19, a Nashgar +19, and a Namahage +11; the latter three were part of an A defense in last week’s raid tournament.
With the current minion meta, I also think Grimble might deserve more consideration than he’s getting.
Heck, before I was giving Sartana emblems, I couldn’t justify her over my Domitia +18. Unemblemed, she just isn’t a “king of the mountain” sniper like she was pre-emblems. Mine is at +12, and she gets a ton of work now, but without emblems, I found her underwhelming.
Under these circumstances, I think Quintus could be a defensible choice, since you have Seshat for your purple sniping and not enough emblems to make Sartana truly scary. He fills a niche role that you don’t appear to have anyone else to fill right now. Same can be said for Grimble, btw, and I think you ought to weigh his benefits before you choose. Very few heroes are truly useless in every context, imo.