I know there is the one official raid formations feedback thread but that one is so clogged up on peoples thoughts and feelings about it and not necessary about the meta.
I would love if we can create a separate thread solely on discussing what heroes may have gotten a bit stronger or weaker due to these changes, new synergies, etc.
Is Guin going to come out of the graveyard and become a threat again? What about Zulag? I can see her becoming a power house.
Do y’all think AoE hitters will become less desirable since nearby hitters can now hit everyone depending on the formation?
I’d love for this to be an opportunity to also ask questions for your specific teams/heroes!
I’d also like to ask y’all’s thoughts on Margaret now with these formations.
I haven’t gotten a new 5* that is essential to ascend so I’ve been hoarding mats. With this new formation update, I figured that Margaret may become much more useful!
A very fast hero with a huge attack stat that can now cover her entire team with a badass dodge that was once nearby only. Plus she has a fantastic skill link to help her stay alive in the front row.
I’ve been wondering about Margaret too. Have her at 3:70 and am tempted to put her to the top of the list for ascension lol. In the Double formation it seems like she would be great in the 3 position. She would cast to everyone and being in the back would limit her exposure to tiles which is her weakness.
and being vfast means she would still go off frequently despite being in the back.
Inari is another possibility for that position though I lean more towards Margaret for her speed.
Brynhild was made for the number 3 spot
In that spot, she gives the following to all
37% healing
Immune to dispel for 4 turns
+74% def against special skills for 3 turns
+24% mana generation for 3 turns
That def against special skills is important because this formation is vulnerable to hit-3 becoming hit-all. She’s also fast so doesn’t need to be hit by many tiles to charge. The main negative is that she’s just a 4*
The front 2 I chose Clarissa and Grazul because both are very fast, and with mana troops will fire quickly from enemy tiles.
Clarissa’s element link gives another 30% def against Special Skills which stacks with Brynhild’s.
Grazul, on the other side, heals and also stops ailments for 2 turns, which could protect some against hit-3 DOTs such as Proteus and GM. Her element link stacks another 4% mana generation.
These 3 don’t do much damage, so the other 2 are for the heavy hitters. Sadly my roster is lacking a hit all Purple like Ursena or Quintus, so have to ‘settle’ for using Onyx.
On the other side, Elena is slow and may never fire but will benefit from both Brynhild and Grazul’s mana generation. When she does fire though, her riposte covers both Brynhild and Clarissa, and will be at times undispellable.
Currently at 2551 cups, so let’s see how this does
On a more general note, a taunter like BK or Krampus would also be useful in a Double or Reverse Double since they would reduce the hit all to just hit one.
I tried using Krampus at the beginning but he’s just 3-70 at the moment so it didn’t do so well. However, with Frostmarch and its telescope happening later this month. I’ll probably try him out again in March
So far I’ve noticed one very painful combo in double formation: Black Knight + c.Kadilen tanking. Stacking is difficult (especially red, because of lack of counters to BK), so there’s great chance c.Kadilen will fire. Becuse of her dodge, there’s also a great chance you won’t be able to dispell BK if he fires. So, bad starting board led me 3 times into the situation where I couldn’t do anything excpet waiting for my heros to die. This was one of the teams:
In this battle, playable part of the board was on the right side, so eventually c.Kadilen fired. Malosi charged just before BK, and I tried to block it - he dodges and activate taunt. My dispellers were ready, so I gave it a shot. Dodge + dodge. And it was a game over. Back row slowly charged while I wasted all my counters to BK… I felt like it was a pure gamble. Not only with the board, but also with my special skills because of c.Kadilen. I’m not sure about the strategy to recover if the board is not favourable.
To put it in perspective, if it was a standard formation, BK would do nothing because of Malosi (even if I used the same team - no blue stacking, and probably would die). Even with bad-mediocre board, like it was.
If c.Kadilen was a solo tank, she would also probably be blocked (just dmg)… And dispellers would be ready for BK (if he was the right flank).
In double formation, there was no real choice with this board.
I think against these kind of defenses it´s better to have an attack team that buff itself.
_Heavy sustain teams, lot of heal and count on tile damage (the enemy lack heal) They also have powerful slash damage, so riposte could be useful too.
_Minion party.
_Boost your tile damage with a gambler (Monkey or Ranvir)
Other tactic may be very fast heroes like GM, Clarissa or Kageburado.
Yup, looks like new shift of meta…
Wish I had leveled heros suitable for this tactic, at least I’ll have Tarlak reasonably soon. It’s tough to keep up. I was finally getting counters to Bera as a tank, now it’s tough to predict what’s next…
My own strategy has been just putting the two ninjas I have (dodging or counterattacking) as double tanks. It is working amazingly so far.
If I had three of them, I’d probably opt for reverse double!
Overall, I think the best raid formations is reverse (A-formation). Because there is only 1 column of tile that can attack position 2,3,4 and position 1,5 isn’t easy to kill with tile. Thsi make A-formation is hardest to kill any position with tile.
I think the best team in A-formation will be Gravemaker, Finley, Heimdel, Jabberwock, Odin.
Or Frigg, Finley, Gravemaker, Jabberwock, Odin.
double (W-formation) and reverse double (M-formation) can be take down easily with x2 Proteus/Hel/Mist.
If you want to use M or W, Immnue to dispell + Immnue to new aliment nay be best choice. Because this combo can protect Proteus/Hel/Mist.
I agree that the A formation is probably the strongest right now.
I, like many others, mostly gravitated to the M and W formations because they were so different and seemed awesome, but i don’t think they are as useful as they may seem to be.
With the front line blocking all the tiles, it takes so long for the back line to charge up.
So in my experience, it’s like fighting a 5 vs 2 battle and then after that I am fighting a 5 vs 3 battle with my heroes already having their mana filled to start the second wave
Yup, and I accidentally discovered how Mist is super overpowered against those formations. Didn’t use her that often lately, but than I found a heavy buffing team in double formation - it was marvelous!
I have a similar feeling that reverse seems strong. When attacking I had the most problems with this formation since stacking isn’t really efficient and i usally use mono attack teams (might have to change that against reverse).
I’m running right now a double defense with BK+20 and Aegir+20 as tanks and Alberich+20, Joon+20 and Sartana+20 in the back (I miss good yellow/purple damage dealers). It works so far pretty good at 2500+ cups. Event went to 2650 cups only defending.
I think double can work well if you have two tank that synergize well like BK and Aegir. BK absorbs damage and dispells and his rage-buff together with Aegirs spirit link does wonders for your offense. Biggest critique I hear about Aegir is that he is just a tile dump to charge, but if you buff the enemy team everytime you dump tiles on a tank and can’t choose you special attack target the backline will slowly but surely kill you (or this is at least my plan).
Alberich makes the whole thing just more frustrating
I think with a good buffer (self plus adjectent) in the backline (like Magharet) and snipers on the wings double can be really solid.
The reverse or A-Formation has also the advantage that tile-ghosting ist much harder…you have to kill the middel heroes, but this is hard with only one line for the tiles. And if both wings are tanky, its need time to make the gap and then its you need luck to get 3 tiles for the both outer lines. I like it it. My team actually: Krampus, Frigg, Gravemaker, Thor, Kunchen.
Personally, I am thinking team 3. Despite losing Freya, i think this is the best. Freya and Killhare always has a bit of tension with their defense +/- abilities clashing and Heimdall can utilize Margaret’s beefy fire defense skill link.
Also in the W formation, she still has access to the center lane so she may get hit by stray tiles and charge her ability faster to utilize her now awesome team wide dodge (which i strongly believe is the best dodge in the game)
I would just go mono dark with guardian panther,tibs and clarissa against it, 9 tiles and its over.
Evelyn with francine and maxed jack o hare would hurt too.
Even something like c magni,grimm,sonya and glenda or thorne would be enough
