Slow heroes are dead! Or aren't they?

[ferg]

In the forum there are a lot of threads that slow heroes are dead, obsolete, too weak and need some buffs. There isn’t much love for them.
This post is not to convince anyone to use slow heroes. If you don’t like them, don’t use them. Everyone has an unique playstyle and likes different heroes. Diversity is good for the game, would be extremely boring if everyone uses the same heroes.

Here I try to bring some love to the most unloved category of heroes.
First of all, slow is not slow. If you try this with only S1 heroes you will probably get destroyed completely. There stats are that much behind that they die fairly easy although being slow, but with costumes or newer heroes you get some really beefy teams.(If someone plays some S1 slow teams effectively let us know about it )

This is my defense team at the moment and I also use it on offens:

Most of those heroes have around 8-900 def and 1500 or more health, thats at average 100 points more than many of my faster heroes have. At the first moment that doesn’t sound like much but with troops and considering the damage formula more def even a little can make a huge difference.

Is this team better than faster teams? I don’t think so, and I would say a healthy mix between different speeds would be far better. But I wanted to show that slow heroes aren’t automatically worthless.

Thats the highest I reached with only that team used on offense, until now.

This team works extremely well against aggressive def teams. There aren’t any heroes out there who oneshots anyone from this team at least without buffs and if my heroes have max or at least near max health, so unlike with fast heroes I’m not automatically dead if the opponent fires before me (and with slow they will fire before me). Most aggressive teams aren’t that long living, they try to kill you fast, but if you survive they most of the time can’t take many shots.

As funny as it may sound, the more passive the opponent team is, the more problems I have. Those fast minion spamming teams, especially with sif and kadilen and maybe a healer or taunt are probably the hardest at the moment for this team. This team is too slow and although it doesn’t really die from those teams it also can’t win because there are always two or 3 minions at the enemy and the dispel from vivi needs some time and with bad luck is dodged. Those battles nearly always go into tiebreak ( if I don’t kill myself before on sifs riposte that is). Here I would need noor for a slow anti minion team, or cheat myself with skadi or gormek c, at least when I need the wins to fill a chest.

Some wins

Some losses

BTW, this team also does its job as defense and maybe better than some would guess, holding between 2600 and 2700 cups normally and sometimes a little bit more

So this only slow/very slow team is doing just fine in middle to high diamond and although it gets a lot harder the closer you raid to the top 100 it’s also possible to win there with only slow heroes.

If you have some favorite slow heroes who are with you everywhere, or if you have an only/mostly slow team wich you use sometimes let me and the forum know about…

[Ultra]

The utility of slow and very slow heroes was somehow improved with the introduction of rush wars and rush raid tourneys. Even before such raid modifier and war support, they occupy a specific niche. Was then. Still does even now.

[ferg]

Yes, I think rush is probably the best that could happen for slow heroes. I mean you can like or dislike the rule itself, but for slow heroes and their recognition it was a huge step forward.

Before if someone asked who they should lvl the answer was most of the time the faster ones. Of course there were always expectations, some slow heroes were loved before.

But now the answer is more often maybe the slow, he is not that bad if you want something for rush. And many players, at least those without a huge rooster of maxed heroes, will probably use those slow heroes somewhere else too, and maybe, just maybe they start liking them. At least that what’s happened with me.

I leveled and especially emblemed most slow heroes just for rush, but now I’m playing with them nearly everywhere…

[Ultra]

My first slow heroes I maxed were Alberich and Azlar way back in 2018. Alberich is in my main monogreen team. My Azlar only sees action as one of the heroes in my 2nd or 3rd monored team during wars, on certain class quests, Ninja Tower and Tavern of Legends. The last slow hero I fully ascended was Khagan because I got his costume. Before him were Mother North and Alfrike. My other maxed slow legendaries are Miki and Snow White. Of course, I also maxed slow epics and rares, i.e. Shadereave, Ulmer and costume, 3 Gullinburstis, Colen and costume, Hu Tao, Jott, 2 Sumles, Gadeirus, Little John and costume, Vollermork, Arman, etc

[Cheds]

Most of my mono teams carry a slow hero in them. The key is supporting them with faster heroes so that you are giving the slow hero a chance to fire. Whatever that hero does (heal/revive/damage) you can set it up and then when it lands it’s often the knockout blow.

Because for the most part the slow heroes specials are powerful

[sleepyhead]

They have their place, for sure.

Isarnia is in my Blue mono, but instead of holding specials and waiting for her to fire, I use my snipers to pick off key threats. When Isarnia does fire, she finishes off weakened enemies or sets up easy kills for my snipers.

Elena and Santa are in my mono Red. Even before Yang Mai, they played their role well. Now with Yang Mai, the synergy is much better.

And in any case, in PvE content slow heroes’ mana speed is much less of a drawback. Use mana potions, or charge them up in one wave before progressing to the next. they can be a lot of fun to use!

[Worador]

They are not dead. I have some slow heroes that hit pretty hard and I find useful.

Will I give them ‘hard to get and need many’ emblems to over faster heroes, even average speed heroes…no.

I like Khagan quite a bit, even maxed his costume, but his Ranger emblems go to Evelyn and Lianna.

[Gregor.Jax]

I use C. Vivica almost all the time when i 3-stack yellow.

[Hubertpoobert]

Many of the comments on this forum were written when there were only S1 and S2 heroes around, as others have said there were no rush wars/tourneys, and therefore the preference was of course for fast heroes. In addition to this there are now heroes that charge mana every turn like Frosth/Yang Mai, plus the S3 Asgard realm heroes that give mana upon death. A guy in my alliance can hold 2600 cups using Agnes (3*) Heimdall and Gullinbursti with 2x Elena C. If you take out Gullin and Agnes, with the family bonus the others go off and charge up the mana of the others, most of the time you die hitting the Elena Cs and if Heimdall revive works then you are in awful trouble.

In summary I love my slow heroes and the way the game is going their reputation will only improve.

[Homaclese]

I use Alfrike in a lot of raids/wars - although I use her with Grimble, so I guess that is kind of cheating as it makes her a 9 tile hero.

I use Gullinbursiti in some raids/wars as an off-color heaaler

I use Shadereave against green titans

I use Noor in some raids, primarily vs Freya tanks. I also use her in almost all PVE content

I use Bobo in most titans - he is sitting on 3/1 but his special is so effective that he doesn’t really need to be any more developed for the moment

I use Jott against red titans

I use C Colen and Sumle in challenge events

I use Little John/ C Little John in VF formats sometimes, and some PVE content

I use Gunnar, Jahangir and Ulmer in a lot of raid tournies and challenge events. Gunnar is my raid tourney tank most times. Also get Shrubbear a run sometimes.

[NAGGAR]

My defence team has 2 slow hero’s in it. Mother north and santa. And I am comfy in the higher end of 2600s. I also use. At least 1 slow hero in most of my raids. As I raid mainly mono but I am slowly converting to 3/2. But I find isarnia c. Is really good. Mo’no needs no explanation. Khagan is the most powerfully 3 hitter in the game. I could go on. Yes its all gravey when u got Gm and all the newer shinney fast very fast hero’s but I still find in raids/wars/event’s a good slow hero can still hold its own against the newer ones. Look at the new professor for example. She is fantastic but slow after her 2nd fire. And how many times in the current game do u see her fire off?? So yea there maybe quicker hero’s but a combination of all speeds I find is best as the synergies between them can beat anything.
Happy playing people thats the main thing!!

[Draerius]

I have many slow 5* heroes maxed: azlar, khagan + costume, Elena, vivica, and isarnia.

They are often not first choices, isarnia is mainly Titans with occasional 6th war team or replace Vela in rush. Azlar is basically ninja tower now. Vivica is Titans and some war hits on 6th team, still prefer gulli in rush. Khagan occasionally on war hits (especially in rush rules), Elena Titans and war.

I could level horghall and justice but they would basically sit for ninja tower so not jumping on that. For my slow heroes they are mainly used in PVE situations, the ones in this “example” are top tier slow heroes including alfrike the queen of rush. A person with this quality of slow heroes likely has high quality in all speeds.

[Graff.von.Cilli]

First of all almost all healers and revivers are slow. So no, slow heroes are definitly NOT dead/useless.

[ferg]

@Draerius

the ones in this “example” are top tier slow heroes

Yes they pretty much are top tier, maybe bertilla a little bit weaker than the other 4,although she has a great class to combine her with raffa.

I also have most of the slow S1 heroes max(the other ones without costume), except horgall who will probably never get lvled.

And yes for rush they are great, although with some health booster or reviver this team would be insane, maybe I get lucky through HA10 or next Christmas

About quality in other speeds, I think I can be really happy about my rooster. But it’s relative even disturbed with a little bit over 10 maxed heroes in each speed, fast and slow nearly identical and average a little bit more.

[dawnsempires]

i’m coming around on slow heroes in general, and Raffaele was the one that started my conversion. i don’t have that many slow heroes in general, but the ones that i do, i’ve started using a lot more, and i’m finding their speed not to be as much of a hindrance as i thought it would be (accounting for team synergies, obviously).

C. Vivica and Gullinbursti as a combo can bring me from red health to overhealed at the tap of their specials!

[Chadmo]

It’s funny, for some reason I’m trained to use the fast/average heroes first. When I use my 6th attack in war, it’s almost always 4-5 slow heores. And most often they win.

[Homaclese]

Im using slow and vs heroes more and more. Often with a booster (grimble or xnol) but often without as in this exanple. Usually its a mix of slow vs and average heroes but this particular xmas defense - whilst strong and holding high cups - is passive and allows for more tile movement which allows for the use of slower heroes (my team here is 1 average anf 4 slows). With multiple colors you are pretty much guaranteef to get one color matching early enough to survive through to further combos.

The other combo im fond of is franz and tree who are both very slow.

I dont get how some veteran players almost completely discount heroes just because they are not fast

visc vs xmas

[ilboll]

I’m also incredulous that so many players despise slow heroes. The speed of the mana serves to give it balance. Otherwise they would be too strong. I think the other heroes are important who can give the best synergy with them. Like for example those like Xnolphod or Odin etc. Certainly slow hero does not mean weak hero

[nevarmaor]

There are a few slow heroes I use all the time. My defense includes C.Elena and Justice, and tends to hold me in the 2500-2600 cup range. Some days I seem to lose more cups from my raid attacks. I also regularly raid with Elena, Vivica, and Isarnia.

I have learned how to use slow heroes more out of necessity. I still have a preference for a sniper / healer combination.

[Pompitous]

@ilboll

The speed of the mana serves to give it balance. Otherwise they would be too strong.

Why make Rush then?

@Homaclese

I dont get how some veteran players almost completely discount heroes just because they are not fast

@BoolzSan_CrewKNIGHTS

They made Rush for a reason…

Any veteran that is comparing:
Slow-2022 to Slow-2018
Is no veteran…
The addition of:

• Support Speed
• and Rapid Creeps (Stats & Skills)

Has not left the entire Slow Catalog in the gutter

During the first 2 years

however…

Creep stats were controlled,
And frequency was reduced.
The lucrative value in portals was:

Speed…!

They kept repackaging old skills into faster cards with slightly higher stats.
Other than events, this did start under-cutting slow heroes. Noor was debated because of her speed. Then Bera came… and the debate fizzled. This phenomenon was widespread!
And changed almost immediately after.
In fact, Noor was one of the first in my opinion to break the repackaging mold.

Lots of the new slows now… are NO JOKE!
Alfrike is well-balanced!
Gullinbursti was essentially five stars

And for player’s who have…no choice…
They will cling to their old slows.
Because… they have too!
Of course they regularly use Elena, Vivica and Isarnia. Until they get Ferant, Diaochan and Morel. Once the choices roll in, and you have 5*'s collecting dust, is when you become less confused about veteran commentary.

---

But with Rush Mode…
any slow hero can be

Over

Powered

Most especially… the balanced ones!
Of which there are plenty these days

Can’t wait for the next new V.Slow Legendary
That will heat things up around here