Hi!
I’ve been pretty indecisive about my defense for a while now and I’ve tried a lot. But I have problems to identify my “best” setup for raids or war. So I wanted to ask you for your opinion about how you would line up.
I’m also interested in which heroes would be your candidates for an ascension.
I have shown all relevant heroes in the pictures.
Thanks a lot already!
Right now, for defense I would say Joon, JF, Tell, Vela, Sartana in that order LWing to RWing.
For next ascension, I would go for Ursena, Poseidon, Ariel, Rat or second Kingston if you dont mind dupes, and Wait for a red sniper. Maybe cDomitia instead of Ursena if you feel like more snipers, but I think Sartana + Ursena has more punch.
All are useful on offense and defense.
1st of all: I envy your heroes 
I agree with @Gregor.Jax, but I also like Freya a lot.
Her minions give power to the other minions, like the one that Telluria give.
I have C Domitia maxed and she is great, but I think you have better heroes
I’d personally do Kestral - Vela - Telluria - Sartana - Joon.
Great roster!
As others have commented already, you have a very good roster that just needs some ascension help.
Realistically you can make a lot of setups work but this one I’d recommend to avoid moving too many emblems:
Thot-Amun | J.F. | Telluria | Vela | Joon
If you get Joon’s costume I would personally put cJoon there instead for better class and harder hit (you may want to consider resetting and rembleming him too).
If you’re not okay moving emblems from Sartana, then I’d put either Kestrel or cAzlar in their place. Though I do personally think that J.F. is better than those two on defense since his defense protection is awesome with Telluria.
You could also make Ursena work instead of a blue flank, with either M. Lepus or Fenrir on wing, however I think that would be more costly in terms of shifting emblems around which is why I don’t recommend it right now. Long term, maybe.
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Now for the ascension recommendations, these are the ones I’d do:
Ursena – I think she’s the best purple hero in the game honestly, she has what I feel is the most useful tool for completely shutting down what she’s strong against and what her weakness is (yellow vs purple is weird).
Inari – She’s underrated IMO, dodges can be very helpful against heroes like Finley and Killhare who are both fairly popular in this meta. Overall a very powerful hero IMO.
Ariel – I think she’s the best 5* healer in the game right now, or at least she’ll be tied for 1st when the ninja Garnet releases. Average speed, great speed buff to counter Telluria (even if wrong color) and cleanses DoT.
L. Locke – as the only green 5* cleanser in the game (or at least until Francesca releases), I think she deserves to be fully upgraded. Her DoT is very nasty too, the AI can’t really play around it. Ratatoskr would be my other recommendation, though he’d take longer to ascend at their current levels in your roster.
cAzlar – even without costume I really like Azlar for tile damage, with costume he becomes one of the strongest hitting red heroes in the game. Slow speed is mitigated by costume bonus.
Thanks again for your answers.
@Gregor.Jax the problem with your lineup is that Sartana and JF share the emblems. I tried it myself back and forth which I like better. Since I felt I still lack a little punch for purple raids I gave Sartana the emblems… and because I had the feeling, that JF does not necessarily need any.
I myself had chosen Sartana - Vela - Tell - Kestrel - Joon, but every night I lose quite a few cups.
Maybe it is also because I am still missing emblems. A +20 Telluria is already a different class than one with +8
As for the ascensions:
Ursena was also my personal choice. However, I got many recommendations for Freya.
With yellow I personally tended to Sif. But let me think about that again. The explanations to Inari make sense. Poseidon is also strong, but the other yellow ones were “more important” for me.
I had decided for Ariel as well.
With Locke I was unsure. But I am convinced by your argument @DaveCozy
At red I will save the mats, because I hope for Gefjon. Otherwise I will go for cAzlar.
Why do I have to replace my blue flank when I want Ursena to work? I do not understand that yet.
My idea was to maxx Ursena and play like this:
Kestrel - Vela - Tell - Urs - Joon or vice versa
The emblems at Thoth are only there because I got Ursena only recently and had no alternatives. I have some in my back pocket, because I stopped putting emblems in him.
If I am lucky enough to get Gefjon, she would make a good Kestrel replacement.
You don’t have to, what you put would work too. I was arguing for JF as flank with Ursena as other flank, which is why I thought you may have had to put a blue wing instead (which Vela isn’t).
But, Ursena and Vela flanks can work too. Along with Kestrel as wing. You will have to probably strip Thot’s emblems though cuz I think Ursena with emblems is a real threat.
Thoth is garbage in my opinion, so strip him back when Ursena is up. I’d do her before Freya, but Freya is nice
In raid defense go
Sartana Kestrel Telluria Vela Joon
I like Kestrel closer in so he can take better advantage of Telly mana slow, it’s pretty likely that attackers are half to three quarters full on mana when he fires
In war defense depends if you match tank colours. If it’s free for all either Ursena or Telly make fine tanks
We are using green tanks in war, so Telluria is always set.
I used some raid flasks to push my cups and get attacked and I noticed the following:
Sartana - Kestrel - Tell - Vela - Joon lost nearly everything
Sartana - JF - Tell - Vela Joon seemed better though JF has no Emblems. But JF and Sartana share Emblems and i have no real substitute for Sartana… thats why I Looked for something else
For the Moment Joon - cRigard - Tell - Vela - Baldur seem to work fine.
From my raids I know that Baldur is hitting hard with attup or defdown
Now I am thinking of shifting my Emblems from Buddy to Baldur. Furthermore Baldurs high attack helps vs Telluria in Raids.
What do you think about this?
And how can I evolve this Lineup? Adding Ursena for Rigard?
Using Heimdall instead of Tell? I know that Tell is still the best Tank in the Game, But I Need to work with what I have 
Now that a year has passed, I am once again faced with the same question:
How do I set up my raid defense?
What would be my best war defense?
How do I develop myself further?
My lineup currently looks like this:
In wars we use a purple Tank.
I currently have enough materials to upgrade one yellow, one purple and one green, though i wanted to always have one ascension stored for upcoming superstars.
I am missing one telescope for Morel and will also LB her immediatly.
For red, I plan to go with Elizabeth next.
What are your opinions?
Right now with no change to emblems or Ascension, I think your tank is Freya with a LB Drake flank with Kingston on the wing, then a red and blue to finish… Say baldur and Lepus, or Ariel and gefjon…
So Kingston, baldur, Freya, Drake, Lepus
Then ascend Morel, Elizabeth so it’s either
Morel, Drake, Freya, Elizabeth, Kingston
Kingston, Morel, Freya, Elizabeth, Drake
Lizzy has to be a flank IMO and while you would rather a yellow flank, morel is better at flank than wing but is still good there
