Terrible Heroes and how to fix them

I have been inspired to create this thread by one of the recent ones for very slow heroes and how they should have been made slow instead to make them viable.

There’s a lot of unloved heroes, not just among the 5*, who are barely used by anyone just because they have some flaws in their design - terrible stat distribution, weird special skill, not fitting element etc.

This thread is just for these heroes - and community ideas what change would be needed to maintain general hero idea, but actually make him/her useful. All within realistic expectations and keeping game balance in mind (you could fix any hero by raising their attack stat to 1200, but it’s not what I plan to read here :smiley: )

I’ll open with Guardian Owl

Hero generally believed to be one of the worst 5* in the game, mostly blaming his very slow mana speed. As owner of 3 Owls, I would disagree with that. Very slow mana goes well with the heroes concept. We don’t need him to fire too early when everyone is alive. He needs to fire as late as possible.

I believe the biggest problem with this hero is his stat distribution. 601 - 795 - 1483 makes him one of the most tankiest heroes in the game. A perfect tank candidate. But guess what… tanks are first ones to die! In almost every match. Even his bulky secondary effect won’t help with that, because Owl tank asks for a purple stack and in most cases he will fall before everyone else. Even if he fires, it’s going to be the lowest dmg possible.

For a hero with Owl’s design, best possible spot on defense is wing. So attacker will face a dilemma - should I focus on taking the tank down, or should I focus on the wingman to avoid it firing a devastating special to turn the tables by the end of match. That’s basically what Mother North/Alby do. Guardian Owl would be a neat, aggressive alternative to that. You take down entire team and left him for last? Great, but he charged up his aoe nuke so BOOOOOM! you’re gone.

Except you are not.

Because his attack stat is so low now that even at his maximum potential, with all allies dead (that’s 475% AOE dmg!) he barely tickles. And he does not need all that bulkiness when on wing since there is a flank protecting him, and tank protecting flank. His AOE dmg when fully charged and all allies dead should be 800-1000 per hero, not 300-500 as currently.

So what fixed Owl would need to look like in my opinion?

Stats: 770 - 646 - 1349
Resists attack ailments
Mana: Very Slow
Skill: (unchanged)

While it may seem a bit OP, you wouldn’t be able to run him on tank (he doesn’t fit there anyway) so very slow mana would still be very much a burden. But you could hide him behind other heroes to use them as meat shields while he slowly charges up. Still could be countered by few snipers with lower durability, but possibly as a trade off for keeping another hero on defense alive. I’d actually love running him as a right wing when MN is a left wing, and an aggresive tank like Ursena in the middle, flanked by two fasts… Magni and GM… That would be something!

What do you think about that idea? And what are your ideas for all these quintuses, kongs, sumitomos and gobblers?

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I love the idea of Owl but like you say, he’s still not super effective even when he goes off.

I’d welcome a change like you suggested.

I have both Quintus and Kong too. Kong never really gets a run out as I don’t need his defense vs ice boost.

Quintus gets used but he still doesn’t pack enough punch IMO, either up his damage or give him a status ailment

Margaret:

I like her but her special is pretty weak. She could use any additional power she can get. For a HotM she is pretty weak.

I’d add another effect to her special:

The caster and nearby allies counterattack with 80% of the damage received by normal attacks for 3 turns.

This way she dodges special attacks and counters normal attacks. With very fast mana she could cause trouble as a flank for a healer.

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Idk if her current build is healthy enough to support counter attack… If you look at the other counter attack heroes, they all have rather high HP stats to ensure they stick around a while…

Margaret unfortunately has as much life as a wet piece of paper…

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That would be neat, especially that you can’t dispell her specifically, so you would need to deal with this counterattack buff on her whether you want it or not. Her weak survivability would be a balance to that. At very fast it would be annoying protection for the tank.

I just wonder what’s the interaction between dodge and counterattack currently - I am pretty sure someone already tested that, but if you dodge, does the dodged damage still get reflected?

It wouldn’t.

Riposte only returns damage which is received. If the hero dodges the damage isn’t received. :slight_smile:

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Ok, so that’s definitely a problem with this idea!

For special damage yes, but for normal damage which Margaret is still susceptible to it could be a work-around provided she had more HP… Which would likely come at a sacrifice to her attack which is the only thing making her kinda useful

She should dodge specials and counters only normal attacks this way. So no problem technically for her without other heroes

Yeah she wouldn’t life longer but she could give the remaining heroes a buff.
She couldn’t be used as a tank but she could buff him as a flank.

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The Owl discussion is always interesting you have 2 groups of people:

1 group looks at his stats and the heal and DEF boost part of his special and conclude he’s more of a tank or tanky flank (I’m in this group)

The other group looks at his dmg and how it works and conclude he’s meant to be a wing. But in many cases on the wing he’ll never fire before he and his whole team die.

Very slow WANT to get hit by tiles in order to charge up. I think logically he makes more sense as a tank or flank than a wing given his stats and how mana works in this game.

Personally I’m using him at tank and he certainly works there. Try taking me on

You guys can try pigeonholing him into the wing if you want. I don’t think I’ve ever lost to an owl wing at all. Super easy to deal with, not scary in the slightest. Owl tank though? Extremely punishing at times

Wait until I get 3 more tiers of emblems. Have you ever faced a Boss Wolf+12 or Owl+12 tank? They ain’t no joke friends

I’ve used Owl as a flank behind Ursena too and had good success with that defense too

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Like the ubiquitous Kunchen.

I’m curious about how she would play when flanking QoH. All specials would be redirected to the queen, and she’s either going to dodge and gain mana or enjoy her huge defense bonus against specials. Margaret also gains some further survivability because if you stack blue against QoH, then you’re weak against green.

I have a maxed Margaret, and as I have faced some and have my own, I can tell you she is NOT intended for defense.

And that’s OK IMO, not every HOTM is supposed to replace the previous one in the defense team.

I use her A LOT in wars, raids and titans, specially against Seshat, Kage, Magni, Sartana, and the likes.

And she has been key for victory more than once.

I am not saying not to buff her (by all means, go ahead and buff my heroes, please!), I am just saying we should consider what SGG may have had in mind when released a hero before saying he/she is terrible.

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Every time caster or nearby allies dodge, they gain +10% defense for 4 turns. This effect can not be dispelled.

Fixed :wink:

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I have roughly 20 maxed 5-stars, and I love them all (even Neith).

That said, I know exactly who the under-performers are on offense for each color:

[RED] Azlar - Similar to Kunchen, he’s just too slow. By the time he fires, I’ve already won or lost most matches. He has an incredible special, but always fires it off too late. I’d love to see a costume that gives him a tiger head, increases his speed to average, and nerfs his damage. I’d play with him a lot more often if he fired faster, even at half his damage.

[GREEN] Lady of the Lake - Same as above. Such a fantastic special ability, made useless on offense by slow speeds. She makes up for it in PvE play, but I think most will agree, slow speeds are seriously punished in this meta.

[BLUE] - Rumplestitlskin - But I’m not even complaining. He’s fantastic. So much fun to roll the dice with Rumple. I only list him here because, technically, he doesn’t match the W/L ratio of Magni, Frida, Ariel on offense. No complaints.

[PURPLE] Kunchen - He’s the anchor of my defense team, and holds 2500 cups like a champ, but I just can’t bring him on offense. It’s purely a speed issue. For a heal and cleanse, those few extra turns make all the difference. Where Ariel and Delilah (even Rigard!) come in clutch with a heal, Kunchen is always late. Slow heroes just don’t perform well on offense. He doesn’t need a buff, but he’s also benched during normal raids, and only brought to the offense team during war. I’m not kidding when I say Rigard has a better offensive win/loss ratio, simply because of speed.

[YELLOW] Neith - Jack of all trades, master of none. She has many abilities, but all of them fall short on offense. 35% blind at average speed is not enough to win many matches (Inari and Margaret offer more protection, at faster speeds). 10% mana cut rarely saves me more than a single turn before an enemy special fires. Elemental link is cool, but rarely saves me a single tile. Jackal outperforms her in a stack. I’d love to see a buff to her speed, but it won’t happen. At least she looks cool.

[CONCLUSION] Neith needs a buff, Azlar needs a tiger costume, and slow heroes should not be ascended for offensive use.

I’m quite happy with my roster, and I’m not really complaining. The thread caught my eye.

For reference, my other maxed heroes which are the basis for these remarks:

[RED]: Gravemaker, Grazul, Red Hood
[GREEN]: Lianna, Kingston, Alberich, Morgan le Fay
[BLUE]: Ariel, Magni, Frida
[PURPLE]: Seshat, Sartana, Panther, Hel
[YELLOW]: Delilah, Onatel, Joon

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Wait for Quintus, Elkanen, Thorne etc. and you will never ever call Kunchen, LotL or Neith underperformers anymore. Probably 98 % of the players would be more than happy to have either of these three :laughing:

Oh, and even slow mana heroes can be great in attacks. It depends whether the defense team permits waiting that long or not. Also, you can support your slower heroes with mana controlers like Hel or Hänsel.


@topic: Mok-Arr has always been a very special hero (I quite liked the concept and would have maxed him if I had drawn him). But since Ursena is out, he has turned into a truly bad one. She is very comparable to him but much better in almost every aspect. Nobody who owns Ursena would even think about leveling Mok-Arr instead of her.

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Wait for Quintus, Elkanen, Thorne etc. and you will never ever call Kunchen, LotL or Neith underperformers anymore. Probably 98 % of the players would be more than happy to have either of these three :laughing:

True true! They only underperform relative to my roster. All things considered, Neith + Azlar + Kunchen are still operating at like 65+ % win ratios on offense. So I’m not really complaining. If Neith took a buff, I’d be elated, but it’s not ‘make or break’ stuff.

Also, you can support your slower heroes with mana controlers like Hel or Hänsel.

Excellent idea! I’ve got a fast 4-star to compensate for Kunchen (Merlin) and LotL (Hansel, Caedmon).

Thanks for the perspective :slight_smile:

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Not all heroes can (or should) be all-purpose. I think everyone agrees that Guin is an all-star on defense but nobody uses her on offense by choice.

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