Well, I used a similar tactic on my alt where I don’t have Wilbur. Have Gormek who is admittedly weaker. Then you will need some (not a lot of) luck with red tiles in addition to everything else, that’s all.
Khagan hits harder and will allow you more charges so it should work even with Gormek. However you need some sort of red elemental def down plus regular red def down.
I would be able to run
Black Knight, Colen, Khagan, Scarlet, Falcon.
Also have a boldtusk to swap in if healing needed
BT is mostly needed for the attack up, not the healing. If you have Black Knight, that is probably better. Both are ok. If Colen is not costumed he’d hit for not that much. I’d suggest swapping Colen or Scarlett for a Gormek.
I have my Caedmon, and Grimm both at +20 and tibs at +18.
All really useful to have emblems on for raids or titans. I use all of them regularly and get a definite boost from it. Particularly Tiburtus.
I do health / defence pathway for my healers / Titan heroes as I want them alive
For all my hitters / snipers; I go attack partway when I’m giving emblems !
And also for minion makers; I do attack pathway which makes minions attack harder 
But that’s me
Good luck with all your heroes
I have all of these at +18 to +20. Went attack on Caedmon, Grimm, and Tibs, with defense on Gormek and Sonya, as they are already built for it. The only one I might have messed up with is Tiburtus. Even limit broken, he still seems squishy to me. Many times, barbarians are glass cannons, so I always try to take those last two nodes with them, even if they are expensive and even if I am building them for attack.
So, I think I might have gotten the worst war chest in history today (3 gems? THREE?!?! In a war chest?) But simply for being the best performer in our latest victory, I did get my fifth big, green nature aether, and now I’m REALLY thinking about breaking Francine. I got her last Halloween, so she came with her costume. I’m thinking with costume bonus, emblems, and limit breaking, her attack will probably be north of 950, at fast mana, with refreshing cleanse.
I love my Lianna, but I’m not sure she can compete with that. Francine isn’t the stone cold sniper that Lianna is, but boy that’s a long list of advantages. The costume version will probably replace Almur on my team for blue titans, and the regular version would replace Lianna in my mono green raid team. She does extra damage against blue, so even at 225% vs. Lianna’s 512%, she’d still pack a pretty mean punch, considering I’m likely to go mono green against a team with a dangerous blue. She might even push Krampus for most powerful hero on my roster (by TP).
Lianna, Bertila, and Heimdall would be my other five-star candidates for breaking. Only reason I’m not thinking Heimdall is that he already survives pretty well, especially with paladin class and +20 emblems. Seems like more upside with Francine. Thoughts?
I think Francine is an amazing hero, certainly would not hesitate to LB her ahead of Lianna or Heimdall.
The refreshing cleanse is great to begin with (goodbye mindless attack) but the effective def down vs titans and the hit 3 damage just puts her over the top.
In case it helps:
In a couple months my event teams will be better having finally landed some EDD heroes and other keys.
All of these are HP/D path. I forgot your entire roster, but you’ll use Melendor, Rigard, and Kiril in costume more often than not. BT I use more out of it. Emblem class trials are the typically exception.
I want A bath on all of them.
Caedmon and Sonya I had A path in their base form. The stats mix well enough that in costume they still perform. In that mix costume Caedmon has the higher attack between costume and not. Base Sonya has a higher attack then costume.
Grimm get a an A stat monster. His HP/D are so low he’ll still die easily if hit hard. I increased his strength.
Gormek could go either way. Yes, his HP can go through the roof, but his D stays pretty low so it’s questionable how beneficial it is. You do have better tanks, so you don’t need him on D. In the offensive context his survivability is varied more on healers and buffs over his HP stat. Could go either way, Gormek is who he is. Do you have his costume?
Tibs I did A path. He has pretty solid stats, so he could be a candidate for a balanced approach. His costumer talent grid falls somewhat in line with his base, so you’re kind of good either way. His costume is a paladin so that helps survivability.
My approach is more straight forward. Healers and support: HP/D. Everyone else, A path. If you have a costume at the time and there is a strong preference for a hero in or out of costume, go by that. For example, I can’t remember the last time Melendor was out of it.
Hope that helps.
Dear god did this help. Thank you.
Really appreciate the specificity, because emblems frighten me. Yeah, I spook easy.
I was just scrolling to find a previous convo and can’t remember: finish Gadeirus as FTP? I’ve got 2x of every other green 4* if that matters.
Thanks again!
Edit: no Gormek costume.
Jeez, another edit: all the SEASON 1 green 4*s. lol
I finished Gaderius @Igmuhota, but no emblems. I find I don’t use him much though.
I think most said NOT to worry about Gaderius. But you can search this thread for specifics.
Have you played with Gaderius? Do you like his mechanics? If so, then level him and enjoy.
He doesn’t seem overwhelmingly exciting or terrible?
More just thinking about how few and far between I get anything not from S1, and being interested in emblem quests, war team options, etc.
Still trying to break into the last stage of the emblem quests, so that alone makes me consider everyone I get. Hehehe
Do you have Gaderius at level 3-60 yet @Igmuhota? If so, play with him and see if you like him. Make your decision then.
For the last stage of emblem quests, you can also bomb the bosses to extinction. Before my teams were strong enough, I did this. If I could hold all my battle items until the last stage, I had a good chance of winning.
Agree with the esteemed @akionna .
My advice was max him (assuming you have a surprise list of mats) and use him for fun. You have better priorities to emblem. He won’t make competitive teams, but he’s fine for playing around.
I’d max and tinker if I had him. 
S2 did me dirty …. REAL dirty….
Agree with @akionna & @Muchacho if you don’t have a sever mat shortage stopping you from levelling them it’s always worth playing around. We all have opinions on heroes, but with everyone’s playstyle being different and available choices not being the same it’s worth giving even unloved a heroes a go.
You may find he is something useful for you.
It’s one of my issues with hero grades etc in that they are only fully relevant if you have all the heroes to pick from. Good basepoint, but active use of the hero will always be useful.
Back when I used to grind I used to farm levels with 1/1 teams just to see which heroes etc were being useful in a way I might have missed.
Alliance quest got me three small aethers:
Also Hero Academy 8 paid off for the first time this morning. My dream about a 4 or 5 Jackal team is finally on the way:
What does this mean @Muchacho? Did you get any good Atlantis heroes?
Did you know, the kid has been wanting Muggy? So last month, he finally pulled him … twice.
Of course, I’m grumbling in the background … “Why don’t you want Proteus?”
Congratulations @Saros! I got a dupe of him last week. Are you really going to level a whole team of him? How many Jackals do I need?
First have to LB and emblem them all…because otherwise they die from harsh words and pointed sticks. Well, I’d say that 4 + a good healer (like d’Andre) , all equipped with decent mana troops (11 lvl for jackal, 17 for d’Andre) will make one hell of a team, blasting everything in their way.
@Noble_Weasel I’ve gotten terrible war chests like that before. 3 gems for a war chest that takes minimum 2.5 weeks to fill up, wow!
Francine is also the Green 5* I’m thinking of LBing (over Margaret, Gregorion, Lianna). I don’t have Francine’s costume though, but Francine IS my Green of choice on defense.
You’ve outlined the advantages (Green elemental defense down is probably the biggest, but that lovely 3-turn cleanse is amazing too).
I agree spot on, C-Francine > Lianna, Heimdall, Bertila
