It’s funny, I never really looked at the 4* colors like that, at least for S1 vanilla. I would say that blue is the most balanced with Kiril providing healing, def/atk up; Grimm providing def down, Sonya providing some dispel / sniper capability, and then Boril.
Looks like Lianna seems to be the target as everyone seems to agree on that.
Welcome to the club, and kudos for realising spending isn’t helping you enjoy the game anymore! Hope the game becomes much more fun for you from now on.
Second that. All flavors of F2P are welcome here - lifers and recent converts.
Wow! Not only does this make me glad I decided not to spend (except fake Google credit from surveys) from the get-go, it also makes me feel way better about landing my targeted HotM (Yang Mai) in probably fewer than 40 pulls across all portals for the month and landing a featured S4 hero (Russula) in the process.
I’d even take Mok-Arr at this point, since I’m running a lot of mono these days anyway and have barbarian emblems to spare. I’m presently sitting on 0-for-30 for non-S1 heroes from HA 10. Only thing that building got me was Richard and Elkanen to complete my S1 legendary collection, and I haven’t leveled either of them past first ascension yet.
I have maxed S1 5* duplicates as below:
Have costume:
Joon x3
Sartana x2
No costume:
Lianna x3
Marj x2
Magni x2
I agree Lianna with costume is a good option for you. Hopefully you have some emblems for her duplicate.
Ranger emblems are actually a premium for me… I haven’t actually completed the emblems for the first Lianna as Athena had dibs, as well as Chao and Buddy.
In that case, I think maxing a second Lianna even with costume is quite iffy.
Not the same, but I hardly use my third Lianna without emblems. Too squishy.
Not sure I agree if you have the right heroes. I have seen people combine him with Gullinbursti and Wilbur to spread damage and make the damage Gullinbursti does when he goes off to be team destroying. Super effective in PvE. Somewhat more difficult in PvP in diamond due to speeds.
Same is true with him, Wilbur, and Brienne/Khiona to boost the damage output from the fury thing. Plus, weird heroes are cool.
I have. Yellow sucks, hard. No healer, no D drop, no hitters aside from boosting with Wu. If you mono and have only vanilla yellows it is tough.
Blue is good. While Kashhrek is an outlier I really like green too. I still use Melendor, Caedmon, and Little John all the time. They are boosted with costume and +20.
Thanks
So I had saved 8 ETTs and was waiting for NT to return. No ninjas, but got some good 4* food. I also finally got my first red mana troop. That makes at least 1 mana troop in all colors (finally).
Congrats on completing the set. I hit that milestone last Ninja Tower. Feels good, doesn’t it?
I had 20 ETTs saved and, for the first time, landed zero ninja troops. Can’t complain, as I’ve beaten the odds pretty handily the last two times, drawing ninja troops in three different colors, with multiples in purple. I guess I was a little surprised I struck out with so many tokens saved, but them’s the breaks.
Congrats on your first red mana troop @Muchacho!! 
Do you have many feeder troops?
@Noble_Weasel I got one ninja troop and 19 3* troops from 20 saved ETTs. 
I also had one summon saved:
Ninja Tower is by far my least favourite event, and the summoning portals don’t like me either.
I don’t like Ninja portal either, the first month NT was released, I did a gem summon that still made me felt dirty for doing it, gave me 3* food. The same event I finished the tower and got just enough for one pull, it gave me Lianna… Drawing vanilla 5* in an event portal is such a letdown, especially considering their odds were lower than the 5* Ninjas. Would not have felt as bad had I gotten a 3* food.
Seriously wanting to feed fully leveled:
cPrisca (c at 1/1)
cOberon (c at 1/1)
Friar Tuck
Graymane
How sad am I gonna be?
First, I don’t like these heroes.
Second, I’m noticing I barely even make it to these guys stacking for war.
Finally, I’ve now got bunches of Blue and purple 4s, a couple each of 5s, and a respectable amount of both in green as well.
Bonus question: should I pause leveling Domitia to level my new Renfeld costume? Seems maybe yes, as I won’t be truly benefitting from her for a while.
TIA!
I never bothered to level Prisca. I gladly fed Greymane away. I have Friar Tuck and Oberon, both with costumes leveled, and never use them. I probably should feed them away.
That’s exactly what I needed to hear.
Just finished my war flags, went back, and there they all are… again. lol
Thanks!
Edit: Done.
I keep one of each unique hero, but that is a “me” thing. If you don’t have that collection aspect more power to you. Those are generally sub par 3’s. I would argue Friar Tuck’s costume makes him decent though.
Two parts to this:
1 - How do you control mana. That is costume Renfeld’s deal . How deep are you at mana control?
2 - Can you max Domitia? If she is stuck at 3:70 regardless it is fine to make her less a priority for a time.
Yeah, I’ve been stubbornly leveling Dom and Sart, knowing it’ll be a year before they’re truly useful.
Switching to Ren’s costume and finishing Sabina.
As for mana, excellent question. Looks like cRen. 
I am also pretty happy with my pulls so far from the troops. With 18 ETTs I landed 2 purple, 1 yellow and 1 green mana troop and 1 red critical troop.
Except for the purples, which are dupes, all other are first and new. With costume bonuses and mana nodes I can make a bunch of average heroes break 1 tile from 10 to 9 - like costume Wu Kong for example - which would be pretty useful. Only mana troop I lack is red in color, which provided I’ve been playing for only 7 months is a good result overall.
No ninjas this time, and frankly I became to realize the importance of specific color ninja troop when you play only with 4* against the odds. Especially in a red team featuring heroes like Scarlett and Kelile with 18 emblems, increasing their attack rating by 24% is only achievable with very high level mana troop (23), which we all know is very very hard and long to develop, or with a level 2 Ninja troop. Since they are both fast and cannot be effectively mana broken even with a very high level mana troop, the best one for them for combat is a ninja troop. So I was really, really hoping to hit second or even maybe third red (or blue) ninja troop. No luck. Still not complaining.
Will not summon from the Ninjas portal with anything but coins. Despite the fact that I could use a few Amethrines since they are one of the very few 4* purple snipers in the game. I don’t think this portal is worthy of summoning with gems for any f2p.
@Igmuhota - costume Oberon is worth leveling in costume form because he has application in very fast 3* tournaments. Only there. The rest are food, and I ate mine, well except for Graymane who was one of my very early game leveled heroes and still can’t make my mind to eat him (moreover at the moment I lack fifth ascended 3* blue for mono barring Gunnar).
+1, and also agree that Friar Tuck with costume is decent. The heal % isn’t that great, but the mana boost helps make up for it. Without costume though, is too limiting. I would bring Tuck with costume when I don’t need Belith’s dispel 
course, @Igmuhota doesn’t have the costume so never mind 
Also agree that Oberon has some use in Very Fast only. otherwise too slow, and doesn’t have the offensive power that, say, Jahangir or Ulmer have.
Graymane and Prisca, still can’t figure out a use for them. Just badly outclassed Prisca, even with costume, is just so meh.
I don’t have Graymane’s costume, it looks interesting, but I have no practical experience with it.
I totally agree. I’d much rather get a S1 4* or 3* from an event portal than a S1 5*. Unless it’s a hero we are missing, it is not exciting to get a S1 5* dupe.
I agree with all replying before me. Except for Friar’s costume, I don’t even have them - fed the base forms away long ago, and even their costumes did not make me think again (only cFriar, and I kept a cGraymane too, but haven’t yet gotten round to level him, so I don’t know).
I’d say you’ll not be sad. Friar Tuck is useful only with costume, but of course, if you draw the costume, you’ll draw the base version too.
As for cRenfeld: depends. I’d say pause Domitia and focus on Renfeld, because:
Of course, this is very subjective (see the third point, and adapt!)