Bera is the queen of the purple war tanks - but who’s 2nd?
- Freya
- Dr Moreau
- Ursena
- Killhare
- Clarissa
- Kunchen
0 voters
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Both Ursena and Kunch are tough. Only faced Dr Moreau once and he was not easy at all. Freya is a better wing and Killhare is best on the wing IMO.
Cheers!
Ursena is a joke in 2021, I stack purple against her because everybody and their dog put in yellow flanks (sometimes double yellow) when tanking her and I have a very decent win rate (at least 80%).
Same thing when I tried tanking Ursena in the alliances that ran purple tanks, my defense got one shot 80% of the time as well. She is much better as a flank for rush attack than she is a tank these days.
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No doubt it’s freya, just for the mana cut. But bera is much better.
Alfrike is missing in the list, she’s still better than half of them even while being very slow
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Thanks everyone for your feedback and vote.
Additional context:
I’m part of a top 20 alliance and this poll is specifically aimed at finding the best runner-up non-rush war purple war tank for top level alliances. Honestly, Kunch and Alfrike are non-starters at the level I’m playing. They are just too slow, but I totally agree that they are viable tanks outside the top 100.
I was selfishly looking at Freya vs. Dr Moreau as an upgrade over Ursena. I just recently acquired both and only have 6 tabards… and of course I don’t have Bera. I’m surprised there wasn’t more vote for Moreau, given his Paladin class, his insane base stats and his -20% damage ability. I was having a hard time making my choice but I think the Freya mana cut on death takes the cake and is hard to pass. I will probably end up doing Freya… but many of my alliance mates seem to be higher on Moreau. I think its a closer call than this poll is showing.
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This is JMO so take it for what it’s worth.
You said Kunchen and Alfrike are non-starters, I can kind of agree with Alfrike since she really does just give you too much time to play the board (15 tiles worth from my own observation), but Kunchen+20 truly is still no joke and a huge PITA. He goes off and I legitimately feel pressured to either get rid of that defense drop or get rid of him ASAP because otherwise I could get slashed to death (each slash does like 220-250 damage now).
Outside of maybe rush war (and I mean a big maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe), Ursena just no longer scares me. She goes off and does maybe around 500-550 damage to each of my heroes, big freaking whoop. Nobody is in danger of dying, and because I didn’t stack yellow, I dgaf about that yellow reflect. As I mentioned before if the attacker doesn’t stack yellow she’s basically a Quintus at average speed that conditionally does 260% damage instead of 130%. Now ask yourself if you’re ever concerned about a Quintus tank outside of rush.
If you’re currently tanking Ursena, then Kunchen would be a significant upgrade (assuming +20) IMO.
As far as Dr. Moreau goes, yes he could be viable if you went the full def/HP path. At +20 that would put him at 907 def and 1552 HP, which is pretty ridiculous for a fast hit-3 blinder. And as you noted his paladin class and passive just puts him over the top. However, since he’s a dark Drake and also extremely good for offense, I personally feel going the def/HP path is kind of a waste since you’re neutering his offensive capabilities. And I suspect that might be why he’s not ranked as high up as you would expect him to be.
But yes if you don’t mind an ever so slightly neutered Moreau for offense, then I’d probably rank him ahead of Freya. Freya is somewhat passive, the defense up and mana cut on death is annoying but not immediately lethal, so I’m not too concerned if she goes off once. Moreau goes off once and he could put a serious dent in my attack plan since even my tiles can miss now. He goes off a second time it’s game over.
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I think that a significant portion of the voters are not that familiar with Dr. Moreau. So they just voted for the best tank they are familiar with, where the other option would be not voting at all.
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I faced a few Dr Moreau tanks (I’m also in a top50 alliance) and he is really poor at this place.
Even though he’s a Paladin and can take hits with his passive ability his stats are not tanky enough so a red/blue/green stack easily take care of him with tiles only.
As for his special, he’s doing decent damage but really that’s not a special for a tank. He does not provide any additional survivability to the other heroes nor give an annoying enough flaw to the attackers.
Look at the 5 best tanks currently
- bera : added survivability with minions, annoy the attacker with mana cut (plus minions do damage and prevent you to have minions yourself)
- Freya : added survivability with minions and defense buff, annoy the attacker with mana cut
- bk/krampus : super survivability with taunt + defense buff (plus super high attack buff to all the team)
- garnet : super survivability with overheal and ailment protection
Telluria was doing the same with survivability (minions and HoT) and annoyance (mana debuff). Guin also : survivability (heal and protection against dark) and annoyance (mana cut)
Any hero that does not do both, or is either super strong at one or the other cannot be a good tank. Dr Moreau is simply not a good tank.
NB: I don’t think Ursena is a good tank either. Or well, she’s a great tank of the attacker is stacking holy. Just don’t stack holy vs Ursena and you’ll win easily.
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Moreau is too new and opinions on him at this point are almost always theoretical, at least in the production version of the game. But I do agree Bera is great and reigns supreme as a tank, specially with Frigg/Odin flanks.
But as long as war goes, where most players won’t have 18 viable maxed yellow heroes to setup a color-counter 3-2 on every flag, I wonder if minion heroes as tanks are not a liability, because besides color-counters, there are plenty of minion-counters as well (Uraeus, Grimble, Skadi, Noor and in this very specific case, Lady Loki).
I mean, take my opinion with a grain of salt, because I’m only in a top 100-150 alliance and competition at this level must be very different from what you are used to deal with, but when facing purple tanks in war, I’m actually relieved to see Freya/Bera because that means I can actually save my yellow heroes for other fights.
As for Alfrike as a tank, she is indeed too slow and that means too forgiving on bad boards, but 1) she ensures the oponent will be burning at least 3x yellows most of the times. 2) she’s beefy to the point that even if she doesn’t fire, she will usually buy the needed time for the flanks and wings to their work and 3) Other than arrow attack (bera wins there) I really think Alfrike synergizes better with the war modifiers.
At the level I’m playing, my defense (+20 def/hp Alfrike tank, but the rest of the team changes with the modifiers) usually averages at 1,5-2 flags per kill each war. Superior than Clarissa, my only other purple option.
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Uhmm, Alfrike?
I really had good success running Alfrike as a tank with Mother North on the wing. I didn’t see all that much difference when I changed Alfrike to Freya. She’s not completely off the list, and definitely not worse than Killhare or Clarissa tanks that are listed.
I agree.
Plus you want to give emblems to Alf for VF wars and tournaments, not sure you want to give emblems to Clarissa…
A big shout out to everyone who voted and provided feedback. I do appreciate the different perspectives and input. Its made me re-think a lot of my assumptions. I also do realize I live in a microcosm of the E&P universe and not the same rules and considerations apply when choosing heroes for war. (i.e. we faced The Avengers and KM4 last 2 wars, going against opponents that have all the best heroes in the game in multiple copies, including some with over 100 max 5*, changes your D-line strategy)
I’m going to ponder this another day while I finish bringing both Freya and Dr Moreau to 3-70 and make my call. Still not sure LOL. No matter what it should be an improvement over Ursena.
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This is absolutely insane. It makes me wonder how much money people spend in the game.
Best of luck, my friend.
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One well-known member of a top alliance was at 119 a few weeks ago. No idea on money spent but I’d venture to say in the 20K realm. Just blows my mind.
Have a great day!
March 29th was the last time I looked at the leaderboard and recorded every hero in the top 100, how many there were, and in which positions. There were 25 Bera tanks and 23 Freya tanks. There were also 2 Beras in other positions and 3 Freyas in other positions. I was surprised to find there was essentially the same number of both. I believe it comes down to what people have, but in practice, Freya seems quite effective as a Bera replacement.
Freya and Bera were the only dark heroes I found placed as a leaderboard tank more than once. Dark heroes used as leaderboard tanks in one squad each were Hel, Alfrike, and C. Sartana.
I was also surprised to find that of the 9 Killhares in leaderboard squads, only 3 were on flank and 6 were on wing.
Dr. Moreau was only found twice, in wing position both times. Granted, he was very new and most owners may not have had time to level him yet. His low popularity leads me to believe Drake Fong’s fame is outdated, and he no longer holds place among the game’s top heroes. In contrast, Elizabeth was found 8 times (5 times in flank), implying that Dr. Moreau’s scarcity was not only due to lack of time and supply.
Kunchen was not spotted a single time anywhere in any squad. Like Drake, I believe he and his current popular ratings are outdated in the current meta.
Ursena was only found once on a flank position. It pains me to say this, but with a couple years of power creep and stats that were never tanky to begin with, it is no longer difficult to stack yellows and end Ursena before she is able to fire. I think highly of her, but I believe her top-tier glory days in defense are over.
Clarissa was also spotted once in flank position–I make this mention because she was in the poll.
Edit: P.S. Gullinbursti was found in two leaderboard squads, tank position both times. I believe this was the only time I’ve seen the same 4-star in a leaderboard squad twice. It’s possible he wins trophies because he lures players who underestimate the squad because it has a 4-star. This can also be a useful tactic in wars, luring opponents to battles they can’t win to reduce their score per flag. Thought it would be worth mentioning.
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This is really a puzzling part to me, too. If we assume I’m not unreasonably unlucky person (which is debatable, of course), I know that my 3k$ in just over a year didn’t take me far far away (before I’ve cut my spending to the ground). When I see those rosters with literally every trendy hero in it, I always think: was it 5 times more? 10 times more? Or it was just a little bit more momey spent, it’s just that I was not lucky to pull those?
Have no idea… 
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It’s all about time! How many heros can you actually level and emblem in a single year? You’re limited by ascension material and emblems per hero type. Thus, why rush to be the first to get the latest hero if you can’t level it for months anyways (if not longer)? Wait until it’s right for you and hopefully the “summoning gods” are looking down on you at the time! 
I was filling my heroes chest, came across a Dr. M. and decided to give it a try and record the battle, since we were debating over his viability.
Anyway, without further ado take you own conclusions:
Raiding Dr. Moreau - YouTube
What possible conclusion could be drawn from this raid?
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Fortuitous cascade that tiles out tank early leads to a victory 80.32% of the time? 
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