You had me right with you the whole way until this part.
For tile damage and slash attacks, Crit Troops are better than Mana in terms of Total Damage Output.
To show this, I crunched a bunch of numbers, and got help from @Garanwyn to check my assumptions, course correct my approach, and put together a formula that we turned into a spreadsheet to generate damage calculations with different troop combinations for demonstration purposes.
| Assumptions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Average Attack | 691 | Based on averaging all 4* and 5* heroes |
| Average Defense | 679 | Based on averaging all 4* and 5* heroes |
| Crit % | 0.15 | Based on a Level 30 Crit Troop |
| Mana Attack Buff | 1.26 | Based on a Level 30 Mana Troop |
| Crit Attack Buff | 1.2 | Based on a Level 30 Crit Troop |
To make the calculations possible to compare linearly, we’ve chosen to use average hero attack and defense stats, and stats from Level 30 Troops.
We built the spreadsheet to allow for varying these numbers, so it’s possible to compare other combinations, but this will show the comparative effect of Mana vs. Crit Troops in general.
Damage Calculation Formula
This is adapted from Damage Calculation to address varying numbers of Crit and Mana Troops.
Credit to @Garanwyn for this approach, which simplifies and generalizes my initial approach.
[33.33*(1- (crit %)*(# crit)/(# total)) + 66.67*((crit %)*(# crit)/(# total))] * sum^1.35
Calculations
1 Stack
| # Crit | # Mana | # Total | Sum Attack | Attack / Defense | Damage | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 691 | 1.0177 | 46.62 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 691 | 1.0177 | 50.20 | 7.67% |
2 Stack
| # Crit | # Mana | # Total | Sum Attack | Attack / Defense | Damage | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 2 | 1382 | 2.0353 | 118.85 | |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1382 | 2.0353 | 123.68 | 4.06% |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 1382 | 2.0353 | 127.97 | 7.67% |
3 Stack
| # Crit | # Mana | # Total | Sum Attack | Attack / Defense | Damage | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 3 | 3 | 2073 | 3.0530 | 205.46 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 2073 | 3.0530 | 211.12 | 2.76% |
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 2073 | 3.0530 | 216.38 | 5.31% |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 2073 | 3.0530 | 221.22 | 7.67% |
4 Stack
| # Crit | # Mana | # Total | Sum Attack | Attack / Defense | Damage | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | 4 | 2764 | 4.0707 | 302.96 | |
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 2764 | 4.0707 | 309.29 | 2.09% |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | 2764 | 4.0707 | 315.27 | 4.06% |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | 2764 | 4.0707 | 320.91 | 5.92% |
| 4 | 0 | 4 | 2764 | 4.0707 | 326.21 | 7.67% |
5 Stack
| # Crit | # Mana | # Total | Sum Attack | Attack / Defense | Damage | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 5 | 5 | 3455 | 5.0884 | 409.46 | |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 3455 | 5.0884 | 416.34 | 1.68% |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | 3455 | 5.0884 | 422.92 | 3.29% |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | 3455 | 5.0884 | 429.20 | 4.82% |
| 4 | 1 | 5 | 3455 | 5.0884 | 435.19 | 6.28% |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | 3455 | 5.0884 | 440.89 | 7.67% |
Takeaway
First, a reminder that this is talking about color stacking — it’s not taking into account Special Skill Damage. We’re looking at Tile Damage.
In the simplest case of one Mana vs. one Crit Troop, the Crit Troop will do more damage on average, because the Crit % increase is more than sufficient to overcome the Mana Troop’s higher attack boost.
As you look at each of the subsequent tables, you can see that adding more Crit Troops ALWAYS increases the average damage for a tile in all cases.
For equal-stat heroes and troops, tile damage is maximized by having as many Crit Troops and as few Mana Troops in a stack as possible.
Now obviously real-world complexities are going to make it impossible to have that as a hard-and-fast rule — we could likely find combinations of hero stats and troop levels where that balance would be shifted. If a player has a single Level 30 Mana Troop and 5 Level 1 Crit Troops to choose from, obviously the stat differences are going to make the Mana Troop advantageous in the stack.
But this does point toward Crit Troops as a priority for tile damage.
For contexts where tile damage rules — like Titans — Crit Troops are going to be a better investment.
Likewise, for players who like to heavily utilize tile damage in their play style on Offense, Crit Troops make more sense.
But if your heroes have sexy high-damage Special Skills — which can’t Crit — then the balancing act could change.
So, the takeway: Crit Troops are better for tile damage and stacking, but the answer to which is better for a particular player is the same as usual:
It depends, can I see your roster? 