I compiled the data for all 3,224 raids I’ve tracked. Normal caveats apply: I am making no attempt to normalize for emblems, team power, value of support team, the attack team I brought, etc. So, to some extent, the data is skewed by my own roster and decisions to fight. Although, with this particular question, I believe it is less subject to those influences, as a big part of my tracking exercise was so that I could better guide my embleming and troop leveling decisions to shore up weaknesses. That is, when I saw I’m weak against red tanks, I poured emblems into Kiril and Frida and bumped up my blue troops.
4 Stars
There is no contest here: the answer is Boril. He went 5-74 against me, 8th best in the sample and head and shoulders above any other four star (barring one potential outlier I will get to in a minute). The rest of the four stars went 1-129 against me. He’s by far the best value proposition, given how cheap it’ll be to emblem him to max, compared to all the five stars we’re going to talk about in a moment.
Worth noting: Gadeirus. Recognizing that he probably doesn’t fit the definition of Vanilla, he did go 2-6 against me, which would be the highest win rate in the period. Obviously there’s a sample size issue here - I am looking for and fighting every Gadeirus tank I can find. But if I had one, a stack of Druid emblems, and no obvious better emblem tank, I’d give it a go.
5 Stars
| Hero | Wins | Losses | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elena | 12 | 97 | 11.0% |
| Isarnia | 6 | 61 | 9.0% |
| Azlar | 4 | 45 | 8.2% |
| Richard | 13 | 167 | 7.2% |
| Elkanen | 4 | 52 | 7.1% |
| Horghall | 1 | 14 | 6.7% |
| Obakan | 1 | 17 | 5.6% |
| Joon | 1 | 17 | 5.6% |
| Justice | 3 | 69 | 4.2% |
| Lianna | 1 | 26 | 3.7% |
| Leonidas | 1 | 26 | 3.7% |
| Thorne | 3 | 79 | 3.7% |
| Kadilen | 1 | 27 | 3.6% |
| Vivica | 3 | 89 | 3.3% |
| Sartana | 1 | 43 | 2.3% |
| Magni | 2 | 98 | 2.0% |
| Marjana | 1 | 57 | 1.7% |
| Khagan | 0 | 50 | 0.0% |
| Quintus | 0 | 17 | 0.0% |
| Domitia | 0 | 15 | 0.0% |
Observations
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Fast snipers like Joon, Lianna, Sartana, Magni, Marjana, etc. are not tanks. You are mispositioning your hero.
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Average speed and slow heroes fall into two groups: when they fire they basically win the raid (Azlar and Isarnia) or dramatically change the composition of the fight with their secondary effects (Elena and Richard), or they do not, causing only damage (Leonidas, Thorne, Khagan, Quintus, Domitia - note the absence of soul crushing secondary effects).
Let’s look a little deeper at the heroes I didn’t name in the above categories one at a time, since I think they defy easy classification.
Vivica: her win rate is poor, even though her special changes the fight composition. Part of it seems to be how easy the special is to clear: Richard does well because there is no natural choice to cleanse or reverse his ailment, Vivica does not because Seshat or Domitia were getting charged while Vivica was.
Horghall, Obakan, and Kadilen: not the best sample sizes for these, but it is interesting to note that Horghall may qualify for the latter part of point 2. Maybe not though, as Boldtusk is a very strong counter. Kadilen is a weird mix since she has sniper speed and does have a secondary effect that is hard for fire heroes to clear. But I think ultimately it’s just not enough damage output while still leaving her susceptible to tile death (whereas Richard and Elena make tile death harder / punish it). Not sure what to say about Obakan.
Elkanen is also an interesting case as he is similar to Kadilen, conceptually. Sniper speed, but only damage. The obvious comparison is Leo, who did NOT fare well. I’m not sure why Elk did better than Kadilen. I guess that self-heal giving a little extra time for his team before dying makes a difference. Maybe someone will have some thoughts on this.
Lastly, Justice: Justice seems to meet the criteria for an average / slow tank: big special. The problem is that almost everyone is going to have a very emblemed Rigard. And the costumed versions can now easily fire in 9 tiles. Barring a costume change for her, I think she’s becoming less viable, though she is not terrible. Average or slightly above average right now, I’d say.
My Opinion
Again, Boril. You get maybe 80% of the performance of the best vanilla five stars at a fraction of the cost.
Beyond that, my vote is Richard. No green who’s likely to attack him undoes his ailment and his class does a lot for his tank position (where Isarnia and Azlar’s do not). In saying this, I’m partly accounting for my roster - I’m attacking him with a heavily emblemed Mother North, moderately emblemed Evelyn, and a basically max emblemed Caedmon. That team is strong and fast (decently superior to what I bring against the red heroes). That he still wins so often anyway is a real credit to him.