I think he will be very useful in events where you can stack one element and do that extra damage to all enemies equally. One good match on a board could take out an entire wave instead of overkilling two and leaving the 3rd untouched. Pair him up with Falcon.
Wilbur has been useful against situations that your heroes would be killed it one hit. 11*/12* Titans is the first place I’ve been using him. Giving you a little breathing room if you can’t stun, plus the benefit of a higher def down (than gormek/Grimm/Tib) as mentioned here. He’ll be a staple vs green titans for me, but I’m still testing if he’s worth it on other color titans (For most people he most likely will be).
He can also be a useful tool in raids if the team you are attacking has low healing but high damage (prevents your heroes from being one-shot by Lianna/Magni). I wouldn’t use him on a defense team, his ability is too situational and can backfire easily.
Things to keep in mind when using him, spirit link is seen as a positive effect for both teams. You can remove the enemy spirit link with a buff removal but keep the defense down. Letting you focus targets if you need to again.
Gonna add new things about Wilbur as I come to find them. May be more obvious to others but it didn’t come intuitively to me.
Spirit link is ignored by D.O.T. abilities. That means Natalya can still focus down a single target. Sartana and Marjana abilities damage will be shared, but the burn/poison still does full damage to the single target. Proteus would only damage the 3 targeted heroes.
I agree that it seems it was added to “weaken” him a bit. I do get it though, besides giving him slow or very slow mana this is probably the best thing they could of done to avoid making his special overpowered for a epic/4 . But then again it doesn’t really “weaken” him imo, it just makes him less versatile.
While his max defense/health points make him tank-ish, I definitey wouldnt put him in my raid defense team because of scenarios like the one you pointed out. I would keep a hero like boldtusk as a defense center hero, but play with Wilbur in raid and war attack teams —where im sure he will shine.
SpiritLink is still a buff not a debuff so if someone was worried about giving the enemy spirit link causing a problem, but they fight reguarly with a hero like Belith, Tyrum, Sonya, Sabina, Caedmon, Melendor, etc, they could simply activate their special skill right after (or even a turn after) Wilbur’s special goes off without it causing too much a problem. This way, they could keep their own spirit link, keep their own attack buff, remove the spirit link from the enemies, and make the enemy keep the lowered defense. — This may not be necessary every single time though.
Prepping his special to be ready to go at the right time will actually be easier than it is with Gunnar and Kailani (sans mana potions) since his special skill speed is average instead of slow. This also makes him a more appropriate choice for a lot of titans, probably not Ice titans though.
There’s also to appreciate he’ll be a great choice for certain difficult boss fights where heroes are sometimes killed off in one or two strikes. I’ve seen some comments about peoole putting Gunnar or Kailani in their 4 star teams to avoid this during events but having to switch out other helpful battle items for revival scolls specifically for them because their 3 star stats often causes them to die before the boss fight starts or very early in the boss fight.
Here is a positive use of the “free spirit link given to the enemies”: transform your sniper hero into a hit-all hero. Say you are facing a bunch of enemies (raiding, farming, whatever…) who have already been hit or have low HP compared to how much damage your ready-to-fire sniper has. Fire Wilbur’s special to give spirit link to your enemies and then fire your sniper and kill them all. That’s what I have figured out while testing Wilbur on farming. Seems practical enough and gives a different spin to his special.
In my experience Wilbur is really good with heroes that damage enemies and nearby enemies, Richard, Grim, tiburtus, because they do lots of damage hitting 3 people at once. I know grimm and tiburtus make de defence debuff goes to -34 instead of -44, but hitting 3 people does more damage than a joon or a lianna for instance. HE is not very good being using on attack with single hitters, because they were supposed to bring some one down, but there is a good use, if there is 1 person on each corner and one is almost dead, then you dont waste damage, it divides between them.
Tile damage, it’s all about that tile damage… That’s where it matters most, Ares has a limited secondary impact and his tile damage isn’t all that great, good but not great… Scarlett’s debuff is just a bonus…
Also, I usually line them up in the order I’d fire up their specials, so I’d go Tarlak / Wilbur / Falcon / Scarlett
Ares crit buff is wasted with Tarlak in place as he turns everyone’s hit into a crit hit essentially, not just surrounding, those two crits don’t stack… And when was the last time you strategically used Lance’s “mana boost” ? I mean, maybe you guys have but I find it to be a gimmick at best… Scarletts attack stat stacks on every red tile sent, that’s why I would prefer to have her in that line up… As for BT, honestly, I think he could be interchangeable with one of those heroes, just to try your luck, but not necessary I think…
Wait, Tarlak disable crits?
In that case then yes, Ares would not be useful.
And why not bringing Lancelot if his survivability issue is solved with Wilbur’s special?
His tile damage is as good as Scarlett’s ones and the mana regen on ATK buffer and DEF buffer would ensure high damage and team’s survivability!