Will I want to replace Grimm with Isarnia in my 3tack?

When I fight a red tank I almost invariably bring Mother North+13, a blue 3tack of Frida+7 (Def/HP), Grimm+18 (all attack), and Kiril+17 (Def/HP), and either Gravemaker+7 or Mitsuko+9. I’ll be maxing Isarnia in the near future and am wondering if she’ll take his place in my raid stacks.

Grimm

At +18: 827 / 585 /1204

My blue troops are level 17 mana, level 11 mana, and level 9 of the three star crit (for Grimm, Frida, and Kiril, respectively). I have no immediate plan to bring that upper mana troop to level 23, meaning there is no near-ish term future in which I make Grimm a 9 tile charge. Partly that’s because he’d be out of sync with the other two average speed blues, so I’m not sure how much benefit there would be - I’d probably be more likely to put that troop under Kiril.

Isarnia

Maxed: 797 / 655 /1200

So the trade would be a decrease in blue tile damage and the breaking of the triple average mana timing synergy for a superior defense debuff, greater overall AoE damage, and a slightly more durable hero.

The level 17 mana troop changes her to an 11 tile charge. I do NOT have her costume, so I have no realistic path to making her a 10 tile charge in sync with the average speed heroes (it would require the full costume bonus AND a level 29 mana troop).

I can start giving her wizard emblems - I almost have enough for node 2 and would almost certainly take the attack path.

Options

  1. Leave the blue 3tack as is.
  2. Replace Grimm with Isarnia when she’s maxed.
  3. Don’t replace Grimm with Isarnia until one of the following conditions are met:
  • She is +5, at which point her attack will be equal to Grimm’s with better durability and a better talent (though a lesser proc % of course).
  • She is a 10 tile charge in sync with Frida and Kiril (will likely never happen as I don’t see how I’ll pull her costume, even if I can take the mana troop to level 29).
  1. Don’t replace Grimm with Isarnia until BOTH of the conditions in option 3 are met.

Why not just keep both Grimm and Isarnia and go the route of a Blue Mono Team? I love going with a Blue Mono team against any Red Tank. As long as I can keep killing red tanks with 3 tiles all is good.

My Blue team is Magni+7, Frida+8, Isarnia 3.70 (need 1 more telescope), Kiril+0, and Grimm+0.

I moved my emblems from Grimm to Kage a few months ago, and have too many other good Wizards to give emblems to Kiril at the moment, but they seem to be the best 4*'s alternatives even without emblems.

I don’t worry about the Synergies as much, but if you get the average and slow mana synergy at the same time that will completely decimate a team. - I love firing Kiril, then Frida, then Isarnia, then Grimm, and Magni for clean-up.

But usually, it goes I kill that red tank with 3 tiles, then Magni fires (fast) but usually doesn’t kill a hero, then next round of mana the averages Kiril, Frida, Grimm combo which usually takes out 2 heros or significantly wounds them, and Isarnia will fire next mana round as badly needed clean-up.

Just my 2 cents.

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Mono blue is good as @Howling mentioned.

If not, I would replace Grimm. He very squishy and he dies very often. I replaced him with Frida in my team.

High survivability takes priority if you ask me. Needs to survive to launch his skill.

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@Howling, I’m not sure if I have a viable fifth blue in that scenario. My best options are Aegir (who I admit I have never figured out how to use optimally in a raid), Triton, or Boril (all maxed, but none have emblems). I view those as a pretty far cry from your Magni option, especially given the mana speed - he can protect some of the team much earlier. Does that change anything?

@AirHawk, I should have noted in my post that Mother North is +13 and therefore the linchpin of literally every single one of my raids. I’ve edited my post to include her talent. I agree with you about survivability - just…a key part of my survivability plan is a hero being likely to resurrect after they die. Grimm does die often. But Mother North is very hard for the AI to take out, which has allowed me to be more cavalier about my usage of Grimm, Jackal, Scarlett, etc. (basically, I go all attack and deal with their deaths as they occur).

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If you’re running mono, Triton + Kiril is a great combo. Personally, I use a 3-stack for red tanks and I actually replaced my +20 Grimm with Aegir and it’s working well so don’t underestimate him, he can totally turn your raid around.

@IvyTheTerrible Ok, maybe worth an experiment on blue mono, but Triton is probably your best alternative given Kiril should fire just afterwards. The key is being able to have enough tile attack to take out any red tank with 3 blue tiles, I would guess that 80% of my raids I can do this before the tank’s special is charged. Grimm+18 is equivalent to Magni with tile attack. I don’t have Aegir, so can’t comment on his usefulness in offensive raids.

I have Alberich+10, but I don’t bring him into offensive raids with a red tank…

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Thank you! Interesting points. I can see what you’re saying; in terms of tile damage Triton is ~ Grimm and Grimm+18 ~ Magni. And Triton does confer some team benefit, as long as I can get Kiril fired shortly thereafter. If Kiril dies or I can’t make the blue matches to charge him, the raid is likely lost.

As is, I’m beating red tanks at a rate of 94% over my last 2k+ raids, so I’m not exactly struggling. Basically just wondering if I have any options to eke out a slightly greater edge.

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I’ve been spoiled a little by having Triton as one of my first 4* heroes. I was able to complete a lot of content with him only needing a single healer (including only having Hawkmoon and Belith for a long time). I would be interested to see how the Triton+Aegir synergy worked out. He would bump Aegir’s element link healing from 24% over six turns to 33% (at least 30%, depending on how E&P applies rounding), and any damage from blue tiles would heal at 139% of damage for three turns. With that combo, you could consider leaving Kiril at home, which leaves you room for Grimm, Frida, and Isarnia as your blue mono team.

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