My vote for most powerful :

Glorfindel (Sp) – super difference between stats and threat + only one (with Glorfindel Lo) to use Asfaloth at his best

Theodred – only hero to bring consistent ressources without a build oriented

Aragorn (Lo) – only card that enable a drop of approximately 20 threat in one action

Eowyn – unequivalent high and adjustable will

Grima – very similar to Theodred (consistent resource generation) in a color that needs resource (you draw cards a lot with Lore) + optimizes best Keys of Orthanc

My vote for favourite Heros :

Merry – low threat especially for Tactics, small guy that can accomplish astonishing achievement in combat

Beorn – so unique in the game play and a sense of sacrifice for the others that I love

Grima – His ambivalent aspect makes him interesting and enables to unleash the full power of Mono-Lore

Pipin (Lo) – as the character in the books, unnoticed but key in many ways

Frodo Baggins – very powerful to be able to deal HP with threat, it requires a

Just one is matching (Grima). May be it is my own paradox. Do you have also a different view between favourite and powerful ?

PS : sorry for English mistakes (not my mother tongue)

My vote for most powerful :

Glorfindel (Sp) – super difference between stats and threat + only one (with Glorfindel Lo) to use Asfaloth at his best

Theodred – only hero to bring consistent ressources without a build oriented

Aragorn (Lo) – only card that enable a drop of approximately 20 threat in one action

Eowyn – unequivalent high and adjustable will

Grima – very similar to Theodred (consistent resource generation) in a color that needs resource (you draw cards a lot with Lore) + optimizes best Keys of Orthanc

My vote for favourite Heros :

Merry – low threat especially for Tactics, small guy that can accomplish astonishing achievement in combat

Beorn – so unique in the game play and a sense of sacrifice for the others that I love

Grima – His ambivalent aspect makes him interesting and enables to unleash the full power of Mono-Lore

Pipin (Lo) – as the character in the books, unnoticed but key in many ways

Frodo Baggins – very powerful to be able to deal HP with threat, it requires a

Just one is matching (Grima). May be it is my own paradox. Do you have also a different view between favourite and powerful ?

PS : sorry for English mistakes (not my mother tongue)

In terms if powerful I think there are two (now 3) that are clearly stronger then everyone else:

A) spirit glorfindel

B) dain

C) lore Aragon - noe thet desperate alliance is valid

The first two can't be argued - COTR had a podcast with a dev from the game who said those are the two strongest in the game. The third one is simply bc of Caleb's stupid ruling on that as a valid play. If it's corrected then it would just be the first two.

In terms of fun hereos (more room to argue here):

A) beorn - he's supreme cool just ask Matthew D

B) legolas - I love killing and he makes progress to boot

C) boromir (tactics) - just super fun to use him over and over again

In terms of boring heros:

A) eowyn- she's powerful quester but boring as she only quests each turn. No thinking

B) theodred - again you just commit him to quest and get his low WP and resource token. No thinking

C) Thalin - again commit hike low WP And do damage. No thinking.

Choosing my my most favourite heroes when it comes to theme and immersion into the story usually depends on the quest. In Moria I like to use dwarfs, in Voice of Isengard the Rohan heroes seem most appropriate. You get the idea.

But ultimately the most fun and thematic for me are Glorfindel, Aragorn (no matter which sphere version of them), Elrond and Faramir.

As for the most powerful, the following bunch proved their exceptional worth to me: Loragorn, Spiritfindel, Dain, Legolas, Frodo, Sam.

I am not sure if this is the thread for it, but I wish to tell of the oposite spectrum of my hero-liking scale. My least favourite, both in terms of theme and of power, is by far Fatty Bolger. Useless and boring (well, I guess he did stay at home and did very little throughout the story, so perhaps him being a waste of cardboard fits the universum). Sorry, Fatty!

But what I dislike the most is where there is wasted potential for a fun and thematic hero, which is then missed. There is a whole thread in these forums concering Bilbo and his ridiculously high cost. He should be perfect for secrecy or hobbit decks but his "9 threat" defeats the whole idea. I do hope for his reincarnation at one point. Or I would love an errata lowering his cost.

Also: Theoden. A great warrior and a cool card by itself, but WHY does he not synergise with Rohan characters? My Rohan decks (and I mean pure Rohan themed decks) were always too weak for any serious quests and I wished a proper Rohan king would change it. Unfortunately that was not the case. I still tried to play him in a Rohan deck, but Rohan already has the willpower, so that was a waste of potential.

And Faramir - while I love him as a character and appreciate the concept of his special powers, in game terms I personally seem to lack the abilities to use him properly in a deck. Any ideas for a good Faramir deck?

With each new pack I am hoping for a cool elf spirit hero. All glory to Spiritfindel, but a replacement would keep things fresh. I hoped Celeborn would be Spirit but he is not (which is a shame, as I think he would fit spirit much more; but Galadirel seems to fit spirit even better, so maybe, maybe)

I think Fatty is pretty good, because I often play LOTR with 4 players ,and Fatty did very good as a risk-cancer,especialy when a boss came out. He can just protect others from raise threat level (for example, he raises 4 threat level to choose a boss in the staging area means other 3 players saved 12 threat level total) or help the company rush to the next stage.2 DEF and 3 HP makes him a good defender as he needn't trigger his ability as often as he can . Spirit sphere can let a hobbit deck without Frodo to use some amazing cards like Pipe or Small Target.

Most powerful? Commonly people note Spirit Glorfindel & Dain. And with reason, everyone else falls short.

Favorite? Bifur & Legolas.

Bifur brings auto duo/tri sphere smoothing to your deck. Plus he has greats stats and is 7 threat where he should be 8.

Legolas brings progress through killing in a sphere that screams for this. And you can shove rivendell blade in his hands.

Then hands on the bow + foe hammer make a great combo.