How many people refuse to play Spirit Glorfindel for balance reasons ? What other heroes would you also refuse to play and why ?

I myself avoid to add Glorfindel in my decks due to the high usage and knowing that having to sub out my hero frequently would be a pain. But that doesn't mean I think he or other heroes are junk, quite the other way around! I can see the power with this card having used it for a brief time.

I only don't bring him to game day, because I know a lot of other people might want to play with him.

He looks awesome in print yet so far Ive only used spiritfindel once and failed the quest. More due to my poor deck thoigh

It seems FFG thinks the one who was powerful in the novel should be powerful in the game, that's the FFG's balance principle.

I actually moved Spirit Glorfindel to the back of my binder. He has a way of being the best third hero for just about every deck and I was getting tired of seeing him.

He's the only one that falls into that category for me though.

Lately it's Arwen for me in the same "default Spirit hero" slot. The draw (with Elven-light) or resource boost is hugely beneficial, often more so than Glorfindel's +2 attack and -4 threat.

Lately for me it's been Arwen+Theodred+(Insert Lore hero here). Then with all the resource generation in combination with Elven Light and Protector of Lorien you can do some crazy stuff. So Glorfinedel has fallen by the wayside for now, until his ally version comes out.

Why is it always Spirit that gets most of the universal, splashable game-changing heroes? Glorfindel, Galadriel, Arwen, Círdan... Lore does too, to a point, with Erestor, but he's not really splashable as you have to build around him. The closest Leadership has got to that recently is Amarthiúl, but then again he requires a specific deck. And I'm not even gonna mention Tactics...

Honestly, Spirit Glorfindel is overrated. He's still obviously incredibly good, with his low threat and Asfaloth being his strongest assets imo. Nonetheless, I think resource generation and card draw is as important or even more important compared to what Glorfindel can offer. I have tried power decks with Glorfindel (Boromir-Loragorn-Glorfindel and Boromir-Galadriel-Glorfindel) and others like the Money Maker (Theodred-Grima-Arwen) and the super Bilbo deck (Bilbo-Beravor and the 3rd hero can be either Erestor, Loragorn or Galadriel - considering the errata on Love of Tales btw) and these last decks are much more consistent. Strong heroes right from the start (Boromir, Glorfindel, Gandalf, Elrond) are one way to build power decks, but a way I like even better is considering heroes who help you to setup incredibly well (Theodred, Beravor, Erestor, Galadriel, Arwen). Actually, it is my humble opinion that Galadriel is better than Glorfindel (I consider Galadriel the best Spirit hero and maybe the best hero in the game)

I'd say Arwen is by far better than Galadriel. And the only heroes I refuse to play are the garbage ones, like Bombur.

I honestly think that Asfaloth is the main key to overuse of Glorfindel.

We have several great alternatives to him at this point in the game.

Spirit Merry is fantastic at lowering threat and in a deck that features hobbits and hobbit mechanics he will often be a better choice than Glorfindel.

Arwen can be a fantastic replacement and although she has a higher starting threat she has the same willpower and her ability can boost a deck by so much it isn't funny. She provides card draw as well as both resource acceleration and resource smoothing.

Galadriel became some what of a replacement for Glorfindel in many decks upon release as well and with Nenya she actually contributes more willpower than Glorfindel. She also has a fantastic ability and not only allows allies to quest for free the turn they enter play but also provides card draw and threat reduction.

Because both Arwen and Galadriel provide card draw they can help you draw into threat reduction faster which in a way helps combat the drawback of their higher starting threat. Galadriel lowers threat on her own and Arwen also provides resources which like the card draw will allow you to use threat reduction cards far faster and more efficiently. In the long run both of these heroes have the potential to benefit decks far more than Glorfindel will.

Finally the upcoming Lanwyn hero is a fantastic replacement for Glorfindel. She has one less willpower but the same attack value and has ranged to boot. Her ability can boost her to 4 willpower if one surge card appears which already makes her willpower higher than Glorfindel and if two surge cards appear she can either have 6 willpower which is twice that of Glorfindel or she can have 4 willpower which is still higher and can ready and attack for 3 with ranged.

Somewhat situational but in two or more player you do see surge cards at least every second or third turn and for certain quests during most turns in fact! Yes she is a bit more niche but can quest for far more than Glorfy and can attack for just as much but with ranged as well. Her readying ability is fairly similar to LoV. During the right quest or with the right amount of players she will be far more useful than Glorfindel.

LoV + Glorfindel isn't even THAT great. Yes it negates his threat gain and yes it means you can use both his 3 will and 3 attack in one turn HOWEVER if you are running both LoV and Glorfindel he is more or less 100% the target for it......

If you are NOT running Glorfindel you can place LoV on so many other heroes some of which are potentially even better recipients than he is.

In a victory display deck make sure Rossiel has both bonuses set up. With LoV she can quest for 4 then defend with 4!

Elrond can quest for 3 then use Vilya or defend for 3 and honestly having backup/extra defenders is usually more important than having backup/extra attackers. Cirdan is an AMAZING target for LoV with his ring in play as he can quest for 4 AND then ready two allies and give them both +1A/+1D.

There are several other great targets for LoV and honestly I think it is not really a bonus anymore but is rather a setback because if you are running both LoV and Glorfindel you are more or less 100% going to need to attach it to him so he doesn't just raise your threat by several points over the course of a game. This means you can't place it on any of these better targets and are more or less restricted to putting it on him.

The last card to look at is Asfaloth, 1 progress is simply incomparable to 2 especially when it is something you can activate every turn. I honestly think Asfaloth is more or less useless if it isn't placed on Glorfindel and many other location control cards will serve you better. Without it however you are more or less forced to run other location control cards and many of them are extremely situational or subpar or the ones that are decent are usually one use and not repeatable effects. Location lock is an extremely unpleasant situation and it is far less fun or exciting to lose because of locations and location lock than it is to lose from threating out, losing heroes to nasty enemies/shadow effects etc.

His threat cost is obviously his main attraction but I think the main thing that this allows is secrecy decks and hero lineups that are powerful but don't have insane starting threat. He is used for his low starting threat in decks that feature two other high threat cost heroes, his low threat cost offsets the high ones and allows the deck to function properly without having to start on some extremely high threat level. He also serves as a very good strong hero in a lineup of low threat cost weaker heroes that rely on secrecy. Without LoV however he raises your threat over the course of a game which can in fact negate his low starting threat an be quite detrimental.

So long story short I think there are definitely several alternative heroes you can use instead of him at this point and as long as you are clever in the way that you build your decks or replace him you can easily offset the lower starting threat. Yes he is extremely useful and yes he fills a slot for CERTAIN decks that no other hero can but LoV sort of sucks on him when you consider other things you could pull off with it and I honestly think Asfaloth is the best thing about him because of how subpar the vast majority of location control cards are....

All that being said I personally do still use him in my decks and will not be removing him any time soon and it is purely because he allows me to run Arwen Elrond and him in a deck but remain at 27 starting threat and because of Asfaloth.

If we ever see another spirit Silvan or Noldor hero at 9 or less threat cost with at least 2 willpower (ideally 3) and we also see some sort of repeatable location control that rivals Asfaloth I will definitely look at removing Glorfindel from my decks.

I'd say Arwen is by far better than Galadriel. And the only heroes I refuse to play are the garbage ones, like Bombur.

I agree. Arwen is miles better than Galadriel.

Lately for me it's been Arwen+Theodred+(Insert Lore hero here). Then with all the resource generation in combination with Elven Light and Protector of Lorien you can do some crazy stuff. So Glorfinedel has fallen by the wayside for now, until his ally version comes out.

Lore Hero = Glorfindel?

I only play FFG made up heroes, because it gives a lot of challenge and because there were probably many of other heroes who probably have done some things in Middle-earth. It's like if you played for example " The One Ring " RPG you would create your own hero and wouldn't play as Glorfindel, Elrond etc. Since we can't create in Lotr LCG own heroes I prefer to use those made by FFG. I use famous or known characters as allies. But that's me because I used to be a Game Master for 18 years in many paper & pencil RPG so I see Lotr LCG as another great adventure . The only drawback is that FFG made up Heroes aren't good enough to complete every quest from each cycle

Bombur is not a garbage hero. He is a good defender and his ability actually matters in a dwarf deck. He is a hero that looks bad on paper but in an actual game he turn out to be pretty good.

There was a time Spiritfindel was the most broken hero to walk in middleearth (when he was released). Ever since HoN the encounter decks got nastier and the other spheres got better heroes too:

Need low threat but want to keep stats -> Glorfindel

Ever readiing fighting machine -> Boromir (actually released before Glorfindel but the attachments weren't really there to boost him)

Only defense, with ressource advantage -> Beregond

Questing, Defense, bring into play ability + 2 bonus effects -> Elrond

Carddraw -> Arwen, Galadriel

Let's end here, but I think it's clear what I want to show: There are many heroes with insane effects. Glorfindels effects is just really obvious and his downside easily worked around. That + the fact that he was overpowered for some time, seems to keep his "god-like image" alive. Even Asfaloth isn't that great anymore. It costs 2 for 2 Progress. How many Locations only have 2 Progress These days? So you have to use at least 2 rounds to get rid of 1 Location. Asfaloth strength is to explore a Location the Moment it gets added to the staging area, so the encounterdeck "looses" 1 Card this round. Working many rounds on one Location doesn't really help prevent Location locks or adds much Progress to the quest.

The carddraw and ressources other heroes offer are much stronger then the Little bit of threat Advantage Glorfindel offers.

If you play Glorfindel without Light of Valinor, it becomes a new experience.

And as overpowered heroes go, I think Boromir tactics is worst (in a good way).

All that being said I personally do still use him in my decks and will not be removing him any time soon and it is purely because he allows me to run Arwen Elrond and him in a deck but remain at 27 starting threat and because of Asfaloth.

So all the reasons you said we don't need Glorfindel are all the reasons you keep playing him?

I use him primarily for Asfaloth and thematic reasons.

The starting threat of 27 is nice but the deck would still function more or less just as well at 30 or 31 starting threat.

If we get another spirit Noldor or Silvan hero that has a similar threat level and decent willpower as well as a new repeatable location control card I will probably stop using him.

There's always the possibility of using Asfaloth with Lore Glorfi, which we rarely see.

Though nowdays I rarely use him (mostly because I like "learning" to use new heroes) I love Glorfindel -I love him in the books, thats the main reason- but I believe there are other heroes more overpowered than him. Arwen is one ... and for my part, Tactics Boromir is still the only hero with whom, while using only him and no other hero (yes, just one) I managed to beat two quests, the first from core set and Assault on Osgiliath ... Glorfindel could never do this

I use him primarily for Asfaloth and thematic reasons.

The starting threat of 27 is nice but the deck would still function more or less just as well at 30 or 31 starting threat.

If we get another spirit Noldor or Silvan hero that has a similar threat level and decent willpower as well as a new repeatable location control card I will probably stop using him.

Galadriel and Steed of Imladris. Not quite as good of location control, primarily because it only targets active location, but still 2 progress each round. Galadriel's Threat reduction counteracts her higher Threat and her card draw (especially if you also include the mirror and the harp) can negate the biggest downside of the steed. To bad that's a lot of cards dedicated to Galadriel. You'll also want to have unexpected courage for her, if it's not already in your deck, but at least LoV can go on someone else.

Everyone needs at least one hero with high willpower so they don't flop out of the gate. Éowyn was the first universal add on... then Spirit Glorfindel... and Arwen.. and to an extent Galadriel (Which you would need to build around a little more). Of course spirit is the Willpower boost at the start of games so they shouldn't give that power to other spheres though in the long game I feel leadership trumps questing over spirit. Of course in general spirit has limited options for their heroes.

They have these awesome, auto includes but then they have a lot of flops where they are even hard to build around. Other than Celeborn and Sam, other spheres really don't have that pop them into the deck for questing for a reasonable threat. Even with Celeborn, if you don't play a silvan you feel a little robbed. I personally think, outside of those mentioned Spirit heroes the only other fessable auto include for a good early game experience is Samwise and seeing the deck list I am sure I am not alone on that.

High willpower heroes are needed in early game to help with threat management until your army or attachments are out. The fact a lot of the high willpower spirit allies have under 10 threat makes them very playable which may bottleneck the meta slightly. I would like to see a 3 willpower a lore hero with under 10 threat. Perhaps I am just greedy.

There was a time Spiritfindel was the most broken hero to walk in middleearth (when he was released).

I would argue Dain was more powerful than him back then (and he still is).

This is interesting for me as I came into the game wanting not to use Glorfindel that much because he was so overused and I felt he was unblanced. That's kind of still true, but I've warmed to him a certain amount. On the other hand, there are also better options depending on circumstances. And while I decried those who threw Glorfindel into every single deck they built for years, I went through a similar phase myself with Galadriel. "This deck doesn't work how I want it to. Change one of the heroes to Galadriel, put in the Mirror, all fixed."

Also, since I've been playing through the quests Progression-style, I realise that when Glorfindel was released it's not just that he was a tremendously powerful option, it's that there were very few options full-stop. Even advancing to the end of Against the Shadow - Caldara needed mono-sphere, Nori and Oin needed Dwarves, Dwalin needed Orcs in the quest, Dunhere needed everyone to be low threat. Which left Eowyn, Eleanor, Frodo and Glorfindel as your options if you just wanted a Spirit hero to drop into a deck. A lot of people were less fond of Eleanor than me, and I imagine by Glorfindel's release people may have been tired of seeing Eowyn in every deck just as they were later tired of seeing Glorfindel in every deck. Add to that Glorfindel being the lowest threat hero and the only 3 attack option in Spirit at the time, with access to cheap action advantage, and it's no wonder he did so well. Now those things are less unique to him, so his only advantages are that he has all of them in one package, and Asfaloth.

i think it's still bizzare that in a game where people regularly include 3x steward of Gondor in every deck they make, even going as far as to play 3x Good Harvest JUST so they can play Steward of Gondor... that people still complain about a hero with good stats and a low threat cost.

I doesn't make any sense to me that people do things like that, and 3x unexpected courage, etc. and then they say that it's Glorfindel that's unbalanced. Please.