I didnt find a similar threat in the near past and unfortunately FFG Forum has lack of a poll function, so I ask right of the bat:

What is the worst and most useless hero so far in your opinion?

I vote later. If some guys participate, I will edit this topic so that everycone can see it already in the beginning.

Votes:

Pippin 14

Brand 8

Dunhere 6

Bombur 5

Bilbo 3

Oin 3

Glorfindel (Lore) 2

Eleanor 2

Eleanor 2

Beorn 1

Prinz Imrahil 1

Elrohir 1

Elladan 1

Háma 1

Dwalin 1

Frodo 1

Bard 1

I'm not sure how I would decide on worst, so I can just list the heroes that have never once tempted me to actually use them in a deck:

Beorn

Brand

Glorfindel (lore).

Beorn just seems uninteresting. Maybe Brand would seem better if I actually played multiplayer, but I'm predominantly solo.

Glorfindel isn't bad as such, I just can't envision a deck where I would choose him over other options. And frankly, I love the spirit version.

There are some I haven't used yet, but have plans to, like Mirlonde and Pippin. Other than that, I think i've played all the heroes at some point, and have generally found them all useful (yes, even Bombur).

Overall, my vote for the the worst hero goes to Bombur (and not because he's fat.) His ability may be nice in the very beginning of the game to help promote other dwarf abilities; however, once you have 2 or 3 dwarf allies in play, which doesn't take long at all, Bombur loses his effectiveness and is quite literally extra baggage with his mediocre stats - when it comes to Lore dwarves, Bombur always takes last place to both Bifur and Ori.

As for the most useful hero, that's quite a bit tougher since I like to use so many! My favorite hero is Leadership Boromir, because that is my favorite character from the Lord of the Rings and his artwork is simply awesome! However, unfortunately I don't think he's the most useful. Thus, I would probably give that title to Spirit Glorfindel. His starting threat of 5 is ridiculously low and if you manage get Light of Valinor on him within the first or second turn, he becomes quite a powerhouse with 3 willpower, 3 attack, and 5 hit points --- He can be used twice per round --- And, he only donated 5 threat in the beginning!

Another hero that I find extremely useful and play with a lot is Bard the Bowman. When paired up with a Great Yew Bow, he can deal some serious damage to enemies in the staging area. Finally, honorary mentions go out to my favorite Gondorians, Prince Imrahil and Beregond.

The 3 I probably immediately think of are Brand, Dunhere, and Pippin.

Pippen's ability is so conditional requiring 3 hobbits and really only delays for a turn with quite a costly threat raise. He may be better with the hobbit cards in the black riders.....except we will get a new lore version of the character who appears monumentally better. The only way I can envision using him is if the unknown spirit hobbit in black riders is even worse than he is

Dunhere I think used to be decent but is fading into obsoleteness. Encounter deck power creep has assured he will only damage the frailest of enemies and newer cards like hands upon the bow, ithilien pit, great yew bow, hail of stones and ranger bow have given us new options to attack the staging areas without taking up a hero roster spot

by far the most useless IMO is Brand son of Bain. At least FFG had the respect to place such a situational ability on such an obscure hero with bad art (really tho, what's up with his face?). I play mostly solo where he is completely useless, but even in multiplayer games I think Legolas or Bard would be my tactics ranged characters of choice. Even in multiplayer he's not awesome unless you are the first player since otherwise whomever your playing with might not have any use for the extra hero action

My vote goes to Brand son of Bain. While his multiplayer worth is actually pretty good, I have yet to play him in 430+ solo games.

I'm not sure how I would decide on worst, so I can just list the heroes that have never once tempted me to actually use them in a deck:

Beorn

Beorn just seems uninteresting.

I think you'll be surprised how much fun Beorn is! He might just be the one hero who feels the most heroic out of the bunch. In the early rounds, he can swallow some attacks before you get your other defenders buffed up. His attack bonus will rid yourself of an enemy practically every round. Including Beorn my decks allowed me to defeat Journey along the Anduin despite two Hill Trolls in the first round. In battle quests, Beorn is superb!

His downfall is the immunity to player cards, of course. But keep in mind that Dori and Landroval actually work with him (Dori targets the damage, not Beorn; and Landroval targets Beorn while the card is out of play, and thus not immune).

1. Dunhere - Like Pharmboys said, he can hardly do anything to any enemies and if he can it takes like 2-3 turns to kill. Horrible stats.....

2. Prince Imrahil - I just have never liked him. Leadership is the least played sphere by me and his ability is not so good and has high threat. I also wish he had 5 HP.

For me the worst hero is Bilbo (lore)...

I use him sometimes...but only cause there is no other lore-hobbit at the moment.

Good ability but 9 threat with this stats are so ridiculous and absurdly...why he hasn´t 6 ???

If the lore Pippin is available his days are numbered.

Very interesting opinions so far.

My vote goes without thinking a lot to Elrohir and Elladan. If you play solo, you have to start with both of them and therefore already a high threat. In all of the games in which I saw them being used, their ability never comes to a use and they mostly are sent to quest.

3rd place --> Pippin. While threatcost and willpower might be ok, the "ability" is a joke. You have said it before, guys.

I like Prince Imrahil and Bilbo. Especially Bilbo, he is da beast.

For me worst hero is Oin. Just can't friggin use him with my card pool.

My vote goes without thinking a lot to Elrohir and Elladan. If you play solo, you have to start with both of them and therefore already a high threat. In all of the games in which I saw them being used, their ability never comes to a use and they mostly are sent to quest.

Are you telling jokes???

Mndela and me played 2 decks with them...very successful.

Didn´t we show them to you?

Aw I like Prince Imrahil, although I will admit that there are better alternatives to him which lead to his low use. Namely core Aragorn and new Boromir who have almost identical stats; the former of which has a more consistent readying technique and the latter of which has the boost ability takes the place of having multiple actions

I also agree that bilbo's inflated threat cost is absolute BS. His ability is quite good but it's not thaaaat good to escalate his value by 3 which is quite significant. It's not like he can even perform any other action well with his extremely low stats. He still has a place in decks but seems relegated to questing for the sake of questing of defending bats and crows

My vote goes without thinking a lot to Elrohir and Elladan. If you play solo, you have to start with both of them and therefore already a high threat. In all of the games in which I saw them being used, their ability never comes to a use and they mostly are sent to quest.

Are you telling jokes???

Mndela and me played 2 decks with them...very successful.

Didn´t we show them to you?

You did and it was a desastre. ;-)

c'mon can't be hating on Elladan and Elrohir! They're obviously better placed in multiplayer, but even solo put Glorfindel (spirit) or Eowyn and you'll be golden. Big fan of them

@ rekath: Then we must had very very bad luck...or your deck was the disaster.

Overall, my vote for the the worst hero goes to Bombur (and not because he's fat.) His ability may be nice in the very beginning of the game to help promote other dwarf abilities; however, once you have 2 or 3 dwarf allies in play, which doesn't take long at all, Bombur loses his effectiveness and is quite literally extra baggage with his mediocre stats - when it comes to Lore dwarves, Bombur always takes last place to both Bifur and Ori.

i think several heroes fit this description: Mirlonde, for one. Once you've gotten a threat reduction, her stats are mediocre at best (on par with Bombur - but perhaps a bit more evenly distributed).

Overall, my vote for the the worst hero goes to Bombur (and not because he's fat.) His ability may be nice in the very beginning of the game to help promote other dwarf abilities; however, once you have 2 or 3 dwarf allies in play, which doesn't take long at all, Bombur loses his effectiveness and is quite literally extra baggage with his mediocre stats - when it comes to Lore dwarves, Bombur always takes last place to both Bifur and Ori.

i think several heroes fit this description: Mirlonde, for one. Once you've gotten a threat reduction, her stats are mediocre at best (on par with Bombur - but perhaps a bit more evenly distributed).

You dont have a hero for my list, Matthew?

The only hero I've never come close to playing is Brand. Partly because he is generally inferior to Legolas and Bard, but also because I don't like his art.

I'll also give a vote to Dunhere. He's a 1-trick pony, and his trick has been superceded by great yew bow. Maybe he'll be playable if Rohan gets further developed.

Overall, my vote for the the worst hero goes to Bombur (and not because he's fat.) His ability may be nice in the very beginning of the game to help promote other dwarf abilities; however, once you have 2 or 3 dwarf allies in play, which doesn't take long at all, Bombur loses his effectiveness and is quite literally extra baggage with his mediocre stats - when it comes to Lore dwarves, Bombur always takes last place to both Bifur and Ori.

i think several heroes fit this description: Mirlonde, for one. Once you've gotten a threat reduction, her stats are mediocre at best (on par with Bombur - but perhaps a bit more evenly distributed).

You dont have a hero for my list, Matthew?

It's hard to say, I just went through all of the heroes and I like them all - they all have uses. There are some heroes I've never personally used though (or not used for their ability).

If I had to pick the "worst" I'd say: Pippin.

Edit: Although, I'm not too keen on Theoden, either, as I've discussed on another thread. Haha. But Theoden > Pippin.

i cannot believe some of the choices here.....here's my ideas on what has been said...

beorn??!! -that guy is the reason i can win massing coop regularly.

pippin- an ok choice at the moment, but hobbits are hardly built upon

elladan/elrohir - put them in a deck with strider or spirit glorfindel and they are great. get steward of gondor on one and then have errand rider or parting gifts and they basically run themselves

bilbo- bilbo combo excellently with card draw mechanics such as protector or decks which you need to get key cards out quickly. his stats are pretty poor so i understand that. but its not so much to put burning brand, fast hitch and a few defence boosts on him, so i dont think he's the waste of space some think

dunhere- yeah, i guess he is sort of dependant on getting certain attatchments out. you could say that for others above, but dunhere is really dependant on the stat boosts, whereas the others actually have some sort of permanent bonus having in play. ok for core set enemies to get rid of, but his ability cannot get even the moria sniper with a defense of 3

brand- probably be one that i would agree with, at least in solo for obvious reasons. and yes, bard and legolas are far superior in every way

imrahil- yeah, ive never really liked him much either, but the art has a lot to do with that. i think he is a hero that is very specific and not overly useful. but if gondor gets the boost it needs then maybe he will become better

bombur- i did have a decent deck with bombur in. i paired him with the lore dwarf whose name escapes me that has the dwarf number boost. he is quite good. his ability is obvious and works well in the right deck. afterwards i usually put brand and some dwarven attatchments on him to make him a defender

so....my choice....well, i dont like to say useless, as this is dependant on solo play, but i would have to say brand

rich

I like Brand very much...

In solo-games he is useless...there is no other opinion.

But with more players he will be more useful.

Some characters who benefit (also if Brand isn´t controlled by the first-player) are Beravor, Denthor, (Legolas), Gleowine or Healer for example.

bilbo- bilbo combo excellently with card draw mechanics such as protector or decks which you need to get key cards out quickly. his stats are pretty poor so i understand that. but its not so much to put burning brand, fast hitch and a few defence boosts on him, so i dont think he's the waste of space some think

But you have to get all these cards ..without them he can´t do anything...

His ability is sure good and a lore-hobbit is also nice...but i prefer Pippin (better threat and willpower).

yes, but bilbo is the card that can get them out. also lore is the card drawing sphere. put him in a mono lore deck and mithrandirs advice gives 3 for 1 cost, gleowine gives 1 per turn for 2 cost, so that with bilbos +1 is 6 cards per turn (if you are solo)

other cards work well, like wealth of lorien, and my favourite- peace and thought...which can be game-winning played at the right time

so you soon get them out

You are right...but all things work with Pippin (lore) the same way.

It´s only my opinion, but I will not use him often if I can choose Pippin.

For me are Brand and Dunhere. Brand is better suited for multiplayer and i play mostly solo so not goog. Now Dunhere i think is the hero with less plays i have. I don´t find him good for any of my decks or my play style.

Overall, my vote for the the worst hero goes to Bombur (and not because he's fat.) His ability may be nice in the very beginning of the game to help promote other dwarf abilities; however, once you have 2 or 3 dwarf allies in play, which doesn't take long at all, Bombur loses his effectiveness and is quite literally extra baggage with his mediocre stats - when it comes to Lore dwarves, Bombur always takes last place to both Bifur and Ori.

i think several heroes fit this description: Mirlonde, for one. Once you've gotten a threat reduction, her stats are mediocre at best (on par with Bombur - but perhaps a bit more evenly distributed).

have you tried using Mirlonde yet Dain? On the surface she does like pretty dull i will admit, but in practice i think she fares far better. Maybe its just because I've been making a lot of mono-lore decks (or very low threat lore decks with spirit Glorfindel) recently because of the ranger cards, but i almost always find a place for her there. While not excellent at either shes a decent quester or attacker and if playing a scenario with archery she can sponge it up if you're playing with silvan tracker. And while at best a -3, i think the starting threat assist helps when pairing her with another high hero like Strider, Elrond, or even Faramir. While i'm sure you could have already assumed these things, I still encourage you to give her a try.

Wouldnt be suprised if she is replaced with Pippin after the black riders release although. If substituted for her he only provides 1 less point of threat relief but still has 2 other abilities that can come into play. Combine the two however and its very easy to have a mono-lore hero line up right around the ~20 threshold