I always use Brand in solo mono tactics decks. He has the best WP/threat ratio together with Elladan and I use him as my tactics quester. Unlike Elladan he also shines when we have the battle and siege keyword. Very flexible one-trick pony.

I rarely use Hama and Imrahil. Hama isn't bad, but the other tactics heroes are that much better. Unlike Legolas he doesn't help you at all when you're stuck with locations. Otherwise he's basically the Book of Eldacar with legs. I think I haven't played him in ages. Imrahil sometimes entersnmy decks, but mostly because I was building Gondor themed decks.

So yep, for me it is Hama.

I always use Brand in solo mono tactics decks. He has the best WP/threat ratio together with Elladan and I use him as my tactics quester. Unlike Elladan he also shines when we have the battle and siege keyword. Very flexible one-trick pony.

I rarely use Hama and Imrahil. Hama isn't bad, but the other tactics heroes are that much better. Unlike Legolas he doesn't help you at all when you're stuck with locations. Otherwise he's basically the Book of Eldacar with legs. I think I haven't played him in ages. Imrahil sometimes entersnmy decks, but mostly because I was building Gondor themed decks.

So yep, for me it is Hama.

Hama?!?! so cool to hear everyones opinions. i personally would place Hama in the upper echelon of Tactics heroes along with Legolas, Beregond, and Boromir

Oin gets my vote. Two reasons: first, 2 attack is not impressive. If he had 2 starting attack and was boosted to 3, that would be something. This looks like balancing with the expectation that Dain will be in play. Fair enough, but in solo play Oin's ability does not immediately lead you to want to build a deck with Dain. Secondly, spirit+tactics is the weakest Dwarf combination of spheres in my opinion. Leadership/Lore takes the cake, Lore/Tactics works well, but Tactics/Spirit excludes most of the important card draw and resource cards available in dwarfdom. I've tried to build a deck just for Oin but I end up sacrificing a lot of power to do it. I see him as being good for a splash of tactics in a lore/spirit or spirit/leadership deck, but when we play 2-player we really don't need to splash tactics.

I agree with rich that some of the choices are pretty surprising! One thing I'll say is that it's easy to underestimate the "early-game only" abilities of heroes like Bombur and Mirlonde, but you gotta remember that there are a great many scenarios in this game that are pretty well decided in the first three turns.

There are several heroes that I never really use, but that doesn't make them useless, they just don't match my play style. Hama is one, same as for leptokurt above, but I wouldn't vote for him as the most useless/worst ability. Bilbo I used to play regularly. Love that little hobbit. The problem with him isn't that he is independently bad (passive card draw is easily worth 3 threat in my opinion). It's that with the encounter deck churning out 5-attack enemies and 4-threat locations, it is almost unreasonable to include Bilbo as one of your heroes. The game has left him behind. Still gotta use him now and then though! Imrahil has a great ability if you plan your deck around it (Eagles if paired with tactics, but spirit Bofur wins here).

i would also put hama up there with the best. most of my wins in the hardest quests has been with a hama mono tactics/thicket of spears deck. i know this thread isnt about this, but he also has amazing art

I suppose i can still see Hama getting lost in the shuffle for some players. The problem...or rather issue (its not a problem) with tactics heroes is that so many of them are dedicated (or niche use) to just attacking.

Out of the 10 tactics heroes we have thus far, 6! of them are dedicated attackers, this includes Bard, Beorn, Brand, Elladan, Hama, and Legolas. 1 of them is a dedicated defender (Beregond), 1 is a dedicated quester (Thalin), and 2 are jacks of all trades: Gimli and Boromir...although both are more tailored for attacking

So when creating decks especially those which are only using 1 or 2 tactics heroes, and you want/need an attacker, you have so many options its likely easy to end up just using the hero whos gameplay you like the most. Play a lot of multiplayer? Your probably only using Legolas or maybe Bard. Playing solo? maybe Hama, Beorn, or Boromir. Love dwarves? Gimli

Wow, I'm really surprised at some of the choices here.

Beorn? Hama? Bilbo?

I would expect to see such names in a discussion about who the best heroes are, not who the worst heroes are.

Being a mostly solo player, I admittedly leans towards Brand and Bain when it comes to the heroes I don't use, but I can't say they are the worst heroes especially given some of spoilers we had recently.

Any 2 WP Tactics heroes are now open to debate with Theoden, although we have yet to see if mono-tactics will be a valid deck choice.

And I expect Bain to be the one of most broken heroes once Merry is released in the multiplayer situation, as Merry can ready a character participated in an attack and Bain can ready a character across the table, hence they would be able to ready each other as long as you kill something engaged with Merry's controller.

Having said that, I would vote the heroes that are outshined by another card that can do pretty much same thing in more efficient way to be 'useless'.

Dwalin is a threat reducing Spirit Dwarf, who clearly became obselete with Nori.

Dunhere became obselete with Hands Upon Bow, Great Yew Bow, and Ithilien Pit.

Pippin raises threat to avoid an enemy for a turn, same can be achieved by Frodo's effect who is a Spirit Hobbit as well and there is going to be another version of Pippin that had much better ability (albeit in different sphere) soon available.

It is sad how all the heroes that I think are no longer 'efficient' to play with are from Spirit sphere... which already has smallest hero pool out of all the spheres; but I guess Spirit makes up for it for having some of the best heroes as well as player cards.

i considered adding Dwalin as well but he really isnt "useless" despite being quite "obsolete" because of Nori and his pretty good ally version. If i had to choose only between the two, i would still add Dwalin over Dunhere in a deck 9 times out of 10

What a difficult question to answer? My vote goes for Pippin. The threat gain from his ability is absurdly large, and the Lore version, as stated in some of the other posts, is just so much better than the Spirit version. Special shout out to Brand son of Bain.

Thank you Rich! I was beginning to feel a bit self conscious

Being called out as the most useless hero ever does not feel so good. In all seriousness, for anyone who thinks that Beorn is the most useless hero ever, I encourage you to try him in Massing at Osgiliath, Peril in Pelargir or Into Ithilien. When you build the right deck around him, Beorn is literally *and* figuratively a beast. Dori or Landroval can more or less mitigate the fact that he cannot be healed, and sentinel + not exhausting to defend is an amazing combination of abilities.

I have to agree with Dain (thanks for not voting me off the island, Matthew!) on this one. As it stands right now, Pippin is just not a worthwhile card. Even if you are running all Hobbit heroes (your stats will be terrible, btw) so that he actually has an ability, the ability itself is expensive and counter-productive. Raising your threat to fill the staging areas with enemies, none of which you have a means to kill, is not my idea of a good time. Who knows, maybe with all of the Hobbit love FFG is about to give in the upcoming Saga Expansion, he may end up being worth playing. If they print a Hobbit hero that lowers a players threat, but only if you control all hobbit heroes, then maybe Pippin will be viable. With the current state of the card pool, I just don't see it.

As many others have already pointed out, I will say Dunhere and Pippin deserve the vote. Sure, Dunhere's ability is nice, but his stats are just so low I can't think of something to make him work. The more I look at Dunhere, the more I feel this game needs temporary attack-boosting events (besides Durin's Song, of course) That'd make him a pretty viable choice for Spirit.

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.

yup - not impressed. whoopie - a 2 WP quester...

I am quite angry with ffg releasing the Spirit version of Pippin. At the time when Gondor is calling for aid, we get this lazy Hobbit instead even though another version (and far better one) is coming. The Spirit version is certainly not very versatile, which seems to be the case of quite a few new heroes (Mirlonde or Théoden immediately come to mind).

Whilst I haven't played Brand Son of Bain much, I find him a very interesting design, albeit only for multi-player. And I used to be a big supporter of Dúnhere in the past, and I want to use him again but he first needs some more support.

So yeah, my vote goes to Spirit Pippin (though I cannot see myself ever again playing Lore Glorfindel either).

Edit: Oh, I totally forgot Dwalin. Yes, he's so bad that I have forgot he was there already. He must be the most useless, surely. So if I can vote for two: it is Spirit versions of Pippin and Dwalin.

ps: It is rather striking that there are very few useful Spirit heroes, a sphere that has so many great cards, beyond the above two, you get a very situational Dúnhere, Eleanor, who could also get the vote if she weren't beautiful, and Frodo who is very good but unplayable in the LotR saga. And if you don't want a Dwarven deck, Nori and Oin are also out of the question. It really only leaves you with Glorfindel and Éowyn; about time we get a good versatile Spirit hero.

I always use Brand in solo mono tactics decks. He has the best WP/threat ratio together with Elladan and I use him as my tactics quester. Unlike Elladan he also shines when we have the battle and siege keyword. Very flexible one-trick pony.

I rarely use Hama and Imrahil. Hama isn't bad, but the other tactics heroes are that much better. Unlike Legolas he doesn't help you at all when you're stuck with locations. Otherwise he's basically the Book of Eldacar with legs. I think I haven't played him in ages. Imrahil sometimes entersnmy decks, but mostly because I was building Gondor themed decks.

So yep, for me it is Hama.

Hama?!?! so cool to hear everyones opinions. i personally would place Hama in the upper echelon of Tactics heroes along with Legolas, Beregond, and Boromir

Absolutley agree - I used to avoid tactics decks at all costs, Hama changed my mind. Never play a Tactics deck without him, he's amazing.

Bilbo

Frodo

Pippin

See the pattern? Any more hobbits to add to the list of cards I will NEVER use (thus they are 100% useless)?

Bilbo (Lore), Bombur, and Glorfindel (Lore).

Honorable Mentions.

Brand Son of Bain and Dwalin,

A tactics mono deck doesn't fear enemy attacks, unless they have 8+ points ATT. Beorn for examople can absorb multiple attacks and kill the attacker right afterwards.Beregond can hold off most enemies and hurt them with the Spear of the Citadel. Legolas + Rivendell Blade slice through every armor and give you instant progress. In fact, everytime I build a tactics mono deck it comes to the choice between Legolas and Hama - and Legaolas is simply superior.

I don't understand how the Hama + Thicket of Spears combo is supposed to work. That costs a lot of resources that you desperatly need to pay for the expensive 2 WP allies. How are you supposed to make progress? Heck, how are you supposed to get enough ATT to actually kill an enemy with Hama, lol?

I also do prefer Legolas to Háma. And I do find the Thicket recycling combo great resource drain. However, it seems to be working well in multiplayer, which after all is what mono-Tactics is made for.

All the above factors, especially the one about resources, are what actually keeps me from succeeding in mono-Lore. I find those decks lacking resources much more than the mono-Tactics.

My vote goes to Spirit Pippin

i really like dwalin. im not saying he's a good hero, because, well....he's not really. but the art is great, him just standing there with his axe over his shoulder after a hard day of hacking off orc heads.

his ability is interesting as well, though again not so useful unless you really get him buffed up on attack

I don't understand how the Hama + Thicket of Spears combo is supposed to work. That costs a lot of resources that you desperatly need to pay for the expensive 2 WP allies. How are you supposed to make progress? Heck, how are you supposed to get enough ATT to actually kill an enemy with Hama, lol?

here is how i do it. it is by far the most powerful way for me to play the game

hama/beorn/legolas. + quest deck. spirit lore always.

so you get the thicket. mulligan for it, but if not wait. once you have one then the obvious trick happens. you pay the 3 resources to block enemies. as many enemies as you can go to the tactics deck.

once they are blocked you now have a mighty 11 attack to play with. if you havent had thicket for a few turns then hopefully you have some blades on legolas.

then you chew through the enemies. legolas places progress and beorn can even deal with any enemies that have to go to the other deck, whilst legolas can ranged attack them if the other deck gives him UC.

0 cost events help as well as they dont take up your 3 resources per round. im thinking mostly of goblin cleaver and the one that gives +3 attack on a higher threat enemy. of course foe hammer can get out more copies of feint/thicket

so yes, you pretty much cannot play anything else once this gets going, but you usually are killing so efficiently that some rounds you dont need to thicket and can keep it, or just feint, giving you resources to buy weapons. allies arent really needed as you have enough attack power and you need no defenders

of course whilst doing this you have a quest deck pretty much free to put all their power to the quest, or to other things such as card draw.

I see, you were talking aboout mulltiplayer, Rich. I was thinking about solo play.

My choice would be Eleanor.

While probably not the worst hero in people's eyes (as no-one has yet to mention her), she is not someone I ever use. Even in mono-sphere decks.

Close second would be Bombur.

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.

yup - not impressed. whoopie - a 2 WP quester...

fair enough haha

I see, you were talking aboout mulltiplayer, Rich. I was thinking about solo play.

oh i see. yes, in that case it would be too difficult to set up, unless the tactics mono gets a huge boost. but then you still have to put all your resource pool into one mechanic and of course not quest....so yes, pretty useless in solo

rich

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.

yup - not impressed. whoopie - a 2 WP quester...

fair enough haha

A 2 WP quester that gains auto heal by Silvan Tracker.