My humble 4 star collection needs improvements

[Habanero]

I really struggle when it comes to epic tourneys an epic only events (talking about you, beauty and the brave!). The reason is this game is giving me as much epics as I get legendaries and I ended up with a huge 3 star army and a few solid Legendary heroes that can get me quite far. The epic world became a gap with underdevelopped heroes. 

I usually look up at Gargon's guides, but I´d love some third parties opinions as well on which hero are worth my time and who is complete garbage.

(Think of S1 heroes WITH costume because one day I'll end up getting costumes for most of them, I guess...) This being said...

FIRE:

MY PLANS: 
1- Mael
2- Maheegan
3- 2nd Colen 

DARK

MY PLANS: 
1- Cyprian´s Costumes
2- SharkHai LB
3- Proteus LB

HOLY

MY PLANS: 
1- Waddles LB
2- Li Xiu LB
3- Guardian Jackal

ICE

MY PLANS: 
1- Rafeeq LB
2- Choozen LB
3- Sonya

NATURE

MY PLANS: 
1- Finish Marcel
2- Finish Caedmon
3- Kalö LB

Thanks for your help

[NevarMaor]

Melendor is a great healer and the dispell comes in very handy.

[Shohoku79]

I've always gone for completions as opposed to competition when it comes to events, Brave and Beautiful, being an Alliance Quest, will have an extra incentive when it comes to scoring, hopefully you are in an alliance where there are plenty of finishers to help unlock the tiers.

I think most of the heroes on your Epic roster should be able to help you to finish the tier just fine, and your plan of action (baring getting more heroes) is mostly sound.

If you can get yourself the Boldtusk costume set during a future costume chamber, leveling up/LB/CSB up to the Toons version helps a ton because of the heal + attack buff and the general resistance to status ailments does help a ton too when trying to keep your heroes alive and cut down usage of restorative items.

I also use Wilbur for damage sharing between friends/foe, worked great when they work when I had Wu Kong along, as long as dispel happens first when opponent trigger Riposte (like the Brave and Beautiful stage mechanics).

Melendor Toon is great for ailment resistance, bulk heal, def up and dispel.  Always good to pop one in if the stage mechanic is active and when you don't have the tile to dispel (or rather have a bunch charged up and hitting one might trigger them all).  I use Mel more over Caedmon because you Caedmon will have to hit first before he can dispel and will be less optimal if opponent has counterattack active.

[Burrito 2008]

Manpip and Nova are great and Gormek is a must.

Tiburtus, Richard, Lexi on purple.

The rest of the yellow heroes you don't mention are not worth the mats. Maybe even Wu Kong.

Sonya, Kiril and Grimm (you'll need the costumes) are good too.

Green has a king and is Cardamon. Melendor is awesome too. Mulgog with costume is good too. 

[Habanero]

28 minutes ago, Burrito 2008 said:

Manpip and Nova are great and Gormek is a must.

Tiburtus, Richard, Lexi on purple.

The rest of the yellow heroes you don't mention are not worth the mats. Maybe even Wu Kong.

Sonya, Kiril and Grimm (you'll need the costumes) are good too.

Green has a king and is Cardamon. Melendor is awesome too. Mulgog with costume is good too. 

One of my best results in tourney was with a team consisting of: (Random hero) - Kalo - Choozen - Azmia - (Random Hero). Choozen was usually fast enough to keep Kalo and Azmia alive until the two others were wiped out and I could trigger Kalo´s skill.  

Edited March 2 by Habanero (see edit history)

[SnowRaven]

Red - Mael, Maheegan, Gormek (Instead of a 2nd Colen. Gormek is average speed and has more versatile costumes)

Purple - Ana-Belle (dispels and cleanses at the same time, no need to switch between costumes or worse, bring 2 heroes),  Tiburtus (best with costume), Sharkhai. No need to level Cyprian if you have Azmia, unless you need a 2nd counterattacker in case of 4 element tournaments. Proteus can be substituted with costumed Li Xiu who silences

Yellow - Li Xiu (costume), Waddles, Guardian Jackal
Blue - Rafeeq, Choozen, Grimm (costume)
Green - Caedmon, Kalo, Marcel

Caedmon vs Sonya - Both have costumes who cleanse or dispel. With Ana-Belle you need only one additional colour, and Caedmon is more versatile than Sonya. 

If possible, prefer hero classes who get 4% mana bonus from talents (sorcerer, druid, monk). It's important in rush tournaments, together with the 5% mana bonus from costumes you will get to +9% which means the hero charges in 6 tiles. 

Edited March 3 by SnowRaven (see edit history)

[BobTheSnark]

11 hours ago, SnowRaven said:

No need to level Cyprian if you have Azmia

Counterpoint: toon!Cyprian's counterattack is undispellable (and longer!) on himself plus any adjoining purple, which makes him a pretty obnoxious tank, doubleplustrue in 4* no-yellow tournaments when it's way too easy to flank him with purples.

If you tank with Azmia (or non-Toon Cyprian or most other counterattackers), someone like rocket!cLiXiu (in her Wizard class) can auto-dispel counterattack via Superior Jinx from tile damage (never mind other, regular dispellers).  Once toon!Cyprian gets his counterattack up, though, it's basically until his death.  (Even trying to buffblock him is problematic because of his Toon-resist-everything.)

[SnowRaven]

That's true. However, Azmia is already maxed. She also heals and has powerful passives. Cyprian's costumes aren't leveled up yet, and to get him to Azmia's strength, all costumes need to be maxed which takes considerable resources.

I have Cyprian and use him occasionally, first costume in attack (all allies counterattack) and toon costume in defense. The toon's counterattack cannot be dispelled, but glass heroes can bypass it with their specials. Which reduces the problem to tile damage.

That's why considering the given roster, and assuming limited resources, I would rather put the work into Ana-Belle. She's a good healer and both dispells and cleanses, a combination that otherwise needs two heroes. For example, defense down ailments can be cleansed or buff reflection, not only poison/water/burn damage. And on the enemy's side, she dispells attack/defense up, soul connection or ailment reflection. There are plenty of cases where both dispell and cleanse are needed in a battle.

[Habanero]

27 minutes ago, SnowRaven said:

That's why considering the given roster, and assuming limited resources, I would rather put the work into Ana-Belle. She's a good healer and both dispells and cleanses, a combination that otherwise needs two heroes. For example, defense down ailments can be cleansed or buff reflection, not only poison/water/burn damage. And on the enemy's side, she dispells attack/defense up, soul connection or ailment reflection. There are plenty of cases where both dispell and cleanse are needed in a battle.

Now I´m glad I didn´t feed Ana-Belle. I was needing space an decided it was better to wait a few more days for soul exchange and free 14 roster spaces. She almost became a victim for Deviyani...