One Hero to Rule them All – Hero IV

Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the Heroes available in the Dragon Dimension a new one arrives and turns the game on its head!  The recent release of the Hero IV has added a level of complexity to the Dragon Dimension that continues to play into the current trend favoring type stats and may have made Heroes II and III obsolete.  This article will briefly reorient you to the relative strengths and weaknesses of each Hero and then takes a deep dive into what makes Hero IV different from what we have seen before.  We will also address, to the extent we can, the costs associated with leveling Hero IV and the ways you can skill your new Hero to maximize its effectiveness for your style of play.

Heroes I, II, and III at a Glance

As many of you may remember, the first hero we were introduced to, Hero I, was utilitarian and was expected to do everything.  That being so, the stats available ranged from attack to defense to killing monsters to economizing your research and build.  As the Hero was leveled up beyond 150 and onwards to its maximum of 300, the skills available for Hero I moved away from economy stats and began to emphasize general combat stats such as Type attack/defense/health, Troop attack/defense/health, debuffs, and march and rally size increases.  As the game moved away from type stats and focused heavily on Empire stats, Hero I was essentially relegated to use as an economy hero.  In other words, Hero I was the Hero you would choose to complete builds, research, to train troops, or to use as bait when trapping.  Even with the move towards type stats, which Hero I has plenty of, it has remained largely ignored by leads through the present.

Hero II was released to much fanfare for the simple reason that there was no question who this Hero favored – attackers!  Hero II is a bruiser that is loaded with skills that attackers love – fast march speeds, increased march and rally sizes, both type and troop attack stats, debuffs, and, more importantly, Empire Assault stats.  This Hero remains the current favorite for attackers at present.

Hero III was released as a counter to Hero II, which makes its primary role defensive in nature.  Hero III does have one unique quality that many players overlooked.  It is a great Hero to use during kill events to hit players while they are gathering on resource tiles because of the Gathering Attack and HP stats available.  At higher levels, Hero III is also useful in Wonder battles.  Hero III skills, at least from a defensive standpoint, have primarily emphasized expanding your Hospital capacity, Troop Attack/Defense, and Empire Defender stats.  This Hero is still primarily used defensively by a majority of players for the increased hospital capacity alone.

As previously stated, the release of Hero IV changes the game completely.  If you have kept up with my articles, you have seen that type stats are the current hot item in the game.  This is a function of many things but primary among that was the release of Synergy and the skilling of dragons towards type-specific stats.  Since that point, we have seen the release of the September 2020 Cores, which should have bolstered type stats even further (and will once the crafted and applied stats match!).  With Hero IV, you have the option to skill your Hero heavily toward Infantry, Ranged, or Cavalry stats, which can be used either offensively or defensively.  Now, for the first time ever, we have a Hero that can disrupt Synergy attacks by leads! 

A Closer Look at Hero IV Stats

A close look at the Hero IV Skill Tree will quickly establish that there are a number of Hero Skills that you are already familiar with.  For example, as you can see from the first few skills, you have Infantry, Ranged, and Cavalry Defense and Attack, increases to your Hero Energy, Siege Attack/Defense/Health, and Infantry, Ranged, and Cavalry Health.  Let’s take a look at the entire Skill Tree that is available with Hero IV.

As you can see, the skills are divided into 3 columns.  Given that the only skill points presently available are through leveling up your Hero, you will need to decide HOW you are going to skill your Hero.  How you choose to allocate your skills points is where your customization will occur while using Hero IV and dictates the overall strength and effectiveness of your march.  

At present, my Hero IV has been leveled up to 89 (I had to write this article, okay!).  At that level, I have 108 Skill points that I can use.  As I have played around with my skill points, I quickly learned that you are able to skill to a certain point but then have to go back up and raise less useful skills in order to increase other skills.  Given the limited number of skill points available, this has made it very difficult to decide where to allocate those skill points!

Let’s take a look at what skills you will be working with while using Hero IV.

Type Stats

As you know, Type stats will strengthen your various troop types.  Here, with Hero IV, each troop type has its own column.  The current maximum type stats available with Hero IV are:

• Infantry Attack: 100,000%
• Infantry Defense: 60,000%
• Infantry Health: 50,000%
• Ranged Attack: 100,000%
• Ranged Defense: 60,000%
• Ranged Health: 50,000%
• Cavalry Attack: 100,000%
• Cavalry Defense: 60,000%
• Cavalry Health: 50,000%

Siege Stats

An interesting inclusion in the Hero skill for Hero IV was increased Siege stats.  As you know, Siege troops are generally not used day-to-day in the Dragon Dimension except for certain events (can you say Barbarian Fortresses?).  However, a discerning player may want to consider taking a closer look at the overall strength of siege troops to see if there is a place for them in the game now (I think this will make an interesting article…).  Here is what you can do with Siege Stats if you maximize your skills:

• Siege Attack: 100,000%
• Siege Defense: 180,000%
• Siege Health: 150,000%

March and Rally Size Increases

Regarding march sizes, you have the option of combining three separate skill nodes, March Size (1), March Size (2), and March Size (3), each increasing your march size by 700,000%.  If all three are used, the maximum march size will increase by 2,100,000%!

For rallies, the march increase is even more substantial.  Here again you have the choice between three separate nodes, Rally Capacity (1), Rally Capacity (2), and Rally Capacity (3).  Each node increases your Rally Capacity by 2,050,000%, for a maximum of 6,150,000%!  What a massive increase!

Debuffs

With Hero IV, for the first time ever we see the introduction of type debuffs into Dragon Dimension.  What does this mean for you?  To use these debuffs, Hero IV will force you to decide whether to allocate your skill points for a particular troop type and for a particular stat.  Each troop type, as well as each stat, has a separate node in which you can allocate points.  Decisions, decisions!

• Infantry Attack Debuff: 83,000%
• Infantry Defense Debuff: 50,000%
• Infantry Health Debuff: 41,500%
• Ranged Attack Debuff: 83,000%
• Ranged Defense Debuff: 50,000%
• Ranged Health Debuff: 41,500%
• Cavalry Attack Debuff: 83,000%
• Cavalry Defense Debuff: 50,000%
• Cavalry Health Debuff: 41,500%

Hero Energy Increase

Hero IV can also be used for hunting monsters and Raid Bosses since it has nodes that permit you to increase your Hero Energy.  As with March and Rally Capacity increases, you have three nodes to choose from, Max Energy Limit (1), Max Energy Limit (2), and Max Energy Limit (3).  Each node increases your energy limit by 58,000% up to a maximum of 174,000%.

Dragon Synergy Disruption

The most interesting thing about Hero IV is the introduction of Dragon Synergy Disruption.  In the past, we have addressed the use of Synergy by leads by increasing our type stats and using Health Synergy as a counter.  Now, on top of those selections, we have stats that are designed to directly impact the use of Synergy by attackers.  This is what makes Hero IV such an interesting Hero to use from a defensive posture.

As Dragon Synergy Disruption is so new, the only thing more to be said is how the blog defined each type of disruption at the time of the release.

• Terra Dragon Synergy Disruption –  reduces the Attack Synergy between your enemy’s Terra Dragon and their Cavalry Troops while you’re defending.
• Inferno Dragon Synergy Disruption –  reduces the Attack Synergy between your enemy’s Inferno Dragon and their Infantry Troops while you’re defending.
• Hydro Dragon Synergy Disruption –  reduces the Attack Synergy between your enemy’s Hydro Dragon and their Ranged Troops while you’re defending.

Presets for Hero IV

As with any customizable feature in Dragon Dimension, the ability to use presets with Hero IV is critical.  At present, Hero IV has only one gear preset available.  That is workable.  Fortunately, we have 10 skill presets that we can work with and have the ability to reset those presets if necessary.  Thus, you should build a present for each troop type that you need for attacking or defending.  You would also want to build a present for Monster killing that maximizes the Hero Energy Increase.

Hero IV Costs

In order to get the maximum benefit from your Hero IV you will need to level it up using Hero IV Medals.  At present, Hero IV medals are available in packs and in certain events, such as the recent Monster KvK and Fortress Wars events.  Since Game of War has such a great community, we have been able to gather some of the costs associated with leveling up your Hero IV.  If you are able to add to the cost tracking or think we need to adjust any of the values set forth in the graph below, please let us know.  The highest Hero IV that I have personally seen was at level 124 (which is just a little scary, to be honest).

Assuming the values in the chart are correct, it takes approximately 41,400,000 Hero IV Medals in order to max this hero.  At present, packs only offer 1,000,000 Hero IV Medals per pack, which means that you would need to purchase 42 packs to reach max!

How to Use Hero IV

There are many different ways to play the Dragon Dimension.  Some people are leads.  Others regularly contend for Wonders.  Fillers play an important role in the game, too.  Then you have traps, the best players in the game!  LOL  For which player does Hero IV work best?

Defenders / Fillers

Yes, I am starting with my favorite people first!  My trap buddies are probably not as likely to use Hero IV at present since it will add tons of power to their account to reach a point where it would be effective.  Additionally, we recognize that showing any level of Hero IV, much less a high-level Hero IV, is likely to scare off leads and reduce hits.  Fillers could use Hero IV much more effectively to defend while filling rallies.  Again, the likely trade-off is that you may not get hit as much as you would while showing Hero III.

If you decide to use Hero IV, your focus is going to be on the Dragon Synergy Disruption stat at first.  Thus, you should create a preset for each dragon, skill the nodes down until you open the Dragon Synergy Disruption for that preset, max Dragon Synergy Disruption as much as possible, and then return up the skill tree to maximize the appropriate type stats associated with countering that missile type.

When skilling, you MUST focus your attention on the type stat that you are going against.  If you have skill points left over, include them in your debuffs so that you can weaken the attack further.

Attackers

Do not let the inclusion of Dragon Synergy Disruption to this Hero cause you to discount it for attacking.  If you properly skill your troop types and debuffs, you will have an extremely strong Hero to use with your Dragon and Synergy attacks.  Thus, skill your presets for each attack configuration you use and maximize all of the type and debuff stats you can.

Wonder Players

Hey, all you Wonder players!  How are you doing?  I know… I know.  You are shocked that I am including you in this article.  You guys and gals are important to me, too.  I must admit that I do not understand your fascination with fighting for Wonders but to each their own, as they say.

First, it is unclear from the blog whether Hero IV has any application to Wonder battles.  We can tell from the stats that using Hero IV will permit Wonder leads to increase their rally capacity, type stats, and type debuffs.  Thus, we can postulate that, to the extent that the lead uses a missile attack, Hero IV will work for Wonder rallies as much as it works for regular attacks.

Where to go for Additional Information

Team Real Tips has guides for all of the Heroes available in the game.  Want to learn more about your Heroes?  Check out this great article by Cinder.  Remember, our beloved game is constantly changing. Thus, the burden remains on YOU to educate yourself on those changes.  Read the blogs released by MZ!  Ask questions of RealTips writers in our Line rooms and on Discord!  Remember, there really is no stupid question and we are happy to help you understand the stats that you are working with!

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