Who do you think is best for tournament mode? When playing regular modes, I usually rely heavily on the dwarf for "crowded" rooms, which is where the other heros tend to be less useful and potentially very risky. The ranged ability of the dwarf with the worm can also be useful in many rooms with pits. However, I usually use the human for the dragons, as long as I have a reasonable number of fire scrolls, as cleave can clear them more quickly. Without the elf, the tunnels are far too risky, as well. I've played a few rounds of this tournament, only using the dwarf, but it already feels a lot more dangerous than when I could switch heros!

I've been using the human and am pretty happy with it. Crowded rooms or multiple archers & mages give him a bit of a headache, but even navigating the tunnels isn't horrible and usually worth it. Highest priority when starting a new run should be on securing a potion first, otherwise a single badly placed cavern crawler could potentially end your run prematurely.

There was one round the starting equipment was 1/1/3 and so I chose the dwarf. I got swiftly punished for it when a better sword and bow dropped but not shield, and then I had to fight off three rooms with multiple-health monsters to get into the ruins.

> *Originally posted by **[dargndorp](/forums/979845/topics/1803437?page=1#13034989)**:* > I've been using the human and am pretty happy with it. Crowded rooms or multiple archers & mages give him a bit of a headache, but even navigating the tunnels isn't horrible and usually worth it. Highest priority when starting a new run should be on securing a potion first, otherwise a single badly placed cavern crawler could potentially end your run prematurely. You're currently top of the tournament, so yes, you seem to be doing okay with it :)

The Elf Hunteress is great in sparse rooms with pitts, where she can jump around and pick out monsters with little to no risk. She has problems in rooms with more monsters, especially low level ones crowding her, and skeletons. The new Dragon Mages also directly counters her strongest strategy - firewalling herself in a croner and poking them until they die. The Dwarf Brawler is almost directly counter-point to her, in a way. He is great against large crowds, especially with a good Shield in hand. He also does well against arhcers and mages with his Charge ability. As mentioned, his worm summoning ability helps him in rooms with pits. I find him lacking against Dragons, as the Worm is almost useless, and unless he has a +8 or +9 Shield, quickly gets into trouble tankiing multiple Dragons - tunring his strength into somewhat a liability; a risky strategy that relies on luck of the die. The Human Swordsman fares best against multi-HP monsters with Swing, Cleave, and Press, but lacks mobility, making archers and mages a pain to deal with. If he can find a way through rooms with mutliple such monsters, and gain a +7 Sword or better with some Flame scrolls, he should be able to take on some Dragons. Overall, I think if you take on a few Dragons, the Elf Huntress is a safe and careful option to play. Once you reach 5 Dragons, I would depend on the Human Swordsman to win the day.

I used the following heroes in this week's tournament: - ** From 1 to 8 Dragons:** mostly the Human (with some tests with the Dwarf) - **From 9 to 30 Dragons:** the Dwarf My impressions on the different heroes are the following: - ** The Human:** best hero to clear the Caves as he can get a very high melee attack even with a mediocre sword (Adrenaline bonus + Full Swing passive). I think it is better to get the potion(s) in the Caves as late as possible to take full advantage of Adrenaline. Fairly good in the Mines and the Ruins too, but tends to struggle in rooms with lots of ranged enemies or spell casters. Good vs Dragons but very reliant on using scrolls to defeat them without wasting too many potions: Fire/Leap scroll to trap/catch fleeing Dragons, Vanish scrolls to kill Dragons on 1HP who fled (and Haste scrolls are always useful for anything). Since the number of scrolls you get per run is limited, the Human's effectiveness drops at high number of Dragons (not sure about which exact number, but I would say 15+). - **The Dwarf:** very reliant on getting a good shield (6+) to become good (and to a lesser extend, sword too). For this reason, he is by far the worst of the 3 in the early/mid game. The Caves is a difficult part in particular, where you have to be very careful, try to take advantage of the Adrenaline bonus as much as possible, and sometimes even use some scrolls. The Mines can also be tricky, but are usually easier because Bellow is incredibly useful to clean rooms without being hit there. The payoff for the early-game hardships is that he is the most consistent and solid hero late-game. Everything becomes much easier once you get good equips in the Ruins (shield and sword in particular, the bow is usually not useful). As most high-fame players know, the Dwarf is in particular the most consistent hero to clear high numbers of Dragons thanks to his very high defense, and his many passive skills which increase his counter-attack power. When reaching a high number of Dragons (around 20+), using the Altar to upgrade your shield becomes always worth it. I didn't use the Elf at all, so I cannot really give any feedback on her. From my experience with her in other game modes, I would say that she is a good hero to clear the Caves, Mines, Tunnels and rooms with low number of enemies or high number of pits without being hit. She however struggles in crowded rooms and against the Skeletons in the Ruins. I am not sure about her effectiveness alone vs Dragons. On the one hand, her evade skill is the equivalent of the Dwarf defending at melee range with a +8 shield (both have 62.5% chance to evade and counter-attack) and I could see her easily chain bonus attacks with the recent change to the feat system. On the other hand, she only has 2 HP, which means burning through potions very fast. **To sum up**: I would say that the best strategy is to use the Human at low number of Dragons (10 and less), then switch to the Dwarf. The Elf might also be usable, but I don't have enough experience with her to confirm or deny this.