I’m nearing level 900 and have yet to find a team that is decent in defend. It seems like the ceiling is about 40% win rate, no matter what you throw in there. I don’t have any of the Horsemen but I do have a good number of fully-traited legendaries.
Any tips?
40% is about the average for late game. There really isn’t anything that will break that by too much simply because of everyone’s high win rate at that high a level.
What team’s do you think are most consistent in that case?
Most of them do require some of the horsemen, usually Famine. Without any of the horsemen, I would say Khorvash - Amira - Spirit Fox - Manticore or nearly any combination with Sorcerer + Creeping Death. Any team that can spam mana drain right now tends to have a decent chance at securing a win.
Also, while on this topic, I might as well make that today’s video. xD
That would be sweet. Thanks!
Please no! Don’t encourage the obnoxious mana drain teams!
Well if mana drain is the only way to get consistent wins in Defense, I guess I won’t be getting consistent wins. 
Emperor Khorvash is my favorite troop in the game but I’m philosophically opposed to using him on defense. The only time he ever ends up on Defense is if I clear out my teams and accidentally leave my Invade team on Defense.
I use Spirit Fox for cleanup on my True Damage quick Explore team but I don’t use her in PVP anymore.
I’ve stopped using Manticore altogether.
The only thing that will stop that is if they add mana drain immunity and a trait that causes true damage to hit armor first.
True. But you can also make a “good non-mana drain defense teams” video. Or a “good anti-mana drain teams” video. Be a part of the solution!
You mean mana drain them before they mana drain you? xD
This used to be my mantra.
Not exactly what I had in mind. But I suppose no “anti-mana drain” video would be complete without a mana drain team.
Makes me think “good counters to the current meta” would be a nice video/series.
I’m interested in builds that can overcome mana drain, due to spam or sheer speed. For example, I built a team recently that, after watching the AI, I thought for sure would produce decent results.
Jarl / IK / Giant Spider / Succubus
It fills extremely fast, spams gems all over the board (including skulls), and has a final troop that both mana drains and death marks.
It was 0-12 before I finally pulled it.
All things considered, it really doesn’t matter. I’m running a Black Beast defense team that is getting about a 20% win rate over the last two weeks and over 50% during the beginning of the weeks when everyone is playing PvP (probably just from lower players taking the option and getting overwhelmed, I have quite a few 5* but dont have any guild statue bonuses). I just try to change it every once in a while so it doesn’t get too stale.
Yeah, that’s how I’m kind of looking at it at this point. I’ve got one main team I like to run Invades with. After that, I’m experimenting with a half dozen teams just to see what fun stuff I can come up with. Keeps it fresh.
So I decided to experiment instead of looking for a “good” defense team.
I setup a new defense team for this week named “Token Defense” just to see what the AI would do with it:
Vampire’s Banner (red/purple)
Mythic Herdmaster ***
Mythic Naga Queen ***
Mythic Siren ***
Mythic Night Terror ***
Right now, it’s winning at a 20% clip despite being fairly underpowered compared to what is attacking it.