Favourite tower setup

[Allexium]

Hello everyone! Yesterday I was playing KR: Vengeance to get missing achievements, and most of them were about tower's abilities. So I came up with the question:
What is your favourite tower setup, and why you choose these towers?
So there is my favourite setup that I'm gonna use for leftover game, and my opinion on every of them:

1. Blazing Gem
The Blazing Gem, in my opinion, is one of the best towers in the game. Even at lowest tier, it can deal significant damage to tough enemies (if blocked for enough time), and halve the health of weaker ones. But as with other towers, level 4 is where the Blazing Gem shines. Gem of Amplification allows it to reach the fullest potential, helping the tower to kill the strongest of foes even quicker. While weak enemies mostly wouldn't survive before the gem activates, it can help so much against strong ones and bosses. The best examples for latter are The Winter Queen and Polyx the Wise. With proper stalling, these bosses won't make it even to half of the map. The Paragon is also nice example: even though he has magic resistance, the tower can offer more help than others. Destructo-Ray is an insta-kill, which is always nice to have. Compared to another, similiar insta, Blade of Demise, it works mostly the same: cool but no so reliable insta-kill with long cooldown. Still, it works as the Arcane's Death Ray do: transforms an enemy to fine dust. Unstable Power is nice upgrade which offers what the tower misses: crowd control (though small). If the tower expecting to see group of weak enemies, you should certainly buy this. The additional magic damage to other enemies will always come in handy, especially if enemies are armored (mostly applies to Footmens). Overall, great tower. I would give it a S tier.
2. Melting Furnace.
Melting Furnace is one of my favourite (if not the) towers in game. It works actually the same as DWAARP from KR: Frontiers. Even if it is weaker than former, it's still pretty amazing. The most noticable thing is the stun on every attack. Not only it can hold off enemies for longer, but can proven be excellent amazing certain enemies. Great example is Smokebeard Engineer. Not only it completely destroys machines and leaves no wreck for mechanic to repair, but also nullifies repair ability, as Smokebeard Engineer automatically stops repairing and destroys the wreck when he's stunned (or when blocked). Overall it's amazing on Dwarven Kingdom levels, as upgraded Melting Furnace can decimate hordes of Dwarf Bruisers and Warhammer Guards. The abilites makes it even stronger. The most powerful is Burning Fuel. Not only it increases Furnace's DPS and crowd control, but it also have average cooldown. Red hoat coals help tower to decimate weak foes that are out of range, and allows it to finish them off easily. Abrasive Heat is good, but situational ability. It improves the damage of nearby towers, but with small AoE. Thus, try to upgrade this if there are at least two non-barracks damaging towers. The best possible targets for this are Orc Shaman, Swamp Thing and Shadow Archers. The tower is also excellent at killing weaker enemies around stonger ones. Just EHAT. (Excellent Horde Annihilating Tower(sic)).
3. Orc Shaman
Orc Shaman is my main magic damage source. Though it has big difference in min. and max. damage, thus, decreasing it's cost-efficiency, I prefer it because of the stun. On every attack, Orc Shaman stuns enemy for ~0.6 sec. With my setup, it's great to have, as it allows to deal more damage to an enemy before it escapes from range of other towers (the best partner for this is the Blazing Gem). Still, I don't use it much as other towers, but if I do, it significantly helps me. Especially applies to The Frozen North levels, as these are levels with enemies that are great potential targets for Orc. Nanoq Warbear instantly loses it's charge when hit, and Leap Dragon falls to the ground because of the same reason. The abilites aren't great though, except for one of them: Healing Roots are Barracks-related ability. When some of them are below 50% of their health, the tower heals them, allowing them to survive for longer. Still, I didn't find it that useful, but mostly because I don't place Shamans near the Barracks that much. Meteor Showers is the real tower's power. On every use, it strikes with some meteors that deals good magic damage each. Fully upgraded, it can quickly get rid of some armored enemies. Static Shock gives tower small degree of crowd control, but doesn't help that much. Damage and AoE is small, and it costs too much for it's effect. I prefer upgrade it in last waves where I have strong defences so I can compensate for this purchase.
4. Elite Harrasers
They are my Barracks of choise. They are good in melee, with their dodge ability, but they also have a ranged attack, which is the reason why I like them. They not designed for stalling though, but mostly for support so they can finish off foes and block for little if needed. Harrasers also cannot create a choke point, so use them to support it Once again, they're not so good on first tiers, but level 4 is amazing: considering their fast attack rate, the damage that they deal on tier 4 can easily decimate smaller foes and severely cripple stronger ones. The abilities are also great: Backstab significantly improves their survivability, giving them additional dodge chance and also making them counter-attack upon every dodge. The damage though isn't that big, but better dodge chance is always good. Arrow Storm is where they shine. Every 12 seconds, they launch 5 arrows in a quick succession. On level 1, each arrow deals 16-24 damage. While it seems to be isn't that good, it is already a nice to have, but if you upgrade the ability to max. level (which isn't that expensive), you get additional ~200-350 damage every 12 seconds, and it's great even against severely armored enemies. Still, it often misses, leading to damage waste, but that's not so bad as it may be. Fury of the Twilight allows them to go Berserk after death, significantly improving their damage and speed. If you intend to use it, place Harrasers at the front, so they can tank a little and damage enemies for towers to kill, but not at the back, as going Berserk removes their ranged attack and delays their respawn.
5. Swamp Thing
Yes, the Tricky Swampy. There's not much to say about it, it amazing. With it low upgrade cost, the damage it deals is crazy. The range... Hell, it's longer than one of Musketeer and Golden Longbow! But the most important thing is tower's mechanic: it can be Ranged tower, or Barracks tower. The Barracks tower gives you a single unit (techically the tower itself) with area damage and most health of every unit in the series. 3000 HP at max level! It can be outclassed only by the Archdemon (with 9999 HP). The abilites further increases Swamp Thing's potential: Smash! is great insta-kill, which, unlike most others, works on chance. Thus, it can be triggered often on strong enemies. Blinding Liquid, in my opinion, is the best tower's ability. With it upgraded, Swamp Thing has a 20/40/60% chance to stun an enemy, and it works both in Ranged and Melee mode. Thus, this skill should be proritized so you'll have better time killing foes. Carnivore allows Swamp Thing to heal a portion of health upon every kill. Thus, do not upgrade it if you intend to use Ranged mode, as it works only in Melee. This also synergizes well with Smash!. When Thing kills a tough enemy, it restores a big pack of health, allowing it to go tank another one. Another great combo is Smash! and Blinding Liquid. As the insta-kill has better chance to activate upon every strike, it proved to be very effective with mentioned upgrade, as it can hold an enemy in place for considerable amount of time, giving Smash! enough time to activate. Overall, certainly a S tier. Great tower, but, it still works depending on situation, so you need to keep that in mind.

So that's my tower setup and my description of them. What about you guys?

[Saint Sanguine]

i am really enjoying the thematic towers and hero groupings. like the orc hero, orc barracks, orc shaman, and goblin boomerangs. there a few groupings i have noticed so far and they are really fun to use together, like the haunted forest stuff or ghost and zombies. i forget all the names and groups right now but they start to stick out when you look at them more.

[vvvvan]

Thanks for the list, guys! I was having some trouble getting all stars for a few final stages. These are the towers that consistently kick ass for me (along with Beresad, black dragon hero): 1. Blazing Gem, 2. Orc Shaman, 3. Swamp Thing, 4. Mausoleum 5. Bone Flinger. Keep a tight group of them near ends of each paths (at least #1-3, sometimes not any #5), level them up as needed, keep hero in crowded spot, have fun with the rest of the towers (for me, usually many Swamp Things, due to dual use and long range).