Heiner?

[Xilu]

maybe im not being creative, but I dont understand how to use this character.

because of his low speed, he cant shield anyone until its too late and the round is over.

how have you used him? I want to because golems are clearly cooler than werewolves.

[tired798]

I have only just unlocked Heiner myself very recently and while I don't find him quite as direct as Magnus I think there are two build ideas I am considering using for him. This said I am not very good at this game so these builds are rudimentary ideas at best.

One principle issue I have noticed is Heiner, (Especially at lower perk levels) is quite slow as Johnmackhaines has pointed out. I think the way around this is to focus on a combination of fortify and taunt which forces focus on Heiner who has shields from his own actions. That said I think there is a need for speeding him up in some fights so carrying a "Chant of initiative" card on either Thuls or Andarin might be a good idea.

Unfortunately so far I have found the building around Heiner as tank to be as expensive as say damage focus Evelyn so energy wise keeping the engine going is quite tough in my opinion. I will try to experiment more with Heiner, but so far the "Core four" characters Magnus, Andarin, Evelyn, and Reginald seem to work a bit better, but something tells me that Heiner at perk levels comparable to Magnus will, eventually, be comparable if not better.

Experimenting and synergizing deck builds takes time, patience and a little bit of luck too. I will try to post more concrete ideas when I come across them, however I am certain concrete and inexpensive builds already exist and it is just finding them and learning what works and doesn't work.

As a final blurb I have also considered the idea of running Heiner as a damage dealer with some shielding instead of tank, but that is still a work in progress and I would need to even consider two tank characters. (Heiner and Magnus) to see if it is even viable. My first insticnt is no, but I will probably try it once or twice on "Farming and experimenting" runs to see if it works.

Tldr: Heiner suffers from being slow which makes his damage mitigation less useful at first glance. There are ways to speed him up, but this relies on other heroes and may be difficult to synergize. Finally, with some experimentation, it may be necessary to use Heiner a little contrary to his apparent role and pair him with a true tank and see if the run has any unseen merit for the time needed.

[Fendelphi]

Heiner's speed issues can easily be remedied by slowing the enemy(possibly all the way down to 0 with certain spells/effects) or by speeding up Heiner.
However, I recently found that it is ok for Heiner to be slow. This makes him more of a reactive character, that can set up the next round, either through debuffs or using block+Taunt.

If he went first, he would not have enough energy and draw on turn 1 to make the best use of his block/Taunt, and you might end up taking too much damage, because every enemy will focus you before you are properly prepared. This happens to Magnus if he tries to go full tank.

By going last(or at least, the last of your party), your mage can give him higher card draw and energy, and the sporadic damage of the first turn(enemies targeting what ever) can easily be healed by a priest. In the following turn, if Heiner has used Taunt and enough block, he can easily tank everything that comes his way, possibly with a lot of Thorns as a bonus.
Another benefit of being the slowest(even slower than enemies) is that every poison get the maximum effect before it is Heiner's turn. Which makes it much more likely that he can finish off what ever is left.

Just remember, if you go for the slow approach, Barricade is not really worth it, since it will wear off right away on everyone else(unless they also have Fortify). Similar deal with the card that shares your armor with your allies.
These types of defenses are better on fast warriors.

[NemmyTheGoddess]

Heiner is my favorite tank out of the first 3, from my experience, he gets a lot of value from stacking fortify and taunting as much as possible. On the perk tree, there's an option to make fortify stackable, which is extremely useful when combined with the yellow steelskin upgrade. Beyond that, just stack a bunch of block and shield bash.

[Kittenpaw]

You are supposed to take that Fortify stacking perk on all you characters. Then just pop Steel Forge and gain 200+ block for the rest of the battle.