Kingdom Rush Origins (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Gray Ravens Heroic

Things actually become slightly interesting on this map.  The grades are relative here, since it's still extremely easy and there was never a worry of anyone not being able to get the job done.  But we do get to see how well heroes handle a long stream of weak enemies, which gives us a preview of trickier later maps like Royal Gardens iron mode.

Impressions

There were a few surprises here in how some of the heroes did.  I was pleasantly surprised by Lynn's 'A' performance.  While she doesn't have any typical AoE abilities, Fate Sealed's area damage on death coupled with its relatively short cooldown did excellent work on the more tightly packed groups, and she allowed very few leaks.

Bruce also surprised me.  He's definitely geared more as a single-target damage dealer, but he did very well in holding back the tide nonetheless.  Partly this is due to his high base DPS - he simply can kill the enemies almost as fast as they come like Wilbur or Faustus.  But even though his DPS isn't quite as good as theirs (and isn't true damage, either), just whenever it seemed like he was going to get overwhelmed, either King's Roar fortuitously came off cooldown or I was able to use Guardian Lions to keep things under control.  He still is not ideal, hence the B, but it's a lot better than I was expecting.

I was disappointed with Lilith's C-grade performance, although in retrospect perhaps I shouldn't be.  She allowed a lot of leaks back to my melee blockers, and was actually very low on health by the end of the map.  But this is probably the worst type of map for her.  Reaper's Harvest is woefully overkill on gnolls, making it pointless, and wimpy enemies like this basically negate the power of Soul Eater as well.

I was not surprised by Xin's C performance.  So far I have been pretty underwhelmed by him in other scenarios where I've used him, and I fear there might be a number of Fs in his future.

Final Grades

• Eridan - B
• Arivan - B
• Catha - B
• Reg'son - B
• Prince Denas - B
• Razz and Rags - B
• Bravebark - B
• Vez'nan - A
• Xin - C
• Phoenix - A
• Durax - A
• Lynn - A
• Bruce - B
• Lilith - C
• Wilbur - A
• Faustus - A

Best Choice

Phoenix, hands down.  This kind of scenario is tailor-made for her, and she chewed through it without a sweat.

Kingdom Rush Origins Impossible Hero Challenge - Gray Ravens Heroic