Counters live in Troop Counters; cross-class lineups in Recommended Squads. This page digs into the five tanks only.
Murphy dropped for me out of the day-one Tavern elite recruit, and I’ve run tank mono ever since — all the way to Season 6. I heard plenty about air being strong and missile being the PvE king along the way. I never switched. The reason is simple: tank is the only line that carries its own front row, its own carry, and its own support.
This page replaces the five separate hero codex pages I used to keep. Splitting them up hid the thing that actually matters: how the five compete for slots, and what order to invest in them. Nobody asks “who is good” — they ask “with what I’ve got right now, who do I push next?”
The five at a glance
| Hero | Role | Unlock | Base → EW Lv20 → Awakened | Slot in my squad |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kimberly | Attack (AoE carry) | S1 · week 1 | A → S → SS | Back-line carry · awakened |
| Williams | Defense (team DR) | S4 · week 6 | A → S | Front 1 |
| Murphy | Defense (DR spread) | S2 · week 1 | B+ → S | Front 2 |
| Marshall | Support (crit vulnerability) | S3 · week 1 | A → S | Back-line support |
| Stetmann | Defense (extra front) | S5 · week 3 | B → A | Back-line filler |
Only Kimberly is an awakening target; for the other four, EW Lv20 is the finish line. That single fact is the backbone of the whole investment plan.
<rect x="152" y="20" width="126" height="52" rx="9" fill="var(--surface-2)" stroke="var(--line)"/>
<text x="215" y="41" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">2 · Front row</text>
<text x="215" y="60" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">Williams EW20</text>
<rect x="296" y="20" width="126" height="52" rx="9" fill="var(--surface-2)" stroke="var(--line)"/>
<text x="359" y="41" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">3 · Second front</text>
<text x="359" y="60" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">Murphy EW20</text>
<rect x="440" y="20" width="126" height="52" rx="9" fill="var(--surface-2)" stroke="var(--line)"/>
<text x="503" y="41" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">4 · Support</text>
<text x="503" y="60" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">Marshall EW20</text>
<rect x="8" y="120" width="270" height="56" rx="9" fill="var(--surface-2)" stroke="var(--accent)"/>
<text x="143" y="142" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">5 · Awaken Kimberly (S6 wk 1)</text>
<text x="143" y="161" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">5★ + EW Lv20 + 50 shards</text>
<rect x="296" y="120" width="270" height="56" rx="9" fill="var(--surface)" stroke="var(--line)" stroke-dasharray="4 3"/>
<text x="431" y="142" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700" fill="var(--muted)">6 · If you have spare</text>
<text x="431" y="161" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">Williams EW30 → Stetmann</text>
<line x1="136" y1="46" x2="150" y2="46" stroke="var(--muted)" marker-end="url(#tkArrowEn)"/>
<line x1="280" y1="46" x2="294" y2="46" stroke="var(--muted)" marker-end="url(#tkArrowEn)"/>
<line x1="424" y1="46" x2="438" y2="46" stroke="var(--muted)" marker-end="url(#tkArrowEn)"/>
<path d="M503,74 L503,96 L143,96 L143,118" fill="none" stroke="var(--muted)" marker-end="url(#tkArrowEn)"/>
<line x1="280" y1="148" x2="294" y2="148" stroke="var(--muted)" marker-end="url(#tkArrowEn)"/>Kimberly — the AoE carry, and the only awakening target
I awakened Kimberly in week 1 of Season 6, once I’d banked 50 shards. The thing I felt immediately wasn’t a number — it was how wide the AoE actually reaches. Before awakening, enemy back-liners would survive in that awkward half-dead state fairly often. Now a single barrage cycle clears them far more consistently.
Skills (exact numbers shift with level, stars and EW, so I list effect types)
- Auto — Missile Bombardment: rockets, single-target energy damage.
- Tactical — Barrage Fire: 16 rockets each striking a target — the AoE energy hit that is most of her damage.
- Passive — Energy Enhancement: her own energy damage climbs during the fight.
- Awakened skill — Burning Resolve: roughly 10 waves of energy bombardment. It replaces the Super-Sensory slot on awakening.
Losing Super-Sensory (the 4★ bonus) initially felt like a downgrade to me. In practice one big AoE nuke more than pays for the slot.
Exclusive weapon — Energy Amplification
| Stage | What opens | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| Lv1 | Base stats + stacking energy damage | Weapon slot active |
| Lv10 | Second enhancement (extra tactical rockets) | Vehicle skin 1 |
| Lv20 ⭐ | +7.5% to all tanks + third skill · awakening prerequisite | Vehicle skin 2 |
| Lv30 | Final skill (big energy damage at full stacks) | Final skin |
“Most of the cost lives between Lv20 and Lv30” is not a saying, it’s arithmetic. I sat at Lv20 for a long while, and if you’re a small spender stop at Lv20 and put the rest into awakening.
The honest weakness. Low HP makes her a textbook glass cannon, and she’s inefficient into single targets. Most fights where Kimberly dies aren’t Kimberly’s fault — they’re the front row’s. Which brings us to the next hero.
Getting her. The base unit comes cheap through the $0.99 first-purchase pack — that was my first purchase too. The weapon first opened in the Season 1 week-1 battle pass, and after that you top up shards for free from the end-of-season black market selection box.
Williams — why I moved Murphy out of slot one
I kept Murphy in the first front slot for a very long time. Then Williams showed up and I swapped them. The difference I noticed within days was how long Kimberly survived. Against strong opponents she used to go down before she’d finished her damage; with Williams in front, the back line holds noticeably longer. A carry that stays standing does the damage on its own.
- Auto — Flashbang: single-target physical.
- Tactical — Steel Heart: front-row defense up for a duration.
- Passive — Versatile Armor: all damage he takes is reduced during the fight.
- Super-Sensory (4★): +20% HP/ATK/DEF, −10% skill cooldown.
Williams is the one exception to “Lv30 is a luxury.” Where other heroes get a final skill, his Lv30 opens team damage reduction near the cap (~75%) plus crowd-control immunity — the protection itself gets stronger. I’m still at Lv20, but his is the first weapon I’d push to 30 given room.
The weapon first opened in the Season 4 week-6 battle pass. If your account started after Season 4, expect a slow grind through black-market shards.
Murphy — the UR every free player meets first
Murphy was the first UR I ever pulled, out of that day-one Tavern elite recruit. He’s the only UR that’s been on the account continuously from launch to Season 6, and he still hasn’t left my lineup.
I owe him something, though. Early on I spread XP across six or seven heroes, and about a month in I was badly behind an alliance mate who started the same week as me. With no main, nothing I did landed properly. Consolidating everything into Murphy is what started the comeback. If you’re free or low-spend, don’t skip that step.
- Auto — Tank Bombardment: single-target physical, two hits.
- Tactical — Steel Barrier: front-row physical damage reduction for a duration.
- Passive — Position Defense: reduces all damage the front row takes.
At EW Lv20 you get +7.5% to all tanks plus the team-wide damage-reduction spread, and that’s exactly where he jumps from B+ to S. In a meta where damage reduction is the most valuable stat going, you feel it.
Does Williams push Murphy out? No. I run Williams + Murphy as a double front. It’d be fair to feel sentimental about demoting a hero you’ve used that long, except the pairing is so solid I have no complaints. Before Williams, I held the line with Murphy + Mason (SSR→UR promotion).
Marshall — the only UR support, and you notice when he’s gone
I’ve seriously considered cutting Marshall for another slot several times. Same conclusion every time: you can’t. He’s the only UR support in the game, so there’s no substitute. He’s not flashy, but pull him out and team damage visibly sags, and you end up putting him back.
- Auto — Command · Focused Fire: single-target physical.
- Tactical — Command · Volley: whole-team attack buff for a duration.
- Passive — Quick Cast: his own cooldowns tick faster.
At EW Lv20 his crit-vulnerability debuff (targets take more crit damage) gets stronger, and that is Marshall’s whole reason to exist — a carry like Kimberly spikes again on top of it. Weapon opened in the Season 3 week-1 battle pass.
One warning about order: don’t start with Marshall. He has no damage of his own and means almost nothing without a carry. He’s easy to skim past on a tier list, but after your main carry and front row he’s absolutely worth an EW Lv20.
Stetmann — the one I honestly didn’t invest in
Straight up: Stetmann is not a hero I went deep on. By the time he arrived in Season 5 my front row was already settled as Williams + Murphy, so I never reached for him. What I can offer is the codex data plus watching the players in my alliance who run a third front-line body.
- Auto — Shield-Breaker Pulse: single-target energy, short cooldown.
- Tactical — Lightning Burst: three energy orbs, AoE energy damage.
- Passive — Critical Energy: his own crit rate climbs during the fight.
Unusually for a defense-role hero, his kit has energy damage mixed in — though don’t expect a carry out of it. The consistent verdict from the people running him: “with three bodies up front, things simply stop dying.” Season 5 week 3. He’s not the hero a resource-tight small spender reaches for first; he’s the reinforcement after Williams and Murphy are done.
So is tank worth committing to?
The real strength of tank isn’t any individual hero — it’s self-sufficiency.
- Two front-liners (Williams, Murphy) built in,
- a carry (Kimberly) and a support (Marshall) in the same class,
- and all five have exclusive weapons, so the mono +7.5% covers everyone.
Missile is five damage dealers that must borrow a front row; air leans hard on one carry. Tank has neither hole.
The cost is the matchup: tank is weak to air. A well-built DVA squad is the opponent I least want to see. That isn’t something hero investment fixes — it’s scouting and judgment, and it’s covered in Troop Counters.
If you’re free or low-spend, the skeleton assembles itself: Murphy (day one) → Kimberly ($0.99 first purchase) → Marshall. That accessibility is tank’s other quiet advantage. You cannot stack URs that easily early on with air or missile.
The full investment picture is in the Exclusive Weapon Guide; Kimberly’s awakening timing and shard math continue in the Awakening Guide.
Unofficial fan-site content · no partnership or sponsorship with the developer · figures can change with patches.
By: lastwarhub.com
