Starter Heroes

For new players, building Troop Marches can be incredibly hard because many heroes won't be available in Free-Pick Hero Cards for a long time. For example, Wendy is available on Season 14 (around 360 days after Season 1), and Lilith is available on Season 26 (around 700 days after first season).

In general, it is best to start with SR (purple) heroes and slowly work on SSR (gold) heroes.

Utility Heroes

Utility heroes can help you grow quicker:

Hero Skills Note
Kris
  • +20% Marching Speed
  • +20% Gold Gathering speed
 Ideal for helping with obelisk building and gold mining
Harold
  • +10% Tower Defense power
  • -10% Action Point
 Ideal for passing stages and Titan rallies.
Claudia
(1-star)
  • +20% Offline Gold
Ideal for more passive gold.

Warrior Leaders

Warrior Leaders (PvP Leaders) are useful for in-server wars (Sentry War, Throne War) and cross-server wars (CSI, BotD, BE).

Hero Skills Note
Erika
  • +25% Marching Speed
  • +15% Recovery speed
 Perhaps the most economical PvP Leader you can get, Erika can be obtained from Lucky Wheel, Wishing Crystal Ball, and Free-Pick Hero Cards.
Anko
  • +30% Marching Speed
  • +15% Recovery Speed
 Anko has better Marching Speed than Erika. Initially you must purchase her, but she will become available in Free-Pick Hero Cards when the server enters Transition Phase, so in the long run she is also quite economical.
Sahar
  • +20% Marching Speed
 Sahar is a solid PvP Leader. Sahar can be obtained from Bounty Hall, and she will become available in Free-Pick Hero Cards and Wishing Crystal Ball, when the server enters Transition Phase, so Sahar is fairly economical. The downside, though, is that Sahar needs to be at 4-Star to have Recover Speed bonus (+25%), so developing Sahar may take a while.

Hunter Leaders

Hunter Leaders (AP Leaders) are useful for attacking monsters. When you use SSR Hunter Leaders, your Troops March does not take damage from attacking Lava Haka, Frost Behemoth, Evil Defenders in Fortresses in BE, or Evil Defenders in Dragon Palaces in BotD. Also, when others join your rallies on Lava Haka and Frost Behemoth, their troops also do not take damage. For this reason, even if you only use Miku for all Titans, you should have multiple Hunter Leaders

Hero Skills Note
Jessica
  • +20% Marching Speed
  • -10% AP Cost
 Jessica can be obtained from Bounty Hall and is perhaps the first SSR Hunter Leader you can get without spending.
Pan
  • +30% Marching Speed
  • -10% AP Cost
 Pan become available in Free-Pick Hero Cards after the Throne War.
Giselle
  • +20% Marching Speed
  • -10% AP Cost
 Although Giselle become available in Free-Pick Hero Cards on Season 7, you do not have to wait that long. Giselle can be obtained in Special Event. For my F2P account, I use the Special Event to get Giselle to compliment my other two Hunter Leaders.

Configurations

When you use three heroes of same element in a Troop March, you get additional power from Hero Bond. Therefore, it is best to build Troop Marches with heroes of same element.

That said, flexibility is more important than power. For example, let's say you you are in a crunch and badly need gold so you can do 2000 Normal Recruitment each day, you can mix it up and have Claudia (Goblin), Ophelia (Fire), and Samar (Fire) in the same Troop March.

To best utilize your heroes, it's good to build a Troop March that can fill multiple roles. For example, you can have Jessica, Filius, and Merlin in a Troop March, and switch swap Jessica and Filius depending on your situation.