I now also have Gnarlhorn.

Level kale up to 60 - that should be your only priority. it will open game play up immensly. Don't worry about more 50s. Get him up and you will be able to level the rest much more quickly. Also- get his masteries maxed as soon as you can.

Hmmm. You're handling things a bit unconventionally, let's say... which can work up to a point, but it seems you're seeing the limits of it already. 

First of all, your first priority is getting either Elhain or Athel (are they both 50?) to 60. Athel might be a bit more versatile, probably the best pick unless Elhain is already higher level. Forget nightmare, forget dungeons, forget everything except endlessly running the highest stage of brutal you can run with 1 geared champ (Elhain? Athel? Juliana?) and 3 food champions until you get Elhain/Athel to 6*. Either of them at 6* could do your campaign farming on brutal 12.3 moving forward, as well as helping you tons in dungeons. You're building too many 5*s when you should be working on 6*s. And too many of them are support champions who fill similar roles. 

For dungeon progress after you get Elhain/Athel to 6*, focus on Dragon, where you'll need probably both of them, Warmaiden, Juliana and Romero, I'd imagine. 

You may be gearing your champions wrong if Elhain, Athel and Warmaiden aren't working well for you. Elhain/Athel should be wearing 4 pieces of the lifesteal set from login rewards, leveled to 12, with a speed or offense set in the other two slots. The other, other pieces with focus on speed, crit rate, crit damage and in Athel's case accuracy. Warmaiden needs speed and accuracy so she can put that AOE decrease defense as often as possible. All champions need speed, really. 

I could go on for a while, but let's start with that... 

I started with Elhain, and later pulled Athel. Yes they are all 50. I was even more stuck until I got Juliana who carried me through brutal, and allowed me with the help of Warpriest (in shield set) to complete all 252 points on easy/hard for a chance at other champions.

I put the lifesteal gear from Elhain to Juliana and it was night and day different. Juliana erases targets, while Elhain felt like she tickles them. Same with Athel in the same gear, Athel tickles them. It's kind of frustrating. Elhain is fully booked out, while I am still working on Athel's books.

Will level 60 make that big of a difference on them instead of say leveling Juliana first?

What about my new champions? I initially got stuck with so many supports because I Elhain and Athel would simply die without them, then I got Juliana and even slotting them with her, they both die far too easy and I've spent all my silver multiple times slotting them in the same gear that Juliana is in now and it didn't matter.

So get one or both to 6* (what about Juliana), and run Juliana, Warmaiden, Romero, Elhain, and Athel? How am I keeping them alive? They die on me by the second wave, let alone a stage 10 dragon.

The main argument against building Juliana as your first 6* is, very simply, that she doesn't do any AOE hits. She might hit harder against a single target, but for campaign farming, as well as in dungeons and arena, you need someone who nukes all enemies at once. All starter champions were built to be able to do that reasonably well - better than other rares and even most epics. 

You'd probably want Juliana as your second or third 6*, as she can be useful for sure in Clan Boss, Dragon and other places. But I don't really seeing her working well for campaign farming, which is the first job of your first 6* (because once you have someone who can easily farm brutal 12.3, it becomes much less annoying to level other champions to 6* as well). 

I don't know what was going wrong with your Elhain in the lifesteal set initially. If she had the gloves, boots and chest of the login lifesteal set, at level 12, she would've had decent stats and done fine at nuking in campaign, arena and dungeons. But anyway, considering where you're at now, Athel might be a better pick to get the good lifesteal gear and become the first 6*, because she adds more value in Clan Boss as well as Fire Knight dungeon. But keep in mind that on Athel, you need to get some accuracy (so she can apply her weaken), while Elhain doesn't need any accuracy as she doesn't put any debuffs on any of her skills anyway. 

Once you have Athel at 6*, then yes, I absolutely think that with Elhain, Juliana, Warmaiden and Romero at 50, she could progress a few more stages in dragon (excepting force affinity stages where you might struggle with all your DPS champs being magic affinity). Beyond stage 13 or so, you'll need more 6*s probably, but dragon 13 is already nice to farm for gear. If Warmaiden is putting AOE decrease defense and Athel/Elhain are just wiping out the waves, they can't kill you. But of course it requires the right gear, with sufficient speed, crit rate and in some cases accuracy on your champions. 

As for your new champs - Diabolist could be quite useful in arena, not that much elsewhere. Skytouched Shaman can be used even in endgame, but under quite specific circumstances considering her very special skillset - I'd consider her as a 'put on the shelf for now and come back to her later' champion, in your position. Hope could have some use if you build her tanky and with high HP for that shield, but you already have so many support champs that I don't see her being much of a priority. 

Here is an example of my frustrations with Elhain, and Athel. I just completed dragon 10, and dragon 11 with Elhain dying wave one, Athel wave two, with Warmaiden (shield), Romero, and Juliana killing the dragon without them.

Even if I put the lifesteal gear now on Juliana on either of them, they simply do not do enough damage, and still die far too often to be beneficial. It turns my stomach to think about spending the time and resources to 6* them at the moment.

I've only been playing 13 days, and really haven't got that great of gear for damage other than two sets, one life steal, and the other 2 ATK sets and 1 Cruel set. I have three really good defensive sets, which is why I ended up with three support/defense champions.

I need to think really hard on this. Thank you for spending the time to help me out.

Just ran Dragon 11 again, with Athel, Elhain, Warpriest, Juliana and Romero.

Athel died wave two, Elhain lasted to mid-health dragon, damage was Athel at 57,664, Elhain 51,626, Wapriest 20,940, Juliana 358,140, and Romero 24,005. I will 6* them to see if I can get more life from them.

@L9753

I've made some changes, and a couple lucky rolls got me a second complete life steal set, which is helping. I feel like it will all come together once I can begin to farm stage 13 of dragon.

I'm in the process of collecting the rank 4s for rank 5s so that I can rank up Elhain.

For now I'm running Elhain, Juliana, Romero, and Warpriest. If I can get Apoth, I'll run him in place of Warpriest with the shield set and run Warmaden in his spot for the defense down, but for now I'm keeping him to assist Juliana a bit with damage.

Everything L9753 wrote to you is Gold.

I would do everything he said.

I would level Athel to level 60.

I would put Athel in Lifesteal gear to Solo Farm 12-3 Brutal.

12-3 Brutal gives you the Best Silver income due to shields selling for more profit

12-3 Brutal gives you Good XP income.

Once, you start generating Silver & XP income from 12-3 Campaign.

It will help you develop your other champions faster.

- You will be able to +16 gear faster.

- You will be able to 6 star more heroes faster.

I would level up Juliana to level 60 second.

Juliana - level 60 - in Lifesteal gear - with Full Masteries - can Solo Dragon Stage 20 Boss.

Juliana - level 60 - in Lifesteal gear - with Full Masteries - can Solo Minotaur Stage 15 Boss. 

All you have to do is get Juliana past the waves.

If Juliana reaches the Dragon or Minotaur boss safely, Juliana will win in a 1 on 1 fight.

Those 2 bosses are very weak against Poison.

All you are doing right now is slowing down your progression.

You are trying to fight these bosses with under developed heroes (Only lvl 50 Heroes).

You are trying to fight these bosses with under developed gear (Not +16 Gears)

The faster you get Athel built to 60 + faster you get Juliana built to 60.

The faster you will begin to progress.

I also think you are approaching the Dragon incorrectly.

You are not using the right team make up in my opinion.

Critical Skills for Dragon:

1. AOE Crowd Control (Stuns / Freeze / Provoke / True Fears)

2. AOE Damage Dealer

3. Revive

4. Block Debuffs / Remove Debuffs on Allies

5. Poison

Bonus Skills for Dragon:

6. Turn Meter Filling

7. Decrease Defense

8. Decrease Attack

9. Heals

10. Shields

This is the team you said you used:

Dragon 11 with Athel, Elhain, Warpriest, Juliana and Romero. 

- Athel ------------------------> AOE Damage Dealer

- Elhain ------------------------> AOE Damage Dealer

- Warpriest --------------------> Healing

- Juliana -----------------------> Poison

- Romero ----------------------> Shields + C.Healing

Notice your team very closely.

My number 1 Critical Skills against the Dragon is a Crowd Control hero.

You have no one doing it.

Do you know what this means?

It means wave 1 & wave 2 are going to destroy you.

You are allowing the waves to attack you.

This is recipe for disaster.

Those waves can hit so bloody hard.

If you let them hit you, It is death for your champion.

You own Gnarl Horn and your not even using him.

You should replace Elhain with Gnarl Horn.

Gnarl Horn is the Ultimate Tank Champion.

Gnarl Horn does Provoke with forces the enemy waves to hit him which takes the heat off your other low defensive type heroes.

Athel & Elhain are doing the same function (AOE Damage Dealing).

You only need 1 champion doing this job.

The other slot should be for the Crowd Control hero to give your team protection against the waves.

Now look at Point number 4. Block Debuffs / Remove Debuffs on Allies 

You have no one on your team helping you with Debuffs?

Think about the Dragon! 

What does the Dragon do?

The Dragon puts Poison Debuffs on you.

The Dragon puts Weaken Debuffs on you.

The Dragon puts Stun Debuffs on you with his Big Fire Breathing Move.

You have no one blocking him from doing this stuff to your team.

You have no one removing this stuff from your team.

You are taking all the Dragon's Debuffs to De Face.

This is the 2nd recipe for disaster. 

You own Skytouch Shaman and your not using her.

You should replace War Priest with Skytouch Shaman.

Skytouch Shaman is a Goddess.

Skytouch Shaman can completely shut down the Dragon's Debuffs.

Skytouch Shaman does Block Debuffs / Remove Debuffs / Revive on Death / Healing

I think your Dragon team should probably be:

Leader: Gnarl Horn - 27% Defense Aura 

- Gnarl Horn ------------------------> AOE Crowd Control - Provoke

- Athel -------------------------------> AOE Damage Dealer

- Skytouch Shaman -----------------> Revive / Block Debuffs / Remove Debuffs / Healing

- Juliana -----------------------------> Poison

- Romero ----------------------------> Shields + C.Healing

Can you image how much damage you would do if all of these heroes where maxed out?

I think this team right here could beat Dragon Stage 20. 

I am only on day 13, but when I get to day 30 will I be using High Khatun in that group anywhere?

It's normal that Juliana is going to end up with the big damage numbers because of her poison and HP burn on the dragon (which both do damage based on enemy max HP, so you get quite big numbers on high-HP enemies like the dragon and clan boss). Athel/Elhain are mainly there to clear waves with their AOE hits - although if Athel could get to the dragon and put her weaken debuff, you could kill him faster. 

J's suggestion for a dragon team is a bit different from how I saw it and not including any AOE decrease defense champion, but sounds interesting and worth a shot. But that's looking further ahead - for now, we both figure you should get Athel to 6* first. Elhain to 6* isn't a terrible choice (I used Elhain as my starter, too), but Athel has a clear edge in a few places thanks to that weaken debuff, which not too many champions have, so better to go with her. 

In that dragon team, probably not. You'll definitely be using her in arena though, and could consider using her in other dungeons or clan boss, because of her speed aura and turn meter increase (the latter is more or less the same as apothecary's). But of course, by then you might have other champions as well. 

Thank you guys.

Question for later down the road. What do I look for in champions to transition this team to take on the Spider, and Fire Knight later on?

I assume you've already run the first few stages of those and have a basic idea of how the bosses work? 

Spider and FK are similar in the sense that both bosses heal up again if you allow them to - but they are susceptible to turn meter reduction, so it is possible to delay their next turn or even to stop them from taking another turn ever again. Which isn't the case with the dragon or the CB, whose turns can't be stopped or delayed. So, for spider and FK, any champion who can reduce turn meter on an enemy could be of interest. Heal reduction debuff also helps, but only on FK since the spider is immune to it. 

In the FK's case, the big challenge is that shield that massively reduces damage and blocks all your debuffs or turn meter reductions. In the first few stages, it takes only 5 hits to bring down the shield, but soon it increases to 10. So in order to get the shield down fast enough to do some real damage and put debuffs before he puts it up again, you need some combination of:

- multi-hit attacks so you get to 10 hits faster, especially those on the A1 (the 1st ability of every champion, the one without a cooldown)

- counterattack buffs, so you get automatic hits against the shield

- reflect damage buffs, since reflected damage counts as hits against the shield

- high enough speed on your champions, so they can take multiple turns for one of the FK's 

- turn meter reduction, so you can delay the FK's next turn when the shield will be up again

Apart from the speed, these are all things that require champions with specific skills, so your progress in FK will really depend on which champions you pull. But you're lucky: Athel's A1 is a 3-hitter, Elhain too because all of her attacks hit twice (if critical), Juliana also has 2 of her 3 abilities hitting twice. That's a good start, but ideally you'd also want multi-hits or the other things I mentioned from your support champions (yet another reason to want Apothecary). And you don't have any turn meter reduction or heal reduction in that team yet - you'll need at least one and preferably both. Coldheart, a void rare, would be ideal because she has a 4-hit A1 with heal reduction and a massively damaging A3 with full turn meter reduction. 

Spider is even more complicated to fully explain, but in the early and middle stages, you mostly just want enough AOE damage to keep the spiderlings from overwhelming you, plus turn meter reduction on the big spider to reduce how often she gets healed (which is every other turn she gets, healing based on how many spiderlings she has available to consume). 

Just to add a bit to L9753 suggestions.

It really does depend on what champs you end up getting, but Armiger is an uncommon champ that you can easily book, via other Armigers from market or shards. He will help reduce turn meter and provide some damage. You can gradually get him to 60, as he is very helpful when you get to Spider 19. Lots of threads and videos on the dreaded Spider 19, lol, and Armiger builds.

Alure is awesome for Fire Knight, and can help in Spider as well. 

Hopefully you can pull her as well as Coldheart who is probably one of the best champs for Spider and FK as L9753 mentioned. Wish I had her, as she would have helped my teams, but thankfully I am able to auto Spider and KF 20 on auto without her.

L9753 adds another great point.

I had to give him upvotes again. lol

Most peeps do like using AOE Def Down champs in the Dragon.

I have AOE Def Down has part as the Bonus Skills for the Dragon.

If you look at the below team I am saying, You don't see any AOE Def Down Champs.

The thing is they can work there way into the team composition.

I think your Dragon team should probably be:

Leader: Gnarl Horn - 27% Defense Aura 

- Gnarl Horn ------------------------> AOE Crowd Control - Provoke

- Athel -------------------------------> AOE Damage Dealer

- Skytouch Shaman -----------------> Revive / Block Debuffs / Remove Debuffs / Healing

- Juliana -----------------------------> Poison

- Romero ----------------------------> Shields + C.Healing 

You have to remember the set up I am recommending to you has 2 rares + 3 epics.

You don't have any All Epics or All Legendaries in this set up I am recommending. 

Later on down the road, You may pull a Dracomorph.

Dracomorph does Poison + AOE Def Down.

Dracomorph would be doing what Julaina is doing + more.

You can see how when you start pulling other champions.

These other champions can sneak there way into the team composition offering you more benefits.

Another example is Athel.

I am suggesting using Athel in this set up as an AOE Damage Dealer.

Later on down the road, You may pull a Zargala.

Zargala can be an AOE Damage Dealer + AOE Def Down.

You can see how when you upgrade the rarity of heroes.

You often get more benefits which come along with them.

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Yeah - I just wanted to explain that a little bit more better. 

It was a great observation by L9753 and it kind of goes back to what I was saying previously.

Look at all the skills I am recommending for you to have vs. Dragon:

Critical Skills for Dragon:

1. AOE Crowd Control (Stuns / Freeze / Provoke / True Fears)

2. AOE Damage Dealer

3. Revive

4. Block Debuffs / Remove Debuffs on Allies

5. Poison

Bonus Skills for Dragon:

6. Turn Meter Filling

7. Decrease Defense

8. Decrease Attack

9. Heals

10. Shields 

I'm bascially saying you need 10 different skills vs. Dragon.

How can you get all of these 10 skills when you are only allowed to have 5 heroes in a team?

Most cases the heroes you select will need to do multiple of these things.

Thank you for all the time you are spending to help out. I have enough rare books to either fully book Gnarlhorn, or partially book Athel out. Which of these two should I spend my books on?

I have to wait until Sunday to get the potions to ascend Skytouch Shaman a third time or more depending on the time I spend farming potions.

I've been holding onto my epic books because I only have two. Should I continue to hold these?

I get Jizoh tomorrow. Should I hold onto him, or can I use him for food? Is there a champion I have that would benefit well from the retaliation set that came with these freebies? Most of the rolls on the set were defensive based.

I would Fully Book Athel + get her to level 60.

I would Save all your other resources till you advance further.

- Save Epic Tomes

- Save Jizoh

Your Athel isn't finished, yet.

You never know what will happen.

Lets say you finish making Athel level 60.

Than you pull a Shard and get a Legendary hero.

At that point, The Legendary hero might be good for your Dragon team.

Than your Dragon team will change based on new hero you acquired.

So its better to focus resources on like very short term goals because long term goals can change.