I say this all the time but I'm a HUGE fan of Coffin Smasher.  Overall Smasher is in my Top 5 rares. 

I used him in my CB team all the way into 3-key UNM, as part of Skullcrusher CA team. He has a Triple Hitter A1 for things like FK shields, and that lovely Decrease Attack on there too for CB and Ice Golem. HP burn is nothing to shake a stick at. And HP based damage means building him to survive also means building him for damage automatically. And AoE Damage Mitigation is awesome even in smaller percentages.

And I don't see any crazy champs you NEED to upgrade over him, or that even would be close to as good. Avir the Alchemage is alright, but mostly cause he brings Dec Attack and Dec Spd, but it's the small ones so I wouldn't build unless I had absolutely ZERO other options for those things.

Hope is okay I guess, but even after that buff she got, she's still not very playable. She would need her A2 cooldown reduced by 1 more turn before she could even be considered a tier BELOW Sandlashed or Aniri. Right now she is bottom basement compared to other champs that play the buff extension and protection role.

While I don't outright disagree with Quinn regarding Coffin Smasher, I'd reserve my judgement to depend on if he actually has value for you in any of the places you mentioned. You aren't listing your full roster, so it's hard to see who you can gain value from.

The one champ I see who *does* retain quite a bit of long-term value is Frozen Banshee, but even for her, it really depends on who else you have.

I thought I'd only show the magic ones, but here's my (limited) roster:

As you can see, for some reason, my Magic champions are a bit on the weaker side compared to the other affinities, hence my question.

i

There's just no HUGE standouts here, and I rate Smasher and Banshee on the same level. Both are rares that can have high value in a number of areas in the game, even through endgame. 

Banshee is excellent in specifically in Dragon and Clan Boss, and Smasher is close to as good in Clan Boss, as well as being very strong in FK and Ice Golem. Both can be useful against specific Doom Tower bosses as well, especially Coffin Laying down HP burns against Frosty Spider. :) 

I've never needed Frozen in anything myself, I've always had poisoners covered really effectively.

You already have some pretty strong poisoners built here in BEK and Occult Brawler. Does Frozen give you much, new stuff that isn't covered by your currents 60s? I would say no. Plus you have Fayne AND Anax, both of whom are absolute rock stars in the CB debuff and poison role for any eventual Unkillables you build.

If you didn't have Dreng I'd say for sure build an HP burner to 60 and Coffin would be it. As it is, I am not sure you'll use Coffin a TON, although you may be able to run him in FK for a quite a while.

How close are you to getting Archmage Hellmut from Doom Tower?

far, i'm at like 30 or 33 out of 100. 

I was even thinking maybe i should do Galek. My orcs suck big time, i got nothing. Or Avir for dwarves, because they suck even more. That one i cant even get 3 stars on level 3 LOL

Don't do Galek, that is certainly a waste. He doesn't have any lategame applications unfortunately. Not even in FW.

Avir is okayish. Whether you do him or Coffin I would count on them being situational mostly FW champs. If you pull certain other champs, Coffin could be useful. I don't see how Avir is going to be useful outside of FW.

I also wouldn't just sit and hope you pull a better Magic champ. It could be tomorrow, could be next week, it could be 3 months from now, it could be 6... your next good one might be Hellmut, you never know. So just pick one from your roster you think can help improve your account somewhere at least, and make it happen. :D

So here's how I see it. The remaining missions before you reach Arbiter are not going to give you very significant returns. They're nice, yeah, but they're not huge. On the track to Arbiter, you have a few other milestones you'll need to be able to accomplish. I've removed the ones that aren't relevant due to the subsequent ones being more difficult:

1. Dungeon Clear Stage 15 of the Force Keep 10 times on Auto
2. Dungeon Clear Stage 15 of the Void Keep 10 times on Auto
3. Arena Upgrade a Great Hall Bonus to Level 10
4. Arena Reach Gold IV in Classic Arena
5. Dungeon Clear Stage 20 or higher of Ice Golem’s Peak 10 times on Auto
6. Dungeon Clear Stage 20 or higher of Dragon’s Lair 10 times on Auto
7. Dungeon Clear Stage 20 or higher of Fire Knight’s Castle 10 times on Auto
8. Dungeon Clear Stage 20 or higher of Spider’s Den 10 times on Auto
9. Clan Deal 100 milion damage to Demon Lord on Min. difficulty Nightmare in 24 hours 

From those nine, how many are you currently able to do?

If there are some which you're going to struggle with, I'd suggest waiting to choose a magic champion to ascend until you've figured them out.

It's very possible that in the time it takes you to do that, you'll either get a better magic champion from shards, or you'll get Hellmut. Either one would be a better choice than just ascending a specific one right now in order to progress and then hit another wall.

I recently just ran the "10x level 15" Fire Knight, It was a breeze, Cardiel is a god in there (Coldheart/Crusader/Kyoku/Apothecary). I'm pretty sure i can switch out Crusader for higher levels and pick a positive affinity champ out of what i got, and run it to 20.

I currently do spider 16, but again, just got Cardiel, havent gone in there since i got him. Bringing both Deliana and Dreng to 60 will help me in various stages to clear up to level 20, pretty sure.

Dragon and Ice Golem 20 are no problem. 

I can do most of the keeps at level 20, so those are not problem at only level 15

Clan boss, i do anywhere between 16m and 24m per run in Nightmare. I havent booked up Cardiel yet, waiting to score some points in next CVC. That should help reduce  the downtime with no revive, where i lose some champs around round 18-20 if his buffs run out. I got a key saved up from recall quests. so the 100m mark using a 5th key is really doable.

Arena, i'm cruising. I'm 150 medals away from level 9, in gold 5. I get 25+ wins each day, depends on how many of the free recharged runs i can do

So really, this magic champion is my only dilemma

I was really "hoping" Hope would be the answer, she's the only debuffer in my roster aside from Warcaster. on paper she looks to fill some need, but is she that bad?

It's not that she is necessarily bad. It's more that there are better options for everything she does.

Personally I would still wait until you have reached the point of being able to do all the others before you go down the route of ascending and leveling a magic champ that you likely will just relegate to your vault before long. Especially if you are already able to do all those missions with who you already have, the likelihood that you get any value from the ones you have is quite slim.

ok thanks both for this. Didnt really help, except to confirm that my dilemma was well founded LOL

I agree with kram, and like HQ I am a big fan of coffinsmasher.  I also still use FB here and there.  But neither are needed for any content.  Even rare secret rooms, I could do without.  And neither is in my fw teams...

So 2 years ago, even 1 year ago, I would say both would be good choices.  Now, I would wait for a better champ.  The champ-flation has made even the best rares nearly obsolete. 

Are you doing the next fusion?