The Grand Warden may be slightly weak as a Hero in Clash of Clans but he sure can pack a punch when used right! Let's take a look at how to best utilize him in the game.
The third unlockable Hero in Supercell's Clash of Clans is the Grand Warden. He is a single-target Hero who is on the low end in terms of health but can be an absolute beast when deployed in the Support role in battles.
He has two modes that he can be deployed in: Air and Ground mode.
How To Unlock The Grand Warden
The Grand Warden is unlocked once your Town Hall is upgraded to Level 11. His description is:
This veteran battle-scholar seeks out groups of friendly troops to fight behind and boost with his Life Aura, and assumes the form of a tower on defense. Attacking, he can walk over Walls or fly high, and can make nearby troops immune to damage once his Eternal Tome ability is unlocked!
Unlike with the Archer Queen and Barbarian King, you'll need to save up only 1,000,000 Elixir - not Dark Elixir - to construct the Grand Warden Altar. Further upgrades to the maximum level of 55 will cost you Elixir. Altogether, it's a rather affordable Hero.
The full details about the Grand Warden's upgrade costs and their corresponding stat upgrades can be found here. Check it out!
What Is Eternal Tome?
The Eternal Tome is the Grand Warden's active ability. Once activated, all friendly troops within the aura circle will be invincible to damage for a brief period of time (but the effect doesn't apply to Wall Breakers!). However, other base defenses like the Air Sweeper or Spring Traps will continue to have its effects played out on troops.
This ability can only be upgraded once every five levels. The details are below:
| Ability Level | Ability Time |
| 1 | 3.5 seconds |
| 2 | 4.0 seconds |
| 3 | 4.5 seconds |
| 4 | 5.0 seconds |
5 | 5.5 seconds |
6 | 6.0 seconds |
| 7 | 6.5 seconds |
| 8 | 7.0 seconds |
| 9 | 7.5 seconds |
| 10 | 8.0 seconds |
| 11 | 8.5 seconds |
Offensive Strategy
With the Barbarian King being a Tank, the Archer Queen a Damage specialist and the Royal Champion more of a Base Defense Specialist, the Grand Warden functions more as a Support Hero.
He has the longest range in the game and follows troops (with the highest housing space or largest mass) in battle. Regardless, the strategy can vary depending on which mode you deploy the Grand Warden in. Here's how to strategize with the 2 modes:
- Air Mode: As the Grand Warden has low HP, it's best to deploy him behind other air troops like Balloons, Dragons or Lava Hounds - preferably with tanky high HP troops that can distract air defenses (and traps) and also so that his passive Life Aura can sustain them.
- Ground Mode: Similar to the Air Mode strategy, it's best you deploy the Grand Warden behind tanky troops than can reap the most benefits from the Life Aura passive like Golems, Pekkas or the evergreen Miners. As there are more base defenses geared towards ground troops, be careful when bunching troop as they can be quickly taken out by splash-damage dealers like Mortars or Eagle Artillery.
In either mode, it's important to utilize the Eternal Tome ability correctly. Here are a few scenarios where this ability is best used in:
- Activate the ability when breaching walls. This is especially useful for Ground troops. The higher level the Town Halls of your opponents, the more base defenses there will - some of which are extremely powerful. Ensure your troops can do the most damage they can by guaranteeing their survival with Eternal Tome
- Activate the ability at the core of the oppponents' base. As most Clashers try to protect their Town Hall at the middle of the map, most of the base defenses will be concentrated around it. Hence, using Eternal Tome when you're taking the most damage is the optimal way to use this overpowered ability. Keep in mind that this would be best used when dealing with Town Halls that have a Giga Tesla or Giga Inferno.
- Activate the ability if your troops are receiving a lot of damage. This is basically a blanket way of using the ability. Simply activate it when your troops seem to be low on HP or when there is a large concentration of defenses that you want to destroy.
There are multiple troop compositions that work with the Grand Warden. For example, there is the Grand Warden Walk. It's similar to the Queen Archer Walk with Healers. Watch the video below to see the bare essentials of how it works.
Defensive Strategy
When your village is raided, the Grand Warden runs back to his Altar and transforms into a statue. For the remainder of the raid, he will stay at his Altar and only attack units within his attack range.
The Grand Warden may sound useless in defense but keep in mind that his passive Life Aura is still in use! So it's best to place the Altar close to the Clan Castle or other Heores so that defensive troops can receive this critical bonus for their HP.
Additionally, the Headhunter troop will not target the Grand Warden while he is statue mode as he will be considered a defensive building and not a Hero.
That's all for our Grand Warden guide. If you're interested in guides for other Heroes in Clash of Clans, check them out below: