Factors to consider what to request to defend your base

Question

Some generous person in my clan donated a l2 dragon to my clan castle (I'm not even high enough level to get one). Sadly he wasn't much help when the attacker used healing potion on the archers.

What is good to request for defence? I think archers because they can attack against air. It's kind of hard because I would like a mix but people donating don't know what you have, for example I'd like 1 healer and the rest archers or wizards.

Answer 1

Usually a dragon is one of the best. Wizards are very powerful as well. Valkyries are somewhat rare, but are good thanks to their spin attacks that can destroy troops very easily. My personal favorite are witches, because they are essentially a permanent skeleton trap. Overall though, almost any troop will work fine, but the ones with high damage and health (pekka, dragon) are generally good in most scenarios. The ones with high damage to space ratios or ones that can fly (wizards, minions, balloons) are better in my opinion, but can be very easy to kill with a lightning spell. I've never had one of the tank units used in a defense yet, but I would think that the lava hound and, to a lesser extent, the golem would be very good, but only if they weren't lured out. I consider witches the best, simply because after a few sets of skeletons have spawned, they start being very space efficient for the amount of troops they produce.

EDIT: I forgot about a few troops. Obviously, wall breakers are the worst, followed by goblins. Barbs and archers are the general filler troops that preform fine for the cost, but don't really stand a chance against their more expensive counterparts (minions, wizards). Healers are good because they can heal troops and buildings, but require units with at least a decent health pool for them to be worth the space. Giants are mediocre at lower levels, but even at high levels when their damage and health are quite good, they are still very easy to lure and kill with only a few wizards unless they are partnered with a healer which boosts their value considerably. Last but not least, hog riders are an interesting unit. They are stuck in the middle ground between tank and damage dealer, but are outclassed because of their stats to space ratio. Valkyries are significantly tankier, deal more damage, have an AoE attack and only require 3 more spaces. This is mostly due to the hog riders ability to jump over walls. Their stats have been weakened to compensate for this extremely useful ability, but on defense all units are given this ability, essentially making their biggest advantage nonexistent.

My Personal Ranking:

1. Witches
2. Valkyries
3. Wizards
4. Balloons
5. Dragon
6. Minions
7. Pekka
8. Hog Riders
9. Giants/Healer
10. Lava Hound
11. Archers
12. Golem
13. Barbarians
14. Giants(without healer)
15. Healers(without tanky troops)
16. Goblins
17. Wall Breakers

Answer 2

What is good to request for defence ?

Any troop which can attack both ground and air with high mobility.

You can never predict what sort of troops you will get raided with. If you have a Pekka in your castle and get raided by balloons or dragons the pekka is useless. So you need a mix of ground and air troops, but this would reduce the strength of your castle. It is usually better to request troops which can attack both ground and air. And also it depends on the level of your clan mates.

So lets look at elixir troops which can attack both ground and air: (Calculations are done for a level 3 castle with mid level troops)

1. Archers: Low cost, always available(standard farming troop from town hall 1 to 10). One housing space. Total damage per second : 400 (lvl 5)
2. Wizards: Splash damage is the biggest advantage of this troop. But they occupy a lot of space. Even though their attacks are impressive, they get killed soon. Good in higher level castles. You can drop a request and wait for generous clan mates to donate. Total damage per second : 625 (lvl 4)
3. Dragon: Its always better to have the best in your castle. No doubt that dragons are preferred for any one with level 3 castle, but they are quite expensive and take too long to train. You can have only one dragon in your castle. It does offer good resistance and if the enemy is not prepared to attack air troops, defense is assured. Total damage per second : 160 (lvl 2)

The priority is for farming base. For war base just reverse the order. And at higher level castles. You can mix the troops (1 Dragon + 5 Archers or 5 Wizards + 5 Archers)

Farming base dark elixir troops for defense:

1. Minions: Low cost and quick to train. Total damage per second : 420 (lvl 3)
2. Witch : Can summon skeletons which will distract troops while defenses can do the job of wiping out enemies troops. Its quite expensive for a farming base, request only when most of the storages are full. Having a with alone is easy to kill, suggest to use other troops along with it. Total damage per second : 25 (lvl 1)

For war base witches take top priority with a mix of any other troops capable of ground & air attack.

If you are a town hall 6, request for Valkyries in war base. The standard attack for a town hall 6 is Giants + healers. And valkyries does a good job in taking out ground troops. They have high hit points and do splash damage. They can easily defend your base against unprepared enemies.

(Left out lava hound intentionally)