Hatred well and truly blows every other talent in the game out of the water for damage output, being accessible even in the first combat, and providing an unmatched damage source throughout the entire game. Her opening deck could use a bit of work, but Hatred turns just about any damage source into a powerhouse, and so rolling divinations always nets strong spells. Although her other talents don’t keep up, they are still exceptionally strong, and even without being combined with the strong obvious weapons like Ice Breaker, Navalea cleans house without failure.

Gustav is premium Sharp Carry for scouts, I consider Power Slave to be top 3 starting cards, and starting with multiple Zero Costs and Chant of Accuracy makes his Act 1 exceptional. Heavy Metal doesn't perform as well as it could until level 3, where Shrill Tone is taken, and the game is well and truly over from there.

Thuls can struggle a bit out the gate, and has some reliance on good RNG from divinations to make a deck that functions well, but Killer Instinct and Black talons more than make up for it. Black Talons is firmly in the top 5 best level up rewards, giving double hits in a relevant damage type, with relevant Curses. Poison is mostly irrelevant at higher madness, but that doesn’t make Thuls bad. His levels 3, 4 and 5 are also quite decent, though all pale in comparison to Black Talons.

Although considered very bad in Low Madness, with a bit of mental shift, he can perform much better. Nenukil is often built around his Reload mechanics and Speed stacking, but this is largely unecessary for a scout Carry. Players often see this giant Rube Goldberg machine and presume it must be the intended offensive engine. The reality is he performs much better when simply treated as a scout with a good card pool, and above average talents. Loaded Gun is simply 2 free energy every turn, Gunpowder is a Flat 20% damage increase to all melee attacks, and Ranged/Melee weaving is not necessary. Double Barrel and Fast and Furious give access to Fury beyond normal limits, and the scout pool is just primed for a solid end game Carry deck utilising Scavenge and Ambidextrous. 

Famous for his blocking, but shockingly better in the carry position than most would believe. Heat laser is extremely strong as a carry due to its cheap cost and AoE, and the starting block/fortify make for a more convenient carry. He almost exclusively plays Fire/Blunt and is often seen with Volcanic Axe to transform high performing cards like whirlwind to the correct type. Heiner can have a hard time getting off the ground compared to other heroes, and this brings him down a tier, but his end game is exceedingly easy to achieve and use. A very consistent way to get clears.

Sigrun has a hard time getting off the floor, with very little to go off in her starting deck. Her talents are whacky to pilot, asking for a mix of Attack and Spell Cards, and assigning Perks for her can be confusing. But when Sigrun gets going with Storm Channeler and good wet application, she can Bring the Roof Down. She can struggle a little with speed manipulation due to her starting item, but this can be managed. Valhalla is also free-mode for most carries, and she is hardly an exception. 

The Andrin Rework gave him several useful tools and places him comfortably among the stronger carries. His starting deck often keeps 7 or 8 cards, and replaces the rest with Sharp application and Good Value damage AoE. He can struggle a little, because he is designed to be self reliant and self perpetuating, which is not condusive to a sort of Support->Carry Dynamic and Mark falls prey to inaccessibility and the Restricted Power Corruptor. A very balanced carry.

Similar to Bree, Yogger struggles massively in the first act. His starting deck is much more suited to a support role, and his level ups tend to contribute next to nothing when put beside the other Warriors. Yogger Carry decks often rely on Highrolled Act 1’s, and using his meats and healing to contribute over longer rounds. His end game is good due to ease of access of Fury, and Gourmet Meats are able to apply large amounts of bless, but it is not particularly noteworthy method of applying buffs.

Bleed damage is a fairly obvious trap at higher madness, being mostly unworkable as a Main Damage Vehicle, which leaves him to lean on the bleed application in other creative ways. Vampiric Frenzy can certainly push out huge amounts of damage, and leftover bleed is still a perfectly acceptable way to eek out a bit of extra damage. His leech application is decent and can do a fair bit of passive healing, even as a carry, making him quite a good Carry in slower comps or early game teams that can struggle to find healing. Failing that, the normal methods of scaling damage are basically lost on him, and aside from a decently sized resistance shred at level 3, his damage builds are a bit hard to work with in no small part due to card pool dilution. Velarion is best left as a pure support, or a split damage support.

Although seemingly worse than the other healers, a triple Dawnlight opener makes for an easier Act 1, by playing into holy, and then pivoting somewhere down the line, with Gustav Sharp Mind lines, or Fire Fortify lines with Heiner/Magnus. Her talents are primed to do good damage with plenty of multi hits, good control over targeting, and high burst. Still suffers from the rough Healer pool of cards, but is far more reliable than most healers.

Reginald Holy decks are a small step above Ottis, due to Reginald’s self-reliance with bless application; though we generally prefer to apply buffs to other heroes, if anyone can break that format, it could be him. His talents are mostly decent, especially when leaning on Divine Retribution through the early acts. Reginald is often used as a strong carry in the lower madness levels, but his strengths don't shine anywhere near as much at higher madness due to the power level of cards like Divine Power, and that makes him an acceptable carry.

Lightning is tough to make work throughout the game due to limited access to cheap AoE Spells. Spark is the worst of the three elements in mage, and Wilbur’s Talents seldom make up for these issues. If you're looking for a strong Lightning carry, just pick Evelyn, Sigrun or Navalea, they will perform better almost every time. The only saving grace of Lightning is the exceedingly strong wet perk to reduce resistance, which often pulls Lightning spells far ahead in the early game if you can cast them. Lightning also has permanent reduction through Lightning manual, which can have some very fun late game implications, but is seldom better than Cold Snap.

Malukah leans heavily on a Fade/Unholy Storm opener to get through act 1, while getting Sharp donated. Although Malediction is exactly the kind of card Shadow Decks need to be good, it's nothing compared to Black Death. Malukah’s talents are simply not suited to buffing damage in meaningful ways, and managing to get Malukah to function on any operable level requires a fair bit of expertise, and a smidge of luck. 

A little more managable than Malukah, but not by much. A tough healer card pool, and very little in the starting deck makes for a rough Act 1. Chilling gaze sort of doubles Nez’s damage, and can send him flying through the roof, but it only keeps him out of the Basement Hatch so to speak. The rest of his talents contribute next to nothing, so Nez decks still struggle to operate.