Heroes - Barbarian King

     Once you hit TH-7, you will get your first taste of the heroes of Clash of Clans.  Your first hero will be the Barbarian King. He is an oversized version of a regular barbarian, wearing a crown, holding a sword, and wearing a metal fist in his other hand.  Aquiring the Barb King is a game changer; he opens you up to new troop formations, more flexibility in your armies and attack styles, and adds a whole new dimension to the defense of your base. Heroes are immortal; they can be knocked out during fights but never killed.  To recover, they will require resting for a certain period of time related to the amount of damage they received in battle.

     When attacking, the King can be used as a tank, as well as a dps troop.  He has a high amount of hit points, so he can take a beating and keep on going especially after hitting level 5 when he gets his ablility.  When defending, the King can be set to defend or turned off so that he will be ready when you want to use him for an attack.  If you set him to defend, the King will help defend your base but if he takes damage he will be down and unable to be used for a period of time while he rests and heals.  The amount of time it takes to heal depends on the level of health he has left at the end of an offensive or defensive attack, but ranges between 0-30 minutes (at lvl 1) and 0 minutes-1 hour 48 minutes (at lvl 40).  If he is healing, his altar will be empty and he won't show up to defend your village. He can be instantly healed using gems, or for 10 gems his cool down time can be sped up by 4x for 2 hours.

Here is the breakdown for the Barbarian King's max level at each TH level:

TH-7   = Max level is 5

TH-8   = Max level is 10

TH-9   = Max level is 30

TH-10 = Max level is 40

TH-11 = Max level is 40

     When you are first able to get the Barb King, it is pretty expensive to initially build his altar so you can begin using him. It costs 10k dark elixir, which you are only able to start collecting at level 7 TH and can only hold a maximum of 10k with your storage at level 1.  While it will take you some time to save up this amount and actually get the King, it is very much worth it so start saving as soon as you can by upgrading your drill as high as possible and raiding for dark elixir (you will get the most from raiding).  

Here is a table showing the cost and stats initially for the Barbarian King and the cost to upgrade to each subsequent level, training time, normal damage, damage during ability, time to heal if knocked out in battle, hit points, and damage per hit at each level:

Level	Damage Per Second	Damage Per Strike	DPS During Ability	Hit Points	Regeneration Time	Iron Fist Level	Training Cost (DE)	Training Time
1	120	144	N/A	1,700	30m	0	10,000	Instant
2	122	146.4	-	1,742	32m	-	12,500	12h
3	124	148.8	-	1,786	34m	-	15,000	1d
4	127	152.4	-	1,830	36m	-	17,500	1d 12h
5	129	154.8	185	1,876	38m	1	20,000	2d
6	132	158.4	188	1,923	40m	-	22,500	2d 12h
7	135	162	191	1,971	42m	-	25,000	3d
8	137	164.4	193	2,020	44m	-	30,000	3d 12h
9	140	168	196	2,071	46m	-	35,000	4d
10	143	171.6	244	2,123	48m	2	40,000	4d 12h
11	146	175.2	247	2,176	50m	-	45,000	5d
12	149	178.8	250	2,230	52m	-	50,000	5d 12h
13	152	182.4	253	2,286	54m	-	55,000	6d
14	155	186	256	2,343	56m	-	60,000	6d 12h
15	158	189.6	305	2,402	58m	3	65,000	7d
16	161	193.2	308	2,462	1h	-	70,000	-
17	164	196.8	311	2,523	1h 2m	-	75,000	-
18	168	201.6	315	2,586	1h 4m	-	80,000	-
19	171	205.2	318	2,651	1h 6m	-	85,000	-
20	174	208.8	369	2,717	1h 8m	4	90,000	-
21	178	213.6	373	2,785	1h 10m	-	95,000	-
22	181	217.2	376	2,855	1h 12m	-	100,000	-
23	185	222	380	2,926	1h 14m	-	105,000	-
24	189	226.8	384	2,999	1h 16m	-	110,000	-
25	193	231.6	438	3,074	1h 18m	5	115,000	-
26	196	235.2	441	3,151	1h 20m	-	120,000	-
27	200	240	445	3,230	1h 22m	-	125,000	-
28	204	244.8	449	3,311	1h 24m	-	130,000	-
29	208	249.6	453	3,394	1h 26m	-	135,000	-
30	213	255.6	511	3,478	1h 28m	6	140,000	-
31	217	260.4	515	3,565	1h 30m	-	145,000	-
32	221	265.2	519	3,655	1h 32m	-	150,000	-
33	226	271.2	524	3,746	1h 34m	-	155,000	-
34	230	276	528	3,840	1h 36m	-	160,000	-
35	235	282	589	3,936	1h 38m	7	165,000	-
36	239	286.8	593	4,034	1h 40m	-	170,000	-
37	244	292.8	598	4,135	1h 42m	-	175,000	-
38	249	298.8	603	4,238	1h 44m	-	180,000	-
39	254	304.8	608	4,344	1h 46m	-	185,000	-
40	259	310.8	673	4,453	1h 48m	8	190,000	-

This is an additional table showing the effects of his Iron Fist ability at different levels:

Iron Fist Level	Added Damage Per Second	Hit Points Recovered	Speed Increased By	Speed During Ability	Number of Summoned Units	Iron Fist Duration
1	56	500	18	34	6	10s
2	101	620	19	35	8	-
3	147	752	20	36	10	-
4	195	899	21	37	12	-
5	245	1,063	22	38	14	-
6	298	1,247	23	39	16	-
7	354	1,455	24	40	18	-
8	414	1,692	25	41	20	-

* Note:  The Iron Fist ability forms a rage spell that surrounds the area around the Barbarian King that instantly recovers a portion of his hit points, and increases his speed and damage.  This ability also affects any friendly barbarians (either summoned, from your CC, or from your army) in the area around the King.  It doesn't however have an effect on any other troops, only the friendly barbarians, and it only increases their speed and damage, it does not heal them (the only troop healed by this ability is the Barbarian King himself). 


Offensive Strategy

     When used in attacks, the King can be deployed just like any other troop.  To activate his ability, you simply click his portrait again.  Keep in mind his Iron Fist ability does not stack with rage spells, so don't waste rage spells when his ability is active.  He works really well when used in conjunction with support from archers and the Archer Queen as well as healers or healing spells.  Barbarians are also a good choice to use since they can also benefit from the King's ability; the King and a large group of barbs enraged can really deal some heavy damage to an opponent's base quickly. 
     When using Iron Fist, try to hold off until the King has taken enough damage to get the full amount of heal from his ability.  Also try to use the ability when there are several barbs nearby that will also be affected by it.  This will ensure that you make the most out of the Iron Fist ability.  Always use the ability before the battle is over, even if there was never a good time to use it, you can still heal a significant portion of his health with the ability and reduce his down-time between battles. 
     Make sure not to pull the CC with your King.  He can be easily overpowered by several smaller troops because he only attacks one target at a time and has a slow attack speed, so by the time he is able to kill the CC troops he will have lost a significant portion of his health.  The King can also turn a 0-star attack into a 2-star attack by being deployed behind the main army.  He is very good at clearing buildings and walls especially with his Iron Fist activated, so he can quickly destroy the remainder of a village or the TH once the bulk of the defenses are destroyed.
     When facing an enemy's Barbarian King in battle, don't waste a poison spell on him if you are planning to use it strictly for damage purposes.  For one thing, heroes are all but unaffected by the poison spell; it doesn't do nearly as much damage to heroes as it does to normal troops, and you will see this when it barely puts a scratch in his health.  Also, the heroes seem to instinctively move away from the poison spell once it has been dropped.  If at all possible they will avoid standing in the area affected by a poison spell, unless they are actively engaging troops. 
     There is however a use for poison with heroes in certain situations.  When your troops engage the King, you can then drop your poison on top of him in order to slow him down significantly.  While the damage part of the poison spell has almost no effect on heroes, the slowing effect on their attack and movement speed seems to work just fine.  This allows your troops to quickly deal with the King without suffering heavy losses.

Defensive Strategy

     When the King is on defense, he can be set to defend or sleep.  When sleeping, his altar will be empty when seen by the enemy and he will not defend against an attack.  If he is set to guard, he will actively defend the village from any attackers that come within his targeting radius.  If they try to pull him outside the base, he will not go out any further than his targeting radius, which is a moderately sized circle surrounding his altar. 
     The only way an enemy can pull him outside and engage him out of range of the defenses is if his altar is set on the outer edge of the village, so try to place his altar somewhere near the center or between the center and the outside to avoid this.  It can also help to place him near storages or the TH or other buildings you wish to protect. 
     Some players prefer to have the King constantly set to sleep, since he can only attack one target at a time and isn't a great defender.  The value of the King as a defender doesn't so much come from his ability to attack enemy troops, but more so his high hit points causing troops to get slowed down and eaten up by defenses.  So place him near the center with a bunch of other high hit point structures to maximize this effect.  This can save you from losing resources on your home base, or save you from getting 2 or 3-starred in wars. 
     One last thing to remember is that the King will only attack when his targeting radius is breached by enemy troops.  When troops get close to his radius, he will step toward them to prepare to defend, but he will not attack until they have breached the radius or started attacking him.  Once he clears out any troops in his radius he will return to patrolling until more enemies approach.  He cannot attack any air units, so he is useless against air attacks except to slow them down while they attack him.