Talk:Lava Hound/@comment-25856498-20150107130858/@comment-2170536-20150212213345

...because one max-level air defense will kill all four healers in 16 seconds, but needs 21 seconds to destroy one Lava Hound by itself. That's the entire point of meat shields. It's like saying "why bother with a golem when you can just train 7 more wizards?" Because those 7 wizards will get chewed to pieces without something taking the hits for them.

The comment about making Giant-Healer more viable at high TH levels was added to this page in the early days of Lava Hounds, before many people had experience with using them (notice the "may make" part of the comment). Sadly it really hasn't had an impact, but it's not because people could bring additional healers instead. Four healers is just as unsuccessful as two, mostly because:
 * 1) Healers can only heal ground troops, and therefore the more other air troops you bring, the less effective healers are, and
 * 2) The fewer air troops you bring, the more exposed the healers are to anti-air damage
 * 3) Adding additional healers doesn't help keep healers alive, as healers can't heal each other