[The Panther]

One of the reasons VOs work so well as meat shields is the 50 Morale. They fight to the death every time, which makes them far better than they really are.

They also have so many HPs that they are difficult to kill with Murdering Winter and Fire Storm. And they take a while to die under Wraithful Skies.

It is probably the Ivy King which makes them unbalanced, as level 3 Nature mages are quite good even without getting 4 VOs for 1 gem while waiting for a war or battle to begin!

Don't forget that the Thug with the Charcoal Shield will be quickly killed by enemy mage spells while he is trying to fight through all the VOs to get at the mage snug in the back with his Staff of Storms.