The results are in:
In First Place with 9 wins is the Druid. The Druid, starting out, is one of the weaker heroes, but she also shows the most promise. I would say she's the most improved hero. Only the Knight and Rogue were able to beat her, this was obviously due to the Knight's increased defense and the Rogue's double attack, while able to reroll

s on his 2nd attack and ranged attacks. But the Druid, once maxed out, no longer has to rely on her Shapeshift spell, it becomes a bonus and her healing spells keep her in the fight much longer for a total of 12 body points. With a Longsword and Shield she could really do some damage, especially under Shapeshift. The fact that she casts her healing spells early on to make sure she gets her Shapeshift spell back, also guarantees that she won't run out of body points before being able to cast it. I can see how she boosted so far ahead since how she was when she first started out.
In 2nd place:
The Dwarf, who put on a good show emphasizing how important of an artifact Borin's Armor is. The Battle Axe is classic give and take, a heavy hitting weapon, but it also lowers your defense not being able to use a shield. He suffered 3 losses to the Elf, Druid, and very surprisingly the Explorer. He had very poor rolls against the Explorer. I'd like to say this was a fluke but she also beat him in the first round-table where neither had any artifacts. Somehow the Explorer out-dwarf's the Dwarf. The Elf won because of her spells and it's likely due to all her healing the Druid got a win over him. I feel the Dwarf could have lost a bit more had I not given him the Fire Ring too. This proved to be of great value to him when facing the Wizard and Monk.
In 3rd place we have a tie:
The Knight obviously comes down to his 6 defense dice. That's the most anyone can hold while he doesn't get slowed down by the Plate Mail. The Stalwart ability doesn't necessarily give him 1 extra body point, it could activate when he has 1 body point left and loses 4. That could negate a couple extra hits. His only downfall is his Mind Points. The 4 heroes that beat him: Barbarian, Berserker and Dwarf were all armed with the same weapon. A high enough roll with a Battle Axe could punch through the Plate Mail, which is why nobody else was able to beat him, except for the Wizard, whose Fire and Sleep spells work around the Armor.
I was not expecting the Wizard to do this well. In part this can be due to the way I play the Courage spell. The Wizard, once accumulating enough artifacts, can hang with the rest of the heroes. This may not be due to his attack dice, he makes up for this with a wide variety of spells and being able to cast more then one at a time really emphasizes how helpful spells are. With limited use as 1 spell they don't go too far, but he can combine them with the Wand of Magic and cast 2 at once, it really boosts the Wizard's potential and makes spells like Tempest and Swift Wind more valuable, especially when using the Sapphire Skull.
We're at another tie in 5th place
The Barbarian is only boosted by Amulet of the North with no other artifacts, but for an unused spell scroll. While fighting with a Battle Axe does lower his defense, it also boosts his attack, relying his extra body points to keep him afloat. This worked a few times. The Dwarf outlasted him thanks to Borin's Armor; the Druid's healing spells boosted her body points while Shapeshift matched him in attack and beat his defense; the Bard's Lullaby lasted a very long time, allowing him to sneak in a win; while the Rogue and Warlock focused on hit-and-run or range attacks, showing that movement is important in some of these battles too. While he may not be the most rounded hero he's extremely formidable.
I had a tricky time setting up the Elf's stats. I wanted to make all these fights fair, I got it as close as possible with my points system. However the Elf had so many artifacts to work with and Elven Chainmail and Longsword would've really boosted her points, so I brought her down with regular chainmail, since there is no card for Elven Chainmail and just gave her the Spirit Blade, since there are no undead it's worth as much as a Broadsword. Her spells didn't necessarily come in handy as I drew them at Random and the Nature Spells came up often, only her healing spell was helpful except Twist Wood did ruin the Bard's Crossbow. She lost to the Barbarian, whose sheer Body Points and attack dice kept him in the fight; the Druid, who beat most thanks to her Healing Spells; the Knight had the Elf beat on Defense; she couldn't outrun the Warlock and catch up to her; while the Wizard out spelled her. I feel she might have come out on top of she had the Elven Chainmail. She also would have beat the Warlock had they had an early match before her Elven Boots ran out.
In 7th place we have a 3-way tie:
Berserker's Enrage skill might work better on monsters, but when facing heroes the

s are more easily rolled. I gave him the Scales of Elthorn instead of regular Chainmail to help with mind point rolls, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. The way it's worded actually improved his chances against the Elf's Hypnotic Blaze. He did well enough considering 7 Body points, or actually 9 due to the Armband of Healing. Frenzy doesn't help much in a 1 on 1 battle, it only gives you a 1-off diagonal attack. But I think the 4 defense dice didn't work in his favor.
The Monk also got 5 wins, I can't remember if I gave him a Crossbow or not, he never really used it. The Girdle of Might brought him up to 3 attack anyway, but a Crossbow might have kept him in the fight longer. But this is why I gave him the Rod of Telekinesis, he gave him a chance to reuse his techniques and it worked out in some cases. The problem with the Monk is that he has very little opportunity to grow, he can't wear armor and any weapon he carries (except the Crossbow) is irrelevant by comparison to his unarmed attacks. The Monk is a plain bad ass and beats all the other heroes, at least on points, when they all start out, but as all the other heroes grow, gathering weapons and armor, the Monk is still formidable and good fighter, but up against the other heroes with armor he may not be as great. But he still works good in a quest pack that has monsters with 1 or 2 body points.
The Rogue also captured the #7 spot, but he needed a lot of artifacts to upgrade. Had he entered this with only 3 defense dice I think would've fared much worse. The Emberwrought Diadem really boosted both his defense and Body Points. The double attack concept was the equivalent of 4 attack dice since his opponents couldn't roll a 2nd defense. No only that but the Raven's Talon allowed him to reroll all black shields. 4 defense dice still isn't major, but for the Rogue it puts him on par with the other heroes. The extra body point kept him in the fight longer, though, which allowed him to do more damage and even sneak a few wins.
In tenth or 2nd to last place we have yet another tie:
I felt the Explorer would do better with a companion pet Raptor and I'm sure this helped a little, but perhaps I could've boosted her with other artifacts. But the Explorer isn't meant to be a keen fighter, she excels on the map with traps. She could probably kill a few monsters in a group quest but I think her primary job in a group is to detect and disarm traps. So it's no surprise she didn't do so well in battle.
The Warlock also managed 3 wins against the Barbarian, Elf and Explorer. She only had 1 method that only somewhat works, with the Bracers of the Wild it boosted her speed to run around the arena more freely and just pick off her opponents with ranged attacks. Had anyone wore Plate Mail she could've easily picked them off from a distance. But speed is a factor too and that's what the Warlock relies on. It's just the Arena didn't give enough space. The Ring if Fortitude gave her an extra Body Point but I've noticed in her fights once she loses Demonform her chances of hitting an opponent drastically drops. I'm not sure what her Wand is made out of, but had the Elf drew Nature Spells against her I would've allowed Twist Wood to effect the Wand.
In last place is the Bard, which is somewhat surprising. This hero tried changing up strategy mid match many times alternating between Crossbow and Longsword. But I think his low body points are the reason he did so poorly, plus he's the only hero Orc's Bane works on, which helped the Rogue muster a win. Also his Inspirational Tale doesn't work on himself so Asides from 2BP of healing he only has Lullaby, which works for a turn or two (Except the Barbarian, who stayed asleep until he woke up dead), so he wasn't really able to stay in the fight. An interesting character for sure, but he's most helpful when he has a team to support.