I'd echo the earlier post, and recommend balloons only until TH8 or so (with L5 balloons).
TH7 and earlier tend to be fairly easy with just "cheap ground" troops (e.g., arch/gobs/wbs, etc). So, no particular reason to use heavy troops (except to burn elixir and to have fun of course). I saw the follow-up comment, and if you are TH5 and at 2k or so trophy, well... that's a hard road to take, but heck, we're all eating premie TH10s nowadays, so shrug...
Illy

