Arena of Heroes Hero Tiers Analysis

Arena of Heroes Hero Tiers Analysis by Andulvar.616

Top Tier

Aliea
Currently the most needed character on any team and usually beside Orion and Lily on high tier teams. She is the best healer in the game with strong utility and area denial. Interestingly, Aliea is a strong counter to herself so you will find you end up in consecrate wars with other skilled players. Maybe when other healers are available we’ll need to weigh the cost of not having Consecrate, but currently both healing and consecrate on one package = must have Hero. Consider sharing her kit between two heroes.

Manus Dei
– Single target heal with a nice crit bonus, great ability. Extremely useful in the early game and still scales enough for the late game. Personally I’d like to see the buff changed so that the next attack is a critical hit (as I don’t like too much chance in strategy games) but then there would need to be a reduction in the bonus crit damage applied or it would be over-powered maybe something like 20% instead of 50%. It’s still a great ability.

Group Heal – This ability is the reason you take her. This ability can completely turn fights around, massive aoe healing. I do think the healing amount should be lowered and a defensive buff added (something like 5% defense +5% per rank).

Consecrate – So let me get this straight, a huge AoE circle that prevents enemy heroes from attacking AND dispels all negative fields? Amazing. This skill is game changing when used to counter an enemy play at the right time. I’m not sure how I feel about the Consecrate/Counter Consecrate yet, it may need tweaking. Overall, a great ability.

Evron
Ah Evron, the great pusher of lanes. He creates both offensive and defensive plays with his abilities and can do surprising damage to turrets from longer range than it appears.

Path of Flames – I don’t really understand why he has this skill. Aside from level 1, Ring of fire does everything this does but better. In my opinion this should have its focus costs reduced, damage slightly lowered and should be changed to a longer range line that lasts until the end of your current turn (will not last into minion and opponents turn). This will change his current move-in, Ring of Fire, Move out tactic that you see in every single game and almost every round. Now there would be a good reason to get a second ability off with some risk.

Ring of Fire – His bread and butter, clearing waves of minions like a boss, this is why you take Evron along. Should end after your opponent finishes (one minion wave instead of two)

Flared Temper – Great ability in the hands of a skilled player and strong enough to give your opponent pause when they group up. The fear this combo brings when paired with Blink gives great area denial for free! Sadly it’s usually a sacrifice, but that’s the point. No changes needed.

Orion
Currently the newest character and one of the most powerful. I guess someone thought it would be a good idea to make another Lily. Don’t get me wrong, he looks pretty badass, and I do like his kit, I just wish there was some sort of hero type lock that prevented players from combining Lily AND Orion. Currently you’ll see Orion and Lily (with Aliea) together in most high skill matches. His low movement speed is too much of a non-factor when he is placed in mid. Reducing the deployment zone would help this weakness be more present.

Overwatch – Love it! Awesome skill in so many ways. Great tactical skill for ensuring a location remains vacant. Great looking ability! Interesting utility with the barrier, not sure if its working correctly. And can be countered. No changes here.

Proximity Mine – Useless against a team with Aliea (so all teams). Great idea, but so easily countered that it’s almost never worth placing. Change it so that Consecrate prevents them from activating while it’s up, but re-arm when Consecrate finishes.

Orbital Strike – I like it, I really do. I just wish it wasn’t a clone of Lily. The power of this and Lily’s Poison Blast together can quickly create a snowball situation. In my opinion this should be the AoE version of this type of skill and Lily’s should be single target. Lower the damage by ~30% or so, increase the AoE by ~50% or so. Animation is awesome.

Lily
Was the reigning champ for dps on a team, but now shares that spot with Orion. Unfortunately it usually means why have something else when you have something better x 2. Lily’s kit is good when you have a choice between single target and aoe damage, but soon transitions into both.

Shot to the Heart – good skill and useful in the early rounds of a match. Quickly gets overshadowed by Acid Storm. This skill suffers in much the same as Evron’s first skill. Why use the single target version when the area version is so much better in most situations? Personally I’d like to the damage reduced but the poison damage increased and duration doubled.

Acid Storm – Lily’s bread and butter skill. High damage, strong damage over time, very large AoE. What’s not to like? It’s overpowered. I think the poison should probably be dropped on this ability to make the choice between skills a little harder.

Poison Blast – Like I mentioned above Lily becomes so strong in AoE damage, there is no more need to single target since you can do it just as well but with AoE. This is an amazing ability and far too powerful. Drop the AoE damage, it’s still phenomenal.

Rathbone
After re-visiting this hero on advice from Bait (and losing horribly to Arseface against him) I’ve given this Hero a second chance and consider him in the top tier. His Focus return per turn is amazing allowing him to do some pretty impressive things.

Dark Grasp – Fun ability with some good utility. Countered by forced movement which is rare enough that it works well or forces Aliea forward. Seldom used for more than 1 turn, I would like to see it also reduce the action points of the enemy by one.

Crack of Doom – This is his signature skill. Great all around ability, no complaints here.
Shadow Meld – Another great ability, used usually for minion tanking – it makes Rathbone the front line defender you need in the party. The secondary part of the skill is important to remember. No changes needed.

Middle Tier (Balanced)

Blink
I REALLY like to use Blink. But since Orion came out I can’t make room for him anymore. He used to be THE play-maker. Blink can be paired with many other heroes to create some truly frightening moments. Blink makes Heroes like Grit, Carmen and Evron into deadly assassins (almost making Metus viable… almost). I like his kit, and his skills. Strike Out needs slightly longer range at level one.

Doombeard
I used to use him all the time. Shield Stance combo into rocket jump would make things happen! Super tanky, good damage and decent mobility made for a really interesting character. Too bad long range super damage just outclasses the need for him on your team.

Junkyard
Sadly I haven’t been able to play Junkyard myself, but in playing against him in the hands of a skilled opponent I’d almost consider him top tier. He is dangerous and has a strong presence in the area. Again currently he is just overshadowed by longer range, higher damage Heroes.

Tempest
Another close contender for top tier, but the nerfs seem to have hit him pretty hard. There’s usually only room for one healer, and while Tempest has some great abilities, you pay for them with limited healing. In my opinion, this is a balanced character, Aliea’s abilities just makes the choice easy. Still used for 4-mid strategy and still strong for what it is.

Lower Tier

Grit and Grot
Love these guys. Great character, strong and focused abilities. It’s everything you should want in brute-style hero. His ability to one shot just about anything still commands respect, but he’s still easily controlled and needs a Blink, Junkyard or Tempest on the team to really shine.

Max
Can’t say much about Max yet. I haven’t played him, and every time I’ve faced off against him he’s given me no trouble at all. I heard they nerfed his damage, maybe too much? His abilities look interesting, but don’t seem to have the range or even the punch of Lily or Orion.

Carmen
Stealth? HA! More like “use one ability you were probably going to use anyway – THEN hit me”. Stim is fun and can create some plays, but no AoE at all, one useless skill and an assassination skill that requires melee range? Why take her when Lily and Orion can do it from across the screen?

Metus
Super cool ideas. A forever damage over time?! Wow! Switch place with the enemy? Wow! If I take damage you take a high percentage? Wow! On paper this guy sounds so sick, but sadly in practice he’s terrible. He pretty much requires Blink if you don’t want to sacrifice yourself every time to swap places. The range on his DoT is just too short, and Bind rarely does more than a hit or two before Metus meets his maker with his low defenses. This guy needs to be THE tank mage. Give him defenses to back up his abilities and make Bind do more damage than he takes.

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