User blog:EddyWesly/Guide of Each Hero In The Game

by Eddy Wesly

Okay, before I get started, I need to say three of the most important things: first, this is MY OPINION. You might agree or disagree with me about each of these. Second, PLAY THE GAME HOW YOU WANT TO. It’s a game, and it’s ultimately about having fun. Third, DON'T INVEST INTO EACH HERO YOU HAVE!!! It's a very bad idea, and you will be resource starved.

Note: When I say a hero is very good at a certain thing, I’m probably referring to when they’re at violet. Also, this is for Web/Facebook players. 

The Starter Heroes

 * Galahad: As a starter hero, he will be quite useful, mostly because of his high damage output. However, as you progress through the game, you may want to opt for a more defensive tank and rely on other heroes to deal damage. However, in some cases his damage output will be best for your team and it isn't a bad idea to invest into him. If you are to use him, put him in with a physical team, where he and his team will benefit from physical attack. He also highly depends on his ult, "Iron Skies," which strikes each enemy with tons of swords, and this is even stronger when you consider that Galahad has vampirism(heals the hero for a percentage of damage dealt to the opponent.) 
 * Artemis: She does okay damage, but most of her stats are pretty bad, there are many better options, and she needs Sebastian, and even then she's not that good.
 * Thea: Her heals are a bit lacking, but her silence and speed-up are definitely useful, she's really good in Jhu teams, but I prefer other healers as they heal more efficiently. She is a good choice as a hero against mages with her Magic Defense artifact and because of her silence.
 * Phobos: The only time he is useful is against Bosses, but I would rather level up other heroes to achieve that goal, besides he depends way too much on his ult and his other skills are pretty lame. Even when he gets his ult off, it's pretty RNG that he'll get a shot at a hero who doesn't have enough Magic Defense to mitigate his damage, and the Magic Penetration that he gets from his Stellar skin still doesn't help against heroes with high Magic Defense, so again: RNG.
 * Astaroth: He is often considered one of the best tanks in the game, and you can see why: he creates a shield that absorbs physical attack, he removes energy from the hero in the back, he protects the lowest health ally by absorbing a portion of all damage received by them, and probably his best ability: he revives an ally once per battle. I definitely agree that overall, he is the best tank in the game.
 * Astrid and Lucas:(At the time of writing this guide, Astrid was available to new players): Astrid and Lucas are a unique duo. While Astrid is a single target dps and isn't that great by herself, her pet Lucas, when he's in his Rage mode, his attacks can stun the opponent and really cause a mess. If you are to build around Astrid, you could go with putting her with Galahad or Faceless, since they expose the enemy and therefore give Astrid more targets. Lucas is known as the single best tank in the game due to him healing whenever Astrid gets energy, but due to A&L being incompatible with most heroes you won't see him being used much. Also, in some servers, if you sign in for 7 days in a row, you would get A&L from the Special Event
 * Arachne: (When you start, there’s a 11 hour “event” to collect her soul stones): When you start, she does seem pretty good, but as you get further, you will see that she lacks in damage. She has many issues, such as: has Agility and Physical Attack glyphs as a magic damage dealer, her artifact gives Physical Attack, she has no magic penetration, and her Violet ability barely does no damage. I would say use her up until level 50, then drop her in favor of stronger dps, Magic or Physical.


 * Ginger: She can be a strong markswoman,but often she's outclassed by Keira.


 * Mojo: Mojo’s not a bad choice, but he is outclassed by other mages who do his job better. He’s pretty good against bosses, though, especially Brog. When you compare him to mages such as Orion and Lars, more so Orion due to his easy access, he really has a hard time competing with them, since they do so much more damage and both have one of the things that make him unique: his artifact weapon, which provides Magic Penetration, which only 4 heroes have: Orion, Lars, Faceless, and Mojo.
 * Aurora: Unlike other tanks, she doesn’t tank by having high health and armor, she survives by dodging. Especially with the new dodge update, she is extremely powerful when paired with a Violet Cain, which gives her bonus energy for each dodge. Also, with her Violet skill, which absorbs a portion of all magic damage received, she can deal with both sides of the spectrum, Magic and Physical. However, physical damage dealers can often still beat her if their main stat is high enough, which lowers the chance of Aurora dodging.
 * Keira: She’s often regarded as the best damage dealer in the game and I highly recommend her to new players because of her high damage output and easy access. Her 2 most valuable skills: Dancing Blades, which makes all of her basic attacks hit each enemy, and Piercing Pain: If the enemy that Keira is hitting has less armor than Keira has Armor Penetration, she does extra pure damage to them. This is why she is often put with a hero that buffs Armor Penetration, and there are 3: Fox, Qing Mao, and Elmir. However, sometimes her Dancing Blades ability can be her downfall, since it charges the opponents faster, causing her to be at a disadvantage, but if you can kill the opponent fast enough, it won't matter.
 * Fox: She is a hero that is most used because of her blind, which reduces the effectiveness of front-line hitters, most notably Karkh, but also other heroes such as Andvari, Galahad, Qing Mao, etc. She is one of the 3 heroes that give Armor Penetration, but she's probably much less used than Qing Mao+Keira or Elmir+Keira, and I typically agree that Elmir and Qing Mao are better with Keira than Fox. Most of the times I would level up Fox to blind Karkh, and that's mostly it. However she is also the only armor penetrating hero who goes behind Keira and is a good choice if you're using Nebula to buff Keira as Nebula would also buff Fox.
 * Heidi: Even after her update, she doesn't do much damage and she's still considered as somewhat of a joke, though I will say she is much better, but that's like comparing a raisin to a grape.
 * Daredevil: If you want to know my thoughts about her, just read the part about Artemis, they're very similar except Daredevil's attacks are even worse than Artemis.

Arena Merchant Heroes(unlocks at level 10):

 * Judge: He has an ult that barely tickles the opponent, makes shields that get completely ripped through, has a blue ability that really doesn't help much, and a decent Violet skill. Wouldn't get him for any reason.
 * Dark Star: If you put tons of investment into her, she can be quite good. She constantly makes it past the tank and hits the second hero, but many times that doesn't matter since there's probably a warrior there that can take it. She also has some pretty cool control abilities, especially her Blue skill "Control," which makes the nearest enemy fight for you. However, that often doesn't really help, as she's usually controlling a tank, which won't do much since tanks generally have low attack. Because of the large investment needed, I'd say hard pass.
 * Chabba: He's not that bad in my opinion, and his swallowing ability can be quite useful. However besides that most of his other skills are meh, he has pretty low base Armor, he's quite boring other than his swallow, and that can be mitigated with Jorgen.
 * Maya: Maya is...not really a healer. Her healing ability, while constant, won't really heal your team and it, when compared to Martha, is really lackluster and she shouldn't be seen as a healer. You should see her as a strong damage dealer that takes down the opponents over time. Her Flower's strong point is when it dies. When that happens, the damage that comes from it is extremely difficult to overcome with healing. She can also be paired with Jhu and Jorgen, because they specialize in attacking the back and Maya's Blue ability, pulls the heroes on the far right and the heroes on the far left together, which can be useful if you're fighting a bulky Martha. So to sum it all up: she's a bad healer, good damage dealer, and she can support heroes that focus on attacking the back.

Friendship Shop:

 * Faceless: He is very flexible, he's one of the 4 heroes that give Magic Penetration, but he's not used for that as much as he used with Karkh. With Karkh, his "Power Throw" gives Karkh a chance to use his "Deadly Tendrils," and it also exposes the 2nd hero to Karkh, who can be devastating even with just his basic attacks. Even if you don't use Karkh, Faceless can be used with Satori in that he provides Magic Penetration and that his "Power Throw" can give Satori a chance to mark the 2nd hero in line with Fox Fire Marks. Probably his 2 uses are in magic teams and in Karkh teams.
 * Cornelius: He's one of the go-to countecounters.

Outland Shop(unlocks at level 25):

 * Luther: Luther is a pretty special tank, he jumps to the back of the enemy team, stuns them, and starts wrecking havoc. It often makes more than half of the enemy team to turn around and target him until he is dead. If you go this route, you will need to really up his health, as most of the times if he has low health he will immediately die after his jump. Also keep in mind that when he jumps, your 2nd hero in line is exposed, which can be really bad if someone with high attack wasn't distracted by Luther. To combat this, you could run 2 tanks, Astaroth and Luther, which could be a good idea considering Astaroth's Blue skill "Demon's Allegiance," which absorbs a portion of all physical damage taken by the lowest health ally.
 * Qing Mao:She's most used with Keira, to not use Qing Mao without Keira is silly, she doesn't really do much without her. Qing Mao doesn't only provide Armor Penetration with her Artifact Weapon, she also provides it with her basic attacks! She can also be compared with Fox in that she also provides blind, she also has a knockback skill. Even if you don't run Keira, she is essential against Vadjar, and she's also amazing against bosses in general, with her "Dragon Claw," which takes away a set percentage of Health, at the very least 10%.
 * Jorgen: He’s one of the best heroes in Arena, seeing how his energy manipulation is extremely beneficial because of how important each hero’s ultimate is to them. He stops heroes like Galahad, Chabba, Luther, Cleaver, Rufus, and sometimes even Ziri! Those are all heroes who depend highly on their ultimates, and without them, they sometimes don't really do anything special, especially in Rufus's case, where his goal is to protect his entire team. Jorgen's Blue skill "Leper," which redirects all physical damage to the hero in the back, is also extremely dangerous, especially against heroes such as Lars if he's in the back, Helios, Peppy, even Martha if you have some really strong Physical damage. Jorgen is just an all-around S-Tier hero that is useful in so many situations. He's even bettter in that be doesn't need much investment to be a good hero.
 * Elmir: He is the 3rd hero that can provide Armor Penetration, and the most used after Qing Mao. He is a single target dps, which is often what makes people doubt him, but I'd say that's actually a good thing with Yasmine running around these days. He can also create clones that often trick the opponents and can be pretty good against Karkh, since he targets the lowest health enemies. When you pair Keira+Elmir, it is recommended to also add Dorian, since Keira benefits from the vampirism constantly, and Elmir, when he jumps back, can start to heal up with Dorian's aura, but note this team requires Keira to be near Dorian.

Tower Shop(unlocks at level 15):

 * Kai: He is one of the 3 heroes in this game that can lift up heroes: Karkh, Kai, and Faceless. Many new players consider putting him with Karkh since he can lift up the entire other team, but I wouldn't do that since Kai is level dependent, which means his tornado isn't a guaranteed lift-up against higher level heroes, which is a big down-side, since most of the times in this game you will face much higher leveled enemies than you in Arena. He does deal magic damage, yes, but not very much of it and Faceless is much more consistent.
 * Orion: He is one of the most popular mages, out of the 4 heroes that provide Magic Penetration, he is the 2nd most used for the Weapon artifact, especially because he is constantly ulting and providing so much Magic Penetration, which mages such as Helios can benefit from. He is probably better with Dorian than Martha, since Orion doesn't have much health and armor, so his health will often go down, but suddenly sprint back up due to his constant damage output.
 * Dante: He's a pretty good hero now, paired with Nebula, his ultimate can easily one shot people, and he gives extra dodge with his ability, so yeah, he's pretty good. I would say either pair him with another hero in a physical team, or make him a single dps.
 * Lilith: She's a magic attack "tank" that stands behind most front-line heroes, so she really only fits in teams that try to stall for 2 minutes, which counts as a win on defense. In my opinion, stall teams aren't really that good, even if they stall well, they're really lacking in fire-power to win fights on offense.

Grand Arena Shop(unlocks at level 50):

 * Lian: She is a pretty useful control hero that slows down AoE hitters by a considerable amount, especially Keira. If she is in the last spot, she can combat Jorgen, who redirects all physical attacks to her, putting them all to sleep. She also deals a hefty amount of magic attack and pure damage, but most of her utility comes from her Violet skill "Conciliation," which makes it so that any hero that hurts Lian is instantly put to sleep. If you are to use her, I would make sure that there isn't any big AoE hitters on your team, as that will drastically make Lian less effective.
 * Markus: After his rework, Markus is now one of the best healers in the game. Not only does he give good healing constantly, he's a healer that has a considerable amount of Health and Armor, making him a decent off-tank or tank. Definitely his most useful ability is his ult, which makes the lowest health ally immune to all attacks for a few attacks, and heals them all the while that is happening. He can even continue healing after he is dead, definitely a unique trait for a healer. Very good synergy with Luther.
 * Ishmael: Just like Dark Star, he needs tons of investment to work, and when he does work, he's pretty good, making all physical attack miss, getting tons of critical hits and mowing the opponents down, and healing all the time. However, I wouldn't recommend doing this as you need to put tons of investment into Ishmael. (Stars, Skins, Glyphs, Artifacts, everything.) He used to be very popular, but a nerf made him much less viable.
 * Rufus: Rufus is a tank that deals with mages that deal magic damage, and he can't even die to magic or pure attack! However, as a Tank, his shield can often be ripped through easily and he fails to do what he was made to do. Don't use him as a main tank, as he will be useless against physical teams, who ignore 3/4 of his skills most of the times.

Elemental Tournament Shop(unlocks at level 60):

 * Nebula: Nebula is one of the best supports in the games, she's so flexible and she goes next to so many damage dealers, such as Keira, Karkh, Ishmael, Orion, Twins, etc etc. Part of why she is so good is her Violet skill "Equilibrium," which gives a massive Magic and Physical Attack buff to the heroes next to her, which are game-changing.
 * K'arkh: One of the most powerful damage dealers in the game at the moment. Without even considering his skills, his Armor Penetration and Physical Attack are some of the highest in the game, right next to Keira. The reason why Karkh is so good is his blue skill, "Deadly Tendrils." This skills makes it so that Karkh attacks any hero thrown into the air, and the chance to double the amount of damage this skill does is guaranteed if the target is equal level to Karkh or lower. When you combine this skill with "Negator of Laws," Karkh's ultimate: "Throw the 3 lowest health enemies into the air," you can see the power of Karkh. 1, he's attacking heroes with his already high attack stats. 2, there's a chance to double it, which is insane. 3, he's attacking the lowest health enemy. Often, there's a good chance that Karkh will just one-shot 3 opponents in one go. One thing to make Karkh even more broken is Nebula. When you add Nebula into the ratio, if she buffs Karkh and he ults, there's not many scenarios where the enemies aren't getting killed. If you are considering building a Karkh team, he basically needs Faceless, so I'd put him in. Kai can be a makeshift option, but generally Faceless>Kai.

Guild War Shop:

 * Jhu: Jhu is an extremely powerful hero that's specialty is attacking the back heroes. While the back heroes used to be squishy heroes, ever since Martha has been introduced, Jhu has had a harder time competing in Arena. Even so, if Jhu is buffed by Nebula and Sebastian, his hits will still do so much damage that they stun even Martha. If you have a hard time coping with Martha, you could use Maya to remedy the problem. Jhu also has insane survivability, being unable to die for a period of time. Often he can get enough energy in that period that he can immediately activate his ult over and over again, and he's near impossible to kill. He's also extremely good against bosses, and he's essential against Illysa.
 * Ziri: Ziri has some of the highest Armor and Health in the game. She has tons of cools skills, such as making the enemy only attack her, reflecting all physical attack back at her opponents, and: Burrows underground when she has low health, and starts regenerating. The last is what makes her an extremely strong tank, but you need a strong second line to be able to cope with her not tanking for a long period.

Late Game Campaign Heroes (Chapters 9-15):

 * Peppy: She's pretty bad by herself, and she really needs Cleaver to be viable. They are so good together because of her green skill "Boldness": Peppy puts a shield on the furthest ally.When that ally gets damaged, the shield damage nearby enemies with magic attack, and Cleaver's green ability "Putrefaction": Cleaver damages himself and nearby enemies with pure damage. Peppy and Cleaver's green skills go off at the same time, it'll be devastating to nearby enemies. Peppy also has some synergy with Luther. It is best to use the pet Merlin or Mara with Peppy.
 * Helios: He is a strong mage who has a lot of magic attack, but he lacks magic penetration, which he literally has none of. He needs a magic penetration hero, like Orion, Lars, or Faceless. He can also counter heroes who can do critical damage with his violet skill "If Helios's allies get critically hit, his magic orb will strike them with a magic beam", so he’s pretty good against Sebastian and especially Yasmine, with her quick crits. However, he's not as strong against Jhu, since Jhu has a magic defense skin which can mitigate Helios's beam.
 * Krista: Krista is basically useless without Lars, since most of her skills are all about the water mark and her 2 skills that deal the most damage are both reliant on Lars's tornado. However, put her with Lars, and she'll shine, especially with the added Magic Penetration from his ult. Krista also is the tankiest mage, and she'll make Cornelius's strong point, his Monolith, near useless if her Intelligence is kep higher than Lars's.
 * Lars: He is the key in all Twins teams, who makes everything better. His tornado: Synergizes especially with Krista's thorns and her ice crystals, marks enemies with marks of water, also adds magic penetration, which Krista desperately needs. Unlike Krista, he's not useless without his Twin, and he synergizes quite well with Helios, because of Helios's magic orb, ult, and requirement of Magic Penetration.
 * Celeste: She's a strong healer who has the strongest single target healing in the game, and she's really offensive, but in my opinion, Martha's a tad bit better since she can single-handedly heal the entire team. Celeste synergizes well with magic damage dealers, such as Twins and Orion, Dorian, Helios.

Chest Exclusive Heroes(Can only be obtained through the Heroic Chest):

 * Cleaver: He’s one of the hardest heroes to get in the game, but if you can get your hands on him, he’s extremely useful. His “Rusty Hook” ability pulls the furthermost hero to the front, which can be useful in killing those squishy mages in the back. The previously mentioned combo with Peppy is very strong, as it will do a lot of damage to those near him.
 * Martha: Probably the best healer in the game, she’s put into many top tier teams, such as Keira, Karkh, and Twins. While lacking in damage, she can “counter” heroes that can target the backline, as out of all the heroes in the game, no one stands behind her. Like I mentioned before, she can effortlessly heal the entire team, but quick AoE can be her downfall, and Cleaver stops her in her tracks. A sound strategy that I have seen is ignoring her health and armor, instead investing into her artifact weapon so that she practically becomes a brickwall when she ults.
 * Satori: He can destroy Jorgen and Orion, but if you’re building a team around Satori, you need to make sure that he’s the only one who does the damage, because Satori does huge damage over time, and when he uses his ult, that’s when the killing starts.
 * Dorian: A commonly used healer, Dorian is all about placement, as everyone near him will get vampirism. He has a pretty good combo with Elmir as when Elmir jumps back, he will gain vampirism and start healing. He can also be good against Cleaver, as when Cleaver pulls him to the front, Dorian will give vampirism to the entire front line. One of the popular meta teams(most effective tactic available) is Orion, Dorian, and Helios. This team is so good because Orion and Helios are always healing themselves if they get hurt, Orion is always firing off his ultimate, providing Magic Penetration, which Helios can really benefit from.

Event Heroes(Heroes that can only be obtained through events):

 * Andvari: He is a direct counter to Karkh, and he can also be useful against The Twins, but mostly Karkh. He is also often used as a tank in Blender teams because of his Anti-Karkh and Twins, and also his Physical damage.


 * Sebastian: He's a support hero that buffs critical hit chance on heroes that have it, and out of the 6, it's best to put him with Ishmael, Jhu, or Yasmine. Artemis and Daredevil are meh, and Fox isn't used because of her crit. With those 3 heroes, adding Nebula is preferred. Sebastian is also used in teams that don't have any critical hit chance heroes, simply because he's that good. He can stop Jorgen, Satori, Lian, Twins, and so many others. Definitely a hero worth investing into.

Soul Shop(Unlocked when you get a hero to Absolute Star):

 *  Jet: Between him and Cleaver, I’d say that it is harder to get Jet. Not only you need a 6 star hero, but even when you unlock Jet, his soul stones come in either 1-5 bundles each day, so it will take a maximum of 30 days to obtain him, not counting that you need soul coins to buy him. But when we move on to his abilities, his best is his “Inordinate Fury” which gives the entire team critical hit chance. When you combine that with Sebastian, who supports people who have critical hit chance, the damage output can get insanely high. A popular team is the “blender team” consisting of Sebastian, Jet, and Keira.

New Heroes(Unobtainable as of August 9th, 2020):
 Side Note: Usually the base of a team consists of:
 * Corvus: Corvus goes well alone and with Morrigan. As a tank, Corvus has some of the lowest armor and health in the game, which is made up for by Morrigan's Bone Armor skill. However Corvus acts as a counter to fast small damage hitting teams, usually Keira and Yasmine. His Altar of Souls skill takes deals consistent damage each time an ally is hurt. A strategy that works on web(for some reason this isn't as good on Facebook, perhaps due to some minor positioning differences) is including both Yasmine and Keira, Yasmine usually goes after Corvus, killing him at the risk of her own life and upon dying leaves Keira to kill of the rest of the enemy team. Corvus can be patroned to either Albus or Oliver. Additionally his Royal Defense pulls an ally to the middle of the team when his or her health falls below 20% and this skill could do well with Dorian if done correctly
 * Morrigan: In my opinion, Morrigan isn't a viable option without Corvus. Her skill set centers around buffing undead allies(at the moment only Corvus is undead) and creating skeletons. Her skeletons are helpful for sure and can really help against Astaroth and Rufus's revive skills but she wouldn't be worth it on your main team just for that. All in all Corvus+Morrigan(MorVus) has good synergy, less than Twins, but good nonetheless. With the addition of more and more undead heroes, MorVus will become much stronger as many of their skills center around undead teammates and more popular. However in the short term you shouldn't expect them to be the best team around.
 * Yasmine: She is amazing against Physical teams, such as Keira and Karkh most of all, since she'll rip then apart, but when she's up against magic teams like Twins, Satori, or ODH, her effectiveness is lowered a bit, but even then, she's pretty good. (She gets demolished by Helios, avoid him.)

 Tank

Damage Dealer

Healer

That’s the base of a team. To fill the next 2 spots, you either put in a support hero, another damage dealer, another healer, or another hero that helps the main damage dealer. It is generally a bad idea to have two tanks.

Also, it's not a bad idea to accept Exp quests if you have enough resources, and as long as you have a solid team that can cope with higher-level teams in the Tower.

That is my guide to each hero in the game! If you have any questions, just ask. If you want quicker answers, I am EddyWesly on Hero Wars Discord:

☀https://discord.gg/HmRvvXS