AFK Arena Early Game Tier List

SS Tier Heroes

Lucius

Lucius is a defensive frontliner who possesses high durability and supports his team by providing healing and powerful shields. However, he sacrifices nearly all offensive capabilities for his powerful defensive kit.

Guild Hunt Strategy

► Lucius's shielding and healing grant Survivalist status to his entire team, making him amazing in Guild Hunts even though his personal damage is very low. Against Soren, the shields from his ultimate can be used block Soren's Charm or ultimate damage.

► When utilized with Nemora, all dps are immortal against Wrizz at all points of the game and only gets more effective when Nemora starts providing shields herself, making the duo effective against Soren's Charms and High AoE Damage.

Saveas

Saveas deals extremely high damage at the cost of his own health. Despite this, he is also surprisingly durable and can decimate enemy teams if left unattended.

General Strategy

► Hide Saveas behind Brutus for maximum effectiveness. Saveas takes full advantage of Brutus's 2nd skill (Roar), while Brutus's guaranteed survivability buys time for Saveas to build energy. Brutus's ultimate can also set up future kills for Saveas to keep resetting his ultimate duration.
► Khasos's 4th skill (Rabid Thirst) grants Saveas lifesteal to offset the health cost in empowering Saveas's autoattacks.
► Due to Saveas's high autoattack damage, buffing his attack speed is especially potent, making allies such as Numisu great, and also the Dura's Eye Artifact.

► +15 Crit Rate: This buff granted from the Union Buffs(Located in Library) is Saveas' strongest early game advantage over all early game damage dealers in the game. Try to aquire the buff as soon as possible as it provides Saveas a powerful stat that no other early game hero can have until mid to the end of mid game, granting you a strong advantage in PvP modes.

Guild Hunt Strategy

► DPS Survivalist: Saveas has very high DPS and Surivability, makihg him a strong yet also very cheap hero to play in Guild Hunts. With his high healing and damage output, Saveas needs very little team support and can provide high damage output by outlasting other more team dependent damage dealers with his lack of reliance on healing from teammates. This combination of high DPS and Survivability makes him a great Guild Hunt hero from Early-Mid game as he needs very little investment to play Guild Hunt effectively, thus gaining a strong advantage against most Damage Dealers by being effective at Guild Hunt much earlier and at a lower investment requirement.

► Wasted Utility: Just as with all DPS based damage dealers, Saveas fails to take advantage of the fact that Wrizz' Ultimate ability restores your heroes' Energy to full on hit. This is because Saveas deals damage overtime, not in one burst. This makes him unable to take advantage of Double Ult Strategies thus his damage output can fall off once burst heroes gains access to Double Ult strategies with dedicated team support & healing.

Nemora

Nemora is a purely defensive healer who makes up for her low damage output by causing enemies to turn on each other.

General Strategy

► If you find Nemora sitting at full health while her allies die, without enough energy to cast her ultimate, you can try putting Nemora as a frontliner to increase her energy gain through taking damage. Ideally, put a melee Tank/Bruiser behind her who will take some of the enemy attention away from her as Nemora may not survive a full-fledged assault.
► Nemora generally charms the closest enemy, so position her accordingly to hit priority targets.

S Tier Heroes

Ira

Ira is a highly lethal burst damage dealer who's lethality increases as the enemies' numbers dwindle.

She is additionally the best mid game Guild Hunt damage dealer in the game.

General Strategy

► Positioning: Ira must be placed at 3 or 5 to limit the spread of her ult. While her ultimate has global range, it highly prioritizes nearby enemies so positioning her at the corner will limit her Ult spread even more, allowing her to focus its dmg on nearby enemies.
► Frontline Dependent: All ultimate dependent heroes needs a good frontline but Ira needs it more for the same reason she needs good positioning. This is to limit the spread of her ult. If her enemies close in on her, her ult will spread more, making its lethality less reliable. Additionally, it can miss moving enemies so try to make sure your tanks dont die during Ira's ultimate.

► Union Buff Dependent: Ira greatly needs full Union Buff to be considered an A Tier hero as before then, she is team dependent due to her low pre-ult dmg, wavering around D or B tier depending on the situation and her team composition. But the Union Buff Solves her low pre-ult dmg as she gains access to an RNG based burst, greatly leveraging her team dependence. Before The Union Buff, Brutus is almost necessary to make Ira work as a solo carry as she will have a hard time shredding the enemy frontline without Brutus providing damage at the same time. Another option is to play Belinda to grant Ira Crit Rate for a duration. Otherwise, if neither is available, it is better to play a Defensive Team and wait for Ira's ultimate damage.

After the Union Buff, Ira is almost nearly support independent. Recmmended supports however are: Lyca and Estrilda for their Attack Speed and Energy Regen Buffs.


► Pre-Union Buff Battle Strategies: because Ira is not yet as strong before she gets the +15 Crit Rate buff, she needs specific strategies to work outside Guild Hunt. With these Strategies however, Ira can be a strong hero.

►► Aggressive Snowball:
Ideal Position: 3 || Best Allies: Brutus, Raine & Lyca.
Employs Support heroes who specialize on assisting Ira to quickly kill the enemy frontlline infront of her. Quickly eliminating the frontline infront of Ira means her ultimate will have less targets, increasing its lethality. In this strategy, Raine is the best support as she provides Ira the ability to cast her ultimate 3-4 times in a single battle. However, Raine alone is not enough as Raine deals very low damage. Utilize Brutus to tank for Ira and provide additional damage to set up an early kill. Or Belinda to grant Ira crit rate for a short duration. Belinda's weakness however is that she is a 3rd backline hero so you are either forced to play Support as frontline or no Support at all. When playing a support frontline, Khasos & Nemora are an viable option.
At lvl 121+ Lyca and Estrilda are also great options as they both provide Ira increased Basic Attack Damage and Energy Regeneration. The earlier Ira gets to use her ultimate, the sooner the snowball begins.

►► Defensive Snowball:
Ideal Position: 5 || Best Allies: Nemora, Tasi & Luscius
Employs a very defensive team that has a lot of Control, Durability and Healing for Ira to safely build up her energy. As long as the team survives, Ira will eventually get her ultimate and begin killing the enemies 2 by 2. And with every kill, Ira recovers 200 energy, quickly setting her up for the next cast of her ultimate skill. So long as the enemies do not break your Defense, victory is sealed. An advantage of Ira over Shemira is that Ira is a burst hero so once her ultimate is cast, a kill is almost always guaranteed and the kill is quick, amplifying your team's durability with a few enemies dead, sooner than Shemira ever will.

►► Saveas Counter: Despite the Faction disadvantage, Ira is a viable counter against Saveas due to a combination of her lethal ultimate damage (especially on higher levels) and her healing reduction poison. Both effects work well in countering Saveas' survivalist niche as he can get bursted down by Ira's ult with little way to recover health for a duration. Just make sure Ira is not directly infront of Saveas and instead is at the opposite location to set up an easy Sweep for Ira with her ultimate. utilizing Raine with this strategy is extremely lethal against Saveas and Shimera which are very common mid-game carries.
►► Shemira Counter: With both of them being an ultimate dependent character, they both function similarly in how they want to deal damage. However, Ira has the advantage in every way against Shemira due to a multiple reasons: Ira has faction advantage, making even normal attacks deadly against Shemira on Crit, Poison counters Healing Strategies and her ultimate is a very lethal burst while Shemira's ultimate damage is low. These 3 quirks grants Ira great advantage against Shemira that the match up becomes too easy as Shemira will have a hard time suriving Ira's Ultimate with its high damage and anti-healing properties. Place Ira directly infront of Shemira (position 3 vs a pos 4 Shemira) to quickly shred the tank protecting Shemira and set up a focused ultimate attack.

Tasi

Tasi is an elusive control based support hero who possesses 2 control skills and teleports around the battlefield to heal allies and damage enemies.

General Strategy

► Tasi's 4th ability (Teleportation) actually completely mitigates any damage she would have received from the attack which triggers her teleport. This makes her deceptively tanky.
► Tasi is a good option against Silvina if she can survive the initial damage of Silvina's 3rd skill (First Blood), as she will quickly teleport away once the stun wears off.
► Tasi is especially good when paired with Shemira as their ultimate abilities will often activate at roughly the same time. Shemira's ultimate (Tortured Souls) deals damage to all enemies over 12 seconds, which provides a fairly long window for it to line up with Tasi's ultimate (Slumber) and take advantage of the 25-30% damage boost from Slumber.

A Tier Heroes

Khasos

Khasos is a versatile hero chosen primarily for his ability to support his allies by granting them all lifesteal, but he also does respectable AoE damage and can tank in a pinch.

General Strategy

► Due to granting Maulers more lifesteal than other factions (after Lv.141), Khasos works best with other Maulers, especially those with strong and fast autoattacks.
► Khasos's 3rd skill (Throwing Axe) damages heroes in the backline and can help Assassins set up quick kills.

Niru

Niru starts off weaker than most, but absorbs the strength of fallen enemies and allies alike to grow into an unstoppable juggernaut if left alone.

General Strategy

► Position Niru at 2 with a tank at position 5. This makes Niru survive for a longer time in the battlefield because he will only be targetted by the enemy tank at this position. Their position 5 dmg dealer will target your pos 5 tank making that dmg dealer not attack Niru until your tank is down. Niru will suffer from getting hit by CC more as he is faced against the enemy tank but with his healing, he will create a trade by having your tank survive longer to tank damage for him. His death will also only serve to heal Niru, negating most dmg he'd take from the enemy tank.
► Due to Niru's 2nd skill (Life Leech) and 3rd skill (Soul Reaper), his position is being frontline as a tank despite him being an intelligence-based hero.
► Niru's 2nd skill (Life Leech) can heal himself and nearby allies, making him the only Graveborn who can heal teammates.
► After 101, Niru's 3rd skill (Soul Reaper) increases his attack and defense by 15% of any other hero who dies. This attack increase scales very well with his ultimate, making it increasingly effective as more heroes die, whether they be allies or enemies.
► Niru functions best as a tank when your team can kill enemies quickly, due to his 3rd skill healing him when other heroes die.
► Starting from level 61, Niru's ultimate will target the enemy with the lowest hp. This will be overkill when said enemy has very low hp. It is advised to manually activate his ult to maximize his potential.
► Labyrinth is Niru's best mode due to him being able to heal and aquire durability from enemy and allied deaths, making him a Tank that does not need any healing from any support. His ability to gain durability off any heroes deaths also makes him a powerful sweeper in a mode where allies will be dying early at difficult stages, allowing Niru to power up and get healed early as well.

Hogan

Hogan is a well-rounded tank possessing high innate survivability and control abilities.

General Strategy

► Not much to say really. With High Durability and Stun frequency. Put him in front of your strongest heroes and he'll protect them pretty well.

► He's Tanky if you need one.

Golus

Golus is a highly resilient damage sponge who possesses some control ability.

General Strategy

► Back Turn with ultimate. Play on manual and don't activate his ult again after the first time so he can keep Soren turned around. With some healing, Golus can easily survive until time runs out.

Thoran

Thoran is a tank who performs better against weaker opponents but can struggle to keep up with stronger enemies.

General Strategy

► Due to the small area of effect of his ultimate ability (Retaliation) and the stun effect of his 3rd ability (Wild Wonder) after level 121, Thoran is best placed against multiple melee enemies.
► Thoran's 4th skill (Taint) can be interrupted with control abilities or excessive damage. So while this ability incentivizes putting Thoran in a position where he will receive as much damage as possible, be wary that it can backfire and he might lose an entire ability if it gets interrupted.
► If you know beforehand which enemy hero has the lowest health, you can position Athalia opposite that target to potentially set up an easy kill, since Thoran will mark that target with Taint.
► Taint can't kill enemies; it will at most leave them at a sliver of health. Pair Thoran with Isabella to easily pick off the weakened enemy.

Credits

The rankings and writeups for each Hero are all done by the members of the guild GloriouS! 

GloriouS is a guild with players from all over the globe, we are a community that is constantly growing in player base and strength! The guild was first created in mid January 2019. This spreadsheet is the result of our members' desire to help the community learn more about the game and to help players reach their goals. 

Guild ID: 3021. Second guild: InfamouS.

You can join their Discord server here, and their AFK Arena guide spreadsheet can be found here.

Notes

This Tier List is for speedy, efficient runs of all content with characters leveled 1-60. For notes and breakdowns of each type of content, the original spreadsheet has detailed rankings by game mode.

Hero Strategy is included for Heroes ranked SS through A.