AFK Arena Late Game Tier List

Due to the hard 160 level cap on Legendary+ (base rarity Elite) Heroes, most in this category do not fare as well going into endgame. 

SS Tier Heroes  

Shemira

Shemira is a slow starter, but given some time to build energy, her ultimate can decimate entire enemy teams while making her nearly immortal.

General Strategy

► Using Shemira as a front liner can help her charge her ultimate faster as she gains energy from receiving damage, mitigating her weakness of below-average innate energy gain. However, this is only possible with sufficient gear, levels, and defensive support.
► Shemira is perhaps the ideal Sweeper hero to place behind Brutus to take advantage of his guaranteed survivability, due to her ultimate indiscriminately damage all enemies while healing her based on damage dealt.

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.

Brutus

daddy

General Strategy

► Part of any top tier team composition.
► Place in front of a Sweeper for best effects. Brutus's 4th skill (Last Gasp) guarantees that he survives longer than most other frontliners, buying more time for your Sweeper to build energy. Due to surviving longer, Brutus is more likely to be able to cast his ultimate, meaning that on average, Brutus outdamages most other frontliners as well. His high damage can enable a Sweeper to secure a quick kill and gain an energy advantage.
► Put strength-based and agility-based heroes behind Brutus rather than intelligence-based to take full advantage of his 2nd skill (Roar), which increases physical damage taken by 3-4 enemies. Strength and agility heroes deal physical damage while intelligence heroes deal magic damage.
► Brutus's 2nd skill (Roar) makes enemies affected unable to dodged (after Lv.101), making him good against agility-based heroes, especially Kaz.

Counter Strategy

► Brutus' greatest weakness are heroes who uses stuns on their 2nd attack. This is because Brutus uses his Roar after his 2nd attack. His roar makes up for more than 50% of his damage output, therefore denying it is a huge win against Brutus. Being able to deny the roar turns Brutus into an extremely deadly Physical burst support hero into just a harder to kill Golus that deals above average damage.

► Knowing that Brutus' Roar is a 25/30/40/50% physical damage amplifier with 8 second duration & 12 second cooldown, it is clear how interrupting it can easily negate most of Brutus' Utility.

► Heroes who use interrupt Brutus Roar(from best to weakest): Ogi > Hogan > Thoran > Athalia > Skreg > Grovo (unreliable)

► Ogi is the best counter to Brutus due to him having long duration stuns to complement his interrupt Brutus Roar. Not only does Ogi prevent Brutus from using his roar, he also keeps Brutus stunned for a long duration(slam+toss) after AND slows his attack speed after the toss. Additionally, since Brutus is pushed away from Ogi's backline through his toss, Brutus' ultimate ability also have alot less threat and damage as it will no longer hit Ogi's backline heroes. This makes Ogi counter Brutus' Roar, High Attack Damage and Ultimate Ability, turning Brutus into a mere damage sponge with immunity. However this only lasts until the early half of Late game as Ogi maxes out at lvl 160.

► Fawkes: is also a great counter to Brutus due to his Ultimate Ability which clears all Buffs from enemies. This includes Brutus' Invincible state from his 4th skill. However, he is not as reliable in PvP as he can end up using his Ultimate Ability way before Brutus' 4th skill is activated. However, in modes where manual play is available, he is a powerful and reliable counter as long as he survives.
In some PvE stages, Fawkes also catches Brutus inside his coffin, preventing Brutus from attacking and gaining energy for the early part of battle. An effective way of denying Brutus from using his ultimate ability. (However, Coffin does not interrupt Roar)

► Nara: is another strong counter to Brutus as her Ultimate ability goes through shields and invincibility. Which CAN BE reliable in PvP as Nara will not activate the ability agains't enemies that are not below 40% HP. However, this can also be a gamble for if Nara activates her ultimate ability before Brutus activates his passive ability, Brutus will become invincible upon taking lethal damage from Nara's Ultimate Ability, negating its damage completely. For Nara's ultimate ability to counter Brutus, she must first have Brutus activate his passive before Nara activates her Ultimate Ability as her Ultimate pierces invincibility but does not prevent it.

► Labyrinth Relics:
- Deathly Embrace: Enemies with less than 15% of their max HP are sent to an early grave by a deathly apparition. (Pierces Immunity)
- Dispelling Arrow: The relic that causes allies attacks to have a chance to remove buffs can also remove Brutus' Skill 4 Immunity.

S Tier Heroes

Ferael

Ferael is a middling damage dealer with outstanding control abilities. He stuns enemies and drains their energy, delaying their ultimates.

General Strategy

► Ferael can deal a surprising amount of damage over long, drawn-out battles, but due to his lack of innate survivability, he depends on his teammates to keep him alive. This means he works well in tankier, more sustain-focused teams with control abilities to stack on top of his to slow games down.

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.

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.

Lyca

Lyca gives her allies the upper hand at the beginning of battle, but in exchange her performance suffers in longer battles.

General Strategy

► Lyca is best used with heroes who have strong control abilities, as her attack speed buff ensures that her allies perform their first rotation faster than the enemy. This means that allies' control abilities will usually interrupt the enemies' first ability cast, granting her team a huge advantage that can be snowballed to victory. Arden shines especially because of his ability to disable 3 targets at once, and therefore interrupt the first ability of those 3 targets at the same time.
► If placed in position 4, Lyca's ultimate will hit every enemy
► Lyca's 3rd skill (Awe) causes her to leap almost into melee range at the beginning of battle (even if positioned in the backline), meaning that she will be hit by any AoE abilities targeted at her closest frontliner. Due to her fragility, it is usually better to move her to either position 3 or 5 to avoid AoE damage, as leaving her in 4 would mean that she usually dies before being able to cast her ultimate (putting her in position 4 only matters if she can cast her ultimate).

Athalia

Guild Hunt Strategy

She's a viable option for Back Turn strategies and a stat inflator support by achieving 4-1 or 5 faction bonus.

Thane

Thane is a highly elusive Crit-based damage dealer who becomes stronger the higher his crit rate is.

With his ultimate, he deals powerful attacks to random targets while in an invulnerable state, making Thane perform better as the enemies' numbers dwindle.

He is also the cheapest Guild Hunt damage dealer in the game, capable of dealing consistently high damage and surviving until time out even on minimal investment.

General Strategy

► Skill 3 - Execution: Is a minature version of Thane's Ultimate skill. This skill descripton is a bit vage but how it basically functions is Thane becomes invulnerable while attacking the enemy 6 times (like his ultimate) except that all attacks hit only 1 enemy. However, unlike his ultimate, this skill only strike up to 6 times (with or without crit). But what makes this skill strong is that it also deals damage equal to 15% of the target's max hp. This skill is Thane's single target burst ability and is essential for Thane to be deadly. This skill activates only after Thane have recently hit 4 critical strikes and this skill is not on cooldown. Having a single target version of Thane's Ultimate makes this Thane's best Skill as each strike only deal 80% damage so the bonus of dealing 15% of the target's max hp is Thane's highest burst damage. When seeking to play Thane, one would be trying to give Thane with as High Crit Rate as possible to trigger this skill consistently and gain the ability to finish off low health enemies as Thane's Ultimate is too random for it to reliably kill enemies.
Thane's Ultimate is not his best skill. Skill 3 is his best skill. His ult is only for Thane to safely land crits, healing and set up this skill. So don't be too disappointed if his ultimate does not deal much damage. It is not meant to be his killing move.

► Before lvl 141: From Early to Mid Game, Thane is almost strictly a Guild Hunt hero due to him being a Fragile Ultimate dependent diver with no energy gain skills. This limits his viability in situations where the frontline is taking alot of damage, which is exactly what the frontline is. If you want to utilize Thane in modes outside Guild Hunt before lvl 141, you will have to utilize heroes who can dive the enemy backline with him(like Silvina) to spread the focus fire, preventing Thane from being attacked by 3 enemies at once from the beginning of the battle. Control type heroes are also good to buy time for Thane's ult. However, Thane's ult would not really deal much damage with a single cast so utilize heroes with good focused damage as Thane thrives as the enemies' numbers dwindle.

► After 141 - SUSTAIN: By the end of Mid Game, Thane jumps from D tier across all non-Guild Hunt modes due to him gaining Healing and Energy gain off crits as before lvl 141, Thane have no way to get healing during his Ultimate skill(even with Khasos), making him a Sweeper with no sustain.

► After 141 - ENERGY: Another issue he had was the lack of focused damage as most of his damage is on his Ultimate skill that distributes the damage randomly accross all targets in the battlefield. This makes him the least effective at picking off single enemies out of all the Sweepers in the game, making his sweep a big gamble early on. However, from lvl 141, he gains 25 Energy off every Crit, granting him a chance to recast his ultimate faster or instanty after an ult cast. This jumps up his AoE damage and Durability exponentially, making him a deadly sweeper that enemies can't deal with when the RNG is on your side.

► Rarity: Due to Thane being a fragile diver who is also a damage dealer, Thane absolutely needs good rarity to compete outside Guild Hunts. However, he is also the least Rarity dependent DPS in Guild Hunt, making him a great hero to have even at low rarity.

A Tier Heroes

Arden

Arden possesses unparalleled control abilities at the cost of having low damage output.

General Strategy

► Arden's 2nd skill (Entangling Roots) has a limited range; it cannot hit enemies in the opposite corner from Arden. This means that an Arden in position 3 cannot root an enemy in position 5, and an Arden in position 5 cannot root an enemy in position 3. This can be advantageous as positioning Arden in either position 3 or 5 increases the odds that he roots the target you most want to disable. All else being equal, the only case where Arden should be placed in position 4 is if you want to root both enemies at position 3 and 5.

Grezhul

Grezhul is a tank who relies on his abilities to mitigate damage. He is strongest against intelligence-based heroes due to his ability to reduce magic damage taken for him and his allies.

General Strategy

► Grezhul's ultimate ability (Reanimate) briefly stuns enemies in a fairly large radius. He can typically stun three enemies reliably as the gravestone spawns in between the frontline and backline, hitting not only the frontliner but the two backliners behind as well.
► The Skeletal warrior(s) spawned by Reanimate have a slightly shorter attack range than Grezhul. This means that they will divert attention away from Grezhul; a frontliner such as Brutus for example will turn around and hit the skeletons instead. This means that the skeletons can absorb ultimate abilities such as Brutus's Whirlwind.

Guild Hunt Strategy

► Best Back Turn Summoner

► Back Turn Strategy with Ultimate. Summons 1-2 skeletons behind boss.

► Synergy with Lucius to increase skeleton survivability.

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.

Isabella

Isabella is a damage dealer who drains an ally's health to boost her own damage, and helps allies focus down low-health targets.

With her ultimate skill having random targetting, Isabella gets stronger as the enemies' numbers dwindle.

General Strategy

► Isabella's 2nd skill (Void Barrage) targets the enemy with the lowest health. This means that Brutus can tank Isabella easily with his 4th skill (Last Gasp), as he can stay as the lowest health member of the enemy team for up to 8 seconds. Additionally, his ultimate (Whirlwind) after level 81 also makes him immune to magic damage for the duration, which can add some additional time he can tank Isabella on top of the 8 seconds from Last Gasp. To counter this and make sure Isabella does meaningful damage to other targets, place higher damage heroes opposite to the other non-Brutus frontliner so that Isabella will target that hero instead. Alternatively, heroes that can deal immediate damage to the enemy backline can make Isabella hit these targets instead. For example, Silvina and Athalia can immediately damage an enemy backliner and make Void Barrage target them first, for a quick and easy kill.

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.

Kaz

Kaz is melee dps who relies on dodging enemy attacks for both damage and survival, and can help execute priority targets.

General Strategy

► As Kaz is reliant on dodging enemy attacks to be effective, her performance increases as her enemies' accuracy decreases. As agility heroes have the highest accuracy, followed by strength, and finally intelligence, we can see that Kaz performs best versus intelligence heroes and worst against agility heroes.
► Due to Kaz gaining guaranteed dodges on a set cooldown from her 3rd skill (Evasive Strike), and also due to her ultimate granting a 20% increase in attack rating on kill (after Lv.161), we can see that Kaz shines in extended encounters. This means that her ideal team composition would consist of allies who can slow the game down with control abilities and also keep her alive longer with heals to maximize the effectiveness of her abilities.

Fawkes

Fawkes is a highly strategic Hero who can seal away an enemy DPS in his coffin, releasing them later after dealing with the rest of the team. 

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 gameplay at levels 61-160. Many Heroes gain access to new Skills, and improve accordingly-- see the notes for each on Tier Changes at specific leveling thresholds.

Hero Strategy is included for Heroes ranked SS through A.