Luck and Prosperity[]
In AFK Arena, there are three tiers of heroes that you can work with:
Common ,[]
Legendary and[]
Ascended Tier[]
Common heroes are usually a poor choice for any scenario, and are better used being turned into exchangeable Hero Coins.
Legendary Tier heroes are a step up and can hold their own in battle incredibly well against most opponents, and are decently easy to come across, having a 43.70% chance to be pulled out of the diamond and faction scroll summons, and a slightly higher 44.79% chance to be pulled out of the companion point summon. They can be ascended as high as Legendary+ tier.
Ascended Tier heroes are the strongest in the game and have a plethora of uses depending on the character in question. This tier is where you're going to find the most powerful characters that can sweep entire teams if not dealt with properly. Celestials, Hypogeans, and even Dimensional heroes can be found in this tier. The only downside to this tier is how rare most of its content is. They are pulled at a 4.61% chance from the diamond and faction scroll summons, and almost half as often from the companion point machine at a 2.41% chance. Even though the numbers are low, these cards are not in any way impossible to obtain, as there are several shops and frequent events that can allow you to snag one of these fantastic cards.
As much as you may want these ascended tier heroes, you'll need a good amount of luck to obtain and power them up; however, they are not necessary for quite a long time, and you'll be more than capable of making it through a good chunk of the story using just legendary tier heroes. As stated prior, they're easy to obtain and ascend due to the sheer amount of them you can get from summons, Soulstones, and event rewards. I'll be going over every one of them and their usefulness, and how they compare to the other cards in their category.
The Heroes[]
Starting off, the heroes are all going to be judged based mostly on their individual value rather than how they work in a team. For example, if you have an ascended tier Wilder hero, you'd prioritize a legendary tier Wilder hero. Also, the numbers used for multipliers and abilities will be based on the numbers at max level, unless stated otherwise. The list will go in the order they are assorted in the Portraits menu in-game.
Hogan[]
Hogan is a Lightbearer tank that has good damage output,high HP and the highest defense among the legendary tier heroes, tied with three others (Golus, Ogi, and Niru), with a skill that passively boosts his max HP and health regeneration by 10%. He is labelled as "control" for his secondary role, and for good reason; his ultimate skill dazes enemies and one of his regular skills can stun, both having good damage output. Overall a good tank and can keep your backline heroes safe while keeping the enemy under control.
Angelo[]
Angelo is a Lightbearer support hero that prioritizes healing based on his own attack rating, which is fairly high. He has a good balance between HP and attack, but his healing makes him an amazing support. He can heal his allies every time he attacks by releasing 2-3 (depending on level) musical notes that either heal your allies or damage enemies, as well as having a skill to heal based on his attack rating. His ultimate skill doesn't heal, but it does render all enemies unable to attack for 4 seconds, allowing for incredible damage to be dealt. He's a valuable support that can change the tide of games with his ultimate.
Morvus[]
Morvus is a Lightbearer assassin with several debilitating effects he can inflict. On top of his high damage output, which is boosted by a passive that increases damage by 12%, he has a 50% to stun enemies for a time on all of his attacks (this comes from the same passive as his attack buff) and his grenade special has the ability to reduce enemy haste. His Ultimate doesn't have any disabling abilities, but it does have two incredible buffs. It's unavoidable, recovers 200 energy if it killed, and will always crit when the enemy is less than 25% health. It'll almost always kill because, on top of these, it always targets the weakest enemy. He's a great assassin that can eliminate enemy heroes with low health.
Mirael[]
Mirael is a Lightbearer mage that can deal large amount of damage to large areas of enemies, as she is properly labelled "AOE" for her secondary role. Her Ultimate ability can change games with its high damage and large area of effect. and she has a high attack, the highest of all the legendary tier heroes. On top of this, she has a the ability to put a fiery shield around the teammate with the lowest health, which damages enemies around it. She is a powerful backline hero that can burn through any enemy's hp.
Ankhira[]
Ankhira is a Mauler combination of tank and mage. She has average HP and high defense, while also having pretty high attack. She is a "control" and a "debuffer" for her first and second roles respectively, which is extremely accurate due to her incredible amount of effects she can apply. She can lower defense by 35% and poison an enemy-all in one move-while also dealing damage, and she can cocoon an enemy for 6 seconds, completely disabling them (it can be broken earlier if the cocooned takes 25% of their max hp in damage), as well as reducing their energy points by 2% per second while they're in the cocoon. Her ultimate attacks the enemy with the most health, poisoning them for up to 20 seconds and reducing their haste the entire time. She is intimidating to fight against due to her intense field control and poison damage.
Golus[]
Golus is a Mauler tank that has the highest HP of the legendary tier heroes, tied with Ogi, and on top of this, he has a passive that reduces any damage he takes by 40% when his health drops under 40%. Also, this same passive allows him reduce damage he receives if he takes a large amount of damage over a short period of time, for example Due to all of this, he is amazing at fulfilling the role of "tank". He is labelled as "control" for his second role. This is due to his ultimate being able to stun, push enemies back, and damage and stun any enemies he hits while pushing back and one of his abilities being an aoe stomp that can reduce enemy haste. He's a fearsome tank that can break through frontline heroes and damage backline heroes.
Saveas[]
Saveas is a Mauler hero labelled as "Continuous Damage" for his primary role, which couldn't be more accurate. He has an average attack rating, but he is almost always attacking, making him a constant threat. This hero has an interesting effect in the form of his passive where he expends 8% of his own HP to increase the damage of each of his attacks by 1.3-2x (based on level). His other moves follow this same theme, but to different effects. The move that helps him work so well is one of his abilities that allows him to sacrifice 8% of his HP to then heal himself by 4% of his HP over the next 10 seconds, and while he's healing, he has 30% damage reduction. Saveas greatly increases his attack speed for 10 seconds at the cost of 8% of his HP, and it can be extended if he gets a kill or a kill assist, and he recovers 20% of his maximum health whenever he makes a kill or kill assist. He's one of the most powerful legendary tier heroes due simply to his dps and sustainability.
Ira[]
Ira is a Wilder ranger that does continuous damage, similar to Saveas, and her primary role is labelled the same. Her secondary role is labelled as "Debuffer", where Ira has a nice mix of both. Her passive ability makes her attacks build bleed stacks that cause gradual damage and lower enemy health regen, and can stack up to 8 times and deal more damage as the enemy's health falls lower. She can also lower attack speed for 3 seconds and haste for 5 using one of her abilities, that also does a large amount of damage. Her most intimidating damage comes from her ultimate ability, that shoots 10-20 arrows into the air (based on level) that can hit multiple enemies. With her above average attack and fast attack speed, she's a very powerful backline hero, and even more so if her ultimate is used on a single enemy.
Ogi[]
Ogi is a Wilder tank that holds the aforementioned highest hp and defense among the legendary tier heroes, and is also labelled as "Control" for his secondary role. His control is a little different, where one of his abilities allows him to pick up an enemy and throw them towards their team, causing a large amount of aoe damage and allowing him to attack enemy backline heroes. He also has another aoe move that can stun the enemies for 1.5 seconds. What allows him to push forward and take enemy hits is not only his natural tankiness, but his ultimate ability as well, which gives him a shield that can take up to 4.5x his attack rating in damage for 10 seconds.
Arden[]
Arden is a Wilder mage that is capable of incredible control, which is his well-deserved primary role. He has an above average attack value, but his true value comes from his abilities. The first of which randomly entangles up to 3 enemies (depending on level) completely disabling them and dealing damage over time. His next ability allows him to give an ally hero a shield that has a thorns effect on it. The thorns deal damage to any attackers based on Arden's attack rating, and can temporarily reduce the enemies' haste, This shield can also be activated incredibly quickly, being every .13 seconds.His second class is "Burst Damage" which is due mostly to his ultimate ability. This ability hits 5 times and and can target one enemy more than once, and it gets stronger with consecutive hits. Meaning it could attack one enemy 5 times, or two enemies 2 and 3 times respectively. He's an amazing backline hero that can both support allies and completely disable enemies.
Niru[]
Niru is a Graveborn combination of mage and a tank, with, as stated before, the highest defense out of all the legendary tier heroes, and is terrifying to go against because of his abilities. Being the husband of Shemira, he holds lifestealing abilities that can heal not only himself, but his allies as well. His passive ability allows for him recover 22% of his maximum health and 70 energy every time an enemy or ally dies, and he also gains a permanent attack and defense rating based on 15% of the fallen hero's respective stats. On top of this, he has an ability where he can attack an enemy and acquire energy while also turning up to 40-140% (based on level) of the damage dealt into HP. These alone make him a horrifying opponent, but he still has damage to worry about. His ultimate attacks the enemy with the lowest health for a large amount of damage, and it increases further based on the health already lost by the enemy, being a 2.4% increase for every 1% lost by the enemy. He is a powerful tank that is capable of surviving many attacks and taking down several enemies without losing much HP, much like his wife.
Silvina[]
Silvina is a Graveborn assassin that has a very unique ability among the rest of the legendary tier heroes. At the beginning of battle, she will immediately move to the enemy mage with the lowest defense, or any other if there are no mages, and begin attacking them. This initial move also stuns the enemy for 3 seconds. Considering how dangerous it is to be on the enemy's side while they're all alive, she has average HP and defense and manages to stay alive by using one of her abilities that makes a shield to reduce the damage she takes by up to 2.4x her own attack rating. She also has increased haste while this shield is up. Her ultimate has a similar effect to Niru's, where it gains boosted damage based on the target's stats, except her's is based on energy. She targets the enemy with the most energy and cuts it in half, while gaining 2.4% boosted damage for every 1% of energy that target had. Silvina is an incredibly effect assassin that can cancel those game-changing ultimate abilities and take out powerful enemy mages, which is incredibly valuable.
Vedan[]
Vedan is a Graveborn with "Tank" for his primary role, though not for the reasons of most others. His HP and Defense are both average, and his attack is above average, but his tank role comes from his lifesteal. He has an ability that rapidly attacks an enemy, and each time he strikes, he recovers 2% of his own life, as well as another ability where he can give an ally stronger life-leech for 8 seconds, and he restores 50% of the health that ally gains from leeching to his own health. He is passively and actively gaining health while also damaging enemies, but he has an ultimate to push that even further. He becomes untouchable for 7 seconds and attacks enemies at random while he deals damage every .5 seconds. During this time where he can't be hit, he gains a 50% bonus to his life-leech attribute. His sustainability alone is enough to make him a threat, but his ultimate is his absolute strongest trait. He's an excellent but odd tank and can easily come back from low health while also taking out enemies.
Conclusion[]
I hope my guide is able to help you make it through the story mode and other trials AFK Arena has in store. Good luck and have fun!