Latest Hero Tier List (1/26/2018)
Updated December 21, 2017. List includes heroes from the Europe, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia (Malaysia/Philippines/Singapore) servers.
AoV Hero Tier List
Overview
Welcome to the first edition* of the Samurai Gamers Arena of Valor Hero Tier List! This list is an attempt to rank heroes based on their effectiveness in all levels of ranked play. It is based off of our opinion, with weight given to high-level players’ opinions and certain heroes’ ban, pick, and win rates in professional matches.
*We’re planning on doing this periodically. Also, there was an inferior tier list here before this, but we’re going to pretend that it never existed.
It is our belief that nearly all of the heroes in Arena of Valor feel very strong – even the heroes at the bottom of this list are capable of wreaking havoc in the right hands. Credit AoV for creating a game in which the weakest heroes don’t exactly feel weak. However, the strongest heroes in the game are simply too versatile – too much mobility, too much damage, too much utility – for the bottom-tier heroes to keep up. Being powerful in one way isn’t enough: heroes in Arena of Valor need to be universally powerful in all facets of the game to be considered top-tier. So, without further ado, let’s get to the list:
Legend
- “+” denotes a hero whose rating is highly dependent on the player’s skill – more so than your typical hero. For instance, a capable Batman can practically win a game by himself (and thus belongs in Tier 1 or S), whereas a weak Batman can completely sink a team (and would belong to Tier 3 or 4).
- “*” denotes a hero whose rating is dependent on how strong the opposition is. Well, in this case, how weak the opposition is. For example, Grakk is practically Tier 1 against opponents who do not dodge his Devil’s Chain. Against experienced opposition, however, he is mostly ineffective.
Tier S
Tier S is pretty self-explanatory – these heroes are the best of the best, and can carry games by themselves. The combination of superior damage and utility for each character is what sets them apart.
Tier 1
All of these heroes are exceptionally flexible, capable of laning or jungling well in addition to contributing heavily to team fights. Note that Batman, Nakroth, and Raz all jump to Tier S when in very strong hands.
Tier 2
The heroes rated in this tier are still capable of carrying a game given the right situation, but slight limitations keep them from being in Tier 1. Wukong is a terror in the right hands, but can slip to Tier 4 if the player doesn’t know what they’re doing. Gildur has a very powerful kit, but is somewhat dependent on the enemy team not dodging his skill shots or clumping around his ultimate.
Tier 3
Tier 3 is where heroes start to feel a bit deficient in one way or another. For example, even though Azzen’Ka and Diao Chan have extremely potent CC abilities, you’ll have a hard time landing them on the mobile heroes in Tier 1 or S.
Other notes:
- Some might want Yorn in Tier 4, but very skilled Yorns can shred through the tankiest of Tanks (and even solo the Dark Slayer)
- Butterfly is a pretty polarizing character, but we feel comfortable with her here, with the caveat that her effectiveness is heavily dependent on both the player using her and the weakness of her competition
- Zanis suffers from the opposite problem from Butterfly, who needs to snowball an early lead – he has to bide his time until the late game. Players who understand this can make great use of him
- We don’t have enough information on Superman yet (though he seems to be very strong), so we’re sticking him here for now
Tier 4
It’s possible for a skilled player to maintain a positive win percentage in ranked play with any of these characters. That said, they just don’t stack up to the heroes above them. Mina, for instance, is only effective if the opposition doesn’t understand her kit. Valhein and Veera, despite seemingly juicy CC abilities, simply have less damage or utility than other heroes in their respective classes.
Let Us Know What You Think!
Don’t agree with our list? Let us know where you disagree in the comments below or at our Twitter or Facebook. Also, if you’d like to be a regular contributor to our list (we’re looking at you, master players), message us there as well!
Related Articles on Wiki
Guides
Heroes Stats, Guides, and Item Builds
| All Heroes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Warrior |
Tank |
Assassin |
| Mage |
Marksman |
Support |
Database
Arena of Valor (AoV) Recommended Article List
| ▼ Popular Articles | |
|---|---|
 Beginner's Guide |
 Hero Tier List |
 Hero Class Guide |
 Armory (Item List) |
| ▼ Popular Articles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner's Guide |
Hero Tier List |
Hero Class Guide |
Armory (Item List) |
Where’s Wonder Woman? I’m working to unlock her and looking for content and opinions on her but she’s not here.
Sorry for not replying to comments everyone! I’ll do my best to answer them all here.
@Gatot thanks for the feedback, we feel the same way about Xeniel and we’re thinking of placing him high in our next list (probably not S though)
@anonymous (Jan. 9) We’ll have a new tier list within a week from today!
@anonymous (Jan. 12) We’re very sorry about that – one of our writers felt pressured to update the date without actually updating the content. It won’t happen again.
@anonymous (Jan. 14) Hahaha touche, we wrote the counters before we did the Tier List, and found that a lot of top-tier players and pros don’t think Aleister is very good. He technically counters some heroes by limiting their mobility, but he’s limited himself because of his own lack of mobility. We’ll make sure to fix some of our hero counters
@rigel We’ve gotten a lot of feedback (including from our recently signed pro team!) that Ilumia is in fact very strong. We’ll make sure to place her much higher in our next tier list.
@anomander We think the heroes in Tier 2 are very good! Perhaps we should have made it a bit clearer what we mean with each tier ^^;
@anonymous (Jan. 24) She had just come out on EU when we did this list, so we didn’t feel comfortable ranking her yet. We’ll have a new tier list up in less than a week, so check back often!
This list is heavily skewed against tanks. Ormarr is the only one in the top 2 teirs and he’s more a warrior than a tank. Cresht, Thane, and Taara are top tier heroes being listed as mediocre because of their role.
I think that is just because a tank usually don’t hold enough firepower to carry a game alone.
LOL
I always carry the game with Ilumia. She’s extremely powerful at control. And as a Harass, definitely not bad; and very powerful again. She must be in Tier 1 at least.
She destroys her enemies in team fight with her ulti.
>Aleister in tier 4
>Opens a lot of hero guides
>Aleister counters a truckload of heroes
Guys, seriously
must be because the lack of his mobility in the game and his ulti that affects only 1 hero per cast(not sure).
the update is the same as the old one?
when is the update?
Xeniel tank tier s
Joker must +
And batman tier 3