by KadavuFC
Art of War: Legions has a ton of heroes to choose from. But, which ones are strong enough to build troops and a formation around and which are garbage? Here are some quick thoughts on each one.
Kelvins
Kelvins is the first hero you start with when you begin the game. He is not very good, and you’ll very quickly want to move on from him. But in terms of levelling, he’s all you have to begin with, but it’s best not to focus on levelling him up much. His active provides shielding to the troops near to him, and his passive skill increases various attacking attributes. He does perform somewhat well in Infinity War: The Dark and can be a useful addition in Hero Trials until you get a better hero.
Planck
Planck has a bit of a cult following. I think he’s the coolest hero in the game, it’s just a shame that he’s utterly crap and of no use anywhere. Although, in Vector, we like to Planck people. See, if we can beat your formation using Planck, it’s usually pretty insulting and a sign your improve. Or, far more likely, the one doing the attacking just has about 10x the army power as that’s what it usually takes to win with him. I don’t know what he does, cause I have never really bothered to read it, but he has a cool looking super energy blast. Levelling him up should not be a priority.
Dante
Dante is another crappy “rare” hero you won’t really want to level up too much, he does make your troops move around fast though. If ever the developers came up with a game mode which involved using movement speed, Dante would be tops. His movement speed increase is greater than Drake’s. His only use is in Clan Hunting against the Manticore, where he can really make avoiding the Poison rain skill easy and those Necromancers really move quick. Unfortunately, he doesn’t offer any attacking buff to really make him more useful than other heroes.
Hohenheim
Hohenheim is probably the most useful of the rare heroes, and he’s one you will want to level up when you first begin the game (not with medals though). When using him in a level battle or for head hunts, Hohenheim will grant you more gold per kill and as you level him up, the amount of gold will increase. He is also very useful in Honor Hunting against both Cerberus and Cyclops, especially if you don’t have one of the legendary heroes which do well against them. Jinn is a better version of Hohenheim, but is not as easily attainable. Outside of farming for coins and Honor Hunting, Hohenheim is of no use in the arena or other game modes.
Diana
Diana has only one use, that is against Cerberus, particularly during phase three. Her ability to take away defense and allow true damage is what makes her useful against him. In all other forms of the game, she is useless. Levelling her up should only be on a basis that you do not have anything better than her for Cerberus.
Tree
Tree will heal your troops and heroes, his best use is in Hero Trials where he can make killing your other heroes difficult. Outside of Hero Trials, he is not particularly very good. He can be somewhat decent in Infinity War, if you don’t have better options. I would recommend levelling him up.
Genichiro
Genichiro is bad. Difficult to acquire too, the only real way to access him is to spend real world money. Do not do that. He has no use in any mode of the game.
Minotaur
The Minotaur is another bad one. Ironically, there are more bad Epic heroes than Rare ones. Not to be levelled up unless you are desperate for Wild dust. Only potential use is in Hero Trials as a sacrifice, a hero version of the Rhino Knight, will charge into the enemy, and if placed in the first row, will hold some attention for about 3 seconds before he is mercilessly killed.
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is, in my opinion, probably the worst hero in the game. Do not level him up and do not use him. It says his passive provides an evasion rate, but your troops will die faster than anything.
Santa
Kriss is yet another crappy hero whose only use is to provide sacred dust, that is, if you want to waste gems levelling him up. He can also fill a hole if you don’t have enough sacred heroes for the Sacred version of the Champions Cup. But, I would use Moshe over him.
Illum
Illum has one use. Against Cerberus, he can be somewhat serviceable, but he would need to be a higher level than more readily accessible heroes such as Hohenheim. But believe it or not, he can out-perform a lot of legendary heroes against the 3-headed creature. But, would not recommend leveling him up. In every other game mode he is crap.
Cassandra
Cassandra has one use: The temple of fusion, where she can up your odds of acquiring the troops you wish from your wish list. In every other format of the game, she is utterly useless. If you are using the temple of fusion, you should level her up. If it’s not something you use, levelling her up is not that important.
Miller
Miller will beam immediately to the opposing hero and start attacking them, he can do quite a bit of damage, but he is also very fragile. He has one use: Against a lower powered Aly formation. He will make Aly drop her first bomb at her feet, but it will also likely kill Miller, especially if he isn’t at a high enough level. But, if you are fighting an Aly formation and you feel like your army is more powerful, he can be utilized just to prevent that first bomb going off. Then, it becomes about whether your army can kill enough of the Aly army before the second bomb rolls around, by which time Miller will likely be long dead. In all other current formats of the game, Miller is useless.
Ainz
Ainz’ active is to make a clone of himself (lower powered than the original), as long as the original Ainz stays alive, he can keep making clones. He is not particularly good in most formats of the game, but he is quite useful during two days of Infinity War: The Zoo, where Ainz is immune to the knockback effects of the troops there and also during the awful RNG day, The Dark.
Moshe
Moshe will increase the hp and defense of your troops at the start of the battle by as much as 25%. After that, he does not really effect the battle, as his active does very poor damage. He can be useful in Hero Trials, particularly to give your troops a bit of protection at the start of the battle against the likes of Aly. Despite misconceptions, he does not heal your troops or continuously let them gain HP and defense. So, it’s just a one time thing, and that’s what makes him pretty useless.
Edward
Ed reduces the attack speed and power of the opposing army and his active will also boost your troop’s attack speed and movement speed. Of all the rare and epic heroes, Edward is probably the best and the only one who is even somewhat serviceable in the arena. He was great against the Spider Queen and will perform well in Hero Trials, against the Manticore and in Honor Hunting. I would recommend upgrading Ed.
Whorus
Whorus the Smelder apparently helps against ranged units and can also prevent Dark units from reviving at legendary level. He is trash, do not level him up under any circumstances. Do not choose him as your hero.
Beowulf
This is Beowulf. In the dev’s infinite wisdom, they decided to create a hero who does nothing but boost himself and his own abilities. That’s great and all, but one hero isn’t going to stop 49 spaces of troops actually being boosted by their hero unless it is Aly and you are anointed by the RNG gods. You could actually beat a Beowulf form without a hero, which is how completely and utterly useless he is. If you are unlucky enough to get a Beowulf shard, consider it an insult.
Wukong
This is the Monkey King, Wukong. Similar to Beowulf, he will not boost your troops, only himself. He will however boost other heroes’ attack, making him only use in Hero Trials. But, is it really worth it to waste precious resources on a hero that’s only good for Hero Trials? NO.
Poseidon
Poseidon has been reworked a few times since his release. He was once one of the best heroes in the game. At the start of the battle, he will surge to the opponent’s backline, causing a lot of damage to every troop, pushing them back and making Pirate Ships useless. His only use is in the arena, where at higher levels and with a lot of ranged units, he can wipe out armies pretty quickly. He is particularly good against the likes of Jinn, Chione and Seondeok. Heroes like Selene, Davison and Arthur, which provide protection for their troops are his downfall, however.
Dracula
Dracula will grant your troops the ability to steal life as they damage opposing units. His active also summons a bunch of bats, which act like mini units for a few seconds, doing damage and distracting. At legendary levels, Dracula can die and revive once. Not particularly useful in the arena, except as a counter to certain formations such as high level Clockman Harrison formations. His main use is in Infinity War where he is, without question, the best hero to use on most days. He is also a very close second best hero to use against Cerberus, particularly his active bat summoning skill, which you can read more about in our How to Cerberus article. He is also very useful in Hero Trials. He is a hero you may wish to level up for other game modes, but I would not recommend choosing him as your arena hero.
Nezha
Nezha will create a circle of fire, which will stun and damage the enemies within it. It’s pretty useless to be honest, and the only place where he is serviceable is in hero trials, and simply put, there are better heroes to use. If you are at the point where you want to really compete in the sacred version of the Champions Cup, a high level Nezha will help you.
Selene
Selene offers an initial few seconds of damage immunity to your troops and an attack boost. Her active will shackle and damage troops/heroes in place. She is one of the best Arena heroes in the game, particularly offensively where you can create formations to counter every hero in the game. Defensively, she is not as good any more, due to the devs attempting to balance the game by changing how voodoo dolls do their damage and the recent buff of Davison. She is also, without question, one of the most difficult heroes to acquire. She appears only on Card Master and far less frequently than other heroes. She is the best counter to Aly, and she can be countered with Davison, Arthur and Chione. In terms of her arena usability, she is not particularly useful until she reaches higher levels. In other game modes, she is pretty hopeless.
Mephisto
Mephisto will boost Dark troops, similar to Arthur boosting Human troops. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough good Dark troops in the game for him to be serviceable in any format of the game.
Apollo
Apollo has a skill set similar to Aly where he will create a circle of damage. Unlike Aly, he will boost your troops. Also unlike Aly, he won’t do enough damage to the troops to make a difference in an arena battle. This makes him a poor man’s Aly. He can be somewhat serviceable in Hero Trials. If you ever want to read the worst description of a hero skill though, I would recommend reading the dev’s description of Apollo’s legendary skill, Sun Imprint. If you can figure out what any of that means, let me know.
Clockman Harrison
Harrison is pretty useless until you get him to legendary level, when his legendary skill triggers. Oncehe dies, he will revive once and bring back a number of troops with him. The higher the level, the more troops that come back to life. He can be particularly nasty to deal with at high levels in both the Arena and Hero Trials. His ability to bring back tough-to-kill tanks, Pirate Ships and Voodoo Dolls makes him quite formidable at high levels. It’s also very difficult to acquire the troops to make him work for you in the arena. I’m talking cash-money, friends.
Kraken
The Kraken summons a continuous whirlpool, which slows opposing troops down and causes a little damage. His active is where his strength is. He will suck up a good deal of troops, bunching, damaging and leaving them stunned for a few seconds. It also puts Kraken right into the middle of a whole bunch of troops, which makes things quite perilous for him. He can make a good arena hero, but will not work until he is at a level where he won’t be killed almost immediately after his first active. Heroes like Jinn, the new Davison and Seondeok will toast him immediately. But, he can perform well against other heroes. He is very good for Hero Trials in combination with other heroes due to his ability to bunch troops and is the best hero to use on two days of Infinity War: The Zoo and Original Partner Surprise, where again, his bunching of troops can allow for a lot of damage.
Jinn
Jinn basically gives all your troops immense ability to do huge damage. His active will further increase the ability for your troops who are near to Jinn, when he activates, to do even more damage and will also stun the opposing troops near him. On top of this, Jinn, similar to Hohenheim, will allow you to gain more coins per kill during level battles and head hunts. Jinn is the best hero to use against Cerberus, Cyclops and the Manticore. He is also very useful in the arena where he performs very well against Seondeok and Arthur and can perform well against the likes of Aly and Chione. He doesn’t do too well against Selene or Davison. But, because of his arena performance, he will be the hero you will want to use to farm for coins when you get him to a level where he outperforms your Hohenheim.
Davison
Davison, who recently underwent an overwhelmingly strong buff is one of the best arena heroes in the game. He provides all kinds of troop buffs and a reflection ability which causes enemy troops to take damage with every attack they do. Davison’s active is a swoop into a bunch of troops, causing significant damage and also stunning them for a few seconds. He is incredibly durable and can take more damage than any other hero in the game. He can beat most heroes comfortably, with about 3 exceptions: A high level Aly, A high troop count Selene and a high troop count Seondeok. Davison makes single load ranged troops basically commit suicide after the first few seconds, due to his reflection skill. Davison is also the best hero to use when attempting to get to level 8000. He can be very good in Hero Trials and can be a good damager against the Manticore.
Drake
Drake is all about speed. He increases your troops movement and attacking speeds while reducing the enemy’s movement speed with his active. Once the best hero against Cyclops, he now falls to second behind Jinn in that regards. In terms of his arena use, he is not particularly very serviceable because he seems to just run straight into immediate death. He can make a good complement in Hero Trials to other heroes, particularly Human heroes. But, other than in these two game modes, he is not a hero I would recommend focusing on.
Aly
Aly is a one woman army wrecking machine. She doesn’t give any buffs to her troops, but she has the most potent damaging weapon in the game, an active that can wipe out a huge amount of troops and leave many others burning up while taking continuous damage. The more damage she herself takes, the greater the damage she will do with this nuke. At legendary level, just before she dies, she will kill any and all troops that have caught on fire from one of her attacks. She is one of the top heroes in the Arena. Because she doesn’t offer much by way of a buff for her troops, she works best with troops that can take a lot of damage and control the enemy’s troops while she nukes away. This makes building an Aly army a lot more difficult that other armies, as the troops she works best with tend to be legendary, rather than epic or rare. She has one major weakness, which is that if she is stunned while summoning her nuke, she can drop that nuke on herself, wasting it. She is one of the few heroes who can beat Davison, and her only real weaknesses are against Selene, Arthur and Seondeok. She is very good in Hero Trials, the third best hero to use against Cerberus and can perform well against Cyclops. She is not to be used against the Manticore, as her bombs deal no damage to him whatsoever.
Chione
Chione is an ever decreasing force in the Arena. She will slow down troops and reduce the damage they do. Her active will freeze a large number of troops and do damage to them. At legendary level, any enemy troops taking damage while frozen will take twice as much damage. Once considered one of the best heroes in the arena, her rating has dropped considerably as she is no longer viable on defense. And, although still very useful on offense against Selene and other heroes with the right set up and ability to choose when she activates, on defense this cannot be controlled and is far easier to mitigate. She pairs well with Aly in Hero Trials, but in all other games modes is of no use.
Arthur
Arthur will shield human troops (and heroes) from damage and continuously heal them. His active alternates between a high damaging blade storm and a shield for the troops around him. Arthur is basically almost extinct in the arena. Once plentiful, the voodoo doll buff, Davison buff (who he used to beat comfortably, but now has no chance against)and the introduction of newer heroes who also obliterate him, like Jinn and Seon, has made him a liability on defense. Although he can perform somewhat well against Aly and Selene, outside of those two heroes, he will get beat pretty badly by every other one. He is/was the best hero to use against the Spider Queen, if she ever comes back, and makes a good complement in Hero Trials, especially with a lot of human troops and heroes. Arthur can only be levelled up by spending your real world money and of the two options there, you will want Arthur over Ivan. It costs $240 over four months to build Arthur to level 15 buying $2 shards, or $510 to do it in one month buying all daily shards.
Ivan
Ivan can only be acquired by spending your real world money. Don’t do it. He is bad, like really bad. The only reason to purchase Ivan for one shard, is to unlock Arthur. The only reason to keep purchasing Ivan shards is because you want another level 15 legendary hero and don’t have the patience to acquire one via other means and/or you want to farm his shards for Human dust. I honestly can’t tell you which hero Ivan counters nowadays, he used to counter Davison a while ago, but definitely not any more. He will get a beat down from even some epic heroes. He does have one use in a game format and that is in Hero Trials, and that is only if he is paired up with Arthur, where his ability to delay hero actives can be somewhat useful. It costs $240 over four months to build Arthur to level 15 buying $2 shards, or $510 to do it in one month buying all daily shards. Again, not worth it.
Seondeok
Seon is one of the better heroes in the game, and she can be very versatile. She can counter nearly every hero, with the right form. Building a Seon form is also particularly easy, as she works well with a lot of different, easy to obtain troops. She will boost your troop’s attack power and add an AOE damage to some melee units proportional to their HP. She will also heal your troops with her active. The most plentiful hero you will find in the arena due to the frequency she appears on events and the ease with which one can build a Seon form. She the second best hero to get you to level 8000, behind Davison. She is one of the top heroes to use in Hero Trials and can perform well in all game modes. She is the ideal starter.
Athena
This is Athena. When she was originally released she appeared on the wheel of fortune. Since then, however, she can only be acquired as a clan “reward” in the arena. Is she any good? I would say probably not, otherwise I would have seen one in the arena. But, very few people have high level Athenas.
Azrael
Azrael, like Athena can only be acquired as an Arena reward and only if you finish in the top 50 in the arena. I once saw a level 15 in the Arena, and I beat it with Dracula. So, I would say he’s not particularly very useful in the arena. He does however appear to be serviceable in Hero Trials.
Zeus
Zeus can only be acquired by spending your real world money, and unlike Arthur and Ivan, he is a lot more expensive. But much like Ivan, he is absolutely not worth it. He recently got a buff, but he’s still pretty useless in the arena. He will summon a lightning storm, which will randomly stun a bunch of troops and deal damage to them. He also summons a single target lightning strike every now and then. Although he can perform well in the arena at level 17 (yeah, level 17. That’s a lot of shards and a lot of money to waste), he is still easily beatable by most of the other top heroes who you don’t have to spend a fortune on. Good in Hero Trials.
Charon
Charon was the first of the 3 new heroes to be released and reading his description seemed like he would be the best of the three. After thorough testing however he’s a steaming pile of garbage whose active basically gives the other troops a slight little nudge which is nothing more than a joke. Severely broken. Sell his shards, do not actively acquire more.
Freiya
This is probably the stupidest hero in the game and the second of the newly released heroes. Words can’t express just how stupid and pointless she is. Her active literally pushes nearly everything away making it more difficult for her troops to even get at your army. So you would think, just load up on ranged and she would be a good hero right? Wrong, although she pushes troops away, she also pushes away front line tanks which make it more difficult for her to kill said front line tank and thus her army to turn around and actually do any protecting of their own backline. A poorly thought out hero.
Odin
So we come to the third stinking pile of crap, the one who has been coming for two years, after two years worth of testing and reworking he was finally released and he is straight up bad, like even a Planck army beats him. It does not bode well for the game when they have released 3 stinkers in a row and one of them being two years in the making.
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So that concludes my summary of every hero in Art of War: Legions, and yes, there’s a lot of hot garbage heroes that have no use whatsoever. Glad that we will be getting yet another 3 of them very soon. Anyway, these are just some brief summaries of all the heroes. I plan to write some more articles about the better individual heroes and where and how to best utilize them. In the meantime, check out How to Pick a Hero, which goes through what to think about when selecting heroes to build.
If you guys have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment on this article, or whatever social media it was posted to. Or, join us at Vector on discord at https://discord.gg/CZ6sSCsH95 and start getting decent advice from some great people.
