This isn’t about hero viability, and it’s also not a good introduction to strategy and setups; this is intended to be about odd strategic facts you may have forgotten. I hope this will inspire you to come up with creative solutions, or understand the game better.
Celestials
- Athalia
Has one of the most defensive passives in the game, allowing her to mitigate over 30% of damage if all allies are alive. - Twins
They make great use of eye; If one twin crits, both get haste. They also get Lyca’s battle-start bonus benefits twice. - Orthos
After 15 seconds of battle, he recovers 3% of his max health per second; that includes stopped time in his ult, which means that every time he ults he recovers 9% of his HP. - Talene
Talene can never die during a fight as per game mechanic. The game engine was changed when she was added so that after the match is determined as a loss, she will die. This is why a fight will keep going until Kelthur’s ghost dies if they’re matched together, for example. - Wukong
He’s often used with Flora and Orthos late-game; That’s not just because they all fit on Celestial-Graveborn teams, but also due to their haste reduction. Wukong has an AoE haste reduction of 100 points for 8 seconds, one of the best available in the game. - Flora
Since she doesn’t benefit from ally buffs and is found in the mage tree, her SI is one of the only methods to increase her haste. This makes it extra important in PvP mirror matchups.
Hypogeans
- Ezizh
Not only is Ezizh the only hero that can outright prevent ultimate abilities from being used at full energy as long as his team has ults ready, but he’s also the only counter to that ability: His Horrify can cancel ults for 3 seconds even when he cannot cast his own ultimate, just long enough for his allies to regain control of the ultimate cycle. - Mehira
Mehira has one of the only cumulative haste buffs in the game: Her whiplash increases ally haste by 40%, as opposed to 40 flat haste. - Zolrath
Zolrath’s Deja Vu has a little known effect that steals defences from his allies. This is one of the reasons he often dies last in battles even despite relatively low defensive stats. - Khazard
With his furniture and SI, his serpent animation was crafted so he can keep an enemy frozen for over 95% of a match without using his ult, but not 100%. - Mezoth
With Rowan, he can start the fight 100 energy away from ulting. This makes him an interesting PvE pick alongside Ezizh to reliably start the ultimate stopping chain.
Lightbearers
- Estrilda
Due to the animation change, her new charge provided her with an unlisted buff: immunity frames. - Bellinda
Bellinda has one of the highest base crit ratings available. When optimal geared, she can surpass 50% - Raine
Raine’s barrage and Serius’ ults are among the only distant knock-down in the game. In comparison, there are over 20 different contact-related knockdowns. - Fawkes
His signature item is the highest instant defence raises possible right now, and it affects the whole team at 40%. Saurus holds the highest non-instant value, at 100% of his own. - Lucius
Placed on the backline, he will always walk forward and knockdown; making him a great backline hero, despite his appearance. - Thane
With his furniture, he can Eviscerate for a total of 15 times; he’s completely immune during that time, and if he crits with his passive he can recover up to a little less than 80% of his HP as well as 375 energy for every single usage of ult, on TOP of the energy he gains from the attacks. - Hendrik
If you ever wondered what makes him save some heroes and ignore others: He only saves backline heroes, and only once. - Rowan
His coins are one of the biggest buffs in the game, giving 30% bonus attack ratings for every ally hit for 8 seconds. - Gwyneth
She’s a great counter healer; her burning arrows decrease enemy healing by 50%, in an AoE. She is also the only hero with 3 passives. - Rosaline
If you need extra damage, you may want her to not ult. When following an ally her animations are all incredibly short, so she spends most of the time using her crazy crockery – the ability that does way more damage than it should. - Cecilia
Her blade of purification ( 3 stage attack ) has no cooldown if she crits, drastically increasing her damage. In the twisted realm, consider giving her Eye. - Rigby
His ultimate has the highest flat scaling in the game at 150% barrel + 380% explosion + 720% burning, which scales even higher with his Signature item and second ability. - Oscar
His signature item is the only thing in the game that can stop an Athalia that is initiating on an ally.
Maulers
- Brutus
He’s one of the biggest sources for confusion regarding Tasi and Fawkes as a very common campaign hero who changes his attack as a result of losing HP. - Khasos
Khasos is a source of sustain by granting Life leech to all allies and even more so maulers. - Vurk
His Piercing Bolt triggers on his ult, which allows him to recover 40 additional energy points for every enemy hit. This means his second ult will trigger much faster than the first. - Numisu
He has an incredible haste buff to the highest attack ally, at 50 flat haste and 30% attack speed for 12 seconds - Skreg
You may have missed his furniture, which is very unique: it buffs invading allies, that is allies in the enemy side of the battlefield, granting up to 400 team energy every 3 seconds as well as 20% attack ratings and 25% less damage taken for each invading ally. - Warek
His defence debuff, according to Lillith support, is 80%; his greater defence debuff is making the enemy take an additional 30% damage from all sources. - Antandra
She’s one of the only heroes with 2 separate abilities that provide immunity frames in her ult as well as her spear. - Safiya
Her ultimate charging increases in damage and size by different ratios; The size increase is less than x4, while her damage scales over x6.5 - Satrana
Much like Gwyneth, she got a burning passive that allows her to counter healing. - Tidus
After howling, he buffs the whole team’s movement speed and attack rating for 10 seconds. That makes him a great partner to other basic attackers. - Drez
His defence buff is less than Warek’s, so he’s probably not going to be the best-twisted realm hero. - Skriath
His furniture groups backline heroes in a way that can allow Eironn to pull all 5 enemies. - Anoki
Anoki’s whole kit is made of defensive team utility, one of the less known abilities is his Horn of War giving a shield scaling off of Anoki’s health, which is very impactful for squishy allies in the early part of the fights.
Wilders
- Nemora
Nemora is the only hero that buffs enemies: During Beguile, entranced enemies receive 30% attack ratings. - Kaz
Due to the dodge formula changes, complete immunity to physical attacks because of dodge is no longer possible. It was for a brief period after SIs were added, but Kaz didn’t hit the threshold. - Lyca
Lyca doesn’t only buff allies; She also debuffs enemies increasing damage taken and a unique Critical Strike Vulnerability debuff that allows allies like Khazard crit more often. - Tasi
Her teleportation cooldown is reduced by an undocumented duration of 1 second each time she is struck. - Ulmus
The writhing roots ability requires hitting the enemy to root them; high dodge enemies may avoid this. - Seirus
Seirus has a passive reducing incoming damage that’s below a % threshold by 50%; This makes him one of the best heroes from ahead. - Eironn
He doesn’t only ignore defences, but his wind blade deals % health damage, making him the ultimate tank counter. - Gorvo
His taunt CC is unique to him. With his SI and Furniture, he’s also very close to perma-stunning enemies 1v1. - Lorsan
Lorsan shield gives dodge; It also works better on Wilders. - Saurus
He has no limit on his clones, just lifetime of 9 secs; With the right comp, he can maintain the highest amount of clones possible in the game. - Solise
The only hero in the game with an ability where her healing counts ally healing in the stats page.
Graveborn
- Grezhul
Has the only ability available decreasing specifically magic damage taken; Its also applied to the whole team. - Shemira
She was originally made as a counterpart to Brutus, having her damage higher the more health she has while his damage increases the less health he has. - Thoran
While he’s mostly known as an offensive hero, he has great defensive utility: CC when reviving, static reflection, and knock-back that lifesteals. - Isabella
Her Surge ability, when unleveled, is the only passive that’s spontaneously used. - Nara
If she fails running her impale into Dismember combo, she will restart it on a different enemy if possible; Common enemies that trigger this include Rosaline and Tasi. - Ferael
Spirits have different lifetimes. If an enemy dies to spawn a spirit, it will live for 10 seconds; Ability spirits live for 15 seconds. His ultimate also deals more damage based on the number of spirits currently hunting the enemy. - Baden
Not currently, but in the past he used to have no clone cap. Despite testing, he was still released in a bugged state that could cause a fatal error in the game engine; luckily, it didn’t happen during the League Championship of the time. - Kelthur
Kelthur can completely ignore all incoming damage once every 10 seconds, starting from the beginning of the match. This means he can withstand Athalia’s initiations and such. - Oden
Oden’s furniture allows for one of the highest buffs in the game, giving up to 45% additional damage, 45% mitigations, and CC immunity to anyone ally. - Izold
Izold has the only 1 frame immunity in the game, which happens at the very beginning of his ult. - Torne
Torne’s ultimate does not count as a weather ability, which means it does not interfere with the ultimates of Skriath and Khazard. - Daimon
The warrior elder tree increased damage buff and his Furniture increased damage buff stack cumulatively. Also, Stitcy will only stun if he attacks the same enemy 3 times without switching targets.
Dimensional
- Nakoruru
Because of her high attack to HP ratio, her furniture can consistently trigger her phase-outs 5 times ( 150% of HP lost ) without relying on external healing. - Arthur
His furniture was drastically changed. He now grants Brutus-like immunity to allies that take fatal damage after ulting. - Ukyo
His phantom strike doesn’t have an internal cooldown, it only relies on no enemies being nearby; Dura’s ring passive allows him to use it in a row, locking an enemy.
Let me know what you think! I’ll overview more details like this soon, on my YouTube channel.
Special Thanks To:
- Image credits: AFK Arena Official Facebook group
that is not how you spell dimensional
thank you hunter, corrected now!