Arena of Valor has gone through over 3 years of development, having increased the total number of heroes to 100 and promises to continue to expand in the near future. Of course, among those 100 heroes, it’s very difficult for an average gamer to experience them all. Especially for most casual players, they only play a few heroes in certain roles, sometimes sticking to their favorite hero throughout multiple seasons. Therefore, the differences in hero strength and weaknesses are often unknown to many players.
Recently, a self-promoted 50-star expert who has gone through 8 consecutive seasons has ranked the strength of heroes in Arena of Valor and documented it on graph paper for fellow gamers to… easily follow. The intention behind this action is very good, allowing players to choose their heroes based on the strength of each role. However, the issue lies in the fact that many community-favorite heroes were labeled as weak by this player, causing dissatisfaction among many gamers.
Among them, beloved heroes like Zhao Yun, Butterfly, or Slimz… were all categorized as listed as weak in the jungle or marksman roles. Some well-known tank heroes like Toro, Taara, or mages like Natalya, Veera… or even powerful supports like Payna were all ranked as weak as well. Naturally, this ranking quickly received mixed reactions from the Arena of Valor Mobile community.
In less than an hour, this post within the Arena of Valor community garnered over 700 comments and nearly 750 reactions. Most of the comments were opposing due to its absurdity. Many people protested because heroes that are considered strong or are favorites of many players were labeled as weak by this player. They argued that perhaps this player has not fully experienced all these heroes and only drew personal conclusions based on teammates.
One gamer remarked, “Strength and weakness depend on the player’s skill; if you don’t know how to play, you’ll say they are weak, but if you know how to play, you’ll say they are strong.” Of course, this is merely a strength ranking based on personal perception rather than any convincing evidence. Indeed, the current hero system in Arena of Valor is still not balanced, but it’s difficult to determine which heroes are strong or weak based solely on personal experience.
This is because there are players with such high skill levels that they can make heroes deemed “useless” become surprisingly strong. It’s precisely for this reason that this post has received a wave of backlash from the community, something this player likely anticipated before publishing the post.