Heroes Guide On Rise Of Empires: Ice And Fire

Introduction

This guide about heroes is based on the work of Stefan, who is a former s46 player, currently playing on the s90, who for years has been updating one of the most comprehensive hero guides in the game and distributing a pdf with this information. Therefore, he is one of my main references and teachers, deserving all respect and being one of my biggest inspirations.

Basics

For you understand about combat and heroes, first you have to understand about the basic unit of combat. The game has 3 types available (at least until the day this guide was written): Cavalry, Archers and Footmen. Units have a combat mechanic in which they have advantages when facing one and disadvantage when facing another, similar to a game of rock-paper-scissors.

Units

Being very precise, there is no unit that is better than the other by itself. There is no unity that we can ignore or without applications. Each of these will have qualities and applications that will make you worth having them. It is worth mentioning that there will be moments when the heroes will significantly distort this balance in combat.

A brief summary of the units

• Archers are the most offensive units among the three. They have the highest basic damage, have a bonus when attacking other castles and receive a bonus when facing cavalry, in addition to having a slightly greater demolition power than cavalry, ending up being a very interesting option for offensive maneuvers. They are countered by footmen.
• Footmen are the most defensive units among the three. They have the highest HP and base defense, receive bonuses when defending castles and when facing archers. In addition, they are the unit with the greatest demolition power, having relevant application in sieges to targets that have a lot of resistance, such as cities and gates in Eden. They are countered by cavalry.
• Cavalry is the most used unit in the game. They don’t have any highlights in their base stats, as they are balanced. They have little more damage than infantry and more HP and stamina than an archer. Its most outstanding features are its movement speed and carrying capacity. This makes it the main unit when it comes to gathering and looting.

Technologies, equipment, skins, specialties, hero skills, lofty T10 points and others will increase the stats of your units and heroes. Basically we will present here the function of each of these stats according to the information included in the game, disclosed by developers or even discovered through tests of dedicated players.

Stats and Bonus

One of the central points of the game’s combat mechanics is the understanding of attributes and how they affect your results. Discussing the real formula behind the combats seems to be very complicated. The developers are not keen on sharing any of the mechanisms’ data, and that makes reverse engineering complicated for a lowly mortal like me, who’s not a programmer.

Fight Stats

• Might is the base stats that affect basic attacks, that is, it increases the damage inflicted by the hits your units deal on opposing units.
• Resistance is the stat that decreases the damage of enemy basic attacks.
• Tactical Might is the stat that increases damage dealt by hero skills.
• Tactical Resistance is the stat that reduces damage dealt by hero skills.
• HP is how much damage your unit can absorb from attacks before dying.
• Combat Speed is what determines who attacks first.
• Damage is a multiplier. It boosts damage from both basic attacks and ability damage.
• Troop Amount is the troop count of each squad in the formation. It is the basis for calculating troop morale and also affects damage calculation.

Heroes are an important source of the aforementioned bonuses. Skills 3, 4 and 6 give bonuses only to their squads, that is, only to the units that are with the hero in question. Skill 7 offers bonus for the entire formation, that is, the 3 squads are buffed. 

Seasonal heroes have better stats than basic heroes. and the bonuses, especially from skill 6, can vary significantly. There are cases of damage bonus, demolition, HP, combat speed, and other possibilities, like even being an activatable skill that gives movement speed bonus..

You will be able to find out about the hero stat bonuses in the next session, choosing the one that interests you or in our hero summary, which presents a complete list without having to choose.

Heroes

From this point on, we will deal with one of the most distinctive systems in the game and the central point of this publication. Understanding heroes was a game changer when I started in the game, in s96. At that time, with very little power and technology you could have a very relevant standout compared to people who spent significantly more than you. At that moment (before my first season of ROC) I got to know Stefan’s publications, who at the time played on the s46 and at the time I write this text plays on the s90. He translated a guide made by Priam, legendary last shelter player, who is no longer active.

In this way, understanding heroes is essential nowadays if you want to have a minimum of fun, because with countless video and text contents, access to information is very broad and my main idea is to make it easier with this guide, keeping it up to date.

Heroes Skills

In this session we will get into one of the most important points for those who want to try to stand out or at least get the best out of combat. Perhaps much of the content here is theoretical, as we lack instruments to better discuss and test our theories. One of the causes of this is that the developers don’t clearly explain how their combat engine works or give access to some test environment.

All legendary heroes, whether seasonal or basic, have 3 skills, which are divided into 4 types. These types can have both advantages and disadvantages depending on the composition you are facing.

The skill type will not tell you what type of synergy or counter the hero will have. This you will only know by interpreting the text of the hero’s skills. But it can shed light on what kind of advantage or disadvantage that hero might already have in his base build.

Types

• Combat: These are the most common skill types at the beginning of the game. Every turn they have a chance of being cast at the end of each hero’s turn. Skills of this type can be prevented from being cast by silence or suppression. Some of these skills may require 1 or 2 turns of preparation, which is called channeling. Once they are channeled, they cannot be cancelled, except for Desert Storm (S4)
• Prep: These are skills that cannot be interrupted. Before the direct combat between the units starts, this type of skill comes in its definition that a specific event will occur (it will cause damage, heal, buff, debuff, etc), which can be during the entire battle or in certain rounds. They are generally good alternatives when you want predictability in your composition.
• Status: This type of skill has its name already literal on its effect. They give a certain buff or change a combat mechanic permanently to the hero. Its effect on the hero cannot be cancelled.
• Passive: These are skills that have a probability of being cast from your units’ basic attack. These skills can be prevented from being cast in case of disarm or suppression.

Abilities  and Status

Understanding synergy and countering in Rise of Empires is synonymous with understanding hero abilities and the status they can be caused. You can’t just restrict yourself to what you have, but you need to know all the ones available to your opponents as well. It’s a huge piece of work and I intend to simplify this session.

Some heroes are listed in sections without having the ability to cause a certain effect, but some of their skills fulfill the same function without mentioning the named effect.

Crowd Control

Controls, or crowd controls, are the first types of skills that are introduced in the game that go beyond raw damage. Basically with this type of skill you can totally or partially neutralize, for a few turns, part of the opposing formation, whether your heroes, your combat units or both.

Disarm: Prevents the squad affected from performing basic attacks. It ends up being a way of countering heroes who are dependent on their units’ auto attack to cast skills. Heroes who have this skill:

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Silence: Prevents the affected hero from being able to cast abilities. This type of control only affects “combat” type skills. It ends up being a way to counter heroes that need to cast skills to be efficient. Heroes who have this skill:

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Suppression: Prevents the affected squad from taking actions, that is, it will not be able to cast skills or its units will also not be able to basic attack. Heroes who have this skill:

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Confusion: Makes the targets of skills and basic attacks random, being able to attack its own formation. [Not sure if affect Prep skills, need confirmation]. Heroes who have this skill:

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Nerf

The stat set will reduce the effectiveness of the affected squad, either by reducing their stats directly or by affecting the effectiveness of any of their skills.

Blunt Blade: Lowers amount of might on the affected squad. Heroes who have this skill:

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Pierced Armor / Armor Break: Lowers amount of resistence on the affected squad. Heroes who have this skill:

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Weakened: Lowers amount of damage on the affected squad. Heroes who have this skill:

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Troop Recovery Block: Cut the healing of the squad. Heroes who have this skill:

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Protection

Clarity / Sober / Clear-Minded: Under this status the target will be imune to Silence, Disarm, Supressed and Confused statuses. Apparently there is a problem in the translations, as the same effect has several different names, even though it has the exact same description. Heroes who have this skill:

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Counter-Attack: When the affected squad receives a basic attack it will return an amount of damage. Arslan is the only hero for now that doesn’t just respond to basic attacks, but to all types of damage. Heroes who have this skill:

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Dodge: Squads under this effect have a chance to partially ignore damage taken from skills. Heroes who have this skill:

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Evade / Evasion: Squads under this effect will ignore/avoid take damage. Heroes who have this skill:

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First-Aid / Recover: Recovers some amount of troops. Some have this effect only on the squad itself, others on random targets, or both. Heroes who have this skill:

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Harassment / Damage over time

Burning / Flammable / Ignite: Makes the enemy target take X% damage. Heroes with this ability:

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Curse / Bleeding: Makes the enemy target take X% damage whenever you cast combat skills or even take any action. Heroes with this ability:

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Poison: Makes the enemy target take X% damage. Heroes with this ability:

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Steroids

First of all, this session, above all others, should have been much longer. Despite this, unfortunately the game doesn’t give names to that status, only effects, like buffs and debuffs in their descriptions. It wouldn’t be constructive and it would be very unorganized to list all the moments and amounts of buffs that heroes give. I say this because, for exemple, some skills steal might and resistence, others just buff themselves, others increase healing efficiency, others increase damage, etc etc. So without a status or nomenclature it is unclear, but steroids are many and of many types and I will try to list a few here.

Massive Damage / Ferocious Damage: As the name implies, these abilities do a lot of damage to the enemy target. Heroes who have this skill:

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Splash / Sputtering / Mass Attack: When a unit do a basic attacks it can deal an amount of damage to 2 back row enemy squads, this is known as AOE (Area of Effect) damage. Heroes who have this skill:

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Range and Targets

Despite a somewhat basic concept, it is important to mention it here, as the content has a focus on advanced level players, but can also be enjoyed by players new to Rise of Empires.

Units’s basic attacks, unless the unit is under some special effect, will always focus on the nearest line of combat and hero skills will target units according to the range and number of targets that come in their definition.

Range

The range required to hit a given target counts from the lines following the caster. Eg: When hero is a backline in a formation and you want to ensure he hits the enemy backline he will need to have range 5.

Therefore, the game names the positions fo the squads in the formation as follows:

• Pioneer: Its the frontline, and being the first squad of the formation, closest to the enemy soldiers, will be directly confronting the enemy and will be the main targets of basic atacks. Require range 3 to have the possibilty of hiting all 3 enemy rows.
• Backbone: Its the midline, the second squad of the formation, right after the frontline. Require range 4 to have the possibilty of hiting all 3 enemy rows.
• Rear Guard: Its the backline, the last squad of your formation. Damage carries are usually placed in this position because they are better protected. Require range 5 to have the possibilty of hiting all 3 enemy rows.

I won’t use the game’s terms, because I find it unintuitive. I will use frontline, midline and backline or line 1, line 2 and line 3. If you don’t like the decision, I’m sorry, but it’s for the good of the newbies.

When one of the squads is eliminated, automatically the squad that is behind it will assume the position of the previous one.

Targets

In addition to the great importance it has in the range of a skill, the number of targets and how it hits the targets makes a big difference in its efficiency and relevance. So, just because a hero has a high range doesn’t mean he can also hit all targets within that range at the same time.

That is, a hero with a short range and the possibility of hitting more than one target may have greater potential than a hero with a longer range, but with the ability to hit only one target, if both have similar casting and damage rates, for example.

From this point on, you have already presented some of the main points for understanding the entire hero system: We’ve already talked about status, type of skills, range, types of units, attributes, bonus and we even briefly went through some synergy points and countering in the midst of it all. With this, we can put these main points together and understand the battle dynamics of the game and the types of roles that a hero can assume in a formation.

Priority

Although we have approached the topic, until this moment, as a player’s decision, the game doesn’t work that way. By now, you have probably noticed that in order to unlock some skills, we depend on having copies of the same legendary heroes.

Despite the will of this humble writer who speaks to you, getting heroes and copies of them can be a very difficult mission.

First of all, and being very honest, as long as you don’t have the hero with at least two copies, you will hardly have him usable. That’s because, with two copies you will be able to open the eighth skill and the sixth skill. Maybe at the beginning of the game this statement is questionable, but once you step into a competitive environment, like the ancient battlegrounds, in eden, or in a clash of province with older states, you will see that there is a huge gap in heroes with only one copy, two or complete.

So, by way of information and illustration, we can say that maximized basic heroes will have good chances against seasonal heroes with only one copy. Also, in general, a hero’s skill 7 will always be the last skill to unlock, except for S1 speed heroes (Pacer, Iron Hand and Lionheart). The order in which skill 6 or 8 will be unlocked will depend on the type of hero and the role he will play in your formations.

Unlock order

The decision of which order to unlock skills, in a very simplistic way, will be as follows:

• Frontline: This type of hero is the meat shield of the formation. In general, they are heroes with greater defensive potential or less vulnerability to control. Due to its primary defensive function, the amount of troops it carries ends up being an unquestionable point. Therefore, having your skill 6 open before 7/8 is mandatory, in case you decide to use it incomplete.
• Midline: Unlike the others, this position is less clear. Heroes that have this position as recommended can be primary sources of damage, or second tank or even have some utility function. Because of this, your skill 6 or 8 can be prioritized, depending on the need your training presents.
• Backline: Finally, heroes that occupy this position will have a low need for troops to perform their function, so they will be heroes with a damage loader or healing support role. Therefore, having your skill 8 open before 6/7 is mandatory, in case you decide to use it incomplete.

This analysis isn’t biblical, it’s a simplification and there can be different situations that can force you to take a diferent paths because of a specific need. The number of soldiers your formation has available is directly linked to the morale of your troops, so the more troops, the higher your morale. That’s why it’s very important that your formation has at least two awakened squads, so that there isn’t a big difference in morale during combat. If this happens, your formation will be vulnerable to losing combat early simply because of low morale.

Remember, this prioritization will not mean that you will perform well, it is just to help you decide what to do if you have limited choices.

Heroes Analysis

Much of the content presented earlier in this post is objective, many taken directly from the game. Unlike that, in this session, we will have many subjective points, watered by personal opinion, whether mine or other players. Therefore, I recommend that you also test your theories and share them here, as styles and perceptions can make a total difference in the visualization of new possibilities.

Type

The hero classes in this game are unclear and terribly divided, so I’m just replicating what’s been proposed in the game, but I disagree with the way they segment it and I believe there’s a lot of room for improvement. So, try to be tolerant, and maybe we can open a topic just to discuss possible suggestions, but without a doubt what is made available by the developers is not enough. The game divides into four hero profiles.

Defensive Heroes

Defense are heroes with abilities primarily focused on their own survival, so they are used in frontline squads. Its role in formations will generally be to take as much damage as possible and in some cases it can also be a source of damage. São os principais tanks do jogo.

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Support are heroes with the ability to change the mechanics of other heroes, and this can happen either by affecting allies or enemies. In allies, the effect will generally be buffing other squads, that is, it can increase their damage capacity, attributes, chance to cast skills, increase in basic attack rate, among others. Other than that, with enemies the effects can be the exact opposite, also including healing rate reduction effects, crowd control and damage over time layers.

They are heroes that have very versatile positioning, being able to be in any of the positions of a formation, and this will depend on the individual characteristics of each hero and they should check the range of their skills and characteristics before defining.

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Offensive Heroes

Melee are heroes with skills with relevant damage capacity, but with skills that amplify their ability to stay on the front line, resisting enemy attacks. Therefore, these heroes are used in frontline squads, mainly as an alternative to defense-type heroes, but when there is a need for a slightly more aggressive frontline.

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Ranged are the main sources of damage in the game, that is, they are heroes with little or no defense mechanism and powerful attack mechanisms. Therefore, these heroes end up being placed in better protected positions most of the time and have, as their main responsibility, to kill as many units as possible.

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Season

Tiering

What is the best hero available in Rise of Empires? This question is very common on forums and in chat rooms. First of all I would like to respond by saying that there is no such thing as the best. So, in reality, there are combos that surpass others, and what we will try to do here is classify the heroes in tiers, taking into account their relevance in the best combos that the game presents in more advanced seasons.

Initially, I had made the classification of heroes relative to the season in which it is released, that is, a hero released in season zero, that is, before the first season, could have a classification equal to that of heroes released in Sx, as it has a good performance. for a relatively long term in S0~S3, while some heroes in Sx1 have not yet had a relevant application.

Battle Dynamics

The combat dynamics in Rise of Empires is a battle of up to 8 turns. The mechanics are always the same, each combat turn is divided into two stages:

Status Phase: In this stage the heroes carry the Prep, Status and Passive skills

Combat Phase: In this step, units will first deal basic attack damage and then heroes will cast their combat abilities.

Heroes Summary

There is an tool with a list of combos from Last Shelter running the internet and a player, which I don’t have a name, made the equivalence of some heroes. I remade the table including the new images and some heroes that were recently implemented. I call it “Hero Summary” and you can check it below.

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Fish Spine Plan

1. Basics
   1. Units
   2. Stats and Bonus
      1. Fight Stats
2. Heroes
   1. Skills
      1. Types
      2. Abilities and Status
         1. Crowd Control
         2. Nerf
         3. Protection
         4. Harassment / Damage over time
         5. Steroids
      3. Range and Targets
         1. Range
         2. Targets
      4. Priority (Skill Priority (Chart #4))
   2. Analysis (Hero Analysis)
      1. Season
      2. Type
         1. Supportive
            1. Defense
            2. Support
         2. Offensive
            1. Melee
            2. Ranged
      3. Tiering
   1. Battle Dynamics
   2. Summary
3. Combos
   1. Synergy
   2. Type of Combos
   3. Countering
   4. Mixed Troop Formations
4. Conclusion