1.14 Hero Tier List

Last updated 02/17/2016 for update 1.14.

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1.14 Tier List: Time of the Canine

Overview

In 1.14, we’ve seen some pretty big changes to the overall game. The gold bounties have been reduced, snowball comps have become more popular, and the meta now moves at a faster pace. A significant nerf to Kestrel has brought her back in line, making the meta less poke-oriented and more well-rounded. Huge jungle changes have shifted the pace of the game as well. Make sure to read about all the changes in the patch notes!

For the tier list itself, remember that you can click on a hero’s name by their ranking number to view the builds we have curated for that hero in the Top Hero Builds page.

Something new: we’ve added arrow symbols to tell you how much a hero’s ranking has changed compared to the last tier list. Up arrows indicate that a hero has moved up in tier or position (their ranking number has gone down), and that this hero is more effective this update; down arrows indicate that a hero has moved down in tier or position (their ranking number has gone up), and that they are less effective this update. However, it’s important to note that we didn’t simply take the difference between the current and previous rankings for these numbers – new heroes or heroes that are removed are not factored into these position change numbers; this will more accurately represent a hero’s change in power level.

Lane Carry

Tier 2 – Simply Amazing

Tier 2 heroes are heroes that are, generally speaking, neither overpowered nor underpowered. They can do well with a skilled player behind the screen piloting them.

saw7 (↑0) SAW – SAW crawls his way out of Tier 3 into Tier 2 this update. SAW does fantastically with the new Breaking Point, which allows him to output a ridiculous amount of damage. Additionally, small changes- such as gold bounties – have made the push comp of SAW, Adagio, and Phinn or Ardan slightly more popular. In other SAW news, someone did a freakin’ hilarious Reddit AMA in-character, which you should definitely take a moment to read if you haven’t yet.

skye6 (↑0) Skye – Changes to Forward Barrage’s crit bonus as well as the new Breaking Point have made WP Skye fairly popular (check out her Red Skye build here!). In fact, it was so powerful that many people were crying “OP” when update 1.14 first dropped, but those cries have faded for the most part. Red Skye now seems like the better option if you’re playing Skye in lane. For what it’s worth, this patch saw a moderate boost in Skye’s laning power, but not quite enough to really overtake anyone else on the tier list.

celeste_square5 (↓1) Celeste – Celeste remains at about the same power level as before. The Broken Myth change was essentially a small nerf, but altogether not too significant. Celeste in the right hands can still be a powerhouse with her fantastic zoning and damage, though she is a less popular choice this update than she was in previous updates.

blackfeather4 (↓1) Blackfeather – The change to Blackfeather’s Feint of Heart has made him easier to counter-build against, since Feint of Heart now does weapon damage instead of true damage. However, Feint of Heart’s weapon scaling was massively increased to compensate, so the execute still stings quite a bit. Additionally, the Breaking Point change has forced his Fencer build to be more focused on building actual weapon power for damage instead of just a Breaking Point.

skaarf_square3 (↑2) Skaarf – Skaarf typically trails behind Celeste in these tier lists; this time around, though, the scaly dachshund takes the lead and passes her. Against the rising popularity of Catherine as the support of choice (as opposed to Ardan), Skaarf’s longer range on Spitfire makes him less likely to be targeted by a devastating Merciless Pursuit or Blast Tremor than Celeste. A well-timed stun can keep someone in a burning Goop for an eternity, which typically melts through someone like, well, a person standing in a puddle of burning oil. A good Skaarf can also outtrade any other laner early-game with Fan the Flames, and an early kill in lane can set the tempo for lane control in Skaarf’s favor for the rest of the game.

Tier 1 – Vainglorious

Tier 1 heroes are generally very strong and require less skill to excel with than Tier 2 heroes (though obviously still require some proficiency). They are downright scary in the right hands.

vox_square2 (↓1) Vox – Ever a fantastic hero in longer games, Vox is still a top-tier hero. He requires slightly less mechanical skill to play well compared to other laners, and scales ridiculously well into the late-game. However, the nerf to gold bounties have hurt Vox a bit, knocking him down just a tad. Despite this, a good Vox player can still stall the game out long enough for him to get the CS necessary to scale into uber-destruction mode.

ringo_square1 (↑1) Ringo – With the nerf to the gold bounties comes a more aggressive meta, and Ringo delivers on aggression a thousand times over. A good Ringo can juggle all the most important parts of being a strong lane hero: applying lane pressure against the enemy laner, rotating down to pressure jungle and facilitate invades (or defend against them), and finally, CSing well enough to scale well into the late-game with damage.

Jungle Carry

Tier 3 – Getting There

Tier 3 heroes are generally seen as underpowered and may require some developer love to be viable, either through direct ability/stat tuning, or through indirect meta changes.

rona13 (↓1) Rona – We were anticipating some upward movement from Rona this update with the tweaks to her abilities as well as the rework of Breaking Point, which synergizes well with the massive AoE (area of effect) weapon damage of Red Mist. Unfortunately, however, Rona’s early-game seems rather underwhelming thus far, and the fortified health on Red Mist is glitched, keeping Rona down for 1.14. We suspect that she will come back with a vengeance next update, though.

ozo12 (new) Ozo – Ozo’s release has been pretty meh so far. Though he boasts a fantastic early-game with three auto-attack resets on Three-Ring Circus and decent base damage on Acrobounce, Ozo’s late-game falls off hard. Acrobounce is next to useless late-game because of how vulnerable he is mid-bounce. This presents a dilemma for the devs: Ozo takes too much damage because Acrobounce is too slow late-game, but if it were sped up, it would be extremely difficult to select the next target to bounce to.

Tier 2 – Simply Amazing

Tier 2 heroes are heroes that are, generally speaking, neither overpowered nor underpowered. They can do well with a skilled player behind the screen piloting them.

joule11 (↓1) Joule – Joule is still pretty mediocre in 1.14. Her damage is still fantastic, but she suffers from a moderately weak early-game and fares poorly against the popular heroes right now, who are mostly mobile and bursty. Though fairly close to it, Joule isn’t quite Tier 3 because she can still perform if played well.

krul_square10 (↓2) Krul – With Breaking Point’s change to be ineffective as the only weapon power item in a build, Juggernaut Krul has died, and many Krul players are struggling to regain their foothold in the meta. Though it can play out like a horror movie for enemies if played well, the Dead Man’s Revenge isn’t too strong in the current meta against the early-game aggression and mobility.

petal9 (↑3) Petal – This is a mildly happy update for Petal players. Petal’s munions have had their defensive stats boosted so they don’t flat out die in a single skill, but they still melt against some skills such as Spitfire, and Contraption does AoE damage against them. They still quite obviously require further fine-tuning.

kestrel8 (↓6) Kestrel – Holy fudgesicles! What a fall. Kestrel was obviously overpowered last patch, and the devs hit her several times over the head with a nerf bat. We’re not going to duplicate the laundry list of changes to her, but you can read them here. Though she was hit hard by the nerfs, the devs obviously intended for her to still be more or less viable, and Kestrel in the right hands can still snowball a game into a win.

reim7 (↑0) Reim – The tanky ice mage is in the same spot he was last update, and for good reason. He seems to be fairly well balanced; the slow on his heroic perk is balanced out by his slow base move speed, and his skillshots require a fair amount of prediction and skill to land. With a good helping of practice as well a large side of skill, Reim can utterly destroy his enemies.

taka_square6 (↑3) Taka – This slippery assassin has seen a huge resurgence in popularity, largely due to how effective he is at annihilating squishy targets such as Ringo, Vox, Skaarf, and Celeste. Huh. How funny – those heroes all rank fairly high on the lane tier list! It should also be mentioned that Taka’s viability has increased because of draft mode – you can specifically pick Taka against squishy comps that he will do well against, and avoid bad matchups for him.

glaive5 (↓1) Glaive – Glaive has dropped in power level due to the change in Breaking Point. No longer can this hulking Grangor only build a Tension Bow and Breaking Point for damage while investing greatly in team defense and utility items. However, Afterburn is still an incredibly useful skill, and crit can be devastating against squishy heroes. When guided by an experienced player, Glaive can certainly still dominate games.

blackfeather4 (↑2) Blackfeather – Jungle Blackfeather is fairly strong this update. He is often a stronger weapon jungler pick than Glaive because he usually requires less gold to deal the same amount of damage. Though he lacks an Afterburn, Blackfeather does have two Reflex Blocks in Rose Offensive, and Feint of Heart can provide massive burst damage to help in killing an enemy.

Tier 1 – Vainglorious

Tier 1 heroes are generally very strong and require less skill to excel with than Tier 2 heroes (though obviously still require some proficiency). They are downright scary in the right hands.

skye3 (+0) Skye – Although she did receive a nerf to Suri Strike’s damage and cooldown, Blue Skye is still strong in jungle. Her jungle clear is still one of the fastest in the game, and her single target damage melts through anyone unlucky enough to be caught in that Forward barrage. Skye is best built crystal power in jungle, and weapon power in lane.

fortress2 (new) Fortress – In a surprising turn of events, crystal power carry Fortress has become more or less meta. The surprise burst damage that he outputs is immense with the bleed proc on Law of the Claw, and those wolves really hurt if you’re distracted. When Fortress was first released, Keldegar actually wrote an article theorycrafting possible carry Fortress builds. I personally played it quite a bit last summer with great success. We were fairly surprised to see it crop up again, but no one can deny it’s effective as all heck! You can see our recommended build for him here, the Big Bad Wolf!

koshka_square1 (↑3) Koshka – Koshka returns with a vengeance. The faster meta means Koshka excels once again with her huge jungle pressure and potential for snowballs. Koshka also fares very well against carry Fortress because of Fortress’ weak early-game. Koshka has two instant gap closers in Pouncy Fun and Yummy Catnip Frenzy and one enormous speed buff in her heroic perk, allowing her to close on the squishy laners that dominate this meta.

 

Support

Tier 2 – Simply Amazing

Tier 2 heroes are heroes that are, generally speaking, neither overpowered nor underpowered. They can do well with a skilled player behind the screen piloting them.

phinn5 (↓2) Phinn – A faster meta, both in terms of mobility and game pace, means this lumbering hero is left in the dust. Despite a fairly strong kit, Phinn requires some time to scale up and the aggressive meta typically doesn’t allow him to do that. Last update’s meta revolved more around poke, making Phinn’s hook invaluable against enemies such as Kestrel, who could poke from afar but was vulnerable when brought into melee range. However, in this update’s meta, the hook isn’t too great because many of the popular heroes are mobile enough that they’re not terribly inconvenienced by being pulled closer.

fortress4 (↑1) Fortress – Fortress has always been an early-game hero, and has received a moderate power boost due to the faster meta. Some experimentation with builds has shown that building some Crystal Power such as a Broken Myth right after finishing Fountain of Renewal can help extend a gold lead, but you must be careful – this can put you further into a deficit if you are already behind.

Tier 1 – Vainglorious

Tier 1 heroes are generally very strong and require less skill to excel with than Tier 2 heroes (though obviously still require some proficiency). They are downright scary in the right hands.

adagio3 (↑1) Adagio – Small tweaks to Adagio as well as a change in the meta have made Adagio a top tier support this patch, almost (but not quite) on par with Ardan and Catherine. Because the meta is less revolved around poke now, a tanky support to soak up incoming poke damage is less necessary, and Adagio’s kit is fantastic for healing and buffing up allies when building extra crystal power.

ardan2 (↑0) Ardan – Despite receiving more Vanguard nerfs, Ardan is still by and large an effective support. Although the barrier on Vanguard is now very underwhelming, the speed-up and AoE slow it applies are invaluable for protecting allies or making them stickier.

catherine_square1 (↑0) Catherine – Catherine stays at the top this update, and for good reason. She can soak up damage with her Stormguard bubble and is fantastic at crippling enemy teams with well-timed Blast Tremors, which are rarely blocked. A solid Blast Tremor will end with the enemy team unable to use lifesaving skills or items, allowing Catherine’s team to completely crush their dreams and hearts.


Popular team compositions this update include (Lane, Jungle, Support):

  • Ringo/WP Vox/Blackfeather, CP Fortress, Ardan
  • Ringo/Blackfeather, Koshka, Fortress/Catherine/Ardan
  • Ringo/Blackfeather, CP Skye, Catherine/Ardan
  • Skaarf/Celeste, Taka/Glaive/Blackfeather, Catherine/Ardan
  • Skaarf/Celeste, Blackfeather/Taka, Adagio

And this brings a conclusion to the 1.14 tier list! Thank you for reading!