and then 
There are heroes and hero setups in Hero Wars that are nasty to play against because they are either very strong or have strong synergy – but the cool thing in Hero Wars is that you can beat anything, so I wanted to write this guide as the counterpart of my team synergy guide where I have the strongest hero combos. In this guide, we talk about the counters to them so you have a good overview how to beat any setup in Hero Wars.
Countering In Hero Wars
There are several different ways to counter in Hero Wars, either you have a hard counter or a soft counter.
A hard counter is basically a hero that can shut down another hero or works really effective against a certain hero.
A soft counter is a hero that will take away the benefits of a hero or hero combo, like preventing them from building their synergies or targeting backline heroes.
I wanted to make a good overview so you can find your counters fast and reliable here in this guide, so you will see a counter for most heroes (I only took the strong ones that you need to be able to counter) and give you hard counters and soft counters depending how they are possible so you can get the option you need.
Also please check out my full hero tier list for all heroes in Hero Wars here and I also have a dedicated list for the best skin & glyph priority here.
Hero Counter List
So, here’s the list, alphabetically ordered by the hero you want to counter. Below you see the hero you want to counter and on the right side, you see the options you have to counter that hero.
Aidan
Aidan is sharing health with Kayla so use any setup that will allow you to burst damage. In reality, not too many players have build them to a degree that requires a counter to them at this point. If we really need it there are two possible things you can do and one is to use Martha in the back or also Jorgen works as he will control Kayla with his energy stealing.
Alvanor
He can be countered most effectively (soft counter) by Satori who is able to generate a ton of extra energy whenever Alvanor provides his shield. This will skyrocket your team so much that you will actively benefit a lot from Alvanor in the enemy team. Also, Celeste can be a (soft) counter by deny Alvanor's healing and taking his effectiveness.
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Amira
Amira can be countered (hard) by Jorgen who is able to block her charging and delay her ultimate ability. Combine him with a magic team and you can effectively take Amira out of the equation. In very general, heroes that deal a lot of damage can work well against Amira by dealing as much burst damage as possible to get her down fast. Also, heroes with a lot of magic defense can work well (e.g. Phobos, Maya, Markus, Thea, Peppy or Cornelius).
Andvari
There's no 'real' hard counter against Andvari, but using heroes with magic attacks are effective against him, especially when he's the primary tank, due to the fact that he is quite vulnerable against magic attacks.
Arachne
Use heroes like Andvari, Sebastian or Nebula who can remove the annoying stun and you're almost done with her. Also Celeste can help by denying her healing.
Artemis
Is getting more into the meta with Fafnir and is not that easy to counter, at least if you're looking for an easy hard counter and you need to run a setup like Jorgen, Faceless, Amira and Helios.
Astaroth
With Celeste you have a great (hard) counter against Asteroth as she can deny his resurrection ability and take away one of his primary strengths. Alternatively, you can use a setup like Morrigan, combined with a team that deals a lot of damage, to nullify his abilities.
Astrid and Lucas
Astrid and Lucas don't require any specific counter and shouldn't be a problem if you run a balanced team.
Augustus
Countering him is a huge problem since he can turn the damage into pure damage which bypass the magic defense of your heroes. In order to counter him with synergy allies, you need to use either Isaac to directly counter mages that he is paired with or Sebastian to remove Augustus magic damage reduction rebuff.
Aurora
There are multiple setups that can deal with Aurora well. You can run Chabba that can take her out of the fight for some time and prevent her from giving her team the benefits (hard counter) or Isaac can use his silence effect on her. A really cool way is Corvus who can put the effect back at Aurora's team or Rufus who is good at staying alive against non-physical attacks.
Celeste
Celeste is hard countered by Cornelius who directly damages intelligence heroes with an insane amount of damage and can basically one-shot Celeste.
Chabba
Chabba doesn't necessarily require a hard counter as he is a basic tank without any special abilities that should give you much of a headache. He can eat away your tank, in this case run a setup with another tank to make your frontline solid enough while focusing Chabba down.
Cleaver
Against Cleaver you have multiple options. Andvari protects his allies against Cleaver's skill with his shielding or Dorian heals the whole team against Cleaver's ability with his Vampiric Aura. Cleaver will basically heal more of the enemy team than dealing damage with Dorian in place.
Cornelius
Back to Cornelius... Krista normally has the highest intelligence, so Cornelius will target him with her ultimate and she can block that quite effectively.
Corvus
Countering Corvus can be a pain and there's no 'one-to-rule-them-all... In general the best hard counter would be Dorian along your main damage dealers so you can use his Vampiric Aura to immediately restore the totem damage and nullify the totem.
Dante
Countering Dante is usually done best by pushing your lowest health heroes in the back - ideally with patronage - and then he shouldn't be the biggest problem anymore.
Daredevil
To counter Daredevil, you can run Helios and wait for Daredevil to crit so Helios will do his counter damage and get her down. Also Corvus altar is a great way to deal with her, but she isn't the strongest hero in Hero Wars so not that complicated.
Dark Star
Dark Star is not a crazy damage dealer or has good sustain, using heroes that inflict high damage on her will get her down easily.
Dorian
Countering Dorian with his aura has multiple options - as Celeste can not only block the healing from Dorian's Vampiric Aura, she also converts it into magical damage that will really hurt the enemy team and counter Dorian effectively. Jorgen redirects damage to the backline so he can help the team to directly attack Dorian early in the battle and take him down faster.
Elmir
Use heroes with high damage, like Keira with her area damage that also deals with Elmir's clones. Also, using a tank like Ziri is a good option to deal with him.
Faceless
There are two ways to counter Faceless. One big part is that Faceless always requires a good team around, so if you can counter his team setup you will counter Faceless as well. Alternatively, use Rufus as a tank, he has a huge shield against magic damage that can work against Faceless.
Fafnir
Fafnir is a support hero in the backline that you need to stop, so hard counters are heroes like Yazmine or you need to also see what synergy hero he's running with (like Artemis, see above).
Folio
Since Folio is a I-am-the-one-who-knocks type of hero, there is not too much to do directly against him. Soleil is a hard counter or you can try to go with Kayla to take him down before he can and will do all too much.
Fox
She is not that threatening so just get her team down and she will god own as well.
Galahad
To counter Galahad (if he really is the issue you have with a team), use Jorgen as a hard counter as he can pretty much shut down Galahad's ultimates.
Ginger
Ginger isn't outstanding so your team normally shouldn't have problems dealing with her, get the team down as you normally would.
Heidi
Heidi shouldn't actually give you a headache but if that's the case use Satori to hard counter her effectively.
Helios
To counter Helios, a good option is Cleaver whoe can soft-counter Helios as he can directly attack backline heroes with his active skill.
Iris
You can counter Iris well with Rufus as he can only be killed with magic damage or Orion & Nebula as well as Dante SHRED setup.
Isaac
Make Isaac take forever to load his skill by using single-target attackers. Avoid using area damage heroes.
Ishmael
To counter Ishmael, Celeste can block healing and turn it into magical damage against Ishmael while Helios soft counters whenever Ishmael crits will deal damage which accumulates fast.
Jet
To counter Jet use Helios as he soft counters whenever Jet crits and deals damage wich accumulates quickly.
Jhu
To prevent Jhu from snowballing through your allies, use Martha with her high health pool and area healing.
Jorgen
Satori will hard counter as he will add his mark and one-shot Jorgen at a point whenever Jorgen gains extra energy.
Judge
Hasn't any special abilities so there's no 'required' hard counter hero. In general, heroes who deal a lot of damage to get her down as fast as possible or heroes with magic defense (Phobos best because ults often, Maya, Markus, Thea, Peppy, Cornelius).
Julius
Julius is pretty vulnerable without his shield active, so bursting him down is the best strategy against him.Use Jorgen + heroes that deal high damage, or Amira also works with her fatal damage blows (can be quite RNG; though).
Khar'h
Andvari protects your team by using his shield protection, which helps a lot or Satori will hard counter as he will add his mark and one-shot K'arkh at a point whenever he gains extra energy. Alternatively, Jorgen with his energy manipulation will drain a lot of energy from K'arkh.
Kai
Kai relies heavily on magic damage so a hero like Rufus that's immune can work really effectively against Kai.
Kayla
You can counter her resurrection with Morrigan but in general Corvus/Morrigan with undead works really well against Aidan and Kayla.
Keira
Lian is a hard counter as she will directly charm Keira whenever she receives damage from her.
Twins (Krista & Lars)
Andvari can deny Lars' active skill directly or Satori will hard counter as he will add his mark and one-shot the twins whenever they gain extra energy. Cleaver can soft counter twins as he can directly attack backline heroes with his active skill and Dorian can keep his team up with his Vampiric Aura.
Lara Croft
You can use Helios with his Solar Winds to directly counter Lara Croft's critical strikes or Amira by making her critical strikes miss.
Lian
Avoid using area damage dealers like Keira, Orion etc and use single-target damage that will focus down other heroes of the team. Lian will lose almost all potential when not getting hit. Alternatively, heroes like Sebastian (Facebook) or Nebula can remove charms.
Lilith
Qing Mao will strike with percentage damage to Lilith’s remaining HP and is able to come at Lilith's high health pool. She also provides armor penetration so other damage dealers can strike harder.
Luther
With Faceless you can return Luther to the frontline and easily let your team deal with him.
Markus
With Faceless you can return Luther to the frontline and easily let your team deal with him.
Martha
Celeste can will block healing and turn it as magical damage against Martha. Cleaver can soft counter twins as he can directly attack backline heroes with his active skill or Luther is able to jump to the backline and directly attack Martha.
Maya
Use damage, that works best. K'arkh for example with his burst damage works or any other area damage dealer that will also target her.
Mojo
Any form of crowd control like stuns or high damage will help, Mojo is not that strong so normally running a solid team will work and you don't need a specific counter against him.
Morrigan
As Morrigan always runs along Corvus and Corvus is the gatekeeper you need to counter Corvus (see above) to deal with her.
Mushy & Shroom
Burst damage will help against her quite well, like Amira or Yasmine will give Mushy & Shroom in trouble.
Nebula
Sebastian can block her ultimate or you can soft-counter her by countering the heroes she is buffing. Heavy mages do the job quite well, too.
Ninja Turtles
Ideally use Helios to hard counter every control ability used or Iris (but she gets shredded a lot so Helios is for sure the more stable option).
Octavia
To counter Octavia, you have to disable her kit as well as possible which can bei either through Satori with his Fox Fire marks, which is most of the time the most direct counter. Alternatively heroes with area damage that can bypass her Imperial Guard (Keira, Ginger, Lars to name some good ones) works as well or you use your heroes that can bypass dodge the best as she will provide this insane amount of dodge for her team
Orion
Satori will hard counter as he will add his mark and one-shot Orion whenever Orion gain extra energy or Jorgen with his energy manipulation will drain a lot of energy from Orion.
Oya
The team setups that profit the most using Oya are also the ones she makes a lot more vulnerable to Iris who becomes a very effective direct counter to most good team setups using Oya.
Peppy
Jhu is a pretty effective counter, as she is the last-standing hero in most cases and he can use his skill against her. With Jorgen and some timing you can focus her down with the damage redirect.
Phobos
Direct counters to Phobos is Corvus with his altar as this will make Phobos kill himself slowly. Alternatively, you can use high magic damage teams (Facebook version) or physical damage teams (Mobile version) as Phobos will not target them primarily with his targeting mechanics.
Polaris
One of the best counters to deal with Polaris is Nebula since she can remove debuffs. You can also use Orion or, here comes the biggest twist, Polaris with her targeting can also counter an enemy Polaris.
Qing Mao
Counter her with high damage as she doesn't has a lot of good defensive capabilities and can be focused down quite easily. Sometimes even area damage works. Using Chabba can also help eating away the tank and then focus her down.
Rufus
To counter Rufus you can use Morrigan with her 4th skill resurrection or use any physical hero that doesn't deal any pure damage as Rufus can only be killed by physical damage.
Satori
Cornelius directly damages intelligence heroes with an insane amount of damage and can basically one-shot Satori or Nebula & Celeste work effective as well against his kit.
Sebastian
Phobos can take Sebastian down with one ultimate attack one-shot or Helios is good as he can tackle the combined critical hit damage synergy hero that Sebastian often relies on.
Soleil
Soleil iteself is a counter to heroes with control effects so if Soleil is giving your team a hard time, use less heroes that hava control effects and he becomes a pretty useless enemy hero that will not cause big trouble anymore.
Tempus
The best direct counter due to his buffs and rebuffs is Iris.
Thea
Cleaver can soft counter her as he can directly attack backline heroes with his active skill.
Tristan
Satori has the ability to blow up any hero that gains a lot of bonus energy so he will deal with Tristan quite easily, but the easiest way to counter Tristan is using a setup with two tanks.
Xe'sha
Cornelius can favorably strike her with huge damage that will help to get her down. In general, heroes with higher magic defense help slow her down, like Cornelius, Markus, Maya, Peppy, Phobos and Thea will work (and Isaac on Mobile only).
Yasmine
Celeste can purity her allies and remove Yasmine's poison so she is a hard counter or Helios hard counters as well whenever a crit happens, Yasmine will get damage dealt.
Ziri
Use magic or pure damage to attack her (optimally with high magic penetration) like Lars, Kai or Peppy
Us this a dead site? Augustus, Lara, Turtles are missing!
Some new ones are here and some are not
Who’s the hard and soft counter for Lara Croft?
what physical non pure damage hero will beat Rufus ???
I don’t think any of this applies anymore after all the changes made to heroes regarding the runes and talismans. The whole game has changed, rendering this page obsolete. I don’t think it even pays to update it because you can’t.
Rufus can only be killed with physical damage, not magic like you state in Iris counter text.
Fucking useless — actually, downright misleading.
You mention a Dante SHRED team but don’t expand on that. What is it?
You should update your counters. Nothing works well, and the synergie is not being considered. On the web version, it doesn’t work at all.
All of these counters work perfectly fine as long as you upgrade following his suggested order. I have not had one fail me yet.
You have the instructions to counter Luther under the picture of Markus
ty… I tried messaging the site and I could not. I hope they correct this, but I think the counter for Markus is high magic damage strike. Like from Merlin or Helios.
You have Oya and Phobos counters reversed..
thanks,you’re right. Fixed!
Your best build links go nowhere they all lead to one page which is glyph/skin priority
fixed the links, thank you
Best way I found to counter Lian is to use Khorus as pet.
Kayla is the best / quickest COUNTER vs. Martha and she is not even listed. Why is this ???
Kayla is the worst. All of her skills base on attacking stat but she doesn’t have skin or artifact which to gain her attacking stat. Worst of the worst!
Best of Best
@Iris
there is an error written…
Rufus can not be killed by magic attack!
he is a good tank against iris, because of that 😉
…
and a 2nd point would be
@Satori
if satori has the most magic attack , phobos is a good counter
🙂
greets Chekov
I use your Counter list as my primary resource. If you could gradually extend it to every hero on the web version also… much appreciated.
Would like to see Corvus added as counter to Yasmine. Her ult hits 7 times. If she hits while altar is up, that can kill her.
Good list.
I think you should just use Helios.
half a list ? guess they have no clue what the other hero’s counter
either that or other heroes only require a solid team and no specific counters…
This list is better than the last one… gradually improving and extending to the other heroes. I can work with that.
Why are so many Hero’s not on this list???
no heidi counters?
Counter a Heidi hero. Is your team so weak it needs to worry about a Heidi?
leaving a counter for allheros would be helpful
What about Kai?!
Who counters Kai?
Julius, Judge, Isaac, Nebula, Ginger
Would really like to see Morrigan added to your hard counter list. She is being used often.
Check your spelling.
You said helios is a good counter for Ishamal in jet’s catagory. Also I belive that god own for foxes catagory was supposed to be go down.
So I guess Chabba is God because nobody can counter him huh? And morrigan is an unstoppable goddess because there’s none for her either. These “counters” are half-assed at best.
I have a problem with high level CHABBA, how do I counter ?
Does anyone have a suggestion against a Corvus Morrigan combo? for mobile
Nebula, Jhu, Celeste
Who can counter MORRIGAN ?
Do you mean a maxxed Morrigan ???
yes, 130 morrigan
Jhu and/or Celeste
Where is th counter to Corvus? He is missing from your list.
Dante is good vs Corvus, i Know a Lot say Corvus counters Dante my experience the opposite IS the Case
Corvus counters nearly 70 percent of Heroes, karkh is Not one of Them for example
Twins i guess good vs him,
The question is how to counter the Setup He is in
I was looking for some assistance with Miss Iris. Any thoughts?
Rufus is a soft counter as he can only be killed with physical damage and Iris’ main power is her first skill “Expose Soul” which deals a lot of pure damage to the victim.
Mobile: I won’t put my iris against anti magic teams. I stay away from Rufus, jhu and Cornelius. Mayas a bit annoying too. I put her against satori, jasmine and I put her in my chaos team as she really doesn’t help on the eternals at all for me.
I think you should add Artemis.
How to counter Heidi?
Corvus i Know with Altar
How to counter Iris on Mobile? For example Rufus as a tank, but with which damage dealers? Did someone have an idea?
Yes Corvus counters her, she needs then Help from Dorian
Corvus Keira crits can Run her over If good one
Cornelius If she Has highest int or phobos If highest Ma
Amira IS immun vs her with her 03rd Skill
You could have mentioned Sebastian a few more times; he’s a good counter to Jorgen and Lian as well as Nebula, and also partially nerfs Dorian, the Twins, and a few others whose effectiveness depends in part on status effects like stunning or “marks” that his song removes.
Regarding Iris what is a shred Dante Setup?
So Iris counters Dante Bit Other way around?
What is Not mentioned Corvus counters with Altar Iris, Dorian can Help Iris vs him, cornelius can one Shot Iris If highest int, phobos when highest Ma,.But she can kill phobos too pretty fast she counters a Lot
I think you switched Morrison and Celeste against ast
So many heroes not here; I hit #25 in Adventure #11 With Galahad/Ishmael/Faceless/Artemis/Helios. I couldn’t do squat against them; don’t have a clue as to counters. Didn’t think I’d need them. Ha! I’ve been here since I started playing; and, well, the information is useful; but, a bit off in the claim of “counters to *each* hero*; maybe at the time it was made. 🙂
I’d REALLY like to counter dodge effectively. Suggestions?
make a magic damage team.
For dodge to be effective your dodge has to be double the hero’s main stat. So be careful how you level.
what is best counter Luthor, when faceless is not available ?
Corvus is also an option, Luthor deals AOE damage constantly with his green and violet after the jump. So, Corvus can deal him good damage with his altar.
Also, since he deals physical damage, using heidi with cain may also be useful. But it largely depends on who else is there in enemy team. Against Luther twins team, you would like to increase heidi’s survivability, since he might die before Luther jumps.
Morrigan can be a soft counter for Astaroth. She prevents his resurection.
Is there anyone knows how to counter pure damage?
Rufus is a soft counter as he can only be killed with physical damage.
Is anyone of you knows how to counter pure damage?
Rufus
This list is either outstanding or just meh, depending on how you answer this question: are these matchups and counters based off the Mobile version or the Facebook/Web version?
What about Daredevil? When she is leveled up it hurts!
Helios, but best to put Helios with (O)rion, (D)orian, (H)elios (ODH)
It would be great for you to have counters, to all your counter Heroes. For example: Luther. 😉
Hmm, was looking for Luther… didn’t see him. Do you have anything for him yet?
Morrigan is OP against Dante, as she can summon more allies. That will give her a chance to completely be unaffected by Dante’s Instrument of fate
Helios is AMAZING against crit hit teams and heroes because his violet skill damages the hero that crit hit’s your team
How to counter lilith?
Regarding Iris what is a shred Dante Setup?
So Iris counters Dante Bit Other way around?
What is Not mentioned Corvus counters with Altar Iris, Dorian can Help Iris vs him, cornelius can one Shot Iris If highest int, phobos when highest Ma,.But she can kill phobos too pretty fast she counters a Lot
how to counter galahad?
Another tank. Ziri for example
It’s easy
What about countering Arachne?
Sebastian
You want a tanky tank, like Ziri, Astaroth will also work okay unless the enemy team has Morrigan or Celeste. Then, use Celeste because she will block the healing from Galahad’s lifesteal. Finally, let a strong damage dealer take down Galahad.
Astaroth/Karkh/(Your biggest Pure Attack Hero)/Jorgen* (a must)/Martha is just about a guarantee, but always of course depending on their and your level. But, powerful enough to handle a a bit higher than you. How much depends on Artifacts, Glyphs, Skins all being just right.
Jorgen slows him down, Corvus damages him from his ultimate if alter is active
my opinion on Dante would be jorden and Phobos but Phobos attacks the one with the most physical damage so I would say Yasmine and jorden because jorden can stop Dante from gaining energy while Yasmine (or Phobos but in my opinion not as great as Yasmine) attacks him.
How to counter Dante?
I’m not 100% sure, but Dante should be weak against magic. Get some heavy magical damage dealers, enough to beat Dante. Use Jorgen too, since Jorgen will drain energy from Dante.
He is an awesome hero these days. Why don’t u use him instead? If u have Martha then make sure to use her with Danate.
all right thank you
I have two teams that kill me, corvus, keria, neb, orion, dorian
aurora, donte, celeste, faceless, lian
any suggestions
What’s the problem with both of the teams?
In both cases you need Isaac/Rufus and Seb. Other then that, follow the guidelines above to counter Keira/liam
Qing Lao
Galahad
Celeste
Arachne
Jorgen
Faceless and Lian are both hard counters to Luther, Faceless will levitate and drop him back onto his team-mates, Lian will keep him charmed so he cannot attack her while she pummels him with her attacks.
In my opinion Yasmine’s hard counter is also Corvus and his totem. Killing her within seconds. Works much better than Celeste’s purify.
Please extend this list for other heroes. Eg. what about Deante after lifting? He become annoying hero recently.
Dante has become very annoying, I agree. Suggestions I have seen include magic dealers, but no real supporting evidence for this.
I am glad you find him annoying. He is on my strongest team. He deals a lot of damage, but not as much as Yasmine.
Dante is no bother anymore. Use Jorgen against him to stop his attacks. Then he just stands and looks like a zombie. Combine him with Maya works best for me. Between the two of them they do pretty good to subdue him.
Add to that Celeste + Maya. I’ve had very successful Jasmine blocks when Yasmine tries to eat the flower and gets destroyed. Just have to keep Maya just a little ahead of celeste to force the target.
Wrong, corvus/helios are garbage against yasmine despite being designed to deal with her a) they either don’t work b) must be FULLY maxed out to work (and i mean MAX) I’ve had both helios/corvus out and before helios can use crit counter abilities yasmines already killed helios. To counter yasmine is a high level aurora, yasmine will waste ult on hitting nothing, if you use dante, auroras dodge becomes even higher, then yasmine wil die before she can return back, if you use new hero “octavia” yasmine might even kill herself. As for dante as an enemy, i dealt with one that is lvl110 which killed my 120 group easily, his dodge for some reason was very high. Once i created a strong group eg aurora/ishmael/dante/octavia (dodge group) i plow through anyone stronger then me including that dante i originaly lost to, i’d throw in arachine to stun dante. So i understand your paint, this Dante was so strong he actually gave dodge to his thea to stop my corneilus ult (wtf? didn’t they say magic can’t be dodged??)
Not really sure how you are trying to use Helios, but he has always kicked Yasmine every battle I have ever been in using him. She is dead within the first seconds of the battle. Dorian works best with Corvus to turn all of his damage against him same thing. You need to level these as described in his information page on each hero and they will do perfectly fine. To make sure Yasmine dies if the other team is using Astaroth use Morrigan along side him so Astaroth’s resurrection fails. If your Helios is ranked below Yasmine… it doesn’t hurt to use Merlin as the overall pet and on Helios.
Corvus’ Altar of Souls looks pretty hard against Helios
I had to counter lillith – any suggestions?
Any chance you’ll be expanding on this list? Been looking for something like this for a long time now! Thanks!
Sure, happy to helped you 🙂
You still have the instructions identical for both Luther and Markus. If this was intended then ignore it, but considering this is the message under both ” With Faceless you can return Luther to the frontline and easily let your team deal with him. ” I would think not, because… well it references Luther and not Markus. Understandable mistake, but at the least can you change the name under Markus to ” Markus ” in the sentence so it actually references the Hero it is under please. Thank You. : ))
Morrigan is also a hard counter against Astaroth because she also denies his revival ability