Liquid.qihl’s Auto Chess Queen Tier List - March 2019
The qihl Auto Chess community surveyed 97 Queen-ranked players about their preferences, and created hero Tier Lists suited for the early, mid, and late game.
Building an ideal hero units tier list in Auto Chess is very complicated, but the members of the qihl Discord server had a great idea by splitting the list in three temporal phases.
Early, mid, and late game are defined according to the following distribution:
Early game: courier levels 1 to 5 - $1 to $3 heroes
Mid game: courier levels 6 to 8 - $1 to $4 heroes
Late game: courier levels 9 and 10 - $1 to $5 heroes
97 Queen players rated all the heroes in each game phase with a numerical value going from 1 to 5, and this data has been used to build the final tiers.
1: almost never used
2: rarely used
3: sometimes used
4: often used
5: almost always used
Early game tier list
The table below indicates the exact rating achieved by each hero unit in the tier list.
All the tables are responsive and sortable. If you are using a phone, turn it sideways for a full view. Otherwise, zoom in or click the grey area of each table to swipe and sort them.
| Hero | Rating | Hero | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bounty Hunter | 5.17 | Tiny | 3.15 |
| Anti-Mage | 5.06 | Ogremagi | 3.14 |
| Timbersaw | 4.59 | Slardar | 3.07 |
| Shadow Fiend | 4.41 | Omniknight | 2.58 |
| Razor | 4.34 | Venomancer | 2.20 |
| Clockwerk | 4.28 | Morphling | 2.18 |
| Juggernaut | 4.04 | Puck | 2.00 |
| Beastmaster | 4.26 | Phantom Assassin | 2.36 |
| Axe | 4.19 | Witchdoctor | 2.16 |
| Chaos Knight | 4.14 | Viper | 2.14 |
| Luna | 4.03 | TerrorBlade | 2.01 |
| Treant Protector | 3.58 | Shadow Shaman | 1.52 |
| Lycan | 3.46 | Batrider | 1.52 |
| Drow Ranger | 3.44 | Crystal Maiden | 1.51 |
| Windranger | 3.40 | Sniper | 1.45 |
| Abaddon | 3.30 | Sandking | 1.35 |
| Enchantress | 3.21 | Lina | 1.34 |
| Queen of Pain | 3.20 | Mirana | 1.27 |
| Tusk | 3.11 | Slark | 1.13 |
| Tinker | 3.04 | Riki | 1.06 |
| Furion | 3.16 |
Recently, I have talked about several heroes in the article on the chess pieces pick and win rates. Check out the section from February 22nd to March 4th.
You can find info on Anti-Mage, Shadow Fiend, Goblins, Techies, Tinker, Undead, Elves, Mages, Crystal Maiden, Nagas, and Tidehunter.
In this article, we will analyze more units and compositions that reached the highest tiers.
Orcs
All the orcs are tanky and reliable heroes. Their synergy (extra health points for all the orcs) has a great value in the early and mid game, and increases the strength of units such as Juggernaut, Beastmaster, and Axe.
Finding them in tier A is not a surprise; especially Juggernaut and Beastmaster as they are excellent choices even later on in the game thanks to their toughness and AoE damage abilities.
Beastmaster’s Wild Axes doesn’t just inflict damage, but also amplifies the auto-attack damage of all allies against the enemies that have been hit.
Juggernaut’s Blade Fury renders him immune to magic damage while spinning, so he is able to prevent any damage from spells. This is extremely valuable in the late game when there are more heroes with AoE abilities.
If you are going to use Disruptor, and you want to keep the first tier of the orc synergy, I suggest selecting Juggernaut as the second orc. Beware: do not give him DPS items but tank ones as he will spend a good portion of his time spinning on the battlefield.
Bounty Hunter and goblins
Bounty Hunter is one of the best damage dealers in the early game. He becomes average in the mid game, but falls off hard afterwards, so I suggest replacing him unless you are going for a full goblin synergy.
Early on, he can win a 1vs1 fight against most heroes thanks to his damage and high attack speed.
His ability Shuriken Toss deals 300 damage at level 1, which is enough to injure heavily a second opponent.
Beside his personal stats, BH is also a member of the goblin species, which synergy can be game-changing in the early rounds. This is partly also the reason behind Timbersaw and Clockwerk’s high ranking in the early game tier list.
Razor
Mages became popular because their spells are the best way to deal against elves, which have one of the strongest synergies in Auto Chess (high evasion).
Among the mages, Razor is an outstanding pick because he is tanky, reliable, and has great stats - he can work also as a discrete front line unit.
Razor maintains a high ranking at all stages of the game because you always want him in your team if you are going for a three or six mages lineup.
The following graph shows the species and class of each chess piece in the tier list.
Mid game tier list
| Hero | Rating | Hero | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lone Druid | 5.10 | Clockwerk | 3.18 |
| Kunkka | 4.57 | Puck | 3.14 |
| Doom | 4.46 | Furion | 3.13 |
| Razor | 4.39 | Omniknight | 3.11 |
| Necrophos | 4.38 | Viper | 3.05 |
| Shadow Fiend | 4.18 | Phantom Assassin | 2.59 |
| Templar Assassin | 4.17 | Queen of Pain | 2.33 |
| Anti-Mage | 4.16 | Enchantress | 2.17 |
| Treant Protector | 4.01 | Slardar | 2.11 |
| Timbersaw | 3.58 | Tusk | 2.02 |
| Juggernaut | 3.52 | Tiny | 2.38 |
| Dragon Knight | 3.48 | Ogre Magi | 2.35 |
| Medusa | 3.47 | Venomancer | 2.32 |
| Disruptor | 3.43 | Lina | 2.19 |
| Beastmaster | 3.40 | Witch Doctor | 2.17 |
| Luna | 3.38 | Morphling | 2.16 |
| Windranger | 3.36 | Sniper | 2.13 |
| Bounty Hunter | 3.11 | Shadow Shaman | 2.10 |
| Keeper of the Light | 3.10 | Tinker | 2.06 |
| Axe | 3.10 | Batrider | 1.55 |
| Abaddon | 3.01 | Sand King | 1.48 |
| Lycan | 3.00 | Mirana | 1.42 |
| Chaos Knight | 3.32 | Terrorblade | 1.40 |
| Drow Ranger | 3.30 | Alchemist | 1.39 |
| Troll | 3.21 | Slark | 1.16 |
| Crystal Maiden | 3.21 | Riki | 1.07 |
Lone Druid
Lone Druid fits in any formation as he is tough, deals a good amount of damage, and the Spirit Bear is basically an extra hero with a crowd control skill.
Even if you are not using druids, keep at least another druid in your bench so Lone Druid will require fewer units for the two and three-star upgrades.
Note: LD is one of the best Refresher Orb carriers because he will summon two bears in the same round.
Late game tier list
| Hero | Rating | Hero | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tidehunter | 5.20 | Axe | 2.31 |
| Medusa | 5.10 | Chaos Knight | 2.28 |
| Kunkka | 4.36 | Timbersaw | 2.21 |
| Doom | 4.24 | Omniknight | 2.21 |
| Enigma | 4.23 | Lycan | 2.16 |
| Disruptor | 4.21 | Drow Ranger | 2.11 |
| Techies | 4.19 | Furion | 2.36 |
| Lone Druid | 4.19 | Shadow Shaman | 2.18 |
| Necrophos | 4.09 | Lina | 2.13 |
| Dragon Knight | 4.08 | Clockwerk | 2.12 |
| Razor | 4.35 | Slardar | 2.08 |
| Shadow Fiend | 4.04 | Sniper | 1.59 |
| Templar Assassin | 4.01 | Bounty Hunter | 1.57 |
| Gyrocopter | 4.01 | Queen of Pain | 1.52 |
| Lich | 3.54 | Witch Doctor | 1.51 |
| Keeper of the Light | 3.44 | Alchemist | 1.49 |
| Crystal Maiden | 3.25 | Ogre Magi | 1.45 |
| Anti-Mage | 3.25 | Enchantress | 1.35 |
| Treant Protector | 3.13 | Batrider | 1.35 |
| Luna | 3.03 | Tinker | 1.30 |
| Windranger | 3.32 | Morphling | 1.30 |
| Viper | 3.23 | Tusk | 1.29 |
| Puck | 3.21 | Tiny | 1.28 |
| Juggernaut | 3.16 | Sandking | 1.27 |
| Death Prophet | 3.13 | Mirana | 1.23 |
| Troll | 3.08 | Venomancer | 1.16 |
| Beastmaster | 3.06 | Terrorblade | 1.14 |
| Phantom Assassin | 2.32 | Slark | 1.13 |
| Abaddon | 2.32 | Riki | 1.05 |
All the heroes in tiers S+, S, and A are either AoE disablers/damage dealers or amazing individual units (Dragon Knight, Lone Druid, Shadow Fiend, Templar Assassin).
Medusa
Most player at lower ranks underestimate the value of Medusa. Stone Gaze disables the whole enemy team and boosts the physical damage of her allies by 20%, so at the same time she debuffs the opponents and buffs her own team.
She is a naga (like Tidehunter). This is a crucial species in the late game to survive against all the AoE magic damage as their synergy increases the magic resistance of the entire team.
Shadow Fiend and Doom
Shadow Fiend is a solid damage dealer, but in the late game he drops from tier S to A. One of the reasons behind this shift is that you want only one demon in your team (to exploit their passive), and Doom is a preferable choice in most matches.
His ability “Doom” prevents the hero afflicted from using items and abilities, so he potentially counters almost all the formidable heroes from tier S+ to A.
Header image: Rage of the Dark Wood loading screen for Lone Druid - Valve
