[Hero Wars Guide]You Know? The Helios Great Nerf Incident

An unfortunate event that befell Helios

  • Up until early 2022, during the peak of Rufus Dante‘s popularity, Helios shone as a counter to Dante!
  • However, at present, Helios has suffered a significant reduction in his ability to counter Dante (commonly known as a “nerf”).
  • What exactly happened to Helios? Let me explain step by step.
Helios

Helios and Dante

  • Helios is a wizard who excels in countering physical teams.
  • His unique skill allows him to counterattack with magical attacks against critical hits.
  • By nature, Dante does not have a critical hit status.
  • However, it is almost a standard strategy to pair Dante with Sebastian for defense.
  • Consequently, Dante often attacks with critical support from Sebastian, making Helios an effective counter in such situations.

Dante Isaacs and Rufus Dante

  • As mentioned earlier, Helios serves as a counter to the Dante and Sebastian pair, but in the 2021 environment, it was not practical. This was because the prevailing strategy was to include Isaac, who hard-counters magical attacks, in the team lineup alongside Dante and Sebastian!
  • In this popular Dante + Isaac + Sebastian setup of 2021, Isaac’s presence made him a hard counter to Helios, limiting his role in battles.
  • However, this configuration declined in popularity due to its vulnerability to Heidi or Iris.
  • Subsequently, when Rufus Dante gained popularity as a counter to Heidi and Iris, he was unable to effectively counter Helios (since Helios is a mage himself and cannot directly defeat Rufus, finding a way to counter him required careful consideration of the mechanics).
    • As a result, it became a common practice to use Helios to defeat Dante (or more precisely, for Sebastian to support Dante with critical hits).

The Great Helios Nerf Incident

  • The incident occurred on a fall day in 2022. Suddenly, a correction was made: “Helios’ critical counter against Dante’s spear throw from the air no longer inflicts damage.”
  • By the way, this event is not a guaranteed occurrence. It may or may not happen.
  • This correction was made without any prior announcement, and to this day, there is no official statement regarding whether it was intentional or a bug (commonly known as a “silent correction”).
  • After this correction, Helios lost his status as a counter to Dante + Sebastian. He now functions as a less useful mage who simply wins or loses battles!
  • It’s worth noting that he is not particularly weak except against Dante.

Verification Video

This is a verification video by xjr on the post-nerf Helios.

Tier List and Helios

  • The Helios incident also significantly impacted Helios’s ranking on the Tier List.
  • The 2022-2023 environment was crucial for determining the effectiveness of characters against Dante and Ishmael, the two strongest heroes!
  • For example, Mushy and Shroom, who appeared in 2023, are excellent tanks in their own right, but their demand is limited.
  • This is because Mushy and Shroom are most adept at countering K’arkh. However, in the current environment, dealing with K’arkh is not as crucial (well, tanks are relatively stat-dependent and challenging to use unless you have a certain number of skins).
  • Looking back at Helios’s actual tier list rankings, they are as follows.

2021: C Tier (Isaac’s heyday)

[Hero Wars Guide]Tier List 2021(on PvP)

2022: S Tier (Helios’ heyday)

[Hero Wars Guide]Tier List 2022(on PvP)

2023: B Tier (after the Helios Great Nerf Incident)

[Hero Wars Guide]Tier List 2023(on PvP)

Amira was the beneficiary of this incident

  • Due to the Helios nerf, Amira has become the preferred critical counter instead of Helios.
  • The demand for Helios in situations like “Should I raise Helios?” has been replaced by Amira.
  • Consequently, there are rumors suggesting that this incident is the work of Amira’s supporters.

In the future

  • Since the official intention behind this significant nerfing of Helios remains unclear, he is currently an underappreciated hero.
  • Some people might think that it’s just a matter of not being able to consistently win against Dante, right? However, this one factor completely changes whether we use Helios or not. From a player’s perspective, it’s a crucial aspect.
  • We are eagerly waiting to see what the officials will think and do about this matter.

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