It’s hard not to take a look at which heroes look good once you play Three Kingdoms: Art of War. The game features over a hundred different heroes that each have their own strengths and weaknesses in the game. As a new player, it’s difficult to know which characters are strong just by taking a look at their character portrait and taking a quick glance at their skills and abilities. That’s why we’ve prepared this hero tier list to give players a good idea if they’ve gotten a good unit in their pulls.

There are many players who have pulled so many heroes and multiple SSR heroes but have no idea if they’ve got something good or not. In our Teambuilding Guide, we specified how important it is for players to take a look at hero rarity as a basis of whether or not something is strong. However, if you have multiple SSR units already, you might be confused about which ones to put on your team. 

SSR Hero Tier List

We’re going to rank some of the best SSR heroes in the current roster of Three Kingdoms: Art of War. This is based on common trends in the PvP arena ladder by checking the most common units found in the top 20 highest-ranked players. Additionally, we’ll be taking a look at why these heroes have become so popular among competitive players by checking out their skill sets.

S+ Tier

S+ Tier heroes are the most used characters in the ladder and have the most impactful abilities in the game. If you have these heroes, they should be placed in your team as core units.

• Lu Xun

Lu Xun is the most powerful mage in Three Kingdoms: Art of War with his ability to assassinate a single unit quickly and become immune to death every three rounds. He has everything that players want in a unit with high damage output while not being easily taken down despite being a fragile mage.

In addition to his resurrection ability, he also gains bonus effects whenever he’s below 55% HP, which almost always automatically triggers whenever he resurrects at 50%. This is a must-have hero that you’ll always want in your team.

• Sun Jian

Sun Jian is a powerful tank unit that can take the most punishment out of all the other frontline units in the game. Just like Lu Xun, he has the ability to resurrect himself whenever he takes lethal damage, making him extremely hard to get rid of as a bulky frontline. 

In addition to his incredible tanking prowess, he also deals a great amount of damage and provokes all of the enemies in front of him. This mass provocation skill allows the player to only play one frontline in their team and make room for more damage-dealing heroes to quickly get rid of all the threats on the enemy team.

• Lady Zhen SP

Lady Zhen SP is the best support in the game with high healing output and the ability to get rid of debuffs that can heavily cripple your team. However, the highlight of this hero is her ability to create a powerful magic shield that can prevent your squad from getting nuked by heroes like Lu Xun, who is very popular in a lot of top-tier teams.

Lady Zhen works well when playing on a team that has more heroes from the state of Wei, which pushes her down to the top 3 spot instead of being ranked higher. However, her overall supporting capabilities are still good enough for her to deserve being considered an S+ hero.

S Tier

S-Tier heroes are extremely powerful units that are only held back by one or two weaknesses that can affect their capabilities in a fight.

• Cao Cao

Cao Cao is a front-line damage dealer that can nuke the enemy team once he fully stacks his passive ability that triggers only when he receives or deals damage. It can prove to be a double-edged sword most of the time to place him in the front line because there are many teams that can easily assassinate him before he makes a move.

This hero is a powerful fighter that can take a lot of punishment and redirect that to completely win the fight with his ultimate skill. The biggest downside to this hero is that he is only really unlocked when fighting against a team that revolves around the state of Wei, which is a solid counter to teams that play Lady Zhen.

• Xiaohu Yuan

Xiaohu Yuan is a physical backline attacker that can deal a massive amount of damage to the enemy team while providing devastating debuffs to all enemy heroes. He is able to destroy shields instantly via the effects of his skills and assassinate powerful enemies in the back line so without being forced to get rid of the enemy’s front line units.

Download Three Kingdoms: Art of War on PC

Download Three Kingdoms: Art of War on PC

While Xiaohu Yuan is a powerful attacker, unlike Lu Xun, he doesn’t have any defensive abilities that allow him to survive longer in fights. He is prone to get assassinated early, but his damage output is so great that he would already deal a massive amount of damage before leaving the fight. If he doesn’t get assassinated early, he will make quick work of the enemy team.

• Guan Yu

Guan Yu is a powerful duelist assassin that can deal devastating damage to enemies in a 1v1 setting. His strength lies in the fact that he can one-shot almost every non-fighter and non-tank hero whenever he gets his turn. His abilities also allow him to assassinate threats in the backline with the lowest health and armor, which are usually the supports, assassins, and mages.

The biggest problem with Guan Yu is that he doesn’t have any AoE abilities or skills that target multiple heroes. He is only able to fight against one hero every turn, which can be a big problem if he misses a huge threat and the enemy team is allowed to unleash their powerful attacks.

A Tier

A-Tier heroes are situational units that can be as powerful as S+ heroes, but only if they meet the conditions for their success.

• Sun Quan

Sun Quan is a hybrid of a front-line attacker and support. He is able to heal and shield his allies effectively while dealing a lot of damage to the enemy team. Sun Quan’s ability to balance both is his biggest strength and glaring weakness because it’s sometimes better to specialize in one thing rather than doing two things at the same time.

That being said, Sun Quan is great if you’re trying to increase your defensive capabilities without the need to add another support or tank while getting rid of another damage-dealing character because he can already do both at the same time.

• Ga Ning

Ga Ning is the anti-mage assassin in Three Kingdoms: Art of War and is able to specifically eliminate mages in a fight. He has the ability to silence enemies and take their morale, which is especially brutal if the enemy’s entire strategy relies on being able to cast powerful skills. This hero is especially effective against teams that run Lu Xun.

Of course, the fact that he’s designed to counter mages makes it pointless for him to exist in teams that do not run those heroes. In addition, most teams run only one or two mages and another physical damage dealer. However, mages are still the core source of damage in most teams and players shouldn’t underestimate how impactful it can be to neutralize an enemy mage.