Hero Overview

Heroes! It’s in the name of the game, so you know they’re important! This page will provide information on how to understand the pieces that make up your heroes, and how they work. If you're looking for a list of heroes, you can go to the bottom of the page, or find a full list here

## Hero Basics

All heroes start at level one when you first obtain them and they can be leveled up by spending the required number of cards and gold (both obtained from chests in all game modes) to increase their level.

The max level a hero can obtain is level 25.

Additionally, all heroes also have the following defining characteristics:

* a rarity

* a combat role

* an elemental affinity

* a set of combat statistics such as Health and Damage

* a unique hero power

* four unlockable skills

* five gear slots

So, let’s get into it!

## Rarity, Role and Element

### Rarity

The three hero rarities are Common , Rare, and Epic.

Rarity does not have any direct impact on what a hero can do, but it does determine how frequently you will find cards for that hero, and as a result how quickly you will be able to level them up (and how much it costs to do so!). Generally speaking, higher rarity heroes will have better combat statistics – but that does not always make them better choices!

### Role

There are four combat roles (sometimes called classes): Tank, Healer, Support, Damage Dealer

A hero’s combat role will impact a few different things: where it stands in the hero formation, available gear slots, and what kind of Hero Power it has.

**Tank** – Good at taking a lot of damage, tanks are automatically placed at the front of your hero formation and are usually the first into the fight. Tanks always have at least two Defense gear slots, and usually three. The stats they emphasize are Health and Defense, with a few emphasizing Protection.

**Healer** – Healer’s do exactly what the name implies: heal the team! The healer position in the formation moves around depending on the rest of the team composition, though they are most often in the back row. Healers do very little damage, and some don’t even have a slot for offense gear, though all do have at least two Magic gear slots. They don’t really emphasize any one stat over the others, but generally emphasize defensive gear over offensive gear.

**Supporter** – A diverse cast, supporters usually are showering your heroes with buffs or crippling your foes with debuffs. Some also summon allies to your cause. Typically, these heroes will be in the second row – between the front line tank and back line healers and damage dealers – but depending on your team’s composition, they could be anywhere. Their mix of gear slots is not consistent, and they don’t emphasize any one stat over the others.

**Damage Dealer**   The title says it all. These are the heroes that burn, freeze, shock, smash and stab their way to victory in your name. Their position in the formation varies with their combat style – melee or ranged – and they always have at least two offense gear slots. Unsurprisingly, these heroes emphasize Damage.

### Element

Each hero is affiliated with one of six elements: Light, Dark,  Fire , Water, Air, and  Earth . This does not have any direct impact on how they interact with other heroes (No element deals deal more damage to another, for example) however some days certain elements are boosted, and heroes of the boosted element perform as if 6 levels higher. The hero’s element determines what essence is used to rank up their skills, which is discussed in more detail later on.

## Combat Statistics

A hero’s basic combat performance comes down to their statistics. There’s a lot of math in there that we won’t get into (mostly because we don’t have the details) but we will cover what each stat does for your hero. We’ll break the stats into the same three sections shown on the hero card: Defense, Offense, Auto-attack.

### Defense

The three defense stats are: Health, Defense, and Protection

* **Health** – Health is a measure of how much damage a hero can take before they are defeated.

* **Defense** – Defense reduces the amount of physical damage a hero takes. The higher the defense, the greater the amount it is reduced. No matter how much defense you have, an attack will always deal at least 1 point of damage.

* **Protection** – Protection reduces the amount of magical damage a hero takes, including damage from spells. It also reduces the duration of most debuffs, except Stun. The amount that Protection reduces a debuff by is not known, and seems to be weighted differently for each debuff. Like defense, the minimum damage is one.

### Offense

The three offense stats are: Damage, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage

* **Damage** – this is the amount of damage the hero does with an auto-attack before any reduction from the target’s Defense or Protection. The damage stat is also added to the hero’s Hero Power (though it is not reflected in the power’s description.) The damage can either be Physical (reduced by enemy Defense), Magical (reduced by enemy Protection) or Spiritual (reduced by the **lesser** of enemy's Defense or Protection.)

* **Crit Chance** – is the chance the hero will score a critical hit with an auto attack or hero power. Not all hero powers can score critical hits, however.

* **Crit Damage** – is how much damage a hero deals on a critical hit. It is normally a multiplier represented as a % but some gear add flat damage values to critical hits, which are not multiplied.

### Auto-Attack

The three auto-attack stats are: Attack Type, Range, Attack Speed

* **Attack Type** – is either physical or magical. This only applies to the hero’s auto attack. It is possible to have a physical auto-attack, but a hero power that deals magical damage, for example.

* **Range** – is either melee or ranged, represented as a range increment that is 620 for all but a couple heroes. This only applies to the hero’s auto attack. It is possible to have a melee hero with a ranged hero power, for example.

* **Attack Speed**  - is how much time passes between auto-attacks, in seconds. A lower attack speed means faster auto-attacks.

## Powers and Skills

A hero’s power and skills is what sets them apart from other heroes.

### Hero Power

All heroes have a unique Hero Power or “special” power as it is sometimes called. This power usually determines the functionality of the hero and what game modes they excel at. Hero powers scale with the hero level, improving damage or healing as the hero levels up. Learning how to effectively user a Hero Power is one of the key strategic elements in Darkfire Heroes.

### Skills

Each hero has four skills specific to that hero which can be unlocked, and begins with none of them unlocked at level 1. To unlock a skill requires spending elemental essence of the same type of element the hero is affiliated with (so an Earth hero requires Earth Essence to unlock skills.)

Skills have to be unlocked in order. The first skill can be unlocked at level one. The second requires the hero to be level 3, and then level 5 for the third skill, and level 10 to unlock the hero’s fourth skill. Each skill has three ranks, the first of which is obtained when the skill is unlocked. Skills can be ranked up in any order.

Some skills are unique (no other hero has it) and some skills are generic (other heroes might also have them.) Unique skills often modify the hero’s Hero Power, and sometimes will drastically improve the hero’s performance. Some unique skills are a special type called a Leadership Skill which usually provides a benefit to the entire group of heroes.

## Gear

Heroes can equip a variety of gear to improve their combat statistics. The main point to highlight here is that gear is not gated in any way. You could have a level one common hero wearing a max level epic gear. For more details on gear, visit the Gear page.

## Hero Categories

Below you can find links to the different hero categories that are indicated throughout this page.

### By Rarity

* Common

* Rare

* Epic

### By Element

* Light

* Dark

* Fire

* Water

* Air

* Earth

### By Role

* Tank

* Healer

* Supporter

* Damage Dealer

### Others

* Leaders

* Summoners