Hero abilities are one of the most complex aspects of the game. Unlike items, there are more factors to take into consideration and the game does not always reveal every number you need to make accurate calculations. Furthermore, most abilities have unique aspects that make macro comparison difficult. Because of this complexity, in this post I will take an incredibly simple look at all hero abilities based on criteria they all share: Damage, Weapon/Crystal Ratios, and Cooldowns.

Below I have divided each hero into their respective role and displayed the stats for each ability when maxed out (ie. overdrive). Note: Joule and Petal are classified how they are most often played in my experience, not how the game specifies them (the game places Joule in Lane and Petal in Jungle, I have them reversed). Also note that Adagio and Glaive appear both in Lane/Jungle and in Support. I’ve also added a very brief mention if an ability has an effect, mainly to aide in recall for those of you who want to study the numbers.

If you would like to download the spreadsheet files used in this post click here.





PART 1: LANERS

Starting from the top: Skye’s first does the most damage, is the only ability that benefits from both weapon and crystal ratios, and has the same cooldown as the average for all laners at 5 seconds. But when it comes to DPS, there’s no question Celese is the leader with a 1 second cooldown perfect for spamming 335 base with a 150% crystal ratio. Another thing to note is the cooldown on Vox’s first, which is 3 seconds. This ability allows him to dash out of harms way and because it refreshes every three seconds it makes him incredibly hard to kill.

UPDATE: Vox’s base for his first is actually 136 at lvl 12 and his CR is 35% because of his heroic perk. Thanks @Keldegar for the tip.

Moving down the line to second abilities. Saw comes in with the highest damage here and the highest Crystal Ratio after Skaarf’s goop. Overall Saw’s suppressing fire is one of the strongest damage dealers in the game. Skaarf’s goop has a deceptively insane Crystal Ratio because the Crystal Ratio is applied to both the ignite damage and the damage given over it’s 10 second duration (thank god it’s easy to dodge). Just don’t take a phone call when you’re on top of the goop. The only other damage dealer in the second abilities category is Skye, who also has a very difficult to land ability. It does, however, do around 30% more damage than Celeste’s stun. Celeste’s stun has a pathetic Crystal Ratio. Cooldown-wise, Skye has the fastest recovery which is 3x faster than Saw and about 2x faster than the average.

Now in the land of thirds, Celeste and Skye do the most base damage and have the highest Crystal Ratio, again after Skaarf’s Crystal Ratio per second. It’s important to note Skaarf has natural 45% shield pierce when maxed, that’s gotta hurt. Petal does good base damage but has low Crystal Ratio. Ringo has the lowest base damage with the highest cooldown, but his third has 100% shield pierce, so it’s doing 2x to 3x what you think depending upon the enemy’s shield. The lowest cooldown belongs to Vox, that’s squirmy bastard. He also silences your whole team. None of the third abilities get weapon ratio but both Skaarf and Skye will slow your team.

Overall, Vox has pathetic ratios (none – his first is essentially two basic attacks that do 75% as much damage) but killer cooldowns. Vox’s perk also gives a natural barrier and crystal ratio damage to his basic attacks. Skaarf has the most damage if you can trap your enemies long enough, but Saw, Celeste, and Skye are all in the same ballpark. Ringo’s insanely low ability damage is deceptive because his basic attacks are so strong. Adagio isn’t as much of a damage dealer as he is a character who can amplify the others.





PART 2: JUNGLERS

Out of the Junglers, Krul’s first is the strongest both from base dmg, and the crystal and weapon ratios it provides. In theory Rona’s first could surpass it, but it’s neither a lock on attack nor does it provide shield like Krul’s. Joule’s base damage is below average but pretty strong when you consider the crystal ratio and the stun. Taka’s appears to have the largest cooldown time but his heroic perk actually gives him up to 125% cooldown with 5 ki stacks. Both Glaive and Joule have stun moves but Glaive’s does more base damage with a lower crystal ratio and a 2 second longer cooldown.

Again Krul is doing the highest damage potential when we look at his next ability. This assumes you have all 8 stacks of his second on an enemy which doesn’t always happen. Everyone else’s abilities are low damage, but Joule and Rona have both WR and CR to make their abilities stronger. Glaive’s second ability is basically a critical basic attack, so the base is his weapon power times your critical damage multiplier and your cleave damage multiplier.

We can’t say the same for Krul when it comes to his ultimate. Krul’s ult has the lowest base damage and has the lowest CR. Practically speaking, Glaive’s ultimate is even lower damage because 700 assumes you have all 20 stacks from the passive (on the bright side it is AOE and has the 2nd fastest cooldown). Taka’s base damage is also low and in this number we are including the bleed damage, but his CR is really strong at 380% making it the 2nd highest after Joule. No surprise here, Joule and Rona are in a league of their own with their ult’s both doing almost 2,000 over time. Rona’s ult benefits from both Weapon and Crystal and cooldown in 4 seconds as long as you have nearly full Bloodrage.

Overall, the most striking revelation is how much more damage Rona and Joule’s ultimates do. When it comes to the other heroes, their effects and heroic perks make up for the difference in damage. Glaive’s AOE, Koshka & Taka’s ability to pursue, and Krul’s barrier and ability to slow enemy attack speed are unique traits better suited for a separate analysis.





PART 3: SUPPORT / ROAM

Both Adagio and Glaive are repeated here as they are often played as tanks in the current patch.

Phinn has the best first in the pack on all metrics. It does about 150 more damage than average, has 32% more CR than average, has the fastest cooldown, and hits multiple enemies. Catherine and Glaive have the same cooldown and stun effect but Glaive does a ton more (330 more) damage. Fortress and Catherine only have WR because their ability counts as a basic attack whereas the average CR across the board is 118%

Catherine does the most total base damage among the second abilities, has the highest CR, and has a scary fast cooldown. Fortress and Phinn do about the same damage but fortress has a pathetic CR. Phinn also gives armor/shield and barrier to all his allies for 2 seconds. Ardan has the longest cooldown but every basic attack decreases it.

For ultimates, we’re not seeing a lot of base damage aside from Adagio because most of them are strong on the effects. Glaive and Phinn’s have the highest CR with Adagio behind by 10%. Phinn, Ardan, and Fortress’s ultimates are focused around map control and given that Ardan’s base damage seems pretty good while we’re left wondering how Fortress’s 60 base dmg per mini wolf bite is in any way viable.





PART 4: Comparing Averages

When it comes to first abilities, the damages are close across the board but Laners have MUCH faster cooldowns than everyone else. More than 2x.

For seconds, We see Laners take the cake again with about 25-35% more base damage and around 70% more CR at the same cooldown.

Last but far from least the Junglers win in the Ultimates category with slightly more damage than Laners and almost 20 seconds faster cooldown (about 33%). Supporters are much softer as we saw above doing half the base damage on average and having half the CR.





So that’s it for this narrow slice of analysis when it comes to hero abilities. There’s a lot more work to be done but please let me know what you think of the numbers in comments and on Reddit!