In Auto Chess there are certain high tier pieces that are on its own very powerful.
When used correctly, these S-Tier pieces can instantly swing a game in your favor. How? They have game changing utility, typically some sort of huge AoE crowd control skill that can completely shut down your opponent.
Let’s first take a look at these pieces before seeing an example of them in action.
1. Siren
Siren’s ability “Abyssal Gaze” slows the attack speed of your opponent before turning them to stone. Essentially its an AoE crowd control skill with a slow following a stun.
Where Siren Excels?
Siren is especially great against physical damage builds like Knights and Assassins. Although her skill itself does no damage it is by far the longest crowd control effect in the game.
This long duration will give your team a huge advantage. You’ll be able to break through your opponents defense and whittle down their forces before they have a chance to retaliate.
2. Storm Shaman
Storm Shaman’s skill “Static Storm” does deals AoE magic damage whilst also applying a silence.
Where Storm Shaman Excels?
Silence is particularly good against mages. Mages rely on heavy burst damage, not being able to cast their spells renders them harmless.
Storm Shaman’s silence is therefore essential for delaying that mage burst damage, allowing your team to wipe them before they can cast.
Additionally the magic damage is also quite useful against Warrior builds which rely heavily on physical damage reduction.
Why not Siren against mages?
Well, her stun takes too long to cast. Mages will blow your team away before the stone curse sets in.
3. Dark Spirit
Dark Spirit’s skill “Black Hole” doesn’t provide any crowd control however instead deals AoE pure damage based on HP.
Where Dark Spirit Excels?
Dark Spirit is the counter to Knight shields. Its pure damage cuts through the additional armor and magic resist Knights receive.
However its high damage also makes it a general great pick for late game where pieces typically have more health. As a bonus you will also go into neutral rounds full of confidence.
The Example
In this game I lose streaked into a Glacier Warrior build. The lobby line up included multiple Mage Players so build wise I was in a pretty terrible spot.
Taking on Storm Shaman (with refresher) allowed my team to better survive against the mages. Had I have gone a more traditional build like Beast Warrior I would not have survived these rounds.
Whilst the mages were a threat the top 2 players were Glacier Knights and another Warrior.
Storm Shaman’s magic damage gave me the advantage against the other Warrior player. However adding Siren was necessary to make the encounters that much more comfortable (especially against the Knight Player).
Eventually the mage players were knocked out leaving a battle between the Glacier Knight player (with a massive health advantage), another Warrior and myself.
I purposely rolled for a Dark Spirit knowing it was likely that it would be a 1v1 between the Knight player and myself. However delayed subbing it in as the 2 Star Storm Shaman was still quite useful against the remaining Warrior player.
Once the other Warrior player was knocked out I subbed out the Storm Shaman for Dark Spirit. Even at 1 Star, against a Knight build Dark Spirit was a much more effective choice than the Storm Shaman.
This was a bit more of an extreme example that used all 3 of these S-Tier pieces. However more importantly it shows how their abilities can make game changing differences.
