Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition has been released, and there are a great number of former players and new ones getting their first look at the game. While many types of strategies and civilization skills are important to learn, there is another very useful aspect to the game, and that is the aspect of units.
In particular, the hero units available in Age Of Empires 2 can be vital to victory. These high-level warriors should not be risked lightly, but can be very valuable in certain campaign situations and scenarios, especially as hero units will heal continuously for free. Of the hero units available in Age of Empires 2, these are the best ones at the player's disposal.
7 Attila The Hun
While Attila is a great hero, he is low on the list of best heroes because his stats are surprisingly low. He also doesn’t have some of the bonuses against other types of units that the cataphracts he represents have, which hurts his standing somewhat.
However, in spite of this, Attila is a strong warrior who can help turn the tide of battles alone. His archer hero style allows for some extra damage because it takes time to catch up to a speedy archer unit. This enables him to get more of his deadly, high-level attack shots in during battle.
6 God’s Own Sling
The Bad Neighbor and God’s Own Sling are specialized hero trebuchet units, which are incredibly helpful since the trebuchets are already highly destructive weapons. However, the God’s Own Sling has extra range over the average trebuchet, making it destructive over an incredible range.
Any enemy base would take massive damage trying to face down God’s Own Sling. Even in situations where it is alone, it will destroy entire buildings before enemies are able to reach it. This level of siege weapon needs to be protected, but if it has backup, it will likely be devastating to any opposing force. The incredible accuracy and longest overall range of any unit in the game make this trebuchet a massively powerful hero unit.
5 Robin Hood
Another ranged unit, which isn’t too common among the hero units in Age Of Empires 2, Robin Hood is a variation of a longbowman that can be incredibly helpful. Longbowmen are already some of the most powerful archers in the game, and the British are one of the best archer civilizations overall. Playing as them, with Robin Hood, makes for a huge boost.
Robin Hood is affected by all the upgrades that the British can bring to the table for archers, and his attack is already suped up from the normal longbowman level. This makes him a hugely destructive archer unit that can readily demolish enemies from the back lines.
4 Alexander Nevski
Sometimes, a unit can be easily dismissed because of an unimpressive attack or HP stat. However, the armor stat is every bit as vital to the success a unit will have in battle. Alexander Nevski is a cavalry unit with incredible armor that allows him to take on far more in battle than his HP or attack would suggest.
Nevski is able to brutally outlast opponents because it is so much more difficult to do damage against him. This huge armor becomes even more useful when keeping in mind the impressive regeneration rate that all heroes in the game have. Essentially, Nevski is a tank that keeps gaining back a lot of the meager health that opposing forces can take off him in battle.
3 William Wallace
Wallace is one of the rare heroes that just doesn’t have a weakness. He is strong across the board, with high attack and armor stats. His HP is strong, and he is a fine choice for a tutorial hero. Giving players a huge boost when he is part of any attacking force, Wallace is an infantry unit who had the acclaim of being the strongest hero in the base game.
With the additions of other similarly powerful units in the expansions since Wallace has gone down some places in single combat against others, he is still one of the most devastating heroes available, if only in tutorials.
2 Dagnajan
One of the heroes introduced in the African Kingdoms' expansion, the Dagnajan is a mounted archer atop an elephant who has a solid attack, great bonuses, and an impressive 100% accuracy with its shots. Oh, and it also has almost 1000 base HP.
The Dagnajan is one of the most tank-like hero units in the entire game, and will completely devastate enemies even alone. Dangerous already, when taking into account the fact that it can regenerate between battles as a hero, this unit becomes terrifying on another level.
1 Admiral Yi Sun-Shin
An elite turtle ship is already one of the more powerful units in Age Of Empires 2. However, by doubling the HP and attack rate and massively increasing the damage from each shot and the range of the ship, it becomes the most devastating unit in the entire game.
Admiral Yi may be a water-based unit, but it is so devastating on the water that it can take on an entire fleet of enemy ships alone and actually win. The Admiral Yi ship is monstrously overpowered, much like the impressive historical figure on which it is based. There is nothing that could beat it for sheer stat strength in the entire game.