It is so rare to see a flawless character launch from For Honor these days, but the newest Outlander class hero, Afeera, has been a thing of beauty! She is a character that will easily be a top tier contender in the 2023 tier lists, not for being cheap/overpowered, but for being so well rounded. Based on the first few weeks of her launch I would say she will easily rank in upper B to lower A Tier.
Afeera is a well balanced character that excels in breaker kicks, grabs, and grapple takedowns. She wields a brutal mace and shield which at first glance seems contradictory to her acrobatic dance like combat style, but Ubisoft animated it so well that it just flows. The key to using her well will be utilizing those outlandish kicks and breakers. However, while these unique breakers may give you the edge today, experienced players will learn to counter these easily in the coming months. In the advanced tips we will go over how to stay executing your foes as our mighty heroine.
Beginner Tips
The first thing you will learn as Afeera is that she is the only shield wielding hero WITHOUT an all block. While it may feel a bit ridiculous to remove this ability from a shield wielder it actually does you more good than bad. Most shield heroes are reactive fighters. They are at their best when they are out blocking, parrying, and reacting to their opponents. However, Afeera is definitely a more aggressive fighter than her shield companions and because of this you will want her to be on aggressor.
1. Always Followup Attacks:
Afeera can chain just about any two attacks together and all of her strikes can be followed up with quick light taps or heavy over the top head smashes. The best thing you can do as this hero is not give your opponent a chance to breathe or get their bearings. Keep wailing on them until you need to gain back that stamina. Her kicks can all be followed up by both lights and heavies. Again she has some pretty basic combinations that you can learn in the Combat Trials, but you can mix and match your strikes and breakers in whatever way you see fit.
I will say that Afeera is not a fighter that will be known for doing a lot of damage, her light attacks are especially weak and following up with only lights will not win you a fight. The best advice I can give a beginner is to take her into a match and interchange a breaker with an attack, side heavy strike and then breaker, keep doing this and you will start to learn how to organically play this hero.
2. Knee People In The FACE:
For Honor is full of brutal executions, violent attack patterns, and unforgiving warriors, but sometimes there is nothing quite like kneeing someone in the face. When using Afeera you will notice that she can cartwheel like a 9-year old school girl on pounds of sweets. Coming across very similarly to the Shinobi Afeera can kartwheel from side to side in order to reset a fight. There are several combinations you can go into while coming out of the kartwheel, but one of the best is immediately breakering to knee your opponent in the face.
While many players will learn to avoid this move after the first few times you use it you are looking for more of the threat this will leave in the back of their mind. When your opponent gets kneed in the face a couple times, the surprise, the damage, and the fact that they just got kneed in the face will make them constantly weary that you will be coming out of that cartwheel with a fresh ol’ knee. Once it stops working come out with some basic attack combinations or switch into a side heavy, but always start off with those high knees.
Advanced Tips
1. Double Tap Slap:
I call it the double tap slap, but really it is just the forward breaker counter, followed by hitting the breaker key again, and then ending with a heavy strike. To pull this off your opponent must be striking at you and you need to forward the breaker into the attack. After you deflect them you hit the other breaker immediately to bash their head with the shield, and finally finish them with a heavy swing that is guaranteed to hit. This ability is especially useful when opponents use the same moves on you and you can predict what is coming next. It will quickly get them to change up their strategy or throw off their game entirely.
If you are going to be successful as Afeera then the double tap slap will be an absolute must.
2. Cancel Out of Attacks:
Canceling out of attacks is nothing new, but some heroes waste their time and stamina doing so as there are other ways for them to be versatile such as the Shaolin Monk, Zhanhu, and Kyoshin. Afeera on the other hand greatly benefits from canceling attacks as her strike patterns are not so different from previous heroes most players are already used to fighting. The breaker queen can be easily dodged when her patterns are noticed so the best way to cancel this is keep them guessing. Almost every combination and strike can be canceled out for Afeera and this actually includes her knee to the face breaker.
Because of this it is best to head into a fight with your best strategies/combos you employ and as the match progresses and your enemy gets a feel for you change it up. When going for the overhead heavy cancel out of it and switch to an opposite side light strike. This will keep the enemy on their toes and give you a break from getting constantly parried for being predictable.
3. Counter Heavies:
Again this is another strategy that can be done by any hero. It takes a ton of finess and knowledge of the game to do it. Countering attacks with breakers, like in the double tap slap, is fairly easy, but doing so with your own attacks takes practice. When the opponent is attacking from a direction you will need to attack from the same direction just a split second after they initiated it. If you do this then their strike will be countered and yours will land. As you can see above, when Afeera does with her heavy strike it becomes an unblockable smack with the mace. This causes the opponent to stumble, lose some stamina, and take a decent amount of damage.
Doing this will give you full control of the fight and you will be able to enter into any one of Afeeras’ many followup breakers to further throttle your opponent. Again, this can be a difficult and risky move to pull off, but if you learn how to do it then you will dominate anyone in your path.
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Afeera is a super fun new hero to play as and her build is darn near perfect. She is far from overpowered, but she does come with all the weapons necessary to become a top tier hero. Hopefully these strategies will help you get to that top tier status a little quicker! If you want some more For Honor content check out the rest of my articles, especially the best Heavies, Vanguards, and Hybrids articles!
