History YMMV / AFKArena

** [[AllThereInTheManual Background lore]] reveals Thoran crossed it multiple times after he [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis Became His Own Antithesis]]. Far from being TheGoodKing that he once was, as soon as he took back the throne of Bantus, he made it law for everyone to pledge eternal loyalty to Qaedam and become Graveborn like himself, decapitating anyone who refused so they couldn't communicate even if brought back afterwards. After that, he invented the Black Prison, which is designed to torment a Graveborn's immortal soul for eternity, making it an artificial version of {{Hell}} that he throws his subjects in [[AllCrimesAreEqual for the slightest sign of dissent]].

** [[LightNovel/Overlord2012 Ainz Ooal Gown]] is a borderline PersonOfMassDestruction at higher levels. His ultimate, Fallen Down, is easily one of the biggest nukes in the game, held back by having a 5-second channeling time that makes it easily interruptible... but once you get his signature item, ''the channeling time is removed'' up to 3 times per battle and, once you get the SI to level 30, the damage is increased even further. Very, very few non-boss enemies can take three Fallen Downs to the face and live (hell, ''one'' is often enough to devastate a team), making him an absolute monster in [=PvE=] and ''especially'' [=PvP=] as his start-of-combat buffs are very hard to interrupt in the Arena, doubly so if Albedo is protecting him.

** Downplayed with Pippa, who for most of the game is just [[AmbiguousDisorder eccentric and bizarre]], but when left to her own devices in the Oak Inn, she's almost always visibly depressed, unable to stand up straight and her thought bubble usually being a figure crying under a blanket. While she cheers up when she visits someone or when someone visits her, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends she goes right back to being miserable when it's time for them to go]]. After seeing her like that, one wonders [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer just how badly her classmates treated her]] to give her abandonment issues that severe, and just wants to give that cute little nerd squirrel a hug.

* WhatAnIdiot: Maetria's entire plan involved empowering and gathering the only people who could stop her. Needless to say, she didn't quite think it through.

*** The other two bad endings are achieved by exterminating all the Maulers or exterminating [[KillEmAll everyone]]. Both of them are started by giving a gift to a young Mauler man and his wife... who are the first ones you kill after you follow them into the village, and they're appropriately shocked and horrified. The little girl praises you for being a hero, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone but your characters disagree]].
*** The KillEmAll ending [[WouldHurtAChild includes the little girl and her family]]. [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame Zolrath is absolutely delighted if you take this route]].

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** In March 2021, the core problem with Dimensionals was addressed in the form of "garrisoning" them from one's friend list using Dimensional Stones. If you miss the initial offering, while getting them after that point will be [[DifficultButAwesome long and difficult]], it is at least possible.
** Thali was the developers' answer to criticisms of the Maulers' SexyDimorphism. The fanbase wanted a female Mauler that was just as much of a BeastMan as the males instead of just being a human with animal appendages like Antandra, Satrana, and Ankhira, so they got one.

** In the "Shadow Invasions" mini-game, Mirael is practically untouchable. Not only does [[GatheringSteam her attack power ride as she levels up]], but the attack she starts out with, when maxed out (which can happen quickly), is ''the'' best attack in the game, with several projectiles that bounce off of several enemies and pretty low cooldown.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Thane, when encountered as an enemy, works like he is designed to, being a CriticalHitClass that can deal high burst damage and turn invulnerable to evade attacks while slicing up his foes. When used by the player... let's just say he leaves much to be desired. With a level advantage, Thane has the potential to be powerful, but given that's never the case in [=PvE=], especially at higher levels, he tends to die immediately upon making contact with the enemy and barely scratches them even if he lives. He doesn't fare much better in [=PvP=] environments like the Arena of Heroes, where his entire effectiveness depends on him scoring critical hits and not dying before then, making him very unreliable. His one main niche was his ability to deal high sustained damage against bosses... until heroes like Rosaline and Saurus came along and made him largely irrelevant there too.
** To most players, the only thing that stands out about Ulmus is that he doesn't do anything. For a tank, his durability isn't that good, and while he tries to make up for it by having some damage output and healing in his kit, those aren't very remarkable either. A chunk of his power is barred behind his ultimate, which he'll almost certainly die before getting to actually use, especially since he needs to survive even longer after casting it to actually get value from it. To further rub salt onto the wound, despite being around for a long time, Ulmus never seems to get anything interesting when new mechanics are introduced and proceeded to get completely buried by power creep.
** When Walker was introduced, the fandom almost immediately came to the consensus that he was the single worst character in the game, even moreso than long-standing bottom-tier characters Thane and Ulmus (listed above). He's a [[TheGunslinger gunslinger]] designed to be a FragileSpeedster, but despite his using a shotgun, and being given raw stats that seem to expect that, he has no ranged attacks; he can only shoot point blank. [[GunsAreWorthless He might as well not even be using one for all the good it does him]]. These close-range attacks do almost no damage, either -- even [[WhiteMage pure healers]] like Numisu and Rowan routinely hit harder than him.
** Baden is designed to swarm his enemies with phantoms and receive buffs from them being alive, meaning that in theory, he can snowball out of control by {{Zerg Rush}}ing enemies and becoming a massive nuisance. In practice, this rarely works given that his phantoms die in a stiff breeze, and Baden himself isn't that much harder to kill. What really puts him in this territory, though, is that Grezhul is not only more useful overall but also much better than Baden at what he's trying to do thanks to his signature item and furniture.
** On the other end of the scale, Thoran, in the process of being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, ended up here. Due to his signature item making his cumulative CounterAttack Ultimate Skill impossible to interrupt on its first use, it's not uncommon for him to effortlessly dispatch the opposing team's best heroes in one hit, making him dreaded when faced in [=PvE and PvP=] alike. The word "cheese" is very frequently used to describe him.
** Ainz is the most complained-about character on the high end of the tiers, even more so than characters higher-tiered than him. While he has counters in [=PvP=], such as Oden who can easily thwart his devastating Ultimate, without specifically building against him, he's virtually unstoppable, and not to mention ubiquitous considering the relative ease of obtaining him once the player starts gaining enough resources to start Garrisoning.

* {{Macekre}}: The English translation is a disaster. Many characters have significant parts of their personalities and backstories [[LostInTranslation inexplicably omitted]] compared to the Chinese and Japanese versions, and the descriptions of several skills aren't accurate to their effects.

** Flora has made more players [[RageQuit leave the community]] than any other character. Beginning to prominently show up as a PVE enemy in [[DifficultySpike Chapter 36]], the gap in levels between player and opponent is far more noticeable for her, and turns her from a character who's okay-to-decent in PVP into an absolute monster to fight. Her main advantage is that she's completely invincible until all other enemies on her side are defeated, while routinely making areas around the battlefield explode (albeit with flowers) from above. Her only real counters are [[VideoGame/SamuraiShodown Ukyo]] and Awakened Talene; characters who are not only a nightmare to get a hold of in the first place[[note]]Ukyo is hard to get even by Dimensional standards because his low sales while he was still available make it difficult to find anyone to garrison him from. Awakened heroes have as low of a chance of appearing from the Temple of Time as chosen characters in the Stargazer, but the resources to even attempt it are much harder to get than for the Stargazer, and they take many more copies to ascend than other heroes.[[/note]] but also [[CripplingOverspecialization not useful for anything EXCEPT countering Flora]].

** When Walker was introduced, the fandom almost immediately came to the consensus that he was the single worst character in the game, even moreso than long-standing bottom-tier characters Thane (listed above) and Ulmus. He's a [[TheGunslinger gunslinger]] designed to be a FragileSpeedster, but despite his using a shotgun, and being given raw stats that seem to expect that, he has no ranged attacks; he can only shoot point blank. [[GunsAreWorthless He might as well not even be using one for all the good it does him]]. These close-range attacks do almost no damage, either -- even [[WhiteMage pure healers]] like Numisu and Rowan routinely hit harder than him.

* FanNickname:
** VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia, having NoNameGiven, is called [[Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime Dastan]] by fans. Or [[ComicBook/PrinceOfPersiaTheGraphicNovel Guiv]]. Or [[FunWithAcronyms Pop]]. It [[BrokenBase depends on who you ask]].

** Flora has made more players [[RageQuit leave the community]] than any other character. Beginning to prominently show up as a PVE enemy in [[DifficultySpike Chapter 36]], the gap in levels between player and opponent is far more noticeable for her, and turns her from a character who's okay-to-decent in PVP into an absolute monster to fight. Her main advantage is that she's completely invincible until all other enemies on her side are defeated, while routinely making areas around the battlefield explode (albeit with flowers) from above. Her only real counters are [[VideoGame/SamuraiShodown Ukyo]] and Awakened Talene; characters who are not only a nightmare to get a hold of in the first place[[note]]Ukyo is hard to get even by Dimensional standards because his low sales make it difficult to find anyone to garrison him from. Awakened heroes have as low of a chance of appearing from the Temple of Time as chosen characters in the Stargazer, but the resources to even attempt it are much harder to get than for the Stargazer, and they take many more copies to ascend than other heroes.[[/note]] but also [[CripplingOverspecialization not useful for anything EXCEPT countering Flora]].

** Flora has made more players [[RageQuit leave the community]] than any other character. Beginning to prominently show up as a PVE enemy in [[DifficultySpike Chapter 36]], the gap in levels between player and opponent is far more noticeable for her, and turns her from a character who's okay-to-decent in PVP into an absolute monster to fight. Her main advantage is that she's completely invincible until all other enemies on her side are defeated, while routinely making areas around the battlefield explode (albeit with flowers) from above. Her only real counters are characters who are not only a nightmare to get a hold of in the first place but also [[CripplingOverspecialization not useful for anything EXCEPT countering Flora]]: [[VideoGame/SamuraiShodown Ukyo]] and Awakened Talene.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Dimensionals as a rule tend to fall into this category, largely due to criticisms over how they're implemented along with the usual criticisms against the concept of {{Guest Fighter}}s. Ainz Ooal Gown specifically gets the worst of this due to his raw power (see GameBreaker below), though the backlash against him calmed down significantly after the garrisoning system removed his BribingYourWayToVictory characteristics.

** Talene, who comes up in the community often (see GameBreaker below), is very frequently referred to as “Chicken”.

** Talene used to be agreed to be the strongest hero in the game, being very similar to a [[ThePhoenix phoenix]] with an exceptional healing ability for the entire team and the ability to revive herself after falling in battle. She can also dish out a fair bit of damage as well using her ultimate. While her usefulness has fallen down somewhat due to other heroes catching up, she's still considered a vital asset.

** Ainz is the most complained-about character on the high end of the tiers, even more so than characters higher-tiered than him. While he has counters in top-level [=PvP=], in lower levels he's virtually unstoppable, and not to mention ubiquitous considering the relative ease of obtaining him once the player starts gaining enough resources to start Garrisoning.

* Mechanically, the Engravings system isn't much different from the other bonus types introduced before, but what's scrappy about this mechanic is how difficult the resources for it are to obtain compared to other types of resources... unless, of course, you bought them. Numerous players have left due to perceiving its introduction as a BribingYourWayToVictory mindset beginning to take over the game.

* AbandonShipping: Antandra/Satrana ''used'' to be a popular pairing, but when their canonical ages were revealed--25 and 15, respectively--their shippers disappeared almost overnight.

** The most criticized aspect of the game by far is how [[GuestFighter Dimensional heroes]] are handled. In theory, they’re ''possible'' for the free-to-play audience to get, but doing so requires significantly holding back your own game progress in terms of other equipment and heroes. The different shops require different types of coins — Guild Coins from fighting Wrizz and Soren, Challenger Coins from the Arena of Heroes, Hero Coins which ComMons can be exchanged for, and Labyrinth Coins from clearing the Arcane Labyrinth. A free-to-play Dimensional requires hoarding all of them, and there’s a cap for how much you can hold of each at once. Frustrating but still manageable at this point. The real problem came when [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed Ezio]] was added to the game while [[VideoGame/SamuraiShodown Nakoruru]] was ''still available,'' both with only a limited window to get them... and the same cost of in-game resources which were well over half of the cap. The only possible way to get both characters was to [[BribingYourWayToVictory pay for at least one of them]]. Lilith noticed the backlash and said they would handle Dimensionals better in the future... [[AesopAmnesia and then]] they released [[Anime/Overlord2012 Ainz and Albedo]] simultaneously. Then they did both of these mistakes at the same time by releasing [[VideoGame/{{Persona 5}} Joker and Queen]] simultaneously during the last hours of Ainz and Albedo's availability.

** Thali was the developers' answer to criticisms of the Maulers' SexyDimorphism. The fanbase wanted a Mauler that was just as much of a BeastMan as the males instead of just being a human with animal appendages like Antandra, Satrana, and Ankhira, so they got one.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: In March 2021, the core problem with Dimensionals was addressed in the form of "garrisoning" them from one's friend list using Dimensional Stones. If you miss the initial offering, while getting them after that point will be [[DifficultButAwesome long and difficult]], it is at least possible.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: In March 2021, the core problem with Dimensionals was addressed in the form of Dimensional Stones. If you miss the initial offering, while getting them after that point will be [[DifficultButAwesome extraordinarily difficult]], it is at least possible.
* BaseBreakingCharacter: The [[GuestFighter Dimensionals]] as a rule tend to fall into this category, largely due to criticisms over how they're implemented.

** Downplayed with Pippa, who for most of the game is just [[AmbiguousDisorder eccentric and bizarre]], but when left to her own devices in the Oak Inn, she's almost always visibly depressed, unable to stand up straight and her thought bubble usually being a figure crying under a blanket. Even the Graveborn don't seem anywhere near as upset as her. One just wants to give that cute little nerd squirrel a hug after seeing her like that.

** When Walker was introduced, the fandom almost immediately came to the consensus that he was the single worst character in the game, even moreso than long-standing bottom-tier characters Thane (listed above) and Ulmus. He's a [[TheGunslinger gunslinger]] designed to be a FragileSpeedster, but despite his relying on a gun in both his own backstory and Kren's, and being given raw stats that seem to expect that, he has no ranged attacks. [[GunsAreWorthless His gun is, for all intents and purposes, just a prop]]. The melee attacks do almost no damage, either (and no, PistolWhipping is not among them) -- even [[WhiteMage pure healers]] like Numisu and Rowan routinely hit harder than him.

** When Walker was introduced, he was fairly universally agreed to be the worst character in the game, even moreso than long-standing bottom-tier characters Thane (listed above) and Ulmus. He's a [[TheGunslinger gunslinger]] designed to be a FragileSpeedster, but despite his relying on a pistol in both his own backstory and Kren's, and being given raw stats that seem to expect that, he has no ranged attacks. [[GunsAreWorthless His gun is, for all intents and purposes, just a prop]]. The melee attacks do almost no damage, either (and no, PistolWhipping is not among them) -- to the point where [[WhiteMage pure healers]] like Numisu and Rowan routinely hit harder than him.

** In the late game, Tasi is the most complained-about enemy hero with her ability to make your party fall asleep early and often, along with having damage output that is [[{{SNK Boss}} impossible from a playable Tasi]] and far more durability than most teams can deal with.

** Talene is fairly widely agreed to be the strongest hero in the game, being very similar to a [[ThePhoenix phoenix]] with an exceptional healing ability for the entire team and the ability to revive herself after falling in battle. She can also dish out a fair bit of damage as well using her ultimate; the only thing stopping her from being omnipresent is the exorbitant cost required to ascend her.

** While several heroes are capped at Legendary+ tier with their highest possible level being 160, Angelo is the worst among these. He’s completely useless even in the earliest parts of the game where ascension is irrelevant. In function, he’s a much, ''much'' weaker version of Nemora with his primary focus being healing at the expense of everything else. However, his healing ability isn’t nearly enough to make up for his shortcomings. And being one of the capped characters, he doesn’t have any signature item or furniture to enhance his abilities into any niche use later on. Ironically, his brother Rowan is one of the most competitively useful characters in the game.
** Ankhira is in roughly the same boat as Angelo, being a Legendary+ hero that tends to be largely useless in most stages of the game. On paper, she can shut down key enemies like a discount Tasi while draining energy and dealing high damage over time... if she weren't a SquishyWizard with a ''melee'' attack. She tends to die very quickly, doesn't deal nearly enough damage before she goes down, and her cocoon ability tends to miss the enemy you need it to target more often than not, meaning she'll rarely have any sort of impact beyond the first few levels. Incidentally, these traits make her supremely annoying to face as a [=PvE=] enemy due to her health pool and damage output being much better in the AI's hands.
** Poor, poor Brutus. Once omnipresent in [=PvP=] due to being one of the best heroes in the game at launch, he's become very mediocre over time due to stagnating [[CantCatchUp while nearly everyone else blazed past him with upgrades]]. While he's not ''terrible,'' his fall was definitely the most noticeable, and now his only real use in the metagame is as a damage sponge in very niche situations, like defending against Athalia's first attack. He's become so much of a joke that he even [[DemotedToExtra lost his status as the game's mascot]]!
** Among Ascended heroes, Raine is a particularly long-suffering example of being OvershadowedByAwesome. In theory, she was meant to be a hybrid DPS/support, capable of doing some damage as well as softening up enemies and giving energy boosts, giving her something of a niche in a gimmicky build alongside burst-damage dealers like Belinda and (in the early game) Silvina. However, as more heroes were introduced, Raine was very quickly left in the dust; Rowan and Rosaline stepped into her support role and filled it much more comfortably, while Belinda had her outdone in the damage department from the onset and the addition of Gwyneth made her completely obsolete. Even as a hybrid, Fawkes already offered more utility. As such, Raine was eventually given a rework to solidify her as a support, but it was too little, too late; while the new Raine is objectively an improvement, it wasn't enough for her to be considered viable. She's since found a niche in certain Twisted Realm teams, though.