Counters live in Troop Counters; cross-class lineups in Recommended Squads. This page digs into the five aircraft heroes only.
A word on where this comes from. I’ve run tank mono since server launch, so I have never fully invested in an aircraft hero. What I do have is five seasons of being hit by them. Air beats tank, so a well-built air squad has been the matchup I least wanted to see for the entire life of my account. Add to that watching my alliance’s air mains up close, plus the codex data. Read this as “someone who has fought them for a long time” rather than “someone who built them.”
The five at a glance
| Hero | Role | Unlock | Base → EW Lv20 → Awakened | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DVA | Attack (single-target burst) | S1 · week 3 | A → S → SS | The line exists to serve her |
| Schuyler | Support (control/debuff) | S3 · week 3 | B+ → S | The answer to “who after DVA?” |
| Lucius | Defense (shield) | S4 · week 1 | B → S | Shield works for every class |
| Carlie | Defense (protect/sustain) | S2 · week 3 | B → A | Sustain, once the carry is done |
| Morrison | Attack (sub-DPS) | S5 · week 6 | B → A | Widens the damage profile |
Only DVA is an awakening target (Season 6, week 3). For the other four, EW Lv20 is the finish line.
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<text x="257" y="40" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">2 · Schuyler</text>
<text x="257" y="59" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">EW Lv20 (B+ → S)</text>
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<text x="431" y="40" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">3 · Lucius</text>
<text x="431" y="59" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">Universal shield</text>
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<text x="605" y="40" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">4 · Carlie / Morrison</text>
<text x="605" y="59" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">Sustain · extra damage</text>
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<text x="170" y="140" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700">★ Awaken DVA (S6 · week 3)</text>
<text x="170" y="159" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">5★ + EW Lv20 + 50 shards → SS</text>
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<text x="518" y="140" text-anchor="middle" font-weight="700" fill="var(--muted)">The hole in the line</text>
<text x="518" y="159" text-anchor="middle" font-size="11.5" fill="var(--muted)">No dedicated front row — three protectors share it</text>
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<path d="M83,74 L83,96 L170,96 L170,116" fill="none" stroke="var(--muted)" marker-end="url(#acArrowEn)"/>DVA — choosing aircraft means choosing her
Fight a top-of-server air squad and DVA is the first name that jumps out of the battle log. If my Kimberly gets cut down before she’s finished one AoE cycle, nine times out of ten it was DVA.
- Auto — Vortex Missile: single-target energy.
- Tactical — Steel Rain: AoE energy across the whole enemy team.
- Passive — Armament Boost: her own crit rate climbs during the fight.
- Awakened skill — Ace Star: several seconds of flying strafing runs. Replaces the Super-Sensory slot on awakening.
EW Lv20 opens +7.5% to all aircraft plus the third skill, and it’s simultaneously the awakening prerequisite. For an air player this weapon isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a rite of passage. First opened in the Season 1 week-3 battle pass.
Awakening (Season 6, week 3). One of my alliance’s air mains finished DVA’s awakening in week 3 of the current season. His battle reports hit alliance chat a few times that week and the difference was obvious. I awakened Kimberly in week 1 myself, so I know the shape of it — awakening isn’t “numbers go up a bit,” the skill itself changes and the feel jumps a tier. For DVA, awakening is the difference between S and SS.
Weaknesses. Her AoE is weak, so Kimberly out-performs her in crowded fights. And she needs the aircraft protection line (Carlie, Lucius) underneath her. Before that line existed, my alliance’s air main lost DVA early in plenty of matches.
Schuyler — the answer to “who do I build after DVA?”
That question comes up in alliance chat regularly, and the answer is almost always the same. Schuyler.
- Auto — Jamming Beam: single-target energy.
- Tactical — Plasma Burst: AoE energy hitting three back-line targets.
- Passive — Antimatter Armor: his own attack climbs during the fight.
Look closely at that tactical hitting the back row. Fighting air with a tank squad, this one stings in a specific way: the front holds fine while the back gets chewed away. That’s exactly where my Kimberly and Marshall are standing.
He goes from B+ at base to S at EW Lv20, which means a weaponless Schuyler and a finished Schuyler are effectively different heroes. I’ve barely seen a top-server air defense report without him. My alliance’s air main says the result changes on Schuyler’s presence even when DVA’s damage is identical — and from the receiving end I agree. Once you’re locked down, the burst arrives and there’s nothing to do about it. Season 3, week 3.
Schuyler is close to the only support in the aircraft line whose priority runs this high.
Lucius — the one aircraft hero this tank main actually wants
There’s exactly one air hero I covet, and it’s Lucius. The point is that his exclusive weapon’s shield works outside his own class. Every other aircraft support carries an implicit “only if you run air mono.” Lucius doesn’t. He earns his slot in a tank mono.
- Auto — Triple Thunder: single front target, physical.
- Tactical — Knight’s Spirit: team-wide energy damage reduction for a duration.
- Passive — Silver Armor: energy damage reduction for the whole front row.
EW Lv20 brings the aircraft +7.5% and strengthens the shield, taking him B → S. Even inside my alliance there are several people running Lucius who aren’t air players at all. That breadth of adoption is rare for an aircraft hero.
I’m a small spender, so every exclusive weapon is a real decision. After getting burned once by a “Limited!” pack with terrible value, I got into the habit of converting everything to gems-per-dollar before buying — and by that yardstick Lucius’s EW is among the least likely purchases to go to waste, precisely because it doesn’t care about class. I pick up his shards whenever they show up in the black market.
The catch: his base tier is B, so without the weapon he is just a B. Nothing happens if you field the body alone. Season 4, week 1.
Carlie — the hero who comes after the carry is finished
Up front: Carlie is not a hero you build on her own. Her job is propping up an air carry like DVA — survivability and sustain — and she only gains value if you’re running air mono.
- Auto — Twin Rockets: single-target physical.
- Tactical — Inferno Blaze: AoE physical across the enemy team with a lingering debuff.
- Passive — Energy Adaptation: energy damage she takes is reduced during the fight.
The reason I lead with the warning: I lost a month early on spreading XP across six or seven heroes with no main, and support-type heroes like this were always in that pile. Supports only mean something once the carry they support is finished.
That said, an air line with Carlie in it is genuinely annoying to fight. I can pour damage into it and the carry stubbornly refuses to die. Those few seconds are one more DVA burst cycle, and that decides fights. Season 2, week 3.
Morrison — don’t build the new hero just because he’s new
Having lived through Season 5, I remember the mood on my server when Morrison dropped in week 6: “he’s new, should we be building him?” I didn’t. Chasing every new hero on release is the same mistake as spreading XP until you have no main, just wearing a different hat. Looking back from Season 6, that call was right.
- Auto — Fatal Bullet: single-target physical.
- Tactical — Dead Center: gatling barrage, AoE physical across many targets.
- Passive — Firepower Deployment: his own physical damage climbs during the fight.
DVA is single-target burst and Morrison is AoE sustained fire, so pairing them widens the damage profile. My alliance’s air main only slotted him in after DVA and Schuyler were finished, and reported the squad got noticeably thicker for it. Season 5, week 6. He is strictly the next card for someone whose air line is already complete.
The aircraft line’s edge, and its hole
The edge is the matchup. Air beats tank, and tank mono is what most free and low-spend players choose. So aircraft is the class that gets a favourable matchup against the most common opponent on the server. That’s worth more than any individual hero stat line.
The hole is the front row. Where tank has dedicated front-liners in Williams and Murphy, the aircraft protective heroes — Lucius, Carlie, and Schuyler on control — are all shielding, reduction, and lockdown, not bodies that physically hold a line. That makes “DVA dies first” a common failure, and the line is unstable until the support pieces exist. If you commit to aircraft, do not stop after DVA. Treat DVA and Schuyler as a set.
Missile is the bad matchup. Missile beats air, so a missile mono is not a fight you’re favoured in. Small consolation: missile monos aren’t as common on most servers as tank.
The full investment picture is in the Exclusive Weapon Guide; DVA’s week-3 awakening timing and shard math continue in the Awakening Guide.
Unofficial fan-site content · no partnership or sponsorship with the developer · figures can change with patches.
By: lastwarhub.com
