All 7 hero classes, ranked for the current meta

You field three heroes per drop. That single constraint is the entire squad metagame — every tier list is really an argument about who earns the third slot. Assault and Medic are nearly automatic; the real debate lives everywhere else.

The S-tier core: Assault & Medic

Assault tops every list for a reason — the best weapon scaling in the roster, burst actives that delete boss phases, and the highest single-target ceiling. He's not versatile; he's just better at the thing that ends fights. Medic is the quieter auto-include: tempa-death timers make hero deaths catastrophically expensive, and a class that prevents them is functionally a second economy. Together they're the spine of 80% of competitive squads.

The flexible middle: Recon, Engineer, Saboteur

Recon earns the third slot on any map with split lanes — the best rotations and kiting in the roster, and post-buff weapon lines that no longer embarrass her. Engineer is the economy pick: repair auras and build discounts compound hardest in endless mode, where his value scales with run length. Saboteur is the specialist's choice — mediocre on paper until an armored mission makes him mandatory, which is roughly a third of Act II and every Wartoise-adjacent problem.

Situational but deadly: Heavy & Hybrid

The remaining two classes — the heavy weapons specialist and the hybrid support — sit lower not because they're weak but because they're narrow. Heavy owns dense-wave missions where AoE output matters more than positioning; Hybrid is the endless-mode flex pick whose buffs shine on hour-long runs. Neither belongs in a default trio, and both are correct picks in the missions built for them. The real skill is reading the dossier before the drop, not memorizing the tier list.