[Battlerite]: Fast-Paced Arena Hero Brawler!

Spawnbroker

https://www.battlerite.com/

Hey Spawn, what is this game?
This is Battlerite, a hero brawler. You and your friends each control one hero. You're dropped into an arena against an enemy team and your goal is to kill them all. If you kill all of the enemy players, you win that round. Each match is best of five rounds. The game currently has 2v2 and 3v3 game modes.

PCGamer wrote:

http://www.pcgamer.com/battlerite-is-the-best-teamfight-youve-ever-had-over-and-over/

If I had to explain it to a Dota player, I'd put it this way: you know those moments when you're under attack, but you know that there's a chance to outplay your opponent if you do everything right? That you can lose them in the trees just so, manipulate line of sight just so, nail that one skillshot, buy yourself time to get that one crucial ability off cooldown? That's Battlerite pretty much all of the time, and it's awesome.

Okay, what's the catch?
It's in early access right now for $20. It will eventually be Free-to-play and not all heroes are unlocked. Their previous game, Bloodline Champions, was killed by a bad microtransaction business model.

That being said, it is super fun right now and it has been in the Steam top sellers list since it hit Early Access.

I don't like having to grind for heroes
You're in luck, early access buyers get access to all heroes in perpetuity!

I only buy games if I can watch a Youtuber play it poorly first
Here's Northernlion playing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv2DPP9aFNA

How many characters are there?


There are currently 18 playable champions, all with strengths and weaknesses. Each champion has 9 abilities with cooldowns, so there is quite a high skill ceiling for each champion. Champions are broken down by role into tanks, supports, and damage dealers.

I only play OP characters, which champion is OP right now?
Funny you mention that, if you ask 5 different players that question, you might get 5 different answers. At the very least, every character is competitive and there are no breakout obviously OP characters right now. Screw that frog guy though.

SHAMELESS PLUG INCOMING, our very own @TychoCelchuuu has made some YouTube videos detailing some interesting mechanics. He also has gameplay guides for some of the heroes on his channel, go check them out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cABA7u77UO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YvVxLm1vOs

Anyways, I've been having a ton of fun with this one lately. Discuss!

Spawnbroker

Shameless plug for @TychoCelchuuu and his YouTube videos added to the OP.

Lehman

I am playing this if anyone wants to add me to their friends list. The game is really fun and seems like a finished title gameplay wise and id recommend it to anyone that enjoyed Bloodline Champions or games like LoL or DOTA. Havent really ran into many bugs and most champs seem pretty balanced in my opinion. I've pretty much been playing 2v2 exclusively and been hovering between 2400 ELO. Ive notived that when I win or lose game that its only changing my elo by 15-30 points or so when before it would change or decrease it by 50-200 points. Has anyone else playing noticed this? Just curious if its because they changed the way the win/loss system effects your ranking or if its because it lowers the more games you play. I won like 4 or 5 games in a row against equal or higher grade opposition and only gained about 100 points total so it kind of makes it hard to jump up a grade. Anyways, if anyone wants to add me to their friend list my Battlerite ID is Draggan.

TychoCelchuuu

The reason your ELO changes less as you play more is that they're using TrueSkill, which aims to find how good you are and then keep you there unless you get better. So, early on, the ELO will fluctuate a lot as it tries to figure out what your ranking is, but as it narrows in, the swings will be less extreme.

Lehman

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

The reason your ELO changes less as you play more is that they're using TrueSkill, which aims to find how good you are and then keep you there unless you get better. So, early on, the ELO will fluctuate a lot as it tries to figure out what your ranking is, but as it narrows in, the swings will be less extreme.

Makes sense, I pretty much did the tutorial and the 4 AI games they give you as your first daily and hopped into 2v2 so i was pretty bad at first especially since I havent played a MOBA in ages. Kind of feel like im better than the ELO im at now just based on the competition im seeing at that level and while its not that big of a deal it might be hard to gain a few grades since i have been playing 2v2 exclusively and its somewhat dependant on having a decent teammate.

Spawnbroker

So I tried out Croak a bit last night, and I think I'm settling in on some main characters I'll be playing.

So far I seem to have a lot of success with Croak, Shifu, and Jade. I haven't found a tank or support that really grabs me yet.

WingedWeasel

How much of a disadvantage would I be at playing this with a controller? Can I even play this with a controller? A lot of duelyst streamers have been playing this which is where I first saw it, and it seems a lot like a twin stick shooter? Is that just first glance impression?

It seems like it would be fun but it is pretty boring from a spectator perspective so I am hesitant to drop the $20

P10

did anyone here play BLC and is this actually just BLC 2.0? it certainly looks like it is given that it's Stunlock and the character's visual designs seem to match up

Spawnbroker

WingedWeasel wrote: »

How much of a disadvantage would I be at playing this with a controller? Can I even play this with a controller? A lot of duelyst streamers have been playing this which is where I first saw it, and it seems a lot like a twin stick shooter? Is that just first glance impression?

It seems like it would be fun but it is pretty boring from a spectator perspective so I am hesitant to drop the $20

I wouldn't try to play it with a controller. It's WASD controls with mouse aiming and 9 ability buttons. You would be hard pressed to fit all of that on a controller, and you wouldn't have the twitch aiming you need for some of the movement abilities.

P10 wrote: »

did anyone here play BLC and is this actually just BLC 2.0? it certainly looks like it is given that it's Stunlock and the character's visual designs seem to match up

I played BLC, yes this is just BLC 2.0 with more polish and hopefully a more fair business model. From what I understand, the publisher really screwed with them on BLC and the game never gained any traction because of the crazy F2P model they forced in.

Darkewolfe

For some reason I read "You and your friends each control one hero" as: Your team only has one hero that you have to collectively control.

I was excited for something new! Oh well.

Bloodline Champions was super good. RIP.

chuck steak

I think this would work pretty good with a controller, as all of the skill shots are aimed based more on the direction you are aiming and less on the exact placement of your cursor (if this makes sense?). The number of of skills could make it cumbersome though, and overall you would probably be at a disadvantage. I could see this working well on consoles though where everybody would be using a controller.

I'm finding picking support while solo queuing is not a good idea, because you end up relying on your teammate too much which has been a crapshoot. I haven't noticed, does the matchmaking make sure two supports don't end up on the same team?

taliosfalcon

Man, i still play (and do decently) in DoTA2, LoL, etc. but i am *terrible* at this, wow. VS AI is no problem, easy, but i'm like 0/5 for 2v2 rounds so far. But it's fun

Spawnbroker

taliosfalcon wrote: »

Man, i still play (and do decently) in DoTA2, LoL, etc. but i am *terrible* at this, wow. VS AI is no problem, easy, but i'm like 0/5 for 2v2 rounds so far. But it's fun

Add me in game if you want someone to lose with.

I noticed I got a lot better when I played more of the heroes. Knowing that Poloma's panic ability is a counter move is huge. Knowing what your enemy is capable of is a huge part of the mind games going on in a match, and the rock-paper-scissors becomes more clear.

valiance

I did not think I would like this at all, given BLC looked too fast and too fiddly for me, and I am bad at these sorts of games; but I tried it ( thanks @Page- ) and Battlerite is shockingly fun.

I thought the pace would be too fast, and it probably is for me, but its not way too fast; just a bit hectic. I also have way too many skills to manage. EX skills just blew my mind when I found out about them. I had enough trouble with M1/M2 and space/Q/E/R/F. Plus I haven't sat down to learn/try all the heroes so I still don't always know what to expect. I think there's a whole other game lurking inside of Battlerite when you know what's going on and can play fast enough and well enough to counter it.

tier list: silly at this point since its so early, but Paloma, Shifu, Ashka all seem top tier. Croak is pretty good, I hear Bakko is amazing. Rook seems to be pretty bad. Everything I've seen says just pick a hero who's fun and play the shit out of them.

I think I wanna play Freya. She's pretty tough to play well, but I like her core mechanic and aesthetic. She's just fun.

Currently grade 7 maybe 1400ish MMR? Only 2v2s so far. Have yet to try 3v3s. If I'm not mistaken, your MMR swings more based on how much you win and your opponents' MMRs. So winning 3-0 is more MMR than winning 3-2. And beating a team higher ranked than you is more MMR than beating a team you outrank.

If you guys wanna watch some grade 14s, jackazzm and teldoo https://www.twitch.tv/teldoo/profile are both ~5000 MMR

My current computer/connection aren't conducive to playing atm, but I'm excited to get back into this when I have a decent setup again and I hope it does well in the meantime.

edit: If you want to sell this game to dota players you could do worse than this quote from PC Gamer:http://www.pcgamer.com/battlerite-is-the-best-teamfight-youve-ever-had-over-and-over/

If I had to explain it to a Dota player, I'd put it this way: you know those moments when you're under attack, but you know that there's a chance to outplay your opponent if you do everything right? That you can lose them in the trees just so, manipulate line of sight just so, nail that one skillshot, buy yourself time to get that one crucial ability off cooldown? That's Battlerite pretty much all of the time, and it's awesome.

Spawnbroker

Added that PCGamer quote to the beginning of the OP, good find.

Harbringer197

this looks really fun.

Just a quick question is it possible to button map the ex skills.

i was never a fan of the shift and control buttons when using awsd. if I could map it to my mouse's extra buttons that would be awesome

Spawnbroker

Harbringer197 wrote: »

this looks really fun.

Just a quick question is it possible to button map the ex skills.

i was never a fan of the shift and control buttons when using awsd. if I could map it to my mouse's extra buttons that would be awesome

I just took a look at the options menu, looks like every key is rebindable.

Page-

ex skills default to 1 and 2.

I also stream this on occasion (like tonight). Mostly Poloma, because psychopomp will always be the best even if she's not as versatile as her BLC counterpart.

https://www.twitch.tv/page0rz/

Spawnbroker

AMA with the devs going on here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/551tee/were_stunlock_studios_our_game_battlerite_has/?ref=share&ref_source=link

chuck steak

"We have patched a matchmaking change to improve team-balance for premades and players that solo-queue. When queuing as a party the matchmaking system will now prioritize matchups against other parties of the same size.

Another change we’ve implemented is win-streak matching. If you won your last game you will have a greater chance of being matched vs opponents that also won their last game. This will prevent players from getting matched against the same opponents two or more games in a row.

These changes will probably result in slightly longer queues, but better games. The restrictions are lifted when you've been in queue for long enough though."

Nice, it was getting pretty noticeable when I was queueing solo into groups, and that didn't feel good. Feels like one of those games like Darkest Dungeon that will be really fun to follow and play throughout Early Access.

Spawnbroker

I am so happy about that win streak change.

I can't tell you how many times last night I would lose to a team, queue again, and immediately get rematched up against them. It's super frustrating.

Syngyne

Battlerite sounds kind of like a 3M product for ensuring the field of honor always looks its best.

Spawnbroker

Balance patch notes! http://steamcommunity.com/games/504370/announcements/detail/580226899033350836

As a Croak main, not too surprised about any of that. The most surprising thing is the lack of Shifu nerfs, to be honest.

taliosfalcon

Thank god, fuck croak and people who play him (this means you!) Hurray for oldur buffs, i love him, didn't think he needed any but yay!.

note:i'm not saying croak necessarily needed nerfs, i'm just sick of him popping out of nowhere and raping me.

edit: also added spawnbroker in game, my in game is taliosfalcon anyone who wants to play with someone terrible add me

ZombieSheep

Tried out all the hero once in vs AI, it seems like about over half of the characters have some sorta of split second counter. I am going to have a bad time.

Also, mounts?... why?

chuck steak

ZombieSheep wrote: »

Tried out all the hero once in vs AI, it seems like about over half of the characters have some sorta of split second counter. I am going to have a bad time.

Also, mounts?... why?

All the mounts seem to do is let you get to the fight quicker at the start of the match. I guess it adds a bit of cat and mouse at the beginning too, because you can maneuver around the map quicker to try and flank them, and whoever initiates the battle first is also the first to lose that movement speed bonus. I've never seen somebody mount up after the battle has begun though, but it's too early to tell if that will ever be something that could get you an advantage.

Raiden333

Oh hey the game has its own thread.

Just picked it up and started. I'm in love with it already after only clearing the tutorial.

TychoCelchuuu

chuck steak wrote: »

ZombieSheep wrote: »

Tried out all the hero once in vs AI, it seems like about over half of the characters have some sorta of split second counter. I am going to have a bad time.

Also, mounts?... why?

All the mounts seem to do is let you get to the fight quicker at the start of the match. I guess it adds a bit of cat and mouse at the beginning too, because you can maneuver around the map quicker to try and flank them, and whoever initiates the battle first is also the first to lose that movement speed bonus. I've never seen somebody mount up after the battle has begun though, but it's too early to tell if that will ever be something that could get you an advantage.

Mounting up after the battle has started can be useful if everyone has disengaged or if you're down to a 1v1 and your opponent is fairly far away. Being able to get an advantage in positioning via having an increased speed (even better if you do the "YEEHAW" move with Z) can be helpful.

Raiden333

Lucie is my spirit animal.

Crashing pretty soon, but if anyone wants to play tomorrow night with someone who plays support heroes, hit me up.

Harbringer197

I'm really liking this... Im falling into the rut of being a hipster and playing the least liked characters.

Spawnbroker

I've seen some higher MMR players mount up to go grab some orbs real quick if they're all alone. It seems situationally useful.

Grundlestiltskin

Man I suck at this game. I think I've won 5 rounds total in my first 5 pvp matches :-/

TychoCelchuuu

It takes time to get good. And then even once you figure out a character, when you try a new character you're right back at zero again, which is why I just dragged @Spawnbroker down like 500 MMR tonight trying to learn Poloma.

Spawnbroker

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

It takes time to get good. And then even once you figure out a character, when you try a new character you're right back at zero again, which is why I just dragged @Spawnbroker down like 500 MMR tonight trying to learn Poloma.

No worries dude, I still had fun! Once you figure her out, Poloma is one of the most evasive characters in the game by far. Almost every one of her abilities can get her or her allies away from trouble somehow.

I don't know how good she is in 2v2, but in 3v3 she's a monster.

taliosfalcon

So i've put 6 hours into the game..and just now realized there are more abilities when you hold down shift...oops...I think they should have spelt that out a bit more clearly in the tutorial

TychoCelchuuu

If only there were some sort of video embedded in the OP that mentioned this...

fRAWRst

i just bought this! i really liked bloodline champs way back, and i am so bad but am enjoying it (even when i lose)

the matches are quick, gameplay seems balanced so far, and the disabled chat by default seems odd but i get the toxicity it blocks

anyone wanna play some?

Alegis

I generally don't spend money on early access, but your vids are selling me on this heavily Tycho
Have to say I like the style, fast, to the point, concise & clear and no obnoxious self-recording or screaming.

I think I'll wait until I get tired of duelyst, but I like how you can purchase now and skip the microtransactions after release.

RPS review up: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/04/battlerite-review-early-access/

TychoCelchuuu

Alegis wrote: »

I generally don't spend money on early access, but your vids are selling me on this heavily Tycho
Have to say I like the style, fast, to the point, concise & clear and no obnoxious self-recording or screaming.

*quickly deletes all the videos he has just recorded that consist entirely of obnoxious self-recording and screaming*

Cyrenic

This looks like a hero brawler with the stuff I like: No farming and short rounds. I'll probably be buying it this evening when I get home.

Questions:

Who are the most noob friendly heroes and how do I counter the stealth guy?

TychoCelchuuu

There is lots of disagreement about which are the most noob-friendly heroes. I think Croak is good. I don't know who the "stealth guy" is but the way to counter him is to kill him dead.