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Battlerite: I wanna rock n' roll all fight.
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Battlerite is a competitive multiplayer game from Stunlock Studios, developers of Bloodline Champions and Dead Island Epidemic. If you've played Bloodline Champions then this is basically BLC 2, right down to a lot of the character design being transplanted from the original game. Because BLC had such a lean following, they decided against just strictly titling the game BLC 2 because they worried it'd confuse or intimidate new players. It is, however, effectively BLC 2 and a lot of the advertising even mentions it.
Well, I haven't played BLC, so what is Battlerite?
It's an arena battle game where you participate in 2v2 or 3v3 battles with an overhead view using WASD controls and the mouse to aim. The emphasis is on tightly balanced competitive play: there are a handful of straightforward maps, no random elements, precisely timed collectibles, and nothing to grind like talents or stat boosts for your character. The vast majority of abilities are skillshots, and matches are done in a best of five series so the better team tends to win. Individual rounds are quick, timed at 2 minutes before sudden death kicks in, meaning match take about 10 minutes at most.
So it's a fighting game? A moba? What? What?
It's similar to a World of Warcraft arena, but with a loooot of the bullshit cut out, and it's also got a dedicated team working on it instead of having to constantly fight with a PvE portion for dev time. For those that don't play WoW, it's similar to the whole teamfight aspect of mobas. There's no lanes, minions, or towers to contend with: just one big fight. It's kinda like ARAM or arena modes in mobas, where the emphasis is on fighting as opposed to laning. Only there's no leveling or item shop: just a talent-esque system between rounds where you pick one of three "battlerites" that enhance your character in some way. This allows you to tailor your character to your style and to how the match is playing, such as going for more defensive battlerites when you have a team without a support.
How much does it cost?
It's currently in Early Access on Steam for $20, but it'll be free at launch with the standard hero unlock scheme seen in a lot of free-to-play games. However, if you buy in for Early Access, you get every champion ever released for free. If you've played Smite, it's exactly like the God Pack. Buy in once, and get all champs, both released and future releases, for free.
There's also cosmetics like skins and shit, and you can get them via CHESTS because that's the cool new thing.
Show me more.
Here's a montage of high-level play, showing the absurd things a skilled player can pull off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmzdHVi_-yUOkay, I'm in. What are some protips?
Play the tutorial first to get a feel for things. Then come back here because the tutorial kinda sucks and doesn't explain everything.
1. Recovery Health
To keep healers from being too powerful, and to keep matches from dragging, there is a limited to how much you can be healed. If your missing HP exceeds 40, then your max HP is reduced until you have just 40 HP missing. The actual under-the-hood workings of this are a bit more complicated, but the general takeaway is that taking too much of a beating will leave you in a permanently wounded state that even a healer can't fix.
Would you like to know more?
2. EX Abilities
Every champion has four skills that use energy: an R skill, their ultimate, and two EX skills. The EX skills are alternate versions of regular skills that you use by pressing shift and using the corresponding skill. EX skills share a cooldown with their non-EX version, and sometimes have different cooldowns than the non-EX version (ie Rook's left click has no cooldown, but his EX version has a one second cooldown). Some EX skills are modified versions of the original, and others are wholly different abilities.
Would you like to know more?
3. The Rune + Orbs
The Rune is a big orb in the center of the arena that spends every 20 seconds as indicated by the circle that fills up when it's respawning. The Rune has hp and, when destroyed, awards the team that destroyed it a chunk of energy and HP, the later including a portion of TRUE healing. What is True Healing? If you recall tip #1, your max HP decreases as you take excessive damage. True healing can actually restore your HP cap a bit, making the orb a very important part of any match. Controlling the middle tends to win you rounds. Also, if you are missing teammates then the Rune provides extra healing/energy.
Orbs are like mini runes that spawn around the Rune, and provide small HP and energy gains when you walk over one. Green orbs also provide a small amount of true healing, so it's wise to guard these zealously when playing a round.
Would you like to know more?
4. Comeback Mechanic
When a player dies, they drop an orb. Any friendly player can grab that orb and gain energy based on how much their teammate had when killed (rounded up to the nearest 25/50/75/100). This gives players a fleeting chance to get in an ult or special skill that can put them back on even footing. A lot of 1v2s or 1v3s are won because of the comeback orb.
5. Crowd Control
In Battlerite, CC is very brief with most lasting about a second or two. All CC is unified so you know what's happening. They are
Stun: You cannot move or do anything. Tends to be short.
Incapacitate: You cannot move or anything, but breaks on damage. Tends to be longer, allowing you to focus an enemy teammate or prepare some sort of combo.
Petrify: A mix of the above two. You cannot move or do anything, and you gain a shield. Petrify breaks when the shield breaks, be it via time or damage. Tends to last long, but it can be trickier for setting up damage combos.
Root: You can't move. Moderate duration.
Snare: You move, but slowly. Moderate to long duration.
Fading Snare: Another fusion, this time of root and snare. You start with 0% movement speed that goes up until you're back at 100%. Moderate duration.
Panic: You flee, unable to do anything. You always flee in the direction away from the source of Panic. There is no random movement.
Silence: You can move, but can't do anything.
6. Counter (aka "Trance")
A special buff, counter, has to be taken into consideration. If a champ is hit by a melee attack or projectile (AoE does NOT trigger it), the champion will block the attack wholly and do something. Usually something bad. Don't be too aggressive and try to bait counters. It's very easy to tell when a champ is performing a counter, as they sit still and channel while a timer bar with COUNTER appears over their heads. Some champions will also emote when they begin countering.
7. Cancelling
All abilities have a cast time, some almost imperceptibly fast and other long and obvious. You can cancel any cast by pressing C, which turns your cast bar red and cancels the skill, putting it on a brief second or so cooldown. Moves can also be cancelled after being cast if they're channeled, but any energy spent on them is gone for good. Spellblock is an effect skills have that proc a nasty effect when they hit a person mid-cast, usually silence or stun. Cancelling is a good way to bait out things like this, along with counters and reflects.
To keep healers from being too powerful, and to keep matches from dragging, there is a limited to how much you can be healed. If your missing HP exceeds 40, then your max HP is reduced until you have just 40 HP missing. The actual under-the-hood workings of this are a bit more complicated, but the general takeaway is that taking too much of a beating will leave you in a permanently wounded state that even a healer can't fix.
Would you like to know more?
2. EX Abilities
Every champion has four skills that use energy: an R skill, their ultimate, and two EX skills. The EX skills are alternate versions of regular skills that you use by pressing shift and using the corresponding skill. EX skills share a cooldown with their non-EX version, and sometimes have different cooldowns than the non-EX version (ie Rook's left click has no cooldown, but his EX version has a one second cooldown). Some EX skills are modified versions of the original, and others are wholly different abilities.
Would you like to know more?
3. The Rune + Orbs
The Rune is a big orb in the center of the arena that spends every 20 seconds as indicated by the circle that fills up when it's respawning. The Rune has hp and, when destroyed, awards the team that destroyed it a chunk of energy and HP, the later including a portion of TRUE healing. What is True Healing? If you recall tip #1, your max HP decreases as you take excessive damage. True healing can actually restore your HP cap a bit, making the orb a very important part of any match. Controlling the middle tends to win you rounds. Also, if you are missing teammates then the Rune provides extra healing/energy.
Orbs are like mini runes that spawn around the Rune, and provide small HP and energy gains when you walk over one. Green orbs also provide a small amount of true healing, so it's wise to guard these zealously when playing a round.
Would you like to know more?
4. Comeback Mechanic
When a player dies, they drop an orb. Any friendly player can grab that orb and gain energy based on how much their teammate had when killed (rounded up to the nearest 25/50/75/100). This gives players a fleeting chance to get in an ult or special skill that can put them back on even footing. A lot of 1v2s or 1v3s are won because of the comeback orb.
5. Crowd Control
In Battlerite, CC is very brief with most lasting about a second or two. All CC is unified so you know what's happening. They are
Stun: You cannot move or do anything. Tends to be short.
Incapacitate: You cannot move or anything, but breaks on damage. Tends to be longer, allowing you to focus an enemy teammate or prepare some sort of combo.
Petrify: A mix of the above two. You cannot move or do anything, and you gain a shield. Petrify breaks when the shield breaks, be it via time or damage. Tends to last long, but it can be trickier for setting up damage combos.
Root: You can't move. Moderate duration.
Snare: You move, but slowly. Moderate to long duration.
Fading Snare: Another fusion, this time of root and snare. You start with 0% movement speed that goes up until you're back at 100%. Moderate duration.
Panic: You flee, unable to do anything. You always flee in the direction away from the source of Panic. There is no random movement.
Silence: You can move, but can't do anything.
6. Counter (aka "Trance")
A special buff, counter, has to be taken into consideration. If a champ is hit by a melee attack or projectile (AoE does NOT trigger it), the champion will block the attack wholly and do something. Usually something bad. Don't be too aggressive and try to bait counters. It's very easy to tell when a champ is performing a counter, as they sit still and channel while a timer bar with COUNTER appears over their heads. Some champions will also emote when they begin countering.
7. Cancelling
All abilities have a cast time, some almost imperceptibly fast and other long and obvious. You can cancel any cast by pressing C, which turns your cast bar red and cancels the skill, putting it on a brief second or so cooldown. Moves can also be cancelled after being cast if they're channeled, but any energy spent on them is gone for good. Spellblock is an effect skills have that proc a nasty effect when they hit a person mid-cast, usually silence or stun. Cancelling is a good way to bait out things like this, along with counters and reflects.
Sterica on
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I played a couple of rounds ages ago, it seemed pretty alright.