Battleborn: [B]alance TIER Caldarius

Battleborn Open Beta Caldarius Discussion
#18

Brief guide to Caldie:

Gravitic Dash: The Bus. Dash is only rarely an attack, and is instead your instant disengage. It instantly gives you five sprint seconds of distance (more when upgraded) that can be activated in air and can turn. That’s ridiculous. You can leave fights at will with this and you absolutely should rather than wasting it on a difficult-to-land strike that deals mediocre damage and leaves you point-blank. Only engage with this if you see a weak or easily distracted enemy you can carve down with blades in 3 seconds or less, or if you just flashed a group of minions and want to use the Blade speed buff to carve them up.

It’s also key to nabbing all the neutral shard spawns quickly, which Cald should absolutely be doing every game, every spawn, unless your team has a pre-designated carry. Deny your enemy those resources!

Flashbang: Cald’s best ability. Flashbang should be upgraded with triple + bleed, you should reduce its cooldowns, and it should be liberally sprinkled on everything even mildly bothersome. It turns early minion waves into salad waiting to be chopped, violently interrupts gank spanks on your teammates, and covers outrageous amounts of territory. With triple + AoE upgrades, you can flash the entire central area of Incursion easily.

There is really no excuse for starting any serious fight without a flashbang. I’m dead serious. It needs to be your entrance theme.

Aerial Attack: Despite appearances, this is not Burst’s equal for disengagement - the startup time hurts it there. No, this is your snipe, your coup de grace. It deals far more damage than anything else you can do, and almost no one correctly estimates its speed, distance, and killing power. Sniping an opponent with this and then leaving immediately with Burst is the ultimate fly-by and basically unstoppable.

General Tips

Never use Burst on the ground. You’ll hit something and it’ll end early, every time you need it not to. Burst is air-only - plus, you can lateral-boost after it to frustrate enemy snipers working for the pickoff.

Burst cancels into sword swipes almost seamlessly. Don’t wait to start swiping, if you’re going to chase with Burst. You want to be out of there as soon as possible.

Your base damage is very low. Don’t bother chasing high-health enemies, just dump a clip or two into their back and look for someone else to harass. You don’t match anyone else’s killing power without your Ult and you shouldn’t try.

You’re paradoxically excellent at killing distracted thralls by circling behind them, dropping flash, and then attacking the back weak spot. Help out if someone else is going for the mercs!

Hope y’all get some use from this.

EDIT: It’s worth noting the unique Cald gear, the Sword of Transfusion, gives him 50% of his ult’s damage back as health. I shouldn’t need to point out how stupidly sustainable this makes him in the field, and unless you have an absolutely awesome other Epic, this is your first buy every time. You’ll have the shards for it, I promise.

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#19

You my friend get 2 thumbs up :thumbsup::thumbsup: for breaking down exactly how to play Cal effectively.

#20

Caldarius was my goal for the Open Beta. I liked the idea of a fast melee Armored Core style attacker. I finally unlocked him at Rank 28 and…I died. A LOT. So I read forums and watched videos and everyone played him the same way I wanted to but it just wasn’t clicking for me. Then I noticed that he said, “Death from above.” in his sinister, robotic voice when you select him and got to thinking…

I give you the Death From Above Build (PvP)

TMP - Hated it at first and demanded a damage buff. Then I realized that the thing has almost no reload time and is very accurate even at a decent range. You do get a damage penalty beyond a certain range but it still does what it needs to - POKE AWAY SHIELDS.

Blade - More damage than the gun but slow as hell. Attack speed items + the helix buff got me to damn near 40% increased speed but it still wasn’t effective. What is it good for? Quick MINION CLEAR for early exp gain.

Gravitic Burst - EXIT STRATEGY! Caldarius launches forward and upon hitting an enemy launches up (WAY up) and back to basically where he started from. Pair this with the damage augment in the helix and all of a sudden he is IN AND OUT IN A SINGLE DAMAGING MOVE!

But wait, there’s more! The launch seems to be considered a jump. So what? That means after you launch yourself up and away you can STILL USE YOUR THRUSTERS in mid air to further adjust our position. For this we want IMPROVED THRUSTERS from the helix.

(SIDE NOTE: The ability does need fixing so that your boost is not stopped by small changes in the ground that you’re boosting on. Experience with a map will help with this in the interim but a fix is certainly needed…he doesn’t touch the ground anyways.)

Flashbang: BOOM BOOM BOOM! Flash Barrage/Bleed/Cooldown. Testing is needed to see how good the mutation that fires all 3 simultaneously is.

Aerial Assault: Here’s the thing, Aerial Assault can be triggered ANYWHERE! Even in the air. We want to reduce the cooldown and make it instant.

(SIDE NOTE: This needs a tweak so that you do not collide with environmental elements. Again experience with a map and the move will help but it’s annoying as F#&K.)

PLAYSTYLE:

Early - BLIND AND BLOODIED, EXIT STRATEGY

You’re fast, so be fast. Capture a forward tower quickly and then begin clearing minions. If engaged by another Battleborn, don’t even bother dueling use your double taps to dodge/back out of the engagement (if engaged by melee) while shooting. Pop them with a FLASHBANG for damage/bleed. With practice, few people will be able to do any significant damage to you like this. Use your melee after armor is stripped off minions to finish them quickly if you’re not in danger from other Battleborn. You can use FLASHBANG on minion waves if you’re confident you don’t need it for OH SH!T purposes. Collect money when you can, build/upgrade towers, and recall if you get too hurt since you can re-engage very quickly anyways. Let your healer focus on a tank character. Get to level 2 ASAP. Exit Strategy…

Now you can fight other Battleborn. Probably won’t be getting kills but you’ll be clearing minions faster and driving back all but the toughest Battleborn. Poke away shields with the TMP while using side to side movement for gun users and kiting back against melees. Once it’s gone, ATTACK! Dash in with Burst, take to the skies and lay down a flashbang once airborne. Depending on where you need/want to be after this encounter, boost to re-engage or seek safety behind minions/allies. Assists for days. Oh, and don’t miss, you might die…

Mid: AFTERBURNER, FLASH BARRAGE, IMPROVED THRUSTERS, AND RAPID DOMINANCE.

Follow your minions, poke from the back to either clear enemy forces or hit opposing Battleborn. (You might want to disengage to help with Thrall camps. Usually don’t even need to stay for the whole thing. Just BURST into a Thrall, rain down down FLASH BARRAGE for the stun, maybe TMP some health down so that you’re cap person can secure; peace.) Now once a shield is down and the health of the hero is low enough (you’ll get a feel for the thresholds) go for the kill. BURST in, rain down FLASH BARRAGE AND THEN position as needed with IMPROVED THRUSTERS.

What about Aerial Assault you say? Good question. You use this to finish opponents if you engaged a bit early since they don’t know where you are or where to run/hide because their blind. Activate it in mid air after your FLASH BARRAGE and rain down great justice. IMPROVED THRUSTERS + AFTERBURNER can get you out of most situations if you have good map awareness.

Late: MICROFUSION CELL, GRAVITIC AMPLIFIERS, BRIGHTBLASTER, TUNED ACTUATION

You bring down shields before a reload more reliably, shortening poke time before kill combo, your engage hits harder, you are much less likely to miss and hit more enemy minions/Battleborn, and you can finish runners faster and more frequently. Need to test AERIAL BARRAGE a bit more to see what it brings to the table.

GEAR: COOLDOWN AND SKILL DAMAGE are necessary in my opinion to get that real assassin feel to this setup. You want your 1,2 punch available as often as possible . Maybe sprint speed if you can find an item that has COOLDOWN/SKILL DMG on it?

Playing this way is a ton of fun for me personally. I love the satisfaction of destroying someone from the air. Only the most talented of snipers can take you out of the sky if you’ve still got a shield and any kind of health left. Melees wish they had never even bothered. Pair yourself with a shielder and you become a pretty serious problem.

Please share your feedback and experiences if you decide to use this setup.

-Kash

The only buff I would give to Caldarius
#21

Alright, since I found a website that shows me the Helix Tree(I don’t remember everything on it, so this is convenient), I can show/tell you guys how my play-style was when I used him.

For starters, here is the Helix Tree I used whenever I got to them:
(This is PvP, by the way, my PvE Helix is slightly different.)

  • Blind & Bloodied
  • Exit Strategy
  • Overdrive
  • FlashMIRV
  • Improved Thrusters
  • Rapid Dominance
  • Microfusion Cell
  • Gravitic Amplifiers
  • Brightblaster
  • Aerial Barrage

My play-style was that I helped guide the Minions to the Grinders & if I encountered an enemy, I would Flashbang them first & keep dashing(to the sides if ranged, back if Melee). Surprisingly, dashing back constantly whilst shooting a Melee Battleborn quickly wears them down, but against ranged, I’d almost have to retreat.

[I will post more details later; a bit held up at the moment.]

#22

All good info. I did play a few games with him, and even though I did well, I didn’t feel like I was actually doing anything at all.

This bugs me. It’s best to give up a whole skill, to just disengage. Sure, it’s versatile and can be used both ways, but here you’re saying it’s best to use it for disengage purposes. This irks me though because there are characters like Benedict and Oscar Mike who have skills that are almost entirely disengage oriented, but they make up for it with higher damage and more overall utility than Caldarius. His burst is like half a move because the gap closer half is pretty meh.

I think his Flashbang actually got buffed from the CTT. I found myself getting kills with it that I didn’t think I would actually get. Bleed + Mirv does some hefty damage, definitely. Not to mention, the AoE radius of this thing gets pretty huge!

HIs Aerial Attack is fun, but it still does a bit less damage than most bursty ults. Maybe that’s because of the mobility you get with it, but I think it could stand to be buffed.

This one hurts, too. I understand this is a team-based fighter and 1v1ing isn’t that great of a thing to consider for the game, but it’s still a factor here. Caldarius has a really hard time out damaging characters in a 1v1 scenario, which can still end up being crucial if you’re in a close game. I think Caldarius is sort of effective at confirming kills that are a little deep because of the mobility burst gives him. That being said, there are other characters that do the things he does just as well, and more.

I don’t say any of this as a Cal hater. I really wanted to play him in CTT, and found him super lacking there. I was excited to try him again in Beta, to see if he got buffs and the only one appeared to be flashbang (if it did get buffed). I think Caldarius just needs a little more umph. He’s not scary at all to play against.

#23

Not sure if you knew this already or not, but his ultimate’s dmg is actually accuracy based. The dmg gets lower the farther out in the circle your target is when you land, and a hit right inside the square is maximum dmg.

#24

Didn’t know that, but his damage on his ult does cap at 425. Thorn and Benedict Ults both hit for 500 base.

#25

Agreed on several points.

It hurts that Burst is so single-directional; it deals little damage and requires mutations to achieve meaningful killing power. Getting the +20% blade speed mute helps some, but it’s not game-changing like, say, Boldur’s overshield dash or Kelvin’s Sublimate when properly set up. It’d be more complex and challenging if it was a better attack, but as it stands, it has far more value as a GTFO button than a weapon.

AA’s value lies in that it deals so much more damage than Cald’s other tools that rarely do people expect it. Getting poked by Cald doesn’t inspire much fear until he drops (400+skill mod) unavoidable damage on you from nowhere, plus whatever else he wants.

Personally, my average as a Cald main is a 5.6 K/D ratio, and I almost always get 10+ kills a match. He’s not a 1v1 character at all, completely agreed. What he is, though, is the 1 v 1.5 that shows up from nowhere every time someone tries to kill your teammates. You are the invisible hand of NO that smacks down all assassin runs and gank spanks. Your team may have only four duelers, but if you play Cald well, every fight gets a flashbang or a TMP mag to tip the scales in your team’s favor, and the thousand yards in between weak enemies and their supply station.

Caldarius is not a dueler. Caldarius is The Home Field Advantage: he adds half a dozen little edges to your team by controlling spawns, harassing enemies into abandoning fights they could win, killing retreaters, and wiping minions, and by endgame those advantages stack into a mountain you can just tip over on your opponent and laugh.

#26

True. I haven’t seen many people talking about this, and I think this is an important point. It’s super crucial that it works well because using it at all is kind of a risk with him, so I’d really like to see this skill refined a bit more.

#27

It’s very difficult to hit with directly. Against minions, yeah! No way to miss that crowd of 6-7 slowly moving hitboxes. Against players not Atticus or Montana, good luck, because you’ll need it.

Seriously though: only Burst in the air. It helps so much no matter what you’re doing, and 70% of the time you should be jumping anyway as Cald.

#28

Yeah, I played two games with him and averaged a 6 kd. I just felt like people can fill the same roles he does and more.

#29

I’ve tested it, it’s not very good at all. Flash Barrage actually does more damage than it once you reach level 6 or 7. That coupled with the fact that the AoE decrease on the Cluster Burst (all 3 simultaneously) is extremely punishing makes it pretty bad actually.

#30

This 3 grenade this or that thing is so confusing, please use the name of the helix, inquiring minds want to know, which is better…

Flash Barrage
Or
Flashmirv

Thank you!

#31

I haven’t put much detail into this review like the others, i’ll add some details when I have time.

#32

My bad, man. Flash Barrage - the three sequential grenades - is the one you want. 83 damage a pop, lots of AoE, and a middle finger to minions in general.

I have no data on this myself, but I’m extremely interested to know if each grenade reapplies Blind’s duration. That’d be another .5 seconds or so as the other two grenades come in - not a bad little side bonus.

#33

That would be worth finding out!

Thanks for the swift response!

#34

You know, I always assumed it did, for the blind and bleed, it just kind of feels like it does, but I never bothered to time it. Man, wish I did now, I want to review his talent selection but my lack of testing feels like it’ll make the review have too many holes.

#35

One strategy that I see very little of in battleborn is resource denial via swiping enemy crystals- mostly because it honestly isn’t that effective overall since crystals are simply too easy to get from the mini clusters. However if that had not been the case I could see Caldarius as being an effective choice for getting behind enemy lines while disengaging and harassing anyone that tries to stop him.

He’s also definitely great at killing thralls, that was the first thing I noticed while playing him. Blind leaves their critical spots so wide open it’s not even funny.

#36

If it’s true, it’s a hidden +30-40 damage and half second of blind, which makes Flashbang even more useful than previously. This is obviously unsupported by hard evidence, but I agree that it feels like it reapplies Blind/Bleed; it would explain why players I flash are so disoriented.

Resource denial may be a bigger thing. I’ve been toying with maxing turrets/stations with early crystals instead of buying gear, and it’s mildly useful, but not as useful as say, buying the Pacifier and adding its Atk Down effect to your flashes / TMP (another piece of gear that is sick on Caldarius).

I actually love it when I drive enemies to going for mini clusters. I can monopolize the central clumps easily enough in Incursion, and time spent running around in base is time the enemy team fights undermanned. That said, anyone that dies frequently gets a lot of shards just as a side effect of running back to the front so often. That’s unfortunately unstoppable.

Denial will get better as the average gear grade rises, I think, but right now, it’s a side job at best.

#37

I need to stop reading this thread. I want to go practice Caldarius, but I can’t until May, so I just end up being sad.

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