BETA Battleborn Tier List (FINAL)

[ssfjustin (Splint)]

Thank you everyone who came in and voiced there opinion. Unforunately I couldn’t get through all the characters with the time frame therefore I will leave the best summaries for each character I missed and collect data from other post/videos. This is the expected and predicted possible tier list for each character upon release. Note that there will be changes and future patches that will revamp the tier completely. I’ll see you bad asses on May 03, 2016!

GOAL OF THIS TIER LIST The ultimate goal of this tier list is to have none at all. To make sure every character is at the balance level for fun and fair gameplay. If we all pitch in and help, our voices can be heard and we can help gearbox shape battleborn.

S Tier: A Character that requires balance, May be too strong and able to take on any opponent they come across. These characters excels at everything with no draw backs.

A Tier: Above average character with minor drawbacks. May need some minor tweaking or none at all.

B Tier: Well Balance and suitable for the arena.

C Tier: Hard to keep up with other characters and ultimately doesn’t bring much end game.

D Tier: Falls off in every aspect

PATCH NOTES

PC Update / Hot-fix Information

[A] Tier

[A TIER] Oscar Mike I’ve been watching a lot of plays from Oscar Mike and his ability to push lanes and crush sentrys. He can easily rank up by clearing a whole wave with a single grenade and bring down a damage sentry with an air strike. For people who don’t play Oscar mike like its call of duty and understand the mechanics of mobas, he can definitely win the war. He may be too strong in some aspects.

[A TIER] Galilea From playing her and watching others, she is still quite strong, even after the recent nerf balls thrown at her I still see players at the top of the K/D scoreboard. Don’t get me wrong, she is by no means the beast that was presented to us at the beginning of the beta. She is a little more well balanced and now can be stopped in her tracks if she rushes in a team. I think gearbox did the right thing by dropping her stats down. Now its just a matter of tuning her up and balancing her out in all the right places.

[A TIER] Shayne & Aurox

[A TIER] Ambra The terror has been lifted and we are now able to somewhat kill Ambra! Even after the nerfs she is still a tough opponent and I am noticing that I need at least 1 more person to take her down. She is still a very good character and she can take on most characters head on but now players using Ambra have to think things through before staff linking a character all the way to their sentry. I believe some minor tuning/tweaking is still needed then she will be suitable for the battlefields.

[A TIER] Thorn Reviewed By Dr_H0H0 Battleborn: [A] Tier Thorn

[A TIER] Ghalt Ghalt’s recent buff has really made him into the scary shotgun wielding monster that he is. The 50% damage and 18% attack speed has really moved him up on top of the list. His damage is very scary, If you can combo Ghalt’s hook into a trap, I can guaranteed anyone in front of that shotgun will not survive!

[A TIER] Marquis Review by Dr_H0H0 Full Discussion Battleborn: A Tier Marquis

[A TIER] Kelvin Full Discussion Battleborn: [A] TIER Kelvin "SUBLIMATE EVERYTHING" AND Kelvin Playsyle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlsqQkZn26o

[A TIER] Montana There is really no need to explain Montana, everyone has played him in some way. His mini-gun provides excellent clearing of minion waves, he can crowd control characters, his damage is reliable for taking out other characters who get to close and he has very high health. The only downfall is that hes huge and an easy target, Snipers love aiming at him and when they do, expect his health to drop quickly.

[A TIER] Miko (Move from S tier to A, people are familiarizing themselves with the game thus understanding how to deal with Miko)

[A TIER] Reyna Her ability to cast shield to her teammates and slow enemies make her a great asset and well balance for the arena

[A TIER] Isic Reviewed by Dr_h0h0, full discussion Battleborn: [B] Tier ISIC

[B]alance Tier

[B TIER] El Dragon Reviewed by Dr_HoHo, full discussion Battleborn: [B] Tier El Dragon

[B TIER] Orendi Very good character as far as pushing lanes and dealing damage

[B TIER] Rath [Move from A tier to B tier], The thing about Rath is that he is gaurenteed a kill when he uses dreadwind however the online fellows are getting smart and realize they can CC his ult, making rath nothing more than a basic hitting character. Some of his mutations could be a little better

[B TIER] Mellka Mellka excels more than meets the eye. Full Discussion Battleborn: Tier [B]alance Mellka (Battleborn’s Cobra)
AND
A video of Mellka’s Damage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYeJy5RRIww

[B TIER] Toby (Battleborn’s Artillery) Full Discussion Toby, Battleborn’s Artillery

[B TIER] Toby Playstyle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFITSiA3GLQ

[B TIER] Phoeba Great duelist, just the right amount of strength and shouldn’t be tweaked anymore

[B TIER] Kleese Full Discussion Battleborn: [B]alance Tier Kleese

[B TIER] Caldarius Full Discussion Battleborn: [B]alance TIER Caldarius

[B TIER] Bouldur Review by Dr_H0H0 Full Discussion Battleborn: B Tier Bouldur

[B TIER] Benedict Very good at harassing from the sky and very good at poking the enemy sentry, he can be quite a nuisance to melee characters but if hes on the ground he can be very vulnerable

[C] Tier

[C TIER] Deande I played many games with Deande and realize that she can’t get into huge team fights because of her light build - This is a problem for her in incursion since there is always an occurring battle dead center. I believe she may be better at game modes - Her best bet is to take out other light characters like marquis and thorn and keep them suppressed from sniping the battlefield. Another thing to note is that her level 3 mutation is very good at juggling, at the end of each melee combo she does a uppercut which flings enemies into the air. If you have attack speed it is almost impossible for them to escape it.

[D] Tier

[D TIER] Attikus [UPDATED] Full discussion http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/c/battleborn-open-beta/attikus-discussion
AND Heres a very compelling argument why Attkus is so flawed - by GunRabies: Problems with Attikus

[D TIER] Whiskey Foxtrot Review by Dr_H0H0 Battleborn: [D] TIER Whiskey Foxtrot

Characters will most likely change when the game is release. I’ll keep this post updated with more details later on.

i’ll be purchasing this game upon release and streaming it
My youtube channel if you want to see a few characters and how I play with them https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLlcy-FxgDJ2OgywGJEmC3Q

CONTRIBUTORS
SSFJustin
Dr_H0H0
GunRabies
The comments below

[sb12df (Remnant)]

Hey, nice idea! I didn’t really got the chance to play all of the characters, so I’ll focus on the ones I’ve already played:

Galilea is far from being a well balanced character, she’s super overpowered right now and I suspect they will Nerf her. The same thing goes for Ambra.

Montana got some changes since the CTT and now I’ll say he’s pretty much balanced. He could get some work, sure, but for a ranged-tank, he does a pretty good job.

Thorn is pretty balanced in my opinion, I guess it’s a matter of control settings and less of balancing. When I played her on the CTT, she was perfectly fine.

I get that a lot of people think Marquis is a little higher than what he should be, but then again, he’s really weak against melee characters that know how to deal with him, and he’s pistol doesn’t seem to make for those counters. So… I’m saying that we should let him stay like that for a little bit, maybe learn more about all the combos he could get around with and then decide if he’s overpowered.

About Miko… I don’t know. He could be really useless, but he could be a monster. It depends on how you’re using him in the battle.

I kind of understand the making processes of Kelvin and I really like that character in the whole idea (=Creating some sort of a Juggernaut with an AOE melee damage), but I’m feeling like his ULT is gonna get some tweaks till launch, maybe makes it a little more effective when more people will get the chance to play with him.

Calidrius needs some sort of buff, I’ve already said that since the CTT when I got the chance to play with him, but from my perspective, he doesn’t seem to keep up with the more advanced characters in the game. He’s really cool tho

Deande is a little more advanced character, some sort of the hit&run type. She’s very squishy, but could get really effective when you know your stuff. The same thing goes for Attikus, he’s pretty much the counter for Pheobe, Rath and most of the melee characters, then again, if you know what you’re doing.

Honestly, Oscar Mike is one of the most balanced characters in the game, he can be really effective if you know how to use him properly. The same thing goes to Whiskey – if you have you know how to work with a DPS character such as him, he could be a really nice alternative to waste your enemies with and push the game forward.

[RecycledHuman]

Galilea still wouldn’t get s rank though as I wouldn’t say she does well against two opponents. She’s meant to be able to stand her ground and disrupt the flow but her low shield and health don’t make her a great tank. She is limited on range to the shield throw (which is amazing when not on cd) and the “it’s dangerous to go alone” trait which has a heavy requirement of needing full hearts …I mean health. By far my favorite so far but I wouldn’t call her unbalanced.

I recommend including in the list the peak level for the characters, some really need to level up to be useful and some come very strong right out of the gate. This may also be a design choice as in Mobas where some characters were a late game carry, Implying their usefulness only shined late game.

[faveveid]

I personally (?) would put Gal higher up
Edit Oscar Mike also

[Lethean_Waves]

Galilea needs to be S tier.

Start of the game she’s pretty mediocre but by endgame she is an absolute monster. I’ve solo’d an entire team with her a couple times. She is just all around amazing, a solid counter to almost everyone with her helix tree. Very adaptable.

[AncientBelgareth (The MONTANA!!)]

Galilea is an S rank. No questions asked. The fact you put her in b rank makes me question your entire list. By herself fully upgraded, she is a god amongst weak Battleborn. She can take out at least 2 ppl with little trouble, 3 if the person playing her is halfway decent, and please kill me now if a Miko is following her around healing her, because she goes from extremely OP, to just surrender the match now there is no hope left. Your team might be able to kill her in this situation. Maybe if all five of your team is attacking her with no interruptions from other Battleborn, but you might succeed. Although you will be in the exact same position in another 30 or more seconds when she respawns. Best part is the fact that she is not difficult to use compared to other characters. She might be even worse than Ambra.
Ambra at least has to run away if she gets in a fight with most of the other team. That’s why her overshield is so damn annoying, cause you get her close to being dead, and boom. Instant overshield, and ambra is behind the rest of her team healing herself.
If Ambra and Galilea are running together you may as well put your controller down, and go take a nice long dump, cause trying to counter those 2 together is like a fly trying to kill a frog. It’s not going to happen, but if your team gets real lucky, and is able to take down both of these 2 together, than your team lost at least 2 people, probably more than 2 though, and your victory is short lived, cause they will be back. Together. AGAIN.
Oscar Mike is an A. It wouldn’t take much to put him to a B, but he is still an A. How you think he’s underpowered, again makes me look at this list and question if any.of it is anything close to accurate.
EL Dragon is at least an A. Maybe even an S. Had a guy on my team playing as him. He got over 30 kills, and about 7 deaths. He had the skill tree set up good, and he completely rekt the other team.
Those are the big things that stood out to me. This list is far from accurate.

[dhemona]

Says Ambra is overpowered but Galilea is balanced? I don’t even think Reyna deserves balanced tier. I don’t think you put enough time in on this list.

Ambra doesn’t have CC, consistent or even dependable healing or damage when engaged. For dependable healing you need to be alone with no hostile targets or minions who need healing and for dependable added damage your enemy has to be stationary with no one around who needs heals nor anyone to just hit the fireball.

So with those draw backs you have her passive that let’s you escape against battleborn with low damage out put and a constant life drain beam which again can be line of sighted, disrupted through CC or just plain counter DPS’d. The fire build up is great for nice burst if you want take a chance and melee, safer when you have life steal on it but still a gamble.

Galilea on the other hand has a on demand high damage 2 second stuff, a damaging aura, and ground damage amplifying aura that can be modified for damage. The later two doe not require Galilea to even be controllable to do damage and life steal.

The only weak part to Reyna is an ultimate that doesn’t do damage, maybe throw in solo clearing minion waves, otherwise priority target and plasma cannon combo is really good and at long ranges. If you wanted a tanky Reyna that can kill two people at once you need a partner, best part is they don’t even have to do anything but just stand close enough to trigger fail safe and now Reyna can heal, shield, and over shield herself with ease while getting more priority targets off for increased damage all while taking less effort than Ambra.

[Laglag0]

I also agree that galilea should be S tier, she and ambra are the two most unbalanced characters i encountered thus far (I’m level 40). Miko is maybe A tier but not S. Reyna is definetly A tier. Orendi is not.

[matduel (Psythrax)]

Edited, as is my final list.

[S] Tier

[A] Tier
Ambra
Galilea
ISIC
Kelvin
Miko
Rath
Reyna
Thorn

[B]alance Tier
Attikus
El Dragon
Ghalt
Kleese
Marquis
Montana
Oscar Mike
Phoebe
Shayne & Aurox

[C] Tier
Boldur
Benedict
Caldarius
Deande
Mellka
Orendi
Toby

[D] Tier
Whiskey Foxtrot

[Dr_H0H0]

I will gladly prove you wrong on both your ISIC placement and Caldarius. Boulder should be in B as his early game sucks but he becomes the best at soaking damage late game with his changes. Attikus is really good at disrupting combat and staying alive and should also be in B. When i get home I’ll unlock Kleese and Deande and test them as i haven’t seen either of them yet.

[faveveid]

Isic is very good I think

[matduel (Psythrax)]

I agree with these points (Regarding Attikus and Boldur), I made an adjustment to my list. I’ll add you when I get out of work. Lets play!

[Dr_H0H0]

I would be happy to show you both ISIC and Cal play when i get home from work in about 7 hours. Add me if your interested. PSN-Kasus12

[ssfjustin (Splint)]

I appreciate your input friend. But I played Attiukus very nearly two hours and with all types of teammates, yes its true that he cant distrupt the battlefield with max stacks into ultimate but for him to get those stacks and get to level 5 takes a bit of time.

[ssfjustin (Splint)]

I really appreciate your info, and agree with the characters you mention. My problem with Miko is that he is able to do high damage while healing for high amounts. His effectiveness in team battle is crazy. Calidrius is a cool character that I enjoyed playing for a abit, but I feel like he could use a bit of buffing as well, one of his best moves is probably the flash bang.

I’ve played nearly an hour with deande and been on both losing and winning side of her. Her damage is not high enough and when I just when I thought I can finish a character with her ult, they some how survive with around 15% health, just enough for them to escape.

[Laglag0]

deande is probably the biggest glass cannon in the game. If you play her, than try to obly use melee whe you go after single enemies with no team mates in reach. Her long range is most of the time more effective. Keep moving and avoid large enemy groups.

[ssfjustin (Splint)]

I’ve played Bouldur for quite of few games and you are right, he can take soak damage, especially when he blocks in the middle of the battlefield, what happens when people start ignoring you and aim for other targets? then the npc begin to attack you, but then they ignore you as well to fight other npc. So what does this mean? you become an object in the environment and the teammates are left in a 4v5.

Ive been on both ends of boldur, I did early game as well as late game and he is horrid. He can’t do much damage and you will most likely be blocking and stunning people for the first part of the game. Once you get his rune ability the game will be too far in and the enemy characters have progressed so much that its too late to make a comeback. Even with late game Boldur I can’t seem to find a good position (even with good teammates) to get in on a characters and melt them down while they are stunned. Was he just meant to be a tank for everyone to target? if so hes not very good at it being the fact they can just CC you and deal tons of damage to you. Being a tank does not work in these type of fps mobas.

I’ll play him again to see if I’m wrong.

[jmorales20]

I’ll chime in and agree that IMO Galilea is unbalanced. I’m no MOBA expert so I could be wrong. However she simply seems to dish out way too much damage for a character who is ostensibly a tank. I’ve had her kill me solo and a character like Montana, another tank, would struggle to do that and certainly wouldn’t do it nearly as quickly as Galilea.

[Dr_H0H0]

please do and keep in mind if your playing a tank like Boulder your not gonna do a lot of damage unless you build some skill damage for your axe after the rune buff or attack speed for plain melee. He isn’t gonna carry the match but with a semi decent team behind you he can turn the game around. As for your concern with the 4v5 fight if you take the correct helix path he has a good amount of CC as well as good mobility to harass the other teams big damage dealers.

Correct me if I’m wrong but i believe i was putting out around 170 damage a hit with my axe in hand and about 500 damage from the thrown axe with the rune upgrade. He does decent damage and if left ignored in a teamfight can certainly kill the carry’s while they focus his team.

Next time your playing him be sure to grab the knockup on his dash and slow on his axe throw as well as having full movement speed when his shield is up. If your not attacking you should have your shield up to heal and block all damage. When i hit level 5 i never need to back with him so the enemy team has to deal with a unending pressure for the rest of the game.

[ssfjustin (Splint)]

I can tell you right now that Ambra is over powered, The fact that she can be both a mage and a support is a hot damn problem. I’ve been on both sides of Ambra, against her and playing as her. She is incredibily effective solo and in team fights, her sustainability is too much in the arena! While other characters return to base to heal, Ambra can stay where shes at pushing minions. Just my thoughts.

Galilea has been moved to S by popular comments.