Let’s have a discussion about Battleborn health, shields, and whether we think there are any obvious outliers!
To prompt some thoughts, here’s a handy visual representation of the base health and shields of the Battleborn cast. (Green for health, blue for shields.) This obviously doesn’t factor in any helixes for +health or +shield (of which there are many).
Here’s some more numbers to prompt discussion:
The median health+shield pool in Battleborn is 1436 - Caldarius, as it happens!
To give a proportional sense of Battleborn health+shield pools, I’ve listed the percentage of the median that each BB possesses. Boldur’s position, which may raise eyebrows, is partly the result of his recent health nerf, partly the consequence of having no shield. (His actual survivability is, of course, heavily influenced by his toggle-shield, overshield, and Rage +DR.)
Mellka: 69.08%
Alani: 72.08%
Miko: 72.84%
Orendi: 78.69%
Thorn: 78.69%
Marquis: 83.29%
Ambra: 84.96%
Kid Ultra: 84.96%
Pendles: 84.96%
El Dragon: 86.14%
Benedict: 89.35%
Reyna: 91.23%
Oscar Mike: 96.87%
Whiskey Foxtrot: 96.87%
Caldarius: 100%
Rath: 103.27%
Ernest: 104.39%
Deande: 106.75%
Ghalt: 117.55%
Toby: 117.55%
Boldur: 118.59%
Phoebe: 122.70%
Galilea: 130.92%
Kleese: 133.77%
ISIC: 135.10%
Kelvin: 141.57%
Shayne & Aurox: 161.42%
Montana: 173.47%
Attikus: 190.74%
Not being intimately familiar with the entire cast, I’d like to solicit advice on which Battleborn have shield and health helixes - for example, Mellka can get up to 10 stacks of 30 health with Eldrid Rhythm (level 5), which are lost at death. (This would increase her slightly to 89.97% of the median, and obviously she can’t access this health until mid-game.)
Kelvin’ Chomp mechanic is obviously impossible to factor in here.
Health and shield can be treated as two parts of an overall resource pool, and I’ve done that here, but obviously they also behave differently in key respects. In one respect, shield is superior (being so quickly replenishable), but a large health pool also has its merits (there are more abilities in-game that can replenish health.) I’d be interested to know what you all think about shield vs. health and whether Eldrid are disadvantaged (especially when the lowest three in this list are Eldrid.)
Damage reduction is a key feature of survivability that can’t be taken into account here.
You all know what my feelings are regarding the most extreme outlier in this data, so I’ll resist from commenting on her straight away. Over to you!