Pocket Healer - Ambra Guide

Battleborn Ambra
#1

First off, I’d like to note than I ran this build pre-buff, so should they nerf her back this guide is still relevant. <3
Secondly, you’ll need her level 12 helix, so have fun grinding until then. :[ I didn’t perform well as ambra until then, and if it makes you feel any better, i had to grind it on pc and ps4. Definitely fun to try out different builds until you hit lvl 12 though.

Thirdly, let’s talk pure stats - why would you run a pocket ambra build? Let’s compare to a pocket miko.
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Ambra can multitask while pocket healing. Miko cannot.
Sure, Miko can’t be beat on single target heals, but what good does that do you when the REST of your team is squishy and/or dead? Plus, Ambra’s usually also dealing damage WHILE healing. Miko can’t do that until level 10.

So what helix choices?
http://battlebornforum.com/pages/battleborn-helix-build-editor-ambra/?rows=-1,-1,0,0,1,-1,-1,1,-1,-1
Level 1:
I play very sunspot heavy, and rarely use solar wind (early on mostly only on minions to get heat + exp), so this choice is a no brainer every time, even against pendles. Your sunspots will get a reveal later anyway.
Level 2:
We’re trying to keep our spots alive with this build so this is a ‘lesser of two evils’ in some ways, though the benefit is nice.
Level 3:
Pocket Ambra Activated. You’re now a territorial character with a quick cooldown so you can move territories fairly easily, you keep your team informed of where the current heals are and you’re good to go. It’ll still be pretty easy for enemies to burst your spots down, so you’ll need to ACTUALLY pocket the spots until you get your healing power up. From here on out, if it’s safe to do so, you place an ‘attack spot’ whenever the cooldown is available - a.k.a. when you aren’t planning on moving or think you’ll need a backup spot.
Level 4:
This is adding to your territorial nature, and helps stall waves if you need to wait for your team - or get an assassin off of you for a breather.
Level 5:
Doesn’t matter, I swap depending on what the match calls for. If I’m being a good Healer I rarely even activate the flame shield anyway.
Level 6:
Mmmmm. Added range. You should have some heal gear up by now to compensate for the added draws. The extra spot isnt really useful in this build (or any build I’ve run 'cause they usually die before then…) and again I don’t use swind enough to need that cooled down faster.
Level 7:
Situational. If a team is forcing me to go range, I go novas. If you’re accurate with the melee you might benefit from the spear with her legendary genning heat for you…But I almost always go life steal as a lesser of three evils here, and because I don’t always run her legendary to maximize benefit from the other two options.
Level 8:
Since we’re sustaining spots I usually go for the extra health to make it that much harder for the enemy to burst down - but if you’re having trouble pocketing or locking onto your spots so they keep dying, you may go for the cooldown to adapt.
Level 9:
Situational again, the added range makes it easier to hit both times, but if it’s a tight map the dmg is obviously better as they aren’t getting knocked out already anyway.
Level 10:
If you can get the hit, the stun is nice; but people run through the smoldering remains all the time, so feel free to go the other way as your team needs.

Now gear - healing power all the way.
I like the Legendary TargetFinder to stack off of the sunspot level 1 helix, but i only have it on ps4, so her legendary suffices on pc. I don’t bother with a shard generator - I like one blue healing power gear with the +hpower after surviving 180 secs:
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And a purple with +hpower as the secondary. Mine is +movespeed which is nice with the level 5 left helix stacked.
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If you have a purple with the +healing received as a primary that wouldn’t be bad, but i don’t normally find it necessary, just if I’m being focused.

I’ll try to record some matches (really sad I didn’t record the one the screenshots came from) to show this build in action. It’s obviously much better on incursion rather than meltdown, but if your other lane can hold their own you should be alright without changing much.

Lastly, I’ve never made a guide before so, sorry if I missed anything! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#2

Solid guide, we are almost the same strategy wise!

1 Like
#3

Wow, well done :sunny:

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#4

Nice! I do almost the same thing, but I take the reveal at level 1 to kill minion waves and enemies who think they have the drop on me. And I always use the novas for the ability to safely kill buildables.

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#5

Just wanted to note, with Helix 7 in the middle, Ambra is the whip on Helio advanced hardcore. :smile:

The Helix 7 thang actually melted Rendain a lot faster than I expected.

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#6

A constant attack speed boosted <100 damage per easy to aim shot? Extremely strong. Especially against guardians.

#7

Just wanted to point out that it seems like about half of Ambra’s healing given was to minions while almost all of Miko’s healing was to his allies. You can tell by subtracting the amounts of healing received from healing given.

So while Miko can double Ambra’s healing, Ambra can double Miko’s damage.

#8

Mileage wil vary. :slight_smile: in our case its bad to have everyone in our team together against their team which has lots of aoe vs single target skills, i was more or less the difference in pushing minions because i could negate their waveclear some and increase ours, allowing us to spend more time killing them and making meaningful movement in the lane.

#9

She is definitely better at controlling lanes. I was more or less trying to let others who view this thread know that Miko is still king when it comes to healing. The biggest problem Ambra has with healing is that she can’t do it as effectively during a fight when her sunspots pop as soon as she puts one up.

However, like her label says, she is very versatile and can fit in most team comps.

Edit: I actually find that extra sunspots are better for more aggressive builds. You can place the third sunspot farther back, so if you or your team need to back up it will be there. It mitigates the need to run toward allies in order to heal them and allows you to keep running from enemies instead of stopping for a second to lay down a sunpspot. On occasion you can throw down a sunspot to damage a player or some minions while keeping the remaining two sunspots around to heal your allies.

Edit 2: If Solar Burst was better you could use one sunspot to blow up enemies while still having two around for healing.

#10

my problem with solar burst is that it allows the opposing team an amount of control - a way to actually insta kill a spot if they have a tank to make a good push. since i like controlling where and when my spots are (the whole build revolves around this ‘control’), losing that control isnt an option for me. literally more than half of the spots i place are ‘attack spots’ because i keep one spot going wherever our team currently is at in the lane - and an attack spot in a good position ends up turning into your next pocket spot once your team has pushed hard enough for that spot to become area denial to the opposing team :smiley:

so basically even if solar burst was enough to kill an enemy - lets say they purposefully suicide on my pocket spot- that gives the enemy a good push opportunity- and even if it doesnt kill them, say, kelvin, i still have to place my next spot farther away to prevent siting in cooldown, fighting, and losing that team atk+health during that time :stuck_out_tongue: all just because i gave the enemy an easy way to kill my spots.
mid to late game, my spots cant be burst down unless the enemy gets past my team and focuses me :'D no reason to weaken that. :slight_smile:

#11

Well, I didn’t say how to make it better. There are actually a few ways to make it better than just boosting the damage. I don’t want to list anything right now though. I feel kind of lazy. :slight_smile:

Edit: And I think you’re underestimating the amount of damage it could do if it was boosted because of the cooldown reduction from the staff strikes.