Solo for PvP practice?

Battleborn Battleborn Competitive Multiplayer Discussion
#1

Is it worth the time at all, to use solo/private to learn my way around Incursion before going live with teammates depending on me to not suck?

Certainly there’s value to learning the layouts of the maps, and the various mechanics of the mode. Is that all, though, or can some more value be had from SuperBotBashFest?

I watched some folks playing Incursion on Twitch, and solo’d a round myself on Incursion for kicks. I highly doubt that the behavior of friendly or enemy bots resembles that of any real players, though.

So. Is there any value? Why or why not? If so, what is it and how does one best leverage that toward the goal of being a good baby seal when the time comes to get clubbed?

Thanks!

#2

If you feel comfortable as a given character, and you know both MOBA and FPS basics, then I would say go for PvP.

That being said, knowing the maps is very beneficial to getting better at this game. So jumping into a few bot games beforehand to get acquainted with the map layout (buildable locations, alternate routes, shard/Thrall locations, et. al) will only help those unfamilar with the maps.

The bots are pretty aggressive and fairly accurate, but they really don’t behave like players. So other than observing what characters you haven’t played as–there really isn’t any direct carry-over.

Some tips:
-Know your role and stick to it.
-Do not get greedy (over-commit/feed).
-Use the pinging feature or a mic to communicate with your group.
-Keep an eye on your minimap at all times.
-Be wary of where you position yourself.
-Buildables and Thralls can determine the outcome of matches.
-Stay moving.
-Don’t stand in fire (or anything else that wants to nom nom your face).
-Focus on objectives over player kills.
-Killing minions and building things give you more xp at a quicker rate than kills.
-Try to participate in every fight for the assist xp.
-Use your skills with additional effects like CC to save allies.
-Cover is your friend if you have a shield that needs recharging.

There’s more but my brain is fried.

Best of luck and hope you have tons of fun!

Warning: The PvP is addicting xD

Feel free to send me a PM if you want any further pointers.

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#3

I just may, and THANKS for that so far!

FPS, I know. I’m as old as shareware… :wink:

MOBA, however, I’ve never touched before. Not too interested ATM in CAPTURE. I can get plenty of that in MWO’s Conquest mode, and I honestly didn’t like it. Incursion seems to be where it’s at, which is fine by me–it looks like a BLAST from the streams and videos I’ve seen. Meltdown looks like it could be fun, too. (PLEASE tell me that Minrec has lines!)

Again, thanks for a helpful and constructive response!

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#4

Not a problem! :smiley:

Yes, MINREC talks a decent bit. Nova is quite hilarious as well. As are the Sentries in Incursion.

Love the dialogue in this game. Hehe.

Capture- Run 0 or low cost gear if you want to have a good time. Kill the Varelsi that spawn for free level ups. Build things. Try to pick someone with mobility or CC/AoE to deny the enemy capture points.

Incursion- A diverse team comp helps. Try to work with your team and set personal goals. I find that to help. I.e. “During this push, I want to take some health off the sentry!” Or “Let me harass that sniper or healer out of lane.” The ganks are real on this mode since the central lane is where most people will have a presence. Play safe at all times.

Meltdown- I find this to be the most balanced mode and I love both maps personally. Minion kills, buildables, and harassment are key in this mode. It is also a tad less stressful against less coordinated teams due to the split lanes. (: I also find that melee are more fun to play in this mode. You also can’t go wrong with an Orendi, Thorn, Oscar Mike, or anyone else who excels at minion/wave clearing.

Sorry for the rant. :x

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#5

No, no, I love it! Rant on!

I dig OM for clearing out minions with extreme prejudice. He’s crazy. So, in that one little solo attempt at Incursion on Overgrowth, I played OM. Took some cues from a Twitch streamer I watched last week. One thing was, we managed to push down close to the perch near the enemy’s sentry, and held up pretty well in that area. I liked going into the corner structure, where there was a turret (usually set up by the enemy whenever I came back) and a clear view out to the enemy sentry (and another turret, and their base-side health station). Liked to drop an airstrike on the enemy sentry from there, and back out of the doorway, and harass with direct fire pokes until the turret was ready to build (20 second reset on those, IIRC). Then build it and bail. If the enemy players weren’t watching too closely, I could wreck minion waves from there, too. But I didn’t like to camp the spot too much, because I had a Kleese that kept getting himself into trouble with enemy Thrall, and I wanted to keep our Shayne&Aurox freed up to rip into their Phoebe and Montana (who apparently likes, as a bot, to get up close & personal, where being on-fire is NOT in his best interests :wink: ).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the sentry voice the same guy who did the bearded D-bag exec in TFTB, and the pilot/aviator dude in that one Skylanders game, etc.?

Nope, but he was Sledge in the first Borderlands. My bad.

#6

Not entirely sure on that. Sorry. :confused: I do think I heard somewhere that the Sentry shares a voice actor with one of the male Battleborn? Could be wrong. Maybe check IMDB or try to search these forums?

It sounds like you have a great grasp of the game so far. If you stay positive and try to learn from both your wins and losses, then you’ll definitely be a great PvPer in no time. Promise. (:

This community is great and not at all as toxic as most other MOBAs I’ve played.

Yes, the game isn’t perfect, but both the community and Gearbox are quite vocal and proactive about fixing its faults and making it a truly great game.

Stick around. You are such a nice person. I’m actually new to the forums. Been playing since Launch. Been reading the forums like an addict. Finally decided to contribute a little bit. Enjoying the experience as a whole thus far!

Hope you have a good day.

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#7

Thanks!

Yeah, this is a pretty good overall community. I’ve been around the forums, on and off, for a few years (BL2/TPS, before Battleborn). Every game’s players are convinced that the game is dying, and the only way to save it is to do “exactly as I say”. Well, like 2% of the players, but the VOCAL 2%.

So, having good, helpful people? It’s a BIG bonus. And The GBX forums are FULL of those! For instance, you’ve been very positive and helpful! :grin:

4 Likes
#8

For map knowledge and basic function, yes. Knowing where shards and buildables are is important.

Learning how to score kills against PVP Private bots and developing habits toward that end will be detrimental when you face real players.

Even targeting minions/clearing lanes is different, because the computer will not put half the pressure on you while doing so that you’d be subjected to by players.

I think Solo/Private Incursion runs would be especially useful for guys who really need to know the map, like finding all the shooting nests or Benedict finding perches. It also could help you develop those sixth-sense skills of complete map understanding in the busiest zones, basically the spaces between the two lead sentries where most of the shooting takes place.

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#9

Good to know all of the above, but ESPECIALLY the quoted text. Thanks for sharing that.

So, your advice is to use it only as necessary to learn the maps, with an eye on buildable locations, shard farming, sniper roosts, perches (for Benedict, and I assume also in some cases, Caldarius), cover, routes of ingress/egress, and so on? And that it may actually be detrimental in learning even where/how to fight the minion waves?

Cool. Good info, and I thank you for a very helpful/constructive post!

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#10

I’ve found private bots in overgrowth to be useless after you down the first sentry… the 4 bots on my team will not under any circumstances move up to the second one for me

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#11

Bummer.

Now, the one private Incursion I’ve played so far, we killed the first sentry, and took little damage to our own. 96-50, I think. Teammates wouldn’t generally move up past the health station (Overgrowth), though. Shame. I really wanted to get the turrets around the enemy’s first sentry’s position set up for us, and just OWN that area.

#12

Yeah, the bots do tend to derp out sometimes. It does add a slight challenge at least. Silver linings. :x

If they get stuck by shards or a buildable–you can try picking up the shards, destroying/building the buildable or leashing an enemy bot towards them. Sometimes that de-derpifies the bots.

They really aren’t that reliable, but then again, neither are all PvP players. So! You could always look at it as a twisted preparation for encountering said players. :open_mouth:

Just get acquainted with the maps and move onto the more fun, actual PvP imo. You’ll learn more playing there anywho. Heh.

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#13

If I were to condense everything so far into just a couple lines:

“Use solo to learn the maps, then GTFO before it ruins you.”

Sound about right?

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#14

Kind of. It still serves some purpose. Getting acquainted with the Battleborn on a PvP map. Or just to break up the tedium of playing Story or actual PvP to level Command/Character rank.

Granted, it is definitely not the most efficient way to gather xp or credits, but it is still an option.

And for the stress-bunnies out there. It could be a more relaxing alternative?

Just play how you want to play. If you are confident, I say take the plunge into real PvP. You might make friends and you can then help each other learn the ropes.

#15

Yeah, went ahead and put the feelers out just now on r/BattlebornLFT , to see if there are a few other PC players out there willing to deal with my new-to-this-game-ness. And because I have to unlock one more lore challenge with Oscar Mike, because I have to know the rest of the story!

#16

Specifically on this, basically anything combat-oriented is gonna change a LOT when you face players as opposed to bots.

Learning WHERE to engage minion waves in solo is cool. Find the spots that have good terrain to fall back behind, etc. Find where you like to have firing lines. Learn how many ways you have to get out of dodge when you’re clearing a wave and 3 opponents come up to push the wave.

Learning HOW to engage minion waves in solo will lead to bad habits. One example, leading with big skills.

It makes sense to lead with big, whomping skills because you want to clear that wave ASAP. But in doing so, those skills are on cooldown when the players come to get you. It’s especially relevant because so many of the “initiator skills” like Boldur’s Boldurdash or Kelvin’s Sublimate need to be used as escapes much more often than initiations.

Point is, if a savvy player sees you go careening into a swarm of minions with Monty’s Lumberjack Dash, they know you won’t have it back for X seconds, so they’re gonna jump on your head. Probably with friends.

Similarly, if you Frag Grenade with Oscar Mike as Step 1 on a minion wave, you won’t have it left to chase down an escaping opponent who you or an ally have emptied a lot of rounds into. It comes down to spacing, really. If the minion wave is about to push on your Sentry, then YES, frag those suckers so they can’t work his shield over. If the wave is earlier in the lane, probably best to just work with the rifle to begin with, and save the frag for when it’s needed.

2 Likes
#17

Kinda figured that with regard to skills, but it’s good to hear it from someone who’s confident in PvP. So I’m thinking on the right track. I tend to do that even in solo story mode; that is, I don’t just drop the skill bomb when I know there’s something else coming that’ll be even harder to deal with without the skill.

So, noted. And AGAIN, thanks for the continuing stream of helpful/constructive responses, all of you!

#18

Yes do it. I always pay a couple games when I start a new guy to try and reduce the suck factor. You can practice, get used to the helix. That way when you start you aren’t spending your time reading the helix tree. It’s practical worthless as far as lore challenges and HP, but worth the practice.

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#19

Yeah, that’s something I’ve been doing with toons in story mode–memorizing my preferred helix choices per level, so it’s a QUICK two button presses to get through it and move on with the mission.

Fairly sure there are some different routes I’d want to take with the helix for PvP, so it’d be good to read up on the community’s best advice in that regard and start getting those patterns committed to memory.

THANKS for that, @Masterblizak!

#20

You bet. PvP is a pretty cut throat place. If you aren’t producing, you know there is at least one person on the other end pulling their hair out. It’s especially bad when your team is losing and you are at the top of your group with 4 kills and 7 deaths.

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