PC Tier List (Overgrowth, No Legendaries) - Version 1
Previous tier list for Meltdown (Slightly outdated but still roughly the same: https://www.reddit.com/r/Battleborn/comments/4lok5j/pc_tier_list_meltdown_no_items_version_3/ )
Sorry about the super huge break between tier lists. My team folded and it took me a few weeks to find another team.
My team won the PC r/battleborn tournament, pretty much 2-0ing / 1-0ing every team in a landslide. We rarely play Incursion, but the game mode is pretty shallow so we caught on quickly.
As a shoutout, I highly highly implore you to please consider Meltdown. Meltdown is much more diverse with many more strategies and it is more resistant to cheese and stale gameplay (because shooting down corridors just isn't fun guys). With two lanes, it really opens up viability on the more squishy melee characters in the cast. There's no "Shoot down the corridor to establish your dominance" bullshit, and deathballing is a give/take instead of on Incursion where it's the prime strategy. I sincerely hope that every tournament will be on Paradise instead of this joke of a map.
So here's the tier list. As a note, I believe everyone up until C tier is viable. Everything below that is not. S tier will contain most commonly banned / the best heroes in the game. A tier will be commonly first-second picked, B tier will be 3rd/4th picked, C tier will be commonly 5th picked, and everything after that I don't think you should ever pick.
My findings for Incursion is since it is a single lane, that makes certain characters much less viable. However, since you have a "jungle" so to speak, which needs active maintenance, that revives some characters. You want to put a premium on zone control characters (since there's basically one zone to control tops), making hit and run type characters less worthwhile. Wave clear isn't as important compared to meltdown, but having it is still good nonetheless.
S Tier: ISIC, Alani, Marquis, Ghalt
A Tier: Oscar Mike, Thorn, Miko
B Tier: Kleese, Boldur, Mellka, Orendi, Whiskey
C Tier: Reyna, Caldarius, Kelvin, Toby, Benedict, Galilea, El Dragon, Montana
D Tier (No order): Ambra, Attikus, Deande, Pheobe, Rath
Don't know: Shayne and Aurox
S Tier: ISIC, Alani, Marquis, Ghalt
ISIC: He's still godmode even on incursion. Master of sitting somewhere safe and doing a million damage, and if they try to go on him he can either stun/kill them, or he can put his shield up and be invincible. Comes with an overpowered slow. He's insane on Meltdown, he's insane on Incursion. Bonus points for going in turret mode and doing a billion damage to the enemy sentry.
Alani: Good wave clear, great CC, good at burst healing, great poking. Her kit still has everything you could ever want. Still overtuned.
Marquis: He basically controls the lane to an insane degree. He's most of the reason why you have so many non-viable characters in the game. His area control is disgusting, and he can do it from so far that he's super safe. No damage falloff with range, and does insane damage.
Ghalt: He has good damage, good range, but he also has the best initiation in the game. Not much can survive getting pulled into a trap, especially since Incursion has a single lane with 4-5 people in it.
All four of these were either the highest priority of banning for us, or we tried to get them to slip through the cracks so we could first pick them.
A Tier: Oscar Mike, Thorn, Miko
Oscar Mike : He has great wave clear, he does good damage, and his airstrike is extremely potent against the sentry (With and without level 10).
Thorn : She's not as good as she was in Meltdown, but she's still extremely effective. Great at clearing waves as usual, but assassinating people is slightly harder since there's really 1-2 ways you can get to the enemy max. Skirmishes also happen at a slightly longer distance, so it makes it difficult to really line up money shots. She's still top tier, just not as overbearing as she is in Meltdown.
Miko : His heals are still potent, and since most of the game is being able to sustain yourself and stay in lane, Miko's heals are extremely helpful for doing that. On top of that he follows up really well with his mushroom in case your team can catch someone out of position / on the sniper ledge. His kunai also do really good damage.
B Tier: Kleese, Boldur, Mellka, Orendi, Whiskey
Kleese : Just a forenote, I pretty much played Kleese every single game this tournament. I think he's excellent on Incursion- since it all revolves around a single lane he can put up his rifts and just push around them. Unfortunately he's pretty weak until he gets to level 3- and then he becomes as potent as Marquis with his railgun. Once he hits level 5 he gives his teammates a huge amount of sustainability- something only Ambra actively charging a sunspot could do. He's really, really solid- railgun headshots do ~600 damage and normal shots will easily do ~450-500 a shot. That's insane, since you couple that with all the utility he brings via the rift network and healing chair.
Boldur : He's really good at isolating people and picking them off. The whole thing about him actually being unkillable unless you majorly screw up is also a huge plus. He's a great pick up, probably the best melee in the game right now on both Meltdown and Incursion.
Mellka : Though she might be considered a hit and run, her poison grenade actually completely trashes any sustainability your enemies thought they might have. She has high mobility so she can zip in and out as usual, and her Spike can be used as an impromptu wave clear. She's annoying.
Orendi : Lots of burst. Picking Orendi gives you a lot of reach you wouldn't normally have. Shadow Pillars are good because there's a lot of choke points on the map- even if you don't get hit by it, having all that shit on your screen makes it hard to aim at the enemies.
Whiskey Foxtrot : While he doesn't really have the waveclear, he is excellent at skirmishing and just doing damage. His slow is super obnoxious, and with your entire team in your lane, anyone you slow is pretty much dead. Good at following up, good at peppering.
C Tier: Reyna, Caldarius, Kelvin, Toby, Benedict, Galilea, El Dragon, Montana
Reyna : Reyna has a few problems going for her. First off, she can't heal until level 4. It sucks but it's not the end of the world. I think the biggest issue is that she loses her biggest asset- She needs two things to actually shine- she needs to be able to slightly overextend while slowing the enemy with Plasma Pulse after level 2, and she needs constant line of sight on that target in order to maintain the slow. Well- with one lane instead of two, and the sentry being pretty much a safe space, she has neither of these things.
She's still solid with her ultimate, I just find she's much less effective than on Meltdown.
Caldarius : Master of hit and run- unfortunately in deathball vs. deathball, nobody really cares about the hit and run. I see him as a Mellka that takes until level 4-5 to be able to harass. His wave clear is great, but it takes a back seat in Incursion. Since he's speedy he can do all your base maintenance for you. Yay. His ultimate puts him in places he doesn't want to be, and if you use it, you're instantly surrounded by four other people. Spooky stuff.
Kelvin : Great initiation, but has a hard time getting out alive. His issue is that he can't really contribute besides the stunning part. But the stunning part is really good.
Toby : Toby's issue is that against 5 people, his shields melt immediately. And then he's a sitting penguin. He still does a lot of damage- but since his shields feel fragile against 5 people, I don't think he's really that great. On the flip side though, getting a stun with your arc mine pretty much means your team has a kill.
Benedict : He can do a lot of damage, really fast. His issue is that he's very squishy. Also on Overgrowth there aren't a lot of places you can really sit at and shoot down from (Compared to Paradise, at least). He's a solid pick, but with people like Marquis and Kleese and Thorn running around it can be a little bit scary.
Kills minions surprisingly well. I didn't expect that.
Galilea : I don't like Galilea in Incursion. I feel like her stun is much less reliable than Kelvin/Boldur, and it's really hard to stay in lane to do stuff- especially without the Shepherd bots. However, she does something that not many other people can do- She can stand under sniper ledges and desecrate pull you down. Against any real team, this is an instant kill (Most pull characters will get the people snagged on the ledge).
Unfortunately for Galilea, her 'It's dangerous to go alone' helix is never going to be on unless the enemy can't aim for shit.
El Dragon : Remember when I mentioned someone that permanently jungles? El Dragon is your man for that. I think he's the best candidate for that- just go jungle and do the team's bitchwork until you got En Fuego, then go ham on people. He's the best late game carry in the game, and that doesn't change from Meltdown to Paradise.
Montana : He's big and attracts lots of hits from the enemy, but he's got the tankiness to back it up. I think if you have a Montana, you pretty much HAVE to have an Alani or a Miko pocketing him. He slows a lot of the cast, which in this game means they have reduced attack speed and easier for your teammates to kill.
D Tier (No order): Ambra, Attikus, Deande, Pheobe, Rath
Now we're getting to 'not viable' tier. These are the heroes I would never pick on Overgrowth because they have massive, massive flaws attached to them.
Ambra : Ambra excels at two things: Team healing, and chasing people down to kill them. After they massively nerfed the latter, all she's good at is sitting in a safe area, shitting out a sunspot, and charging it. If you're going to do that, just pick Kleese- he does that passively with rifts, but he also has the highest DPS railgun in the game. Super mega overnerfed.
Attikus : Way too big, doesn't do enough. His stun is unpredictable and unreliable. He's not good.
Deande : Deande isn't a bad character- she excels at isolating someone, and then CCing the ever living shit out of them with her uppercut. Unfortunately for her, there's one lane in this game mode. If she goes on anyone, her squishiness gets her blown up. The instant she shows up is the instant she dies. In addition, she's a shit late game carry, so just don't bother.
Pheobe : She can't do anything either. She goes in? She dies. There's no way a melee can survive without shepherd minions against a team of 4-5 competant ranged damage dealers. She will be your jungle bitch, but if you're doing that, just go pick El Dragon- he does it better.
Rath : Same issue as Pheobe, except he's somehow even squishier than she is. You show up in lane as Rath? You instantly die. No exceptions. If the enemy team lets you get away with it, it's not because you're good- it's because they're awful. He can jungle too, but why not just pick El Dragon if you're going to do that?
On the plus side, I've warmed up to Rath a little in Meltdown. I actually drafted him and he performed really well in one of those ten man pugs. You really, really need to build a team around him though- think like Boldur + Alani + Rath - now that's a spicy combo. Without the combo, he's just the 0-16 food you're so accustomed to seeing.
Don't know: Shayne and Aurox - On one hand, they're melee. On the other hand, they're actually pretty tanky like Kelvin. They have a grab, which is really good, and they also have a half wave clear, which is also really good.
But they're melee. I have no fucking clue where I'd put them- if I were to guess it'd be high C tier though. I haven't seen any of them all tournament, so I reserve my right to not place them anywhere.
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Let me know if you have any questions. I'm comfortable giving helix/gear info out for the following characters: Ambra, Cladarius, Ghalt, Kleese, Marquis, Mellka, Orendi, Oscar Mike, Pheobe, Reyna, and Thorn. I usually let my teammates handle the rest of the cast.
Posted Jun 27, 2016, 12:42 AM UTC