PC Tier List (Meltdown, No Legendaries) - Version 4
Previous Version: https://www.reddit.com/r/Battleborn/comments/4lok5j/pc_tier_list_meltdown_no_items_version_3/
Preface: This tier list is basically an ordering of draft pick and what goes on through our heads when we're drafting up a team. The draft goes:
Team 1 Ban > Team 2 Ban > Team 1 Ban > Team 2 Ban > Team 1 Pick > Team 2 Pick x2 > Team 1 Pick x2 > Team 2 Pick x2 > Team 1 Pick x2 > Team 2 Pick x1.
As a general guide, S tier means that you want to either ban the character, or first pick them. A tier generally means they are very solid and are great 1st-2nd pick, but for the most part aren't really worth a "100% ban this or you lose". B tier means you want to pick them on your second round of picks- so usually 3rd or 4th. C tier you want to pick 4th or 5th in the last round of picks, and D tier you... are probably better off not picking at all.
I need to emphasize that this is a PC tier list. The reason why I am emphasizing this is because on consoles, melee are much more effective because console plebs can't aim for shit : ^ ).
Anyways, here's the list:
S Tier: ISIC, Marquis
A Tier: Alani, Thorn, Ghalt, Oscar Mike, Caldarius, Miko
B Tier: Boldur, Mellka, Kelvin
C Tier: Whiskey, Orendi, Reyna, Galilea, Montana, Benedict, El Dragon, Kleese, Toby, Shayne & Aurox, Rath, Deande
D Tier: Ambra, Pheobe, Attikus
S tier: ISIC, Marquis
In general, I'm saving S tier for characters that are clearly overpowered. They have things going for them and they can single handedly change the dynamics of the game. These guys need to be first banned/picked because not having them on your team is... a pretty big disadvantage.
As I have stated before, S tier are most commonly banned, and if they aren't banned, I highly, highly expect them to be first picked.
ISIC : He's been in Tier S since the beginning, and I'm keeping him there. I'll elaborate a little bit more than usual though: There are three very good reasons why ISIC is in god tier. First, he has 193 DPS. He's literally in the top 3 in the DPS. But that's not the big deal- the big deal is that half of that damage is AoE, which makes him decent at wave clear.
Second, he is literally the second tankiest character in the entire game, only being behind Boldur. He has great escape options between his reflecting wards, teleport, and his shield.
This wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that he has no damage falloff at range. This means he can be at his supply station while he shoots you for one of the highest damage in the game. And if you dive him, did I mention that he has three great escape options? Yeah. Not happening.
Marquis : Marquis has also been in Tier S since the beginning. First off, he, like ISIC, can do things from a range that nobody can contest- except he's a little bit nuttier about it in some aspects.
Marquis is extremely, EXTREMELY good at taking out objectives. Your thumper? If he has ANY semblance of mid control, both your thumpers are down- it's actually to the point where your supply station is the hardest thing for Marquis to kill, oddly enough.
But besides that, he's actually extremely potent at killing literally the entire cast. If he gets any attack damage gear, once he hits level 5 we're talking about 3-4 shotting literally the entire non-tank cast. It's disgusting.
Lastly, to put the cherry on the top, his quick melee is the best quick melee in the game (for the objective to get people the hell off of you, not really for the Ghalt/Whiskey esque corner trapping and murdering). If he quick melees you and hits you with the double? You're on the other side of the map. Then he has enough time to scope in and shoot you twice before you can make it back to him. Good luck killing him with a melee character.
A Tier: Alani, Thorn, Ghalt, Oscar Mike, Caldarius, Miko
A tier is very long, and I fully expect to see two of these characters banned- Alani and Thorn are probably the most commonly banned, but I see some Ghalt OM and Miko bans as well- especially when someone is setting up for an S tier steal. Unlike S tier, I don't think these characters single handedly change the dynamic of the game- but fighting against them can be extremely frustrating. They're all well deserving of being in A tier.
As I've stated before, you want to first/second pick these people, if not just outright banning them.
Alani : Alani's got it all- She's got fat DPS, she got a very nice AoE, the best burst heals in the game, the best follow up CC in the game- but if your team can't chain it, the CC is still pretty solid.
I think Alani single handedly makes a bunch of melee characters viable.
If you want me to elaborate, at level 3, she gets a helix called Go with the Flow. This helix, in conjunction with Wave Shock at level 4 (I thought it was called Riptide) means that her wave starts doing some serious damage, in addition to her CC being at a very reasonable cooldown, in addition to her ultimate being chunked in terms of cooldown.
So once you hit to level 3-4-5, she starts to become a DPS MACHINE. Get some Attack Speed, get some Health, and then get some either speed or shields- and she's an absolute monster.
Thorn : We got thorn nerfs last patch, but she's still very, very good. She still has great wave clear (still might be overpowered), excellent burst damage, and extremely long reach. Her hitbox is also obnoxious.
If you need help playing Thorn, I'm very willing to elaborate further, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows how good she is.
Ghalt : Ghalt is super good at the grip and sip. Just by existing, Ghalt gives you a lot of lane presence- the squishy but hard to hit characters such as Marquis, Thorn, Orendi, Caldarius, Benedict, etc.- suddenly have a pretty clear death condition.
At level 3, he gets his sniper shotgun shells which gives him a lot of reach. He has probably the best quick melee in the game (I remember reading somewhere his was actually the fastest).
But really. Don't underestimate the amount of control just having traps strewn around the battlefield gives you. I hate crossing under mid against a Ghalt.
Oscar Mike : Objective doer and lane clear extraordinaire. So, starting from level 2, he can single handedly clear a wave. In addition, if you ever leave his lane (or if he gets ballsy), he can go to your thumper, shoot down the shields, toss a nade, and leave. That thumper's toast.
Oddly enough, he can't do it to the supply station : ^ ).
Anyways, besides his Napalm, his airstrike is good too, and his DPS isn't anything to sneeze at. He's also really good against melee in this game, because if they ever engage, just toss a napalm at your feet and you'll win any engagement.
Caldarius : Caldarius has the highest mobility in the game. His wave clear is decent (especially after level 4)- if you utilize the shepherd's crit spots. Once he hits level 5, he has pretty good burst damage with the triple nades + his ultimate.
Besides all of that, Caldarius is also excellent at stealing the enemy shards- which is a pretty big deal. He can sprint in, shoot the shit out of the crystal, and use his Q to get out. Easy peasy.
Miko : Big headed healer that gives great sustain, good slows, and actually passable damage. Having a pocket miko gives you a lot of oomf. He's got not only the best sustained heals in the game, but it also activates at level 1.
I refuse to play Miko though. I won't deny he's really good, but I'm not a fan of the TF2 medic-esque healing. Fuck following people and holding down the heal button.
B Tier: Boldur, Mellka, Kelvin
Boldur : 225 damage overshield on something like a ridiculous 10 second timer, the best shield in the game, and a near permanent +30% movement speed buff? And this is before all of his helixes. With his helixes and without his ult: he's literally impossible to kill unless he messes up.
But on top of that, he has one of the best stuns in the game. And if you get the double stun? That's spicy spicy.
Mellka : Her strengths come from her harass and her mobility. Her wave clear is all right, her damage is all right, and she actually can't kill buildings worth a damn.
But the harass? If she hits you with a grenade, I hope you don't like having shields. It's actually the most obnoxious thing in the world. And if you're trying to clear the wave and she's shooting you? I hope you don't get spiked, because if you do get spiked- you're either dead or hitting that B button in about ten seconds.
I hate her ultimate.
She can use Claw Lunge to get to run away extremely effectively- the vertical height makes her have jukes that Caldarius doesn't have. Unfortunately, since she has an SMG, she can't really utilize going to mega obnoxious places because the damage falloff gets pretty real.
Kelvin : Big hitbox, kind of squishy because of it. But he has the best stun in the entire game, in addition to having some decent burst damage. His ultimate is also gamebreaking. (Heh, get it? Gamebreaking- because it bugs the shit out of the game sometimes)- nah, real talk- his ult is passable.
He enables a lot of combos. For example, a Kelvin + Alani combo is straight up dirty. Kelvin+Ghalt is great. Kelvin+Orendi is good, and so forth. He's also great at counter initiation- decide to dive the supply station a little bit too early? Guess what, instead of you going in and out, he's gonna stun you. And then those thumpers are gonna hit you. And he's going to bodyblock you. And your life is going to be miserable even if you're caldarius or ISIC.
C Tier: Whiskey, Orendi, Reyna, Galilea, Montana, Benedict, El Dragon, Kleese, Toby, Shayne & Aurox, Rath, Deande
Whiskey : He can't clear a lane for shit, but what he DOES have is one of the best slows in the game (After ISIC, that overpowered piece of shit), and some real good damage to follow it up. If you ban ISIC, he probably has the strongest mid control game in the entire game (Too many pillars for Ghalt to just push everyone out).
Sides that, his ult is great in teamfights, His napalmed tri-split sticky nades are great damage even if he misses. He can kill thumpers pretty well with his scoped rifle. For the record, he's a million times better at assassinating than Oscar Mike is.
Orendi : I still stand by the fact that Orendi can't solo wave clear until she hits level 4. That said, she can still semi wave clear pretty well before that if she has a lane partner. It can be tough hitting the crit spots because her hands come from such weird directions though.
Anyways, she's a bad version of Thorn, but Thorn is pretty super mega overpowered so it's a-okay. She works great comboing with a dedicated stun- and even without one your ult is really good. Her small hitbox + Nullify's instant shield recharging is pretty good.
and if you ever get to level 10, Pillarstorm is pretty fucking gross- It's not likely that you get to level 10 though.
Reyna : Reyna singlehandedly makes most of the melee viable in this game. She has one of the best slows in the game at level 2. Her damage is actually really high (Pdamage, not total damage because she can't hit minions for shit) if you 1> Get her mutation at level 3, and 2> Use her pulse as her main weapon, and her pistol as her side weapon.
Anyways, yeah. Great slow, decent burst heals (Now that Alani is out, it made her sad). Good player damage- I find that she works very well with people like Galilea, Rath, El Dragon, and so on.
Galilea : First off, if you have Galilea, you really, really want a healer. Preferably a Miko, but Reyna works well too. Alani is aight as well, but not as good since if you get hurt for 40 HP, there's no way in hell Alani is blowing her shit on you
Anyways, her level 3 helix is still bonkers overpowered, but the rest of her kit is kind of lackluster since the nerfs. Her shield throw is really good, but if you're going to pick someone for a stun, you should probably just pick Kelvin or Boldur. In my experience, most people pick Galilea for her Wound (vs Alani, it's good) or her Silence+Pull. She's definitely not as good as she was a while ago.
Montana : Montana has really fallen in my eyes. He doesn't really do enough and really really needs a pocket healer to be able to stay in lane.
His stun is really nice but it's really tough to line up compared to Boldur since he's slow as molasses. He's really tanky, but what is he tanky for exactly? If someone doesn't overcommit, you can't really do anything about it.
His slow is still obnoxious, but I don't know about making an entire pick for a slow.
Benedict : He does a lot of damage with shoot > reload canceling, but I feel he's just too squishy. If someone has a Thorn or a Marquis or someone that can shoot up, they can shred Benedict super fast.
That said, getting hit by his homing missiles is the worst feeling in the entire world if you're someone like Thorn or Orendi. It just feels like one of those "you're already dead" things.
El Dragon : His wave clear is aight. If you stack move speed/sprint speed/ attack speed with a splash of survivability, he can be super mega obnoxious.
Even with his wave clear though, he's really really easy to push out of lane until he gets En Fuego. And after that, he starts to wreck people. And once he hits the higher levels, he's easily one of the best battleborn in the game.
The issue is getting there without absolutely crumbling. Most meltdown games don't last that long.
Kleese : Imagine Marquis, except take away his overpowered quick melee, and make it so he can't actually do anything until level 3. Then toss in a really good heal and some decent wave clear? You've got Kleese.
Kleese does even more DPS than Marquis does once he hits level 3 against shields. He's really good. The issue is that he's so big that if the enemy ever catches you, you're probably dead. And on Meltdown, it's actually possible to get flanked because since they changed the side wall, there's like five ways to gank a kleese on mid (Down mid, left and right side, then far left and far right side).
Toby : The more I see Toby, the worse I think he is.
His shield melts like butter against any sort of focus fire, and without his shield he's pretty whatever.
His damage is good, and his stun is really good if he can land it, but he's super squishy, and his hitbox is a giant "Shoot me" sign. It's extremely dangerous to push with Toby, because basically anyone in the game can 1v1 and win if you get caught out of position (unless you land the most baller stun in your entire life).
Shayne and Aurox : I hate her hitbox, but I've got to respect the tankiness + grabs + slows + semi-wave clear.
I think the biggest issue is that S&A don't really do that much damage- they're more Utility than they are damage. I just compare her to Ghalt and it just feels really mediocre. But I'm biased.
Rath : He works well with combo teams (Rath+Reyna+Alani for example), and I highly, highly don't recommend using him unless you intend to combo something like an Alani stun after his stun, or something similar to that.
He's just way too squishy, and he's way too vulnerable to quick melee for him to be worth anything outside of a combo team.
Deande : She's like a combo starter. With a little bit of attack speed, using her uppercut can pretty much permastun one person. Her ultimate is great with a little bit of teamwork.
but besides that, she doesn't really... do anything. Her damage is pretty shitty, and it takes forever for her to actually kill anything solo (Uppercut spam makes it possible if nobody on either team helps) Be careful of falling behind on experience- you need to tag the minions with your fans so you don't fall behind.
D Tier: Pheobe, Ambra, Attikus
I don't consider anybody in D tier to be really pickable. If you're going to pick them, you can make it your 5th pick because they sure as hell aren't going to be picked otherwise.
Pheobe : The reason why Pheobe is chilling here is because she doesn't bring anything besides damage and a nice slow to the table, but there are people better at doing that.
She's pretty tanky with +250 shields or whatever from her helix, but that's literally all she gets. Her AoE is very bad until she hits level 5, but it has a long cooldown- so she can't really wave clear, she has to get to melee range to do damage, and she doesn't have any hard CC like Rath / Deande does.
I don't really see a point in picking Pheobe besides her being the psychopathic 1%.
Ambra : How the mighty have fallen. Ambra is extremely redunant with all the other healers in the game.
She doesn't turn on until level 3, when she can charge sunspots. Besides that, her damage has been overnerfed. She used to be the hyper aggressive wave clearer, but the issue is with the introduction of Alani, she just kind of... does everything except sustain heal better. Ambra is definitely not in a good spot.
Attikus : Huge hitbox, doesn't do anything besides RNG a stun out. Legit contender for the worst character in the game right now.
So that's my tier list. I need to stress, this is for PC (where we can aim), no legendaries and Meltdown. This is the order of priority that my team goes through when making a draft for scrims/tournaments.
If you have any questions/comments I can try to e-argue with you in the chat. And if you need a character specific inquiry (like, "My thorn sucks, how do I make my thorn A tier like you put her?"), I'm more than willing to answer: and if I can't answer I'll rope one of my teammates to answer for me. I personally have used Alani, Ambra, Caldarius, Galilea, Ghalt, ISIC, Kleese, Marquis, Mellka, Orendi, Oscar Mike, Pheobe, Reyna, Thorn, and Whiskey, but I'm pretty sure the rest of my team spans every other member of the cast.
Watch us in action here: https://www.twitch.tv/neraaa/profile/highlights
Posted Jul 3, 2016, 8:10 AM UTC