Bloodline Champions

Overview

Bloodline Champions is a top view PVP focused game developed by Stunlock Studios in closed beta at the moment of writing this. The game is skilled based with no random elements such as passive abilities or critical hits, the abilities do a set amount of damage and aiming is a major part of the game. 

Game play

The game pins players against each other in arenas up to 10 players(5v5) with 3 different game types Arena, Capture the Artifact and Conquest.

In arena the goal is to kill the entire other team before they kill your team. You play until a team has won a predefined number of rounds. For example, you play 3 rounds (3-0) or up 5 rounds (3-2). You also gain rating at the end of the game based on the following factors: the estimated rating of your team and the number of rounds you won/lost.  

 
                   

The goal in the capture the flag gamemode is to take control of both artifacts, each team starts with one artifact. Players need to pickup the artifact and bring it back to their base. The artifact decreases the players speed and increases the damage the player takes. However the artifacts increases the damage you deal. If players that is carrying the artifact dies, the artifact will be placed on the corpse of the player and be available for other players to pick up. When a player dies he or she will respawn after a certain amount of time, the time between respawns increases as the match goes on.   
 

Conquest is a round based gamemode with infinite amount of respawns, but with a respawn delay that increases as time goes by and holding all objectives disables respawn for the other team. Teams win by holding all objectives for a set amount of time or by killing all enemies while holding all objectives. Players can regain HP at their base and pick up power-up runes to improve their capabilities.

There is also a single player mode which allows players to play against computer controlled bloodlines in the above gamemodes. 

Bloodline Champions uses a unique healing system called recovery health. When a player takes damage they lose health points as in other games. When a player starts to get healed it will not increase his normal health, instead gives him recovery health. Recovery health works just as normal health, but with some disadvantages. Recovery health cannot increase a bloodlines health above max health and recovery health cannot be more than 40% of a bloodline’s maximum health. For example if a wounded bloodline has 10% HP it can never get above 50% health.                                                                                   

The controls in Bloodline Champions are customizable and simple. The WASD keys are for moving, aiming is done with the mouse, you press a button to use an ability mouse 1 is the main ability which doesn’t have a cooldown the rest of the abilities have short cooldowns preventing you from casting them again for a couple of seconds. There is also a global cooldown preventing you from using multiple abilities at the same time.                                                                                                                     

There are two different camera modes to pick from while playing. The first one is a locked camera with your character in the middle of the screen. The second one is a dynamic camera which will move the camera towards the place you are aiming with your mouse. You can switch between the two camera angles by pressing the scroll button on the mouse.                                   

Each bloodline has a 7th ability called an ultimate ability. The ultimate ability can only be used when the bloodline has 100% energy. After being used the energy is depleted and the counter goes to 0%. You gain energy by hitting enemies with abilities. The energy counter will reset if a player dies.  

Each Bloodline has two items which grant additional abilities. One items is the bloodline medallion which lets the player recover health. This however takes time and any damage or movement will stop the healing. The second item is to resurrect allies. It has a 10 second cast time and any damage will stop the cast.

Bloodline Champions let’s you take control of one of 16 heroes named Bloodlines each with 7 unique abilities. There are 4 different types of Bloodlines: Melee, Ranged, Healer and Tank each with their benefits and weaknesses. 

The healers are also fragile with lots of abilities to heal and help themselves and their teammates. The tanks have lots of health and abilities to survive and control their enemies. 

 

Matchmaking, Leagues and Ladders

Each account has a level which is seen by other players as a measure of experience the more levels you have the more experienced you are in the game, levels do not measure skill-levels.

You gain new levels by gaining experience. Each game will give experience even single player and custom games. You cannot lose experience so your account level will never decrease

Each account also has a grade. The grades measure the skill-level of the player meaning a player with a high grade is a highly skilled player. However a player with a low grade can be as good as a player with a high grade. The reason for this is that grades are gained by increasing in score and not on matching rating.

Grades are calculated by selecting all the scores associated with the account and then determining which score is the highest and that score is used to set the grade of the account.

Score and matchmaking rating are two different numbers, both are used to determine and balance the skill-level of the player.

Leagues and divisions are used to divide and compare players of different skill levels. Each bracket has it’s own leagues and divisions. During server maintenance all players and teams will be divided into different leagues and divisions by looking at their hidden Matching Rating.

There are five different types of leagues:

• Proving Grounds
• Ring of Trials
• Warrior Enclave
• Hall of Heroes
• League of Legends

Each league has several divisions, each division containing a maximum of 50 players. The more players there are the more divisions will be created.  

     

Account Types - Payment Options

Although Bloodlines Champions is free to play for anyone who registers on their site, there is an option to purchase premium account types also known as the 'Champion Edition' and 'Titan Edition' of the game. The Free account allows you to use 4 Free 'Bloodlines' which rotate every Wednesday while premium accounts gain access to all the Bloodlines and other special benefits. The Initial pricing model is 29.99 USD for the Champion Edition and 89.99 USD for the Titan Edition. While it is possible to unlock additional champions with the in game currency (Blood Coins) awarded for completing games, Individual Champions are priced quite high at 17,000 'Blood Coins' each. It should be noted that players earn an average 10 - 30 Blood Coins for every match.  
  

Feature Comparison	Free	Champion Edition	Titan Edition
Unlimited Play	Yes	Yes	Yes
Four (4) Free Rotating Bloodlines	Yes	Yes	Yes
Access to Tournaments	Yes	Yes	Yes
Access to Stats Tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes
In-Game VoIP	Yes	Yes	Yes
Earn Bloodcoins	Yes(Capped)	Yes	Yes
16 Bloodlines	No	Yes	Yes
4 Bloodlust Bloodlines	No	With Bloodlust Upgrade	Yes
Ad Free VoIP	No	No	Yes
Extras
Access to Medium & Hard bots	No	Yes	Yes
10% Discount in store (Funcom Points)	No	No	Yes
10% Extra Bloodcoin Gain	No	No	Yes
Access to All Future Bloodlines	No	No	Yes
Special Chat Icon	No	Champion Icon	Titan Icon
Team Slots	3	5	8
Avatars	1	4	4
Titles	1	4	5
Outfits	0	0	20
Funcom Points worth in $	0	5	20

 

Bloodlines          

Alchemist

The Alchemist has great support capabilities and can turn a game around at any time with their good healing and crowd control abilities. 
Abilities: 

• Toxic Vial
• Healing Potion
• Barrier
• Clarity Potion
• Sleep Vial
• Deadly Injection
• Crippling Goo

 

Psychopomp     

The Psychopomps has control of the battlefield and has powerful healing and debilitating effects. Weak alone but their abilities make allied attacks more effective.
Abilities:

• Soul Bolt
• Essence Renewal
• Mind Transfer
• Terrifying Scream
• Spiritual Link
• The Other Side
• Guardian Spirit

Herald Of Insight

The herald can warp through time and space turning enemies against themselves.
Abilities:

• Stifling Dust
• Healing Word
• Time Shift
• Mantra of Devotion
• Cerebral Blast
• Chronoflux
• Temporal Rift

 


  Blood Priest 
 Able to control the flow of blood through dark perverted magic, the Blood Priest is both a benevolent healer to his team, and a dark twisted plague on the enemy.  
 Abilities:

• Orb of Darkness
• Dark Prayer
• Possession
• Terror of Ahl'Buhl
• Insects
• Blood Shield
• Corpse Explosion

 

Astronomer

The Astronomer can switch between two stances sun and moon, he is able to either do powerful ranged damage or potent healing, switching between them at any time.
Abilities:

• Spectro Stike
• Sun Light
• Sun Ellipse
• Moon Stone
• Moon Burst
• Black Hole
• Astral Beam

Igniter

Igniters are masters of ranged combat using their fire magic to deal massive amount of damage, he is however extremely weak in close combat.
Abilities:

• Fireball
• Fire Storm
• Searing Displacement
• Volcano
• Crippling Fire
• Living Flame
• Meteor Storm

Gunner

The gunners deal massive damage to single targets at long range and surviving capabilities through stealth and cunning tricks
Abilities:

• Focus Shot
• Execute
• Rocket Jump
• Stealth
• Disabling Shot 
• Mortar
• Rocket Launcher 

Nomad

The nomads are fast, flexible and deadly.
Abilities:
-Razor Boomerang
-X-Strike
-Haste
-Wind Strike
-Tornado Call
-Wind Bomb
-Boomerang Fury

Engineer

Engineers have a great array of tricks and gadgets that help them on the battlefield. Such as flamethrowers, shrink rays and jetpacks.
Abilities:

• Boomstick
• Concussion Shot
• Jet Pack
• Flame Thrower
• EMP Blast
• Shrink Device
• Machine Gun

 

Seeker

 Illusionary tricks coupled with different elemental shots makes the Seeker a resourceful and cunning ranged marksman, able to hunt down any prey on the battlefield.   Abilities:

• Seeker's Strike
• Fire Arrow
• Blitz
• Ice Arrow
• Multi Shot
• Illusion
• Rapid Fire 

Glutton

The Glutton possesses great strength and is able to manipulate earth magic. Though mainly melee damage dealers, Gluttons have some ranged abilities and can heal themselves.
Abilities:

• Madness Strike
• Stalagmite
• Rush
• Eat
• Earth Storm
• Stone Shield
• Aftershock

Vanguard

Vanguards are best at close range they have great survivability and can incapacitate enemies.
Abilities:

• Axe Strike
• Blood Axe
• Leap Attack
• Taunt
• Shield Slam
• Reflect
• Heroic Charge

Inhibitor

Inhibitors live for the battle they can catch incoming projectiles and can use them against their enemies.
Abilities:

• Sol Bolt
• Ohm Bolt
• Waji
• Wuju
• Rune Shield
• Rune Infusion

Thorn

The thorn is a tank archetype with the ability to go underground to slow and root their enemies.
Abilities:

• Root Bash
• Earth Blast
• Mud Walk
• Defiled Plant
• Deadwood Seed
• Nurturing Roots
• Dead Roots

     
Guardian
 A holy warrior wielding the two-handed great axe with ease, the Guardian symbolizes the unstoppable zeal of the Monastery, swiping at foes with huge, forceful blows.  
 Abilities:

• Sweeping Strike
• Cleave
• Thrust
• Chains of Zechs
• Axe of Zechs
• Chain Heal
• Cyclone Charge  

 Harbinger

The Harbinger can heal themselves by dealing damage to their opponents, they also have very good escaping abilities.
Abilities:

• Shadow Slash
• Blood Grip
• Shadow Shift
• Affliction
• Shadow Bolt
• Nether Shift
• Dark Ward

Spear Master

The Spear Master is a massive melee damage dealer, he can easily escape harms way with his incapacitating abilities.
Abilities:

• Spear Slash
• Harpoon
• Fleetfoot
• Whirling Blade
• Shuriken Throw
• Kunju
• Whirlwind

Ranid Assassin

The Ranid Assassin is a swift melee damage dealer able to escape his enemies with his stealth and acrobatics.
Abilities:

• Blade Flurry
• Blowdarts
• Frog Leap
• Camouflage
• Toxin Bomb
• Lunge
• Venom Lunge

Ravener

Raveners deals damage to their opponents using her dual maces, she moves swiftly across the battlefield hitting all in her path.
Abilities:

• Spike Strike
• Thunder Strike
• Ground Bash
• Spinning Strike
• Crude Strike
• Spike Shield
• Earth Crush

  

Stalker

 The Stalker is an agile warrior of considerable prowess. Switching in and out of view and shifting position constantly while employing uncanny melee moves the Stalkers are incredibly nimble skirmishers. 
 Abilities:

• Quick Strike
• Dual Xbow
• Deviate
• Puncturing Strike
• Shadow Strike
• Stalkers Cloak
• Shadow Hunt