Hey UD folks. The bleed theme has been one of my favorites since it was released. I happened to enjoy the synergy and "coolness" of the runes used. As we know, the revamp changed things. Therefore, I offer this post as an attempt to be constructive and hopeful about getting the bleed theme back to its rank competitiveness. I feel that the reason bleed is struggling atm is because the runes are having to sacrifice important upgrades in order to complete the theme. Also, I believe there are abilities outright missing from the theme or mis-located. Relocate: Bloodball Before the revamp, bleed had mobility with relocate: bloodball and relocate: demon. Of course, the deep elf priestess is used as she is the staple rune in nearly all UD bgs. The addition of relocate: bloodball, however, allowed for some blitzing in on a potential target. This ability is now completely gone. If it was an attempt to lower the abilities, then fine. But, sacrificed along with it was the bleed theme's ability to "jump" to their next target and eliminate it. This ability, or bloodseeker one, needs to be more prevalent in the theme. Bloodseeker is currently only present on Korona and the Mino Portalwalker. The later having no other bleed theme significance. Bleed This ability has been tucked away into most of the bleed theme creature's upgrade paths. While that may seem fine from the outside, the problem is that it is in competition with two other superior abilities. Typically, life siphon and life drinker are the other upgrade choices. Life siphon, imo, and even life drinker are far superior abilities especially when you consider their costs of 4 and 2 nora respectively. This ability clearly needs to be either A) used as a base ability more or B) given a more reasonable cost reduction. Bloodtracker Such a great ability. I love this ability design. This where a lot of the strategy came in. Time this ability right and it could lead to the slaughter of a poor firk. Use it incorrectly and it could be a total waste. Being able to spot bleed the opponent and surprise them is what makes this one so great. Also, the de-stealth is just awesome in a faction that doesn't focus on detection. Unfortunately, this ability is only available on two runes, one of which is a FW rune and the other that is trying miserably to fill a void in the bleed theme although it really belongs in another theme. Bloodlust The power ability that makes bleed go POP! The arbiter carries the rocket punch that knocks out the enemy. However, again, unless you intend to split it is your only choice rune to carry into battle. Blood Magic I personally am not a fan of this ability. It is very underwhelming for what it does. I understand its purpose, but again, it never seems to play out that well. You eat 5 life to make things bloodied, then, if you are still alive (or them for that matter) after the CD, you can spend another 5 life to earn 8 hp back. If you only get one target, guess what? You are in the hole 2 hp. I don't see why the -5 hp can't be removed altogether to make this ability useful. Blood Knowledge Very similar to Blood Magic. Things have to be bloodied in order to make it useful (which is the problem right now in bleed bgs!) This ability though is much weaker in comparison (even to Blood Magic) to the other bleed abilities. IMO, needs a total rework. Perhaps it could instead be used as a debilitating ability. I propose the following change: Blood Knowledge: Target bloodied champion becomes (pick one of the following) Feared, Stunned, Paralyzed, Dominated (As Enslave or even Honest Mistake, see SL spell list) AP: 2-5 CD: 3-4 So, how do we make bleed viable without being OP? Glad you asked. I believe that by mixing these above abilities around on significant bleed themed runes it wouldn't take much at all to be viable. Hekatian Bloodguard: She was the core of bleed decks before. Now she is LOL. To fix, she really wouldn't need much. How about this?: Range: from 1 to 1-2 Upgrade 1: Same Upgrade 2: Bloodtracker, Drain 2, Relocate: Bloodball Nora: Same Korona: She is really kind of a pansy these days. She used to make you cringe when you saw her. Now it is more like a humph. Lets put scary back into Korona. Upgrade 1: Pummel, Blood Rage Upgrade 2: Battle Leader (From base), Thirst for Battle, Life Drinker (Do you want utility or sustain?) Base: Bloodseeker Nora: Whatever switching the abilities around would cost. Sheoul (Blood)Magus: I never really liked this guy much because of how weak I think Blood Magic is even with the potential to recharge the CD. That being said, his perseverance ability is about the only thing that ever made him useful or remotely scary. Therefore I propose a complete rework with a new ability! Stats: Dam 10, Spd 6, Def 1, HP 50 Attack Range: 1-3 Base: Attack Fire, Bleed, Blood Knowledge, Blood Splatter (When this champion hits a champion with its basic attack, all opposing champions within 2 spaces of the hit champion become bloodied) Upgrade 1: Relocate: Bloodball, Teleport 1 (Mobility lines) Upgrade 2: Blood Magic, Life Siphon, Fire Feed (Damage and sustain lines) Nora: @75 Bloodguard Infantry (New Champion): Lore: "The Bloodguard was always eager to send their bloodthirsty infantry in first. The result was always the same...a nice refreshing bloodbath." Picture: Bok warrior with a blood soaked glaive in hand flying into battle. Race: Bok, Demon Class: Warrior Stats: Dam 8, Spd 6, Def 1, HP 42 Attack Range: 1-2 Base: Attack: Physical, Bleed, Blood Splatter (see above), Flight Upgrade 1: Bloodlust, Power Attack 2, Protective Upgrade 2: Relocate: Bloodball, Crushing Charge, Charge 3 TL; DR: Ultimately, I believe bleed could be awesome if bleed itself was removed from upgrades and applied to base more. Spread out the abilities a tad and get Relocate: Bloodball and Bloodtracker, Bloodlust used more!
Thank you for this! Almost noone used bleed theme anymore so its nice to see a modern guide made for it.
Blood Magic is good (with recharge, anyway), but it does kind of require another unit (or the Rain of Blood spell) to get the target(s) bloodied first. Though I don't like it on the Ritualist because it competes with Hex. Also, it's SO MUCH better with Recharge than without, due to its low AP cost. I wish Blood Bind was a Blood-themed ability, or that it could get a name change, because the name is a bit confusing.
I agree that bleed needs to regain it's mobility, since it lost a lot of bloodseeker/relocate bloodball.
Someone forgot to mention the fact that blood magic gives back 8 hp per bloodied target hit, so you can easily get at least 16 hp back per cast, meaning in some situations (perseverance) you can heal back to full hp while dealing 8 loss of life hp in AoE 4. Sheoul magus is incredibly powerful if you can set the conditions right, especially at around 70 nora cost.
I agree, he is very situational. But that's kinda the point of the thread. Its hard to make things bleed!
Find a way to bring blood-guard back in a bleed only way..... which means she is really good in bleed because of a certain ability (+drive hopefully). But simply not good enough to be ran in pure meta. I think bloodguard deserves this much.
Magus is the best champion from any bleed FF UD. He doesn't need anything. I actually think he's OP. Oh makes 4 units bleed, gets attacked multiple times, then with 1 HP just recover 50 of your lose health. I recently got bloodguard, korona and for me korona is fine. Bloodguard needs something and I also think demonvein should have bleed as default and not with upgrade path. His strategy is so simple. Just rush and attack.
