Bleeding Edge

Surrtan

Like the best of us, I personally am often guilty of getting angry at new/inexperienced players. Thus, I decided to ~~rather than rage~~ create a guide to the game that would hopefully help new (and maybe even veteran) players develop a better understanding of the game, and lead them towards their destiny of showing Gunked and the illumanti squad who is boss.

This guide will talk about the fundamentals of Bleeding Edge that every player needs to work on improving, and will also attempt to elaborate on important concepts that go alongside said fundamentals.
The fundamentals of Bleeding Edge (based on a quick brainstorm session by the community) are:

General game knowledge
This includes knowledge about the fighters, modes, maps, and map mods
Raw/mechanical fighting skills
Includes learning how to parry, perform and cancel combos, and everything that makes a strong fighter
Ability to work in a team
Bleeding Edge is extremely dependent on how well you can fight and strategize with the other 3 players on your team
Decision making
Means knowing when to start a fight, when to go for a side objective, when to join or leave your team, etc.

1st Fundamental: Game knowledge

Knowledge about fighters means to understand their abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and their value in a team composition. You can read about the abilities of each fighter by visiting the fighter section HERE and clicking on the fighter icons to see their abilities.
What I'll be doing in this guide is help you understand which enemies to focus during fights, as well as share with you important things to know about each fighter (listed in alphabetical order), so you can use them more effectively in your games.

This hierarchy of priority targets can change in different situations, but it is to help you get an overall idea, and it's a good guideline to follow until you are able to pick the best target yourself:
1st priority targets:
Gizmo, or you can assign 1 melee fighter to keep her from free firing while the rest of you fight other targets.
Zerocool, or you can force him to use up his healing charge, and you catch 2 birds at once by now having a useless enemy zerocool, and your dying target that you were focusing.
Nidhöggr, ONLY if he is constantly spamming his shredder, in which case he becomes as dangerous as a free firing Gizmo. If he is fighting melee then he stops being a priority target, but still a massive pick if you eliminate him.

2nd priority:
Miko but she is very good at getting away, so once you have forced her out you can stop chasing, and turn to kill the team she left behind
Kulev has absolutely no escape tools, so if you manage to catch him in a bad position; eliminate him since if left unchecked he will give his team a massive advantage
Daemon is a very dangerous assassin that can turn the tides of battle if he catches your backline, so it's a huge pick if you kill him early
Maeve, same as daemon. Eliminating her will remove a lot of pressure from your supports/healers/backline, and having her alive at the end of the fight means she has a good chance at cleaning your whole team up.

Everyone not mentioned here is usually not a priority pick.

The following are important things to know about every fighter (listed in alphabetical order):

Azrael
If you've picked Azrael, you have chosen to be a support that depends on fighting in order to be effective. Azrael can heal 1 ally with his Guardian Angel, but this healing will not be sufficient to save their life mid-combat. Thus making Azrael not a "healer" in a traditional sense, but a support that offers different utility to his team.
When fighting with Azrael, you should try to stack your soul eaters by alternating between the enemies you attack. 1 enemy can hold 5 soul eater stacks maximum, so once you see that your target has reached 5 stacks you can switch to a different target and do the same. You end up doing more healing to yourself as well as your Guardian Angel ally that way.
Also remember to use your portal in order to get yourself or your team out of danger. If you're in a safe position and you see your team mate getting caught, place a portal for them. They'll love you.

Buttercup
Choosing Buttercup means to accept the responsibility of being a tank. An extremely powerful tank on top of that. As Buttercup your job is to be the frontline of your team; deal damage while absorbing enemy damage and allowing your team to deal even more damage.
Look for picks using your yank ability. If you can yank a single target into your team their chances of survival should look pretty grim. Add some oil slick to prevent them from escaping and they should be done for.
Just no matter what you do, do not charge into the enemy team alone without having your team there to back you up.

Cass
If you choose Cass, you have chosen death. Cass is the most mobile fighter in the game, and in exchange one of the most squishy fighters. As Cass your job is to harrass the backline and get out before the enemies can get to you, and you have all the tools you need for that. Swoop in, throw feathers or use your rake if its safe enough, and get out using either your high tail or another swoop. If you have your blade dance available make sure that the enemies have used up all their cc tools before you use it.
In general you should be very wary of cc if you are cass. If they catch you, you're dead.

Daemon
If you pick the poster boy, prepare to be hated. Except of course if you do things right. Daemon is an assassin, and like Cass he is very mobile, very squishy, very good at destroying the backline, but unlike Cass he doesn't harrass, he goes directly for the kill.
If you're Daemon then it's not hard to do things right. Just be close to your team, pay attention to your own backline and protect your supports, and when you see a chance to assassinate a target, go for it.
Just no matter what you do, do not charge into the enemy team alone without having your team there to back you up.

El Bastardo
Bastardo is a tank but different from the other tanks as he is the only tank that gets hitstunned by melee attacks, thus making him more difficult to be good at. As Bastardo your job is to dive into the enemy team like Scrooge McDuck into a pile of gold. Just kidding please do not do that.
Bastardo's job is hard to pinpoint exactly. He is supposed to be the one to dive the enemy and survive while his team dishes out huge damage, ideally with a Kulev on his team to give him a shield and a totem for a higher chance of survival, but really he is being used to either counter a backline diving enemy Daemon, or a free firing enemy Gizmo.
Bastardo is very good at locking down 1 target and making their lives miserable, but in the right situation he is also a fighter that can fight 1v4 and live to tell the tale.

Gizmo
Gizmo is one of the easiest fighters to learn the game with. She's a pure ranged fighter, meaning that you must always keep your distance from the enemy team and fire at them from afar. Ideally you want to position yourself on the highground, or on the side so you can target their healers/squishies and force them to retreat (or die) before you and your team can delete the enemy frontline that just got left behind.
As Gizmo you want to get the damage buff whenever available like it's free ice cream. Just make sure you're not leaving your team to die while you go and grab a damage buff.

Kulev
Kulev is a tanky support who excels in buffing and debuffing. Ideally you want your team to not move around the map too much, meaning he loses some value during the collection phase of power collection, but that can be negated if your team stays and moves together as a pack.
As Kulev you have the power to decide where your team should be positioned. A good Kulev will place his sacred ground totem in positions that are tricky for the enemy team to reach the center of. Kulev also excels at being anti-burst by placing his shield on the ally being focused, while also offering good burst value himself with his curse.
Generally you want every decision you make as a Kulev to be the best decision. If you misplace your shield and the target dies, your team will get punished very hard because you can't compensate with your heals, and if you misplace your curse and the target survives, you'll also be punished hard since you have no more offensive tools at your disposal, and your team is fighting in a 3.5 vs 4 situation.

Maeve
As Maeve your job is to be the most annoying parasite you can possibly be. During fights you want to position yourself in the safest location, and then strike to assassinate a squishy enemy when the chance presents itself. It's important that you get the killing blow as Maeve since it resets the cooldown of all your abilities, so try not to use your siphon on full health enemies (except if you think you will still get the killing blow), and use your cage to either save yourself or stop your prey from getting away.
A good Maeve can clean up a surviving enemy team of 4 people by herself if she plays her cards right, but keep in mind that Maeve is generally an advanced character to be effective with.

Makutu 2.0
As Makutu 2.0 you are basically an invincible killing machine. You have the ability to cancel almost all abilities including supers using your repel/attract as well as your barge. Makutu is kind of a jack of all trades. He can heal himself as well as his team, and if he catches almost anyone with his barge (into a wall) they should be dead in most cases. I'm kind of hesitant to reveal Makutu secrets because he is kind of game-breakingly overpowered right now, but point is that Makutu is super strong. Just don't dive the enemy team alone and you should be good.

Mekko
Mekko is the only ranged tank in the game as of now, but in no way does that mean that he stands in the backline. Mekko is designed to hold a point by sitting on it and placing his safety zone so he and his team can get a 25% defense buff.
As Mekko you want to fight on your safety zone, and your job description includes placing your lifeline on your supports (or even on your frontline if they're competent) and pulling them out of danger.
Just whatever you do, do not pull your team mates into danger, or away from a kill that they were about to secure, or they'll never forget that. Trust me, they won't. ~~I still remember what you did Tigerbomb4, I have not forgotten.~~

Miko
Miko is a support that keeps herself alive by hitting enemies and healing herself through that. As Miko you want to think of yourself as a healer, but with the heart of a frontline. Do not cast your heal on yourself except if it's necessary (you get a lot less healing), and use your kinetic shield to cut off projectiles like Zerocool's healing beam, and incoming damage like Maeve's toil and trouble.
Miko's stasis is a powerful tool with which you can cancel many enemy abilities, and its low cooldown means you can still get away with it if you make a misplay.

Nidhöggr
Arguebly the strongest dps in the game. Nidhog's kit makes him strong against tanks, and his raw damage output makes him a squishy target's nightmare. As a Nidhog you have the freedom to choose between going in and fighting melee or keeping a safe distance and fighting with your shredder that does huge % damage to enemies it hits. It's hard to mess up with Nidhöggr as long as you don't dive the enemy team by yourself.
Nid is generally a safe choice and good to learn the game with. He has good sustain, high hp, and the highest damage output in the game.

Zerocool
Zerocool is the absolute best choice of a healer. His healing beam does massive healing that can save a dying ally's life mid-combat, but it is VERY IMPORTANT to know that Zerocool is not mercy from Overwatch. Using your heal beam costs you healing charge, resulting in significantly less healing over time, so make sure to only use your heal beam when necessary, and stop its use when it's safe.
As Zerocool you will most definitely be the enemy team's #1 priority target, so stay in the backline, and do not dive into the fight. If your team mates need healing they should walk into your range, since as Zerocool you want to keep yourself alive as well as your team. If you die, your team dies.

2nd Fundamental: Mechanics

Fortunately (for me more than for you) there is not much to write/read about when it comes to mechanics. Instead I can just point you towards the dojo with some instructions:

Learn to parry different fighters by choosing an enemy fighter and setting its behavior to aggressive.
Use the chance to also practice fastening or slowing down your basic attack combos in order to make it difficult for your opponent to parry your attacks.
Set 2 (or more if you're feeling yourself) enemy bot behavior to aggressive, and practice alternating your attacks between them, to train your survivability in team fights.
From now on try to think more carefully about when to use your dash/evade. Learning to dodge the right abilities can lead to clutch plays that completely turn the tides of battle.

3rd Fundamental: Teamwork

"Silly cat, you can't tell us to learn teamwork"
That is true, and as much as I want to encourage everyone to put on their headsets and communicate with their team, I don't really do it myself anymore so I'll spare you the hypocrisy.
Instead I will give you some guidelines on how to cooperate with your team in SoloQ:

Use the Minimap

Always keep an eye on the minimap to know where your team and the enemy team is, and position yourself accordingly. If your team is taking 1 path towards the objective, do not take a different path in which you can get caught out on your own, but rather follow your team and make sure that you are all present for the objective fight.

Don't fight when outnumbered

If the objective is about to activate, both teams are pathing towards the point but you see that you are missing a member or more, do not engage in combat even if it means giving up the point. Fighting when outnumbered means you're just giving away free kills and points to the enemy team. Instead you should ping your team to retreat and regroup. Maybe even grab a damage buff while you're grouping up, and then fight for the point.

Be zero, not a hero

The objective is about to activate on the other side of the map but your team is still chasing the enemy Bastardo that they couldn't finish off in the last fight? Idiots. But stick with them... if you go to the objective on your own you risk either getting caught by the 3man enemy team on your own, or your team getting picked by the 4man enemy team that came to save their Bastardo. In both cases your team loses.

Keep track of your team mates' supers and abilities

A good ultimate combo from 2 people can wipe out an entire enemy team, and you don't necessarily have to communicate for that. Just keep an eye on the ultimate charge of your allies. The chances of them using it are significantly higher when it's charged. Like... 100% higher...

PEEL FOR EACH OTHER

And this is what everything comes down to at the end of the day. The reason you have a team is not so each one of you can pick 1 enemy fighter and have a 1vs1 battle. If you see the enemy Daemon targetting your Zerocool, rush to his aid. As much as we want to be the VIPs of our lives, your team won't be the ones to come peel for you, so you should be the one to go peel for them. Be the MVP rather than the VIP

4th Fundamental: Decision making

At the end of the day; Bleeding Edge is really all about decision making, and sadly for all of us, no one can teach you to make good decisions. It's something that you figure out by assessing your situation and factoring in everything else that you have learned.

When you move towards an objective (with/without your team) you are making a decision. You might as well be going for a damage buff, or picking that severly out of position enemy daemon that DID decide to go for a power buff while his team went to the objective.
When you leave your team to go capture a side point; you are making a decision. You might as well stay with them and help them fight off the enemy push.

I'm not telling you what the right and wrong thing to do in those situations are. I'm only telling you to not do things without thinking. If you go solo cap a side point then make sure it is the best thing you can do for your team because you know they won't lose the fight until you are back, and this principle I want you to apply on every last decision you make during a match.

That will be it from me. I hope that you've managed to learn something from this guide, and see you in the next one.

XxUnReached

@Surrtan you should explain a little of how important is use mekko's orbs, isn't just a question of "pull a ally from dangerous"there's times than you can't pull a friend for bad position.

So there came your orbs in action.

Btw,the best mod setting is involve the life line shield health increase and cooldown decrease and the thirty is gain 50% more orbs bonus if you can appropriate map "traps", or when you can't, more like gain bonus health if you use a orb in onslaught.

Now just End for saying it's a really good guide than devs could create a section forum in BE menu and recommend that on tutorial.

Hope be improved with the time.

Surrtan

Of course every fighter has a lot more tricks up their sleeves than this guide talks about. The ins and outs of different fighters are best suited for specific character guides which I'll need help from the community in order to make, since I'm not a master at every fighter yet ^^"
But hopefully we'll have more indepth guides in the future. This one is for beginners and people who want to know the basics of Bleeding Edge.

XxUnReached

@Surrtan totally indeed bro O w O

Woofy Loser

You can also look for the players who are the best with certain characters and ask them for some pointers to apply to your guide. Would show the mindset of each character and reveal how some of the higher users play them compared to how people "think" they should play them.

Guess mini interview questions would make more sense

Surrtan

I was actually thinking about doing that. It sounds like the best approach to make the most accurate guides, but like I said, I'm gonna need people to cooperate

thetruepilliger

@Surrtan Overall, well done. I would have put a focus on stamina management and learning to time abilities to use the super armor they provide to protect yourself from combos.

By stamina management I mean learning how to control yourself from spamming evade so you don't get caught without any evades left.

It's important to keep one in reserve to avoid key abilities as well as avoid combos that will be your doom. Of course you can parry a combo but sometimes your health is too low that trying to parry is too risky.
New players will want to use evade to gap close, this is bad. Only with experience should you use evades to engage and only when playing certain heroes/sticking to certain heroes. Heroes you CAN use evades aggressively with (but should still refrain from doing often) are Nid and Bastardo. Both are tanky and can risk taking extra damage from running out of stamnia if it means they can pressure a valuable target. Targets you can use evades aggressively on (but should still refrain from doing often) are Zero and Gizmo. If either are given space they can carry a fight by themselves (Gizmo more than Zero since he was nerfed but a good Zero will save his team time and time again).

XxUnReached

addiction on Cass in this quite:

•be most annoying(use your range attack)possible when you fight against melee fighters, always prepare your jump against them,and constantly using rebound as your "first evade",if they approach too muchb use your claws and fallback.

•be always aggressive with range attacks(like nid "heavy attack" when you hold melee bottom) / fighters, make them your second priority [except mekko,tanks are more the last ones to focus on] if isn't a Gizmo or zero , distance wouldn't be a good strategy for you,so use more your claws make this enemy enable to attack(if isn't a tank) will be de best thing to do.

For tanks,be safe first(use range attacks until you have stamina remaining)and use your evade and attack your blades in each enemy fire and approach (better use your rebound on him,does a good damage if the ability hit most of her blades)

• Be aggressive means using all you have to offer,use your lashes and rebound(still using more in melee fighters) to deal damage in positions whose you wouldn't be in middle of a team fights(be careful for them doesn't catch you),let you know,in a 1v1 you have advanced in fight,so don't hold your ability's in that situation.

•Train her jump with lashes with blade attack because ensures a better distance travel .

•when charge jump or use rebound,if you notice enemy is below you,try use a heavy attack for deal "a little stager".

•For her blade dance,be careful about your super coulter's (miko frozen,mekko onslaught, makutu Attraction/repellent, buttercup chain, bastardo stun,nid sheered and Gizmo bomb) before you use.

•dive bomb is more useful for chase someone (use more 1s stun mod) or fallback more in a power cell(use flybird mod).

Now just talk definition of "duty" ,like we could adopt some papers as:
•chasers(whose better can take down main Target's)like deamon,Cass and Maeve

•Flancos(whose are more in back line)Gizmo,meave,mekko,kulev and zerocoll.

•Romers(who most rotate the map in a capture point and ensure them for a while) buttercup,Cass,deamon.

•Anti-tanks(don't need explain what is that mean, right?) like nid and Cass(expect with mekko and is less effective than nid but is very ease for providing damage at distance)

•Guards(whose most providence for your teammate avoid some damage or/and gain sustain against effect[or buff them] like stagger with his abilitys[better for help hold a position depend in what case your team is facing])like mekko,kulev,miko and makutu.

Any idea is welcome.

The Misfit's Guide to Bleeding Edge: Fundamentals