So has anyone heard of/played Bloodline Champions? It's in a beta right now (I have some invites so if you want one post it here). I got a key because I think I played Age of Conan (although I only played the free beta), but anyway it's a pretty solid game, like I said basically DotA without the items or meta-game, just straight up heroes vs. heroes. Each "Bloodline" (class) has fixed skills that do not level up, and there are 4 archetypes (melee dps, ranged dps, healer and tank).

At first it seems like a simple or dumbed down version of the other games, but it actually feels streamlined and more to-the-point. There isn't as much of a learning curve, but each class does have enough uniqueness to offer some good tactics and combos, and certain classes will synergize really well. The game is really fun, and they basically just got rid of all RNG-type stuff and randomness. They leveled the playing field and its entirely about skill. You don't need to know all the weird items or complicated laning and shit. I dunno, it's really fun. Anybody playing it?

Bloodline Champions is a PVP game with short, intense matches for up to ten players divided into two teams. Every player plays one of several different bloodlines with 7 unique abilities each.

Different bloodlines in a set up complement eachother, different maps and gamemodes need different tactics, so good teamwork is a must for success.

Chance is not a factor, spells and abilities do a set amount of damage. Random elements such as critical hits and passive abilities do not exist.

Spells travel to where the player aims and can be avoided by enemy players, making every ability dependant on individual player skill.

Without mana and creeps, the game has almost zero downtime and is instead based on short cooldowns, this coupled with no grind or farming ensures that every match is full of action.

I was trying to sign up for the beta but apparently I already used my email and it won't let me recover a password or anything, so if you want to toss an invite my way I've been itching to try this out.

I read somewhere that there's no auto aim on your target so you actually have to aim with abilities, which is a big thing missing from the dota clones imo. It looks like you can jump or some shit too which is cool. Are there a lot of maps?

There are a decent number of maps, at least 10, maybe more. You can play 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5, and they have maps of different sizes and things. From what I've seen the maps are little more than just decoration, there are some strategies but most maps are similar in design, ie. a circle or square with paths and things. All the maps look really nice though.

And yes, you have to aim your abilities, nothing is auto aimed. You can't jump, but some characters have abilities that let them jump (every character has a movement-related Space attack (you press Space, not "in space" or anything)), some teleport and some jump, but they basically allow you to move somewhere and deal damage at the same time.

PM your email address and I'll send you an invite.

sure man just pm me your email address

alright i gave DX and pig style keys, and I only had 2 so hopefully they'll give you guys some keys too. sorry chainer but ya snooze ya lose

Well honestly this game plays nothing like LoL or DotA, it's extremely fast paced, there's no mana to stop you from spamming spells and the deathmatch type gameplay kind of throws away any thinking you might bring from the moba genre. The only thing I could really say that's similar to dota is the camera view. I've played a few games now and it's pretty addictive, there's only about 12 champions atm which isn't bad because they all seem to play pretty differently. But not unlike DotA your winningness relies heavily on your teammates so I can see games getting a lot more intense if you had some people to work with. If you don't focus fire your opponents can wipe the floor with you.

Cool things that caught my attention so far are:

1) Every champion has some sort of evade skill, some make you leap while others just increase your movement speed. Some teleport you to a target location. Each skill also does a little something extra like increased evasion or maybe damage to enemies or health to allies.

2) Cooldowns are short, the longest cooldown is probably like 10 seconds. Your 'ultimate' ability requires 100% energy which you gain from using your skills, some skills double up by letting you charge it and increase it's effectiveness or do something completely different. I think these require 50% energy.

3) 3 game modes and a good bundle of maps. The most popular is arena which plays out like counter-strike rounds, first team to wipe the other one out wins. The second is kind of like a CTF but I guess you have to bring 2 artifacts back to your base? I haven't played this yet. The 3rd is conquest where you capture control points and hold them for 60 seconds or wipe out the enemy team (respawns are disabled if you control no points).

4) There's 2 medallion skills that seem to only work out of combat, one ability heals you for some health for 10 seconds and the other revives allies. I'm not sure out in and out of combat works I have trouble getting the revive skill to work. Also you can only heal so much of your health per life, I think once you heal a certain amount your health bar starts to turn gray which indicates to you and everyone around you that your hp ain't going nowhere but down.

Well that's that! Pretty fun game, if I could compare it to the LoL beta it's already leagues (lol) ahead, games start faster than HoN or LoL, loads are quick and the game interface outside the matches isn't laggy as shit. I said it's completely different from the other games but I know Chainer is big fan of them so hopefully they toss me a couple of invites and I can send one your way!

Yeah sorry about that but I already had like 4 pms and I figured i'd just give em to whoever. Uh also do you guys get any invites? Check in your account settings.

uh how is it not? Actually what even defines moba it's kind of a stupid name given to a niche genre of games I don't think they have even evolved far enough to give it a definition of what makes a moba and what makes it something else.

Yeah if you liked that stuff then it might not be as fun. Personally, while I did find those aspects fun, they were too hard to get into and there is just too much to learn in order to even be helpful. This game simplifies the whole system and basically gives you the funnest part of those games anyway (wtf is moba ive never heard that acronym before), which is the hero fights themselves.

Like that guy said the game is very fast-paced, most matches will take less then 5 minutes for all 4 rounds, and you can do 10-15 games in an hour easily. For me it's a lot more fun because there is still plenty to learn and master, but not an overwhelming amount.

The problem with LoL and HoN and what makes it such a niche market is that matches take almost an hour to finish, most people just don't have that kind of time. BL cuts out all the fat to just give you the hero vs hero battles most people play LoL for in the first place. So yeah I guess you could say LoL and HoN are more strategy based while BL tries to incorporate more of the player's skill into the game. Not to say LoL doesn't require skill or BL strategy, just both games focus on different aspects of the 'Arena' part of the game.

chainer sorry I didn't make good on my promise to send you a key, i got a few PMs and figured i'd just give them out. I guess dx and pig style don't have invites of their own but if they do i certainly hope they give you one!