Hello there everyone! So, I’m kinda new here, gonna take a bit of this first paragraph to introduce myself on my first guide. So, I am a competitive caster for Evolve, one of the first character focused first person shooter games to be released. Battleborn had always been on my radar, however recently I was lucky enough to play Battleborn at Gamescom, multiple times. Of course, I fell in love. I love myself some theory-crafting, and so to stop myself slowly biting my fingers off as I wait anxiously for Battleborn I will be making many guides to keep myself busy! My first guide will be for what is so far my favourite character. (I was a Resto Druid in WoW… does it really surprise anyone?) Of course, stats are still in flux and might be changed. I am putting these in the Multiplayer Discussion, as while they can be used in Singleplayer, a lot of the discussion focus will be on how this build influences and aids in fights against and with other players.

Miko is a lightweight, ranged character with a strong focus on crowd control and healing to both himself and her team mates. With a well rounded kit of slows, possible stuns and also possible aoe clear speed, Miko excels on sitting behind her team and keeping them alive and in the fight.

So, I am going to first talk about the abilities that Miko has and highlight some of the things that really stand out to me about them.

#Combat Botany

Miko’s primary attack are poison-tipped Kunai. From my experience, the base damage was reasonable but quite low, as well as the poison applied afterwards. Miko can hold 6 Kunai at a time before needing to re-equip his weaponry. While the damage may be low and your focus will most likely be on your secondary, good Miko players will thread a Kunai in between poison timers onto the team’s target’s to increase damage output.

Miko’s secondary is Healing Beam. This is a continual channel ability providing your target continuous health per second. This heal is single-target and if used at the correct time and provide a huge amount of sustain to your target, however without helix choices Miko struggles with AOE healing pre-ultimate ability level.

#Cloud of Spores

Cloud of Spores is Miko’s source of Crowd Control. At the base ability, this thrown orb explodes on contact dealing damage and slowing everyone who is in the blast radius or enters it for the next 4 seconds. This ability changes wildly through Helix points, varying from solid stuns to increased slow radius. The duration of this area of effect is pretty great, 4 seconds being quite large. However, placement will be key, as enemies can just exit the area freely. Mobility is key, slowing down the fast characters and slowing the slow characters down even more provide great opportunities for Miko to escape from danger or allow allies to deal easy damage.

#Biosynthesis

This is actually the most important ability in Miko’s kit as to how affective you can be. This ability MUST be used at the correct time to provide the optimum healing output with Miko. Miko gains 260-350 health over 5 seconds. To break that down further, that is 52-70 health per second over 5 seconds. This isn’t a huge amount, but could be the difference between life and death and also give Miko bonus sustain and regenerative ability out of combat. This by itself, would make a decent ability. However, add 35% increased healing on Miko’s Healing Beam, and you make this the most important ability of perfect situational timing in Miko’s kit. Activating this ability in the moments prior to your allies taking large amounts of damage to keep them alive, or ever with certain Helix picks keeping yourself alive, is vital.

#Fungus Among Us

Miko’s ultimate is a placed area of effect healing ‘totem’ like ability. Miko can place this mushroom down that lasts for 45 seconds, granting allies 83-150 health per second while in range. This ability is great, lasting a huge amount of time, practically the whole of a team fight. However, this Magic Shroom, can be destroyed by enemies. This means that if enemies focus this down or even damage it down through area of effect abilities, the ability can be cut down and shortened greatly. This means placement is crucial to getting this drug high to payout rather than end you in the slammer, as placing this in range to heal your team, while being out of range from enemies to easily burst down will be the key to pulling this ultimate off.

Now, for the Helix tree. I was trying to work out exactly how I was going to do this, ranging from bullet points to showcase each pick, an infographic to highlight picks on the helix which would have taken a bit more time or just text. I will be experimenting with what works best, if anyone has any idea’s I would love to hear them. Also, a lot of these picks are situational, and will be mentioned as such. This guide is, as with most guides in anything like MOBA’s for example, is situational and understanding your build in the scenario is very important.

#Tier One

First Responder ------------------------------------ Breathe Deep

So, right out the bat we have one of these situational Helix picks. First Responder increases your movement speed by 30% while healing an ally with your Healing Beam, allowing yourself to reposition yourself well and move well around the fights. However, Breathe Deep is probably the better choice in most scenarios, increasing your slow effect of Cloud of Spores by +100%. The reason I would in most cases go for Breathe Deep is because of how much more utility it provides. First Responder may provide the ability to reposition yourself, but not only requires an ally to heal but also means you had to have been out of position in the first place. Increasing the slow on Spore of Clouds increasing your crowd control in not only protecting yourself but also excelling at team fights.

#Tier Two

Regenerative Aura ------------------------------------ Heal Thyself

Again, another situational pick. Heal Thyself is almost always better, as Miko already has an area of effect heal through her ultimate and can heal a single target through your Healing Beam easily. Healing yourself through your Healing Beam while Biosynthesis is a huge thing. Remember, during Biosynthesis your Healing Beam is improved by 35%. This makes the timing Biosynthesis even more important, as correct use of this ability not only makes killing the focus of the Healing Beam difficult, but also makes killing Miko very difficult as Biosynthesis provides self-healing already, but now heals on top of that whilst healing an ally. Regenerative Aura does provide area of effect healing, something Miko lacks without her ultimate, however staying in range to apply this heal is not as easy as it sounds without putting yourself in a bad position.

#Tier Three

Evolutionary Emergence ------------------------------------ Swift Draw

Pretty simple choice here. Having your Crowd Control through Cloud of Spores and you Biosynthesis up more often is always better. Swift Draw will increase your damage output, but with your focus being healing and surviving, having Biosynthesis up as much as possible is huge. As well as this, if Evolutionary Emergence also affects your Ultimate this pick-up is pretty huge.

#Tier Four

Trail of Spores ------------------------------------ Sporeshock

Now, this one comes down to skill in combat. If you can hit your target, they are stunned for, what I am assuming is 4 seconds. Sporeshock turns your Cloud of Spores into a stun instead of slowing radius if it directly impacts an enemy. This does not completely remove the slow area, as if thrown onto an area and does not directly impact an enemy, the radius will still be created for 4 seconds. However, if it does hit the radius is replaced with a stun on all enemies hit by the impact. In a fight, if you can hit your enemy with this 4 second stun this will provide a huge edge in a fight. Not only this, but stunning an enemy coming directly at you is easier than a target in a fight, and will halt their advance and allow you to fall back and reposition behind the safety of your team. However, if you don’t quite believe in your ability to hit this ability on the priority target or your team is not doing so well in fights and needs to focus on peeling back in fights, Trail of Spores may be a better choice. This would provide a trail for your team to fall back on to retreat, but not only that, it also discourages any enemies breaking past your team to take down the very important target making killing anyone else so difficult in the fight. YOU.

#Tier Five

Toxic Transfusion ------------------------------------ Pandemic

Now this is the most situational pick in Miko’s Helix tree, one which I actually cannot suggest a choice that might be just a slight bit better, even just by a hairline. Toxic Transfusion MIGHT. Just about might be better, but only if used VERY well. Toxic Transfusion provides +20% Life Steal on your poison from your Kunai. Now, as I had previously mentioned, during a fight your focus will always likely be healing, however the best Miko’s will thread in a Kunai onto the targets to apply that poison, and this is the point in the Helix Tree where that actually becomes important. For Toxic Transfusion, applying this poison during a fight provides even higher sustainability. (To be fair, it provides enough for a good Miko to become a complete tanky, healy, pain in the ass shroom. I’m even thinking of Tank, Self Sustain Miko build ideas right now, but it’s seriously late right now and I feel like I might as well be on the Magic Miko’s right now with this crazy idea.) While Toxic Transfusion may provide that extra life steal to make you the complete pain in the ass to the enemy team to kill, if you are feeling safe in your ability to survive Pandemic is a great option. Applying an occasional and timed Kunai to apply the poison will increase your damage output greatly, and also helps to wave clear.

#Tier Six

Probiotics ------------------------------------ Spore Strike

Now for this one, it’s a pretty simple choice. Miko is not a damage carry. Sure he does some decent damage, and while I have mentioned the best Miko’s will deal damage at the same time as healing by threading in a Kunai whenever possible, your focus is not damage. As such, +15% self healing effects of Biosynthesis (Which makes you even more fracking harder to kill. Good like trying to take me down, you’ll need it.) is just a much better choice than increasing the impact damage on Cloud of Spores by +15% with Spore Strike.

#Tier Seven

Fight or Flight ------------------------------------ Bladeslinger

Okay, so another scenario of skill versus safety. Fight or Flight provides +30% movement speed for a brief period, which coupled with a stun onto whoever is attacking you gives you plenty of escape potential. However, the question is do you need it? With Spore of Clouds and the stun now attached to it, the movement speed feels almost overkill. Your position should not be to the point where this speed boost is required to survive. If you are not confident in your ability to position correctly, it is a great pick-up. However, I am now gonna talk about how Bladeslinger can seriously outshine Fight or Flight. Again, Great Miko’s will ALWAYS attack whenever they can. +20% increased attack speed is seriously good in aiding this, as it means that first attack is +20% faster in going off, and getting multiple Kunai off to multiple targets can be seriously fast and possible before switching back to your Healing Beam. Applying the poison to multiple targets quickly will also bump your self-healing from the poison up. This can be a huge tip to surviving a fight, apply your poison to as many enemies prior to a fight as you can. Throw Kunai at the enemy minions and the enemies, but just to apply the stack. Not killing these minions allows your poison to tick, giving you more sustain, and with +20% attack speed applying this poison to multiple targets becomes very possible and easy.

#Tier Eight

Biosynergy ------------------------------------ Healing Prowess

Jeeeezzzz, you want me to choose? What would you rather, some good more often or 2 of something good at once? I mean… that’s practically what this is. Now, I am actually gonna make a choice here, and there will be people who disagree, but hopefully my reasoning makes sense. (Of course, I have not played multiplayer yet, so I don’t know the average fight length. This sadly severely impacts my ability to make a decision here.) I am gonna have to go with Healing Prowess on this one for the extra 5 second duration on Biosynthesis. This doubles the duration of biosynthesis, increasing the duration to 10 seconds. This makes timing your Biosynthesis easier as it is a larger window, which is always great as timing this is very difficult and very crucial. However, the reduced cooldown is still not a bad pick, as during Biosynthesis you should pretty much always be using Healing Beam, so you will reduce the cooldown by -30% pretty much instantly. If fights are short and sweet in multiplayer and your game is a lot about picks and skirmishes, this is your go to. Long, big team fights, Healing Prowess is your must.

#Tier Nine

Spore Storm ------------------------------------ Resilient Strain

Sadly a pretty useless Helix here so late into the leveling tree. The previous pick to make Spore of Clouds stun focused makes both of these picks actually pretty useless unless you attempt to use the Spore of Clouds as area of denial. If this ever happens, the increased duration is going to be vital. Correct placement makes the area of effect not as crucial, but as you are having to place this in the path of enemies as area denial, increasing the duration of this area denial is pretty big.

#Tier Ten

Barkskin ------------------------------------ Vicious Strain

Again, damage is not your job. On top of this, your Fungus Among Us is going to be a pretty big target in fights. Taking a Helix pick that makes perfect placement almost impossible, as dealing the +78 damage per second added through Vicious Strain requires placement in the middle of the fight. This makes focusing down this Magical Mushroom easier, and thus makes the fact this thing has such a crazy duration pointless, as it gets taken so fast you’d start to think someone on the other team has a serious addiction problem. The only way this could be a decent pick is if the enemy team is pretty much Melee focused, as taking this thing out would hurt you pretty significantly. However, any well-rounded composition will have someone ranged to take this guy down. The extra health however should ensure you get the full 45 second duration on this ‘lil beaut’ giving it an extra +214 Max health. (Which by the way is pretty crazy. To put that into perspective, Orendi’s Shadowfire Pillar is 280 damage by this point. You are pretty much adding most of a Shadowfire Pillar Directly onto the mushroom.)

Well guys, that’s it! Would love to hear feedback on what you guys think. As I said before, a lot of this is status to change if any stats start moving around. For the most part, the build would remain the same in this case, as most of the picks just making killing Miko a focus, but at the same time makes killing Miko the biggest pain in the ass. Ever.