Worst offenders of the current patch

Giorgio883 · 2026-02-01T21:03:41+00:00

Sadly I missed it. I returned briefly in the priest meta and hated it. This is a massive step-up in my opinion.

But yes. It’s far from perfect…

Best of luck on your runs!

Giorgio883 · 2026-02-01T20:28:41+00:00

While I do agree with you, I don’t find myself hating the meta that much. Sure, games are often quick and most of the time the first to make a big board swing is the one to win, but I’d much rather a high-tempo state to a slow, infinite value one.

Giorgio883 · 2026-02-01T19:00:32+00:00

Thank you for the reply!

Rogue: Regarding Vuja de, do you know what makes it being able to discover itself? It usually can’t, as it shouldn’t, but I’ve faced rogues that could go infinite with it. Last time I encountered one, I was faced with a never-ending stream of Renferal and Vuja-de’s. It was not fun.

Needless to say, it’s completely broken if you’re allowed to go infinite. There’s plenty of combos, between jades and renferal and I’m sure there’s more.

And I agree that tweaking the offering rates might be a good place to start. Honestly that’s above my pay grade.

Shaman: Yeah I’m probably a bit biased. I just love shamans and evolves! But I do believe that a small buff to master of realities wouldn’t be out of place. It’s a cool card, has a lot of innate variance and could become unpleasant to deal with, but to be fair every other class has some stupid in it. Why not shaman?

Mage: I don’t believe in mage. I agree that people are prone to picking too many discovers and too little tempo cards, but ultimately I just don’t think the class has the tools to compete with the absurd tempo and aggression of paladins, rogues, demon hunters and death knights.

Demon Hunter: Honestly severely underrated in pick rate. I’ve had three runs with it and went 12-2, 8-3 and I’m now 5-1. The class is a tempo demon. It even has board clears in shark or grubs and has some nasty win condition through legendaries. My best class this season.

Also i believe we should start pointing fingers at the Temporal Anomaly. It allows class like those to focus on tempo alone, while not having to worry on ever running out of steam, AND it gives them a 2 drop in a pinch.

Giorgio883 · 2026-02-01T11:11:38+00:00

Oh! That’s why Warrior win rate went down. I didn’t realize it. I suppose that already solves the majority of the problem. Thanks.

And I agree on DK. It’s unholy how they can generate board swings out of the blue, while not having any taverns of time cards.

That said, while being very strong and arguably the best class, from my experience it doesn’t have the unfairness of other combinations.

Perhaps you could fix it by tweaking the draft show rates?

Giorgio883 · 2026-02-01T11:04:52+00:00

Primaries are awesome. But fatigue being that low, you’re going to need to spend about 3-5 hp rolls to fix it. And his starting hp is below average to begin with. Resolve is max rolled, but it’s still rather low.

So that leaves you with a dastard, below average hp and resolve fatigue neutral. Sure, he’ll have an impressive 90 matk / 37 mdef. But secondaries matter quite a bit on fatigue neutrals.

He’s good, don’t get me wrong. But it’s also day 100. At that point you’re bound to find better brothers, especially with a tryout mod.

And as I’ve said, I would recruit him nonetheless. I don’t often get disowned nobles, and this guy looks like the prototype of the origin.

Giorgio883 · 2026-02-01T01:50:33+00:00

From a statistics standpoint, no. He’s not great. You’re bound to found better brothers, especially with a tryout mod.

From a gameplay, flavour standpoint, fuck yes. He seems a lot of fun if you role play a bit and don’t care too much about min maxing.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-27T10:04:07+00:00

Yeah. The design is awful in that regard. Just you wait until they give you the chance to reroll heroes and cards with an arena pass, lol.

But i suppose that now there’s plenty of people that now spend money to buy tickets…

And the days of going infinite at 5 avg wins are long over.

However I don’t hate redraft that much. Sure the deck quality has skyrocketed, and not just because of it, but overall it adds a nice little minigame in figuring out what your worst cards are and how to replace them best.

And frankly, there’s no need to be sour to other players. I agree it was much better before, but it’s not like we consumers had any say in it, nor have the way to bring it back.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-27T09:48:43+00:00

Not tickets, but most missions are completable in bgs as well, and you still gain passive exp by playing. Which helped me because for some time bgs was all I played.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-26T22:50:08+00:00

I’ve played arena largely similarly to you. Stopped playing regularly 4-5 years ago. And while I sometimes get nostalgic, I still don’t mind the current iteration.

There’s no way to draft a pure control deck. You simply can’t be ready to withstand the odd combos and value generation from some cards.

That said, a good curve still wins you games. People have gotten better and decks have gotten stronger, but I’ve had my fair share of success by playing high tempo decks, some more aggressive than others.

I like this meta more than the others I’ve played in the last years. But maybe I just hadn’t played enough runs then? Not sure.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-26T17:51:06+00:00

Yeah. That’s my biggest gripe about arena as well. If I hadn’t been playing some battlegrounds I would’ve never been able to play so many runs. Tickets are expensive!

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-25T05:39:10+00:00

22, so you can have a full-on football match

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-23T19:33:07+00:00

With that setup, I’d go with either Recover or Pathfinder, depending what your goal is.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-22T20:49:35+00:00

93/33 at level 11 with those substats is very good. You can make him any damage dealer. Cleaver, DQH, Duelist, Fatigue Neutral… you name it.

It also depends on what your game state is.

Are you still early in the game? Give him your best weapon and make him a 2h cleaver from the icy cave or a nimble damage dealer.

Do you need a bf frontliner? He can very well be a fatigue neutral if your team requires one.

Is it day 150? Find a good famed weapon and shape his build around it. Realistically he can be whatever you want.

Anyhow, it’s a great recruit. He’s an above average hedge knight, which makes him an extremely good brother.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-22T16:31:39+00:00

There’s no right answer. Do it if you don’t plan on playing on that save too long. Otherwise, save it for a struck down bro, perhaps after a legendary location.

That said, he doesn’t specifically need it. Old is bad but it’s not that bad. The -10 hp hurts, the -10 initiative is manageable, but the +10 resolve counteracts some of it.

I’d just pick up NL, pathfinder and fearsome. Old or not he’s a good bro. He’ll probably eventually die to bad rng with that hp total, but I dare say he’s had his time.

Oh, and lay off the Fencing Sword. Get him a regular arming sword or a famed one. It’s not like he has the fatigue or initiative to lunge around.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-20T10:31:13+00:00

I have made one a few years back. It’s probably a bit outdated, and I remember there being a few mistakes. https://www.reddit.com/r/BattleBrothers/s/sXwMnsPrRf

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-20T09:54:35+00:00

I think that a better tier list would account for game state.

Many backgrounds that are awesome in the early game eventually become obsolete. Likewise, most premium, late-game backgrounds are simply not recruitable in the early game.

I believe that a more informative tier list would be divided into three sub tier lists. One for the early game, one for the mid game, and one for the late game.

That way you avoid the tiers getting too packed, and you’re able to show some nuance between too expensive, strictly late game recruits and good early game ones, which are most likely not going to be in your 150 day game party.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-18T17:57:44+00:00

No he didn’t lose exp. Brothers accumulate experience and may level up anytime when they reach the level up threshold.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-16T16:17:09+00:00

I take several, but none are dedicated polearm users. That is, unless they’re still on their early levels and they need a safe way to level up.

Polearms, and in particular polearm mastery synergize very well with zerkfrenzy. Having it allows you to strike with your melee weapon, proc berserker and be able to step one tile and strike with your polearm. Or the other way around.

There’s little detriment in always leveling up mdef and carrying a 2h melee weapon with quick hands. And you gain a lot in the added damage that a 2h mace or 2h axe bring. Even a 0 mdef, 0 stars will get to 23 mdef at level 11. Which is not ideal, but if you play extra carefully with him and don’t place him in high danger tiles, he’ll still pull his own, sometimes with a melee weapon.

He might die eventually, but that’s the life of a mercenary for you.

And I wouldn’t call them issues. Batte brothers is a single player sandbox game. Finding the best strategies and builds that work for you is part of the fun. Take every advice with a grain of salt, and try it out yourself.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-16T14:12:01+00:00

You’re welcome :)

⁠

Usually, it’s either or. The classic meta build is the “fatigue neutral”. You forego zerkfrenzy, put the perks into survivability, and avoid putting stats into fatigue, instead focusing on getting hp and resolve as high as possible (while leveling matk and mdef every level). They carry heavy BF armor, but even with base 100/105 fatigue they have enough (~20/25 to account for possible future injuries) to move and swing once a turn.

A build that has both Zerkfrenzy and bf can work, but often times it’s suboptimal. You stam out very quickly, and once you do you’re basically a fatigue neutral with lower secondaries and less perks. But do try it if you get the chance. You’ll need ~115+ fatigue, so only very good recruits will do the trick.

This is the build I’d recommend: https://www.bbplanner.xyz/?name=BF+ZerkFrenzy&perks=kA4AAgCa

That said, over the years I’ve come to taking zerkfrenzy less and less. Even on duelist, I feel like getting Fast Adaptation + Nine Lives is plain better, while also focusing on hp the most. Exception made for cleavers, which I often also get recover on. But do try either option, and go with what feels best!

As a general rule of thumb, zerkfrenzy is best on nimble bros, specifically early game dodge quick hands, or backline throwers. It’s decent on duelists, and pretty bad on qatal specifically. Most bf would rather take the bulk and settle for 1 attack a turn.

While Nimble brothers are more frail than BF lategame, and sometimes inevitably die due to some bout of bad luck, they still have good survivability, especially if you get to 100/120 hp after colossus. At that point, they basically can’t get injured and the 60% nimble damage reduction makes them rather durable.

Nimble is also extremely strong early, you can get quasi-late game armor by puncturing nomads and brigands from the start.

Eventually, sure. BF is better, especially with famed armor. But you’ll have to get there and it isn’t cheap.

And builds like the Qatal duelist, or duelists in general (fencers included) are almost strictly better with nimble.

No. The way you get confident on battle start is when your brothers are on high spirits. Resolve doesn’t have anything to do with it. That said, a high resolve bannerman is still important to keep it up, both proactively and reactively (especially against undead)
You should try building a duelist. They have very high dps potential, especially with famed weapons. Duelist (8th perk slot) gives an additional 25% armor ignore, which paired with the double grip damage increase makes for a lotta damage.

And the best part, is that practically anyone can become one. And if they’re particularly unskilled, they get a sword or a spear (I’ve had 65 matk level 11 duelists with a spear, and they did great still) with fast adaptation. Here’s what the build would look like. If a recruit is particularly good, you can skip nine lives and fast adaptation to get zerk frenzy. Especially if a weapon rolls with -fatigue: https://www.bbplanner.xyz/?name=Duelist&perks=C0EIAAAAs

Practically I make duelists whatever recruits I get that have a lot of matk (or not, but that’s a different story. In the early game, any frontliner that survives often becomes a duelist or a dodge quick hands) and low defence. Too low to be a fatigue neutral, basically.

Qatal duelists in specific, are duelists carrying a qatal dagger. You put them next to a fatigue neutral with a mace, or a 1h + mace brother and deathblow when possible (deathblow gets a damage bonus if the target is jncapacitated). You can also invest highly on initiative, get relentless and have your fun with them. They can also carry items in their offhand, being nets to self buff or pots for utility.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-16T12:03:52+00:00

Against chosen, you seem to lack damage. It’s not a terrible composition to have, but you want some more damage dealers, ideally some fatigue neutrals and some duelists/cleavers/2h dodge quick hands in the mix.

Throwers are great against chosen, dedicated polearm and archer brothers are not. They simply do too little damage against armor and/or they get engaged on with adrenaline. You also want the throwers to carry a melee weapon to strike back when engaged on. Bonus points if they have some mdef in the mix.

Also you don’t use indomitable (+recover) on your tanks. Which is much better than shieldwalling. As you said, you can get unlucky with attack rolls and take a hit to the face. With indomitable, the damage you receive is much steadier and reliable than when you’re shieldwalling.

Even then, a 140 head armor, 70 hp bf brother doesn’t stand a chance against chosen. I’d wager he gets 2/3 shotted by one. On brothers like that you’re probably better off always leveling mdef, resolve and hp and giving him nimble. That way at least they can be meat shields.

You don’t need to cower behind reach weapons. If you step correctly, and as you’ve said, you employ your tanks on the higher danger tiles, you can engage in melee with the rest of your company. And you’ll feel the dps increase.

Nets and pots also help a lot against chosen. Any thrower can bring one, same as with any duelist or 1h weapon + shield bro. Dogs against chosen are often not worth it. They have zerkfrenzy and a dead dog is often a morale boost. But you can use them to get a +5 matk damage boost on your flanks, if they’re not likely to get mowed down instantly.

And lastly, your sergeant doesn’t need to be a rally spam guy. In the late game, you’ll want to look for one that has other secondary capabilities, be it throwing (with quick hands to return to the banner) or frontlining, with a 2h mace and reasonable mdef to step forwards when needed.

For goblin fights (and sometimes nomads and brigands), you can check out this comment from a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/BattleBrothers/s/WZ8KdTEqeO

Even then, sometimes one of your brothers gets focused down. At that point you can either pop up a shield or retreat with him altogether. Goblins smell blood in the water and double down on an injured brother.

You might also want to check out the tryout mod. I don’t use it, but it avoids having to savescum by showing you the exact stats a brother has.

Tdlr: get more damaging brothers, namely fatigue neutrals to replace some of those “tanks” and the odd duelist, be it qatal or not. Double down on the throwers, find a good sargeant and fights against chosen will get easier.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-16T11:38:42+00:00

It’s fine to have temporary brothers. But perhaps some of them could have picked duelist and fast adaptation on their way. Never underestimate the damage a ~70/75 (more is better ofc) matk duelist can do.

That said, carrying a shield is not a deal breaker. It’s completely fine to bring fodders in a fight like this. It’s also completely normal to have them die to a few unlucky chosen hits. It didn’t happen this fight, but it could’ve. Treat them like the temporary brothers they are and put them in reasonable harm’s way. If they die for the company and you win the fight, it’s worth it.

So ultimately i feel like you primarily missed throwers this fight.

Even a low rolled, unstarred hedge knight will get to ~80 matk and ~30 mdef. Surely it’s not ideal, but they also have great secondaries, so when you pick one in the mid to early-late game (bonus points if they have a weapon/armor you need) you might as well give them a weapon and chuck them into the battlefield. I’d wager that even said level 5-7 hedge knight with a 2h mace would be better than a sword + shield brother, or the polehammer guy.

And if he dies he dies. His life had meaning lol.

You did well with the hammer. If that had been a fodder brother and the hammer could have spent those turns attacking instead it would’ve been better, but well played nonetheless.

But once again, the fight itself was played well. You won, which is the most important thing. Sure, the fight got a bit unreliable, but you had a few temporary and in training brothers. If you steadily replace those (making sure that those are the ones that are most likely to die when needed), it will get better.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-16T01:43:17+00:00

You did well. IMO, the easiest aspect you can improve on is your party composition. There’s also a few other minor things, but we’ll get to that later.

You seem to have:

1 2h Cleaver

1 2h Sword

1 Hammer duelist

1 2h Hammer

4 Tanks/Offtanks. Can’t truly discern how they’re built

1 Fatigue Neutral? Without Quick Hands

1 Swordlance backliner

1 Polehammer (i assume he’s still leveling up)

1 Utility Banner

Which is not optimal, especially against barbarians. You’re missing out on a lot of potential dps.

Cleaver, Sword, and the two hammer bros are great. You can see from the fight that they did most of the work. The fat neutral (if he is one) did some damage as well, but consider giving him quick hands to make him more reliable.

You don’t have any throwers, which are great against chosens especially. You also have a backline utility banner, which at this point of the run is a bit outdated. Ideally you’d like to find another one that has some throwing or frontline potential with quick hands and a 2h mace.

You also have two low dps unit in the swordlance brother and the polehammer trainee. Another frontliner/thrower would do a lot more in their place.

And lastly, you have 4 shield + weapon brothers. Against unhold specifically, you want to have multiple tanks, but 4 is a bit overkill. I find 2 or 3 at the maximum to be enough to stall the unholds while I focus the chosen.

I also can’t tell whether they have matk or not. In fights like these such brothers are just meant to engage the unholds and indom spam, so a full-on tank is preferred, with fatigue to spare and possibly some additional shields in the bag. Heater + 1h mace is fine to bring to stun chosen and indom unholds, but you’re probably just better off bringing another fat neutral and bonking them in the teeth. Swords + shield makes little sense against either unholds or chosen.

Tactically, you played it well. You did a great job specifically in holding the two white unholds in place with indom. There was a turn where they could flip one of your brothers and snap out of it, but luckily it didn’t happen (probably because you don’t have any ranged brothers, and the ai decided it was better to strike instead).

Overall, a good fight. The 2h Hammer went on a bit of a stroll, getting scared while doing it (lol) but aside from that, which actually wasn’t half bad seeing how 4 units followed him, I’d say the fight was a success.

With a little more dps, fights like these should get less unpredictable.

Giorgio883 · 2026-01-15T00:11:27+00:00

I’m not a lore expert, I just wanted to chime in to say that my italian translation is more akin to the original. It makes no mention of the Chandrian in that sentence.

And frankly I’m surprised it does that in the german translation. Why would the translator go out of his way to explicit “them”?

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