Look, it’s Boldur’s character guide!

Overview

Character guide for greatest dwarf in all of land, Boldur!

Introduction

Boldur, the crazy axe wielding tree-dwarf, is lots of fun to play. A tank by trade, Boldur is great at pressing the enemy, initiating and CC.

He’s got some of the best audio in the game and the best taunt in the game. He’s a great laugh to play, and doesn’t take himself too seriously at all.

Boldur is an Eldrid Battleborn, and as such, has no energy shield, and relies on health regen to see him through.

I’ve played him long enough to know his strengths and weaknesses, and this is my first guide, but Boldur’s ace, so here goes.

Abilities

Rage – Activates by default on enemy kill (player or minion), and increases his attack speed by 20% and reduces his damage taken by 35% for 8 seconds.

Rage can be kept up pretty much all the time, with the amount of minions you’ll face. You kind of want it up as much as possible as well, as Boldur’s attack speed is pretty slow, and 35% damage reduction is awesome.

Runic Axe – Boldur’s bread and butter. The big choppa you’ll be using most of the time. It swings slow but hits hard, and it’s satisfying butchering squishy types into little pieces. When Boldur is unarmed, he will use his fists, because he’s that hard, and gets a 30% movement increase.

Ekkuni Greatshield – This is what gives Boldur his sustain. Hold RMB and he’ll bring his shield up, blocking all projectile attacks from that direction. It will absorb up to 2000 damage as standard and increase his health regen. The shield is great for helping you get out of tight spots, and if the enemy team are dumb enough to keep attacking you with it up, draws their attention allowing the rest of the team more freedom to take them down.

Boldurdash – Boldur charges forward, and on contact with an enemy deals 133 damage and knocking them back. If they collide with a wall, it will stun them. Runic Power – Targets take an extra 25% damage as well as 12 damage per second. This is useful for three things. 1. Pinning enemies against walls. 2. Knocking back enemies that are being a bit aggressive. 3. Escaping.

Axe Toss – Boldur hurls his axe forward dealing 200 damage. If you retrieve the axe, it reduces the cooldown of this skill by 20%. If not, you’ll be unarmed for a time until your axe respawns in your hand. Not sure on the exact time, but I think it’s around 10 seconds. Runic Power – Axe explodes on impact, dealing 300 damage. Note that the axe will be un-retrievable doing this. Great for initiating with helix upgrades, slow enemies, and finishing off escapees.

Runes of Power – A multi functional ultimate, and when Boldur starts to get strong. On activation it increases Boldur’s attack damage by 18%. It converts 50% of damage absorbed by the shield into health, and modifies Skills 1 and 2 as per notes above.

Thanks to some testing and help from Steiner (thanks buddy), Runes of Power give you two Runes, one for your axe and one for your shield. If you use Boldurdash, it will consume your shield rune, and you will therefore lose the health regen. Likewise using Axe Toss, you lose your axe rune and the 18% damage with it, although that’s more obvious as your axe has blown up and you now have your fists. The animations on axe and shield reflect which rune is active.

Take note that activating Runes of Power while you have no axe in your hand immediately gives you one back, regardless of whether it’s embedded in the floor or blown up.

Strategies

Boldur feels like he should be played aggressively, from his big axe, to his sound bites, he just wants to be in the thick of the action. Granted that’s a better decision when you have a healer with you, but you really should have one anyway.

1. Hit all the things. Should go without saying in a game like this for all classes, but clear minions, and don’t just focus players. Killing small minions is easy and quick and gets your Rage up straight away.

2. Defending. If their team is performing better than yours, then you should be acting as the main line of defence. Your survivability and hard hitting axe can keep enemies at bay as they won’t stay near you long. They like to have a poke at you, then scarper soon when they see their shields and health start going down. If anyone gets too close, Boldurdash is a great way of saying seeyabye.

3. Pressing. Boldur is very good at pushing the enemy when the time is right. Due to his survivability, it allows you to ‘over-extend’ a little more than most other characters, which disrupts the enemies cohesion and allows your team to take advantage. Be careful not to extend too much and get trapped.

4. Picking off. My favourite thing to do with Boldur. Waiting for an enemy to extend, and using Bolurdash to slam them into a wall, and destroy them. Enemies that start to run can be finished with Axe Toss, and if THAT doesn’t kill them, you’ve got the speed boost to hopefully finish the job. This tactic is also good for annoying ranged types that like to stand on the platform over looking the central area in Incursion – Overgrowth. If you have the enemy pressed, run round the back, up the stairs and Boldurdash the sucker right into the centre of the map.

5. Awareness. As Boldur, you need very good map awareness. Make sure you always have an escape route, your shield is your lifesaver, and you can back out of a fight to live another day, but not if you get yourself blocked off by minions, or other players. Good groups will try and surround Boldur to cut off his escape, and as you can’t block from behind, it’s curtains.

6. Ultimate. This ulti doesn’t have a huge cooldown, so try keep it active as much as possible. Boldur gets very strong at level 5 due to this. The self-heal from it increases survivability a lot, while the damage increase to your attacks helps stomp faces. Be careful not to burn your Dash if you need to self heal though, as that rune will be expended.

7. Thralls. On Incursion, certain characters are better at taking down Thrall camps. Boldur is not the best at it by a long shot, but if you see an opening to do so, take it. At low levels Boldur can still take the double Thrall camps, although will take some damage doing so. Use Boldurdash on cooldown and try hit them in the face for criticals.

8. Taunting. Showing your backside to fallen enemies is a must. Apart from Benedict’s “You suck”, I think it’s a contender for most ‘in your face’ taunts.

9. 1 on 1 fights. Here’s how I would rotate my skills in a 1-1 fight. Axe Toss them for 15% extra damage and slow, activate Runes of Power, run in, hit them in face with axe. Get a Boldurdash in whenever you see an opening to pin them against a wall. If they manage to get away with little health, Axe Toss to finish them off.

Builds

1 – Crash Helmet. Overshield is great when dashing, as you mainly dash when you’re escaping, or initiating a gank, which is when you could do with the extra shield. Axe Ricochet is too situational to be any good, and if you’re good at throwing the axe, you should be picking it up anyway.

2 – Aegis of Anger. Dashing immediately activates Rage. Self explanatory. Use it.Gather No Moss I can see being useful if that’s your playstyle, but I much prefer pinning enemies than knocking them up in the air. I think they’re much easier for the team to take down that way. Pinballer (Mutation) is pretty useless in my opinion. The idea is to hit things in the face with your axe, and if you’re bounced away from them, you can’t do that.

3 – Deft Defender. Again self explanatory. Normal movement while blocking and greater block amount. Stunning blows would be useful if you spend a lot of time unarmed.

4 – Headsplitter. Slows enemies hit by Axe Toss. This is more useful for the team, as they can reach people easier. If you’re totally steamrolling the other team, maybe take Hatchetman for the bleed over time, but being able to slow escaping enemies is pretty powerful for a slow ass like Boldur.

5 – Desperate Rage (Mutation). +15% damage reduction while Rage is active? Yes please. As Rage should be up pretty much non-stop, it’s a no brainer. Berserker Rage would be the choice before you get the mutation, as it’s extra health regen while Rage is up. Angry Agility is also good, but doesn’t compare to the other two when being a full on Tank.

6 – I’ve changed this since I originally wrote the guide. I championed Axterminator to begin with, and while 15% damage to Axe Toss is still great, and the choice you should pick before the mutation. I’ve started using that ability a LOT more now, so Salt the Wound (Mutation) is what I would pick for %15 damage taken to that target when hit by Axe Toss. Initiate the fight with the ability, pick up your axe, and carry on.

7 – Wildblood. While health regen on a tank sounds good, +7 per second on Boldur from Dwarven Constitution isn’t a lot, especially when your main source of health should be from a) a healer, and b) Runes of Power + Shield. Wildblood increases melee attack damage by 18% which speaks for itself.

8 – Odd one this, as none of them are amazing. Having to escape or defend a lot? Take Impatience for reduced CD on Boldurdash. Chasing a lot or fighting spread out a lot? Take Long Distance Dash for….a long distance dash. The Mutation gives +18% damage when unarmed, which isn’t great as the only time you’re unarmed is using Axe Toss with Runes of Power (as your Axe blows up), in which case, Salt The Wound (see No. 6) makes up for the damage differential.

9 – Death and Axes. +144 Max Health stacking up to 5 times when killing an enemy with Axe Toss. Axe Toss being used to finish off low enemies, the extra ~700 HP on max stacks is very nice. Double stacks if finishing off a major enemy with it. Note that the stacks drop on death, so…don’t die! The other choice gives -20% CD reduction on Axe Toss, but I rarely find myself needing to use it when it’s on CD.

10 – Dependent on game mode. For Incursion maps, take Shield Mastery, it will increase your survivability a hell of a lot when blocking. Basically, your shield doesn’t take any durability damage, so you can block for days. For Capture or Meltdown, it depends on whether you’re stomping the team or not. If you are, take Axe Mastery. On full health without items bought, that’s an extra 50% damage to your main attacks. If you’re in a tough match, take Runic Repleneshment (Mutation). Activating Runes of Power whilst you already have 1 or 2 Runes of Power active, instantly heals you for 50% or 100% HP respectively.

Items

Boldur’s unique item, received when all Lore challenges are complete. +healing received, +attack damage are both great for Boldur. At present, the tooltip for the ability on it seems to be broken, as +0% to Greatshield when it breaks isn’t that good…. I can’t be certain, but I think in the open beta said +400%, so that might be the case. Hoping the devs sort this soon. Costs 1800 shards, so don’t forget about them!

Other items are purely your own choice, but the below icons are the ones your want to be looking for for tanking purposes.

Icon 1 – Gives +Max HP and one other effect. Healing received is a good one if you can find it.

Icon 2 – +Healing received. Standard.

Icon 3 – Damage Reduction. Again standard. The one I’m using I’ve linked below. Now before you go “Lols, Boldur doesn’t use shields nub”. Damage reduction is great, and gain shards equal to 25% of damage taken is fantastic. Too good to not use because of the shield ability. I save up for this from the start, then you’ll find you’re finishing games with at least double the shards of everyone else. This also enables you to get Rune of the Bear up quickly, AND you can activate literally every buildable you come across to the max. Helps your team, helps you level up. It’s OP.

Lore Challenges

Basically, decide which challenge you’re going to focus on and build for boosting that ability as much as possible. Then, hit up story mode, go single player, it won’t take you long.

As a breakdown –

The Woodsworn – Play on a team composed of all Eldrid teammates. Going to be near impossible to do unless you have a full pre-made party. Boldur, Miko, Kelvin, Mellka, Thorn. So make sure your party have those characters unlocked.

Defender of Ekkunar – Absorb 50k damage with the greatshield. This is easiest to do in PvP, and you don’t need to focus on it, it’ll just happen, and won’t take long to get either.

The Unbearable – Kill 1k enemies while enraged. You’ll want to solo single player missions for this. On average I’d say I was getting about 250 per mission. It’s not as hard as it first looks though.

The Dwarf’s Favourite Axiom – 5k Explosive damage with Axe Toss. Again, hit up single player for this. When you have your ultimate, activate it, and throw your axe at as big a group of bad guys as possible. When you’ve got lot’s of thralls or varelsi skulks coming at you, it doesn’t take long at all either.

The Runes that Best Reflect my Mood – Another one for PvP. Activate your ultimate, and raise your shield, something that you’ll be doing a lot of anyway, so this challenge doesn’t take long.

Pros & Cons

– High Sustain
– Great for Pinning
– Stong Defender
– Strong Pusher
– Great Audio
– Best Taunt

– Weak before Level 5
– Need a healer to be most effective (Incursion)
– Needs an escape route

Matchups

– Ghalt (Pulling enemies towards you is a big plus)
– Shayne & Aurox (as above)
– Miko
– Rath
– Galilea

– Other tanks (Teams damage is gimped too much)
– Ambra (Boldur’s slow start paired with Ambra’s slow start could feed the team early game)

Final Note

Feel free to comment with your own tips and strategies. The game is still new so new things are still being learnt and found out, but I hope this guide has served it’s purpose into giving you a good insight into Boldur!

Thanks for reading.