A Pearl Guide

This guide gives new players a walkthrough of Pearl's kit, Battlerites and matchups, while also giving tips and tricks to improve your gameplay in general. (Unfinished)

Please note that english is not my native language, therefore my grammar and punctuation might not be the best.

This Guide will probably have huge changes in the upcoming weeks as we get new updates that will change the gameplay drastically. (And me trying to fix spelling and bad grammar lel)

The main reason im working/worked on this guide is to help new players from the upcoming f2p release on nov. 8.

Sorry that the guide may look a bit off when using a mobile device.

Who am I?

Incase you care about this kinda stuff before reading a guide:

Im a Pearl main with around 3k Pearl games.

I reach Grand Champion every season in Teams and in SoloQ.

Who is Pearl?

Lore:
Pearl is a sage able to control the oceans and whatever creatures that lurk below. Pearl transforms water into volatile attacks, rejuvenating streams and protecting bubbles.

Health: 190 HP
Title: The Ocean Sage

Beginner Friendly:
Pearl is a very forgiving champion - thus a good champion for beginners.


------------------------------------------------------------------- Where does Pearl shine?
------------------------------------------------------------------- Pearl shines in 2's and is mediocre in 3s.

Pearl's "Role" / Gameplay

What's Pearl's role? / How does she play?
Pearl is a support character with a kit that contains lots of utility and defensive skills. Your aim is to keep your allies alive (e.g. by healing them and purging "dangerous" debuffs), while pressuring the enemy team with well-placed silence shots! She is able to peel for her team with her Bubble Barrier and is very good at securing the Rune. Pearl can deal with pressure and is probably one of the best champions for 1v1 and 1v2 situations. Pearl is one of the best, if not THE best soloQ Support(s), since she is extremely self-sufficient and can out-trade most characters in the game.


Side-note :
Im sure you know supports are there to help your team, but keep in mind that Pearl is more of an offensive support. She can't just stay back and heal, else she is just wasting potential. (Some supports would out-value you, as they have better supportive abilities. (e.g. Lucie)) The more aggro you play the more the enemy has to go into defense! Start trading with your opponents, use every opportunity to hit them and don't give them space to pressure you/your team. (You CAN'T just run away in Battlerite!!)

Pearl's Kit (Ignore if you know her kit)

M1 / Volatile Water
Volatile Water is your "auto attack" / main damage source. Launch a projectile that deals 15 damage. Deals 22 damage and Silences the enemy if your staff is fully charged. (Staff is glowing pink when fully charged)

EX-M1 / Charge Staff*
Recharges your weapon.



M2 / Healing Wave
Channel a healing wave that heals the nearest ally for 21 health over 0.45s. Recharges faster for each nearby ally. (3 Projectiles which each heal 7 health)


Space
Dive into a pool of water and travel to target location. Recharges your staff.



Q / Tidal Wave
Counter the next melee or projectile attack causing a tidal wave that deals 15 damage and knocks nearby enemies back. The wave also heals you for 12 health.


E / Bubble Barrier
Spawn a bubble barrier at target location that slows enemy projectiles and enemies that enter the space.


EX-E / Unstable Bubble*
Spawn a bubble barrier at target location that slows enemy projectiles and anyone that enters the space. Explodes when the effect ends dealing 26 damage and knocking enemies back.


R / Bubble Shield
Shield target ally removing all negative effects. Shield absorbs up to 26 damage.



F / Jaws'
Summon Jaws from the depths to devour enemies dealing 20 area damage. Devoured enemies are removed from battle until Jaws spews them out, dealing 20 damage to all enemies near the landing site. Can be recasted to redirect the landing site.



*EX abilities cost 25% energy to use
'Ultimate costs 100% energy to use

You use EX-Abilities by holding Shift + the ability (e.g. Shift E for Unstable Bubble) or by pressing button 1 / 2

Pearl's Kit - Notes/Tips for each Ability

M1 / Volatile Water
Landing the Silence is the most important thing about this champion!

Try not to waste your silence! - sometimes its better when you wait a bit:
Its more valuable when you shoot someone that is under pressure/pressuring a teammate than wasting it in a neutral fight where the enemy team can just reset the fight and heal back up.

(Especially in 3v3, as there are more situations where you can turn enemies defenseless that are engaged by a teammate and / or keep them from attacking your teammate)

It's mandatory to fake cast - Cancel your attack animation to bait out counters, shields and sometimes even mobility skills. Default button for cancelling is C (Especially when your staff is charged, so people can't avoid silence)

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EX-M1 / Charge Staff
Tip : Going for 1 or 2 EX-M1's is situationally just as good as landing your ultimate.

Tip : Charged attacks reset your M1 cooldown so you can throw one M1 right after silencing someone - try abusing this to hit them while silenced.

Tip : Versus certain comps it will be very hard to hit your ultimate. (e.g. Taya's Tornado) In this situations it MIGHT be better to spend your energy to charge your staff, than sitting around with full energy or missing your ults.

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M2 / Healing Waves
Tip : Try using selfcast to get the maximum value out of your M2. (Consuming less time -> quicker heal, being able to split healing projectiles, ...)

Example: Target is missing 14 HP - you can heal your target by 14 AND then press selfcast to heal yourself for 7 instead of using two healing charges to heal you both individually.

Read "Health Recovery explained" section below this section for a better understanding how Health works! (Important as support)

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Space / Dive - invicible while iframe
Use dive to iframe ultimates, hard cc and dangerous abilities (such as bakkos space), while getting better positioning / getting into position to silence someone important with your charged staff.

Tip : Try not to dive later on when playing versus certain characters (e.g. Lucie), as their ultimates will punish you for that with massive amounts of damage (e.g. 100 dmg goo in the worst case scenario)

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Q / Tidal Wave
Tidal Wave is a very good spell against melee champions since it will push them back when its triggered! Cancel your counter early when you know it won't get hit to avoid getting punished for failing your counter! When it comes to ANY counter it is really important to react fast and don't be predictable. Use this spell with care as you are an easy target afterwards.

Tip : Using this skill while missing HP will give you additional value as the counter heals yourself when triggered !

Tip : Using counter when expecting a charged attack like shifu m2 with 3 charges will be even more value as he will lose his charges and you avoid getting a huge amount of damage - same applies for raigon - often people are so greedy with their charges that you can counter this attacks just by counting their charges and predicting their attack.

Tip : You can counter your own shots if you shoot into Oldur's Bubble / reflective things in general, which might be useful sometimes!

Tip : When using the Gush Battlerite it's sometimes worth it to counter projectiles just to charge your staff.

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E / Bubble Barrier
Bubble Barrier is a great tool to keep distance between you/your teammate and the enemy, it's a great out-tool if you dont want to "waste" your dive, to control the map / to control the orb / zone people out (like placing a bubble between poloma and the other enemies to prevent poloma from healing her allies), to block ultimates, major skills and projectiles. (e.g. Jade's snipe ability, Iva's ultimate)

Tip : Use it's knockback to push yourself / your teammate out of dangerous abilities like Ezmo ultimate, Oldur ultimate or other aoe's / attacks like Rook rush, Bakko Ultimate, ... when you cant dodge them otherwise!

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EX-E / Unstable Bubble
Tip : You can use Unstable Bubble, a charged M1 and a normal M1 to instantly kill the rune.

Tip : Use this when someone is incapped and silence them afterwards for maximum profit!

Tip : Sometimes it might work to use this skill on enemies to force an out, but be careful its really easy to walk out!

Tip : Use this skill if you need that extra pressure to seriously damage someone (only when you know you wont get punished for using this skill agressive)

Tip : If you're feeling like trying a more advanced combo, look to have a silence ready then place EX E on an enemy and silence them into it so they can't escape. (E.g. pre-place unstable bubble when croak jumps on you and instantly silence him)

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R / Bubble Shield
Bubble Shield is an instant cast on any ally. Can be casted over walls and on allies not in sight. Bubble Shield can purge debuffs: use it to cleanse petrify, incaps, stuns fear and other dangerous debuffs!

Only use your shield when you/your teammate is hard cc'd or in danger. (Read "Recovery Health" section to get a better feeling for when to shield)

Tip : You really need to get a feel to know when to shield and when not, because sometimes a shield can change the whole outcome of the battle! (Tldr; Don't waste your Bubble Shield!)

Tip : You can use your Bubble Shield to go offensive (/or heal) while missing HP without having to worry about your "Recovery Health"

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F / Jaws
ALWAYS wait until the enemy has used his escapes or is hard cc'ed from an ally. (Incap / Stun)

Whenever you get someone in your ult, look to have a silence ready from a counter or dive to combo with it. The silence is guaranteed and cannot be reacted to if you get the 0.1s timing down.

Tip : Experienced players will try to stop you from comboing after the the ultimate (e.g. ashka firewall) - if you know this will happen try to redirect your target in the last second.

Tip : Its not always smart to dive to get the extra silence M1 after Jaws when you know the enemies have ultimates to punish you after (e.g. Lucie's Goo)

Recovery Health explained

What Is Recovery Health?

The easiest way to explain "Recovery Health" is that you lose max HP when you take too much damage.

Every time you take damage, the game looks at your Current Health and compares it against your Max Health. If the gap between the two values is too large (40 HP), the game will shrink your Max Health — and once your Max Health is shrunk, it can only be restored by claiming the Rune or by collecting this little green orbs with the + inside them.

Tldr; Keep in mind that health bars will shrink once they lose more than 40 HP until they get healed back up.

(E.g. imagine you was playing croak and hit your ultimate (38 DMG) - If you don't follow up after hitting your ultimate that would mean that pearl would be able to heal back up all damage she took because you didn't do more than 40 dmg to shrink her max HP)

Orb Control (Rune aka Middle-Orb)

Pearl is one of the best Champions for controlling the Rune.

The Rune is a very important aspect of the game, as it gives your whole team benefits (energy and HP) and often decides games. You should always try to get the Rune if possible!

There are 4 possible ways to secure the Rune (other than just m1ing it lul):

You can see examples for each point (pictures,videos) in the next section.

• 1. You use Bubble Barrier to protect the Rune from any enemy projectiles (such as Jade's snipe, Taya's X-Strike, ...) to secure the Rune.
  
• 2. You use the red Bubble Barrier on the edge of the Rune to block incoming projectiles (like you do in 1.) while also dealing 26 dmg to the Rune. (Read below for a combo that can one shot the Rune)
  
• 3. When you are infront of the rune and the enemies are behind you, you can use your counter (Tidal Wave) to push the Rune away and secure it. (Situational)
  
• 4. When a melee character is contesting the orb its very handy to have the Splash Damage Battlerite. This Battlerite allows you to silence him and get the orb (if he is not body blocking). If he is body blocking you want to wait until the orb has low enough HP to take it by throwing your splash silence on the melee player. (Piercing AOE will kill the orb if below 22 HP)

Versus certain characters with piercing attacks you can also get the Rune/secure the Rune by countering these attacks (e.g. Jade's snipe, Taya's X-Strike, ...) In case of Jade's snipe for example: If the Rune has full HP and Jade is sniping the Rune without hitting it beforehand, you can counter the snipe on the other end of the Rune and immediatly get it once you counter the snipe since your counter does AOE damage. (This kinda stuff is super rare/situational tho and good Jade's will hit the orb beforehand - your best bet is to just Bubble Barrier the Rune if possible)

Rune Combo:

A good way to secure the orb is using the red bubble (26 dmg) plus a charged attack (22 dmg) and a normal attack (with faster attackspeed) right after the charged attack (15 dmg) for 63 dmg. (Rune will instantly die and is protected from projectiles) -> see example 2 below.

Orb Control - Examples

Example for 1.


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Example for 2. - Rune Combo

Remember to place your Bubble Barrier on the edge of the enemy side, because projectiles only get slowed from a certain point on - this means that enemies would still be able to hit it if you would place the red bubble directly on the rune!

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Example for 3.


























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Example for 4.

Battlerites - When to use what + Tips

Mandatory / "Must Pick" in my opinion:

• Gush - Adds additional pressure to your counter and will charge your staff. (Which means: increased silence uptime and increased overall damage - why shouldn't we take this?)

Against Ranged:

• Ocean Sage - Good synergy with Rippling Waters and Ocean Tide while also giving you even more utility against ranged comps.
  
• Rippling Waters - Good synergy with Sea Bubble and generally good against ranged comps, as you are able to trade with ranged comps even more efficiently while being protected by your bubble.
  
• Sea Bubble - Good synergy with Ocean Tide and Rippling Waters and generally good against ranged comps. (You can swap this out when playing against double melee if you don't want to play with Ocean Tide but can still be good vs certain melees! (e.g. Shifu)

Against Melee:

• Splash Damage - (Gives good orb control against melee's, allows you to silence more people next to each other. (Which is more likely to happen with melees in the enemy team) Also good vs. Pestilus/Blossom due to them hiding behind their Queen/Tree)
  
• (Sea Bubble - Situationally good vs certain melees! Example : Shifu can't re-engage with spears, you're safe from disables such as Thorns e after countering, ...))

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Rites that are always nice to have:

• Soaking Wet - Increased silence duration is always nice and gives your allies more time to burst the target.
  
• Ocean Tide - Nice pick for 3vs3 - but also very good in 2v2! Swap this if you feel like you get punished for diving into bubbles. (e.g. too many projectiles inside the bubbles like taya boomerangs) This rite will give you additional pressure and additional survivability. Especially against threatening ultimates like Lucie's Goo is this a nobrainer.

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Rites for 3vs3:

• Fountain - Is useful when you play in 3's and think you need more supportability / dont want to play a selfish counter-based build which maybe wont get triggered as much in 3s.
  
• Spring Water - Is useful when you play in 3's and think you need more supportability / dont want to play a selfish counter-based build which maybe wont get triggered as much in 3s.
  
• Tasty Fish - Can be useful with teammates like ezmo and jade, where the amplify will increase their DPS by a high enough amount for this rite to become worth being picked.

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Situationally:

• Riptide - Other options have more overall synergy and Pearl doesn't need a root for survival, thus only taking a battlerite slot for almost no value.
  
  You can take this if you don't want to play with the Sea Bubble + Ocean Tide combo if you face melee characters.
  
  Can also be nice if you struggle against melee characters or face a double/triple melee team.
  
  Can be good to prevent croak from stunning others. ( -> normally he would go after someone else when you space, but the root keeps him in place)

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Rites I wouldn't bother taking:

• Terror from the Deep - It's a waste to take this rite instead of a different one that has synergy with your kit or offers you more pressure / supportability. You also don't ultimate that often and the effect is rather meh.
  
• Water Walk - Can be good in 3's but is too situationally and not really worth it compared to the other rites that shine in 3's. (e.g. Fountain) Not really needed in 2's.
  
• Tsunami - The other counter-rites are just way better and synergize with Rippling Waters/Ocean Tide. You can take this if you don't want to play with the Sea Bubble + Ocean Tide combo. (e.g. a melee matchup where you dont need the bubble-counter rite)

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Splash Damage

When a melee Champion is trying to contest the orb (e.g. bodyblocking, ..) it's a good move to charge your staff to secure the orb with your splash silence!

Splash Damage is also really good against Pestilus and Blossom which will usually try to block your attacks with their queen/tree's!

Against double melee this is a must pick. (But I always take it as long as I have atleast one melee character as enemy)

You can see an example in the Orb Control section. (Example 4)

Loadout Examples

Anti Melee / Melee Survivability

This build will mainly be used against aggressive compositions which are normally Double DPS or Melee + Support. You're looking to get value out of your Ocean Tide Battlerite which lets you recast your Dive each time you Dive into a bubble. With this build, you become very hard to lock down and guarantee damage onto because of the amount of iframes and mobility you receive.

(edit : you can swap out dive reset for example riptide vs melees when you don't feel comfortable using it)


Anti Range / Common Use

This build will mainly be used against ranged comps or "sustain" comps that aren't pressuring you at melee. You're looking to place bubbles down and trade from far away using Rippling Waters. Try to stay far away and only trade when you have a bubble up. When your bubble goes away look to reset it with your counter.

You can swap Ocean Tide with Soaking Wet if you feel like you get punished for jumping into bubbles (e.g. too many projectiles inside them) when facing heavy range comps.



*credits for descriptions go to MrHuDat (check out the link/streamer sections at the bottom of this guide to find MrHuDat's twitch/youtube)

When playing in 3's you might want to swap out battlerites for more supportability (e.g. fountain, tasty fish)

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Keep in mind that this are just the most frequently used builds / examples of how your loadout could look like.

There are more possible variations that are matchup / mode dependant. (e.g. a loadout with riptide, a loadout focused on supportability for 3's, ... )

Melee Matchups (Coming soon)

Bakko





Croak





Freya





Raigon





Rook





Ruhkaan





Shifu

Ranged Matchups (Coming soon)

Ashka





Ezmo





Iva





Jade





Jumong





Taya





Varesh

Support Matchups (Coming soon)

Blossom





Lucie





Oldur





Pearl





Pestilus





Poloma





Sirius

Pearl Streamers

If you want to see some live pearl footage, check this guys out :

• Eygrr[www.twitch.tv]
  
• MrHuDat[www.twitch.tv]
  
• Azorah[www.twitch.tv]
  
• MrHuDat's Youtube Channel (Helpful Videos)

Useful Links

Pearl Wiki[battlerite.gamepedia.com]
BattleCrank[www.battlecrank.com] (Nice Guide's)
BattleriteStats[battlerite-stats.ru] (Look up stats, Groupfinder, ...)
Basic and Advanced Game Mechanics
Abbreviations and Aliases in BR
Reddit post for new players (CLICK THIS)

Changelog

11.11.2017

• added 4th way to get the orb against melee's in the orb control section
  
• updated battlerites section
  
• added a retarded picture of pearl at the end monkaS

12.11.2017

• splitted orb control area and the examples into two sections
  
• added a video for example nr 4 / nr 2

17.11.2017

• added "Health Recovery explained" section and changed Bubble Shield & Healing Wave notes a bit to match this new section.

13.01.2018

• did a few changes in the battlerite section
  
• added azorah to the pearl streamer section
  
• made some stuff look better

16.05.2018

• added situationally section in the battlerites section to prevent presenting riptide as useless and overhauled the whole section a little bit.

The End

Just wanted to say thank you for reading this guide! I hope you learned something new :)
Feel free to write comments/tips/feedback below! I will also answer all your questions if I have time.
Would be nice to hear if this guide actually helped you improve! :)

[6xxer]

best character

[壁橱骗子]

did this game die?

[Volnaesヴォナエス]

What do I do if my teammate likes to run off and take unnecessary damage while being out of range of my Heal even though I try to keep up? Then they die and I lose.

[Razzorblack]

I'll save you some time:

1 - Spread PTSD
2 - That's it, simple.

[Nosomi]

@mechvarg Yeah youre right - vs. Croak Riptide is a really nice battlerite to have. I originally didn't go that in-depth in the battlerite-selection about this matchup-dependant pick, because I originally wanted to have matchup-dependant info in the "Matchup" category. (Which I never finished - but might do)

Did some changes to adress your comment though :)

[MechVarg]

I like Riptide. It can force a melee champion to expend a gap closer and can reveal Croak's position while keeping him immobile, allowing you to silence him.

[pimmo]

pearl main

[BakedZiti]

hey you should add some builds! https://battlerite.build/pearl

[Nosomi]

@goblin only got this guide for now, might make other ones in the future :)
In which character would you be interested in?

[Craw]

Great guide and I appreciate the MASSIVE amount of effort put into this! 500+ games as pearl btw