Braxis Holdout

Three formations rotate like rock-paper-scissors here. The standard 1-4 puts an offlaner top and four bottom, and beats a 1-3-1 that spreads too thin. A 2-3 sends two heroes with kill pressure top to bully the enemy offlaner and three anti-push heroes bottom, and beats the 1-4. A 1-3-1 keeps an offlaner top, an anchor bottom and three roamers between them, and beats the 2-3 by punishing the two-man top with a three-man rotation. Pick based on your draft and adjust once you see where the enemy sends its numbers.

• 1-4: offlaner top, four bottom. Counters 1-3-1.
• 2-3: two gankers top to overwhelm the enemy offlaner, three with anti-push tools bottom. Counters 1-4.
• 1-3-1: offlaner top, anchor bottom, three roaming between lanes. Counters 2-3.
• Heroes that jump impassable terrain rotate between lanes fastest and are ideal roamers.

The first Beacons come at 1:30, so the opening is packed. Use the fountain on cooldown; there is no timed spawn worth saving it for. At 0:30 clear your Bruiser Camp (Goliaths and a Raven) and capture it at about 0:50, 20 seconds after a wave spawns, so it walks in behind your minions. At 0:45, or as soon as the bruisers are down, start your Siege Camp (two Hellbats) and capture it near 1:10, 10 seconds after a wave, so it runs in front. Both pushes should be landing on enemy structures right as the Beacons light up, which forces the enemy to choose between their wall and the point. By 1:30, have a durable hero on each Beacon.

• 0:30: Bruiser Camp, capture at 0:50.
• 0:45: Siege Camp, capture at 1:10.
• 1:20: a tank or bruiser walks to each Beacon; the group decides which one it will actually fight for.
• Grab the globe from your side's spawner on the way; it has been sitting there since 0:30.

Secure one Beacon with a durable hero and keep it as long as you can without dying; holding one denies the enemy any progress. Then look for an advantage, a kill or a bad enemy rotation, and take the second Beacon to start your own bar. Contest where the enemy is not: if they commit top, take bottom and vice versa, and retreat rather than feed when they are stronger in that area. Read the result by the gap: a big win (100% vs 25%) means push with your wave while the offlaner keeps soaking; a small win (100% vs 75%) means defend against theirs unless yours can end the game; any loss means defend your structures, and your best waveclear goes to the lane with the red cage.

• Standing on an enemy Beacon does nothing while their hero is on it: displace or kill them, then the 6-second recapture starts.
• Kill Banelings first: they die fast and their explosion on non-heroes is what deletes structures; then Hydralisks.
• Crowd control lasts half as long on Zerg; area damage does full work.
• A 100% wave versus a 0% wave is 10 Banelings, 4 Hydralisks, 3 Guardians and 3 Ultralisks against 6 Zerglings and 1 Ultralisk: fight for the second Beacon accordingly.

Braxis has five camps: a Bruiser Camp and a Siege Camp in each lane (bruisers on the left of top and the right of bottom, Hellbats on the right of top and the left of bottom) plus the Archangel Boss in the middle. All of them vanish when the Zerg spawn (unless already in combat) and return only after both waves are dead, so camps are taken between objectives, never during. The Archangel does not push a fixed lane: it walks into the lane where enemy structures have taken the least total damage.

• Siege camp (2 Hellbats): 0:30, respawns 3:00 after capture. Cleaving attacks strip 4 armor per hit for 3 seconds, stacking to 20, on heroes and structures alike.
• Bruiser camp (3 Goliaths + 1 Raven): 0:30, respawns 4:00 after capture. The Raven fires a Seeker Missile every 5 seconds that reveals its target; the Goliaths deal the real damage (40 per second, +1 per minute).
• Boss camp (Archangel), center: 5:00, respawns 5:00 after capture. Mortar every 3 seconds and a Bullet Storm every 16 seconds in a long rectangle toward the nearest enemy; immune to bribe. Take it after about 10:00 with an advantage and no objective up.
• Camps are gone while Zerg are alive: finish a capture before the cell hits 100% or lose it.

Win conditions are the objective and the Boss. Late waves at 100% carry three Ultralisks and three Guardians, each dropping pods every 13 seconds, so a big-gap win late usually takes a Keep and can end the game if the team walks with it. After about 10:00, take the Archangel whenever you are up heroes and no Beacons are active, then push the lane it picks. The core fires 5 missiles every 4 seconds at a nearby hero for 5% max health each, so send the wave in first and dive behind it. If you lose a late Beacon fight, do not trickle: group at the Keep, clear Banelings on the approach and let the wave crash into the structures, not into you.

• Win conditions: objective and Boss.
• The Archangel picks the healthiest enemy lane, so expect it where you have pushed least.
• Zerg attack heroes too: engage a wave from the side, behind your own structures, never from the front in the open.