This guide will provide several arguments supporting the prioritization of early waveclear and how it is made viable by emphasizing Batman's built-in sustain. 

This guide also provides detailed information about:
Ability Mechanics,
Artifact Strategy,
Reactive Gameplay,
Communication,
Laning,
Positioning,
Teamfighing,
Diving,
Ganking & Roaming.

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Who am I?

I’m anonymous!

I am an experienced moba player and beta test mobas such as Dawngate and infinite crisis daily.

Some of the information I’ve provided is fairly detailed and hard to find elsewhere.

I want to see amateurs use these tips to improve the average skill level in Infinite Crisis.
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Skill Description


Q – Batarang
Click on your opponent to deal AD & Mark them. W – Martial Arts & Basic Attacks consume the mark restoring 20 energy and reducing movespeed, diminishing over 2 seconds.

Damage scales from 50-155 + 60% Bonus AD, in increments of 35 damage.

The slow scales from 30-45, % in increments of 5%

The cooldown is fixed at 6 seconds at all levels.

This skill is your harass tool. It does less damge than W – Martial Arts and the cooldown does not decrease when you put points in it – so don’t. Just Q your enemy whenever it’s up.

Remember consuming the mark doesn’t do damage, it slows & returns energy so don’t worry about following up your Q’s to consume the mark in lane.

Q - Batarang is maxed second if you prefer to maximze single target damage & kill potential instead of sustain and tankiness during the midgame.  
 

W – Martial Arts
Click on your opponent to dash to them dealing AD, applying on – hit effects, and stunning for .2 seconds.

Basic attacks reduce the cooldown of W – Martial arts by 1 sec.

Damage scales from 65-200 + a whopping 80% Bonus AD, in increments of 45.

The cooldown scales down form 10-6 seconds.

You max this first because it does the most damage & lowers the cd of it.

It is critical that you save W – Martial Arts to INTERRUPT enemy channeling, for example nightmare batman’s ultimate on your ally.  

Some argue that you take this first to allin at level 1. In my experience I see little point as it’s easier to do so at level 2  with your Q - Batarang + W - Martial Arts slow combo or level 3 when you have 2 points in Martial Arts. This is especially true if you harass with Q – Batarang constantly throughout level 1 while shoving the wave to get a faster level 2 & 3.

The mechanics of a level 1 W - Martial Arts allin/trade are important. I'll describe them here because I prefer to begin with Q harras at level 1 so level 1 W - Martial Arts trading & allins are not relevent to the step-by-step laning portion of this guide. 

First I'll mention that you can get an Auto attack in after using W, even if they run away and are seemingly too far.

Next I'll clarify that W - Martial Arts is not an initiation tool at this stage 1v1. You begin by auto attacking before using it.

Ideal combo: 2 Attacks + W + Attack, disengage if taking creep agro.

Alternatively if they commit you simply allow your attacks to refresh the cd of your W, which is why it's such a strong allin.

More often they will trade an auto with you and kite so the combo will look more like:
Attack + W + Attack, disengage. 
 


E – Cape Sweep
Immediate short range AOE AD damage around batman that slows opponent Attack Speed.

The Cd is reduced by 4 seconds if no opponent’s champions are damaged. CD is static and not reduced by points.

Damage scales from 50-155 + a meager 40% Bonus AD, in increments of 35.

Attack speed reduction scales from 10%-25% in increments of 5%.

Energy cost is reduced from 40-25 in increments of 5.

E – Cape Sweep is your pitiful excuse for aoe damage and waveclear. However, it is tremendously helpful to have AS reduction when dueling AD opponents as a DPS bruiser over longer engagements. Keep in mind that it will sap TONS of energy at early levels if you are spamming your abilities.


R – The Dark Knight
Create a small cloud for 6 seconds preventing vision in and out of its area. Batman gains 10 energy per second regeneration, 20% movement speed, scaling attack speed, and the Passive Ability: Watching, Waiting is active. This ability can accrue 2 charges.

Attack speed steroid scales from 15-30% in increments of 5%.

Charges of the ability refresh every 45-30 seconds, the cooldown scaling down in increments of 5 seconds.

You have many responsibilities as a level 6+ Batman Prime with his ultimate.
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Stand  in your cloud while you’re fighting.

Create a cloud at the location of opponents who are attacking objectives.

Initiate ganks/picks by engaging on opponents while in a cloud so that they can’t see allies backing you up.

Hide damaged & low health allies in a cloud such as adcs & apcs who can act from range or escape while being sheathed in your cloud.
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If you can stealth pad juke, then you can juke with his ult. R – The Dark Knight usage is what separates good Batman Prime players, from the exceptional.


Passive – Watching, Waiting

Gain Power Armor & Attack Armor, doubled while stealthed/on a stealth pad.

When stealthed, passive activates to heal a % of Batman’s maximum health over 6 seconds, interrupted by leaving stealth.

The Power Armor & Attack Armor scale from 5-20 in increments of 5 (remember that all these values are doubled while stealthed).

The healing sclaes from 5-11% of maximum health in increments of 2%.

The Cooldown of the passive scales down down dramatically from 50-35 seconds in increments of 5 seconds.

Batman Prime’s passive is incredible and underrated. At level 11 you can have 40 of both armors during your fights while healing nearly 2% of your max hp/sec for 6 seconds every 35 seconds. 
 

Stolen Powers

Cameras & Super Speed.

With 0 basic escape abilities, this is how Batman players stay alive.

-Until the developers make W – Martial Arts into a skill shot that does aoe damage (see Gragas Body Slam), thereby improving the enjoyment of the batman experience as Q and W are not skillshots, allowing him to become a real pick in competitive play with a true escape/repositioning tool, and providing additional critically important waveclear that he is so lacking – Batman Prime absolutely needs (and is limited by needing) to have thorough vision of the lane at all times as well as the marginal escape potential that super speed provides.
 


Item choice

As a Melee Bruiser, in the early game you are limited to building in response to your lane opponent’s and opposing jungler’s champion characterisitics and playstyle/aggression.

Within these paramaters you do have the freedom to build stylistically and I will share my style and why I think it’s the optimal way to create map pressure.

You can opt for early sustain & defense vs ranged opponents if you were unable to allin them successfully and keep them on the defensive.

However, Batman Prime’s early game is strong enough that you can allin fairly liberally regardless of item choice. Some people do prefer passive, low risk laning. I do not and that’s not what this guide is about.

Melee bruisers prioritize penetration, sustain, and tankiness.

So why do I rush Mega Rod?

Lane control and map control.

With such awful waveclear and such strong kit for early game harassing, allining, sustain, and tankiness, a nil weapon with 3 pots & mega rod level 2 just about solve all of the rest of your problems. You can shove out the lane much faster and go about putting pressure on the tower or other lanes.

Sound’s logical… but here’s the JUICE. Batman Prime is one of the strongest duelists in the game and with free low CD Q harass it’s very hard to lane against. Since you win lane and your opponent is begging for help you may end up often dealing with the jungler. I find I’m often strong enough with basic AD items to take out one of them and super speed away or sometimes even both if they chase me into a stealth pad.

If this was possible before..  it’s a good thing you’re following this guide and now have AOE DAMAGE and 40 ARMOR from your passive which you’re maxing. Call this the “2v1s Made Easy” guide because it sounds good, though “easily turn gank’s” is more accurate.. Feel free to type “/all I AM THE DARK NIGHT” into chat when you’re done killing them both.

I keep this Mega Rod at level 2 until I pick up a bit of item sustain. 
 
Next you are considering the original goals of penetration (which is accompanied by damage nearly always), sustain, and tankiness.

Well guess what, I’ve got just what you’re looking for: Claw of Horus does it ALL. The armor will help during your constant trades in the creep wave, in fact once you max the thing out you can basically ignore the creep wave and even dive! Yes I went there, but read on as I talk much more about that later.

At this point you see that your trades seem unbelievably strong (this assumes you are vs AD), but you’ll notice that you are relying on your abilities to do everything. Very often the cd on your abilities don’t come up in time and they get away from your execute. What a shame…

Good thing there’s BATMAN’S UTILITY BELT to SOLVE ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS, with MS, AS, & CDR you’re good to go!

That may seem like all but NO! Batman’s Utility Belt ALSO gives you HP & PURGE WTF! Say goodbye that damn Nightmare Batman suppression!
 
Shoot we’re in midgame now and these guys seem to be tanky.. Is it armor or hp?? Vs armor you get penetration – So Atomic Axe or Coda Blade. However, I default to Coda because the passive “wounding” reducing healing & regen by 50% is just SO strong.

You can rush Coda before waveclear to maximize damage first. It's suggested that beginner's do this, but eventually you'll find plenty of dps is provided with Mega Rod & batman's kit.

But you don’t’ want them to be going armor. You want them to be going hp so you can get Deathstroke’s Claymore to just suddenly be doing hybrid damage that is % hp plus giving you attack speed. If you didn’t build Axe or Coda, get one afterwards.

Finally you want to round it out with some wings. Yeah you’ve graduated to angelic batman, fairy batman, whatev you want. You have gorgeous white wings (LOL) with your next item: Ra’s al Ghul’s Robe, rounding things off as your last defensive item. It gives you Attack Armor & Power Armor, as well as reviving you upon death after 4 seconds, so that you can slam out another combo if you couldn’t finish the job in the first place.
    
As far as stylistic choices you can get more sustain by getting a Soultaker Katana and more tankiness by getting the Sword of the Beowulf. These are pretty standard items and  can be fairly indiscriminately swapped out, as long as you can verbalize the reason for doing it vs your specific opposition.
 
 
 
The goal of this skill order + laning mechanics

Many fundamental Batman Prime laning mechanics were illustrated in the abilities section, but here is an elaboration and summary:

The big question:
Why max passive second??
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5 ar & mr per point, DOUBLED while stealthed.

This is your champion’s built-in sustain.
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What is sustain?

Not only regen; conceptually, sustain allows you to stay in lane and put more pressure on the map.

You can buy at turrets. With enough sustain, you don’t have to waste tons of time going back.

Since mobas are about how you use your rts time effectively, greater sustain = more time = game advantage/win.
 
The above advantages are greater when splitpushing & proxying, than a 35 damage + 5% slow increase per point on Q – Batarang, which you would otherwise max second.  
 
Criteria for maxing Passive second:
You have good positioning and can utilize your armor buff while in stealth by always fighting in stealth pads or your ultimate. 
You are spending most of your energy shoving waves or even proxying and you need addional sustain because you rushed Mega Rod 2 for waveclear instead of Soultaker Katana for the sustain. 



Step by step lane walkthrough:

First thing to do is place cameras in tri on your side and the center of one of the stealth pads in the vertical lane. Then go leash for your jungler since he has the highest game impact but get to lane before missing creeps.  

You have the stylistic choice of allining at level 1 with W – Martial Arts, or harassing and allining at level 2 or 3 by skilling Q at level 1 and constantly hitting your likely melee opponent every time he is in range and it’s off cooldown, then getting 2 points in W and smacking him out of lane.

Since early creeps are the most important creeps I opt for not missing a single one and just harassing with Q. Get into the grove of the wave and pick your time to trade. Your trade is a simple Q – W – Auto attack as they run away. You out-trade them EVEN WHEN TAKING CREEP AGRO – unless it’s a cannon wave.. They should be low enough during level 2 or 3 that you can do some serious damage and possibly force them out of lane.

Ward their tri if you have pushed your lane up, which is likely if you play like me and are trying to get a fast level 2&3.
The jungler can easily come during this time so look at the map when you’re planning to trade with a combo. If you get caught offguard smash super speed and get out. It has a low cooldown, but play cautiously until it’s up.

The mega rod won’t do its job of waveclearing very well until you get it to level 2 and that’s the point at which you can very easily consider roaming.  It’s a solid powerspike with 20 AD & 20% AS (+ 30% AOE damage). If bought coda first you would have more single target burst but the combined stats &  playstyle advnatage that Mega Rod offers are enough for me to prefer it. 

Getting early kills in your lane are a reason to gank pre -6 if you are not low health. Drop a camera on your way into the gank.   

Remember that shoving creeps to tower does an ENOURMOUS amount of damage to the tower, which is your primary goal. The best part is, you don’t even have to be there……

After level 11 you don’t even have to go to base. If you’ve followed the guide so far then you’re healing up 11% of your max health every 35 sec and getting aoe lifesteal. Don’t go HAM until they are back up unless you are far ahead; there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be.
 


 Lategame Teamfighting:

Oh no, I’m a splitpusher putting tons of pressure on the lane and then assassinating.. how do I teamfight!?

Well guess what, you’re fully set up for it. Start by warding all the intersections where your team has grouped in the lane that they are pressuring. Now you see what’s coming. You “watch over Gotham.”

Next you realize that you’ve built reasonably tanky, you have a cleanse, a revive, and aoe damage! Your kit even has high skill cap peels! You’re all set to be a frontliner!

 
Step 1:
Count and subtract.. 3 of us 5 of them -2 oh that’s bad uh.. 5 of us 4 of them that’s 1 oh yeah yeah lets go! Ping the ADC or APC, whoever is closest and is the least tanky on their team and:

Step 2:
Q-W-E-R right where you end up brawling.
Do not E unless you are hitting the adc or an AD champion that is on your carry. This is AS Peel.

If the carry runs away, good you peeled them out of the fight and off you team so focus on whoever is closest to you and try not to leave your cloud.

If they were kiting and they come back, smack the closest enemy until your Q-W slow comes up and you can re-engage on the carry.

If the carries are still near use the active of claymore to finish them off or otherwise on an opponent fronliner who is on your carry.

Step 3:
Ult your carries. Ideally, you should be close enough to them that you can stand at the front of the ult and they can stand at the back. This is often difficult because the fight is moving around and positioning is solo queue-esque.
 


Alternative endgame strats:


Picks.

Jump someone on the enemy team because of your superior camera placement. Slap an ult on them and jump in with your ranged carries to back you up. Do this to someone who thinks they can duel you like a fed high priority carry trying to splitpush. They won’t even see your carries killing them from outside of your ult. If you trade your life for the opposing carry, it’s worth because your carries didn’t take any damage and can now push objectives.

 
Flanks

Given:
1) Your team is grouped, in position, and waiting for an ititation.
2) You've identified the location of your opponents.
Prudently move through the jungle to an intersection behind the enemy. Place cameras to make sure that you yourself arne't being flanked. Ping a target that is out of position and intitiate onto them, ideally by coordinating cc with your teammates so that the ranged target remains without vision & unable to focus your ranged teammates. 


Defending

When defending towers, your priority is waveclearing and ulting them when they get close enough to attack the turret and you can engage on them.

If they have an emp or lockdown then your best bet is to give up the tower unless they are not grouped as 5.
Whatever the case, make sure you are peeling for your carry, saving your W for any suppression, and ulting them when they need to be stealthed. If they die during a siege, you are likely to lose the game. 

 

Basic tips:
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Take a camera from base.
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Yes it’s overkill, but this is solo queue and 2x2 wards or even three wards at once in your lane = you will survive if you have mini-map awareness.
If you have a team put together then your 2 cameras will be fine.
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Pay attention to where the enemy jungler is. Ping him immediately when you spot him on the minimap and state his location in chat.

Pay attention to your lane opponent. Immediately say MIA if they are gone and you are not 90% sure they backed because they were low.

If your see your lane ganking
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You are nearby so follow them

They are far and your lane is pushing so you alert v-ping & get some damage on your tower.
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Ping objectives that need to be pressured, starting with all outer turrets & neutral monsters, etc.

Ping objectives that need defending, such as your turret if you are too low to defend.

Give positive feedback to your team for doing well. For example, every time you hear that they got a kill or took a turret type “wp” (well played). This is boosting morale. This is leadership. This is SO easy and SO good.

If a lane is struggling then drop the health beacon on their lane. It has enourmous range - you can position it by tier 2 turrets while standing in base. 
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Advanced tips:
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Situation: You push to tower to put minion damage on the turret. Your lane opponent is playing safe and last hitting under turret with ~400 hp and you can’t burst them down.
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Do not dive.
 
Diving estimate: IF they are low enough to burst, likely under 300 hp, you take a minimum of a tower shot and auto from your opponent. That’s not terrible unless you get ganked.

Executing this optimally involves waiting for them to blow abilities on the minions AND waiting for the tower to strike before moving in.

Worst case scenario, they save their abilities to use defensively and you take a full rotation to the face, likely getting ccd, and tanking 3-4 tower shots. It’s possible to still survive if it only took 1 combo kill them but good luck not getting ganked.
 
Why there is little point in considering the specific 1v1 dive onto a low health target:
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EMP’s EXIST. Get it. Let your team know you’re taking it for top to see if it’s not needed in the more important mid & duo lanes (unless you are mid, in which case only worry about how bot’s doing).

More often your opponent won’t stick around with stupidly low hp if they are considering your damage output. -  However, they may occasionally be in the 400-500 hp range and you can execute them under turret with the EMP.
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You don’t just lane for a while with the EMP & expect this to happen, you either:
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i.Set it up by trading favorably with your opponent while pushing.
ii.Push to turret and go around the turret to ‘reverse lane gank’ them (you heard it here first). Drop a camera in tri and a deep camera as you do this.
iii.If they simply won’t go back to base, push your lane and back for the EMP, then rush them with it.
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Roaming Circumstances & Tips
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Ganking is a critical part of moba map pressure. It is primarily dependent upon cc and minion waves.

Do not take cs from a lane that is behind when you gank.

Given that no allies are behind in gold when you gank, you have my permission to take their cs if you didn't get the kill. Maybe in this moba the kill gold is equal, but everywhere else it's not, so get into good habits. If the jungler ganks and you get the kill, he can have some cs. He deserves it. 

Batman has minimal cc so you are focused on minion waves being under their tower for a dive or you are double ganking with a jungler who has sufficient cc.

Carefully note how your ally is doing by comparing their items & gold to their opponent before your gank. Make sure they are not low health if you commit to execute, and if they are then just do your combo and get out.

It is critical that you do not leave your lane when the minion wave is shoving towards your tower, or there is a champion doing so.  
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Pushed in & Pushed out
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i. This is the most common roam-ganking scenario you will experience. The opposing mid laner is shoving in their lane to your mid turret, while in top lane you have shoved it out. Go do some damage mid and get back in time for your next wave.
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Jungler Presence
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i. It doesn’t matter if you’re jungler is coming from the bottom of mid lane and you are coming from top. Pay attention to who has the best initiation and allow them to do it, as you await in position to come in and add your slow & damage to the mix.
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Powerspike / EMP
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i. Powerspike: you just bought an upgrade to your item and you see that the opponent you intend to gank is 1+ upgrades short of you.  Or you just became fed and ahead in levels. This means the opponents in other lanes are likely to be weaker. Confirm their inferior gold & minion wave control and go do some damage.
ii. You have an EMP and either have not revealed it to the lane you are ganking, or you have reason to believe they are unprepared to react to an emp dive. You must have kill potential for this play to be worthwhile. 
 


I hope you’ve learned something.



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