Paladins? What is this?

So Paladins is the newest game on the market from HiRez Studios, and it is a really fun game. What do you get when you add a first person shooter, mix it with some abilities from a MOBA and even add decks of cards that can change your gameplay throughout the match, and even differently each round? Well, that's where Paladins come in. Each team picks five champions each, and after that they all fight to capture the capture point. First team to hit 100 "ticks" will spawn a siege engine, and with that you can break through the enemy base. The main goal is to destroy the vault.

Champions:

Grohk - The Lightning Orc

So Grohk is the shaman in this game, he is a squishy support for your team. He is by no means any frontman, but you want to have him around the objective with his healing totem to keep them healthy and alive and his chain lightning for zoning. He also have an ability called "Ghost Walk" where he becomes untargetable to get away from dangerous situations. Definitely a good mage to have on your team when either capturing or stealing an objective from the enemies.

He can draw cards that allow him control over a lot of enemies through CC (crowd control) so be careful of what cards he has. Other than that he can buff up his totem, so he can either become this crowd controlling mage who zonez out players while taking objectives, or he can focus more on buffing his team through his healing totem and cards.

Skye - The Twilight Assassin

Skye is the sneaky assassin on the battlefield. She has a timebomb that deals a lot of damage in a huge AoE circle, she has an ability to make her darts poisonous and she can also go invisible with her "hidden" ability. Great for initiating a fight, sneaking up on an unknowing enemy or escaping the fight that suddently wasn't too smart to be in. She's really hard to deal with in a 1v1 scenario and you don't wanna meet her unless you are a tank. Definitely good for picking off players one by one in between objectives.

She can draw cards that either give your weapons debuffs, or she can focus more on being a stealthy and sneaky assassin where she can plant bombs and become invisible again, so be careful when she's around. You never know what might be lurking in the dark with her cards.

Ruckus - The Worst of Friends

Ruckus is your tanky robot with machineguns that you should be careful of. He can dual fire, making his attack speed 100% faster, he can create a shield to absorb damage and if he decides that he doesn't want to fight anymore he can hover away. Now, this isn't the most safe retreating ability because you can still be hit in air, but he flies relatively high up and quickly, so he's hard to hit. He's a great frontman who can delete shields with his dual fire and shred through squishy targets. You would send him in first to get rid of the enemy defences.

Ruckus can draw cards that make him more support-like with his damage absorbing, he can become this shredding champion who buffs his dual fire, or he can become a flying battleship who heals and drops bombs from above. He can become a real in'n'out champion who destroys everything, flies out of combat and comes back into it. Be aware, this is a real multitasking champion.

Fernando - The Self-Appointed Knight

Fernando is the flamethrowing tank that you don't want to meet around the corner. He shoots a flamethrower in a small range in front of him, he can also shoot a fireball for a long range if he's too far away. He has a shield that blocks damage for the entire team and if he is in doubt, he can always use his charge out. This is a tanky character that you will keep in front to push the enemies back.

You can draw cards that make his health-pool incredibly large, so be careful if you go into a fight against him. He is definitely the champion who can reach the highest amount of HP. He can draw a lot of damage-reducing cards as well, so you might want to bring some allies going into a fight against him. He can also draw cards to make his shield become super strong, so this isn't a champion you want to blow all your abilites on.

Cassie - The Hunter's Daughter

Cassie is your damage dealing hunter from a distance. She has an ability called Blast Shot that knocks enemies back while dealing damage, and she can use her bird to scout around, giving her 15% more damage and revealing enemies. If she's caught in a clutch situation she can dodge roll away. She can keep the enemies away from a capture point by just damaging them from a distance, so be careful of your positioning with her, and be careful of how devastating she can be.

She can draw cards that make her damage greater if she's farther away, she can double-hit her arrows, making her explosion bigger and damaging more. Trust me, you've got to be careful around her. Her damage can become devastating, and if you get her low, she can still have drawn cards to allow more damage if she's low.

Barik - The Ruins Raider

Barik is not your typical dwarf. He has a barricade that shields you and your teammates, he has a turret that fires at passing enemies and if he doesn't want to be in the fight anymore, he has these rocket boots for quick escapes. A very hard dealing damage support, Barik provides shelter while taking objectives and can control two points of the map at the same time - unless the enemies take out your turret. Definitely a good dwarf to have on your team.

He can draw cards to buff his turret or to become a more useful support type of player, so be careful when you're fighting him. He can get several cards that will make you dazed if he uses his abilities, and then you will have a really hard time escaping him. And he can also make his turret to become his best buddy with huge buffs and great damage, so be careful, you don't want to fight him in a 1v1 scenario. His turrets can become a 2nd champion, basically.

Pip - The Fire Thief

Pip is your every day chemical fox who just loves explosions and crazy elixirs. His first ability is called "Explosive Flask" and as you might've guessed, he throws a flask dealing AoE explosive damage. He can also throw a rug of adhesive that slows down your enemies, and if he's going to retreat he can use his weightless ability, where he jumps higher and faster for three seconds. Definitely a good controlling champion when it comes to capturing objectives or zoning out enemies.

Now Pip can draw cards which makes his zoning and explosives super dangerous, so you should not stack up while he is around. He can draw cards which makes his explosive flask spray a poisonous fume, or makes his killing blows explode for 700 damage in a radius. Pip can turn around a fight so fast, so don't underestimate him and watch out for what cards he draws.

Buck - The Brawler of Banes (unofficial title)

Buck is the tank with a huge rock-shooting shotgun. He can create a huge rock wall that can be used defensively while capturing an objective, or offensively blocking enemies to damage your siege engine, or stopping enemies from running away. He can also run around the corner and recover with his 2nd ability. He also has this heroic leap which is great for initiation, or great for escaping situations.

Buck can draw cards to make his shotgun really dangerous in close combat, or make his defensive leap a huge initiation by dealing 1000 knockup and 640 damage on hit, so be careful of this bruiser. He can also have really good sustain if he picks recovery cards, so don't be tricked by his low HP if you don't know what cards he drew.

Future of Paladins - Esports scene?

So how do I see Paladins in a competitive scene, or will Paladins even succeed? My answer to that is probably yes. This game is really new in its genre, and it brings out quite a few unique parts of strategy games, mobas and first person shooters, and they mix really well. The card-deck system makes every game really different, one game you can have a Pip who's dealing tons of area damage, controlling the capture points like a champion, and in the next game he will be more of a hit and run character with more stuns and CC-abilities. Same with Fernando, one game he holds a capture point all alone, while the next game he has 12000 HP and just zones out everyone.

I can see this becoming a thing in Esports, and it is bringing so much new to the table, but will it be super balanced in a competitive scene?
By the looks of it now, the competitive games will have a custom built deck of 15 cards and each game you can only draw 5 cards a game, where you get 3 choices on each level. This makes you draw 100% of the cards you added to your own custom deck, but once you pick one of the 3 cards you drew at your level, you can't pick the other two cards. This should make you reconsider going for the most powerful card - to a card with more sustain or more helpful for the team. You would have to pick cards for how the game is turning out to be, picking situational cards instead of picking whatever worked last game. The other 66.7% will just stay in your deck, unused for that game, but might be useful the next game. How is that balanced?

I believe this is balanced. It might need some reworking to become perfect obviously, but you shouldn't make decks by the most "op" cards you can see by reading them, or just because they worked for some games. You should always be thinking of situational cards being drawn. Obviously, there is not 100% chance that you will draw the card you might needed in that situation, but having a card that helps you while you're low on hp can turn around a fight because the enemies wouldn't check what card you drew mid fight while you were hiding behind a tree and he is chasing you, most likely. And that's how it will be in a competitive scene. You have a deck, you pick 1 of 3 cards each level (max 5 cards on hand) and you pick your cards by how the enemy is building their deck, how the team comp is looking and how the situation is looking.

As it looks now, we have 2 maps. They're small, it's packed with action and the games are pretty short. But I definitely see a future of competitive plays in this game. The sole fact that you draw your cards, and that the aiming isn't instant, but following the projectile makes skillshots and fights a lot more action packed and skill based. I'm really exited for this game's future and I hope to see you on the realm of Paladins some day!

If there's anything you would like to know about Paladins, or if there's anything you would like to see me cover in this game, feel free to PM me on my Twitter: @PsykeShow or leave a comment here. I hope you enjoyed my introduction on this game.