Free Agent - NA
This is my tierlist in Paladins at Diamond/Master ELO. I currently have one of the highest playtimes in the game which means I have a lot of experience in the game. My main account is currently lvl850+ and I have several alt accounts around lvl50ish. My steam account currently says I have almost 6000 hours on Paladins so yeah... I've pretty much seen it all! ;)
Date: 15/4/2019
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These are 2 champions that will almost guarantee you a victory with little effort needed... definitely ban-worthy if possible, otherwise if the enemies get their hands on them you will most likely struggle to win the game.
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These are very solid picks, Lian counters almost every damage/flank character in the game and can deal consistent damage at all ranges. Cassie can melt tanks and defend herself from most enemy attackers. I would also consider Mal'Damba as the best support in the game right now too. If you are in ranked, make sure to have atleast one of these champions on your team as an early pick to give yourself the best possible chance of winning.
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These picks will give your team much needed pressure and utility if played well, I would definitely pick these early on if open in a ranked game! Bomb King has a great kit with high damage output; if played well, he can help your point tank secure the point quite easily as well as defending the team's support with 2-3 sticky bombs on incoming attackers. Inara and Ash are by far superior frontline tanks to everything else except Makoa; picking these early on will give your team a huge advantage. I put Ying here because as I am a Ying main, I believe if played correctly with a good loadout, she can be the best healer in the game still but it is completely down to the player playing her.
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Imani is a very strong champion that I will often ban in ranked games, mostly because I find her frost bomb annoying to deal with. However Imani's ultimate is easily dealt with once enough bulldozer and teamwork is applied to take down the dragon; also resilience will make Imani's frost bomb kinda useless late-game too.
Tyra probably has the best objective control of all damage characters in Paladins if you use her "Burn Monster" legendary talent, that fire is sure to stop any enemy from wanting to capture the objective as long as you are alive which should make it a lot easier for your team to capture and win the game! Just be super careful as Tyra has no mobility abilities and can be killed fairly easily if not careful.
Evie is still in my opinion the best flank character in the game (except for Zhin, which I believe needs heavy nerfing). Evie can get to high ground areas with a simple blink and then soar circles around enemies allowing her to be super mobile and distract enemy players for long periods of time. Just beware... if the enemy team takes Lian, do NOT take Evie as you will find it extremely hard to do anything at all if the Lian is slightly good.
Furia and Seris are both great healers; if the player playing them knows how to position themselves in a spot that is safe to heal from with nearby escape routes, these 2 healers are sure to keep your team alive with little effort needed.
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This is more so the situational picks tier. These champions are great but only in certain maps or against/with certain team comps.
Currently right now, people seem to be in a craze about Grover being "OP" for some reason... he really isn't "OP"... I mean, he isn't bad, he is actually pretty decent on smaller maps which is where he excels at. However on larger, open maps; Grover is a pretty bad choice of healer as only a few members of the team will benefit from the heal and often means that the player playing Grover will have to put themselves in risky, dangerous positions just to be able to reach low-HP teammates with that much needed heal. So keep this champion to Brightmarsh and Jaguar Falls maps as that is where he gets most value!
As for Jenos, I believe that the triple-DPS comp with a Jenos and a solid point tank can work fairly well if the DPS players are really good. Jenos can also work on maps where normal supports which require awkward lines of sight would struggle. For example, Timber Mill is a great example of a map where Jenos can be very effective as it is often hard to heal teammates up on the rooftops as well as those on the sides and on the enemy's half of the map. Jenos is not ideal for team comps with 2 tanks if solo healing.
Pip is a tricky one to place, I feel he can be super effective as a damage and 2nd-support for if your team has another support such as Jenos or Grohk for example. However if played as a solo healer, it can be very inconsistent as sometimes you can pull off massive game-saving heals or you will end up wasting your healing cooldown for tiny heals due to enemy cauterise... I would definitely choose another support if going for heals.
Terminus can be super annoying to play against, especially if you are playing something like Ruckus or Vivian or Dredge where you lack mobility to shoot around the giant Terminus shield that appears to last forever. Terminus is one of the best tanks in the game at stalling objectives because of his bulls**t shield and his super buggy ultimate. Beware, Terminus is one of the buggiest champions in Paladins and you may experience bugs that can seem incredibly unfair to you.
Maeve is one of the best flank champions in the game and can effectively execute tanks with Street Justice legendary card. However, if enemy has Lian and/or Zhin, then you might want to avoid playing Maeve as you will struggle to do anything at all if they are good.
Vivian can deal a lot of damage very quickly, however I find that she is a risky pick and can be frustrating to play as... but that's just a personal opinion. but yeah... Vivian is definitely a risky pick, can work very well and other times it can fail and backfire hard... use only if you feel confident enough.
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Champions in this tier are risky picks, you will often find yourself dieing way too easily if you find yourself playing any of these as the enemy team will look at you as an "easy kill" or a "high value target".
Koga can be very very strong BUT he is a very suicidal champion... you are almost guaranteed to die while playing this champ as his claws legendary drains your HP too quickly and the SMGs kinda suck... Use only if you feel confident enough to make it work.
Willo is a fun champion to play, but super annoying if the enemy stacks hitscan characters and chase you around the map the moment you peek... Enemy supports will often cry about your deadzones making it more likely for their team to focus their damage onto you just to stop their support from crying. Use only if you feel confident enough or if they have no hitscan characters on their team.
Khan can be a very effective frontline... however... bugs... bugs... bugs... this champion is sadly plagued with bugs that make the experience of playing him super annoying to deal with... IF his ult lands, a multitude of things can happen; firstly Khan may get stuck in the ult'ing animation therefore rendering him unable to do anything except move with W A S D keys until he dies, secondly if the Khan ults someone, quite often it will bug their hitbox until khan throws them meaning that your team can't actually hit them, thirdly, you may notice a beam coming out of your gun which will trace the target you attempted to ult last... this can be annoying because the enemy team can always see where you are if they follow that beam. There are other Khan bugs too, but these are the main ones that I have recently experienced and found annoying. If you do get lucky enough to succeed with his ult without fail, then it is one of the best ults in the game.
Shalin is decent but his ult is kind of useless and sucky. I also find that he dies too easily before he can output effective damage. Depends on the player I guess...
Strix and Kinessa are both very risky picks. They can be very good on long-range maps like Frozen Guard and Timber Mill, but they can be easily flanked and can often get focused down by multiple enemies leaving them vulnerable and feeling useless. Obviously this depends on the player playing them with how effective they are, but the average player will struggle to make these 2 champions effective enough to be a valuable pick. I would also say Strix is slightly better than Kinessa, purely because since the scope zoom change, I find the zoom is too much to bear with on Kinessa and can often find myself struggling to find targets close-mid range in my scope; however Strix suffers from lack of mobility so he can't escape once the enemies have rushed on top of him. Good luck with these 2, as you will need it!
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This is also a situational pick tier, but not quite as good as the tier above.
Ruckus can output a lot of consistent damage if he is allowed to do so. However, due to the nature of how Ruckus plays, he is often a very easy target for enemy DPS to charge their ults on quickly. Avoid picking Ruckus if the enemies have a Terminus, Skye, Cassie, Tyra or Makoa as these will make it very hard to play Ruckus effectively.
Viktor is one of those champions that can be good at mid-long range vs champions that are weak to poke/hitscan damage such as Drogoz for example. However, I believe there are a lot better picks than Viktor. Pick this champion if you are new to the game as he is a pretty solid beginners champion to learn with. As for higher elo games, only take this if you are confident it will work or if you need a hitscan to take down a Drogoz if Lian is banned.
Skye is extremely good at melting enemy frontlines down quickly, however due to her lack of mobility and the fact everyone just buys Illuminate the moment they see a Skye on the enemy team, it can be difficult to position yourself effectively while keeping consistent damage on the enemy team. She is pretty bad at flanking as most players can see or hear her coming from a long distance away and often she will get focused by multiple people making it hard for her to be effective. If you are going to take Skye, play her as a DPS, not as a flank!
Talus is one of those champions that can be effective for players with good tracking ability with their aim. However, due to his lack of vertical mobility, most maps he will struggle to flank players on highground areas where most of his targets are sitting. Talus can be effective on long distance maps like Ice Mines and Frozen Guard because at the start of each round, he can quickly exit spawn with the rest of his team, jump off his horse as soon as possible and place a teleport rune and ult something on the enemy team; this will dismount atleast 1 player on the enemy team, giving the rest of your team time to setup defences at a choke point or at the capture objective in the middle.
Androxus is also pretty good for players who have good awareness and good aiming ability. However if these aren't your strong points, you will find yourself struggling with this champion. Androxus is most commonly picked as a counter to Drogoz or if you need a flank with vertical mobility on a map like Timber Mill for example. Beware that his reversal ability can be rather buggy at times and will find yourself questioning why you even used the ability to begin with as it doesn't always block damage or fire back like it is supposed to.
Drogoz used to be a very good damage champion many many months ago... however, due to the mobility nerfs on him, he has become a very easy target to hit. I know Wyrm Jets is a thing... but I dislike using it as you are sacrificing much needed damage bonuses that the other 2 legendary talents provide. This champion gets countered very easily by over half of the characters in the game, so if you are going to pick it, avoid picking it into hitscan champions or on maps that are very large and open. Good luck as you will need it playing this easy-to-kill champion.
Barik can be alright at contesting enemy frontlines on the objective if you use the Tinkering legendary talent... however if you take anything else, you will find yourself dealing minimal damage and will be quite useless the entire game. I suggest using a loadout that allows him to gain healing by standing near his turrets and that gives him a personal shield whenever he uses his rocket boots ability; this should give him a lot more survivability that he needs. Only pick Barik if most of the other frontlines are banned or already taken but your team still needs a tank, also can be a good pick vs an enemy Skye as the turrets will reveal her if she gets too close to them.
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Now this is a tier of champions you probably want to avoid playing unless you feel confident enough that you can win with it.
Dredge can be annoying to play against, mostly due his nature of random aoe spam that can be highly inconsistent and very unpredictable. He is good at objective clearing with his broadside ability, but other than that he is fairly useless at anything else. Avoid picking this champion unless your team feels the need for the extra damage support on the objective over any other DPS pick.
Buck has sadly seen better days, he can kill supports quite easily... BUT cauterise will make his self-heal ability useless and he will often die in 1v1's to almost any other character in the game. Play him if you just want to have some fun, otherwise a different champion would be advised.
Atlas feels like he helps the enemy team more than his own to be quite honest. His ult can often save enemies from dieing to your team and rewinding them can put them back to safety, which can honestly be annoying for your teammates if they are trying to take them down. His weapon is very slow shooting and a little inconsistent. I feel that Atlas's best ability is his massive shield with the shield legendary; this is pretty much a Symmetra ultimate from Overwatch and works almost exactly the same. His shield cannot be destroyed by wrecker and can be useful for your team to use to protect themselves from incoming damage while they wait for the support to heal them back up. As for his ability to tank damage as a frontline, I feel he kind of lacks the survivability as he is a massive easy-to-hit hitbox that can eat damage very quickly and die before he can do anything useful. Use only if you feel confident enough to make it work effectively for the entire match.
Fernando used to be a fantastic frontline, however his recent damage nerfs to his flamethrower and fireball has left him in a position that he is no longer able to pressure enemy backlines as easy as he could before. He is a common pick against an enemy Drogoz as his ult will protect himself and nearby teammates from a Drogoz ult along with other characters who have high damage ultimates too. Avoid picking Fernando if the enemy has a Khan or Terminus as they will stun or grab Fernando out of his shield meaning he is just a giant hitbox without a shield and will die very quickly. Use only if you think you can make him work, otherwise choose different frontlines instead.
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This is a tier of champions I believe should never get picked into ranked games as they are often a burden to the team.
Torvald for some reason gets banned a lot in ranked games or first picked... He used to be a fantastic champion before he got reworked as he could eat away enemy shields and convert them into his own personal shield; this was what made Torvald so great to begin with, he was a shield eater. Nowadays, he highly vulnerable to pretty much everything and is possibly the worst frontline at tanking and objective control. People pick him as he can shield teammates with his protection bubble and can grant them a temporary damage boost for 3 seconds at a time, if the enemy team has wrecker, this shield is useless and the damage buff is too short to be effective and reliable. He also has the ability to silence enemies who stray too close to him and can be effective against Zhin and Evie who mostly rely on their abilities to do stuff; however resilience 2/3 will counter this and make his silence ability and his ult very useless and not worth using at all. Torvald's ultimate can be very effective on maps like Frog Isle and Fish Market as you can blast multiple enemies off the map killing them instantly without much thought and preparation, however on maps that don't have many environmental hazards, his ult is very useless. I would suggest avoiding to play Torvald unless the enemy has an Evie or Zhin so that you can protect your support and backline from them with your silence ability.
Lex is one of those champions that I believe should just be removed from Paladins... to put it simply, this champion just sucks. This champion has no vertical mobility and dies very easily to almost everything. Avoid playing this champion as everything else is better
Moji sadly got ruined in a recent patch where they made her left click fire much faster which means that it detonates the magic marks stack too early before you get the full damage bonus from it. She can still work on flat, small maps like Jaguar Falls and Brightmarsh but sadly sucks on pretty much every other map. A little trick you can do with Moji vs Ash is that if Ash ults, you can ult her in her ult and you are actually able to kill her, this is the only way to kill Ash in her ult without pulling or knocking her out of her ult range.
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How can I put this? Grohk is by far the worst champion the game... his healing sucks, his damage is useless and overall a burden to any team that is unlucky enough to have him on it... The only time I would actually play this awful champion is for battlepass challenges.