Free Agent - EU
This is a tierlist based on my experiences since the latest patch. I do not believe in a "meta", I believe in picking what is mechanically the best champion on a map vs whatever the enemy team has chosen and what your team has already chosen. For example, if a champion straight up sucks at healing as a solo support such as Jenos, then that's an issue if left as a solo support on the team... This tierlist is simply a rough outline of what to prioritise over what.
ss
Well this is quite an obvious SS tier champion; Androxus. It does way too much damage, way too quickly and requires barely any skill to play... I look forward to when this character finally gets the nerfs it deserves.
s+
These are all extremely strong picks for any team.
Cassie can output consistently high damage to any target with an ult that tells you and your team where the enemies are temporarily, setting up for other ults such as Jenos's for example.
Maeve is also a very strong pick, she can execute anyone on low health as well as consistently outputting high damage at long range plus she has great mobility.
Terminus is just one of those champions that annoys the hell out of me, he shield is HUGE and lasts for sooo long; plus it takes a long time to kill this champion, very useful for stalling enemy DPS players and for countering champions with deployables like Barik, IO and Inara.
Inara will always be one of the best tanks in the game, she does consistently high damage, has high survivability and can provide useful utility to help her teammates secure kills.
Corvus is currently the newest champion added to the game. He has extremely good healing capabilities, as well as being able to buff and heal teammates from across the map, simply by marking someone likely to dive into enemy territory and then healing someone next to you, the marked teammate shares the heals too! If your team's DPS is good, this character will be able to survive a lot due to the shared lifesteal card.
s
These are also all very strong picks for any team!
Khan's stun is about the most bs thing to be hit by in Paladins... the hit range on his grab is ridiculous and the stun lasts for soooo long... although his damage isn't great, his stuns and survivability alone makes him one hell of a pain to go up against.
Evie is one of the most fun characters in Paladins to play. She can output consistent poke damage and can finish off low hp enemy targets quite easily. She is super mobile but her low hp can leave her vulnerable if you are too slow or hang around in enemy lines of sight too long.
Lian is still one of the strongest damage champions in the game, as well as being one of the easiest too. She can easily shut down any airborne target such as Drogoz, Maeve and Evie, as well as outputting consistently high damage at long and close ranges onto anything she decides to hit.
Ying will always be one of my favourite healers in Paladins, she has a global heal with her fast charging ult, and can heal multiple teammates at once with a combination of her illusions and life exchange heals. She is definitely one of the best supports in Paladins, and in a lot of cases, the best support, especially on long maps like Ice Mines.
Bomb King is a strong DPS character. He has a lot of CC and zoning potential as well as being able to blast multiple enemies at once with his bombs. The reason he isn't higher up on the list is because he requires the player to have a low ping to be able to fully play him properly, ping really hurts the potential of this character.
Mal'Damba is also one of my favourite supports in Paladins. He has excellent healing potential and his stuns can very useful in multiple situations. This character does require the player to be skilful and aware of surroundings at all times to be able to play him well.
Barik is a consistently good tank to contest objectives with. Especially with the nerf to wrecker, he can survive a long time on point and has a lot of self-sustain from his turrets for example. Often an underrated champion in many cases.
s-
These champions are still really good but are often more situational rather than pick on any map in any team.
Kinessa is my favourite of the 2 snipers in Paladins, she can output a lot of damage and can easily get to highground and reposition with her teleporter ability. However her close range combat ability is kinda bad though, so if you are playing her, try to keep as much distance between you and your enemies as much as possible. If you see enemies trying to flank you or you think they might be coming, reposition ahead of time to give yourself the advantage before they get to you.
Buck is currently a very underrated champion. He is surprisingly tanky and can output painful shots to anyone he shoots at, he's definitely not a character to be messed with as he can easily take down any enemy DPS character if played correctly.
Ash is a pain to deal with if you are playing as a support or DPS character. Although she doesn't do much damage, her shield is annoying and can make killing her extremely difficult if fighting against her solo. She does get countered by CC though, so take that in mind when drafting and you see she gets picked on the enemy team.
Vivian can output high amounts of damage if left alone. It can be difficult to kill her as she can melt anything she looks at fairly quickly and her shield can protect her nicely. However she does get countered very easily by anything with blast/AoE damage such as Bomb King or Pip.
Tiberius is a champion I often forget about in Paladins, he isn't significant enough for me to really consider him a pick, but he can be annoying to deal with. Mostly because of his heavy blade ability which has the ability to slow any enemy it hits for a long duration. His combat trance allows him to have fast burst damage potential and can easily kill anyone out in the open being hit by it. His ult... yeah... his ult kinda sucks in my opinion...
Zhin is very annoying to play against and I dislike this character a lot. His weapon hits a large area and is very difficult to miss with while still being able to output high damage numbers easily. He can be a DPS's worst nightmare to play against and guillotine can make him a nightmare for tanks to deal with too.
a+
These characters are all decent but can be countered very easily. Be careful when picking these!
Viktor is a basic character with high damage output for those with good aim. His lack of mobility though can often be his downfall as it is quite easy to counter him and kill him repeatedly.
Drogoz is also a champion with high damage output, but any hitscan character will be a nightmare for Drogoz to deal with as he is an easy, out-in-the-open target for them to hit. If you do decide to play this character, make sure Androxus is banned and you are on a map where you can still output high damage without being in constant line of sight from enemy hitscan players. For example, Brightmarsh is a great map to play him on, lots of cover and huge fire spit damage potential.
Strix is a love or hate champion. Personally I find him boring to play, but I also don't like playing against this character either. He can consistently output very high damage if he lands his shots, but can easily be flanked and countered by illuminate and haven. He has very low mobility and relies on his stealth to get out of danger and reposition into a new area, however illuminate stops this from happening and players with the ability to listen to footsteps etc will be able to figure out where he is regardless.
Tyra is a very high DPS character. Her fire can be a massive issue to any tank player and if burn monster talent is used, then it can also be an issue to characters that rely on mobility abilities to get in and out. Her one major flaw though is her mobility, she is either a kill or be killed champion; no escapes for her (unless she is very lucky).
Seris is a basic support champion, she has a long range channelled heal that can easily put teammates back up to full health again. Her main downfall is that cauterise and Willo can reduce her heal to almost nothing. Her ult is amazing and can be combined with many other ults for huge impact. If playing her as an off-support, her soul collector damage and survivability is also very good if played well; but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this in a ranked or tournament game as there are better picks out there for the role.
Grover is also a love or hate champion. I dislike having solo healer Grovers on my team, especially if playing a flank character. Grover has to be close to teammates to be able to heal them, and if you or your team is running a flank too, then they will most likely never get healed. His heals are hugely countered by cauterise and can often not be enough to keep a teammate alive when needed. However his deep roots talent is very good if you can land your rooting axes consistently as it will root and cripple any enemy caught in it, making them easy targets and cancels their movement abilities if hit while being used.
Raum is an overrated champion in my opinion. Although he is still good and can create a lot of space for a team as well as causing major issues for the enemy backline, he is too easily countered by percentile damage and CC. Do not take this character as a main tank, he will get destroyed on point.
a
These characters are still decent, but are heavily situational and some will require your team to have certain other picks to make them work or not have certain character on the enemy team.
Io is a good support champion in low elo. However in higher elo, she just sucks as a solo support. Her heal runs out very very quickly and cauterise makes her heal do barely anything at all. She can only heal one teammate at a time and often your entire healing resource bar is used up just to heal that one person. Her dog Luna can contest point, yes... but the dog's hp is low and dies very easily and has a huge cooldown. I'd suggest only playing this character if playing low elo matches or if you are running a 2nd support on the team.
Skye is one of my favourite champions to play, however due to many nerfs to her over the past few years, she has become increasingly less effective, especially on maps with lots of highground. She can be very nice as a 2nd support (yes, I did say as a 2nd support), as her smoke and dagger talent is a very nice additional heal to keep teammates alive with. Although she still has percentile damage with her poison bolts, due to many nerfs to it, I just don't think it is strong enough anymore for this champion to be picked for the tank counter.
Fernando used to be a great tank until his damage got heavily nerfed. He can still create a lot of space and pressure particularly on smaller maps like Brightmarsh and Jaguar Falls, even on Ice Mines due to lots of small spaces. Do not pick this champion if the enemies have a Khan, you will hugely regret it if you do. This champion is good at countering stealth targets like Skye, Sha Lin and Strix as his flames set targets on fire meaning you can see damage ticks above the stealth target.
Ruckus has great DPS and has decent mobility with his movement ability to reposition with. However he is a very easy target to hit and can get melted very easily making him difficult to be effective.
Imani is a strange champion in my opinion. her fire stance is probably her best stance and is basically a Sha Lin with additional abilities at this point. Her ice stance is too inaccurate now due to nerfs and her movement ability feels clunky and awkward to use. However, her frost bomb and inferno cannon abilities are very strong if used and timed properly. Do not use her ult in a higher elo game as it is a waste of time and leaves you very vulnerable to enemies. Dragon's hp is too little and 90% of the time I used Imani's ult I regret it as that's usually my main reason for dieing with her.
Talus is a champion I hate playing against. Mainly due a bug that causes his weapon to severely drop my framerate in game, making it difficult to fight back or do anything. Asides from that, he can melt people very quickly and escape back to safety using his teleport rune. He can also be used for spawn camping an enemy target with his ult, simply by killing them near mid and then waiting a few seconds, placing a rune down somewhere safe and ulting to them as they walk out of spawn; particularly useful vs enemy supports. His lack of vertical mobility is why this champion is so far down the list as it's hard for him to reach targets sometimes.
a-
These champions are not good in a majority of situations. Often very situational or only good if paired with another champion.
Koga is an annoying champion to play against, he is mostly only good at distracting enemy DPS's for extended periods of time while someone else comes along from your team to help you out. His ult is mostly just a "I like to suicide button", as it's rare for you to get kills with it and then to escape with your life again after using it. I feel like his damage is underwhelming in many cases but is good if you are flanking together with someone else on your team.
Furia... yeah... I never thought the day would come that I would need to put Furia so far down the list, but sadly here we are... Ever since her release, Hi-Rez has done nothing but nerf this character over and over again. She was very good on release, and even after a few nerfs she was still decent. However now it has gotten to the point where she has been nerfed way too hard to be considered a solo support anymore. Only take this champion if you plan on running a 2nd support on the team as she will not keep a full team alive vs good players. If it were me playing this champion now as a solo support, my best chance of keeping anyone alive with her is using the solar beam talent as her right click heal, even with cherish is now useless. Saying this, her damage is still very good and her beam stuns are very useful for dealing with people flanking her, I would class her as an off-support character now rather than a main-support.
Jenos... oh boy, this poor champion has had the same rough treatment as Furia, ever since release he's only been receiving nerf upon nerf upon nerf... Only take this champion if you and your team are planning to run a second support character, such as Grover (in this instance, Jenos can heal the teammates flanking while Grover heals everyone else). The heal Jenos outputs is so little and insignificant that I wouldn't even consider buying cauterise against it where it's so low already. People currently only pick him for his tiny, small damage buffs he can give to teammates or for his grip which is actually quite good and possibly the best thing about him. His ult is also very strong if used against stunned/CC'd enemies or in small spaces where they can't escape it. But if you are only picking this champion for the damage buff, IT'S NOT WORTH IT! The damage buff is far too small to make any difference and can often lead to a player being under the illusion of feeling like they are able to do more when in reality it's pretty much the exact same regardless of the buff or not.
Lex is in my opinion considered a meme character. Nobody likes dieing to a Lex and can often feel insulting when you do. His death hastens talent is probably his best talent to use as it can consistently output high damage numbers and can quickly take out targets if you land most of your shots. His lack of vertical mobility is what lets him down as well as his slide locking you in one direction after you commit to using it.
Willo can be a strong character if left alone. But everytime I see someone picking Willo including myself, that player always gets hard-focused and prioritised as the first thing to kill even if the Willo player is bad and not doing anything. This is mostly because no one likes having their heal being reduced to nothing from the dead zone and she is quite an easy character to hit, especially with her lack of mobility. If you want to play this character, all I can say is good luck, because you are most likely going to not enjoy that game due to everyone hunting you down for the entire match regardless of what you do or where you go.
Moji is also considered a meme character. She can deal unexpected high amounts of damage and can escape with her bubble shield. Her lack of vertical mobility can make it difficult to flank certain targets and she also has the same problem as Willo, everyone will focus you if you play this champion, making it hard to be effective.
b
This tier of champions is mostly for those who want to just have fun in the game, to try something new or for battlepass challenges. I would not recommend playing any of these in ranked games in this current patch.
Pip is a fun character that can output good AoE damage on multiple enemies. He has decent mobility and his ult is amazing, however as a support champion, he is not good at being able to heal teammates in higher elo games. This character is more of a DPS character in my opinion, not a support.
Makoa... oh dear, poor Makoa... I hate to put him here near the bottom of the tierlist, but due to how severe his nerfs have been in the past year, he's gone from the best tank in the game to one of the worst. His hook is no where near as reliable as it used to be, and I found that it often looks like it goes through people instead of grabbing them. And his weapon shots do minimal damage, meaning even with cauterise 3, enemy supports can outheal all of your damage meaning that you are useless. Makoa gets heavily countered by Khan and other forms of CC, as well as percentile damage. I do hope he gets a buff to his weapon shots again, as he really needs this to have any form of chance to not feed.
Torvald is not a good champion since his rework a few years ago. He used to be very good at converting enemy shields into his own while having an AoE silence ability that silenced everyone in front of him at a close range. Now he can't do any of this anymore and is an easy target for anyone to kill. His shields do provide some nice little buffs however, but considering that this now puts the team at 4v5, it often isn't worth it. Torvald needs a buff, as in a buff to his own damage and personal shield regen, the rest of his kit is fine as it is.
Atlas has always been a clunky champion. I dislike playing this character and is a very easy target to hit and kill. His weapon shoots very slow and enemy supports can easily outheal your damage, meaning it is useless. His rewind is very good against Terminus after a Terminus just uses his ult, it can make Terminus 1HP again, other than that, there is no reason to pick the champion.
c
These champions are just not good at all in any situation or map. I hope Hi-Rez reworks all 3 of these champions into something completely different.
Sha Lin feels like a potato version of Hanzo from Overwatch. Sha Lin shoots his arrows way too slow, and can be difficult to hit them too, making him completely ineffective. His ult is quite possibly the most useless ultimate in the game as it barely makes any difference. I often notice stealth bugs when playing this champion or seeing others playing it; when you withdraw with your movement ability, it's supposed to put you in stealth, it doesn't always do this, same for your ultimate.
Grohk is also a very useless champion. People often pick him against teams with lots of deployables due his maelstrom bounces being easier to hit. But even still, this character is a meme rather than an asset. Please do not pick this champion in ranked matches, it's not good at all, especially if you are considering him as a healer... just don't...
Dredge is the most inconsistent champion in the game. His projectiles can do massive damage in a short space in time, but hitting them consistently is almost unheard of. This character is a meme and should never be picked in ranked matches for any reason. Only play this in bot games if you have a battlepass challenge for him.