Paladins – The Drafting Guide

This is a brief drafting guide based on the last open beta patch Paladins has had: OB70!

Other Paladins Guides:

• Buck Guide.
• Lian Guide.
• Cassie Guide.
• Who is the Best Tank (Top 7 Tanks).
• Five Things to Become a Better Flanker.

Frontline

All credit goes to Prayson!

• Makoa: He has the major ability of hooking opponents that almost guarantees a kill. With the usage of Leviathan, he’ll also have the highest HP ingame and acquire complete CC immunity making his ultimate uncounterable. Makoa goes around well in all the maps which makes him a general ban or pick. However, he requires the highest skills among frontlines so pick him in ranked only if you’re extremely confident. 
• Ruckus: Ruckus is what you call a tanky damager. He has the highest damage potential among all frontlines and might almost always end up with the highest damage. He’s recommended in maps where there aren’t much places to hide, so that you can keep poking your opponents and pressurise them with your insane damage. 
• Inara: Inara is overall the most useful frontline a team can have. Her abilities help her team in combat and she herself takes up lot of damage which inturn provides cover to her teammates. She has the highest frontline banrate in below platinum matches, because her Treacherous Ground talent is considered to be annoying. She’s especially powerful in closed maps, while not a much of a problem on a map like Fish Market. 
• Terminus: Terminus performs extremely well on Brightmarsh and Jaguar falls, and is also the best counter to Inara since he denies any kind of control the opponents can have. Using Crush talent is most useful and it makes the opponents almost afraid of him. However, he should be completely avoided in maps where he would have to move around a lot. 
• Khan: Firing Line is the only talent that should be used with Khan. While all other talents are barely useful, this talent makes him the monster he is by providing complete CC Immunity. He’s an excellent support tank and is very useful on maps where he can make use of his ultimate and commander’s grab, like Frog Isle and Ascension Peak. The only problem with him is he lacks DPS, so pick him only if you feel your team can do neccessary damage. 
• Fernando: Fernando is the frontline with the best zoning capability, where you can push and harass opponent damagers and also be able to retreat back safely. With Scorch talent you can punish a grouped up team very hard while also not affecting your self sustain. He’s a must pick when opponents have access to neither Terminus or Khan. 
• Barik: Just like Ruckus, he’s at the 2nd place for being a DPS tank. He should never be picked against area denial damagers: Drogoz, Bomb King, Tyra and Willo. His abilities provide decent crowd control for the team and he has good self sustain. Brightmarsh is the best map for him. 
• Torvald: Torvald is a tank that made it’s way from top to bottom to top and then back to bottom. While his abilities make him the best support tank by him bubbling the victim and nullifying the flank, he’s still outclassed by other frontlines. But again, he’s a whole different champion on Frog Isle so that’s the only map where you must chose him. 
• Ash: People play her because of the amazing hitbox her left click has, but all other 4 abilities of her are the worst a frontline has. She has a mini ult of fernando and a shield that can be avoided. Her other 2 abilities are focused on knocking opponents, which makes her a top tier frontline on Frog Isle and Fish market where you can send opponents flying.

Damager

• Cassie: Cassie is undoubtedly the best DPS ingame with her Impulse talent. She has a very high damage burst and what makes her special is that the burst is instant. If your team has the first ban, then get her if the opponents don’t ban her. 
• Shalin: Shalin also has a very high damage burst which however isn’t instant. He’s also the toughest target for a flank to kill, even after the flank grabs Illuminate. Bigger the map, tougher it gets to deal with him. 
• Bomb King: He’s the toughest damager to play ingame so don’t play him just for the sake of it. He’s especially effective in closed maps where area control is the major priorirty, like Brightmarsh. He can also 2-3 shot every flank except Buck, so a good Bomb King can always be disruptive. 
• Strix and Kinessa: These are the only two snipers ingame and it’s really not possible to declare one better than the other. To decide which is better, you must decide which abilities would be more useful: Teleporting and Slowing or Flaring and Shooting. They’re the best 2 picks on Timber Mill, and giving away one of these to the other team without having one of these in your teams pretty much decides the outcome. 
• Drogoz: Drogoz can do hell lot of damage, but is a very situational pick. You can have him as last pick if opponents have not more than 1 hitscan counter to him. With Fussilade, he can 2 shot every flank and Androxus is the only flank with the potential to directly counter him. 
• Willo: Willo is another situational pick. She’s highly useful in tight objective maps like Brightmarsh and Jaguar falls but is also an easy target to a flank champion. 
• Tyra: The same goes with Tyra, except that she’s more of a frontline destroyer and easier of a victim. 
• Viktor: Viktor has the Hustle ability which makes him no different than a flank, he can be a major problem with the right build and insane gameplay. 
• Vivian: Vivian should be picked only when opponents have no flanks and you feel your frontlines can provide enough cover to you.

Flank

• Zhin: With the number of bans he gets, it’s not worth considering that Zhin still exists. He’s the true flank king with 3 survivablity abilities that make him extremely hard to deal with, so yeah pick him if he’s somehow magically not banned. 
• Androxus & Evie: They’re both high tier flanks like Zhin, but not everyone can be good at them. They require extremely high skills and also have the highest mobility, the thing which flanks actually need. Noob ones can make you curse their moms, pro ones can make you suck their balls. 
• Buck: Buck is a tanky flank with wonderful abilities that can make him a pain, the above 3 flanks are the only ones that can outclass him. You need to pick both Cauterize and Resilence to effectively counter him. 
• Maeve: What keeps Maeve at mid tier is her Street Justice talent. She’s especially hated in lower tiers where her movements make the opponents get scared but other than that she’s all normal. 
• Talus: Talus is a bugged champion as of now, you can still chose him if there’s one target that completely has to be destroyed, but there’s no reason to pick him over the above mentioned flanks. 
• Moji: Moji made her way from the top to the bottom with the cooldown nerfs. She’s still highly overrated in low tier matches. Moji can be picked in maps without much high ground. 
• Skye: You’ll come across people going like “Trust me”. Never trust them. They’ve cursed you with a defeat pre-match. Good skyes don’t exist independently, they turn good with noob opponents.

Support

• Seris: “Ban Seris” is what some people go around saying, you can proceed with that if your team has a skilled Maldamba in it. Seris has wonderful abilities and an ultimate that makes many other ultimates godlike. She’s a risky pick when your teammates don’t give a damn about protecting their healer, and all the opponents want is your meat. 
• Maldamba: For supports, he’s the hardest champion to play. His tool kit make him extremely viable, with 2 abilities meant for healing and the special ability to stun after reload. He can even handle flanks in certain cases all by his own. 
• Jenos: Jenos is the easiest healer to play, and yet just 1 level below the other 2. He heals the marked players for 220 health per second, so he isn’t really the clutchy healer to have. Celestial Touch or Luminary is another controversial debate for Jenos, and with self damage buff for luminary gone, luminary is no more the correct answer. 
• Ying: She’s at the bottom of these 4 main healers, but she has the capability to have the same healing as Jenos with her ultimate. Good Yings always buy Morale boost! 
• Pip: Pip can indeed be a good healer, but that’s in a highly cooperating team that stacks champions on the offense and defense. He’s highly customizable and can be turned into a monster flank in maps with high ground, especially Serpent Beach. 
• Grover: With Efflorescence, he can actually have a high healing output. But again, you’re better off playing him as a sniper on Timber Mill. People won’t trust you with the healing part. 
• Grohk: Grohk is a situational pick, you can have a super high impact with the Totemic Ward talent if teammates are super focused on protecting your totem. But again, that happens only in proplay. Grohk is better off being a damager with Maelstrom talent.