More Paladins Fun

I did a video. My mic was off, so you don’t get to hear me speak but if you are curious about the gameplay or anything of that nature it’s a fun Siege match that goes to 4 points. 1 point for capturing the objective, and 1 for the payload status (if you get it to the end point you get another point, if it is successfully defended the other team gets a point.) This was one of those “wow, we really kicked butt in the first round – I should record this!” thoughts and then I did decide to record it. And then of course the inevitable happened.

Without voice it does lack my paladin-splaining on much of what is going on but I do think most of it is self explanatory. I’ve never been one for streaming or recording and this won’t change much but thought it would be fun for a nice change of pace. I am playing Ying, a fun, illusion based healer.

I love lists and plans and serial gaming – and Paladins really helps with that. I make enough in game gold playing a character to level 5 to buy another character (more or less, so it seems) and that has been my plan. I have one of each type (Flanker, Front Line, Damage, Support) in the leveling process to 5 at any time and I fill the hole most needed for the team. Once they hit 5 I buy another champion of that category and start again. Rinse, repeat. Like most matchmaking games, perfect matchmaking would have you win / lose at 50% of the time when you hit the level where you belong. Much like League of Legends, Paladins uses the ELO system. There is also a really handy third party website (paladins.guru) that pulls your stats.

How am I doing by role?

My flanker win rate was much higher until I started leveling a flanker (Lex) without invisibility or a more clear escape mechanism. I was trending in the 70%+, but coming back down to earth. Not as many players pick support or front lines and I happen to really enjoy both roles. Sometimes in the Front Line role I get stuck playing WITHOUT a healer often which really makes the W/L hard there. Front Liners do not have a lot of built in sustain where a support / healer can still shine healing a bunch of damage dealers. I really suck in the Damage role and I think that is because I lack map awareness. As a Front Liner lacking map awareness is less deadly as you can take a few hits before going down. Support can often heal themselves at least once before it happens. Flankers have escape mechanisms. Damage are more of the sitting ducks and if you get caught on a flank or not paying attention you are a goner. It is also the quickest locked-in role so I don’t get to practice as much. I have a feeling I will have maxed out all the Support and Front Lines before I truly get to dig into the Damage class.

Here is my overall playtime, Win Loss, and K/D/A. Reading this tells me I should still climb to a bit higher of competitive level. It also isn’t a pure indication as I am constantly learning new champions.

I love data. Here are the champs I have been using and how I have done with each:

Based on my previous comment about constantly learning new champions if all I played was Skye, Grover, and Ying it looks like I would be 23-10 with lots of room to climb. Still, I firmly believe that you can’t learn to beat a champion unless you have walked 5 levels in their shoes and I plan on continuing just that. You also get a lot more chests by leveling up (there is an overall level tied to you, and a mastery level tied to each champion) so it’s a quicker and easier path to new cards, skins, and other opportunities for growth. As you can see it takes around 2 hours of playtime to get one to mastery level 5.  You need 12 champions level 4 or higher to take part in competitive, so some time left in casual before I can start playing with the big kids.

The business model isn’t bad, but not great either. My most interested part is building out new decks to customize and personalize the champions for gameplay. That costs essence, of which you can only get by getting duplicate cards. Building a legendary card costs 12,000 essence (which fundamentally changes the way a champion plays, and is hella fun) and you get between 250-500 essence per duplicate card. New to the game, I do not get a lot of duplicate cards, meaning I could probably play another month or so before really getting to the point where every card is essence based. There is no way to buy essence – I find that a miss and have since learned that it never existed in the game before open beta 42 or 44. This tells me that the company was not happy with the profitability and are trying to find creative ways to change that.

There are few ways to spend money. The first is $19.99 to unlock all current and future champions. I like keeping focused on my unlocks as it forces me to practice and learn champions as I go. You can buy crystals which you can ‘boost’ your character with, gaining faster XP, money, extra cards on unlocks, etc. I hate the way they do boosts because it is done on a time basis (7 or 14 days) and I feel like I would not be able to maximize my time under boost so I wouldn’t get the same value. I would probably buy a boost if it were for a set number of matches, for example.

Crystals also unlock special skins – some are crystals only while others are gold or crystals. You can also upgrade keys to your Radiant Chests to enhance them, giving you a better chance of getting something spiffy. At the end of the day right now I find myself wanting to give Hi-Rez some well earned cash but not sure where to spend it to feel good, so I am just holding onto it until something becomes clear. I don’t want to buy a skin yet for a character I am only playing for 5 levels – and for the record, in all the loot boxes I have earned i have only received one armor piece (a chest, for Ash, a character I don’t play yet. There are skins and armor sets so you can get weapon, body, or head upgrades).

I think I would spend more if the business model was more like League of Legends (who does F2P the best, in my opinion) as of right now I am still trying to understand the relative values between the currencies and opportunities. The good news is, I am just having a ton of fun with this game and I will continue to play it until such time I can sort out how to support it financially.