| Revision as of 15:19, 27 May 2017 edit116.251.166.47 (talk) →Card loadouts← Previous edit | Revision as of 15:23, 27 May 2017 edit undo116.251.166.47 (talk) →Card loadoutsNext edit → | ||
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| Legendary Cards are specialized cards that are not bound to a card loadout. They function as standalone cards and are heavily influential to a champion's playstyle, providing significant effects to a certain skill or a champion's inhand weapon etc. Players are free to choose which cards they wish to use and alter how effective they are to suit their individual playstyles. | Legendary Cards are specialized cards that are not bound to a card loadout. They function as standalone cards and are heavily influential to a champion's playstyle, providing significant effects to a certain skill or a champion's inhand weapon etc. Players are free to choose which cards they wish to use and alter how effective they are to suit their individual playstyles. | ||
| Each champion has 19 cards exclusive to them, which consist of 3 Legendary Cards and 16 loadout cards. One default Legendary Card and a pre-made 'basic' champion loadout consisting of 5 |
Each champion has 19 cards exclusive to them, which consist of 3 Legendary Cards and 16 loadout cards. One default Legendary Card and a pre-made 'basic' champion loadout consisting of 5 default cards are available at the start for new players to use. Players can obtain additional cards with the use of 'Essence', which can be earned in-game as a third currency by rolling duplicate items in treasure chests or 'disenchanting' non-default cards the player owns. | ||
| At the start of a match, players are to select one Legendary Card followed by their card loadout. Legendary Cards and card loadouts cannot be changed when the player has exited the spawn room once the match's first round |
At the start of a match, players are to select one Legendary Card followed by their card loadout. Legendary Cards and card loadouts cannot be changed when the player has exited the spawn room once the match's first round has begun. | ||
| ===Champions and roles=== | ===Champions and roles=== | ||
Revision as of 15:23, 27 May 2017
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| Paladins: Champions of the Realm | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Hi-Rez Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Hi-Rez Studios |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 3 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One macOS |
| Release | 16 September 2016 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Paladins: Champions of the Realm (Paladins), is a free-to-play multiplayer Hero shooter video game released in open beta on September 16, 2016 by Hi-Rez Studios.
Closed beta began on November 17, 2015. The game went into open beta on September 16, 2016. The game also went into open beta on both consoles on May 3, 2017.
Gameplay
Card loadouts
Paladins' prominent gameplay customization aspect is its card system: which features card loadouts and special 'Legendary Cards'. A card loadout is comprised of five cards; these cards can augment a champion with passive bonuses (e.g. enhanced movement speed, increased health) or affect their abilities (e.g. reduced cooldowns, longer effect times). Players can create and customize their own loadouts for each champion, for a total of five custom loadouts. Each card possesses four levels of increasing effectiveness, which can be adjusted by the player by investing loadout points for each card. Loadouts must consist of five cards that amount to a maximum of 12 points, exceeding this amount will otherwise invalidate the loadout and it will not be available for saving or use in gameplay. Paladins features a card loadout importing system that allows players to view and copy loadouts created by other players.
Legendary Cards are specialized cards that are not bound to a card loadout. They function as standalone cards and are heavily influential to a champion's playstyle, providing significant effects to a certain skill or a champion's inhand weapon etc. Players are free to choose which cards they wish to use and alter how effective they are to suit their individual playstyles.
Each champion has 19 cards exclusive to them, which consist of 3 Legendary Cards and 16 loadout cards. One default Legendary Card and a pre-made 'basic' champion loadout consisting of 5 default cards are available at the start for new players to use. Players can obtain additional cards with the use of 'Essence', which can be earned in-game as a third currency by rolling duplicate items in treasure chests or 'disenchanting' non-default cards the player owns.
At the start of a match, players are to select one Legendary Card followed by their card loadout. Legendary Cards and card loadouts cannot be changed when the player has exited the spawn room once the match's first round has begun.
Champions and roles
Paladins provides various characters, called champions, for the players to choose during their multiplayer sessions. Each of these champions fall into one of the following categories: Front Line, Damage, Support and Flank. Being a team-based shooter, players must rely on strategy, character knowledge, coordination and teamwork in order to attain victory. Players may use VGS, along with text and and voice chat to communicate. A good team will have a balanced choice of classes that will support each other during the game.
- Front Line: Champions who serve as the anchor of the team, holding the front and protecting their allies. With high health pools and shielding capabilities, Front Line champions excel at blocking enemy fire and disrupting enemy objective captures.
- Damage: Champions who possess reliable and consistent damage outputs or large burst damage potential. Their damage, coupled with average health pools and decent mobility, make Damage champions ideal for skirmishes and extended firefights.
- Support: Champions with high utility and healing abilities, the backbone of any team. Due to their healing capabilities that keep their team in the fight, Support champions are invaluable allies.
- Flank: Champions who excel at traversing the battlefield and getting behind enemy lines, eliminating vulnerable key targets. While most Flank champions are relatively frail, having lower health pools than any other role, their excellent mobility and self-sustain provide them with the means of escape and survival.
There are 26 champions in Paladins, 8 of which are available from the start for new players to choose. More are slated for release in 2017.
Game modes
There are different gameplay modes for Paladins:
- Siege: The 'main' Paladins game mode, teams are tasked to first capture the map's central capture point and, if successful, push a payload that spawns from it to the enemy base. This mode is played in a best-of-five format.
- Payload: An attacking team is tasked with escorting a payload through an extended railroad track to push it as far as they can, or to the end goal, while a defending team thwarts their progress. A push is halted if the both teams engage in combat near the payload and it slowly moves backwards if no one on the attacking team is nearby to push it, though push progress the team has accumulated is not lost. Once time runs out or if the payload is pushed to the destination, teams switch attack/defense roles. The winner is determined by the team that pushes the payload the furthest, with the attacking team setting the bar in the first round. If the attacking team in the second round are able to push the payload the same distance as the first team, the former wins the game.
- Survival: Teams try to outlast each other on a relatively small map with no respawning until the next round, all the while avoiding deathly fog that closes in from the outer edges of the map. The fog deals percentage-based damage of a champion's maximum health and negates all healing while a champion is in it, foiling long term stall tactics. The fog starts at the edge of the map, which starts closing in after a short delay until it reaches the map's epicenter, where any surviving champions are forced to do battle. This mode is played in a best-of-six format.
- Co-op: A player versus environment game mode, a team of five face off against an AI-controlled team that possess extremely high health and damaging attacks, as well as modified abilities. The objective in each PvE map vary from capturing an objective in a Siege game (where the mode is simplified so that only capturing the point is necessary) or a Survival game. This game mode has been temporarily retired.
Competitive
The Competitive game mode is unlocked for players once they have 12 champions over Mastery level 4. Competitive only features the Siege game mode. However, at the start of the match, players must choose their champions one by one. First one player chooses. Then, 2 players from the opposing team choose. Then 2 players from the team opposing the last choose. This continues until the last player (from the team opposing the one that has first pick) has a role. This challenges the teams to try and counter-build each other by specifically choosing certain champions. Competitive games also affects a player's Competitive rating. Having a rating between 3500-4000 gives a Platinum frame (colored purple), 4000-4500 gives a Diamond frame (colored blue) and 4500+ gives a Grand Master (steel borders with Amethyst-style corners).
Reception
Within a week of its release on Steam, the game had attracted 800,000 downloads according to Steam Spy and was one of the top 10 most popular games by concurrent users on the service.
In response to accusations that the game is an Overwatch clone, Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris said that "Overwatch was not the inspiration for Paladins", and "the game that deserves the most credit is Team Fortress 2".
References
- "Champions - Official Paladins Wiki". paladins.gamepedia.com. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
- Oliver Cragg (2016-09-23). "Overwatch 'clone' Paladins takes Steam by storm with over 750k downloads". International Business Times. Retrieved 2016-10-22.
- Phillips, Tom (2016-09-16). "Paladins open beta launch trailer reminds us a lot of Overwatch". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
- Jonathon Dornbush (2016-09-20). "Paladins Developer Responds to Overwatch Comparisons". IGN. Retrieved 2016-10-22.