We'll help you tell your Willo, Ying and Yagorath from your Inara, Lex and Seris.
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Developed by Hi Rez Studios and Evil Mojo Games, the same people who brought us Smite, Paladins is a free-to-play online hero FPS (first-person shooter) game which was introduced in 2018. Paladins take place in a sci-fi fantasy world called Realm. There are elements of both fantasy and science fiction, including medieval-looking soldiers who use ranged weapons such as shotguns and assault rifles instead of swords.
The game features characters you play as called Champions, which are the classes you play as, similar to class shooters like Overwatch and Rainbow Six and Team Fortess 2. Here we go through and rank and label the best champions via Paladins Tier List.
Like in Overwatch, the class-based team shooter operates using team-based objectives, mainly centring on Payloads and Control Points. The game modes are as followed:
These game modes are important to note because different Champions excel at different points of the game. For example, a defensive frontliner can benefit better by setting up traps and planning for assaults on control points by turtling up. Meanwhile, a payload that moves around allows ranged damage dealers and flankers to use the dynamic map to their advantage. With that said, let’s delve into the Paladins Tier List.
| Champion | Class |
| Atlas | Front Line |
| Barik | Front Line |
| Bomb King | Damage |
| Cassie | Damage |
| Inara | Front Line |
| Koga | Flank |
| Makoa | Front Line |
| Vatu | Flanker |
| Vora | Flanker |
| Ying | Support |
The S Tier picks are by far the best characters in the game. They are generally the best in their given roles and are the most likely Champions to get banned in a Ranked game of Paladins.
By far the best frontliners on the Paladins Tier List based on the current patch are Atlas and. Atlas is easily the best of the bunch for control point maps or chokeholds. The reason why is because the core of Atlas’s kit is centred around placing protective barriers that repel incoming fire. It means that it forces ranged characters into Atlas’s world, which can lead to many issues if they don’t find a way around it. Not to mention that his Setback ability can cause enemy players to find themselves in awkward or exposed positions if times well. A damage dealer on Atlas’ team will thank them for putting them back in the open ready to nuke them down at a distance or on the flank.
If you would prefer a more offensive frontliner, then Makao is your choice. This turtle packs a punch with his cannon, while having all the peel you need with his shields, and a spinning turtle shell ability that launches him forward, crowd controlling enemies and making him immune. He also has a hook, meaning he is the ultimate anti-flanker. If that wasn’t enough, the spinning anchor ultimate grants him bonus health and crowd control immunity while it lasts. If you need to take over a point, Makao is your turtle.
On the other hand, Barik is another great frontline hero for capturing points. He creates a very large shield from himself while deploying turrets around sites. It means there’s so much extra pressure on those maps, especially when his team gets in control of the point. Although, he does lack offensive power, and may feel like a B Tier frontline if your team is not able to take control points. So keep in mind it only excels on skilled teams or in specific team comps.
The two best flankers in Paladins are the two edgy boys, Vatu and Koga. Koga is a character that can excel at mobility, doing incredibly strong damage with his claws. Koga has a special energy mechanic, which empowers his abilities. Spending energy can land some incredibly burst damage, especially with his ethereal movement ability preventing any pushback. As for team-based utility, he has an AOE (area of effect) ultimate that can rip entire teams apart solo if he uses it well. All it means is making sure enemy crowd controller is down before going and pressing the ability. Imagine using that ability while the enemy team is forced to push an Atlas. Ouch!
On the other hand, Vatu is the most recently added character for Paladins. The thing that makes him incredibly strong is the ability to shadow step directly to the opponent. Yes, other Flankers have movement speed or temporary dodges to allow them to close the gank. Vatu straight-up skips that part, making him the most dangerous in the gap closing market. Combine that with his close-range ability like his Shadow Bombs, and it can deal devastating single-target and multi-target damage. Also, he can act as of tank with his ultimate. Charging through enemies, dealing damage and stunning them in the process. Overall, a very flexible flanker with lots of damage. He is by far the ultimate flanker. The only downside is it means he is the Flanker most likely to get hit in battle, so pare him up with an aggressive Support like Series or Mal’Damba, and he excels even further.
Vora, on the other hand, is incredibly self-sufficient. She has plenty of CC tools from her ultimate, which can execute enemies. Furthermore, she is very disruptive, an ability that launches her in, and AOE knockback. She feels like a frontline, but with the damage of a slightly under tuned flanker. Finally, she has some incredible self heals, meaning she has many ways to carry the team and herself in fights. Although, she is by far one of the hardest to get going properly. If you are average at the game, stay clear of Vore until you feel more comfortable making plays happen.
The best damage dealers in Paladins are Cassie and Bomb King. Cassie is generally the most flexible of all the DPS characters, as her crossbow packs a punch and has a peel effect that can divert attacks away so Supports don’t need to babysit her. On top of her useful team utility, Cassie’s kick has a disengage ability, launching enemies away from her into an ideal safe spot. This is great against pretty much any flanker or frontliner. If that wasn’t enough, Dodge Roll is another tool in her death defying arsenal. Her ultimate is called Scout, which grants team-wide movement speed, useful for charging points controlled by the enemies or hunting down a team to ensure the payload moves. Or, if your team got wiped, it can be used to get everyone back into action upon respawn. Either way, her skills are very good on casual modes and Ranked alike.
Meanwhile, the Bomb King is definitely the go-to DPS Champion if you like playing objectives. Bomb King is the king of AOE damage, launching enemies around with bombs, traps and other things that go boom. Grumpy Bomb, when timed well, can stun enemies in range. Poppy Bomb also knocks back opponents. Lastly, King Bomb allows Bomb King to roll around in bomb form, becoming immune to crowd control. When it detonates, it deals incredible damage in an AOE, ignoring any shields on targets. It is easily the dam buster of the game, able to completely push entire teams off of sites. On the other hand, Bomb King can completely negate a push with its devastating King Bomb ultimate ready to go off at any moment. Either way, it is clear why we rank Bomb King so high on the Paladins Tier List.
While not an S Tier pick, Dredge can perform the role of Bomb King rather well. If you need the explosives and an AOE damage control ultimate for objectives. Dredge is a solid alternative, as Bomb King is a ban priority.
The A Tier is the bracket you’ll likely get to play more of in Ranked, as S Tier picks are the focus of picks and bans. The A Tier are the characters that are listed below are the ideal alternatives to characters in the S Tier if you want a specific style or alternative. However, do note they are not as impactful as the S Tier picks, or have a streamlined weakness to them, preventing them from being an S Tier. Also, you’ll notice there are quite a few great Supports in this section, which we’ll explain in detail.
| Champion | Class |
| Androxus | Flank |
| Ash | Front Line |
| Dredge | Damage |
| Fernando | Front Line |
| Imani | Damage |
| Io | Support |
| Khan | Front Line |
| Lex | Flanker |
| Lian | Damage |
| Mal’Damba | Support |
| Seris | Support |
| Talus | Flanker |
| Terminus | Front Line |
| Tiberius | Damage |
| Viktor | Damage |
The four best Supports in Paladins are IO, Seris, Mal’Damba and Ying. Out of the four, Ying is the only one Gaming Verdict considers S Tier and here is why.
Ying is the best, as she is the most slippery of all the supports. Her kit is designed around conjuring images of herself that heal targets, which she can later teleport to the image furthest away with her third ability, or swap places with her ultimate. They do some incredible healing output when these images get going, especially on sites like control point. A good Ying will be able to do so much, hence why her position is so high on the Paladins tier list.
However, if you prefer a much simpler style of Support, then IO is for you. She is all about healing targets directly via Moonlight’s channel heal. Also, she can stun targets with guardian spirit, great for peeling targets who are victims to a flanker. She also has the ability to get airborne to avoid any nasty flankers, evading their effective range. Lastly, she has a great disengage ultimate that knocks back targets hit.
If you like to get aggro and heal at the same time Seris is your girl. She applies Shadow Orbs to the target she hits, which later detonate for some nice bonus damage. As for her healing, the nice 1500 HP given over 1.5 seconds is very useful for anyone she wants to fix up. Also, her peel ability puts her invisible and grants movements speed, making he a great escape artist when needed to get out of a sticky situation. Finally, her ultimate Convergence makes her one of the best crowd controllers in the game. She covers an area with Convergence, which drags enemies closer and stuns them. If you need to control a point, this ultimate will do just that. Think of the possibilities with a Flanker’s or Damage Dealer’s ultimate going off at the same time. Yep, that’s a team wipe all right.
Finally, Mal’Damba is a pick that heals targets very lightly but offers so much more pressure elsewhere. He is the sort of character you want supporting a flanker, with a heal over time, a healing pool/ damage pool, and a large AOE ultimate that makes enemies fear you. Lastly, his primary weapon is a snake, that gets thrown when it runs out of ammo, if it lands, it stuns the target for a second. Which another reason why taking him to the frontline and/or flanking with him works nicely. Overall, these four supports are fantastic, each with its own niche. It is the reason why they stand out at the top of the supports in the Paladins tier list.
B Tier picks are your balanced picks and are mainly very beginner-friendly. These picks will teach you the most out of the game and are very dense in their size. What it means is you can find a playstyle you like and a role to play them in and go from there. Once when you are at that point, go ahead and look for the picks in the above tier brackets to find your main to climb ranks with! Also, if you really want to get a grip on the game, we highly recommend getting Zhin as soon as you can. Zhin is by the far the best beginner Champion in Paladins has all the tools needed to be a great flanker, while offering refunds on ultimate generation if you miss with it. That refund mechanic is basically 100% of the reason why we recommend him!
| Champion | Class |
| Drogoz | Damage |
| Corvus | Support |
| Evie | Flank |
| Furia | Support |
| Grover | Support |
| Jenos | Support |
| Kinessa | Damage |
| Octavia | Damage |
| Pip | Support |
| Raum | Front Line |
| Sha Lin | Damage |
| Strix | Damage |
| Torvald | Front Line |
| Willo | Damage |
| Yagorath | Front Line |
| Zhin | Flanker |
Sadly, these are the underpowered picks or are very very niche. Ideally avoid playing these picks if you can, especially in Ranked.
| Champion | Class |
| Buck | Flank |
| Grohk | Support |
| Maeve | Flanker |
| Moji | Flanker |
| Ruckus | Front Line |
| Skye | Flanker |
| Tyra | Damage |
| Vivian | Damage |
This concludes our Paladins tier list. We hope you enjoyed reading this. If you are a fan of the hero shooter genre, why not check out our Overwatch tier list?
