Paladins is now free-to-play on Switch

I played Overwatch for a while, and one thing it had going was quite a lot of clarity about skills and heroes, while Paladins gives me the Dota vibe where each character does its own thing but they overlap in some way and some skills aren't self explanatory and so on. I guess it's fine for a quick deathmatch, but I'm not feeling it too much. I've also played Dota 2 in the past and I know the appeal, it's not a con, it's just that I'd like to know at all the times who I am facing and what they could do, but it's hard af with so many charas.

Satuprinssi said:

I played Overwatch for a while, and one thing it had going was quite a lot of clarity about skills and heroes, while Paladins gives me the Dota vibe where each character does its own thing but they overlap in some way and some skills aren't self explanatory and so on. I guess it's fine for a quick deathmatch, but I'm not feeling it too much. I've also played Dota 2 in the past and I know the appeal, it's not a con, it's just that I'd like to know at all the times who I am facing and what they could do, but it's hard af with so many charas.

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I was about to post something similar. When playing Overwatch, I learned how to distinguish all the characters that are on the screen relatively quick. I'm having a hard time with that in Paladins because at least for me, they kinda blend in together too much besides a few characters. I'm still enjoying it somewhat as a game that's scratching that Overwatch itch for the Switch.

We need a Switch OT (or converting this one) to share our friend codes in order to make the progression faster. You have an increasing of like the 20-30% of the experience with a friend in your team!

Waffle said:

I was about to post something similar. When playing Overwatch, I learned how to distinguish all the characters that are on the screen relatively quick. I'm having a hard time with that in Paladins because at least for me, they kinda blend in together too much besides a few characters. I'm still enjoy it somewhat as a game that's scratching that Overwatch itch for the Switch.

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I understand it if you're just getting into the game, since there are a LOT of characters, way more than in overwatch, so getting to know what everyone can do is difficult.

For me, it wasn't that hard, as I started playing when the steam beta came out and it only had about 17 or so characters, so I've always gotten a chance to get used to new characters.

One thing you can do to know what everyone does though, is go into the shooting range and try out each character (if you have them unlocked) and see what they do. If you don't have them though, just try to pay attention to the Legendary/talent a character is using, thats what mostly dictate their playstyle. Another thing you can check during the match is bring up the scoreboard and check the cards, but for this you would need to know the art, i guess.

selo said:

I understand it if you're just getting into the game, since there are a LOT of characters, way more than in overwatch, so getting to know what everyone can do is difficult.

For me, it wasn't that hard, as I started playing when the steam beta came out and it only had about 17 or so characters, so I've always gotten a chance to get used to new characters.

One thing you can do to know what everyone does though, is go into the shooting range and try out each character (if you have them unlocked) and see what they do. If you don't have them though, just try to pay attention to the Legendary/talent a character is using, thats what mostly dictate their playstyle. Another thing you can check during the match is bring up the scoreboard and check the cards, but for this you would need to know the art, i guess.

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Yeah I'm still very new to it all. I just have it to auto buy the cards for now while I get used to the game. Not exactly sure what the Legendary/Talent is. Is that what you're telling me to check in the scoreboard?

Soul Lab said:

When a game starts you can choose one of four talents (one is unlocked from the start) the others are unlocked if you gain exp with the champion through playing a lot with the champion.
For example. victor has a talent that increaes his damage while shooting "in scope modr".

And don't mix up cards (decks) with items.
you can create a deck loadout by your own in the champions menu in the main screen. Then you can choose one of your deck loadouts at the beginning of the game (like the talent).
The items are purchased in a match with money you earn in a match

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Ah gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

Waffle said:

Yeah I'm still very new to it all. I just have it to auto buy the cards for now while I get used to the game. Not exactly sure what the Legendary/Talent is. Is that what you're telling me to check in the scoreboard?

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Also, whenever you can, try experimenting with autobuy off. This is a pretty good guide in case you're unfamiliar with what they do
https://www.reddit.com/r/Paladins/comments/88qoxw/items_and_you_the_complete_item_guide/

Basically:
blue: defense
yellow: utility
green: healing
red: offense

Its always a good idea to start with cauterize, you can never go wrong with it, even if the other team doesn't have a healer (????) a lot of characters have self healing, so, always useful. If I'm damage, I always try to get cauterize to level 2 before going off to the other items, of course, this depends on the other team, if they have many shields, your team should at least have 1 person focus on wrecker.

Some characters do very good with life rip for self sustain (damage/flank), others with kill to heal. Tanks mostly benefit with rejuvenation.

I also start to like it very much. It plays great, just the F2P factor is a little bit too aggressive in my opinion with the game constantly shoving you the pay button in your face whenever it can. Wish you could unlock a little bit more for free.

Bought the Battle Pass now and I hope it's easy doable beside Fortnite. I wish one of these BP games would be an exception and not rely on the player putting all their free time into it to getting it completed. I understand that these games want to bind you you to their game but fuck, with making it too grind heavy they are rather pushing me away instead of binding me to it. I would respect one of these games so much more when I could easy finish this whole thing with playing 2-3 times in a week inside a month while it still runs for 3, I would be so much more willing to spend my money for the BP in that way. But let's see.

I noticed something very interesting with this game, I never had problems with the Joycon stick before, always thought they are absolutely fine if not just the same as on the controller but holy shit was I wrong. Being in the shooting training area and live switching between controller and Joycon is like day and night. Aiming with the Joycon sticks is awfully bad and hard while on the pro controller it feels fantastic. What a difference.

selo said:

Also, whenever you can, try experimenting with autobuy off. This is a pretty good guide in case you're unfamiliar with what they do
https://www.reddit.com/r/Paladins/comments/88qoxw/items_and_you_the_complete_item_guide/

Basically:
blue: defense
yellow: utility
green: healing
red: offense

Its always a good idea to start with cauterize, you can never go wrong with it, even if the other team doesn't have a healer (????) a lot of characters have self healing, so, always useful. If I'm damage, I always try to get cauterize to level 2 before going off to the other items, of course, this depends on the other team, if they have many shields, your team should at least have 1 person focus on wrecker.

Some characters do very good with life rip for self sustain (damage/flank), others with kill to heal. Tanks mostly benefit with rejuvenation.

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Awesome. Will start playing around with this the next time I play. Thanks for all the info :D

I found this overwhelming to start with. Stumbled into a map, not really sure of my character and whether they are good or not. The actual in game aspect felt detached, imprecise and... well, not good.

When you're coming in to this off the back of Splatoon 2, it isn't really that hot. Can't see myself booting this up again.

fourfourfun said:

I found this overwhelming to start with. Stumbled into a map, not really sure of my character and whether they are good or not. The actual in game aspect felt detached, imprecise and... well, not good.

When you're coming in to this off the back of Splatoon 2, it isn't really that hot. Can't see myself booting this up again.

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Well, that's why it has a training area where you can test out your characters and switch around. Or a whole menu point where you can look at every character and their abilities. If you directly join into multiplayer matches, your fault I guess.

I think my favourite thing to do in this game is playing Onslaught mode using Fernando.

I generally suck at FPSs these days, so I am always looking for some way to join in that doesn't involve killing the shit out of the other team. (This is why I love Splatoon)

Occupying the area with Fernando's shield ability and soaking up hundreds of bullets while protecting my team mates and then unleashing the flamethrower at close range is just heaps of fun. I find that my team rarely loses when I play onslaught mode compared to when I play in other modes.

Anyone else do this?

Just unlocked Koga im feeling this game so far.

I downloaded this 2 days ago and apparently already have 8+ hours. (Sorry Octopath) It's so refreshing to feel good at a shooter again after playing Fortnite for a whole season. In a weakened state, I bought the season pass because who doesn't like progression.

I'm currently sat at around 75K, trying to decide what Heros to buy. Is there any way to try them out without them being on rotation? I've decided I'm buying Buck as he's killing machine!

I've been playing every day since launch and having a blast completing my dialy quests. I'm contemplating signing up for this seasons battlepass since I've had so much enjoyment with the game so far. Is it worth the asking price?

Gave it a go- man, I feel so bad for people who actually paid money for this! What a turd of a game. Everything looks and feels so rough.

Minky said:

Gave it a go- man, I feel so bad for people who actually paid money for this! What a turd of a game. Everything looks and feels so rough.

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Really? That's odd since it runs nice and smooth in handheld mode for me.

choodi said:

Really? That's odd since it runs nice and smooth in handheld mode for me.

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Yeah I'm dumbfounded. The game feels amazingly fluid. The graphics aren't the worst either. I downloaded it on PS4 Pro just to see how it compares and the Switch version is not a huge downgrade compared to those systems. I went back to the Switch version really impressed with what they did.

choodi said:

I think my favourite thing to do in this game is playing Onslaught mode using Fernando.

I generally suck at FPSs these days, so I am always looking for some way to join in that doesn't involve killing the shit out of the other team. (This is why I love Splatoon)

Occupying the area with Fernando's shield ability and soaking up hundreds of bullets while protecting my team mates and then unleashing the flamethrower at close range is just heaps of fun. I find that my team rarely loses when I play onslaught mode compared to when I play in other modes.

Anyone else do this?

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When I play Frontline a prefer ruckus

choodi said:

Really? That's odd since it runs nice and smooth in handheld mode for me.

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Sure it runs fine, 60FPS is nice to have, but I'm talking about the visuals and gameplay in general. Not necessarily from a technical standpoint but more design-wise. As far as gunplay, strategies and different character classes go, it all seems super flat to me; no real variety or excitement. I didn't feel there was any need to swap out heroes depending on the situation, or to create a particular team dynamic to reach an objective; just mash the fire button until you win. With other hero shooters it feels like both those things are part and parcel of the experience, but I saw none of that here.
And the graphical style just strikes me as derivative and generic... I'm trying so hard not to draw parallels to Overwatch, but it's hard not to. I can't really pick out anything that's especially unique about it, nothing stands out and I got super bored just looking at it.
But that's just me, if others are enjoying it then good for them.

Minky said:

it all seems super flat to me; no real variety or excitement.

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Yes, this echoes what I feel. As I said, I came into this from the dynamic immediacy of Splatoon and it feels so sludgy and detached. A proper baptism of fire too. I can't see myself putting any hours into this when I have a much better competitive shooter at hand.

Gotta be honest, now I've played the game a bit I got kinda interested into actually buying into the founder pack, that interest quickly dwindled when I saw that the pack isn't available but instead the game offers a all-character pack that does not include all the extra goodies and all the voice packs the founder thing offered, plus it's offered at a price point which requires you to put way more money into the game to get enough of the crystal currency to buy the pack than the original more-inclusive founder pack cost.

If they actually made it clear at the original announcement that you were getting a "good" deal and a all character pack would cost you more money for less value, I would've actually considered biting the bullet and getting the founders pack early. But now I just can't commit to this "bad" deal at all out of principle and I honestly find it very sketchy they didn't make a bigger deal out of it in the first place. I'm mostly just disappointed, though I guess I should be happy for my wallet that these shady business practices keeps me away from another potential money sink.

Minky said:

Sure it runs fine, 60FPS is nice to have, but I'm talking about the visuals and gameplay in general. Not necessarily from a technical standpoint but more design-wise. As far as gunplay, strategies and different character classes go, it all seems super flat to me; no real variety or excitement. I didn't feel there was any need to swap out heroes depending on the situation, or to create a particular team dynamic to reach an objective; just mash the fire button until you win. With other hero shooters it feels like both those things are part and parcel of the experience, but I saw none of that here.
And the graphical style just strikes me as derivative and generic... I'm trying so hard not to draw parallels to Overwatch, but it's hard not to. I can't really pick out anything that's especially unique about it, nothing stands out and I got super bored just looking at it.
But that's just me, if others are enjoying it then good for them.

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Early games will likely feel quite flat to be fair as you're against bots until level 5. Once I hit level 10 or so the actual nuance of character selections and teamwork started to come through a lot more.

It's definitely lacking the flair and polish of overwatch. Stuff like the Top Plays feel quite flat. The biggest flaw is the people playing it, just like Overwatch. People too worried about K/D to actually try and win.

It swings a lot now I've reached a higher account level - a huge number of players are actually worse than bots, while others are quite co-ordinated. I'm getting hamstrung a lot with teams today that simply refuse to go anywhere near the objective or stick together in siege.

ghostcrew said:

Honestly, there were barely any extra goodies. Yes you got voice packs but really... they're not that exciting. You got a couple of skins. The pack is the pack and the same price as it's always cost on every other platform. It's not a bad deal. There were just some bonuses for early adopters. Like a pre-order bonus. I think it's a stretch to say it's a 'shady business practice'.

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The founders pack was 25 bucks. You need to at least put 33 bucks in to get enough crystals to buy the character pack with less stuff (character pack is 1800 crystals, conveniently priced outside the 1500 crystal pack that's being sold for 25 bucks, so you'll either have to opt for a extra 400 for 8 bucks, getting you the character pack for 33 bucks, or get the "better value" option with the 2500 crystal pack which will get you the character pack and a whole bunch of crystals I never wanted in the first place). The whole system is perfectly set up to gouge the player, so I think it's completely fair to say it was 'shady' of them to not warn people how much worse the situation would be after the F2P version would come out. For me it definitely pushed it into the "bad deal" territory, to each their own of course.

How is this game guys?

MrPanic said:

that interest quickly dwindled when I saw that the pack isn't available but instead the game offers a all-character pack that does not include all the extra goodies and all the voice packs the founder thing offered

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I am glad I bought the founders pack at launch for 13$ :)

ghostcrew said:

It's great

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Teamed based online... or can you play solo?

Well time to try it again

Duffking said:

Early games will likely feel quite flat to be fair as you're against bots until level 5. Once I hit level 10 or so the actual nuance of character selections and teamwork started to come through a lot more.

It's definitely lacking the flair and polish of overwatch. Stuff like the Top Plays feel quite flat. The biggest flaw is the people playing it, just like Overwatch. People too worried about K/D to actually try and win.

It swings a lot now I've reached a higher account level - a huge number of players are actually worse than bots, while others are quite co-ordinated. I'm getting hamstrung a lot with teams today that simply refuse to go anywhere near the objective or stick together in siege.

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I'm level 7 right now and quite honestly, when your teammates don't do what they are supposed to do it gest quite hard. I just had a match in onslaught where our frontline (a rockus) never and I mean never stayed on point. I was playing seris (using a deck focused on healing) and we had a strix, a Viktor and a Lex. So I had a hard time trying to heal all my teammates that were spread out all over the map expect on the capture point. Oh well.
Oh, I tried Barik tonight and it's a lot of fun to play. Spam turrets, deploy shield and shoot everything that comes close. Nice.

MrPanic said:

Gotta be honest, now I've played the game a bit I got kinda interested into actually buying into the founder pack, that interest quickly dwindled when I saw that the pack isn't available but instead the game offers a all-character pack that does not include all the extra goodies and all the voice packs the founder thing offered, plus it's offered at a price point which requires you to put way more money into the game to get enough of the crystal currency to buy the pack than the original more-inclusive founder pack cost.

If they actually made it clear at the original announcement that you were getting a "good" deal and a all character pack would cost you more money for less value, I would've actually considered biting the bullet and getting the founders pack early. But now I just can't commit to this "bad" deal at all out of principle and I honestly find it very sketchy they didn't make a bigger deal out of it in the first place. I'm mostly just disappointed, though I guess I should be happy for my wallet that these shady business practices keeps me away from another potential money sink.

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For one early adopters didn't get the shaft!

i hope that they put in game chat like fortnite did and merge the accounts, I will not buy the same game again =(

Nightside said:

I'm level 7 right now and quite honestly, when your teammates don't do what they are supposed to do it gest quite hard. I just had a match in onslaught where our frontline (a rockus) never and I mean never stayed on point. I was playing seris (using a deck focused on healing) and we had a strix, a Viktor and a Lex. So I had a hard time trying to heal all my teammates that were spread out all over the map expect on the capture point. Oh well.
Oh, I tried Barik tonight and it's a lot of fun to play. Spam turrets, deploy shield and shoot everything that comes close. Nice.

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I really enjoy playing Inara but the number of times I've had to pick something else last moment because we had no healers is so annoying. I can survive for ages in a fight with her but need heals eventually otherwise I have to hide for fucking ages waiting for health to come back.

Duffking said:

I really enjoy playing Inara but the number of times I've had to pick something else last moment because we had no healers is so annoying. I can survive for ages in a fight with her but need heals eventually otherwise I have to hide for fucking ages waiting for health to come back.

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I was thinking for my next champion to unlock a support character. But I don't know if wait until I have enough money to unlock seris (she won't be on rotation for ever) or try someone else (like pip for example)

Minky said:

Sure it runs fine, 60FPS is nice to have, but I'm talking about the visuals and gameplay in general. Not necessarily from a technical standpoint but more design-wise. As far as gunplay, strategies and different character classes go, it all seems super flat to me; no real variety or excitement. I didn't feel there was any need to swap out heroes depending on the situation, or to create a particular team dynamic to reach an objective; just mash the fire button until you win. With other hero shooters it feels like both those things are part and parcel of the experience, but I saw none of that here.
And the graphical style just strikes me as derivative and generic... I'm trying so hard not to draw parallels to Overwatch, but it's hard not to. I can't really pick out anything that's especially unique about it, nothing stands out and I got super bored just looking at it.
But that's just me, if others are enjoying it then good for them.

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How long did you play for? Did you make it past level 5? (Bot matches before that). There are many new players on switch and many of them don't know what they're doing or what they're supposed to do yet, I think it means the exact opposite of what you're saying, that this is more nuanced.

There is a lot of strategy at play, apart from skill. You begin a match, and depending on the enemy team, you pick a different specialty card (with the exception of a fee chars that have a really good talent that you always go for). Then you pick a loadout, usually to complement your talent and then there's another layer of strategy with the items.

Once you unlock ranked, there's even another layer of strategy to the games, as there is a drafting phase. Each team can ban up to 2 characters and it varies if course depending on the map you play on.

So yeah, gameplay is not flat at all and there is tons of variety, way more than in OW.

Regarding your opinion on the art though, subjective, but I can see where you're coming from.

Nightside said:

I was thinking for my next champion to unlock a support character. But I don't know if wait until I have enough money to unlock seris (she won't be on rotation for ever) or try someone else (like pip for example)

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I've enjoyed using Jenos quite a bit, though he's very susceptible to mobile flankers (many healers are to be fair). Big plus is he has continous damage output though it's not high, can trap enemies in the air making it easy for your team to target them, and his heal works through walls and lasts quite a while (with Chronos you can have 2 up at once quite easily). Picking cards to buff your heals works nicely, particularly duration, range and cooldown.

Furia is a lot of fun too if you want to be more aggressive.

Seris is great as well though not used much, so probably can't go wrong spending your gold there.

Minky said:

I didn't feel there was any need to swap out heroes depending on the situation, or to create a particular team dynamic to reach an objective; just mash the fire button until you win.

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That statement just proves that you have no idea how the game works and would need to actually learn the systems to have a valid criticism. At higher level play every single member and their powers and the mods you buy as the game progresses matters in the extreme. Few games are as punishing as Paladins for being played incorrectly.

Cynn said:

That statement just proves that you have no idea how the game works and would need to actually learn the systems to have a valid criticism. At higher level play every single member and their powers and the mods you buy as the game progresses matters in the extreme. Few games are as punishing as Paladins for being played incorrectly.

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He could be playing Vivian, though ;)

Lonely1 said:

He could be playing Vivian, though ;)

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"Have you met my friends?" lol

He needs to get stuck on a tankless or supportless team a few times at high level play to know what real pain is.

J.Devesh said:

We need a Switch OT (or converting this one) to share our friend codes in order to make the progression faster. You have an increasing of like the 20-30% of the experience with a friend in your team!

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We have an OT https://www.resetera.com/threads/paladins-ot-champions-of-the-realm.45811/page-18#post-10914422

Tron1 said:

How is this game guys?

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I have over 90hrs so yea I love it and really love the charcaters Furia is bae!

Cynn said:

That statement just proves that you have no idea how the game works and would need to actually learn the systems to have a valid criticism. At higher level play every single member and their powers and the mods you buy as the game progresses matters in the extreme. Few games are as punishing as Paladins for being played incorrectly.

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Yeah I was like ??? when I read that. Paladins offers a lot more strategy and teamplay than Overwatch does. Overwatch requires you to coordinate ultimates. Paladins does that as well, but you need to build your character correctly and buy the right items to counter the enemy teams. In Overwatch you barely have to change anything. Just roll the meta hero comp over and over again. Paladins also has a way better game mode (Siege) that offers way more diversity than Overwatch's standard games. It's really obvious he's a player still fighting the bots which makes the game feel extremely easy and dumb. I felt the same way back then, but I got wise quite fast.

Kogan is so annoying, makes me so mad lol. I switch between Grohk for onslought/seige and usually moji for deathmatch. I wish there were an in game friends list so I could invite xbox friends to my party.

So idk if training is bots or not, I seemingly had to wait til there were enough players and there were total random username type usernames but I did like really well on it and idk if i can brag or not because idk if training is actually real people or not or just the illusion of it

MrPanic said:

The founders pack was 25 bucks. You need to at least put 33 bucks in to get enough crystals to buy the character pack with less stuff (character pack is 1800 crystals, conveniently priced outside the 1500 crystal pack that's being sold for 25 bucks, so you'll either have to opt for a extra 400 for 8 bucks, getting you the character pack for 33 bucks, or get the "better value" option with the 2500 crystal pack which will get you the character pack and a whole bunch of crystals I never wanted in the first place). The whole system is perfectly set up to gouge the player, so I think it's completely fair to say it was 'shady' of them to not warn people how much worse the situation would be after the F2P version would come out. For me it definitely pushed it into the "bad deal" territory, to each their own of course.

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Founders Pack was $30. The rest, yeah. Though that's the whole point. At least with the 2,500 crystals for $35, you'll only pay $5 more for the characters but also get $15 worth in crystals.

You can also get free stuff by linking Facebook, Youtube, etc. and use the Xbox codes.

foxuzamaki said:

So idk if training is bots or not, I seemingly had to wait til there were enough players and there were total random username type usernames but I did like really well on it and idk if i can brag or not because idk if training is actually real people or not or just the illusion of it

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It literally tells you it's against AI bots but your teammates are humans

Maffis said:

Yeah I was like ??? when I read that. Paladins offers a lot more strategy and teamplay than Overwatch does. Overwatch requires you to coordinate ultimates. Paladins does that as well, but you need to build your character correctly and buy the right items to counter the enemy teams. In Overwatch you barely have to change anything. Just roll the meta hero comp over and over again. Paladins also has a way better game mode (Siege) that offers way more diversity than Overwatch's standard games. It's really obvious he's a player still fighting the bots which makes the game feel extremely easy and dumb. I felt the same way back then, but I got wise quite fast.

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Yea I love this more than overwatch. The fact that my mains feels like my own personal character because of the builds I have in place for then to fit my play style feels so good. My Furia acts more like a damage but can heal like crazy at the same time, and can't forget my doge roll Cassie:)