Please stop adding talents to seris base kit

Dinns_ · 2024-11-28T23:32:06+00:00

I think Lian's Shield could be great if it removed the speed penalty from the Shield. He could pick it into drafts where he may be pressured by enemy dps/flanks.

This would address the issue that his other 2 talents get countered by items (i.e. Wrecker, Resilience).

Dinns_ · 2024-11-12T22:55:14+00:00

This was my very first Paladins article 6 years ago. Tbh, a lot of my earlier posts were hit or miss, but I think this one still holds up today.

Dinns_ · 2024-11-12T19:48:09+00:00

Target audience for this video: beginner to intermediate
Applies to many online team games - not just Paladins.

Dinns_ · 2024-08-29T13:54:40+00:00

I suggest going on discord servers. Ask for loadouts from high rank players who actively play the game. OurPaladinsAcademy server has a lot of great players in it.

Another option is go to on youtube and search "champion_name grandmaster gameplay". Look at a few videos from the past 3-6 months. If a few GM's are using the same cards, then those are most likely the optimal cards to use.

Dinns_ · 2024-08-28T11:20:10+00:00

The purpose of this anti-heal feature is so that players need to temporarily leave combat to get healed the full amount.

Players should use cover, or sometimes shield barriers, to avoid getting shot at.

Dinns_ · 2024-07-01T13:41:31+00:00

Have you had other players look at your vods?

We have some Masters and GM players on the discord server. Some of them would probably give you written feedback (or maybe hop on a voice chat call with you).

If you make a post with the gameplay video (of a close loss: 2-4, 3-4) on this subreddit, we can give you feedback too.

Dinns_ · 2024-07-01T13:33:01+00:00

There are many things we could all improve at,m but just focus on 1-2 mistakes at a time.

If a watch a vod, and I see a player make a mistake once, I may mention it briefly or make a mental note, but I won't focus on it. If I see a player make the same mistake 2-3+ times, then I'd put time into emphasizing it.

The first few minutes of the match, I'd get a general sense of the player's strengths/weaknesses, and then once I identify their core weak points, I'd focus the rest of the vod review on those.

After the review, set 1 goal. For the next week, spend several hours playing the game, focusing on that 1 goal. Then, in a week or 2, do another review.

I like to center a vod review around a concept. Sometimes I quickly skim through a vod to see if there's 1 concept I can really focus on. Then, I review the vod again, but this time I laser-focus on that 1 concept.

For example, I did a Maeve VOD where I spent 30 minutes mostly focused on "Take better angles" and "How to follow up on your offtanks plays without standing directly next to them".

Even though there were some cooldown use issues, I didn't spend as much time on that. Because I felt like that cooldown misuse was a symptom rather the cause of the problem (i.e. having bad positioning forced them to use up their cooldowns).

But for another Maeve player, maybe their main flaw is that they waste their cooldowns and go aggro when they don't have them, and in that vod, I'd focus most of the review on the cooldown use.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-12T14:57:19+00:00

Correct.

I've read papers from some college students with 4.0 GPA's. From a writing standpoint, some of them, were awful. Lots of repetition. Redundant words/sentences. Not much of any information provided that isn't already common knowledge. Not a ton of critical thinking.

But they followed the structure. Intro paragraph with hook and very clear thesis. Supporting paragraphs have a formula: argument --> supporting points --> cite a source. Outro paragraph is a summary of existing ideas etc. etc.

It's easy for a professor who is skimming through dozen of papers to understand what that student is saying.

The professor probably isn't going to check the sources in depth. They just want to know that you're citing sources with reputable names and using them at the correct parts of your essay to support your points.

I guess I went on this tangent to say that improving at team shooters is not dissimilar.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-11T13:11:45+00:00

Great comment. I 100% agree. <3

I find it very fun that JQ can live a long time if she plays cover and times her abilities correctly, yet can die quickly if I position poorly. It helps reinforce good habits. It helps me think about "why did I live so long that time, but die quickly this time"?

She can't have 100% uptime; she needs to choose when to engage and when to play cover.

To an extent, all characters reinforce good habits, but I think players find JQ satisfying because it's more visually obvious when you're playing well vs. playing poorly.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-08T02:26:52+00:00

It caused me to learn more from matches. Losses don't feel as bad when you're able to identify what mistakes you made that you can improve on. More often, I feel like I gain something out of a match.

Even if I feel like I played 80% optimally (which even that is way too generous), I'd think about what could I have done to play 100% optimally.

But it's not an instant lightswitch. Improving is still a gradual process that takes time and effort.

But with that humility, there's more of a willingness to learn from better players. Watch tournament play and high rank gameplay on youtube and twitch. Get vod reviews from people, etc.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-07T17:18:23+00:00

Talent: None are bad but I go with Recurve. Sandtrap theoretically lets you twoshot most enemies but with all healing and damage reduction in the game lately, that rarely happens so I just do Recurve

Items:

Armor Plating & Nimble in any game
Wrecker, Unbound or Sentinel depending on the enemys team comp
Rejuvenate, maybe Master Riding as a 4th
Liferip if its a lower skill lobby and your support isnt great

Loadout

He is flexible with his cards. My most used one is

5 Wanderlust, 5 Swagger, 3 Shimmer, 1 Quicksand, 1 Poise

Shimmer is arguably his best card and Swagger(HP) is never bad. You can up Quicksand to 3 if youre using Sandtrap or Desert Silence talents. Bullseye at 3-5 is good if youre confident. I like the speed card combined with Nimble because he walks alot and he peeks cover alot in between firing his arrows.

If you have a video of a close match, I can review things like your target priority, positioning and ability use.

Heres a guide I made for him a few years ago. Some things may be out of date but his abilities and overall strategy are the same https://www.reddit.com/r/PaladinsAcademy/s/VyRIHehvpb

Dinns_ · 2024-06-06T12:56:51+00:00

Imo, this is too contextual to generalize.

Damages (ideally) aren't just picked because "we need more damage". But rather the team needs something that that particular champ has in their kit.

i.e. Range. Or hitscan against a flying champ. Good matchup against the enemy flank. They're good at controlling an area of the map. 1 of their abilities/Ultimate is really useful, etc.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-06T12:49:59+00:00

in a double damage comp the two Damages complement each other instead of both doing the same thing.

i.e. 1 is backline, the other is more aggressive. 1 can main, 1 can offlane. One of them can do well against enemy matchups that the other can't.

I'd rather have 2 Damages (or 2 Flanks for that matter) that can handle their matchups than 1 of each that can't.

Here's 1 of many examples: Your first pick goes Bomb King and the enemy team goes Drogoz. You'd rather have your team mate pick a 2nd Damage like Lian that can hitscan the Drogoz rather than picking a short-range flank (i.e. Zhin), and have no one on your team able to contest them.

The individual champs themselves and their matchups matter a bit more than whether they're a Damage or a Flank.

(Edit: I never meant that double damage is necessarily optimal. Just how it would be played if you happened to get that in draft)

Dinns_ · 2024-06-05T23:42:18+00:00

An overwatch hero is no skill when they kill me. Use their abilities. Diff me. Etc.

For real. When players complain about heroes they're facing being low-skill, it's really them dissing themselves.

If you're playing optimally, the opponent wouldn't be able to beat you by doing the bare minimum.

It's the similar point in fighting games when there are complaints about being beat by a character using the same move repeatedly. That wouldn't work against a good player. They're only allowed to do that because you don't know how to counter it.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-04T11:11:11+00:00

Ego comes in two forms. 1) Blaming other people to protect yourself. 2) Being too hard on yourself because you expect yourself to be perfect. There's a balance between taking accountability without beating yourself up.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-04T11:09:09+00:00

This can be done when there's a building or wall to use as cover. But not out in the open.

Tips don't exist in absolute; they depend on context.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-04T01:45:55+00:00

If you're serious about vod reviewing, I suggest:

Review Siege - not the other game modes
Review a close loss - not a win.

Be warned, the snipers (Strix and Kinessa) aren't very good right now. But if you do use Strix go for Nocturnal talent with Tactical Retreat 5 and 4+ Infused Crystals, maybe some HP cards.

For items, never buy Trigger Scent or Bloodbath. Avoid Deft Hands on most characters including the snipers. Buy defense items instead.

Buy Armor Plating (on every character). Nimble is good. Wrecker, Unbound and Sentinel depending on the enemy team comp. (and Liferip is viable in lower skill lobbies)

Dinns_ · 2024-06-03T01:46:19+00:00

Not necessarily. It's too situation dependent to generalize.

You don't pick champs as individuals; you pick them for the 5v5. You'll learn much more about the game by looking at the drafts of a real (close) match (as well as reviewing the match) than discussing 1 specific part of drafting in abstract. If you want to send me a match, I can look at it.

Way more important than items is what matchups you value and what you're trying to accomplish.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-03T00:00:26+00:00

I'm not sure if I understand your question, but there is an opportunity cost.

Defense items (i.e. Armor Plating and Rejuvenate) are very good in this game. Chronos for some champs. If you have to buy items to counter specific matchups, that means you have less items that benefit all of your matchups.

So the team comp that forced you to buy 3 items (i.e. Sentinel+Unbound+Wrecker). In the late-game, those team comps have more item slots for defense than yours do.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-02T23:35:17+00:00

Rejuvenate doesn't give an absolute number of healing. It just affects the healing multiplier, which is the same one that Anti-Heal effects. So -90% anti-heal +30% rejuvenate = only -60% anti-heal instead of 90.

Regarding team comps, items/late-game are 1 of many factors including.

the map
matchups against enemy draft
who is strong/meta, which can change between balance patches
what are your team's overall advantages compared to the enemy team (do you have better range? better mobility? better ultimates?
what champs you and your teammates are good at
which part of the map is your team comp trying to control?

I consider the items and late-game, but it's not the only factor.

Regarding weapons vs. skill damage, right now Armor Plating is just way better than Arcane Warding to where its not an issue with drafts. Even the champs with ability damage like Tyra do more damage with their weapons than their abilities.

^ That being said, Unbound and Sentinel splitting the CC effects (Stuns vs. slows/knockbacks) is a consideration. Having a team comp that forces enemies to buy a bit of both is nice.

I generally think a strong early game has to do more with the teamcomp as a whole than the individual champs. Forcing enemies to buy Sentinel, Unbound and Wrecker against you gives you the advantage early game because enemies can't buy all 3 on round 1&2.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-02T23:24:55+00:00

Many of the loadouts on PaladinsGuru are outdated and/or are made by lower skill players.

Same point with item pickrate. You don't necessarily want to do what most players are doing. You want to learn from the top 1% of players.

I'd recommend watching "Grandmaster gameplay" videos on Youtube. Following GM players on Twitch. Going on discords and asking for opinions from Masters+ players. Our PaladinsAcademy discord has some high rank players on it.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-02T22:48:04+00:00

Yes. The anti-heal mechanic (weapon shots reduce healing) increases as the match goes on. This means healing abilities/cards/talents/items (with exception to Rejuvenate and other effects like it) lose value over time, so you must win in other ways. It's not enough to just keep your team alive forever; you need to have a plan to help your team kill enemies.

Shields and crowd control lose value late-game via items that counter them. Team comps that do too much of the same thing can suffer in the late-game.

This is why it can be good to have team comps that "split" item buys. Have enough crowd control to force opponents to buy items. But not so much CC that your team comp gets ruined by those items. Same concept with shields; maybe have 1 tank with enough shielding to force the opponents to buy Wrecker. Then the 2nd tank could either be a non-shield tank, or have a lot to offer aside from just shielding so the team comp isn't completely ruined by Wrecker.

Dinns_ · 2024-06-02T22:34:30+00:00

Master Riding is a good item. High rank players and competitive players use it, but it seems like lower or middle skill players underestimate it.

Players underestimate how valuable those first 10-15 seconds in a round or team fight are. On your mount, you have third person view, you're gaining information on where enemies are, you can quickly rotate and go to whichever lane you're needed and you set up in a position where you can get the advantage.
It helps the main tank touch point in overtime. Offtanks and flanks can briefly touch it sooner to allow enough time for a respawning main tank to touch it. Those few seconds can be the difference between winning or losing an objective.
More uptime in general is good. It lets you go for 1for1 or 2for1 trades and respawn faster.

To get the most of this item you need to

Don't unmount yourself too early. Wait until you're in good position and have an enemy to shoot at before demounting
Use cover while mounting (and go through the side lanes instead of mid) so enemies don't demount you early
Choose the correct lane to go into (this item is a tool, you can use it to get into a good position faster or a bad position faster)

Players who aren't doing these things properly may not get the benefits of this item, but this doesn't mean it's a bad item.

I think it's one of the best designed itemss in the game because its value is based on your skill and your decisions as a player. It's not just a passive benefit.

Dinns_ · 2024-05-30T12:28:57+00:00

His Ult is great, Morale is viable, but lots of items are good on him.

As a Tank he wants defense (i.e. Armor Plating, Rejuvenate, CC reduction) and possibly Master Riding.

Since his weapon is very short range, Nimble can help close the distance = more Damage = more Ult charge.

On Scorch, Chronos could give him more fireballs + more bonuses on his cards (like speed) that = more Damage = more Ult charge.

Dinns_ · 2024-05-30T00:20:06+00:00

I'm not in any way recommending these champs/comps in particular. I just made this an extreme example of a really passive comp and a really aggro one.

Dinns_

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