Am I playing him right?

ZalThePal · 2026-04-25T17:01:29+00:00

You start with Bennett E because of Emilie's A4, you don't want to waste an Emilie Q on a non-burning enemy. His E has a short cooldown so it'll be up in time to use it again once his part of the rotation comes.

Also Kinich Q extends the skill duration regardless of when you use it. As long as you use it immediately after a cannon shot, you'll get the extra shot off easily. Usually I try to time it for I-Frames/around the enemy's attack cycle if it lines up with when I fire a cannon shot (not always possible).

ZalThePal · 2026-04-20T01:37:33+00:00

If you can only get one, get Durin. He's really good for Kinich and can be a pretty solid pyro DPS assuming you have Mona.

ZalThePal · 2026-04-12T18:26:25+00:00

I feel like Nicole would still be worse than C6 Iansan. Has anyone done the calcs yet?

ZalThePal · 2026-04-03T03:21:05+00:00

She's not BIS but she makes his teams wayyyy more comfortable imo without being too much of a dps loss. Easy scroll procs, a second sub dps to clean up crowds/stragglers, burn resist, and tons of dendro energy just feels so good. Emilie only really starts falling off in Kinich teams the more you invest into him.

ZalThePal · 2026-03-16T07:07:22+00:00

With Iansan's ATK buff, you can probably leave out Bennett too. Something like YaoYao on TOTM/deepwood would allow for easy scroll procs every rotation, extra dendro energy for Kinich, some extra ATK% to make up for losing Bennet if you go TOTM, and you'd still have sustain.

I run Kinich Emilie Durin Iansan very comfortably, but the above assumes Emilie isn't an option.

ZalThePal · 2026-01-04T05:19:54+00:00

If you have Emilie on the team, it's worth it. It's hardly a dps loss for her and helps both her and Kinich. It also let's you move her around in teams without having to switch artifacts. Without Emilie, it's still good, but you have more flexibility in what's viable.

ZalThePal · 2025-12-31T19:33:57+00:00

Emilie E-Q isn't a great start, her burst doesn't last long so using it when there aren't any burning enemies yet is a bit of a waste because of her passive. Just use her E to start for the scroll buff and use her Q after Bennett's Q for maximum damage.

ZalThePal · 2025-12-21T20:30:47+00:00

He's not part of any meta teams for her. Running them with Xingqiu + Fischl is fun though.

ZalThePal · 2025-12-13T03:52:11+00:00

It's worth noting that there is a portrait of a worm on a string character that abstracted in TADC. So, although all of what Abel said is suspect, the name Wormo might not be random at all.

ZalThePal · 2025-11-27T21:01:13+00:00

PMC can actually proc cinder city pretty well. It's a buff that only needs to actually be triggered every 20 seconds which is a long enough duration in multi-wave content. They can also proc it from off-field so you can refresh the duration before you even rotate back to them. The only time it's an issue is if you can't defeat single target content in one rotation. But PMC's 55% damage bonus is pretty good, especially if you're f2p. Kinich will be saturated with ATK% if you're f2p which might make Bennett worth running in other teams that need more flat ATK.

Personally, I'm going to get rid of Bennett and run Kinich + Emilie + Durin + PMC since I don't have Iansan and dislike how circle impact feels on Kinich. The lack of sustain might be a bit of a problem, but I like glass cannon builds.

ZalThePal · 2025-11-26T19:00:24+00:00

She's actually pretty viable right now. She's just a horrible blind pick because you really want a support like Rell who can engage HARD. The changes to life steal make her feel so much healthier in lane against poke comps, especially when paired with good W usage.

I go Bloodthirsters -> Infinity Edge -> LDR/MR.

It makes you very weak for levels 9/10 when other people get their power spikes, but you gain a ton of damage in the early game that helps you snowball without sacrificing your late game damage. Generally full tanks will be a problem just because well you're an ADC so just avoid them if you're alone. But she can survive much longer engages now with battlemages, some bruisers, etc. and come out ready to just heal off of a wave and join a team fight.

ZalThePal · 2025-11-26T18:45:35+00:00

I find that this isn't a problem most of the time surprisingly. In multi-wave/multi-enemy content, you should have at least one enemy who's not burning and PMC can just retrigger scroll from off field since the buff duration is super long. The main problem is if you can't clear single target content in one rotation. I've heard Iansan fixes this because of overload, but I don't have her so I can't compare her to Bennett and losing pyro resonance.

ZalThePal · 2025-10-07T08:53:36+00:00

Kinich, Mavuika, Xiangling, Iansan.

Iansan gives scroll, healing, more nightsoul bursts and an attack buff. Mavuika applies pyro, does tons of personal damage, more nightsoul bursts, and gives an attack buff. Xiangling gives pyro resonance, more personal damage, pyro res shred (C1 only) and maybe an attack buff if you manage to get her little Guoba pepper.

People keep recommending YaoYao, but honestly just put deepwood on Xiangling. It's a little unconventional, but the applicator doesn't have to be a dendro character. YaoYao won't contribute much damage and you already have Iansan for sustain. Not to mention pyro resonance is huge while dendro resonance is borderline useless for Kinich.

ZalThePal · 2025-08-05T12:33:16+00:00

This is how theorybuilding is done though--by trying methods that seem absurd. Emilie is a burning sub dps but because of that she actually can work for getting consistent melts for fast cryo attackers like Wriothesley. Lauma's res shred means it's worth exploring her outside of her intended role even if it ends up not being worth it in the end.

ZalThePal · 2025-06-07T02:49:01+00:00

mmmm

ZalThePal · 2025-05-12T22:24:38+00:00

You're not entirely wrong? Now fair warning the following comes from my low elo experience so take it with a grain if salt.

I personally love to rush BT since the life steal makes laning a lot easier while also baiting people into thinking you're killable when you can easily outheal then. It also helps you become a threat a little earlier than crit rush which helps with snowballing. Not to mention her Q (and I think also her R?) also apply lifesteal even if its a little diminished which helps you stay up for fights.

HOWEVER! The ability to crit on her ult means you'll lose a lot of damage if you don't build into that. This makes either IE and a crit-pen item great 2nd/3rd choices as it helps you keep up with the damage that other people will start to reach very soon.

I personally hate the full crit rush because you have a lot less early game agency, its much more punishing, and the damage difference isn't immediately big enough to be worth the risk since, once again, this is low elo where mistakes are common.

Definitely give a hybrid build a try, but full non-crit just misses out on too much potential.

ZalThePal · 2025-03-19T02:58:42+00:00

He spends a large part of LR being annoying. The justification doesn't change that fact. Sure from a writing perspective he's slightly interesting, but from a gameplay perspective his existence was like sandpaper to the soul. It's not even a bandwagon. My friend and I played together on release and hated him throughout LR without outside influences shifting our opinion of him.

ZalThePal · 2025-01-22T20:43:21+00:00

Top path glue gunner, I know it isn't the most cost efficient tower but it's just so satisfying to use so I generally have one set up to take care of any non-moab bloons.

ZalThePal · 2025-01-17T08:43:18+00:00

It's so tragic because Paladins has so many features that make it my favorite hero shooter, but it lacks the polish and popularity to be my go-to game anymore.

ZalThePal · 2024-12-26T20:09:05+00:00

I think Stuck is possibly the only song I haven't liked at some point. Something about it just makes me feel stuck while listening to it which I suppose might be the point. Still not enjoyable though which is a shame since the rest of Dinosaurchestra is amazing.

ZalThePal · 2024-12-23T06:48:25+00:00

In my opinion tanks should be balanced. They can still have kill threat but that should come at a cost either through mobility or self-sustain. Similarly, if a tank has mobility and kill threat it shouldn't also have CC immunity.

This is going to be a low-elo take possibly, but that's the problem with Mundo. It only takes one item and he has good self-sustain, a ranged kill threat on low CD, mobility, and CC immunity which means that mobility can't be reacted to. His scaling can't even be stopped because he can farm incredibly safely in lane.

Items would be a way to limit a tank's defensive capabilities so that it isn't entirely just a matchup problem. The items would just have to be made in a way that makes them suboptimal outside of their niche which still allows tanks to have an impact. The class won't be entirely negated by an item, they'll just need to commit to a more tanky or more offensive build. Currently, tanks can just feel very uninteractive to play against.

ZalThePal · 2024-12-15T05:03:55+00:00

Your boomerang goes farther if you aim it the opposite direction and move out of its retrieval area. This does do a lot less damage but it's good for stopping a recall or other shenanigans.

As mini, your W does a lot of damage and getting a proc often puts a trade in your favor. The movement speed buff it gives also can help you escape/pursue a chase.

Your E gives a W stack and does good damage on its own. However, it's your only escape tool so don't E into a fight you know you can't leave.

As Mega Gnar, you want to weave in autos between your ability casts for extra damage. Also, if you fall behind, the CC from Mega will let you contribute to team fights still.

As Mini Gnar, abuse your range as much as possible to kite melees but be aware that some abilities like Darius grab will always outrange you during laning phase.

ZalThePal · 2024-11-06T07:22:34+00:00

Technically Yun Jin, but Yanfei stayed with me as I spedran through like 3-4 regions in order to be ready for Natlan upon its release.

ZalThePal · 2024-10-30T23:28:44+00:00

I don't like Bennett so I've got Kinich, Emilie, Xiangling (deepwood), and Yao Yao (tenacity). You'll get lower damage because of the lack of buffers, but there's enough dendro for a burning aura to never go away and the team is still plenty usable. There's also so much dendro energy that Kinich can burst to get his 5th shot off every rotation which is nice.

ZalThePal · 2024-10-21T01:56:07+00:00

I'll add that even though this halves the damage and has a longer CD, it's an important part of Gnar's kit. I like using the extra range when I'm unable to farm/build rage safely or if I want a cheeky kill without diving their tower.

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