Not all fights are face to face. Flankers are heroes who sneak to the side or back of battle and catch unknowing enemies. If your style is a bit more guerrilla, then there are Paladin characters to choose from.
Paladins Tier List (January 2022): Best Champions [Updated]
Paladins is one of the most popular multiplayer shooters on the market. The game has received tons of updates, fixes and changes since its release. In the Paladins world, ranked mode is the most competitive way to play. Lots of players are trying to figure out how to raise their rank as high as possible, so they need a Paladins tier list to help them in this endeavor.
In this article, we’ll go over the tier list for Paladins so you can get an idea of what Heroes Paladins can play and why it’s crucial for those looking to master Ranked Mode.
So be with us to find out everything you need to know about each champion, with a brief description, skill breakdowns, and tips on how to make the most of them in this tier list.
Paladins: A Quick Overview
Paladins is an online multiplayer shooter available for PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation. What sets Paladins apart from other shooters (such as Overwatch, for example) is its availability.
There are many heroes with different abilities, so you can find a playstyle that suits your needs. The makers of HiRez Studios are constantly making changes and updates to create new heroes and balance the old ones for an exciting gameplay environment.
In addition, the company is committed to building a thriving esports scene and professional league.
So, if you’re looking for a shooter that not only relies on its looks, but also gives you the chance to embody dozens of different characters, each with their own abilities, then Paladins might be the game for you.
Paladins: What’s Ranked Mode?
Ranked mode has been around since 2017, when it was first introduced by Hi-Rez Studios – the makers of Paladins. What is unique about Ranked Mode is that it has been around since the game’s launch, and because of this, many players have already spent their time perfecting their playstyle, which means they are great at countering others.
This game becomes much more competitive in ranked mode than regular matches as players strive to climb the ranked ladder and become the best player they can be.
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S-Tier
All characters belonging to this category of the tier list are very well balanced in terms of offensive and defensive characteristics. They can be your playable class that supports your squad by healing, leading allies on the attack, or just playing a solo game and ignoring PTFO.
S level category
| Character name | Description |
| Atlas | If War from Darksiders had a gun, it would definitely look like Atlas. This hero focuses on getting the highest hit points while taking less care of himself. Every skill and talent of Atlas, except one, is designed to charge into the enemy front lines and lead your own team. He is definitely a champion for players who love to charge. |
| Barik | Barik is all about dealing damage with unique gadgets. In some cases, he feels like an overpowered hero in the game, as he and his abilities deal damage separately. Dunks away from enemy attacks with Rocket Boots and deploys a turret that automatically fires at the enemy. Overall, a worthy champion on our Paladins Ranking List. |
| Cassie | Like Sha Lin, Cassie is another heroine to use a bow as an offensive weapon. She is a versatile fighter who uses a bird to reveal nearby enemies to herself and her companions. Cassie gets in and out of intense melee fights and makes great use of her flipping skill. |
| Khan | Khan is an excellent and versatile master in Paladins. His abilities and general damage attributes shine best at mid-range. He is not only a great forward but also a great supporting player. Khan gains temporary immunity to attacks and heals himself and allies with the Battle Shout skill. |
A-Tier
The Paladin Heroes in our A-Tier category are fierce, terrifying, and fast. You are guaranteed to outsmart your opponents in one-on-one conflicts by selecting characters from this list. Their defense and offensive traits are finely tuned to perfection, but still lack a thing or two. Even so, you can never go wrong if you start playing these characters in Paladins.
Level A Category
| Character name | Description |
| Tiberius | Tiberius wields a blade chakra and a sword as he fights alongside his teammates. His movement speed, attacks and defense qualities are declass. However, his abilities have a low rate of fire, making him a slow form that needs team support most, if not always. |
| Androxus | Androxus is another champion on our Paladin tier list to use a revolver and fist as an offensive in the game. He is a slow striker who offers versatility in his abilities and talents. Androxus’ ultimate is the biggest weak point, as the enemy can avoid it half the time during the final attack. |
| Sha Lin | Sha Lin is a fantastic ranged fighter in Paladins and uses his bow mainly to outsmart enemies from a distance. The quick fire ability allows him to fire multiple arrows while moving. This skill alone seems overwhelming when fighting one on one with an enemy player. The only problem is, he relies entirely on his abilities. When they renew, Sha Lin is exposed and weak. |
| Raum | Raum performs very close to Makoa in Paladins and is therefore another great addition to the hero tank type in the game. He is a character beast if you know how to effectively flush and repeat his skills and talents to get high damage. |
| Makoa | Makoa is a giant armored turtle with a cannon in one hand and a retractable anchor in the other. He is a champion for players who like to support their teammates by taking all the damage. His skills and talents make him more of a tank than an attacker. |
| Zhin | Zhin is fast, furious and wields a hellish blade, destroying enemies with his cruel attacks. His abilities have fast animations and have a reduced cooldown. However, Zhin’s attacks don’t deal good damage, which in my opinion is the biggest downside when attacking multiple enemies at once. |
| Final station | Terminus is a brute who loves to spam the ax of massacre to swing the mighty ax of his enemies. He is a force to be reckoned with in hand-to-hand combat. Terminus primarily uses his ax to deal high damage and uses Siphon’s Power ability to absorb enemy attacks. Only due to close-range attacks, he could not get into our A-rank. |
| IO | IO is probably the only character in our A-level who is more a support hero than a damage dealer. Her area healing, Moonlight ability, Life Link, and Goddess’ Blessing talent all contribute to her becoming the best support hero in Paladins. That is why we reserved her place on level A. |
| Grover | If Groot of the Guardians of the Galaxy had an ax, he might have looked like Grover. It is a combination of a ranged champion and a Paladins healer. Using his basic ax-throwing attack, Grover deals the most damage – the farther away the enemy, the more damage. His abilities to engage nature as a source of attack are unique, inimitable, and almost inevitable. His ultimate “Whirlwind” grants nearby allies 2500 healings every 1s for a short time. |
| Jenos | Jenos and Zhin do relatively similarly in Paladins. He uses an automatic rifle called Star Splitter to attack at medium to long range, and uses cosmic energy in other skill-based attacks. He, like Zhin, also offers healing to his allies through his Astral Mark ability, but this is quite slow. I found the best use of Jenos if you have Zhin next to you. |
| Vora | Vora is a very mobile hero in our entire Paladins ranking list. Her skills and talents deal damage over time. Her increased mobility and burst damage is the reason why many Paladin players choose her. Vora’s ultimate, called Wrath of the Harbinger, costs a lot of animation time and remains exposed until the ability is executed. Besides, he is a solid master of attack in the game. |
| Evie | Evie is a minor character in Paladins with increased movement speed and moderate attack damage. Using her ice staff, she deals AoE attacks. Her ice also provides a shield, and Evie summons blocks of ice to soften the incoming attack. She dominated most of the fights thanks to her dynamic ice-oriented skills. Her low health is the only downside that keeps her from becoming the perfect attack master in the game. |
| Corvus | Corvus uses the Officer’s Pistol to deal direct damage to enemies. On the other hand, she uses the staff of the Abyss to heal allies with the Abyss of Reconstruction and Mark of Destiny abilities. I believe there is no Corvus equivalent on our list when it comes to the perfect, versatile, playable hero in the game. |
| Lian | Lian is another fantastic addition to our A-tier roster. She is the mid to long range heroine of Paladins with a versatile skill set. By using his Bravery skill, Lian can prove to be an effective crowd-control character. He uses a commemorative rifle for direct damage. By effectively mixing her skills, Lian can destroy an enemy team in seconds. |
| Tyra | Tyra is a versatile heroine who has a wide range of arsenal, from an automatic rifle to a grenade. Most of her skills are about shooting enemies with an automatic rifle or destroying them with grenades and grenades. The only thing she lacks is shield or resilience skills. Otherwise Tyra could be on our S-tier list. |
So be with us to find out everything you need to know about each champion, with a brief description, skill breakdowns, and tips on how to make the most of them in this tier list.
Torvald
Like Fernando, Torvald is adept at covering and dealing low, flat damage. His standard glove attack hits a single target, which can be painful for the enemy as long as you stay within his range. Runic Blast is also short range, but if you manage to hit it, it silences and disarms the enemy player. Hyper Beam does not suffer from such distance problems; this ultimate attack has an almost unlimited range and knocks back anyone caught in its fire for a few seconds.
Another specialty of Torvald is the shield, and he can regularly throw a shield of 2000 health to each ally. However, it only lasts two seconds, so it’s important to trigger it when your ally is about to take serious damage. When it comes to personal defense, Torvald can regenerate his own shields using the Recharge skill. This ability can drain shields from enemy players, so charging before Fernando is quite effective.
Torvald’s equipment should be built around upgrading your Recharge abilities as that is what will keep you on the front lines. Vital Embrace is, as the name suggests, quite important, and Channeling will reduce your Recharge cooldown, allowing you to refill your shields more often.
Damage
If you are chasing kills, the damage heroes are the Paladin characters you must play. Their skills are primarily focused on inflicting enormous pain on the opponent with speed and aggression.
Cassie is an easy damage-dealing champion that can be dealt with. Her crossbow requires a bit of accuracy as it is single-shot, but if hit it is painful and her additional fire, Disengage, will push targets backwards. Explosive Shot is equally punishing, offering high explosion damage and reducing the healing of enemies by 50% for three seconds.
The important thing about Cassie is that she’s really fast; her Dodge Roll ability allows her to move quickly in any direction, then fire a shot that deals 30% bonus damage. Even without a throw, she is a master who can jump around the map, casting continuous fire. He can assist allies with his Scout Ultimate, which reveals all enemies for eight seconds.
As for her equipment, Drain Life is a solid scream for its healing properties that will help you take damage longer. The Quiver is also helpful as extra ammo is very handy when you can deal as much damage as Cassie. Things like incitement and assault are also worth considering; they rely on Cassie to wallow a lot, but successful shots immediately after Dodging will steal life and reduce cooldowns.
To help you succeed on the Paladins Battlegrounds, we’ve compiled this Paladins Level List, featuring the champions best suited to different roles, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Always remember that the power of heroes can be overcome by the ability of players to play the game.
Skye
Skye is a flanking master which means knowing the maps beforehand will help you surprise the enemy team. He is great at ganking and eliminating key targets behind the enemy. Flanked Heroes gain 100% more credits from enemy kills while behind enemy lines. She’s the type of hero that you can use to lead your teammate in Ranked when you’re good with her and know the maps well.
With Skye, you have the following tools at your disposal:
- Wrist-mounted energy crossbow that deals 150 damage per shot every 0.1 seconds.
- Poison Bolts: Fires 3 bolts in a row, each dealing 10% of your maximum health damage over 5 seconds and marking the target, increasing your damage by 5% for each bolt. Heal the target by 50% for 3 seconds. Hitting all arrows increases damage by 5.
- Smoke Screen: You create a cloud of darkness that lasts 5 seconds, blocking the sight of all enemies entering and exiting it. You also gain stealth for 3 seconds after entering the cloud.
- Hidden: Go into hiding for 3.5 seconds and gain 25% more movement speed. Remember that getting too close to enemy players will reveal you in hiding. Can be canceled earlier by reactivating the skill.
- Time Bomb: You place a bomb that deals 3,000 damage and destroys all shields. This ultimate no longer shows up as a warning sign, making it harder for enemies to locate a bomb or escape.
Fernando
Fernando is the champion of the front lines, which makes him good at keeping the lines and protecting his teammates. Frontline Heroes get 100% more credits for standing near the target. Your job as Fernando will be a fairly standard tanker role – you’re trying to protect your teammates so they can bring hell to the opposing team.
As Fernando, here’s what your kit will look like:
- Flame Lance: A short-range flamethrower that deals 30 damage per hit every 0.1 seconds and applies the damage over time for 200 damage over 2 seconds.
- Shield: Extend your shield to block 8,000 damage. Cannot attack while in use. It may take up to 10 seconds. It can be canceled earlier by reactivating the ability, using a Fireball or Immortality, and emotes.
- Fireball: A fireball that deals 450 damage and reduces healing by 50% for 3 seconds. Fireball deals 50% more damage for each target it hits after the first. Deals area damage.
- Charge: Allows you to dash forward at high speed, dealing 200 damage to each enemy hit. Fernando can turn the Shield on and off while charging.
- Immortal: Fernando and all allies within 70 units cannot be summoned below 1500 health, nor be affected by damage over time for 4 seconds.
They are great for defense and support roles, such as increasing damage to allies, as well as providing cover fire with their turret or healing others with a biotic grenade. These champions can even beat S-level players if played by seasoned players with proper planning.
Drogoz (Damage)
Little can be said about Drogoz the Greedy other than “NERF NOW”.
This jetpack wingless dragon belongs to the damage class and is a great master in the fact that the grenade launcher attachment was “great” in CoD: Modern Warfare 2.
This means it’s broken and stupidly easy to use even for new players.
He will spend most of his time soaring high in the air while the rain fires from his rocket launcher.
His collection of skills offers both burst damage and crowd control, and when properly used, it almost always guarantees a kill.
The most important of these is his ultimate ability, which is almost impossible to miss.
You only need to head towards an enemy to defeat them at high speed, resulting in an instant kill.
When it comes to talents and loadout cards, you generally want to focus on keeping Drogoz in the air. Which means earning the WYRM Jets talent and cards like Altitude to refill your jetpack fuel for each successful elimination.
Pro tip: with this beast you will get a lot of them.
Lian (Damage)
A descendant of the Aico bloodline and heiress to the ruby throne, this damage champion is ideal for players who are good at positioning but not at aiming.
She is now very popular in the meta thanks to Grace’s ability to escape danger and break free while firing an automatically targeted burst at the enemy closest to the player.
Valor will also hit any rivals that are out of luck when it is activated.
The combination of both makes it a great option for flanking characters that have high mobility but a limited health pool.
For Lian, you either want to take her Precision talent to increase damage or Eagerness, which will increase the number of heroes targeting Grace at once.
Depending on your choice, you’ll need equipment that focuses on upgrading Grace, or just survival cards to keep you alive in tough situations.
Ice Storm is Evie’s ultimate and is best used as part of a teamwork. When activated, summons a slowly moving blizzard circle that cripples, damages and slows anyone caught in it. Slow and mutilated effects mean enemies are practically frozen, meaning allies can jump in and make the most of motionless targets.
Flank
Maeve
Maeve is a huge fan of flanking and stabbing, throwing daggers at enemies. Her Leap ability allows her to blacken forward, dealing damage to any enemy hit. Her ultimate, North, reduces enemy line of sight, and Nine Lives allows her to reset her skill cooldown and heal herself. Maeve is a nightmare to deal with if she gets caught by a seasoned player who is able to throw herself and kill people before you even know she’s there.
Zhin uses his blade to completely melt his enemies, combining regular attacks with counterattacks to deal incredible damage. His Billow ability allows him to take a position to quickly perform a Virem attack, lunging forward and hitting every enemy in his path. His true strength is in destroying a single target as his Spite ultimate allows him to incapacitate enemies, meaning all they can do is watch him finish them off.
Moji is a little wizard riding a two-headed dragon that shoots fireballs and breathes fire at your enemies.
As Moji, you want to constantly fire the flamethrower and projectiles at the same time to deal damage and be as close to the action as possible. Moji isn’t immortal though, so make sure you have backup ready to heal you and use your barrier to block incoming attacks.
Androxus
This aggressive gunslinger is the prime candidate for any objective war, and can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Androxus has many game-changing abilities that can give him an edge in almost any fight. He has an ability that absorbs damage to fire him right away, and also a quick dash ability that can easily bring him in and out of combat. Androxus is a good damage dealer that can take down soft targets quickly.
When it comes to talents, Jenos has only one choice and that is Luminary, which increases the damage dealt to characters healed by his healing ability.
Atlas (S-Tier)
“This future is mine”
There is no light in the future, only all-encompassing Darkness. The kingdom is lost. Atlas will be born in this dark future as the son of a legendary judge. Every day he fights to survive, and every night he finds solace in the tales of the former Kingdom. These stories offer Realm-like hope, but their final opposition to the Darkness will end tragically. All hope will be lost except for the last glimpse.
I want to make it as simple as possible. It has a high-powered weapon, an indestructible shield that can span the entire map, an additional skill that can prevent players from doing anything and reversing healing, and a movement ability that denies almost any ultimate and heals it. It’s versatile enough to go from defensive to offensive and from a DPS tank to a destructive tank. He also has a lot of control over teamfights, being able to send people back or undo healing.
Dredge (S-Tier)
Dredge is a damage champion capable of dealing massive long range area damage and controlling zones across the map. Dredge fires grenades from his damned howitzer, which bow before they fall. He can easily apply a lot of pressure on a point or on the flanks using both left and right clicks. Enemies caught near his grenades will take high damage based on their distance from the explosives.
I like him. He’s an icon, isn’t he? A Hero who honestly could be one of the most mechanically interesting Heroes, with mobility promotion cards for a series of moves for quick relocations, or cards that promote staying stationary to promote damage per second behind, giving you plenty of choice to be a wandering threat or a stationary artillery shot.
In addition to a Talent that uses Dredge’s inherent functionality, area locking and area control, which gives him the ability to develop strategies and think about traps and game plans. To be clear, the best damage right now.
