The Overwatch community is “welcoming” Paladins players.
I don’t understand the fuss, but I’ve never played this game. Are they charging real money now to unlock character powers that used to be free?
The backlash to these changes are crazy to see. People are super-pissed about it.
My understanding is that nothing new is locked behind a pay wall however they changed from a reasonable grind to unlock everything to literally impossible without spending money or poopsocking.
That’s the sort of thing that will kill a game. People really hate anything they consider P2W, or pushing it in that direction- and rightfully so. Faeria was also killed by this (and Shadowverse)
This is why I distrust most F2P, there’s always going to be that temptation to try and short-term cash-in on the devs part.
the advantage this game had/has over Overwatch to me is the ability to specialize your hero. They are putting that behind a paywall/grindwall where it wasn’t really before.
The decision is baffling to me, especially since the only cosmetic pay items policy on Smite has got to be bringing them in plenty. why not use the same model? Give the customization of the cards, but not charge for them.
They think people will pay for it instead of drop the game.
ask the Payday 2 folks how that went.
Technically, they are offering “side-grades”, not upgrades to the characters. Every character had some passive buffs (extra health, extra speed when using ability X, etc) in the shape of cards you can choose, and also now 3 special ‘legendary cards’ from where you pick one that are bigger effect in how they change the gameplay for that character. These legendary cards are more rare and expensive. Each character comes with a free, default loadout of cards and an unlocked legendary card, you can choose another but obviously lose the the other effect.
In addition they have introduced a new currency called Essence which the way it works (by rate exchange between normal gold and essence) is done to hide how big has been the increase of prices of cards.
The reality is, when you offer so many options, chances are some are a bit underpowered and some are a bit overpowered, so people with all the legendary cards will have a better chance to take the best one in the current meta, whatever that is. Additionally, one has to be concerned if future champions will have ‘by total pure chance’ a non-default legendary card that is clearly OP, which eventually will be nerfed, but meanwhile people who pays will have an advantage.
And overall, they had a good system in Smite where you only had to unlock gods, there was no other gameplay mechanic or enhancement behind a paywall or grind. You also could buy the ultimate god pack and you could forget about it, you had the entire game for you, gameplay wise (I don’t care about character customization!). So now they are making a game where some passive buffs effects and big mechanics are locked behind RNG chests and a big grind, so that’s pretty fucking disappointing.
Now they have changed already some stuff, they have lowered the price of legendary cards from 18K to 12K essence, they have increased a bit the gold won per day, they say they will give extra essence with achievements… it’s better than before, but it’s still much worse than the Paladins we had one week ago. When they start releasing more and more champions (13 are coming this year), each one with two locked legendary cards, you will run out soon of essence to unlock them, and if one happens to be key for the character you will be screwed.
I complained about the economy aspect, but I have to confess that, forgetting that part, I played A LOT of Paladins this weekend, having tons of fun.
Gameplay wise, they have made each champion to have 3 sub-classes, so it opens up the gameplay possibilities a lot. It’s like having now 22 x 3 = 66 champions. Ok not so much, but there are some interesting varieties, like the Maelstrom ability from Grohk that makes one of his forgettable abilities much better, opening a new way to play, more like a bruiser.
You now have champions with tons of optional mobility (Maeve jumping 3 times in the air, Baring leaping twice, Ruckus having a new vertical jet-jump, Bomb King self-propelling through the air, Drogoz having extra 60% speed in air, Evie soaring through the air… ), you have healers offering new support abilities like Grover rooting people, or frontliners who can do new things like deploying their shield in the ground allowing them to attack at the same time, or Damage champions like Bomb King having a super anti-shield effect in his first ability.
did i miss out on some drama where a recent patch added pay 2 win or something? there seems to be some subreddit drama on /r/overwatch welcoming a bunch of ex-paladin players.
Yes.5
Best Barik match ever.
Of course, the other team was bad so it doesn’t have a lot of merit.
Damn, they really need to make a good item tutorial. Just today in different matches I’ve seen:
-Most of my team buy Haven (def against projectile damage) against an enemy team with Pip, Bomb King and Drogoz (aoe damage).
-A Grover being the only healer of my team who bought Rejuvenate (extra healing when healed by other players).
-People buying Wrecker (good against shield) where the only enemy frontline was Inara (the only frontliner that doesn’t use shields).
Looks like a Paladins Founders Pack is available for PS4 on the (EU) PS Store, for an £11 buy in, no sign of the free version yet.
I was tempted to jump in following the initially positive feedback on here but having read through the latest set of posts I’ll hold off for the F2P version.
Keys for the console version here
http://www.gamesradar.com/get-a-free-code-to-the-paladins-closed-beta-on-ps4-and-xbox-one/
New character released earlier this week, Lex. He has dual, slow shooting pistols and a cool slide. His ultimate is a final execute shot that instantly kills anyone under 65% hp. I actually quite like him, I think he is one of their best releases yet.
Ehh I think he is a bit bland design-wise, though he is fun with the slide (and a OP damage). The bounty mechanic is original at lest.
He is bland… But I reeally enjoy him regardless. He’s got lots of options and ways to play from a very simple skillset.
8 million players. Not bad.
New Support, Seris
LMB: Blast damage projectiles that goes trough enemies
RMB: Channeled healing, ability does go trough walls and has infinite range once you lock on the ally
Q: Her LMB stacks on enemies, by activating this ability Seris gets healed and enemies suffer 100 damage/stack
F: You become invisible and immune to damage for it's duration
Ultimate: Seris throws down a projectile that pulls every enemy champion near the center of the ultimate.
Legendary cards
Agony: Rend Soul now applies a 1s stun to the victim when they are afflicted with 4 soul charges
Mortal Reach: Increase the range of Restore Soul by 300% and duration by 1s
Soul Collector: Soul Charges you detonate increase your Maximum Health by 2% per charge. Stacks up to 8 times. Stacks clear on death.Sony just tweeted out that this now out as free to play on the PS4.