For all of those MOBA lovers out there, Paragon will be going into its open beta this summer, and with it will be coming a few key changes. If you haven’t already looked into the early access beta, I would recommend it. Paragon promises to play a large role as one of the future leaders of MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). Since starting way back when with DOTA, then being pushed farther with the massive success of League of Legends, MOBAs are on the rise. Paragon’s unique third-person point of view, along with breathtaking graphics and dynamic play will surely make it a contender for both the serious and casual gamer.
Now, on to those changes.
Draft Mode
That’s right, Paragon will be taking a page out of Riot’s book and bring in a new gameplay option for more competitive play. In this new mode, each team of five will be able to strategically create their own team by taking turns picking heroes. Each team will also be able to see what heroes the opponent team is picking, and coordinate their own picks in response. Personally, I think this is a great step up from the former system, which while allowing players to play their favorite hero, could lead to unbalanced teams. It should also help cut down on some of the ridiculously long wait times in queue.
I’d like to see Paragon come out with something closer to what League of Legends has done for the future, where you pick your top two roles and champions, and go straight into matchmaking, but that may still be a little ways away. For now, this change is enough to help build a stronger base for future fans of the game.
Gameplay
With the lead up to the open beta, the Epic team has made a few major changes to gameplay in order to develop a more stable and balanced game. One of the more notable changes is the removal of all passives. That’s right, every hero will no longer have a passive ability, although some will still have their integrated into their activated abilities. Not sure if this is one-hundred percent the right call (I like passives), and while it could indeed lead to more balanced play, it loses some of its complexity as well. Still, not a complete deal breaker, but it was probably easier for them than trying to constantly tweak every single passive.
Card Experience Sharing has also been reworked, and promises to be more forgiving to last hit assisters. The model is tiered, with the last-hitter and the first-assister sharing one-hundred percent of the experience when no other players are present. With each added player, the amount of experience shared is reduced from fifty, to thirty-three, and finally to twenty-five percent, with each assisting teammate sharing an equal portion. The last-hitter will always gain one-hundred percent of the experience. Card Experience Sharing will be different in the jungle as well, where only the last-hitter will receive the experience. With this change Epic hopes to allow for more opportunities for players to outshine their opponents through their management of resources.
Other than that there were a few minor bug fixes, which shouldn’t drastically alter gameplay, but will make it a little less annoying at times. Bots are no longer stuck after using movement-altering abilities, the audio on spawning minions has been adjusted, and level one players are no longer forced to play against more difficult bots. There were other minor changes to a handful of champions, but they were so minor and such a handful that I couldn’t justify adding them in.
There are still a good number of known issues that have yet to be resolved, but will, hopefully, in the future. Some of the more notable ones are players being unable to surrender until 20:08, client freezes in the front-end menu, choppy audio, and the client getting stuck before matches start. Seriously, though, there are a lot more of them. Epic Games really has their work cut out for them if they want to have a smooth launch into open beta.
New Hero: Khaimera
He’s big, he’s bad, and he looks like Cubone on steroids. This newest addition to the Paragon roster is sure to disrupt the status quo of any game with his ferocious melee attacks, health regeneration, and crowd control abilities. Khaimera is a fighter and jungler, who works best when ganking enemy heroes and isolating them from their teammates. He’s got a nice gap-closer as well, which is perfect for chasing down any hero with a dash who tries to escape. The cards that work best with Khaimera are physical damage and critical strike, but I can see his potential to go a bit more tanky, or full glass-canon. That health regen could make him like the the Paragon equivalent to Garen. But he does seem a bit more like Olaf, although maybe that’s just the axes.
With the introduction of a new hero comes another hero race, Epic’s community competition for Paragon, in which contestants race to level their hero up to mastery level 10. The first participant who unlocks the master skin is then inducted into the hall of fame, which I assume is your name on a screen of the Paragon home page. Anyway, the hero race for Khaimera ends tomorrow, so if you’re just reading this, go forth and make history. I believe in you. But seriously. You should stop reading and start playing.
If you are still reading this shame on you. I told you to go and get playing. Also, thank you. You saw that there was more to read, and possibly more to learn. You were right. The weekly card pack contains Madstone Gem, Hunter’s Guile, and Curse of the Leech. That’s a little bonus you get for not listening to me. Good job.
Paul Taylor is an avid gamer and writer from the Midwest. He spends his days drinking coffee, writing, and playing a lot of Destiny. His blog features articles on writing, productivity, and the occasional short fiction.