With Paragon having opened its doors to the masses I thought it might be useful for me to provide my best advice on how to win matches. I must stress that like in any MOBA you will lose matches in Paragon and that’s alright. You can however take steps to mitigate the risk of loss and increase your chances of winning.

Ward 

I cannot stress just how important Wards are. Most matches I lose are as a result of my team failing to Ward. In the process, my team will die repeatedly, feed the opposing team and fail to recover the deficit. The vision you gain from Wards not only preserves your own life, but your teammates as well. Better still, it allows you to react to enemy movements and counter-gank or counter-jungle. You can read more about Warding in my guide here, but above all else, ensure that you have them early and that you use them as often as humanly possible. If you can, it’s also well worth encouraging your teammates to Ward as well; the more the merrier.

Don’t Die

Probably the most important of all these listed here, avoiding death in Paragon is absolutely critical to success. Dying feeds the enemy team Card Experience and allows them to grow stronger. Repeated deaths by you or your team can bolster the enemy team very quickly and make future fights lopsided (in their favor). While it’s easy to say “Don’t die” it seems a habit that eludes many players. Only this week a Murdock on my team died 5 times within 5 minutes. Over and over he repeated the same mistake of pushing down his lane with no Ward, only to be killed by Aurora. Unsurprisingly the Aurora sprinted ahead of the rest of his and our team, allowing her to snowball over the course of the match. Playing cautiously, Warding heavily, not over-extending and only participating in team-fights you can win is key to survival. If you’ve died, stop and think why and adjust your play immediately.  

Realize You Can’t Control Other Players

It’s easy to get stressed when playing any MOBA. Seeing players make stupid mistakes, engage in fights you know can’t be won or choose to play as a Jungler without ever "ganking" doesn't help. I’m certainly no stranger to feeling stressed when playing Paragon. Realizing you cannot control other players, their card builds or actions will not only allow you to enjoy the game more, but it’ll ensure that actions you take aren’t necessarily linked to their play. There’s no doubting you’ll still get angry if someone decides to kill themselves or run into a team fight when they’re already at 10% health. However, ignoring how your team play (when playing badly) just makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable. If nothing else and something I’ve recently adopted, you can always go with the mantra of “In for a penny, in for a pound.” Effectively, if you see your team doing something stupid - just follow them in. At the very least you won’t then be blamed and things might turn out better with your intervention.

Counter Pick

I still don’t see enough players using the draft mode as they should. Effectively, players join the draft with the intention of only playing one Hero. If they don’t get that Hero, even then they’ll only go to the next best alternative. This is the wrong way to go about playing any MOBA and you should, during draft, go in with the intention of playing any Hero or a specific role (or two). I’m usually a flex pick and can play any role well. My best is melee jungle but I’m also good on Mage and ADC. I join draft with the intention of counter picking against the enemy and their choices. If I see them pick Countess, I’ll lock in Dekker. If they go Kallari, I’ll take Grim.exe. If they take Sparrow, I’ll take Aurora. Securing Heroes that are stronger than those you’re facing is fundamental to succeeding in Paragon and while it takes practice to learn who counters who, it’s well worth the time investment. If nothing else, simply securing the strongest Heroes works well. 

Rotate Effectively

If your lane is pushed, there’s little value in sitting there and waiting for the enemy to send their wave back to you. At the same time, I also wouldn’t advise that you turn to jungle camps while you await an opportunity to gain card experience (that just harms your jungler, unless it's post twenty minutes). It’s at this stage you should rotate lanes . Irrespective of what lane you’re in, you’ve time to help push another (as long as yours is pushed). You can also quickly rotate to gank if needed or to back and purchase new cards. Rotating effectively is fundamental in ensuring all your lanes are always pushed, ganks are secured and card experience obtained. If you simply sit in one lane all match and never rotate, you’ll be doing your team a huge disservice.

Have a tip for winning in Paragon? Let me know in comments below and I'll add them here!