by Lewis Burnell on Nov 30, 2016
EPIC have just released a new blog post detailing the labelling of their Heroes in Paragon and I have to say, it's perhaps a little unconventional. Typically in the MOBA genre Heroes are referred to as Assassin, Warrior, Mage; the list goes on. What EPIC are attempting to do is provide greater clarity on Hero roles based on what they're capable of. Personally, I think it's convoluted and people will always refer to Heroes as their simplest description. No one is ever going to say Steel is a "Initiator / Guardian / Durable / Attacker / Zoner". He's a tank. Take a look at the full post below.
TL;DR With the Monolith Update, we will be changing the way we talk about Heroes. This change will allow us to more easily communicate the things Heroes are good at and show multiple use cases for each of them.
Hey Paragon People,
Last week, in the Monolith Update Blog, we talked briefly about Hero Traits. This new classification will replace the current way we describe our Heroes. To summarize what we said in the last blog: our three-tier classification hasn’t been totally accurate or representative in its ability to evaluate Heroes capabilities. To that end, we have improved our Hero Traits verbiage so that we can better describe the types of gameplay that our Heroes possess in varying degrees.
Traits are not meant to be a hard and fast set of rules, but rather a guideline. Each Hero is unique and brings a special blend of skills to the battlefield of Agora. In this way, some will show aptitude at different play styles which we will attempt to highlight to let you find the kinds of Heroes that play the way you want. No balancing rules are made based on the below - they are intended to describe the gameplay that already exists to help make choosing the right Hero for you easier, as well as to help players evaluate new Hero skillsets before playing them.
Without further adieu, here is the full list of Hero Traits and breakdown of each Hero currently shipping with Monolith! Enjoy!
Assassins have abilities that allow them to create and exploit favorable conflicts with out-of-position and solo Heroes. They will improve team map control and vision as a result.
Attackers deal a large amount of damage using basic attacks.
Burst Heroes can deal a large amount of damage quickly - usually ability damage, but not always!
Controllers can disable or otherwise affect other Heroes’ mobility and positioning.
Durable Heroes are naturally tough through armor, health, regeneration, or any other mechanism.
Elusive Heroes have abilities which allow them to escape from bad situations or otherwise make them hard to hit.
Gankers excel at setting up quick, safe kills.
Guardians have abilities which help them keep their allies safe or assist in setting up allies for plays. They are especially good early game.
Initiators excel at being able to start a fight from range.
Marauders have the potential for the greatest end game power via itemization, though they are weaker earlier in the game.
Siegers have abilities which allow them to deal with waves of minions easily, whether on offense or defense.
Wild Heroes have tools which enable them to be effective clearing Jungle camps early in the game.
Zoners have tools which enable them to zone out or otherwise corral enemies by controlling space.
Now that you have absorbed all that info, let’s take a look at how we attribute these Traits to each of our Heroes. Traits appear in the order of most applicable to least. For example, Countess’ “Assassin” trait represents her ability to take down a solo Hero. Her “Durable” trait represents her regen. And while she’s good at both, she’s not as Durable a hero as say, Rampage.
Melee - Assassin / Burst / Sieger / Ganker / Durable
Melee - Initiator / Burst / Wild / Controller / Attacker
Ranged - Guardian / Controller / Zoner / Elusive
Melee - Attacker / Durable / Assassin / Elusive / Wild / Ganker
Ranged - Zoner / Sieger / Elusive
Ranged - Sieger / Zoner / Burst / Guardian / Elusive
Ranged - Burst / Assassin / Elusive / Sieger
Melee - Durable / Initiator / Attacker / Elusive / Wild
Ranged - Marauder / Attacker / Burst
Melee - Attacker / Ganker / Initiator / Wild / Sieger / Controller
Ranged - Sieger / Elusive / Burst / Zoner
Melee - Assassin / Elusive / Ganker / Attacker / Initiator
Melee - Assassin / Ganker / Attacker / Wild
Melee - Initiator / Wild / Durable / Attacker / Ganker
Ranged - Controller / Zoner / Burst / Sieger /Guardian
Ranged - Marauder / Attacker / Burst / Zoner
Melee - Guardian / Controller / Durable
Melee - Durable / Wild / Attacker / Initiator / Elusive / Ganker
Melee - Controller / Guardian / Ganker / Assassin
Melee - Attacker / Initiator / Durable / Controller / Sieger
Ranged - Marauder / Attacker / Sieger
Melee - Initiator / Guardian / Durable / Attacker / Zoner
Ranged - Guardian / Durable / Zoner
Ranged - Controller / Guardian / Sieger / Burst
Ranged - Marauder / Attacker / Elusive / Burst
We hope you find the new terms more descriptive and find them helpful when developing your playstyles. Traits will start to roll out in-game on December 6 with the Monolith Update and will follow on our website shortly thereafter.
GLHF,
The Paragon Team