Paragon is the MOBA from Epic Games that puts you in the fight with explosive action, direct third-person control, and deep strategic choice. The game is designed so that all players can compete and win without ever having to spend money. All Heroes are free, and cards can only be earned by playing the game.
Paragon is coming to PC and PlayStation 4. Founder’s Packs will be available March 14, with Early Access starting on March 18. Free Open Beta starts in Summer 2016.
Paragon is designed so that all players can compete and win without ever having to spend money. All Heroes are free, and cards can only be earned by playing the game. The game will never be pay-to-win, meaning we will never sell gameplay-affecting items. We will sell cosmetic items (skins, emotes), boosts and other convenience items, along with Paid Early Access. We’re taking this approach because we believe that competitive games need to be fair for all players.
We also get an overview of costs and options:
Founder’s Packs will cost $19.99, and include access to the game, skins, boosts, and other cosmetic items you can unlock by playing. Challenger Packs ($59.99) and Master Packs ($99.99) will include a huge number of skins, unlockable items, boosts, a unique skin, and a Founder’s Pack to give to a friend. We’ll be sharing complete details soon.”
During early access free heroes will be released every two weeks, and Epic Games promises daily and weekly events for your entertainment.
been on my radar for awhile. looking like a better version of smite but from all the vods, the characters don't really stand out from eachother. Maybe it's because they all have pretty slow attack speed and similar (or the same?) movement speed
On March 07 2016 22:32 Isualin wrote: Looks good but i think MOBA's are becoming the new "zombie survival rpg" slowly. Too many games with similar gameplay mechanics
MOBA's are the latestest hype that publishers run after in the hopes of easy money. Just like WoW lead to everyone trying (and failing) to get a piece LoL has lead everyone to try (and probably fail) again. (yes there are some exceptions that have succeeded. Overall its a no tho).
looks like 3rd person Overwatch, its from epic games so i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.As a dota person I highly approve of their business model but I wonder if it is sustainable given that its...not Dota 2.
On March 07 2016 22:32 Isualin wrote: Looks good but i think MOBA's are becoming the new "zombie survival rpg" slowly. Too many games with similar gameplay mechanics
MOBA's are the latestest hype that publishers run after in the hopes of easy money. Just like WoW lead to everyone trying (and failing) to get a piece LoL has lead everyone to try (and probably fail) again. (yes there are some exceptions that have succeeded. Overall its a no tho).
WoW clones cod clones Moba clones Survival clones mobile game clones like candy crush or clash of clans.
I've played it but didn't really like it but maybe I'm just not used to first-person mobas. The gameplay didn't really excite me though. The map seems so big and that there really isn't a lot going on at times which makes it seem kind of dull.
All heroes are unlocked, but you still have to earn or buy cards. So about these cards...
Outside of the game you create 40 card decks for your heroes, or you can use one of 2-3 premade decks available for each hero. The cards in your deck are the 'items' you can purchase in game. I did not play much but I highly doubt the premade decks are competitive at higher levels. So you have to make at least one deck for each hero you want to play (there are currently 21), but you only start with five deck slots, so you must buy more of those too. Fortunately you can at least share cards between your decks.
Most cards give generic stat buffs but some (the rarer ones?) have special effects, like one I got could give a damage shield to all nearby allies. The only cards you start with that have actives are health and mana potions, blink and teleport. At least the rarer cards aren't straight up better than the commons.
I think my last win got me 800 of the store currency. I'm assuming you get half that for a loss so ~600 per game, and it takes 10,000 for a 5pack of cards and 15,000 for an additional deck slot.
However I must add that the cards I started with were good enough for the 10 games I played, you won't get stomped for not having the right cards, at least up to a point that I did not reach.
Aside from the cards (and these harvester things), it's like a very slow version of Smite. Third person and almost all the abilities are skillshots. You travel at double move speed outside of combat, but in combat movement is really slow. The map feels very large too. Games took 50 - 90 minutes (!!!) to complete. So the game's just slow in general. And maybe this changes when everyone gets lots of active items, but at no point did any of the gameplay excite me. Generally you fire your spells when they're off cooldown and even though everything's a skillshot there wasn't much you could do to dodge or trick your opponent. And spell cooldowns are all like 10-20 seconds. Slow~~~
The only thing I liked were the graphics, it's a very pretty game and the map is especially impressive. Honestly I had fun just checking the map out as I played, but now I'm over it and probably won't play again.
EDIT: Big thing I missed. You apparently can't directly buy cards for money, the best you can do is buy boosts that double the rate at which you earn in game currency. So still kinda P2W but that is noble of Epic. Deck slots can be bought with money though.
I pre-purchase for the alpha testing and the experience was pretty bad. Game length is way too long. I had a few two hours game, a lot was spent killing creeps and walking. Not that many wow moments. Auto attack is frustrating more than skill based.
You think being stunned to death in Dota is bad? Try it in first person view when you can't out run opponent and is slowed to death.
I might try it again now but it doesn't look like they improved much.
Monolith update is here! Drastically shortened matches, improved frame rates, and added much depth to the item system. Basically the second version of this third generation moba. At this time it is probably the most deep and advanced moba on the market. The current system is to add a new hero every 3 weeks. Each hero is subdivided into 2 of the games affinities where the players can choose to focus on one part of the affinity or expand into two. Order=movement and ability damage Intellect= shields and magic diversity Corruption= Lifesteal, poison, and armor piercing Fury= Cooldown reduction and crit bonuses. Growth= Armor, healing, and radiance Universal= weaker versions of the above variants.
Must say, as someone who knew nothing of the game before yesterday and came in with no expectations, I was extremely impressed. Not sure if it will hold my interest but it was a surprisingly enjoyable fresh take on a genre I was tiring of.
On March 07 2017 08:06 Amarok wrote: Must say, as someone who knew nothing of the game before yesterday and came in with no expectations, I was extremely impressed. Not sure if it will hold my interest but it was a surprisingly enjoyable fresh take on a genre I was tiring of.
Ye i think its pretty fun. Fights tend to feel fair. Almost all the abilities are short cast time, the game feels responsive. Characters have more abilities than overwatch. Queue's are always pretty short and the community is good. They are revamping the item system to include more cc before release later this year i hear. Also, its actually pretty complex, because you make the items (cards) have different strength between 3 and 9 in value. It feels like there's a lot of depth that is continually growing, so i've been playing it more and more actually instead of less and less. By about account level 30 you can have and make a solid deck for any hero, and you don't have to grind forever to unlock things. The whole thing feels pretty balanced and good.
Yin (Growth, Fury) is a carry who wields a combination of her whip and wind magic to quickly dispatch her enemies. Although she came from a life of crime on the streets with Aurora, Yin rose to the rank of First Guardian of her city. Backlash (RMB/R1) - Yin cracks her whip, dealing damage in an area in front of her. If enemy projectiles are hit by the whip, they will be reflected back towards the enemy. Lash Kick (Q/Square) - Yin swings her whip, pulling herself to a target, and then jumps off of their head dealing damage. Windburn (E/Circle) - Yin reaches with her whip, increasing the range of her basic attack as well as gaining cleave. Quelling Gale (R/Triangle) - Yin surrounds herself in a whirlwind, displacing all enemies within range. For 5 seconds, the whirlwind will slow enemies and enemy projectiles that travel through it.
On March 07 2017 08:06 Amarok wrote: Must say, as someone who knew nothing of the game before yesterday and came in with no expectations, I was extremely impressed. Not sure if it will hold my interest but it was a surprisingly enjoyable fresh take on a genre I was tiring of.
Ye i think its pretty fun. Fights tend to feel fair. Almost all the abilities are short cast time, the game feels responsive. Characters have more abilities than overwatch. Queue's are always pretty short and the community is good. They are revamping the item system to include more cc before release later this year i hear. Also, its actually pretty complex, because you make the items (cards) have different strength between 3 and 9 in value. It feels like there's a lot of depth that is continually growing, so i've been playing it more and more actually instead of less and less. By about account level 30 you can have and make a solid deck for any hero, and you don't have to grind forever to unlock things. The whole thing feels pretty balanced and good.
Yeah I haven't been playing long enough to properly evaluate whether I like the card system as a replacement for items. My first impression was that it was the only thing about the game I didn't instantly love as I generally prefer more options to build my hero in any given game and many of the cards are various forms of passives (the card revamp sounds like it will improve this). That said, hero item builds in other Mobas range between extremely varied (DotA) to very narrow (LoL) so if they use the card system to it's fullest potential, Paragon would be somewhere in the middle.
I love the rest of the game though. They've made the genre's gameplay staples (last hitting, ability usage, teamfights etc) work very smoothly. Little things like the camera changing contextually if you're using a AoE ability or highlighting the minion you're currently targeting are godsend that make the minutiae of the game much less frustrating than it could be and the 3rd person camera/movement adds a very distinct experience which I find enjoyable. As you said I'm only playing more as the days go by which is something that hasn't happened for a while and is testament to the in game experience being very good. It's particularly impressive given how young the game is, we forget that LoL/DotA have had between 8-14 years to fine tune their systems, I'm excited to see where Paragon will go.
Personally I think the game would lend itself very well to multiple maps a la HotS, but I'd like to see them get this one perfect first.
Wow, I thought this thread would have been several months old, I got into the beta (alpha?) about a year ago now.
I don't know who told anyone that it was an FPS Moba, it's Third-person. A lot of the videos are from a long time ago and many many many changes have been made to the game since last year (when a lot of these videos were made), some notable changes include the map getting altered here and there and character movements being sped up and changed.
I wouldn't compare it to Dota 2 or LoL or even Smite as much as a lot of people were when it was first announced. It plays differently enough from all of them, though as far as hero stats, time to kill, etc. go it feels much closer to Dota 2 than others, but navigating the map and getting items are very different, as are the ground-level mechanical foundations for Paragon. Personally, for comparing it to Overwatch I think it's only really similar in the teamwork and mobility aspects, but if you enjoy games like TF2, Overwatch, or even Gears of War or Lost Planet multiplayer then you would probably enjoy a lot about Paragon, though it isn't as arcadey as a lot of fps of course. I do disagree with it being a clone of anything else, it is a moba-style game and shares similarities with other games, sure, but it doesn't set out to do everything the same like all the other clones out there do, the devs themselves want it to be different, look different and play different, as well as be fun for different reasons than all of the mobas and team games out there.
It's a cool game, I actually haven't played in quite a while so I think I'll go back to it if I have some free time this weekend.
On March 10 2017 15:05 blunderfulguy wrote: Wow, I thought this thread would have been several months old, I got into the beta (alpha?) about a year ago now.
I don't know who told anyone that it was an FPS Moba, it's Third-person. A lot of the videos are from a long time ago and many many many changes have been made to the game since last year (when a lot of these videos were made), some notable changes include the map getting altered here and there and character movements being sped up and changed.
I wouldn't compare it to Dota 2 or LoL or even Smite as much as a lot of people were when it was first announced. It plays differently enough from all of them, though as far as hero stats, time to kill, etc. go it feels much closer to Dota 2 than others, but navigating the map and getting items are very different, as are the ground-level mechanical foundations for Paragon. Personally, for comparing it to Overwatch I think it's only really similar in the teamwork and mobility aspects, but if you enjoy games like TF2, Overwatch, or even Gears of War or Lost Planet multiplayer then you would probably enjoy a lot about Paragon, though it isn't as arcadey as a lot of fps of course. I do disagree with it being a clone of anything else, it is a moba-style game and shares similarities with other games, sure, but it doesn't set out to do everything the same like all the other clones out there do, the devs themselves want it to be different, look different and play different, as well as be fun for different reasons than all of the mobas and team games out there.
It's a cool game, I actually haven't played in quite a while so I think I'll go back to it if I have some free time this weekend.
I think your assessment is pretty spot on, I've been playing since you have and the amount of process Epic have made on it is pretty impressive. The skins are cool as well. I enjoy the gameplay, it fills a niche I hadn't really realized needed to be filled, and they seem willing to mix it up with character design. The newest one for example reverses projectiles and the other recent ones have all been female melee heroes with really cool abilities, which I'm not super used to from any other games
Looks pretty good. Graphical fidelity could limit the playerbase relative to the really successful games out there, though (LoL, Dota 2, even Overwatch to some extent). But the dynamic skill based 3D combat is really appealing to me if they succeed in making it responsive and tactical. Ganking looks like fun.
On March 17 2017 02:01 bardtown wrote: Looks pretty good. Graphical fidelity could limit the playerbase relative to the really successful games out there, though (LoL, Dota 2, even Overwatch to some extent). But the dynamic skill based 3D combat is really appealing to me if they succeed in making it responsive and tactical. Ganking looks like fun.
It's actually optimized really really well on lower end systems. I would say if you can play OW nicely u can play Paragon nicely as well. (You can also refer to minimum specs between the two which are very similar).
On March 17 2017 02:01 bardtown wrote: Looks pretty good. Graphical fidelity could limit the playerbase relative to the really successful games out there, though (LoL, Dota 2, even Overwatch to some extent). But the dynamic skill based 3D combat is really appealing to me if they succeed in making it responsive and tactical. Ganking looks like fun.
Do you mean their aesthetic choices with going realistic and gritty or the technical requirements? People are using both things for graphical fidelity interchangeably but the discussion spawned is very different.
I meant system requirements. It looks pretty and dynamic and I don't think I'll be able to run it until I get a new PC, but I'll give it a go when I get back home. I was able to run Overwatch smoothly on lowest settings but that's about the limit.
A friend of mine who can play LoL, CS:GO and Overwatch sadly cannot run Paragon due to system requirements. So there certainly is somewhat of a barrier of entry. Considering that they are not releasing the game any time soon, there is still plenty of time for them to reduce the minimum system requirements and for people to upgrade their hardware.
This game could turn out pretty huge in terms of playerbase. According to Epic there are around 800k people playing despite them not advertising the game at all at this point.
The overall progress they have made on the game is really good, though I disagree on some design decisions. The time to kill (especially past the 20 minute mark) is incredibly short while the stuns are still fairly long. When a well farmed carry needs 3-4 shots to kill you and a stun lasts 2 seconds with almost no way of dodging it due to the incredibly fast projectile speed, it can feel very frustrating. Dodging a stun is mostly a result of the enemy screwing it up instead of you using fast reflexes to get out of the way. So while there are plenty of ways to make cool plays, there aren't nearly enough ways to make cool counterplays due to the really short animations and fast projectile speeds.
But all things considered I really enjoy the game thus far. I grew tired of Dota and LoL a couple years ago and didn't find joy in other mobas since then, so I didn't expect to like Paragon as much as I do. The controls feel smooth and responsive, which is really important to me... not that I expected anything less from Epic Games, mind you.
If anyone's interested in playing a few matches on a high level, feel free to contact me in the game. Name is the same as in the forums here.
I'm an NA player under the name ztokdo, feel free to add me for NA games. There is a pretty active discord for the game as well with about 6-12 groups going all day long.
The greatest thing about this game is the cross play with ps4! You can actually create parties between PC and PC players. AFAIK rocket leagues and the likes, have cross play but don't let mix parties.
He's awesome, not even OP, but of course you can barely play him since people dodge if they don't get him. Maybe in a couple weeks I can play him in game
On March 30 2017 23:31 TMG26 wrote: The greatest thing about this game is the cross play with ps4! You can actually create parties between PC and PC players. AFAIK rocket leagues and the likes, have cross play but don't let mix parties.
it is actually the worst thing and i hope when ranked play comes out i can disable that. when you are a support and your carry besides you misses like 4 auto attacks on a barely moving enemy you know this guy is a PS4 player with a controller in his hands instead of a mouse. also in very fast teamfights a guy with a controller is at a huge disadvantage since you have to manually aim in a 3d environment unlike normal mobas where you only have to click 2-dimensional .
well over all i came back to paragon few days ago after 1 year break. a lot has changed for the better. i like the new laning with a safe and offlane like in dota. people who seek a casual alternative to dota, but not as hideously casual like heroes of the storm, should give it a try. if you dont expect anything too deep and enjoy fast paced gameplay with a lot room to outplay your opponent, go for it. its hilarious people are so bad in this game and you can outplay them so hard even if you are new. just by having experiences in dota and have therefore a superior strategical mind. i really dont know most of the new heroes nor played them and i started playing countess which came out after i stopped. and currently having a 70% winrate after 30 games. really relaxing fun times :D