Paradox should be reworked

[Abandoned]

Paradox is still the worst designed hero in Deadlock by a landslide. Not only does she suffer the Pocket-problem, where all but one of her abilities are designed to function in tandem, she also suffers from the problem where everything she does kind-of sucks, except for when the right time arises. This makes her unbelievably unpleasant to play, and a lot of people have opted to just build her into pure orange and essentially be a crappier Lash. All of this is based on about 50 games of Paradox and seeing her being played about as many times by highly skilled players.

Paradox spends the entire game running around trying to swap people into her wall. That is basically all she does. Even when building full orange this is all she does. Every person with a modicum of experience on this hero builds Advanced Cooldown and puts it on her ultimate. So she can repeat the same 1 thing she does the entire game more frequently. She is among the worst, if not outright THE worst character to get solo kills with. She's surprisingly survivable at least partially because she just doesn't do much besides swapping things and a lot of players consider her dead weight after she is done with that.

I said this before: Paradox needs to have her kit reworked to at least be ABLE to do something on her own. Right now this hero is a joke character with clunky and, let's be honest, bad abilities outside of her ultimate. There are two very easy ways this can be achieved: make her function more around Timebomb and make her abilities less "it's only useful when I also press X" (the Pocket-problem). Very fast enumeration of changes I would like to see:

1. Make Timebomb tick one less time (4 -> 3, 4 again with talent). Increase damage proprtionally. Easier to reach Advanced Burst barrier she really wants - less situational amplification
2. Rework wall to function differently. Reduce cooldown. VASTLY reduce active time (7 -> 2.5 seconds). Actually destroys projectiles rather than delay them for 1.5 seconds. Walking through it slows, deals 10% of max hp damage and silences for 2 seconds. Rework talents to something else
3. Rework carbine to something entirely different. Immediately activates rather than with a windup, pressing RMB still causes timestop as long as the meter persist, but she can now still fire. While the meter persists Paradox' bullets steal movement speed from the opponent, up to 50%. Has unlimited effective range (no drop-off - bullet damage still has damage dropoff). Effect decays rapidly after the meter has depleted
4. Increase the projectile speed, increase the swap speed, increase the cooldown. Paradox now steals a percentage of the victim's Spirit as well attack damage, based on the distance the character was swapped from, up to 60% at maximum range (almost impossible to achieve unless a really masterful skillshot). Lingers for 4 seconds after the swap has completed

Reasoning: Paradox can now set up kills on her own. Use Carbine to keep foes in Timebomb. Make her ultimate way more situational rather than "oh it's off cooldown, I must again swap11!". Make wall an actual useful ability rather than basically just existing to be used with her ultimate. Make it actually "parry" projectiles rather than trick the team into thinking there is nothing there so they get hit 1.5 second later. Paradox now actually STEALS stuff, as she is supposed to be a thief.

 

[Tavish]

Post it here!

 

[pseudosimulacra]

I build around Kinetic Carbine and she is consistently the most fun champ for me to play... Very easy to get a solo kill for me. I often 1v2 as well. So please don't change her like this! i think shes great. The wall and pull is a bonus but not the end goal. You can do massive damage and lock down single targets from afar or up close. Level one is rough though.

 

[Abandoned]

I build around Kinetic Carbine and she is consistently the most fun champ for me to play... Very easy to get a solo kill for me. I often 1v2 as well. So please don't change her like this! i think shes great. The wall and pull is a bonus but not the end goal. You can do massive damage and lock down single targets from afar or up close. Level one is rough though.

I know quite literally nobody who agrees with you. Not trying to belittle, but I'm going to assume you play at a fairly low skill level if you can "1v2" as Paradox. I can guarantee you that after you climb the ladder a bit you will struggle much more than you do now.

 

[Linkhell]

post this in the hero feedback area, this channel should be only to hero ideas

 

[G. R. T.]

I know quite literally nobody who agrees with you. Not trying to belittle, but I'm going to assume you play at a fairly low skill level if you can "1v2" as Paradox. I can guarantee you that after you climb the ladder a bit you will struggle much more than you do now.

I know plenty of people who agree with them including myself. So since we're using anecdotal evidence I can tell you my friend group and I all love Paradox. In our eyes she's a very fun and intuitive hero as she is.
In regards to your points.
1) Not a bad idea.
2) Strongly disagree on this one. The duration feels great and I think the delay is fine and feels great for the balance of the wall. Encourages you to move around while still not getting hit.
3) It's an already very satisfying skill, ms steal on hit could be cool though.
4) Strongly disagree on this as well, already a fundamentally strong skill.

I hope Paradox stays largely the same and isn't drastically changed as your suggesting. I do like the idea of the movement speed steal though, that could be added to either her 1, 3 or 4 and I'd be happy with it.

I think due to her requiring better aim to be consistently good compared to many other heroes her win rate may reflect that skill gap. You mentioned skill level so let's look at the one of the highest ranked players currently MikaelS. Who as we can see mains Paradox and has 816 games on her with a 65.93% win rate on her.

And lastly, you'd likely have better luck getting change if any in the private feedback threads instead of trying to sway public opinion here.

 

[Abandoned]

I know plenty of people who agree with them including myself. So since we're using anecdotal evidence I can tell you my friend group and I all love Paradox. In our eyes she's a very fun and intuitive hero as she is.
In regards to your points.
1) Not a bad idea.
2) Strongly disagree on this one. The duration feels great and I think the delay is fine and feels great for the balance of the wall. Encourages you to move around while still not getting hit.
3) It's an already very satisfying skill, ms steal on hit could be cool though.
4) Strongly disagree on this as well, already a fundamentally strong skill.

I hope Paradox stays largely the same and isn't drastically changed as your suggesting. I do like the idea of the movement speed steal though, that could be added to either her 1, 3 or 4 and I'd be happy with it.

I think due to her requiring better aim to be consistently good compared to many other heroes her win rate may reflect that skill gap. You mentioned skill level so let's look at the one of the highest ranked players currently MikaelS. Who as we can see mains Paradox and has 816 games on her with a 65.93% win rate on her.

And lastly, you'd likely have better luck getting change if any in the private feedback threads instead of trying to sway public opinion here.

It is anecdotal evidence for sure, never pretended otherwise. I am however very surprised you can consider her "very fun" currently - just as there are a lot of people who apparently consider Pocket "very fun" (who basically repeats the same two tricks for the entire game because all his abilities are designed to only make sense when used together).

My problem with Paradox is not that she is weak, as you seem to be interpreting the situation as by the way you formulate your reaction to change 4 as well mentioning the winrate of MikealS. The latter is very, VERY weak evidence by the way - even worse than either of us mentioning our respective friendgroups. I'm pretty sure you are aware of this. I think the issue with Paradox is the way she is being played. She feels very one-note in the way she functions and relies too much on her ultimate to contribute. Most games I see her being played she just looks for things to swap into her wall, and not doing much else besides throwing out random Carbines every now and then.

I did watch a few games from MikealS as per your reaction, and the hero barely even looks the same to the games I have seen in his hands admittedly. He does a lot more with it. But I'm not really sure what to make of that either; as he is infinitely much better as a player than everyone he is playing against. If I were to see his gameplay in a vacuum however I would definitely think I'm completely wrong with my assessment here - so perhaps I am to some degree.

 

[G. R. T.]

It had seemed implied that whether she was good or not was apart of your point when you replied to @pseudosimulacra. Perhaps I held too much weight to that reply in conjunction to your overall post. Since your issue is more play style orientated. And you recognized that MikealS makes the hero barely look the same. I would encourage you to try mimicking his playstyle and optionally his item build the next time you play Paradox. Would be interested to see if your opinion on her changes after that.

Again, I do like your idea for the move speed stealing! Would be cool to see that implemented in some manner eventually.

It is anecdotal evidence for sure, never pretended otherwise. I am however very surprised you can consider her "very fun" currently - just as there are a lot of people who apparently consider Pocket "very fun" (who basically repeats the same two tricks for the entire game because all his abilities are designed to only make sense when used together).

My problem with Paradox is not that she is weak, as you seem to be interpreting the situation as by the way you formulate your reaction to change 4 as well mentioning the winrate of MikealS. The latter is very, VERY weak evidence by the way - even worse than either of us mentioning our respective friendgroups. I'm pretty sure you are aware of this. I think the issue with Paradox is the way she is being played. She feels very one-note in the way she functions and relies too much on her ultimate to contribute. Most games I see her being played she just looks for things to swap into her wall, and not doing much else besides throwing out random Carbines every now and then.

I did watch a few games from MikealS as per your reaction, and the hero barely even looks the same to the games I have seen in his hands admittedly. He does a lot more with it. But I'm not really sure what to make of that either; as he is infinitely much better as a player than everyone he is playing against. If I were to see his gameplay in a vacuum however I would definitely think I'm completely wrong with my assessment here - so perhaps I am to some degree.

 

[coldbutchocolate]

Fully agree. She is way too repetitive and one-note. She should be changed ASAP.

 

[destinyfrfr]

I hope to god the devs don't read this nonsense. She's a good hero, carbine>wall>swap is one of the strongest combos in the game and she is NOTHING like lash lmao. All of her kit is extremely cohesive and she has clear timings she takes advantage of in the game.

 

[coldbutchocolate]

I hope to god the devs don't read this nonsense. She's a good hero, carbine>wall>swap is one of the strongest combos in the game and she is NOTHING like lash lmao. All of her kit is extremely cohesive and she has clear timings she takes advantage of in the game.

My problem with it isnt that its weak, its just too repetive. Carbine wall swap is literally the only thing she can do, compare her to viscous who can fully spec into splatter and be more long range, or spec into ball and fly around the map, or spec into fist and punch people, most of the cast have way more variety than paradox.

Paradox is my most played character but thats why i want her to be changed, so she isnt just 1 combo.