Greetings and welcome, I'm Ash and this is my beginner's guide for Paragon.
Starting up a new MOBA can be a fairly daunting task, especially in the case of Paragon which
is currently in beta, and as such suffers from a poor tutorial and lack of in-game explanations.
But never fear as I've made a short guide that will get you up to speed on all the mechanics
and key elements of Paragon, with a focus on improving the strategy behind your plays
rather than simply showing facts down your throat.
The early game in Paragon is all about maximizing the rate at which you gain both experience
and and card points, which means you need to stick around in your lane for as long as
possible without retreating to heal and losing precious income.
This is where the consumables come in.
While you're still learning I'd recommend starting every single match with a Healing
Potion, a Mana Potion and a Harvester's Key (more on this later).
You can chug each potion three times before needing to refill it back at your base, so
when it comes to sustainability while laning, and pure value for your money, nothing beats
the humble consumables.
Its also worth keeping in mind that unlike Dota 2, the potions in Paragon work while
you're being attacked, so even if you're being chased by a murderous horde of maniacs its
well worth reaching in to your pockets and taking a sip, it might just give you the few
seconds you need.
With your potions safely strapped to your pack you will want to head to a lane.
The usual distribution is that the most mobile and gank orientated character goes middle
while the rest fill out the side lanes in pairs of two.
Your main goals within the first ~10 minutes are to survive for as long as possible, stay
relatively close to enemy minions so that you can gain experience, and perform killing
blows on enemy units in order to secure golden orbs which transform in to card points.
Unlike other MOBA games, if minions in Paragon kill other minions the gold won't simply vanish
into the ether, a portion of it will drop to the floor.
You will have to personally pick up these golden balls if you want to see any of the
bounty, but don't expect the enemy players to simply let you do so without force-feeding
you a few meteors in the process.
A much better way of acquiring golden orbs, and by proxy card points, is to ensure that
your blow is the one that kills the enemy as this will not only vacuum all of the golden
orbs to you, it will also give you a significant bonus.
Last hitting in Paragon isn't easy, however, as the friendly creeps are fairly unpredictable
when it comes to their damage, so practice will be required before you become competent
at it, and you will want to do so given how important items are in MOBA games, and that
includes Paragon.
After watching all of those cinematics showcasing heroes flying around, throwing meteors and
shrugging off bullets you might start to think that the characters in Paragon start out as
almighty demigods.
The reality of the situation is that you will get your ass handed down to you by even the
simplest of enemy minions early on, and especially towers, so make sure not to overextend.
Being proactive and attacking the enemy throughout the laning phase is an excellent idea, but
beware as each hit you land on the enemy will shift minion focus squarely on you, which
can result in your opponent ending up with the better side of the deal despite never
even firing a shot.
There is no trick to this, I'm afraid, you will simply have to learn from experience
when its safe to shoot, when to go aggressive and when to start pulling back because the
balance is tipping in the opponent's favor.
Besides butchering everything you come across, there is one more way of gathering golden
orbs, Harvesters.
They are drill-shaped thingies that need to be constructed before they will begin gathering
resources for you.
In order to build a Harvester you simply need to stand on the clearly marked circles all
over the map and wait for what feels like an eternity, especially when you see enemies
slowly encroach upon you.
If patience isn't your favorite virtue you can buy a Harvester Key which significantly
speeds up the built time, with the one downside being the fact that they key will only work
once before needing to be recharged.
After the Harvester finally emerges from the ground and pokes the statue above it will
begin periodically generating resources for your entire team, though you will need to
pick them up from the Harvester every once in a while.
The Harvesters are in many ways a pot of infinite gold, and as such they will draw a lot of
unwanted attention from your opponents who would love nothing more than to bring them
down and deny you its treasure.
In other words, if you want a steady stream of card points and experience to pour in,
make sure you're prepared to both defend and empty the Harvesters regularly.
If you thought that after collecting all those golden orbs in your lane you would be through
with them, well, think again because there is an entire jungle filled with colorful bundles
of joy for you to collect.
These are special, however, as they don't simply offer you card points, but rather some
insane buffs that last for 2.5 minutes.
The Orbs come in four flavors:
Blue Orbs - The jungle camps with blue balls can be found on the left side of the map,
and if you beat down their guardians you will gain increased mana regeneration and a 20%
cooldown reduction.
Red Orbs - These camps are located on the right side of the map, and once conquered
offer you a small movement speed buff as well as 25% increased damage.
Black Orb - This one spawns from the strong monster camp in the center left portion of
the map and gives you the ability to apply a burning effect to enemy towers and buildings
which does significant amounts of damage.
If you see an enemy barreling towards your towers with this buff in tow, make sure to
stop them and steal it for yourself or you might soon run out of towers to hide behind.
Grey Orb - The final and most important orb is located in the center right portion of
the map.
You will need multiple people to take down its guardian, but the reward is well worth
it.
However, unlike the other three orbs, the grey one gives you no benefits until you bring
it to a specific location deep within enemy territory, which means that even after going
through all of the effort to kill its guardian, you might lose the orb if you're careless.
If successful your will gain amazing benefits which for the starter deck usually means extra
damage, health and further increased damage against buildings.
As the laning phase slowly comes to an end, and your coffers swell with all the golden
orbs you've collected, its prime time to turn those card points in to something a bit more
valuable, cards themselves.
In order to return to your base you can simply press 'B' which will begin a ~5 second long
channeling process that send you back, just be careful where you do this as you can be
interrupted.
Once you're in base you can enter the shop inventory by pressing 'G' after which you
will be presented with ~4 items to chose from.
If you're a beginner I would recommend aiming for items that increase health and damage,
as going for glass cannon or pushing builds involves requires a good presence of mind
and read on enemy movements to be useful.
Once you pick an item of your choice you will be able to place upgrade cards in to it which
will further increase its power.
Since items give additional benefits when they have a full set of cards in them I recommend
you aim to do exactly that, but don't just waste your card points buying cheap and garbage
upgrades simply to fill out the slots.
Its a valid strategy, and quite useful, but it requires good game knowledge in order to
know when exactly its appropriate, so for now I'd recommend sticking with the medium
and large upgrades.
As a final note about items, do not under any circumstance test out what the 'Discard'
button does.
I tried it out myself, and it completely removes those cards from the match, thus severely
limiting the amount of choices available to you that game.
When defending towers, or even your core, you have a significant advantage over your
enemies as there is plenty of high ground to set up on.
This means you can rain down death from above, jump in to the middle of the pushing team
without them being able to stop you, and most importantly, shoot enemy minions without them
being able to do a whole lot in return.
You're not invincible, however, so don't overstay your welcome if it seems obvious that the
tower will fall.
Its better to just lose one tower than to lose it and a couple of people which then
transitions in to further destruction.
One of the biggest mistakes I see new MOBA players make is simply dispersing to farm
after winning a big team fight, when in reality they should tear through the enemy base unimpeded.
If you destroy an enemy inhibitor that lane will begin spawning extremely strong minions
for your side, minions that if left unchecked will quickly push the lane equilibrium all
across the map in your favor.
So if you team wipe the enemy, don't go back even if you're on low health, aim for those
inhibitors and bring down as many as you can because one destroyed inhibitor is a nuisance,
two are almost a death sentence.
People are a fickle bunch, and if presented with a massive challenge to overcome many
will simply give up, even though the match is far from over.
While you can't, and won't win every single match, its important to keep fighting until
the very end because one good team fight, or lucky mistake from the enemy, and you're
suddenly smashing down their core giggling like a madman.
If you find yourself in a situation where all seems lost, and your team uninspired,
convince them to go for one final, desperate attempt where you storm out of your base and
try to catch the enemy off guard.
9/10 it will end as expected, but that 1/10 will be the game you will remember for many
months to come.
And there you have it, all of the things I believe new players in Paragon should be aware
of before starting their very first match.
However, no matter how much knowledge you have, it won't ever replace experience, so
even if you fail your first few matches make sure to continue playing, it will only get
easier and more enjoyable as you go.
And most importantly, do make sure to have fun.
Thank you guys for listening, and if you enjoyed this, or even if you didn't, please let me
know.
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linked down below, that one tends to be updated more frequently.
With all of that said, I hope you have a nice day, I hope you guys have a nice day, I wish
you a happy Easter and I'll see you soon.
See ya!