Paragon is going from strength to strength with every patch and while there’s still a great deal for EPIC to do, it’s undoubtedly heading in the right direction. Despite that, most players likely have their own “wish list” that they’d like to see added into the game and I’m certainly no exception. Below are five things I think would benefit Paragon that I’m desperate to see arrive in the game.

Weather, Seasons, Day and Night

A concept of how Agora could look at night.

Agora is unquestionably beautiful and while I’m not averse to adding new maps, there’s so much depth in the existing map that adding weather and seasons would diversify its style and feeling. Agora covered in snow, with snow falling down would look and feel incredible. Even autumn with amber piles of leaves filling the jungle floor would provide a very different sense of time when playing. If we could also have weather effects, such as rain or a thunder storm the game would play and feel massively different. Can you imagine playing on Agora at night time with fire-flies lighting up the jungle, with only the ambience of bioluminescent flowers and torchlight lighting up the jungle and lanes? It would be awesome. Players would be notified during the loading screen which random weather/season they were arriving into, providing plenty of notice to prepare for the slightly different playstyle that might be needed. You can view a full sized version of the above image, here.

Custom Wards

At the moment all Wards in Paragon look the same - a small odd shaped device - that projects a warning barrier for enemies that pass near its radius. Unfortunately all Ward “pings” (the sound they make when alerting you of an enemy) sound the same and all Wards, irrespective of what Hero placed them, looked the same. Considering there are only cosmetic skins available for Heroes, I’d love to see custom Wards across a variety of styles and themed for each Hero.

An example of how Grux's unique Ward could look*

As one example, The Fey could place a flower with the Ward projection (or its radius) being indicated by pollen when it’s placed down. Sevarog’s could be a small tombstone that billows smoke while Narbash’s could be a totem with a skull, that gently thumps the ground. Alongside custom Wards, I’d also love a customized sound. My preference would be a variety of Hero voice-lines that play when someone triggers your ward; “Enemy incoming”, “Enemy sighted”, “Enemy inbound.” Alternatively, custom ping sounds specific your Ward rather than the global generic sound we currently have.

Less Homogenization

Over recent months attributes in Paragon have been tweaked and nerfed to the point where there’s very little value in critical hit, critical hit damage and even lifesteal. Stacking just damage and attack speed, alongside some armor and health is undoubtedly best. Unfortunately, builds are massively limited as a result and considering you can only have 6 cards equipped at once, despite a huge array of cards, most builds across all Heroes are very similar. This is a real shame because variety is unquestionably one of the key strengths behind Paragon and its card system. While I accept there will always be Meta builds, ensuring all card types are viable is incredibly important and at the moment, that just isn’t the case. As one example, I can build Feng Mao with critical hit chance, critical hit damage, some damage and defence and yet it’s still massively inferior to simply stacking damage and attack speed. Critical hit chance is too difficult to gain for the percentage return (overnerfed) and critical hit damage the same (also overnerfed). Lifesteal has felt the repercussion of this by simply providing a too smaller percentage return, for the card cost. Considering the fact we’re in a “tanky” meta, critical hit chance - and burst enemies - should be a viable solution to it and sadly, it just isn’t.

Quicker Hero Balancing

Hero balancing is subjective, it’s challenging and it’s filled with variables. It’s also important to remember that Paragon will never truly be balanced (MOBAs are always shifting). However, obvious imbalances can be easily addressed and at the moment, it seems to take weeks (months) to see any real action - especially when it comes to buffs. As one example, Narbash’s Song of My People is unquestionably terrible. Used before, during or after a fight the healing versus mana cost is truly poor - even with cards supporting it. It’s so obviously terrible to anyone with any experience of Paragon that it’s bizarre to think it was even allowed to be released in its current form and yet it still hasn’t been tweaked. Admittedly Narbash has only been released for three weeks and there’s still time for it to be remedied and yet other Heroes - released far earlier - are still in need of intervention. Why does Khaimera’s Ultimate, a Hero I play a great deal, still deal such enormous damage with such ease? Why is Twinblast’s Ultimate still so poor after all this time? Why is Feng Mao’s Conversion Shield still largely negligible and yet on such a long cooldown? As important as nerfs are - and I feel EPIC have been targeting these reasonably well - buffs are just as important.

Master Skins Across All Skins

A concept of how a Master skin, applied over a purchased skin, could look.

I’ve several Master skins but the arrival of beautiful skins that can be purchased somewhat undermines the value of reaching the milestone. The fire effect across Heroes looks fantastic but it’s completely missing when you equip a purchased skin. I think that’s a real shame and as a simple proposal, perhaps players could gain a fire aura around their hero irrespective of skin or the flame texture that comes with a Master skin, grafted over equipped skin. I’d love for people to know that when my Grux skin is equipped, I’m actually a Master with him.

What would you like to see added to Paragon? Let me know!

*concept art by Grit Skateboards