Classifications and Key

Ability Damage Types

Ranged Hitscan

Successful hits depend on whether the player's cursor lines up with the enemy's hitbox. (Eg. Viktor's Assault Rifle)





Successful hits depend on whether the player's cursor lines up with the enemy's hitbox. (Eg. Viktor's Assault Rifle) Ranged Projectile

Successful hits depend on whether the ability-spawned projectile's hitbox collides with the enemy's. (Eg. Drogoz' Rocket Launcher)





Successful hits depend on whether the ability-spawned projectile's hitbox collides with the enemy's. (Eg. Drogoz' Rocket Launcher) Melee

Successful hits depend on whether the champion's own hitbox or weapon's hitbox collides with the enemy's. (Terminus's Massacre Axe)





Successful hits depend on whether the champion's own hitbox or weapon's hitbox collides with the enemy's. (Terminus's Massacre Axe) Area of Effect Damage

Successful hits depend on whether the enemy's hitbox enters the damaging zone summoned by an ability. This also includes "spray" abilities. (Inara's Warder's Field, Fernando's Flamethrower)





Successful hits depend on whether the enemy's hitbox enters the damaging zone summoned by an ability. This also includes "spray" abilities. (Inara's Warder's Field, Fernando's Flamethrower) Continuous Damage

Damage that continues to be dealt after an initial attack successfully lands, dealt either through a Damage Over Time effect or from a channeled ability. (Fernando's Flamethrower's Burn)





Damage that continues to be dealt after an initial attack successfully lands, dealt either through a Damage Over Time effect or from a channeled ability. (Fernando's Flamethrower's Burn) Bonus

Damage that increases any already existing source of damage. Bonus damage adopts the type of damage that it boosts and cannot be dealt without a successful hit. (Eg. Drogoz's Fullisade on Rocket Launcher)

Damage Classes/Counters

Direct Damage

Damage that can only affect one target per projectile, bullet, or attack--NOT per ability. Abilities such as Barik's Blunderbuss, though activated once, may generate multiple attacks or bullets--each attack affecting their own individual targets.





Damage that can only affect one target per projectile, bullet, or attack--NOT per ability. Abilities such as Barik's Blunderbuss, though activated once, may generate multiple attacks or bullets--each attack affecting their own individual targets. Blast Damage

Damage that can affect multiple targets per projectile, bullet, or attack.











Damage that can affect multiple targets per projectile, bullet, or attack. Neutral Damage

A very rare type of damage that cannot be mitigated by Haven or Blast Shields, but is mitigated by pure Damage Reduction such as Inara's Earthern Guard. During Paladins OB stages, most deployables (Eg. Barik's Turret attacks) did Neutral Damage.





A very rare type of damage that cannot be mitigated by Haven or Blast Shields, but is mitigated by pure Damage Reduction such as Inara's Earthern Guard. During Paladins OB stages, most deployables (Eg. Barik's Turret attacks) did Neutral Damage. True Damage

Damage that cannot be mitigated by any sort of damage reduction.











Damage that cannot be mitigated by any sort of damage reduction. Executes

Executes are special instances of "damage" in which the champion dies regardless of remaining health. Executes happen only on successful hits, so it is possible to "mitigate" executes by preventing them from landing in the first place. (Eg. Zhin's Counter vs Lex's The Law)





Executes are special instances of "damage" in which the champion dies regardless of remaining health. Executes happen only on successful hits, so it is possible to "mitigate" executes by preventing them from landing in the first place. (Eg. Zhin's Counter vs Lex's The Law) Scripted Damage

A very niche type of damage that exists only in game mechanics. This cannot be stopped regardless of damage negation or prevention. (Eg. Falling off of map, touching enemy spawn room doors)

Other Icons Used in Guide

"By-Ability" Damage

Not a damage class, but I will use this icon in the guide to indicate that Bonus Damage's damage class will depend on the ability that it is boosting.









Not a damage class, but I will use this icon in the guide to indicate that Bonus Damage's damage class will depend on the ability that it is boosting. Ally

Not a damage class, but I will use this icon in the guide to indicate that an ability affects allies.

Perhaps the most integral aspect to Paladins as a hero shooter,is a metric that determines how lethal champions are and how fights are won. It's important to learn all the ability classifications, as this is the dominant way in which damage is dealt.Damaging abilities can be grouped into types that all interact with in-game damage mitigation (shields, other abilities) differently. The damage type is determined by the form or instance in which that damage is calculated, rather than how the ability or damage is delivered. (Eg. Skye's Smoke Screen w/ Smoke and Daggers, while delievered via an arcing projectile, damages based on an area)Most damage can be mitigated--the two readily accessible forms of mitigation being Haven or Blast Shields. As such, damaging abilties can be further classified by their counters. Due to game engine limitations, damage from one ability can only be classfied once (either Haven or Blast, not both), and as such, there will be rare instances in which the below definitions do not apply. These instances will be noted in the Notes section.