Contrary to her MO, Deadlock’s Paradox is a character who loves space as well as time. While her abilities are time-themed, Paradox‘s strategies require good spacing to be effective and tie her entire gameplan together, allowing her to pick off enemies at will and stay safe while doing so.
Paradox skills and playstyles for early game
Paradox is a very squishy, backline-oriented character, and therefore efficient spacing is crucial for her. This means playing behind your ally and Trooper wave to stay safe while you farm up Souls.
Kinetic Carbine is the ability you will be primarily playing around and should be taken first. When cast, Paradox will charge a high-damaging beam that can be released upon a second cast. If your Trooper wave and ally are the shield, Kinetic Carbine is the spear, being great for safe and effective harassment from a distance.
While you can release the beam early, allowing it to charge fully gives Paradox a 25% movement speed buff. In this state, she becomes immensely nimble, allowing her to reposition or retreat easily, maintaining her distance from enemies.
When using Kinetic Carbine to poke, charge it up behind cover first. If players see you charging this ability, they will dive for safety. So, if Kinetic Carbine is fully charged behind cover, you can easily emerge and slam unsuspecting opponents.
Taking Pulse Grenade second pairs perfectly with Kinetic Carbine. Pulse Grenade’s AOE phases through walls and releases damaging pulses at regular intervals, giving you area denial capabilities and allowing you to ignore cover. By creating areas of constant damage, you can force enemy players into the open for a Kinetic Carbine if you place the grenade wisely.
Avoid pushing enemies under their Guardian too often. The additional support they gain from objectives allows enemy players to gank Paradox. Paradox is frail and has limited defensive options, so getting ganked pretty much spells out your death.
The last ability you take (besides your ultimate) is Time Wall. Time Wall is an effective tool for walling off opponents (excuse the pun) while negating damage and harass. By preventing projectiles from reaching you, it leaves enemies with a choice: go around, go through, or do nothing.
Going around puts them in an awkward middle ground of repositioning without the pressure to do so. Going through will slow them and deal damage at a set percentage of their health. Doing nothing will, well, do nothing.
Paradoxical Swap is the final ability you unlock, and is a high-risk but high-impact engage option. With paper-thin defenses and a lack of mobility, you can guess why an ability that swaps her position with an enemy’s is risky on a character like Paradox.
The high-impact aspect of Paradoxical Swap comes from its engage and pick potential. However, this requires teamwork and timing. If done well, you will place the enemy in a disadvantageous position, one where your teammate can jump them and you can prevent them from reaching safety. If done poorly, you will be the one in that exact position. Ensure you use this when your team can play around it, or when it’s safe for you to do so.
Strategizing around where Paradoxical Swap will place you is the key to surviving fights. Things like keeping an eye on how much stamina you have before swapping, looking at where the escape options are during the swap, and how you will want to negate incoming damage post swap (whether it’s utilizing Time Wall or an item like Healing Rite).
When diving with Paradoxical Swap, parry the Guardian to increase your survivability. Guardians melee when enemies get too close, and players can parry this melee to stun the Guardian briefly. Due to Paradox’s fragility and the fact that she has no real control over swap’s trajectory (she just ends up where the enemy was), she can sometimes end up far deeper than comfortable. By being ready to parry after your swap, you can anticipate this scenario and parry the guardian before things get too hairy.
Because Paradox primarily plays around Kinetic Carbine, taking its first two talents will help her laning phase immensely. Talent one increases the slowing debuff duration Kinetic Carbine applies, making Paradoxical Swap easier to hit. Talent two gives CDR and increases the speed bonus Kinetic Carbine gives fully charged, making Kinetic Carbine more spammable and safer when charged.
After Kinetic Carbine, pump a single point into Paradoxical Swap. The 15-second CDR allows Paradoxical Swap to be up for almost every fight, bringing it down to less than 30 seconds cooldown.
Finally, unlock talents one and two on Time Wall. Talent one is specifically good for defence, as it flat-out increases the size of the wall. Talent two is when things get spicy in a bad way for enemy players. Talent two increases the percent max health damage Time Wall deals by 10%, making the wall all the more punishing for enemies who pass through it.
With these talents unlocked, Paradox becomes quite the threat, even more so when she combines her abilities in optimal ways:
- Charge Kinetic Carbine
- Place a Time Wall between you and the enemy
- Fire Kinetic Carbine
- Cast Paradoxical Swap at the slowed enemy
If done correctly, the enemy will pass through the Time Wall as they swap with you, taking 10% max health damage.
You can use Pulse grenade to either drive the enemy from cover or as a coup de grâce to your combo. It’s ultimately down to the situation at hand and what cooldowns you have up.
Going into the mid game, start saving talent points to max Kinetic Carbine. The damage Kinetic Carbine deals is an amplification of Paradox’s current Weapon Damage, and the final Talent of Kinetic Carbine increases this by 50% when fully charged. Kinetic Carbine practically obliterates targets with this kind of damage, particularly with a good weapon item build.
Paradox early game powerspikes
The only real powerspike Paradox experiences early game is when she has talent two in Time Wall and talent two on Kinetic Carbine. This makes your combo and harass game far stronger, and massively increases the chances of getting a kill during an engage.
Best Paradox items for early game
Headshot Booster: While Kinetic Carbine does not do headshot damage, Paradox’s basic shot has a vertical upward spread, making landing headshots with it easier.
Mystic Shot: Great for harassing the enemy due to the range you can harass from.
Combat Barrier: As a character that likes to work from the backline, Paradox benefits from Combat Barrier’s passive increase to Weapon Damage and Fire Rate while shielded, as she will rarely lose the Bullet Shield. Defensively, this item is also excellent as it gives a very squishy character better defences.
Mystic Reach: This couples brilliantly with Kinetic Carbine as it will always deal more than 80 Spirit Damage in a hit and therefore will always deal bonus Spirit Damage.
Bullet Resist Shredder: Combines brilliantly with Paradox’s entire gameplan, as she will always either open with Pulse Grenade to drive enemies out of cover, or Kinetic Carbine to combo into Paradoxical Swap, meaning she will always utilize the lowered Bullet Resist.
Paradox mid game strategy and what skills to max first
Rush Warp Stone. This item makes Paradoxical Swap a far safer and more efficient option. After swapping with an enemy, all eyes (and subsequently guns) are on you. Warp Stone not only allows you to teleport away, but also gives you Bullet Resist at the tail end.
When playing Paradox, the most important mantra is this: Positioning, positioning, positioning. Being able to keep a comfortable cushion of space between you and the enemy is what will carry you through the mid game.
Paradox’s kit plays around this gameplan beautifully. Kinetic Carbine allows you to blast enemies from a massive distance, and Pulse Grenade acts as a deterrent for enemies looking to get too close.
Positioning behind your team also makes Paradoxical Swap that much more effective, as it will drop enemies right in the middle of your team, where those teammates will happily dogpile them.
During the mid game, Paradox likes to stay on her toes, roaming as much as she can. Something to keep in mind is that Kinetic Carbine is an excellent roaming tool. This is because of the Movement Speed bonus you gain when it’s fully charged. This allows you to leave lane, charge Kinetic Carbine, and zoom to your desired location at quite the brisk pace.
Though it may not seem like it, Paradox can pull off ganks that are efficient and lethal. If you save Time Wall and Paradoxical Swap, you can yoink them back into the fight when they try to retreat, flipping the situation on its head.
This is why the next ability you should max is Paradoxical Swap. This becomes your bread and butter mid game, especially when combined with Warp Stone and good positioning to make it immensely safe and deadly effective. The range increase on Talent three is important, and allows you to start hitting consistent swaps from massive distances.
Paradox can jungle, but only if done carefully and correctly. Being squishy, the biggest hurdle Paradox must jump when jungling is minimizing her damage taken, as you can easily lose 50% of your health from one large camp. This is where singling out monsters and peeking around corners will save you from tanking the full jungle camp.
The next ability you want to max is Time Wall. This is a core ability that combines with Paradoxical Swap, so having its final talent makes the combo all the more potent. The final Talent for Time Wall makes the ability a no-go zone for all enemies, as any enemies that even touch it are silenced for over 2 seconds.
This essentially makes the ability a massive area denial, and if placed right, can force enemies into tough situations.
Paradox mid game powerspikes
The first and largest powerspike is when Time Wall is fully upgraded. Time Wall is a game-changing ability when maxed, becoming a powerful form of area denial and easily netting kills when combined with Paradoxical Swap.
The second powerspike is when Paradoxical Swap is maxed out, and you purchase Warp Stone. This allows Paradoxical Swap to reach incredible distances while simultaneously being far safer when you swap from these distances (due to Warp Stone).
Best Paradox items for mid game
Warp Stone: This is core to Paradox as it will make Paradoxical Swap a far safer option when engaging.
Alchemical Fire: A brilliant addition to your build, as the active will only increase your damage output towards a target (so long as you hit it).
Long Range: Due to the positioning and space you want to maintain on Paradox, Long Range’s passive will always be in effect, giving you bonus Weapon Damage most of the time.
Pristine Emblem: Combined with Kinetic Carbine’s absurd damage when maxed, Pristine Emblem utterly destroys enemy health bars when they are at higher than 50% HP, and since you will often be opening with Kinetic Carbine, they will be more often than not.
Enduring Speed: Enduring Speed will make roaming quicker and more effective when coupled with Kinetic Carbine’s speed boost when fully charged.
Paradox late game Strategies
Late game, Paradox is primarily looking to roam with a fully charged Kinetic Carbine, and fish for uses of Paradoxical Swap. With some pep to your step (AKA a Movement Speed bonus from Kinetic Carbine), you can dart around the map quite quickly. If you see an enemy, feel free to let loose your fully charged ability in their direction. Upon hitting them, cast Paradoxical Swap (you don’t always have time for Time Wall, but if you do, go nuts and cast it before your ultimate ability).
Keep in mind where your teammates are before casting Paradoxical Swap. If you are, by chance, completely alone, don’t use Paradoxical Swap. It will only put you in a moderately to massively poor position, and you may risk lethal retaliation.
If you have even a single other teammate with you, it almost always nets a kill. This strategy makes you a pick-based character, no different to a character like Bebop, meaning your goal is to primarily kill singular enemy targets (“pick” because you’re picking a singular player to die).
Getting picks on enemies will inherently create map pressure, and with Paradoxical Swap being up as often as it is, you can repeat this process a lot.
Paradox isn’t amazing at lane pressure due to her squishiness and lack of mobility. She would rather be the one engaging than be the one getting engaged. Therefore, staying out of sight in the jungle is preferable.
That’s not to say you can’t ever go to lanes. Make sure you do clear Trooper waves crashing into an objective. This is important if an enemy player is pushing the lane, as you can easily kill them with Paradoxical Swap and Kinetic Carbine.
Storming the enemy base and taking Base Guardians is something Paradox especially excels at. Firstly, her Time Wall essentially bars enemies from walking out of their base to defend. If they do, they get silenced and slowed, leaving them vulnerable to your team and Paradoxical Swap.
Secondly, Paradoxical Swap is unbelievable here, and you can either hit Paradoxical Swap raw or combo it out of Kinetic Carbine. Not only will this pull enemies straight out of their base and into your team, but you have an easy window to Warp Stone out.
Best Paradox items for late game
Sharpshooter: Similar to Long Range, Sharpshooter allows you to be rewarded for sitting at a range Paradox is comfortable at.
Crippling headshot: As mentioned with Headshot Booster, Paradox can find headshots easier than most heroes, making this a must-buy for most builds.
Glass Cannon: As Paradox is already operating under a “glass cannon” status, buying the item of the same name doesn’t change much other than playing into her pick-based playstyle, as you are permanently rewarded with bonus Weapon Damage for each successful kill.
Improved Burst: This is entirely for Kinetic Carbine. Late game Kinetic Carbine will always prock that 175 damage requirement and gain bonus damage.
Superior Cooldown: Paradox typically has rather long cooldowns, so reducing those is always a good option. Ultimately, whether you imbue this on Kinetic Carbine or Paradoxical Swap is up to you. However, I suggest the latter as being able to swap multiple times in one fight will make the enemy’s heads spin.
The key to playing Paradox effectively is positioning and teamwork. If you can position well and play around your team, you can be a real thorn in the enemy’s side. Play around those late game picks and the base siege, and you will easily win the game.
If you found this build useful, make sure to follow Deadlock Rank on BlueSky and Twitter, and stay on top of the meta by checking the main Paradox page for the best Paradox items by winrate.
