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Paragon
Epic’s Paragon has been in early access testing for a few months now, with a retail version out this week in stores. It won’t be long before you can give it a try for free, as open beta is just two months away.
The studio announced this morning that Paragon’s open beta period (which has become synonymous with “launch” for free-to-play games) begins on August 16. If you are interested in playing early, you can do so without fear of an account reset. None will be happening.
Epic has also revealed the next hero coming to the game. Khaimera wields two axes and can pounce on enemies to stun them and gain the upper hand. He'll be available on June 21.
Paragon will be undergoing some big changes starting today. The first is that card experience will now be split in different ways. It used to be that anyone that participated in a kill got 100 percent of the earned experience. Now it will scale with participants.
The person that gets the killing blow gets 100 percent, while an equal pool of experience is split evenly amongst the other players that participate in the attack. This helps players stand out more, and prevents a phenomenon in which the winning team would pull far out ahead and steamroll.
Additionally, Epic is cutting passive abilities from heroes. They will be merged into actives, which are now getting a fourth upgrade tier. You also won’t need to upgrade your primary attack anymore. It will naturally scale with your in-game level.
Draft mode is being implemented with the update. Players will be able to see who is being picked on both sides in real time.
In-game minions will only march out in waves of four instead of six. They’ll do so more slowly, too. They’ll pack a bigger punch when they do meet up with targets though. And as for inhibitors, they won’t regenerate at all. When destroyed, they’ll place an uber minion at the front of the processional.
Also, according to an interview with Polygon, Paragon will be undergoing another big change in the coming months. Currently, every character can enter a sprint-like “travel mode.” Think of this like Heroes of the Storm’s mounts. It’s getting removed from the game.
The reason for this is to accentuate heroes with unique movement abilities. Those have been downplayed with every character having a sprint function.
You can read the full patch notes on the Paragon website.
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