In Paladins, you can buy up to four different items in the middle of the match. Items that increase your ability to survive, make it easier to kill your enemies, or do both! You gain credits to buy and upgrade items by playing the game, eliminating enemies, and performing actions for your chosen champion’s role. And today, we’re going to go over the best items in the game, at least the top ten that work for the majority of champions.
Some champions like Koga, Saati, Grover and Yagorath cannot buy certain items as they lack the need to use them. Koga and Saati do not have cooldowns, and therefore cannot buy the item that reduces them. Grover doesn’t need to reload and Yagorath cannot ride a mount.
Additionally, some of the items are specifically designed to counter certain champions; they’re situational. The item Bulldozer does more damage to buildings, like the ones that Ying, Barik and Imani can produce, so therefore they are useless in matches with teams that lack deployables like that. I will not be including those situational items as a result. They’re still insanely useful if the situation does rises up though.
So without further ado, let’s start with Number 10!
10. Master Riding
- Makes the mount move faster
- Allows for flanking or applying more pressure onto the objective.
In Paladins, everyone has a mount…save for Yagorath. She is the mount. You spawn on your ride at the start of each life and is the fastest way to get around the map, but once you get off (Or get shot) you don’t get that ride back until you die.
So what if you were a bit faster?
This item sees little use in a lot of matches (More so for Team Deathmatch, where you don’t have the option to get on a mount), but in bigger maps like the ones in the main game mode of Siege? Master Riding really lives up to its name. Having your mount go faster makes a lot of jobs easier.
Flanks can use them to get into a prime position to, well, flank. Frontlines can get back to the objective faster so they can apply their pressure. And for Support, they can use it as a fast way to get back to their team if they do go down, minimizing the lack of healing.
The only time this item is less useful if you’re not dying to actually take advantage of it. If you’re rolling the enemy team or just generally staying alive, Master Riding just becomes a wasted slot. That’s why it’s low on this list; it kinda requires you to die. It’s a smart option overall, just situational against low-skill teams and on modes where the mount is less used.
9. Trigger Scent
- Increases damage dealt with main weapon
- Can roll into itself with repeated eliminations
There are a lot of items in Paladins that aren’t in the game anymore. Aggression is one of them; it used to grant a straight-up damage buff. And it was considered to be one of the worst items in the game due to providing such a tiny buff! It took some time, but Aggression got a bigger broth in the form of Trigger Scent!
Upon scoring an elimination, you’ll get a damage buff to your main weapon. A small one, but stronger than Aggression. This is really ideal for heavy damage dealers, allowing them to jack up their damage to greater levels. Even more so for the ones that dish out AOE damage. Get that ball rolling!
That being said, it is small damage, and bested out by the next item. Still, it allows for easier rolling. You just need one kill to start the snowball.
8. Armor Plating
- Reduces damage from weapon shots
- Protects against certain characters’ abilities.
There are two different abilities that directly reduce damage. Arcane Warding, which reduces damage from abilities, and this one, which reduces damage from the main weapon. Why is Arcane Warding not on this list then? Easy, it’s because every character has a weapon and not everyone has abilities that deal damage.
Characters like Lian, Lex, and Sha Lin have abilities that deal weapon damage, so that means that Arcane Warding doesn’t reduce damage from them. While Arcane Warding does have greater effects, Armor Plating still works against ALL champions. Even more so against DPS characters.
Ideastically, it’s great for everyone. Frontlines can take more damage, Support can last longer, and Flanks can take some degree of abuse. But the benefit is small and…well? A lot of champions can headshot. Armor Plating does reduce that damage, but not by a lot.
It’s a good and safe option to say the least. If you got a free slot and you don’t know what to pick, it makes for a great final item to pick up. It technically works against ALL champions after all!
7. Sentinel
- Reduces the effectiveness of Knockback, Slow and Knock-Up
- Produces extra HP upon elimination
I’m breaking my rule regarding situational items. What’s this doing here? Well, because it counters two common status effects: Slow and Knockback.
A majority of heroes can inflict those two effects. Dredge, Evie, Pip, and Vora can do both of them! Trying to keep yourself steady as the enemy ears down on you is important, as well being able to escape if need be. Knock-Up is less common, but the characters of Azaan and Inara can do that and one of the other two!
But the biggest benefit is the shield you get from eliminations. It’s small, but it can be stacked up to three times. At max rank, it can give you up to 1350 HP to use for a few seconds! Combine it with other effects and you can achieve immortality!
Sentinel is still situational, and does require some specific knowledge to properly use it. Recognize the problem-children and get it. It won’t just make it easier to kill them, it will make it easier to kill the rest of their friends as well!
6. Life Rip
- Drains HP based around damage dealt
- Stacks with other Life Steal effects
Life Rip grants the user HP based around the damage dealt to any enemy, up to 30%. If you pick up the talent that jacks Drogoz’s main weapon damage up to 1000, that means he gets back 300 HP each time he hits an enemy! But that only works with weapons and any ability that counts as firing a weapon.
This is an item best used by Damage and Flank characters, and some of the more aggressive Frontlines like Raum and Azaan. As long as you’re dealing some damage, you can keep on fighting. Some characters come with cards and/or talents that grant them Life Steal, and yes, it does stack with Life Rip.
A lot of people will say this ability is useless…and then buy nothing but Chronos. Life Rip is ideal for people who have a hard time in winning 1v1s, or have some AOE to get more HP from hitting more than one target. I consider it to be one of my favorite items…even if it doesn’t help with my cruddy aim.
5. Hoard
- Generates credits over time
- Earn more credits per elimination
Perfectly settled into the middle position is Hoard. It’s easy to understand; it generates more credits for you to use. More credits means you can buy and upgrade abilities a lot earlier; it’s to the point where the only way to max out all four items in a match is to use Hoard.
But there is a distinct problem for Hoard. It’s an item, so therefore it takes up a item slot. That leaves you with only three actual items to use for the entire match.
This means that Hoard will become useless once you hit max upgrades for it and the other three, giving it a limited lifespan. That’s unfortunately unique for it. It’s best bought early on, if not at the start of the match. If bought later, it will just waste a slot.
Hoard is perfectly balanced. It has great use even if it’s a bit limited. Just make sure you use your credits and use them well!
4. Rejuvenate
- Gain more HP from other healing sources
- Frontlines best item
This item is technically situational, but that situation is very common and the time it doesn’t happen it’s because someone doesn’t care about building a smart team. If you’re playing casual, that can happen. Competitive, it will never happen unless you pair up with someone intentionally throwing.
Rejuvenate earns more healing from other sources. That means any skill that restores HP back to the user like Khan’s Battle Shout and Buck’s Recovery isn’t enhanced by Rejuvenate. Same also applies to Support characters; Ying’s own Illusions won’t grant her more HP back to her.
But as long as you do have a Support champion, you’ll get way more healing out of them. Champions like Grover and Grohk that are DPS healers get some real raw benefits from Rejuvenate, so make sure you get it when they’re your only measure of staying alive.
This is the item that all Frontlines should get, as long as there is a Support unit. Frontlines are tanky, but they die if they get ganged up on. Rejuvenate helps deal with that and all of the Anti-Healing the match ramps up over time as well! Get Rejuvenate and you’ll live forever! Or until you do die, but hey, you could go ahead and upgrade it when you do bite the dust.
3. Morale Boost
- Build ultimates faster
- Allows for ultimates to be used more often
Ultimates are called that within reason. They can easily turn the tide of battle with just one button press, even more so for the ones with the really amazing Ultimates. So why not go ahead and spam them?
Morale Boost does just that. Real easy to understand. Hitting enemies, scoring kills, healing people and just using the passive generation all build the meter, with Morale Boost making it build faster. It doesn’t affect cards and talent that build ultimate meter faster, but obviously they work alongside them.
Some of the best ultimates include Drogoz being able to one-shot any enemy he wants, Ying healing everyone on the map while being able to teleport to anyone of her team, Raum dealing great damage with the benefit of stunning enemies and destroying all shields and deployables, and Skye putting down a time-bomb that melts shields and anything shy of being a Frontline. Morale Boost allows you to use those more often. There’s no downside.
Some characters, like Evie and Barik, have talents that allow them to use their ultimates at earlier charge levels. Morale Boost makes it so they can spend half the match casting their ultimates. While there are some characters that don’t really need to use their ultimates a lot more often, Morale Boost is still busted. It allows you to bust the enemies head wide open!
2. Chronos
- Reduces cooldowns on abilities
- Stack with cards/talents to increase the cooldown.
Now, some people would put this ability at the top of this list. I, however, will not be putting Chronos as the overall best item. Yeah, I’m drawing controversy with this. But I will stand by that Chronos is great, but not god-tier.
Chronos reduces all cooldowns by 10% for each tier. A lot of people assume that this is a great thing to have at the start of the game. But a lot of people don’t really do the math. 10% of an ability that has a cooldown of 10 seconds is 1 second. You bought an item that takes off a single second off your cooldowns.
It does stack with cards and talents that reduce cooldowns, but obviously Chronos works better with characters that are dependent on their abilities and have long cooldowns: like Atlas and Makoa. Frontlines and Support get the most out of their abilities. But I have encountered people who think ALL champions need Chronos.
Someone once told me that Lilith needs it. Her cooldowns are 4, 3, and 2 seconds long. At max Chronos, that means her cooldowns go to 2.8, 2.1, and 1.4 seconds. That would be impressive if not for the fact that Lilith is a character who needs to carefully use her abilities as they consume her HP as well…and it’s not that impressive in the first place.
Your cooldowns are reset upon death, and a lot of people who get Chronos and focus on upgrading it as soon as possible at the cost of not getting any other items tend to spend a lot of time dead. Just keep that and how much the percentage takes off in mind, and Chronos will take you a lot further than half of the idiots who swear by it.
1. Nimble
- Increases movement speed
- Ideal for all champions
In First-Person Shooters, Movement Speed is king. If you go faster, the less likely you’ll get shot. And Nimble makes you move faster. ‘Nuff said, right?
It’s great for all champions of all categories. Damage and Frontline can press onwards. Flank can get behind the enemy and be a harder target to hit. And Support can also become harder targets and escape easier.
Now, again, a lot of items are situational, and Nimble can become one as well when other items are more ideal. Dealing with enemies with a lot of shields, get Wrecker. Got a lot of enemies that can Stun, get Unbound. Get what you need rather than what you want.
But Nimble is the best item because it can just work in any build. It is the best item to get at any point and can fill up the last slot if you got what you need. Run like the wind!
Want some more? Check out:
[Top 16] Paladins Best Champions For Each Role
