I don't persoanlly hack in Paladins, I (mostly) enjoy the game as it is. However when climbing up the ranks the sheer fustration you will face with matches being dropped left and right, people saying "♥♥♥♥ the team" and picking their favorite instead of what the team needs, players who were boosted and have no place in high rank (btw that is a service you can pay for if you google it) and so on and so forth makes Paladins just unplayable in competitive.
And that's even BEFORE we talking about hacking!

Its even worse that the system actively punishes you for playing by queuing you up with low ranked or unranked(!) players essentially expecting you to carry while you go up against much more skilled and co-ordinated teams.

While I admit it is easy to put ALL the blame on Hi-Rez, they have not done enough to stop people using cheats and hacks in high level play and they continue to use Easy Anti Cheat which has been known to be extremely vunerable because it does not protect itself, only the game it is hooked too.

Hi-Rez simple refuse any conversation about EAC and its shortcomings despite all evidence showing it isn't working and they could, if they wanted too, use VAC, a system that while not perfect is a lot more intimidating as Steam players seldom want to lose their main account or have it tarnished with VAC BANNED on it.

That said, that only works for players using the steam client and Paladins does have its own non-steam version so even that is an imperfect solution.

However, Paladins is around 3 years old and these problems have never been resolved. It is reaching a point where Hi-Rez simply saying "we are looking into it" just isn't good enough. They have been promising to look into it for the past year and while there are no easy solutions it is also seemingly not a high enough priority for them to care or communicate with the community about the issue, instead enforcing a "Do not discuss" policy on the forums despite the fact we all know it is happening.

Sticking fingers in your ears and going "la la la" does not make problems disappear.

Nothing derides more hostility than tier lists. Used by the low skilled as an excuse for why their chosen one is forever doomed, while ignored by 'expert' players until they lose a few too many times and are calling for buffs.

As with every tier list in existance your own skill and experience will dictate how well you do with or against certain characters since thankfully we don't all live in a fishbowl, however nobody cares about you and how well you can do, instead what they care about is what the pros are playing so if you don't compete at tournaments then your opinion is invalid. It might sound harsh but this is how every tier list is decided in any competitive scene.

With that out of the way, I personally find paladins to be a well balanced game. I struggled to find a champion to place in a C-rank or below catagory so there isn't one. S-rank is considered the best of the best, the best pick and therefore will often be dicing with nerfs or being re-worked. That said however sometimes Hi-Rez will nerf a champion who was already doing badly so don't be afraid to pick up any champion you like.

However tiers exist for a reason and as of 2017 a B-rank champion like Barik is just no match as a tank against S-ranks like Makoa and Fernando, as we saw in the invitational finals of HRX 2016 where he was destroyed before he could put down a turret, every, single, time.

That is the true measure of tiers. If 2 players of equal skill were to 1v1 with 2 specific champions, which champion would win and why. In the case of HRX, Barik needs time to set up both his turrets whereas Fernando or Makoa are ready to go right out the gate. Destroy Bariks' turrets and you have the lowest damage champion in the game with the lowest and shortest shield in the game. People can and will argue about how great he is when he gets those turrets up and likewise for any champion that they like, but a good tier list looks at the facts and the fact is that some champions are undeniably better than others in the same field.

The job of a tank is to protect the weaker members of the team and to capture and hold the objective. That does not mean that is all they need to do because it is easier to capture the point and push the payload when the enemy team is dead. Often however the enemy team is not dead so a good tank has a good shield in order to sustain all the abuse they will recieve.

Its worth pointing out that dispite the hard numbers showing how certain champions line up, In my experience and as past tournaments show, most tanks are very close to each other. Ash is the worst tank in the game but she is not terrible, she does not spell doom for your team just because you have her on your side. Tanks are in a good place when considering balance and picking your favorite is completely viable.

S-Rank

Fernando
Fernando is a very valuble frontliner. He has a strong, sturdy shield at 8000 HP which he can move!, he has the ability to heal himself which is invaluble, he can flank and is very difficult to remove if he chooses to do so and he has decent range on his attack. Although the self-healing is tied to having his shield up so while it is nice that he can heal himself it is a mixed bag because you probably will need to heal when your shield is down.

You will often see that champions with immobile shields are low ranked because Paladins is a fast paced game. Being able to move his shield gives Fernando excellent value as a front line, able to move with the payload, to retreat with the remaining team members or to advance while protecting the weaker members, in a nutshell, he has it all!

Torvald
Having a fantastic shield which he can restore or steal from enemy tanks as well as a shot that locks on (never misses), he really excels at killing anyone stupid enough to not run away from him or buy Wrecker.
He is the Pip of tanks offering flexibility but with a short range, until Wrecker becomes active on the enemy team and at that point Torvald just crawls into a ball and cries. His ultimate is also very oppressive, able to gain multiple instant kills or push around threats like Makoa.

A-Rank

Barik
Barik is at his best with two turrets and at his worst with no turrets. The turrets are a huge part of Barik's arsenal. Without them he has very poor range and very poor damage and the worst shield in the game thus far tied with Ruckus although Barik can at least stop a Makoa hookshot.

Barik has balance issues which will never be fixed due to his turrents being very oppressive when they are not immediately destroyed and Barik himself being almost worthless without them. In this high paced, fast moving game, having stationary objects isn't great but if the enemy team is too stupid to destroy them then Barik absolutely cleans house causing this conundrum. At high levels of play however the turrets will be destroyed with impunity.

Makoa
Makoa is what would happen if you wanted to create a nightmare. His ability to snare people which stuns them and drags them to his position is the reason he will always be second best pick and will be the best pick if Fernando ever loses top spot. Makoa's claim to fame is his hook shot but even without it he does good damage and is both a solid tank and damage dealer in his own right and he always makes a solid secondary tank whilst often on a high damage team he is a much better pick than Fernando due to being very offensive oriented.

Makoa is very deck dependant whereas Fernando works even with 0 deck investment. I think thats more a problem with Fernando cards being weird, whereas Makoa cards are all fantastic picks that serve a clear purpose.
Makoa can also heal while shielding and again that makes for a useful combination too.

B-Rank

Ruckus
Ruckus treads a fine line between being the worst tank and a good damage dealer because unlike other tanks that can place a shield up to protect allies and absorb all the damage themselves, Ruckus doesn't. Ruckus a great anti-tank however doing exceptionally well with Wrecker and his large magazine size. He tears through shields and is easily able to re-adjust his sights to chain head shots and take down slow targets with ease! Both are great traits for killing tanks.

These bonuses are off-set by his inability to hold the point by himself however since Ruckus is slow, his movement skill is on a semi long recharge and just overall he is not very mobile which is his biggest flaw in such a fast paced game. He is a perfect counter pick against Fernando and Torvald since Ruckus using Wrecker will chew through those shields.

Inara
Inara is similar to Barik in that she use deployables to oppress anyone getting too close. Warder's Field is similar to Grohks healing totem and has similar issues in that it just gets caught in explosive attacks although shoving a wall outside the enemy spawn point is as annoying (and fun) as it sounds. Inara has recieved buff after buff but her main issue is while she has a bag of tricks, they are on really long cooldowns and without them she has absolutely NOTHING of value. However take as much cooldown reduction as you can and she is as solid as a rock.
She is however the best solo tank in the game, replacing Torvold.

Ash
I assume someone at Hi-Rez has been reading this tier list because we now THANKFULLY have another front line with a moveable shield. Ash works great with Barik and plays well with most other frontliners too. An excellent improvement over Fernando without replacing him. Unfortunately her shortcomings are too many to make her viable at high levels of play. Long cooldowns mixed with low health and low damage means she is a jack of all trades, master of none and this hurts her immensely! Honestly would benefit from a bit more damage and a bit shorter cooldowns.

The task of support is to keep their team alive, which is a difficult job with bullets flying around everywhere made even harder because the enemy team wants you dead due to you having this annoying habit of keeping the tank alive. Despite being a simple task almost every match hinges on a good support player. Unlike tanks however all healers are NOT equal and picking a low tier healer is just going to make you lose!

S-rank

Pip
Pip is a jack of all trades, master of none. Often played as a flank rather than a healer, he does nice damage, has a long range cripple skill, can do decent healing, is very mobile and deals explosive AOE damage which is great for spreading caterize.

Jenos
An entry level healer being dubbed as 'Healing Viktor', he is extremely versatile and puts even pip to shame. He is going to be nerfed, I don't know when or how but at present he takes the best of every other healer and combines them to be a monster.

Surprisingly however his damage output is actually quite muted and he exists more as a harrass (like viktor) than a serious flank (like pip) but none-the-less you will learn to hate/love Jenos.
He does lack burst healing so while he can be a solo healer he works better in a team alongside a Pip or Grohk.

Grohk
Grohk only has one healing skill and that is a totem on a 15s cooldown, a totem that can be as easily destroyed as Barik's turrets. When his totem is up he is godlike but normally to stop the enemy team from healing you would kill the healer but in Grohks case you wait for the totem and destroy it, shutting him down immediately. Despite these negatives Grohk can output a lot of damage and I do mean an insane amount if left alone. Damage is not the goal of a support class so Grohk is like a weaker version of Pip sadly.

Ying
Ying has the highest healing per second in the game, period. Her healing comes from clones (think Barik Turrets) and that is the only healing she has not including her ultimate so what this means is that team mates will run upto you pleading for you to heal them and you can't do anything. The healing is automated from your clones while Ying herself only deals damage and if the clones decide to heal anybody else, well, its tough luck for your dying ally.

If she maintains both her clones and she keeps herself alive, she is the strongest healer in the game at present.

A-rank

Mal'Damba
The main claim to fame here is the ability to stun an enemy everytime he reloads and stun is over-powered in every, single, videogame and Paladins is no exception, infact since reloading requires you to shoot a single bullet you can literally shoot and reload someone to death with enough investment in reload speed.

Grover
Grover heals just by being alive so if you thought Ying was easy to heal with then get a load of this! The cooldown and healing on his heal skill is very muted but thankfully your passive healing works even when the healing skill is on cooldown so the only way to stop you from healing is to be killed.
Grover can do between good and great damage depending on how far away his foe is and is very difficult to take down in a 1v1.


B-rank

Seris
Seris requires a high level of play to be effective and new players can't handle her high skill ceiling so she is prone to remaining in B-rank forever. Having a shot that penetrates, a legendary card with a stun on it and an ult that draws everyone together means she will always have a good place at high level play. The travel time on her shots is her downside in addition to her escape skill preventing her from healing allies completely. While she can be annoying to fight against, it is worth nothing that Seris has the lowest winrate out of any support in the game!

Flanking is the art of attacking the enemy from either the sides or the back, surrounding them and breaking morale while inflicting massive casualties. Anyone can flank in Paladins so it seems odd to have a class dedicated to it but I don't make the rules. Flanking is determined by you taking someone to 0% (killing blow) so if you are concerned with the scoreboard then this is not the class for you. A good flank makes the enemy team lose focus and get fustrated, a bad flank is dead.

S-rank

Evie
She has it all because she has high mobility in the form of two escape skills combined with high explosive-type AOE damage which is not reduced by haven and she tops it all off with ice block to get out of (or into) trouble. Her low health and the travel time of her shots are the only drawbacks she has and to be frank she would be broken if they were buffed. She is not beginner friendly however and takes dedication to learn how to play well.

Androxus
Similar to Evie he has high mobility but unlike Evie, he can shoot while airborne and that gives him a massive advantage since it means a lot of his shots will be head shots while flying. He is better using his flight to ambush people since his gun does more damage the closer you are and damage is something Androxious has in spades! A beginner favorite due to his edgelord motif which means most players expect an Androxus player to be terrible.

Buck
Until we get new Flankers who are terrible, you really can't go wrong with picking any flanker if you like big damage and killing people. Buck follows this rule by being highly mobile, having 3k health and the ability to heal himself. Buck has the extra ability to kill the enemy flankers because he is so durable and this bodyguard dual role serves him well and ties him with Androxus for the position of #2 flanker.

A-rank

Zhin
Urm, basically "not"-Androxius. I really couldn't find anything unique that made him stand out from the formula we have for most of the other flanks although counter is annoying like reversal when up close. Zhin having no vertical mobility hurts him in amazing ways you didn't even realize until you play as him. Having to charge in head first and counter at point blank is a good way to die. If we ignore that approach there are still some 1v1 situations that do NOT favor him possibly due to counter being buggy when dealing with explosive shots and even if that ever gets fixed, just shoot the ground instead of Zhin and he will die just as effectively if you have explosive ammo. This renders his counter obsolete.

Lex
If you thought certain other champions were easy mode then get a load of Lex! An execute that ignores personal shields the ability to have homing shots, an ult that hits everyone, the ability to track a target even through line of sight, Lex is by far the most complained about and most picked champion! Like Tovald however the best thing to do is just complain on Reddit until he is nerfed into the bin like Maeve.

Maeve
No reload, lethal burst damage, high mobility, a double jump, Maeve has it all. Like Evie she has low health and a high skill ceiling but is more beginner friendly less able to escape than Evie. Her downsides? She is easily killed by stuns and disables. She can't sit back and snipe like Evie can, but you don't play a flank to sit back and play it safe, you wait for an opening and strike and when it comes to Maeve, no one moves faster than her! Until she was nerfed into the ground! She isn't as strong as she once was and is a solid A rank but being an A rank flank isn't a good place to be, I mean its better than B rank but Flanks are very squishy already and Maeve is not in a good place.

B-rank

Skye
The worst flank at present and even then she is a solid pick. The only downside is she has no fast escape skill and is easily countered if you see her through her stealth. Failure to be seen by the enemy however makes her an extreme threat. Killing enemy Kinessas and Sha Lins is her call in life and hamstrings the enemy team massively. Her main downside is that if there are no squishy targets for her to pick off then she doesn't bring much to the table that an ordinary damage dealer can't already do.

Talus
Move over Skye, Talus coming through!
Talus is an annoyance. His whole kit is designed around harrasment and making the enemy team annoyed. Not fustrated not angry just annoyed. Talus has Skyes old close range for maximum damage issue which would be fine if was a fast mover or his damage drop off was closer to Viktor than to old Skye but at present he is a good balanced champion...

...In a game that is leaning towards tanks that can flank, healers that can flank and damage that can flank. The problem with flanks as a whole is, there niche has been taken over by other units that can do it better so when looking at what a flank offers the best flanks also have a lot of mobility to chase down (or run away from) targets and while Talus also does have that at the time of writing he cannot capitalize on the niche of being a flank so instead uses peekabo tactics and offers amazing harrasment but really crumbles when focused.

The fact his escape skill also has wind up time on it, really doesn't help! Fun to play but not top tier at all.

A damage dealers job is simple, kill people while not getting killed. The largest chunk of the roster lives here. Damage dealers are very balanced and while Viktor is classed as a B rank he sees tournament play and is an extremely solid damage dealer! Infact just like tanks you really can't go far wrong no matter who you pick in this catagory!

S-rank

Cassie
Cassie was the Sha Lin before he came along and took her top spot (and her bow). She has great mobility, high damage, knockback; she really does have a solid arsenal and is a popular competitive pick because of it. Her ultimate may seem lackluster but at high levels of play it is game-changing!

Drogoz
Drogoz lives to be airborne and conversely that is what kills him. Rapid fire champions like Viktor can take pot shots at him forcing him to land and on the ground he has the slowest move speed in the game. Not only that but he thrives when the enemy team is grouped tightly together which is another double edged sword as he is likely to have 4 or 5 champions shooting at him while he tries to rain death although a good Drogoz is a treat to see in action.

A-rank

Bomb King
Living solidly in A-rank he is a very serious threat and his major downside is that his skills have too much wind up time. This is to balance how much damage he puts out and is the one simple fact why tanks hate him. Keeping Bomb King alive pays dividends as he crushes the competition but his lack of a speed boost outside of poppy bomb means he lacks the mobility to get away when on low health and is better off fighting to the death instead.

Sha Lin
Hands down the strongest champion in the game for raw damage and I would be very surprised if he wasn't nerfed soon but how do you balance him? He has a long range knockback that can also stun, he has a rapid fire mode, his basic shots do 1k damage, he just has so much damage potential how can other champions even compete?

Strix
A better Kinessa! Hampered by a severe lack of escape options when cornered. You will save his ult for when an enemy flank sits on you but that of course means having his ult charged and ready to go. A slippery customer and a serious threat if left alone but that applies to Kinessa too and frankly if the enemy team is stupid enough to leave you running free they deserve to be destroyed.
Strix is a lot of fun to play!

Kinessa
When it comes to damage, Kinessa has it in spades! When it comes to being public enemy number 1, Kinessa also has it in spades. Her damage is no joke but she has low mobility, her sniper rifle obscures her view and she needs to reposition often to keep up with a moving fight.

You have to keep in mind that Kinessa exists in the same game as Cassie, Sha Lin and Skye. Champions that have no problem taking her out while being faster than her and dealing just as much, if not more damage than she can.

Willo
Oh boy here we go. Another champion that stomps in public games and is therefore "overpowered" while in competitive play she hardly, if ever, gets picked. Is what I thought originally but then along came a tournament and we really saw what she can do!

A deadly duelist with a solid toolkit! Requires good teamwork and skill to maximize potential but other than that, a solid champion! I was once the number 2 best Willo in North America you know! What does that have to do with this tier list? Well where else am I supposed to brag about that!?

Lian
She is okay, middle of the road. There is nothing wrong with her or her kit. A nice easy champion for lower skilled players to pick up with room for more skilled players due to her auto aim shots.

B-rank

Tyra
She really belongs in A-rank but the competition in this category is stiff and she hasn't seen any competitive play simply because of that one simple fact. Why would you pick her over Viktor with his high mobility or Sha Lin with his insane damage? Don't be fooled, Tyra is a solid champion and her downside is really the fact that there are so many other champions that do what she does but have better tools. Tyra has no speed boost outside of her ultimate and that fact alone really hurts her a lot!

Viktor
His ability to flank is invaluble as is his ability to bring the pain. Was nerfed slightly causing him to have to enter the firefight to do damage which is why he is no longer S-rank. Being able to do maximum damage with minimal risk is the metagame of every competitive game in existance and while Viktor did need a nerf that doesn't make it hurt any less.