As Paladins Preps A Year 8 Launch, The Team Will Focus On Smaller, More Frequent Updates

It's been rather quiet on the Paladins front for a while. The hero-shooter has had a few updates, but obviously things have changed since the 2023 announcement that Hi-Rez was reorganizing and some projects were getting smaller teams. Obviously SMITE 2 has kept the publisher busy, too, recently.

2024 updates included a number of smaller-focused items. Most were focused on customization of characters, streamlining of systems, and Champion kit updates. As 2025 gets underway, Year 8 of Paladins is inbound. In fact, you can hit up the PTR later today and see what's coming in the January 29th release.

Year 8 brings a new Ranked Season complete with a number of pretty big increases. The number of Champions required is up to 24 from 18, and the tier points system sees limits increased for points you can move or lose. New players get some special attention via a new "Newcomer Queue." This queue isn't required and new players can join other queues if they like, but the Newcomer Queue itself will only allow players under level 35 in. Hopefully, this gives new players a more "casual" and welcoming time while learning the ropes.

The 2025 focus is also on smaller updates being released in a more frequent manner, something we've seen a number of games do over the past few years. The team intends to use this time to experiment a bit. Their first big experiment is "Subclasses." These are roles within your class that provide a powerful aspect to a particular ability set of your gameplay. The team will be experimenting all year on this front and they've got a few detalied in the update's notes.

Wekono's Wake, the year's name, also comes with a new event pass and many bug fixes and balancing passes. Check it all out before the update arrives.