How To Play As Androxus

Art By Trauma-A

Written By: Steven Yuki

Edited By: Kolby

Introduction

Hi there! I've been playing Paladins casually and competitively for 100 hours, and I've taken an interest in maining Androxus, having a total mastery on him for almost 10 million exp. The builds and tips that I will mention on this guide will reflect my own play-style; as every player have their own, these are NOT the only approach you can take as Androxus, nor the only style you can play him with. The best way to get the most out of him would be through your own trial & error.

Whether you're just starting out or perhaps you've got quite the hang of him, read on to find some extra tips & tricks.

P.S. Guide is OUTDATED for now. Update isn't likely to happen unless I pick up the game again.

Skills

Androxus is one of the 4 flankers in Paladins. He uses a six-bullet revolver on his right hand and has a total amount of HP at 2000 points. Androxus has a lot of cool kits built into him, thus making him a great carry, and could potentially snowball the enemy team if not taken care of. 

Here are the skill sets of Androxus :

Revolver

[LMB] Revolver is Androxus' weapon. It has 6 ammo that deals 520 damage every .36 seconds. It is a hit-scan weapon, meaning it will hit whatever your crosshair is aiming at, without any delay. It's damage is counted as Direct, which can be countered with Haven. One important thing to note is that it suffers from damage fall-off, which reduces the damage you deal the further you are from your target.

Confused? Let's take a look shall we?

Here's the damage at the 50-unit mark (I'm not sure if it's called units or meters in-game. Please correct me if I'm wrong).

This one's at the 100-unit mark. As you can see the damage from his Revolver is already halved.

Finally it reaches the lowest damage of 208 at the 150-unit mark. The damage will not decrease any further starting from this distance.

Landing a headshot will yield a maximum damage of 930 points.

Defiance

One Punch Undead

[RMB] Punch an enemy and deal 700 damage.

Reversal

HIT ME WITH YA BEST SHOT

[Q] [14s CD] Reversal is Androxus' 3rd Skill. Androxus will absorb all incoming projectiles from the front for 1.4 seconds, then reflect 75% of the damage back to where your cursor is pointing at. This ability is quite useful in duels, and you can also reflect some ults like Ruckus', Kinessa's, enemy Androxus', or to simply avoid being hit by Bomb King's Grumpy Bomb.

Nether Step

Im flyin without winggs

[F] [10s CD] Nether Step is Androxus' 4th Skill. It allows you to dash into any direction that you want 3 times, with a certain time-window in between dashes, meaning you don't have to dash 3 times directly. Nether Step is useful to chase enemies, as well as positioning yourself higher before you ult. You can hold space while you're mid-air, activating Drift, which reduces your fall speed. Drift can be used even if you're not using Nether Step, as long as you're mid-air. 

Accursed Arm

Boom! Boom!

[E] Accursed Arm is Androxus' Ultimate, making an audio cue of "Death awaits you all!" to everyone in the game. Your Revolver becomes mutated, enabling you to fire 4 AoE shots that deal 1000 damage points. You will also fly mid-air for 4 seconds, which by using Nether Step beforehand can lead you into a high altitude, making it easy for you to see what targets to shoot at. Take note however, as doing this can make you vulnerable to enemy champions that can pick you off before you finish.

Loadout Build

As I mentioned earlier, these are the loadouts that I found fitting my playstyle, which doesn't mean you have to copy the whole loadout, nor the only good loadouts available for Androxus.

Item Build

In-Game Items are what defines your characters in that specific match. Try to not buy the same items in every match, and pay attention to the enemy's draft so that you can counter them using these items.

Attack

Bulldozer

300-600-900 Credits

Makes your weapon shots deal more damage to deployables. I rarely buy this as I see Androxus' shots can kill Barik's turrets, Grohk's totem, and Ying's illusion in a breeze. But, if you consider them to be quite a nuisance, buy this!

Cauterize

300-600-900 Credits

Makes your weapon shots reduce the effect of healing on your target for 2 seconds. This is useful if the enemy has more than 1 support champions, or if you see the enemy team's quite tough to beat because of them sustaining a lot. Upgrade as necessary.

Wrecker

300-600-900 Credits

Increases your weapon's damage to shields. I only use this if the enemy has more than 1 front-liners. Upgrade as necessary.

Deft Hands

400-800-1200 Credits

Increases your reload speed. This item is definitely useful, but consider other items first before buying this.

Defense

Illuminate

200-400-600 Credits

Increases the range at which you see stealthed targets. I only pick this if I wanna focus on taking out the enemy's Skye. Although most of the times Haven makes a better choice.

Resillience

200-400-600 Credits

Reduces the duration of CC and slows. Having a hard time with Pip, Buck, Bomb King, and other CC champs? Buy this!

Blast Shields

300-600-900 Credits

Reduces the damage you take from AoE damages. Buy this if you're having a hard time against Pip, Evie, and Drogoz. Upgrade as necessary.

Haven

300-600-900 Credits

Reduces the damage you take from Direct damages. Buy this to counter anything else than the ones mentioned above. Upgrade as necessary.

Healing

Kill to Heal

300-600-900 Credits

Heals you when you get (a/an) kill or elimination. Useful if you prefer getting HP back after getting (a/an) kill/elimination.

Rejuvenate

200-400-600 Credits

Receive more healing. I've never bought this as well because as a flanker i rarely stay nearby my healers to get their heals.

Veteran

200-400-600 Credits

Heals more outside of battle. Cool item that increases your heal outside of battle, and lets you come back into the fight faster!

Life-Rip

300-600-900 Credits

Your shots gain lifesteal. This item enables you to sustain in duels. Pick this up if you seem to be losing out the duels.

Utility

Master Riding

300-600-900 Credits

You gain additional movement speed while on your mount. Never picked this before. If you'd like to come back into the battlefield after you respawn faster then maybe it could be useful? I see the other cards to be better than this though.

Morale Boost

300-600-900 Credits

Boosts your ultimate's charging rate. One warning if you decide to buy this: Do not hold back using your ult for too long, or wait for the perfect time to use your ult, as this reduces the efficiency of Morale Boost.

Nimble

300-600-900 Credits

Boosts your movement speed. Sometimes I buy this rather than Chronos because I just need more movement speed in that match.

Chronos

400-800-1200 Credits

Reduces your active skills' cooldowns. I pick this most of the time and upgrade it to level 2 as well. The reason being is that it makes Reversal to have 13s CD and Nether Step into 8s CD which is cool.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a few tips & tricks that I have to make your journey as the Godslayer more enjoyable :

(NOT tl;dr friendly)

1st, is to improve your aim with Androxus. His carry potential benefits from your shots, as well as his cards and items. Perfecting your aim can make a deadly Androxus to fight in the Realms. Don't forget to engage at a close range.

2nd, supporting to the point above, is to get as many experience using Androxus. Not only this can improve your aim, this will also improve your decision-making in using his skills and ult, as well as get you a good sense of flanking enemies as Androxus.

3rd, use Nether Step to the max. While Nether Step can be used to get a higher vantage point before using Accursed Arm and chase enemies or flee from them, it can also be used to counter AoE champions like Evie in duels. Being airborn decreases the chance that their shots will hit you. Therefore do NOT waste Nether Step.

4th, be aware when to flank, and when to retreat. Even if you are already at a high streak, don't get too confident. Having a 20 streak doesn't mean you should fight 3 people at once in the backlines of the enemy. Helping your teammates at the objective doesn't hurt, and also gives you credit for staying at the point.

5th. Coordinate your ult with other champions. Accursed Arm's effectiveness can be boosted by combining it with others such as Pip's Evil Mojo to make sure the enemies die in 2 hits, Evie's Ice Storm to disable the enemies to escape, or perhaps Bomb King's King Bomb for a little time-window that you can use to kill the enemies while they are stunned after taking damage from BK's ult.

6th, is to learn the map layout and increase your map awareness. This includes, enemy camping/sniping spots, the objective point, and blind spots. Doing this will set you a clear direction of where to flank the enemies, return to where your team might be, and also ulting from unexpected vantage points.

I'll update the guide when new tips & tricks arise. Please share any knowledge you might have that hasn't been listed here in the comments sections to help others.

Conclusion

All in all, Androxus is a very fun champion to play with. He is just capable of dishing out huge damage in a short period of time, while distracting the enemy's formation and teamwork at the same time. His kits make him a deadly character, and he has a lot of different playstyles you can approach however you like. He's still subject to changes and balances as Paladins will continue to evolve throughout patches. This guide will be updated following any updates that Androxus receives.

Finally, thanks for reading this guide. Share it if you found this guide useful. Any suggestions/critiques will be accepted. And remember, DEATH AWAITS YOU ALL!

Till next time!

Glossary

LMB = Left-Mouse Button

RMB = Right-Mouse Button

HP = Hit Points

CC = Crowd-Control effects (Slow,Cripple,Poison,etc)

AoE = Area-of-Effect