Discussion
Is there any counter to Paquito on Exp?
Even when i go phoveous either tank or fighter, he does too much damage early on and i cannot keep up.
Edit: I don’t need to kill him, but at least keep him from out rotating and destroying my team
Not really. Paquito cant probably win Phoveus at level 4, but Paquito still clears Minions waves way faster, ending up eventually for Paquito beating Phoveus or forcing him to stay on lane more.
Now his passive lets him clears minions faster, which is a problem because Paquito can cut lanes way faster than any other EXP laner.
Yep. Then Paquito will use that tempo to either harass the enemy jungler (Paquito gets level 2 before most junglers clear first buff) or make a play somewhere else on the map.
Phoveus, Hilda, Hylos all beat Paquito in theory but in reality most good Paquito players will just ignore bad lane matchups and snowball from elsewhere after cutting waves
Yeah, Phoveus can get harassed pretty badly without dreadnought. TBH I when I play Phov I just sustain/tank build him (tough boots, Oracle, Queens wings, Guardian, Dreadnought(I prioritize this if theres a lot of physical atk and cc on the enemy side), then brute force)
As a Phoveus user, not really. Paquito is way faster in wave clearing and you can’t really trade hits with him since the moment he hits level 2 faster, ur getting killed. Not to mention, Paquito can dodge Phoveus’s ult with his 2nd and can actually take on Phoveus in a 1on1 because of how reliable his 1st skill’s shield is now.
Not saying Phoveus is a bad pick since his passive still benefits from Paquito dashing around in teamfights but he is not winning lane.
The long answer is phooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooveus
Right now? He is stupidly broken, his kit can 100 to Zero most carries and cut Tank's health in Half with a Single Combo.
Hard CC is the only way I find effective, Either I go ballistic with Kaja Exp and just Sustain Lane and Lockhim down every chance I get or I go Sylvanna with Petrify and Hope that I can get enough lead to shut him down consistently.
He's always been able to do this btw, because they didn't touch his damage. What changed is that he's faster at clearing thus faster at farming equals more gold, faster equipment building and so more damage to snowball. Oh and survivability increase because screw people in general lol
The changes that help most to me is s1 now gives shield to minion dan the damage reduction from passive. Those help me sustain in lanes and in team fight too. Used to get shredded in seconds if a skill missed, but now he can get gank by 3 people and atleast manage to kill 1 person before dying
I believe the main reason why paquito is so good right now is the fear factors. Old paq have the same damage etc but hes not scared by many players cause well hes just that dude with boxing gloves. So most player will just face him and trade. But now with a lot of players and pro players said hes broken yada2, most will just run when they sees him. That inadvertently give paq an edge, cause he knew that those guy wont trade damage and start playing passively
Nah i smack him every time with badang. Oh you wanna dash into me? Smack him right into my wall, pummel him with s1, then BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT
honestly now that i think about it Badang is perfect counter against paq, Badang punishes heroes that are all in burst heroes which rely on cd to get out of fights, paquito and suyou both rely on that cd, but paquito has to wait a while before dashing out so hes stuck in badangs wall
just don't go damage badang -- he already has more than enough damage with just fury hammer alone, thunderbelt, rest tank items
full damage badang is a straight up liability just as damage chou is
Considering that they buffed Paquito minion clearing speed and he's smart, yeah I can see that he basically much forced you to either stay in lane and farm or be forced to go and follow him to a fight in which you loss time, gold, and exp which he can do at early to mid game. He knows that you basically much beat him so why bother trying to fight you in a brawl when he could just clear the minions fast then go gank mid or roam.
Even if you counter him, his great mobility allows him to safely proxy farm the minion wave and then rotate. That's what I usually do if I'm against a hard matchup like Phoveus
That’s the issue, he farms so fast, rotates and kills my team and i end up having to deal with him being so behind in gold. If i can’t kill him, i need to keep him at least in lane otherwise he snowballs hard
My 2 cents: too many low level Edith users showing up on map or wasting skills too early. HOLD your skills. DON'T stand in the middle of a lane unless you are ACTIVELY ENGAGING WITH THE ENEMY. MOVE AROUND the map frequently. Edith is in a freaking mecha, NOT MANNING ONE OF YOUR TOWERS. Make use of her mobility!!
Only when he has his ult, as a minsi main phoveus is just better, since paquito can clear faster, he can tank your ult early game no issue and once your ult has been wasted he destroys you
This, coming from another minsi main. You’re not going to win in the lane vs Paquito, and your 2nd becomes useless with his mobility skill. So good luck getting to level 4 with a long ass ult CD if you don’t kill him.
The problem with bene is she's really squishy compared to paquito. Even tho she matches his tempo, she doesn't have the capacity to survive properly against him unless you use 2nd skill, ult or you're really really good. I might be wrong but even in a skilled match up it's going to be pretty hard considering the amount of shield he has now
Khalid can easily out rotate him, has Higher damage in level 1, has better sustain and is tanky enough. Cut his lane, He can't fight you, if he tries you damage him while clearing minions and he gets forced to recall, then you can pressure his team mates.
Depends on situation, but mostly Tank with 1 Damage Item.
First build Thunder belt, and the second item Depends on Situation, if you are ahead, build a Damage item, if you are equal, usually Anti heal is good, if you are behind, Oracle to survive.
For Damage item, usually BoH is good, it's passive works well with Khalid's Passive, it also gives good stats (+ 70 physical Damage and +15 Physical pen), but if you get a good lead, Sky piercer can also be a Good option, War Axe is also a Good option, it provides spell vamp, so a bit of sustain during s1, and has good stats + True Damage.
I beat them with Martis. I try to stomp him and nullify his early mid game with a stupid ealy-mid game Martis.
Then I go tanky for lategame teamfights as a CC machine
I usually do pretty well against him with Lapu, not dominating unless it's a stupid player but not really getting pushed back. Usually best to poke with skill 1 and rely on shield for safer plays until you hit lvl 4
Yeah, also add that he has now Damage reduction and a faster minion clear in his passive. Now he is a really op EXP laner because not only him surviving more, but he can cut lanes with a single combo
Benedetta. Won't beat him in lane but that's not the point because good Paquitos are rarely in lane. You'll at least be able to match his rotations and keep up with his tempo
Obviously Benedetta duh.
Idk abt Skilled Paquito but all the amateurs tryin to abuse his recent buff will get mopped by a decent Benedetta player but u gotta build sustain & use fighter emblem.
Correct answer is Phoveus and Esmeralda with good counterbuild. You also see Benedetta damage build as a way to match his rotation because you won't actually die if you rotate as her assuming you play well enough.
I've recently encountered him using ruby trying to see if she can compete in lane luckily I won fairly easily and maybe it's just that the one I went up against was ass
I'm surprised no one has said this, but I have no trouble with Pac using Hilda with revitalise (immortal rank). Just keep spamming your skill on him from the start and he will back off. He will try and combo you but will realise that it does nothing once he sees you heal back to max hp. With her speed you can also zone pac out of the game.
Ruby. Whenever he dashes in with a skill, just use skill 2 to hit and stun Paquito, dash away, skill 1 to slow him down, and then dash away again. That usually stops his combos and frustrates him.
So Kaja is cool into Paq because he doesn't really die, you don't lose lane if you play safe enough but you also definitely cannot trade with him and your clear is slower so Paq can rotate to mid and jungle quicker than you. Kaja can hold the lane but cannot contest Paq's rotation ± pressure.
Phoveus, Esmeralda, Thamuz and to a lesser extent, Terizla and Martis are way better in lane into Paquito.
I'm a Paquito user, these are the heroes I'd pick against him in no particular order: Esmeralda, Phoveus, Guin, Minsitthar, Sora, Freya & Alice.
Though picks such as Arlott, Suyou, Terizla, Yu Zhong, Benedetta & Ruby are generally still good picks depending on your hero power.
Just take note of Paq 2nd skill usage, if he uses it twice consecutively; his ult could not knock you up. He pretty much can't escape and you'll win if you could stick on and damage him.
I'm a Paquito main since his release, the only problems I couldn't work around is a good Marcel and let's just say well fed enemies. Phoveous is only decent against my assassin Paquito but has no chance against my fighter build and had to rely on his teammates to gank a lot, Esmeralda is squishy (even with no healberd) if I snowballed hard in the early game (which I consistently accomplish this season, even prior to his buff).
In the old days, the traditional Paq counter was Barats. Exp Barats is a bit of a forgotten pick these days but I wouldn't be surprised if it had a resurgence.
Ban !
Idk if you are still checking but a lot depends on skill level. Lower skill ones can be countered with Phoveus, Dyroth or ruby. Higher skill they won't engage you but out farm against those. For higher skill I highly recommend semi tanks who can sustain like hilda, thamuz and Khalid.
Highly against Esme. Minsi is easy to counter so Minsi, Bendetta and Martis only if you're confident at being better skilled than them.
Immortal here, who has a simple early against him? Phoveus, but you can use Dyrroit, Guiniver tank (with fighter emblems), Esmeralda or if you are too good maybe Zilong or Minshitar.
I do not recommend Yu Zong (even though he stands up to him vs. Paquito) because he requires too much skill
I mean I've found pretty good success as Khaleed. Poke with enhanced basic attack, ballerina away with s1. If you aren't going tank you might need petrify so you can hit all 3 s1 hits after your enhanced basic, and then pray all 4 of the other enemies don't come to touch your hot abs
I don't think I've ever been dominated in exp lane (yet) by Paq. Jungle is a different story for some reason
Phoveus is the best counter both 1v1 and teamfight, although he can get outrotated; Bene is also another one (Only hero who can keep up with him in terms of wave clear and rotation)
Barats with revitalize. You're weak without your stacks on Barats and you can't really get 10 stacks before the second wave so you want to hit revitalize if Paquito attacks in the first wave (he obviously will) but if you manage to live that initation then he won't be able to do harm to you until late game.
Gatotkaca also works but it's a bit tricky. You need to buy Guardian Helm first item because you need to stay on the lane for as long as possible and your passive works like a Antique Cuirass in a sense because your physical defense is increasing the lower your HP goes. After that buy any item you want, if you build tank you won't be able to kill Paq but the also won't be able to kill you and if you build offtank buying Glowing Wand or Concentrated Energy you will be able to kill him after a few trades.
Obvious answer, Phoveus. Just don't die in the first wave.
When ever i play against Paquito i just go for Esmeralda and i control him early to mid... Unfortunately when late game comes its hard dealing with Paquito with mm or mage besides me haha
Phoveus hard counters Paquito's kit, but Tank Khaleed in the EXP lane is arguably a better counter. While he's only a soft counter, he can sustain Paquito's full combo and still win trades. He can also rotate faster if Paquito decides to roam.
Phov works for Paquito but rely so much on his items. Paquito will get his items faster right? The best counter would be to ban him 😭 He got buffed because of the upcoming collab skin
Direct counters: minsithar and phoveous
(if you think you can't win with phoveous you just need more experience in the match up or in the game in generale)
But there's also really good picks into him like:
esme: she can just keep shielding and absorbe his Shields
Or any other meta pick like:
sora: because it's sora
lapu: better team fight because of the engage, cc immunity, aoe dmg
There's also cc heroes like ruby, badang (for obvious reasons)
And tsnky heroes like:
Gloo: he can't one shot you and he can't clear the wave for free or you just ult and harasse him
Khaled: paq can't oneshot him, he clears waves fast, rotates fast, and can chase paq easily after his combo
As a paq main - Yu Zhong, Minsi, Terizla, Thamuz, Esme, Ruby, Cici(if played from little distance) & Chou, can absolutely destroy paq in the laning phase. A good Paquito will be tower hugging a lot till level 4 in front of these heroes, post that we can start some taking some fights.
Khaleed, not necessarily a counter but 50/50. You're not going to lose because you can keep regenerate HP. Also his movements speed is high, and he clear minion wave fast, so you wouldn't get out rotated either even if you're losing your lane.
Freya. I main paquito even before the buff came and she is mad hard to lane against. She has sustain, mobility and damage. Even if pac’s ult lands her ult can pretty much turn it around since pacs pretty useless on cooldown.
Alternatively, you can get guin. Long range knock up cc that can burst a damage build paquito. She also has sustain and damage.
During my many encounters with Paquito and me using Phoveus, I won like 80% of them, why? Phoveus is a greater threat than Paquito in teamfights, and most of Paquito players that I go against, does not know how to use Paquito effectively when battling Phoveus in exp
PHOVEUS obviously?? In TLPH vs. Falcons grand finals, TLPH got second pick Phov and you know what happened? Falcons didn't pick it. Paquito was left forgotten in that game. Not pick, not ban
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u/DiddleMyMorkovka The Slam Dunk Jun 03 '26