Khan Guide: The Most Game-Warping Ult in Paladins
Khan, Primus of House Aico, breaks the pattern we found in the pick-rate data. Tyra, Viktor, and Seris — the three most played champions — are all B/C-tier comfort picks. Khan is #4 by pick rate and S-tier by every community list: the rare case where the popular choice is also the correct one.
The reason has a name: Overpower. Our tier list note calls it “still one of the most game-warping ults in Paladins” — a button that grabs any visible enemy, holds them helpless for five seconds, and throws them into a wall. No other ultimate converts charge into a won team fight this directly.
All numbers below are verified against the final patch, including the 8.1 balance pass (January 2025) that touched almost his entire kit — fire rate, shield health, ult speed, and both non-default talents. Guides older than 2025 are working from different math.
A hitscan repeater with 20 rounds, fully effective to 60 units (~955 DPS). The in-game tooltip lies about both fire rate and range — these are the wiki-verified numbers, including the 8.1 fire-rate buff.
A personal resource shield (buffed to 4500 in patch 8.1): raise it to block, lower it to regenerate. You move 30% slower while holding it — flash it in bursts, never stand planted behind it.
A shout that makes you immune to damage for 1.2s and heals you and allies within 40 units for 1350. The immunity frames are the real ability — time it into a Dredge ult and take zero.
Charge 50 units, grab the first enemy, stun them and throw them ~75 units behind you. The stun ignores Resilience, and the grab goes through shields and Androxus’s Reversal — only Zhin’s Counter stops it.
Grab any visible enemy up to 170 units away, hold them helpless for up to 5s, then launch them — 700 area damage if they hit a wall or a teammate. Refunds 30% charge on a whiff. Blocked by shields and CC immunity, so pick the target before you press it.
Trade 25% damage per shot for 40% more fire rate — 158 damage every 0.156s, roughly 1013 DPS from a 4000 HP tank. Still the statistical leader (53.0% winrate, 49.6% pick rate) even after patch 8.1 trimmed the fire-rate bonus from 60% to 40%.
The most-played Khan loadout in recorded ranked matches (3,000+ on PaladinsGuru): a Battle Shout cycle that keeps the immunity-heal button on a ~9s rotation.
- Play him as a DPS tank: at 60 units your repeater out-damages most flanks — punish anyone who walks into your range.
- Flash the Bulwark between bursts of fire, never sit behind it — a lowered shield is a regenerating shield.
- Battle Shout is an ult-counter first and a heal second: 1.2s of immunity eats Dredge, Willo, and Drogoz ults whole.
- Grab is your peel: rip the diver off your support and drop them into five crosshairs.
Commander’s Grab stuns for an extra 1.4s — 2.4 seconds total, unaffected by Resilience — and the victim takes 15% more weapon damage while held (the weaken is a patch 8.1 addition). The sleeper pick: 52.7% winrate at only 14.1% pick rate.
The second most-played ranked loadout: the grab armors you on the way in, and every elimination it creates shortens your next one.
- A 2.4s Resilience-proof stun is a death sentence — call the target and let your hitscan finish the +15% amplified frame.
- Grab through shields: Fernando and Barik cannot hide their squishies behind a wall of light anymore.
- Throw direction is a weapon — toss the victim behind you, into your team, never back toward their healer.
- Low pick rate means nobody respects it: the first grab of the match almost always converts.
Bulwark regenerates at 120% speed — even while it is raised. An infinite-wall fantasy with the worst numbers of his talents (46.7% winrate): passive shielding loses to the aggression his kit is built for.
If you commit to the wall, commit fully: a 5750-HP self-repairing shield that heals you while it holds. Note: Shield Wall was buffed to 250/point in patch 8.1 — the wiki card page still shows the old value.
- Pick it for payload maps and chokes where a permanent wall owns the geometry.
- Regen-while-active means micro-drops are optional — but the 30% slow still makes you a turret. Know that trade.
- Your damage threat drops to zero while shielding: coordinate with a hitscan who shoots over your shoulder.
- Honest advice from the numbers: if you are not sure you need this talent, you want Storm of Bullets.
Khan is the slowest class in the game with no vertical mobility: everything he does happens at 60 units or closer. Sustained AoE eats his shield, and once Bulwark fully breaks he is a 4000 HP target with a 7-second hole in his defense. See where Khan sits in our tier list →
Is Khan good in 2026?
Yes — S-tier, score 0.85 in our community-consensus tier list, behind only Azaan among front liners. He anchors the point, out-duels every other tank up close, and his ultimate wins fights his team was losing.
His weaknesses are honest ones: the slowest movement class in the game, no vertical mobility, and everything in his kit happens at 60 units or closer. Long-range poke and lobbed AoE — Dredge above all — make him work for every meter. But in the final-patch meta, drafting Khan is never a mistake.
How do you counter Khan’s Overpower?
Three verified mechanics stop the grab entirely: shields (any barrier between you and Khan blocks the pull), crowd-control immunity (dashes and abilities with CC immunity make you an invalid target), and line of sight — if he cannot see you at the moment of the cast, he cannot take you.
The counterplay habit: when Khan hits ult charge, stop walking in the open. Hug your front liner’s shield, hold your escape until you hear “YOU’RE MINE!”, and remember he gets a 30% refund on a whiff — baiting the grab badly just speeds up the next one.
FAQ
What is the best Khan talent?
Storm of Bullets — the statistical leader at 53% winrate and near-50% pick rate, turning Khan into a 1000+ DPS tank. Vortex Grip is the underrated alternative: a 2.4-second Resilience-proof stun with a 52.7% winrate that almost nobody plays.
Does Khan’s Overpower go through shields?
No. The ultimate cannot grab targets protected by a shield or by crowd-control immunity, and it requires line of sight. His Commander’s Grab, however, does go through shields — only Zhin’s Counter stops it.
How do you counter Khan?
Sustained AoE and range. Dredge is his hardest counter by community vote — lobbed spam breaks the Bulwark and punishes his static positioning. Mobile champions like Maeve and Drogoz simply stay outside his 60-unit effective range.
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