This guide was created back when Fernando was at his prime form. Both his inbuilt cauterize and resilence were removed so you can skip out on the situational cards. Along with this, hot pursuit was seriously nerfed and scorch's extra damage was removed. He might not be the mighty hot boy he was but he's still Fernando.

Welcome to Fernando guide, also known as Cyberbulling 101. Fernando is a top tier tank with a huge damage output. He is at par with the likes of Makoa, Khan and Inara. Even with 4600 HP, he has one of the highest effective health pools ingame. He has the best shield among all the frontlines that can completely block attacks from any side. His kit makes him a true knight of fire.
Frontlines usually have a very short range of attack, and Fernando has the least of them all after Terminus. This requires him to dive into close range and get branded as "Dumb Flanknando" all the time. In the lower tiers you'll also find aegis fernandos with maxed out shield HP in their loadouts standing on point all the time after picking a pressure tank as strong as Fernando. A good Fernando is one that can neither be classified as flanknando or tanknando. It's one that frontlines and helps the team in all aspects by spreading his presence everywhere making the opponents think twice before every move they make.

Scorch Fernando is the best way of playing Fernando. People can argue against it by telling that "People don't usually let you stack your fireballs", but trust me they do. Scorch also increases your fireball's damage from 450 to 585. Using anything other than Scorch is pretty much considered to be throwing the match.

Coming to loadouts, there are a few mandatory cards and a few situational ones. That's why creating more than a single loadout is always recommended.

Mandatory cards:

1. Incinerate V: Why would anyone want to miss out on a 3 second cooldown for fireball? Maxed out Incinerate lowers the cooldown from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. This lets you annoy all your opponents with rapid spam and poking your opponents has a heavy value in this game.

2. Hot Pursuit (Any level): "Frontlines lack speed, they can't dive." That's where Fernando and Makoa come up with a straight slap on your face. With the cooldown of fireball reduced to 3 seconds, maxed out hot pursuit lets you have 50% increased movement speed for 66% (2 seconds) of your combat duration. You can have this card at level 5 with a loadout not consisting of situational cards but in other cases level 2 is all you can afford.

3. Last Stand I: If you don't have this in your loadout, you're doing it all wrong. After diving into their backline, you need to retreat instead of dying. When opponents take out most of your health and try to finish you off because you're low, you gotta show them they're wrong. This is when you take out your shield out and start healing yourself till you're back to half health.

4. Heat Transfer I: After investing heavily on other cards, there'll be a card on which you can only spend little points. The best for this purpose is Heat Transfer, that reduces the cooldown of your charge for damage taken by your shield. Now, charge is an ability that's both defense and offense, so you gotta choose which according to the situation.

(Your charge and your shield are best friends and they can perform sick combos together. To utilize them properly, Last Stand will give you health for raising your shield and Heat Transfer will reduce the cooldown of charge for raising your shield.)


Situational Cards :

1. Brand V: Oh, a controversional card. The ideology of this is simple. If you're using brand, then invest 5 points on it or just don't use this card. With this maxed out, you'll be applying 75% cauterize through your fireballs. As a Fernando, you basically get to choose between having a long ranged 75% cauterize early-game or a close combat 90% cauterize late-game. Do not buy cauterize if you're using this card, it'll be a complete waste of credits. Hence, brand 5 is a completely situational and personal choice.

2. Immovable Object V: The same goes here, if you're using this card as resilence, you need to have it maxed out and you'll not buy resilence ingame later. Some teams are heavy on crowd control, with champions like Bomb King, Maldamba, Pip, Ash and Khan.
PS: It doesn't work against Inara's or Tyra's cripple, because those are debuffs and not duration based.

(You might've noticed that you can add only one of these to your loadouts, so in situations where you need both, it's better to buy either Resilence or Cauterize depending on the card you dont have. Never ever try to merge both of them into your loadout. If you aren't using both of these cards, then you'll have an extra card that you can add. Understand your playstyle and add the card whose effects you need.)


Items to Buy:

1. Cauterize: You don't usually use brand 5 in your loadout unless you require other types of cards early game. Fernando is one of the best caut appliers in the game so picking on this item first is a must. But if you're using Brand, my advice would be to completely skip on the red card because Fernando can't get value out of any other red card due to him being a rapid sustained damager and not a hitscan burster.

2. Rejuvenate: "But my healers don't heal". Usually, there's no reason for a healer not to heal except for not having the proper line of sight or free space and if that's not the case then he's just dumb. Apart from the extra 10% heal you'll receive, this also increases the support's morale. Second item is a normal spot for Rejuvenate.

3. Master Riding/ Nimble: You'll almost never see Morale Boost or Chronos for a Fernando even if they're the 2 best utility cards in existence. Fernando is about being scary not with his kit but with his existence. Master Riding lets you join the combat faster so it comes in handy in large maps or games where you're expected to die a lot. As for Nimble, it increases your speed which lets you become a pain to the opponents. However, when paired with the card Hot Pursuit diminishing returns is applied. In a usual game, Master Riding is a bigger priority for Fernando.

4. Haven/Blast Shields: Every champion in this game does either blast damage or direct damage and this can be checked through their ability list. The opponent composition can be split into 5-0, 4-1 or 3-2 but one type will always have the majority. Get Haven if they're heavy on direct damage and Blast Shields if they're heavy on area damage. The CC card can be used to deal with crowd control.

Fernando is a tank that can be played in all the maps but his potential varies. The 2 things that matter for him are the tightness of the map using which he can stack fireballs and the amount of time he requires to dive in and out of the backline.

Must pick maps: Jaguar falls, Brightmarsh and Stone keep
Decent maps: Frog Isle, Ascension peak, Ice Mines and Splitstone Quarry
Pickable maps: Timber mill, Frozen Guard and Serpent Beach
Worst map: Fish Market

Coming to team compositions, Fernando's only real counters are ones from his own class or to be more precise, the ones that can cancel his shields: TERMINUS and KHAN. Among supports, Furia's pyre can cancel his shield. As for damagers, Bomb King and Drogoz are your worst nightmares. Among flanks, Maeve's pounce and Andro's existence is a big nuisance to you.

Fernando is pretty weak to be a solo tank, unless you're playing on a tight map where you can beat your opponents through brute damage. To make the most out of Fernando, you must have a tank strong enough to hold the point and prevent any sort of retakes and what better point tank than an Inara?

The most effective way of drafting tanks in ranked is to ban Khan, giveaway Makoa to grab Inara and Fernando: The tankiest and the diviest frontlines. You could also ban both Khan and Makoa, bait them with a strong damager pick and then grab both the tanks.

Point Tanks: Inara and Barik
Pressure Tanks: Makoa and Fernando
Support Tanks: Khan and Torvald

Your frontline duo will be weak if you pick 2 frontlines that are meant to do the same role so make sure you pick one of each. Makoa's the only pressure tank apart from you and he has the potential to put pressure much harder than a Fernando and that's the bitter truth. Another thing that you can do is avoid having a Jenos if your team intends to run a double frontline setup. Frontlines need a burst healer to get proper value out of them.

Now that you're done with all the pre-game stuffs, what you do ingame is the thing that matters the most. Frontlines have a lot of work to do and they control the pace of the game.

As a Fernando, you must be doing one of these things at any given moment.

1. Protect your backline from opponent threats: Everything except frontline is a part of the backline. The easiest approach to winning is destroying the backline and then outnumbering the frontlines that are left. Protecting your backline doesn't always mean protecting from a flank but flanks are your biggest priority target. Frontlines have the ability to beat flanks as hard as damagers have the ability to beat frontlines. Once their flank is dealt with, you've pretty much protected your backline. You need to have your eye over everyone's position to do this effectively and also help your teammates know opponent positions by using the VGS system. Don't be surprised when their frontline or damager comes to flank your backline, flanking is something everyone can do and not just the champions from that class.

(Since people in lower rankeds have classified "Mid" and "Flank" as the only 2 things ingame, you can easily make your way through to platinum as a Frontline, especially nando or koa. )

2. Bully opponent backline: You should play along your damage/flank for doing this, your job is to seperate their backline from the frontline. Bullying doesn't always mean you need to get the kill, you just have to prevent them from doing their roles. Surviving is very important and be ready to fall back any time you see them grouping up to beat you up.

(This is why 2 man parties with one tank and one damage/flank is the best party that you can form and play in ranked. )

3. Help your in team in point fights or payload pushes: This mostly happens in the climax where a major 5v5 goes down, like in a 99-99 objective capture or an overtime payload push. At this point, a frontline's duty is to have a heavy amount of presence and buy space for the team to do its stuff, you should poke everyone with little damage, shield your team once in a while, and lead out a proper ultimate management.

4. Zone your opponents after securing the point: When you've cleared out the opponents, it's best to have EITHER your point tank or your support capture the point or push the payload, while the remaining team moves a bit ahead and dismounts them to buy time. Zoning decides the outcome of the game, you either end up getting killed and turning things into a 1v5 for your objective worker or you dismount them and gain space without anyone from your team being taken down. Again, your work is only to dismount them and deny space, not killing them. The opponents will try to be sneaky and get into the point somehow, and even if one of them manages to get in while your team is somewhere far away, then you've failed in zoning.

There are some more things you can do to increase your efficiency as a frontline player, and this goes for all tanks:
1. Destroy the flanker : When I say destroy, I don't mean to chase the opponent flank all throughout the map for god knows how much time. The best thing about beating a flank is, you don't have to go after him. He'll come for your team. Another amazing thing about a Flank is they need a range as close as a Frontline needs. All you've to do is keep a track. When the flank finally comes out to shoot someone off your backline, immediately charge towards him with a fireball and begin the flamelance. When the flank realizes he can't get a single kill, he'll back off. The only thing a tank cannot beat a flank at is mobility. You can chase the flank for a while, but if you can't get the kill, then go back and help in the point fight. The poor flanker will have no option except to come back for a kill and you can repeat the same procedure till his team gets toxic at him.

( Once I touched somewhere around mid diamond, I realized I couldn't harass the flanker as good as before so this is a pretty rank dependent stuff. Oh but they don't even pick a flank if there's no Androxus available, poor forgotten class.)

2. Play around the point and not on the point : When the opponents think of your Fernando, make sure they think of "A rapidly fast moving knight delivering his burns everywhere around the point while staying near to it" and not "A Stationary and fat guy standing on the point with a huge HP that requires lot of damage to be taken down so we'll get the others first while he does nothing".

( For example on Ascension Peak, you can move left and right around the point to damage the squishies while not losing your point presence. You'll not only be bodyblocking to help your backline but also put a huge amount of pressure on theirs preventing them from doing their roles. This is what people expect from an ideal frontline.

3. Front and Back: The siege mode of Paladins is all about when to push forward and when to fall backward, and as a frontline you're the one to lead your team with this. The team UI on the top left and top right is your best friend for this matter. If you keep considering all the factors around you, you'll immediately know when you're overextending and then you'll be able to fall back. When the round begins, you move around everywhere looking for some decent picks by helping your squishies, the only 2 things that could now happen is either you'll lose people or they'll lose people. If your team gets the lead, you can push forward to dismount your opponents while someone captures the point. If opponent team gets the lead, you'll either have to fall back for your people to return or die quickly to avoid staggering. In unity there is strength.

( For example, if you've wiped out the entire opponent team except for their viktor, you can chase him down and get the kill to cause a stagger. But if the respawn time of the dead opponents is over, they'll immediately come back to save their viktor and the odds will turn against you.

1. The Moonwalk: You can get back to 40% of your health with the shield up, so not getting bursted down with shield is a very important thing. When you're in the need to retreat but you can cover only your front using your shield, you jump-turn back-charge-turn front. You need not be perfect in this as long as you're able to survive, but this ensures a safe retreat.

2. The Longrange snipe: Your fireball has no range, it can go as far as the map lets it go. Even though it's just 585 damage, it's enough to make their squishies consider backing off. You can do crazy things like outsniping a Strix on timber mill or landing a kill on Evie as soon as her ice block is down, or perhaps even timing it for Zhin's billow.

3. The Afterburns: Your flamelance does 200 damage over time and using this you can finish off targets that think they can go really low and then retreat. Ohh poor lex.

4. The Flame: "I'll keep burning and burning them". Nah, if you're having to reload then you're missing out on all the damage you could do while reloading. Burn for a while, fireball them while your ammo loads and continue the roasting. Also, there's a 50% movement speed penalty while firing your flamelance and using it with regular intervals will prevent that penalty from occuring.

5. The Russian Ultimate: A viktor is using his ultimate on you, gosh you're gonna die. You'll take 0 damage from it if you move backward while your shield is up.

6. The Edgiest Ultimate: If you're using you're ultimate alone, then you're wasting it unless you're able to secure at least 2 kills before ending up dead or able to get back to full hp for an intense moment provided the burst healer is coming to your rescue. Your ultimate is what steals the momentum from opponents during the climax scenes. Your ultimate isn't just an ultimate, it's an ultimate-canceller. Give opponents the hopes of getting the kill on your ally, bait them out and make them the ones that die.

7. The Hardcore Charge: Your dash does 200 damage as well, as if the afterburns weren't enough. Using all these set of moves at once, you're pretty much a monster. This is where you use your charge aggressively and not as a retreat.

8. The dive blunder: There's a fine little gap between chasing the kill and overextending. Try to get the kill by charging in whenever possible but retreat back to defense when you're outnumbered. This is where you charge backward and not forward.

9. The shoulder peek: Since frontlines have a very big hitbox, you can get bursted down pretty quick. But since nando requires just a little line of sight, you can burn your opponents while taking proper cover.

10. The bodyblocking: It's not necessary that you can shield your teammates only with your shield. You can stand in the line of sight between your teamate and your opponent, pressurise your opponent with your damage while also blocking all the shots he could possibly hit.

11. The Fireball stacks: Stacking fireballs with Scorch is the reason why Fernando never gets boring. You can damage the backline through the frontline. ( Hello Grohk.) Proper stacking of fireball comes from good position, you must find a good angle and release the fireball when you don't see any shield covering the opponent team.

12. The Shield Dance: How you move with your shield up decides the fate of your survival. They'll either burst down your shield quick and enable your heat transfer or try to be sneaky and backstab you. There's pretty much no movement tips to make you better with this, so surviving with shield up is all about being one hell of a Salsa Dancer. Basically, you'll have to be so annoying that they decide to just burst down your shield while they get tunnel visioned and your backline gets all the space in the world to do their work.

13. The Wide Reticle: Now this is something you might've noticed in pro play matches where you see every character with different reticles. Fernando is always the one with the wide reticle considering he has no mechanical aim skills involved and this reticle lets you exploit his huge hitbox freely. You can change the reticle through game settings during the match.

14. The Agenda: A fernando fighting frontlines is a waste of his potential. Fernando is one that makes the backline vanish and then makes the opponent frontline face despair. But in order to this, he also has to keep engaging the frontlines in battle to keep them busy. Pressure tanking is an art that you can keep getting better at through experience, but if you keep dying while not being of any significant use then that makes you worse than a point dog. Dying here is a relative term that depends on your opponents so yes you will have rough games in your journey but never give up since Fernando is one hell of a spicy champion.

Fernando is the PIP of all tanks, he's a jack of all trades and can do just about anything: He attacks, he flanks, he defends and he heals himself. Fernando is a reliable tank in all the ranks.