I decided to make this guide when Maeve was new because there were no new/in-depth guides for her after a few months of her being out so I decided to write one for myself!!

I also find myself giving tips to friends--or even just random people now that I think about it--and I feel like sharing my knowledge on Maeve with as many people as I can would be pretty nice, so this is the best way I could think to do it.

With cards I'll state what it does at level 1 and what it does at level 5. (example: X increases X by 10% to 50%.)

Maeve is a flank champion that came out during OB43 on February 8, 2017.

Maeve's base movement speed is 385.

Maeve's base health: 1900.

Let's start this out right with a little foundation. If you are a more seasoned Paladins player or are already familiar with Maeve/flanking, you can skip past this section.

Maeve is a champion in the flank section.
Flanks are meant to:

1. Flank/get behind enemy lines.
   
2. Eliminate enemy champions that can/will cause trouble for you and your teammates or champions that are squishy. (Squishy = low health, in case anybody didn't know)
   
3. Gank. (Gank = group of people gang up on one or more players)

That being said, Maeve is unique for a flanker, but I'll talk about that later.

"Why should I pick Maeve over any of the other Flank champions?"
Besides being the top waifu, here are some reasons for playing Maeve:

• Speeds that rival that of Sanic and Andre smithing at incredible hihg speed.
  
• Along with her high mobility, she's one of the smallest champions, so that makes her even harder to hit.
  
• High burst damage.
  
• If done correctly, she can perform some pretty good surprise attacks.

But sadly, as much as I LOVE Maeve, there are reasons to play other flankers. ):

• Maeve is easy to track during prowl. Whenever I'm playing Makoa and hear Maeve prowl I'm always on the lookout to hook her.
  
• Maeve demands good precision since her daggers are projectiles, where as you can play Andro or Buck for a hitscan flank or play Vora for easy to hit auto attacks.
  
• Certain champions can counter Maeve pretty well, such as Sha Lin, Cassie, Vora , Makoa due to his hooks... flanks like Evie and Andro can do better jobs against some of these champions for the most part.
  
• Other flanks tend to be a bit easier to play than Maeve.
  
• Maeve is naturally squishy. Flanks like Lex, Androxus, and ESPECIALLY Buck, have more health than her and can take more shots without dying.

I say all this but if you like her you should play her!!! She's definitely not bad and it's your game, play who you want B)

Daggers is Maeve's basic attack.
"Throw two Daggers every second that each deal 400 Damage."
Important things to know about Daggers:

1. There is no damage falloff for the daggers.
   
2. While there is no damage fall off, they are projectiles and don't go in a perfectly straight line, they have a small arch. Predict accordingly when throwing, especially from long distances.
   
3. The daggers aren't thrown at the same time.
   
4. They take time to get from point A to point B.

The most important thing to remember is the delay they have. You'll need to predict your shots a lot due to #2-#4. Often times I see people have trouble hitting the second dagger or something idk I'm repeating myself too much
Ways to practice your accuracy with Maeve:

• Go into the shooting range and practice hitting the idle bots, as well as the running Pip bot.
  
• Before the match starts, start strafing and/or jumping and try hitting the knives in the same spot.
  
• And of course, do your best to hit people with both knives in game! Nothing is better practice than actually doing it against real people who move in all sorts of ways.

Some Tips for Daggers:
Since they are projectiles--aka take time to get from point A to point B--and since they have an arch (not as significant anymore but it's still there), this makes Maeve the queen of pre-firing. You can use the arch to your advantage and attack people that are on a slope without them being able to hit you, and you can also use this to peek corners and hit people safely without risking being hit yourself.

Pounce is your secondary ability and is a CRITICALLY important ability to know how to use.
"Quickly dash forward. Collide with an enemy to perform a melee strike for 400 damage."

Things to know about Pounce:

1. You dash a total of 50 units in the direction you are facing unless you hit someone or dash into a wall.
   
2. If you are airborne when you activate pounce, you can jump once more.
   
3. If you hit an enemy, you will be knocked back a small amount.

Some tips for Pounce: Since Pounce causes you to dash in the direction you are looking, you can use as kind of like an Andoxus dash. You can use as an extension of your jumps, a quick getaway, or something similar. Pounce can save your life if used at the right time. Don't think of this as "an easy way to get 400 damage off" because if you're careless, you WILL miss and it WILL either kill you or get you very close to death in most situations. Another thing is that you can use Pounce to sort of dodge attacls. If you're close to dying and you're in a 1v1 situation, it would be better to pounce sideways in order to hit a couple more knives before they can get more hits off. (thank you to RaptorTwitch for pointing this out!)

Prowl is your main "obvious" mobility ability.
"Move 50% Faster and increase your jump height for 4 seconds. Firing your weapon or using another ability will cancel Prowl."

Things to know about Prowl:

1. Prowl is loud and will alert people nearby of your presence. Be wary of this if you're attempting to sneak by.
   
2. It isn't stated in the ability description itself, but you have more fall control during prowl.

Tips for Prowl: Besides being an way to flee, a way to heal, and a way to jump higher, you can use Prowl as a sort of bait. It's loud and very obvious, so there are many situations where you can use the sound to make someone come to you and surprise them or make them think you're going one place, but in all reality you're faking them out and you can surprise them while they look for you.
Baiting takes a little practice, but it can be helpful once learned.

Nine Lives is your bread and butter.
Reset the cooldowns of Pounce and Prowl and heal for 400.
Things to know about Nine Lives:

1. The cooldown for this is almost as much as the cooldowns for Prowl and Pounce COMBINED. Keep a watchful eye on this.
   
2. This is important to any build since you will want to be reseting your cooldowns a lot.

Tips for Nine Lives: Don't be afraid to use it just because of the cooldown! Rock that hefty cooldown. But do NOT spam it. If your cooldowns still are going to take a relatively long time to finish, use it to get them back (this applies to battle and out of battle). Be careful to not get ability-happy after using it, because you can find yourself in some pretty sticky situations if your abilities aren't accessable to you. Don't just keep it as a pocket heal, because it's more than just that. If you look at it like that, you won't be using it at its full potential.

Midnight is your ultimate, and can be misused rather easily.
"Enemies within 300 units have their vision restricted to a 30 foot radius for 4 seconds."

Things to know about Midnight:

1. People affected by Midnight will have a purple circle around them showing how far they can see.
   
2. Like other ultimates, if Maeve dies, the effect wares off.
   
3. As of OB61, Midnight is now affected by Resilience, but the shortest it can last is 2 seconds rather than 4.
   
4. It's not openly stated in the description, nor is it implied otherwise, but anyone within 300 feet of Maeve will have their vision restricted until either Maeve dies or the effect wares off. It's not an AOE ability; you can't outrun it when you're affected by it.
   
5. ***IMPORTANT***: USING MAEVE'S ULTIMATE DOESN'T COUNTER CASSIE'S ULTIMATE, THE ENEMY TEAM IS STILL ABLE TO SEE YOUR OUTLINE. BE WARY OF THIS.
   
6. ***ALSO IMPORTANT***: Champions that can go immune/cc immune like Koga with his dash, Evie with ice block, and Inara with Mother's Embrace can cleanse midnight with their immune abilities.

Pro tips for Midnight: Midnight is best used to confuse the enemies and disrupt their coordination and you can use it offensively or defensively.
Offensive uses:

1. After you/your team gets someone low, you can pop ult and go in and finish that person while their team isn't able to see you or them
   
2. When a teammate uses a big ult (such as Ruckus ult, Tyra ult, Viktor ult, Willo ult, etc) you can use it to cover them so they can safely pump out as much damage as possible

Defensive uses:

1. Use it to minimize the effectiveness of enemy team ult. Example: Enemy Tyra ults, you can use midnight to minimize their vision so it's harder for her to melt your team.
   
2. Enemy team is pushing in to your team, you can ult to try and turn the tides while their vision is limited.

However, this applies to any gamemode and any flanker, so this will be a quick headnote:
It's a good idea to wait a little bit before going to flank. You can use this time to catch people off guard and see which way is best to go (like where the most people are or where would be the safest but most efficient way to flank the enemy team).

Important for general play: don't be predictable with your jumps. If you jump too much, you'll restrict some of your movement since you can't change direction much and go in an arch. Practice your jumping.
First and foremost: Don't keep doing the same thing over and over every round in a match. If you keep flanking left at the start, the enemy team will catch on and you'll get countered. Mix it up! Keep it spicy.
***Important***
Don't go crazy for blood and carnage, this is a team game and you win by playing with the team.. While fragging is important and feels good :^)you should prioritize capping, making sure the payload is pushing, and defending your base if you lost the point capture.

Maeve is a..unique flanker, to say the least.
When you start a match, take note of match-ups and figure out your priority targets. You want to kill damage champs, healers, and stop enemy flanks from doing their jobs. The best thing to do is check flanks and stick with your team until you find a good time to flank. Don't go crazy and go 1v5 into enemy team and get picked because then you'll have just wasted your time and your team will be outnumbered. If you can safely kill someone, kill them and make sure you're not going to die :) If you're not sure it's safe to flank, stay with your team and throw daggers from a safe spot in your group and try to find a good opportunity to get a pick. If you land 4 daggers on a squishy champ you can prowl around and try to kill them off. Remember you can use pounce to reposition/chase or increase your burst damage. You have to decide which is best depending on the situation.
In ranked the meta is double tank, and it is **especially** important to kill the damage and healer in these comps because tanks can't sustain themselves without them. Don't waste tons of time trying to kill the tanks because Maeve takes forever to kill them with their massive health pools so they will simply live forever. Leave shredding the tanks to your damage champ teammates, but if there's no obvious targets/no way to get to squishies just toss daggers into the tank so you aren't just sitting there doing nothing.
If one of the tanks flanks your team you can focus them with your team but don't spend forever on them, they should usually be the last person standing

*******IMPORTANT**********
Always watch your cooldowns. you don't want to get caught in a fight with all your abilities on CD, because chances are you'll end up dead unless you can finish off the enemy before they finish you.

Now you're either going to cap or you're not going to cap (or push/defend), so I'll be going over what to do for both.

Try to dismount enemy team with your daggers from a long distance and keep focusing for squishy targets when you can. Don't force fights and stay alive. What use will you be to the team if you're dead? Healer may be busy healing other people so if you can't get a heal just sit out of combat for a couple seconds at least.
Granted, you may die, but that's okay. Just get back and don't go in alone.
Use your surroundings as cover or get to high ground to throw daggers
Only one person needs to cap/push so you don't need to stand on the objective if someone else is there already, you can move around :) Again, if there's no obvious targets, just damage the tanks. They are still threats and can make a difference in fights. If nothing else you can charge your ult using them :^)

Pretty much same as before, throw daggers and kill supports/damage when you can. Don't directly go up fight the people on the payload if one or more of these things are occurring:

1. You are alone.
   
2. There is more than one person on the payload and they aren't low health/squishy.
   
3. Someone who you've been having trouble killing is there. You can be in a safe spot and go in when you've got them low enough. Never get close range to a tank if they're full health because some of those tanks do a surprising amount of damage...
   
4. This one isn't as much of a no-no as the other ones, but if there is a support and a tank there and nobody else from your team is nearby, you probably should avoid being close range. Tanks take long to kill and with the added healing, it puts you at too much risk.

Try to get around, and when given the chance, go closer to their spawn and try to at least hit them off their horses. You want them off that payload as long as they can be. If they try to ignore you and just keep running to the payload, punish them for underestimating you.


IMPORTANT NOTE: if you are certain you're gonna capture objective or can't defend/push, don't waste your ult and save it for next round (unless they're gonna win lol)

In this section I'll be going all the talents Maeve has since they are all viable in one way or another.


"Deal 30% more damage with your first two shots within 5s of Prowl ending."

So as of OB54, Cat Burglar no longer allows you to triple jump, which means it's time to update this section... gutterwash. ;(
If you take this talent make sure you have predation at a high level in your loadout. Cat Burglar is really good when the enemy team has easy to hit targets like Ruckus, Raum, Inara, Grover, Willo, Torvald, Moji... but if you're good at hitting your shots this talent is also the best for bursting squishy champs, so you can prowl to flank them and then burst them down with damage boosted knives and kill them >:)
Some tips for Cat Burglar:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS run predation card at a high level when you use this talent. It lets you get prowl up sooner and therefor you can get your damage buff faster. Those two shots are important so make them count. I usually wait to make sure whoever I'm hitting isn't damage immune, is shielding, or god forbid miss the shot lmfao


Increase the damage down by Pounce by 15%, reduce it's cooldown by 2s, and reset Pounce's cooldown after earning an elimination.

The upside to this is that you don't need to actually get the last hit to reset Pounce's cooldown, you just need to at least get one hit in, plus you do more damage with your pounce. The nice thing about this talent is that it really helps you get in and get out. You can get a pick on someone and then dash right back out, OR get more kills, but not just for damage... Pounce offers extreme mobility and you can use the reset to chase someone after you get a kill or reposition to get damage on someone else. Sometimes you can get Chains of several resets and you just go all over the place and it feels pretty good tbh :^) I personally don't use this talent a lot but if you like it feel free to use it, I think it works well into squishy teams.


Pounce now excecutes targets below 35%.


Street Justice is probably the most efficient talent for Maeve. It's the most reliable finisher since it executes upon contact. I always take this if the enemy team has a really strong healer like Seris or Io because it allows me to kill someone fast before they get healed. It's also really good against tanks because they can't shield pounce so it will execute no matter what if they are below the threshold!! Be sure not to miss pounce or use it too early lol
If you don't know which talent to pick, this one is always the safest one to fall back on. Just be aware of if people buy haven or veteran because this can change the pattern of how many daggers it takes to get them below the damage threshold. Always run the shred card at level 5 when you use this talent

No card is useless. Every card can be used in the right deck. I will be going over every card and talking about what they do at each card level and where they shine the most.

1. Heal for 40 to 200 Health every second during Prowl.

Walk it Off is a card I like to have in most of my loadouts. Having the choice to heal while you run away is incredibly helpful and can save you often. Maeve's main source of healing outside of items is Nine Lives, but that has a HUGE cool down and you can't always rely on it. Having this card so you can heal up while you prowl is incredibly helpful. It often saves me when fleeing a fight or getting some extra health when I accidentally run into someone rather than waiting to get out of combat.

1. Nine Lives now heals for 80 to 400.

This is a pretty helpful card to have :) The healing is pretty nice and if you max it 800 hp is a big chunk of your hp bar and can help you a lot in 1v1s. I personally don't run this card very high since I prefer other cards, but this by no means is a bad card. Survivability is always helpful!!

1. Increase your maximum Health by 50 to 250.

Maeve is one of the squishiest champions, sitting at 1900 health. Not the lowest--side note: She had 1800 until OB49 where she got 100 extra health--but it's down there. Only Evie has less health, and she has 1800. I use this as a filler card, add it in last since a little health is always helpful. I don't put it higher than level 3 personally but if you wanna pair this at level 5 with veteran, who knows... tank Maeve may be new meta :flushed:

1. Reduce the Cooldown of Nine Lives by 1s to 5s.

I wouldn't recommend this on a Rouge's Gambit build since you'll be resetting your Pounce cooldown with eliminations. This is a preference card, I personally think if you're familiar enough with Maeve you can work around nine lives cooldown and should invest in other cards that more directly benefit your talent of choice (like using shred to reduce pounce CD for Pounce talents or running Predation for Cat Burglar).

1. Pounce heals you for 70 to 350 Health on a sucessful hit.

This card is a must have on Rouge's Gambit loadouts. You'll be getting resets on pounce so may as well run this card!! Also pretty helpful on Street Justice loadout.

1. Reduce the Cooldown of Pounce by 0.5 to 2.5s.

Pounce is an extremely useful ability to have up and I HIGHLY recommend maxing this if you're gonna use a street justice build. That way you don't have to rely on nine lives for pounce to reliably be up when you need it. I also run this at level 2 or 3 in my Rouge's Gambit loadout. Don't need to max it because you can reset with eliminations so no point in maxing it out.

1. Gain 4% to 20% Damage reduction for 2s after using Pounce.

Sixth Sense is helpful anytime since you're using Pounce to either get right up in someone's face and do an attack (since that's what Pounce is) or to escape in a hurry. I have this maxed out in my Rouge's Gambit loadout since you'll be pouncing a lot so you can take advantage of the damage reduction very often!! Also quite welcome in Street Justice loadout. Feel free to take it in a Cat Burglar loadout but I think if you want damage reduction with that talent you should take persistence since that damage reduction is less conditional.

1. Increase the speed bonus of Prowl by 10% to 50%.

Personally I don't feel a major boost from the base speed increase Prowl provides or like it makes THAT much of a difference, so this card really helps you get around faster. I like to have this card in my deck at at least level 2. This card pairs well with Streetrunner and Featherlite.

These first few cards aren't exactly to be considered worse or better from order of apperance,
they're all about the same in terms of practicality.

1. Increase the duration of Prowl by 0.5s to 2.5s.

This card isn't that bad actually, I'd use it more if I didn't prefer using other cards. A longer prowl feels pretty nice to have and works well with Walk It Off and Chase for a nice survivability/prowl build. If you have Walk it Off equipped as well as this card, you will be healing longer since your prowl lasts longer! There's really nothing really bad about this card or anything, but whether or not you use it is just up to your preference and your loadout. I personally don't find myself using it very often but don't let that stop you!!

1. Kills and Eliminations grant 10%-50% Movement Speed for 4s.

This card is pretty spicy. It's not a bad card to have, it just depends on if you like it or not. It can stack so multiple elims/slays makes you go pretty fast. It's a good way to A. get a kill and get out, B. get a kill and make your way to the next target as fast as you can, C. get a kill on the side and make your way to a different position, such as the objective, a different spot to flank/group, or attack the enemy team at their base. I've seen a good bit of competitive loadouts with this card too! This card would be a good addition to a loadout if you play very mobile.

1. Reduce the cooldown of Prowl by 0.2s-1s each time you hit an enemy with a dagger.

This card is actually pretty clutch and is absolutely essential for a Cat Burglar loadout. less than a second seems kinda like a small amount but you throw two daggers at once so if you hit both then that just doubles the cooldown reduction!! If the enemy has a super easy to hit tank then you can farm prowl super easily.
Important note: The cooldown reduction doesn't apply from shields, so keep that in mind.

1. Gain 10%-50% Movement Speed for 2s after Pounce ends.

This card is another one of those cards that I sometimes wish I could just have. This is really helpful for when I want to escape using pounce so I can get out of there "fast as ♥♥♥♥ boi". This fits perfectly into a mobility build and doesn't hurt to have in a Rouge's Gambit build.

1. Gain 6%-30% Damage Reduction for 2s after using Nine Lives.

This card is useful for helping you win 1v1s easier or escape safer. Not much to say but it is always useful.

1. Take 4%-20% less damage while at or below 40% health.

This is helpful to have since the only condition you need to get the damage reduction is be 40% or less, and even at level 1 it's pretty much just like having tier 1 Haven. I run this in my Cat Burglar loadout since Pounce won't be up as often since I don't focus on Pounce cooldown reduction+using Sixth Sense.

1. Gain 10% to 50% Movement Speed for 2s when you activate Nine Lives.

This is a good little boost to help you either chase someone down or get away from somewhere faster. I think this is just a preference/filler card though.

1. Gain 5% to 25% damage reduction while using Prowl.

This card got reworked in OB68, so it's somewhat more practical now. Though, it shall stay here for now. This card works well with Walk it Off since you get more healing and less damage. This card has become more of a solid pick to add into your decks and will really help you get away or chase people. You can't really go wrong with this card. Just make sure to not waste the prowl if you're running away, keep it on unless you have nine lives available.

Items are critically important to every match, and picking the correct ones for the correct situations is just as important.
I was originally going to go over only the items that I use myself, however, I felt it would be best to discuss every item. This section will start out with the main items you want to get as Maeve and we'll work our way down to the items you don't want to get/the items that aren't as helpful in the next section, part 2.

The type of utility card you want to use depends on your loadout and who you're playing against. If your loadout is already fast and you don't feel you need lots of ults, go with Chronos!
You want to get those abilities out as fast as you can--especially Nine Lives--and the best way to get them out a lot is to reduce those cooldowns.
Here's the numbers for how much your cooldowns will be reduced to at each level (excluding cards):

1. 10% reduction
   
   • Nine Lives: -2 seconds; 18 second cooldown
     
   • Prowl:-1.2 seconds; 10.8 second cooldown
     
   • Pounce:-1 second; 9 second cooldown
2. 20% reduction
   
   • Nine Lives: -4 seconds; 16 second cooldown
     
   • Prowl: -2.4 seconds: 9.6 second cooldown
     
   • Pounce: -2 seconds; 8 second cooldown
3. 30% reduction
   
   • Nine Lives: -6 seconds; 14 second cooldown
     
   • Prowl: -3.6 seconds; 8.4 second cooldown
     
   • Pounce: -3 seconds; 7 second cooldown

I personally don't buy this a lot but if you've gotten your offensive items and healing items and need something else to spend credits on, Chronos is 100% worth your money.

Back when I had started writing this guide, I didn't go as deep into this item as I now wish I had. A friend told me to try out using Morale Boost on Maeve, and it really is just as helpful as Chronos or Nimble. The increased speed of how much you get your ult is amazing and having it available often is great to turn the tides of a battle. The night before the time of writing this, I saved a match because I got my ult, I was able to pick of miltiple people by myself on the objective since they were blinded. Just be sure to use your ult often so you can get the most out of this item :)


Maeve has pretty good sustain, but since you'll be away from a healer a lot, you're going to want a bit more to help keep you alive.
There are only 2 items you want to get from the healing section:


Life Rip is pretty helpful, but not THAT helpful. At base[/previewimg] level, by h[/previewimg]itting both of your knives you heal yourself for 90 health, which may not sound too helpful, but it's the little things that count. **edit: I spoke about this like you only were going to get level 1, which was a mistake on my part. This is helpful and at level 3 you get almost 300 health if you hit both knives.


What Life Rip does at each level:

1. +10% Lifesteal (40 per dagger)
   
2. +20% Lifesteal (80 per dagger)
   
3. +30% Lifesteal (120 per dagger)

Note: You only get lifesteal from Daggers, nothing else.

Times Life Rip is helpful:

• Preference.
  
• Enemy team has several very tanky champions.
  
• If you're having trouble killing someone (like an enemy flank) and you keep getting close, but not quite there, having your basic attack heal you can increase your chances since you'll be healing with every knife you hit.

Liferip isn't bad but Kill to Heal is going to be better most of the time. Maeve has high damage numbers but if you don't hit your shots it's less reliable than Kill to heal. I usually buy Life Rip if my healer is busy and I wanna heal from a safe spot when I can. The 120 per dagger at level 3 is pretty huge but that's a lot of credits to invest..
"Getting a kill or elimination heals you for ___ Health."

Personally, I prefer to have this item over Life Rip and usually buy it first item.

What Kill to Heal does at each level:

Times you should consider Kill to Heal:

• When the enemy team has a lot of squishy champs you can kill fast
  
• The burst heal from this item allows you to either move to another target or get out of a sticky situation alive. That's the nice thing about Kill to Heal, in most situations you can't life steal the same amount of health that Kill to Heal would grant you.
  
• You have iffy aim and can't capitalize off Life Rip ;p

Rip.



Very situational item. I don't build this a lot but if there's two tanks with shield talents or a shield tank with a Torvald off tank then it is helpful to buy this. I find it especially annoying to play against Fernando with shield talent so you can build this if your damage teammates don't get it. Usually buy this like third or fourth item if I need it

I ran out of space in the Items Pt. 1 so I'm adding this to extend it; this is just an extension of the precious section, not a new one. The content in this section won't be new.



Nimble is a pretty cozy item for Maeve. Her kit is all about her movement speed, and nimble compliments her very well. Not a bad item, mostly used for preference. Feel free to buy it :)


Illuminate is 1. VERY cheap, and 2. VERY helpful against champions that use invisibility. Admittedly, there are few champions you can use this against, the main ones you want to use it for is Skye, Saati, and Strix, and maybe VII.
You COULD also use it for Seris, but that's not as helpful since you can't hit her in her Shadow Travel. It is helpful to see where she's going if she's running away, though. But definitely get this if you're having trouble killing any of those previously stated champs.

I mainly get this item if I'm dying due to CC a lot. CC can be dangerous to Maeve since she's squishy and has little damage reduction. If you're going to get this, at least get it to level 2 since it's cheap and 60% reduction is a reasonable amount.

This section was originally for items you don't really want to get, but items are important and every item can be useful in different situtations. <3


Damage reduction can take you far, especially when paired with damage reduction in your loadouts. I usually buy this most games.

Master Riding is actually pretty nice. It can really help you get that "flank" position since you'll be faster than your enemies, and it can help you get back to the fight if you have died. This item is a MUST HAVE on Ice Mines. The map is massive and one death can set you back over 20 seconds.
I'd recommend this card if you want to target a support or a sniper in the enemy backlines. Be careful not to dive too hard though!

The bonus health from this item can be really helpful!! a little health can help you live a few more shots and get that kill you need or survive an extra sniper shot depending on how much max health you have... This item paired with haven can be really helpful with keeping you alive, you'll be surprised how much more you'll live if you have both.. it's not something I always build though. Just if there's some champs on the enemy team that will give me trouble.


I don't often get this, but if you're duo with a healer or have a good healer, why not?


This item is the most situational of all the items. The only champions you should use this for are Inara and Barik. There are other champs you can use it for but these two are really the only two you could consider getting this item for. I only get this if Inara has cripple talent or wall talent, and even then it's situational. This can be very helpful against Barik with forgefire talent, but I recommend buying this third or fourth item (after you've gotten your main items you wanna use(


Definitely get this. :^) lol jk this is just a throwback to when you used to be able to buy this on champions that don't need to reload

Every champion has a counter champion, regardless of their role. In this section I'll just be going over who Maeve counters and who counters Mave.
****Note****
Some of these may be less of a counter than others, feel free to share your opinons.


Kinessa is both a Maeve counteree and a Maeve counterer, so I will go over both aspects here to save on space.
Kinessa lacks in mobility and her health pool is about the same as Maeve's, sitting at 2000 base health. This makes Kinessa an easy to target to pick off if left alone. However, she IS dangerous and can make or break a match depending on if whoever is using her can use her well or not... just like that. Smart Kinessas will be ready to be targetted and flanked and sometimes roll with her legendary Supression, which buffs her mines. Being slowed down makes you a VERY easy target. If they are running with the Eagle Eye legendary, she will one-shot you with a headshot. I like to have a loadout with the card Persistence on at least level 3 for when I see a Kinessa using the Supression legendary. You want to try and sneak up on Kinessas and kill them as much as you can; burst them down as fast as you can.












When you see a Strix on the enemy team and you're playing Maeve, you should be thinking "that Strix is going to hate me by the end of this match" or something like that.
While, like Kinessa, Strix can kill you fast, it's incredibly easy to kill a Strix as Maeve. His only source of getting away is stealthing, but it only takes a pounce to get him out of his stealth. Just don't come at him in a way that makes it really easy to hit you with his rifle, get up in his face, and you'll be fine. Even if he shoots you once with his rifle, as long as you hit him and get up in his face, you can still be fine. You want to get illuminate 2 relatively soon into the match (not first item though) and it'll make him even easier to kill.
Do not fear a Strix. But do NOT get cocky. There are great Strix players who will destroy you if you don't respect them.












This is kind of weird to have here and isn't relevant if you play competitive, but Maeve counters herself so again, I'll just go over this all in one part to save space and save you some reading.
Maeve is small, moves fast, can heal herself, and just isn't the easiest to hit due to the fact she's always jumping around and strafes pretty fast since her base speed is the the highest at the moment. A good way to do well in a Maeve 1v1 is when they are jumping (since chances are they will at some point) to predict where they'll be at the end of their jump and throw closer to where they will be. Once you jump, it's harder to change the direction you're going so it will be easier to get hit. This is a little different for people with Cat Burglar, but it's more or less the same concept. Make sure to land your pounce and keep on eye on their health, when they use Nine Lives, what their loadout is, and what legendary they have. A Maeve with Artful Dodger will heal more and be a little hard to kill, while one with Rouge's Gambit won't give you the same problem for the same reasons.
Also don't be too predictable with your jumping. If she ults, wait half a second and then use yours. that way she'll be blinded longer than you.

This is one is one that is a bit more open to discussion as I am unsure about this myself.Willo can be countered by Maeve for about the same reasons as Kinessa; she has low health (2200 at base) and her only mobility ability doesn't take her that far. While she can deal HUGE damage, she is an AoE/blast damge champion, so keeping yourself airborne/above her makes it harder for her to get solid damage off on you. Be sure to watch out for her seedlings because those will get you rekt ezpz.










Cassie is a good counter for Maeve and you should observe the enemy Cassie when going against one.
Cassie hits hard with her basic attack doing 650 damage every .75 seconds and 850 if she's equipped with her legendary Exaction, which makes her a big threat to any Maeve--assuming this Cassie has decent accuracy. Any Cassie can 3 almost shot you at your base health, so be VERY careful. Surprise attacks would be a good idea to use against her when possible. Take note of her loadout and when she uses dodge roll if she's using the Exaction legendary. Don't stay too close for too long and if the fight takes too long,














Sha Lin is pretty much the most anti-flank damage character there is. Sitting at 1000 damage per fully charged arrow plus a rapid fire ability = ez dead kitty. :( Getting illuminate wouldn't be a bad idea for a counter to him since his ult is mainly cloak and he can cloak for a few seconds to get away as well. Other than that, just be very careful when you're against a Sha Lin. Try to get him by surprise or when he's focusing other people. Avoid walls or being below him because he can stun you with his RMB, but with Artful Dodger that's not as much of a problem but you can still get caught. He has average health, so burtsting him down would be a decent idea.



A damage Ying can be a little pesky, but shouldn't be too much trouble for you. However, if she uses Shatter and more than one illusion hits you, that can be some pretty heavy damage. Plus if she hits you with all 5 of her shots that's extra damage off, so that can be a little worrying.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand she can teleport. The thing I recommend for when she teleports is to be in a safe spot and watch where you last saw her/where one of her illusions are so you can be ready for if she goes back to that spot.











The tortoise versus the cat... not exactly how I remember that story going, but this works too I guess.
p.s. spread the meme
You should be wary of any front liner, but Makoa can M E S S Y O U U P . Makoa's LMB does 650 damage per hit, but the shots are slow and he can't shoot very fast.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
If this Makoa has his Pluck legendary equipped and he hooks you, you're probably going to be dead sooon. His hook does 100 damage when it hits you, and then with the boost from the legendary, if he shoots you he'll do an extra 1170 damage. And just like that, you're almost dead. Not to mention if he pulls you into a group of his teammates...
Using Artful Dodger to get out of those hooks is a good idea, but you'll have to be quick about hitting it before you get pulled in. Otherwise just avoid him when you can (especially since he's a frontliner and has a ton of health).

In this section I'm just going to be talking about the playstyles you can use for Maeve, giving some insight on them, and also adding some recommendations for loadouts you can use for each. Click the images to see a more full size picture of the loadouts.
These are only templates to help guide you in the right direction, you can edit the loadouts as you so see fit.

**IMPORTANT: My cards are leveled, but just pretend they're all level 4 to go with classic/competitive. These loadouts would remain the same regardless of the card level.**[/b]



This is a loadout that will fit for most Maeve playstyles and legendaries. I recommend this loadout if you're new and want somwhere to start off.












This is my personal loadout that I use most of the time. I use this with Street Justice or Cat Burglar. This helps with chasing people down and having nine lives available. I use others too, but this is just one I like. x)










This is a build I use if the enemy team has champions that deal HUGE damage per hit, like Sha Lin, Kinessa, sometimes Cassie, etc. Other than that it can be used whenever you want, it's preference. I made this to so you have more health, but also have more effective health since the damage reduction kicks in, so you'll live longer. (ignore the same name as the last loadout, I'm not original.)











For this loadout you'll want to play with either Street Justice or Rouge's Gambit. This will either support you being offensive or help you get away with pounce. Feel free to pouncealot. :^)

This video has some GREAT tips that helped me become a better Paladins player. It's worth your time to watch it, it's helpful.

Well, you've sucessfully now made it to the end of my guide, congratulations! You deserve a sticker. You should now be well on your way to being a cut above the rest. :^)

This guide took me over a MONTH to make due to the many delays and because I had to research everything, test it all out, write it and make sure it made sense...plus I am just really bad at finishing things lel.
A HUGH MUNGUS thank you to everyone who cointributed to this guide. This means a lot to me to make something like this and I'm glad you all helped me. <3 I'd like to in particular thank my not so biological or legit child Clouded who was there to help me with testing, recording, and just giving input to this guide, and of course to the dankest snek for helping me test he could. Check out his -->> Fernando guide <<--, it's pretty spicy. He put good work and effort into it (and I helped him create the guide, but that's not as important), and it turned out pretty gg. Plus it's got thse spicy memes. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
And of course, last but not least, BluJ for just being positive the entire time while I wrote this guide. You motivate me. <3 Stay spicy. :^)

A BIG thank you to CorgiallyYours for letting me use their art as the image for this guide! <3 It's one of my favorite Maeve fan arts, check out their other stuff[neuzu.deviantart.com] too! Seriously, much love. :)

• Cassie image[splashbrush.deviantart.com] made by Spashbrush[splashbrush.deviantart.com]
  
• Ying Image[www.deviantart.com] made by CLeRu087[cleru087.deviantart.com]
  
• Kinessa image[avionetca.deviantart.com] made by Avionetca[avionetca.deviantart.com]
  
• Willo image[dream-piper.deviantart.com] made by Dream-Piper[dream-piper.deviantart.com]
  
• Second Maeve image, author is linked in the tweet

**I own NONE of the pictures used in this guide (other than the screenshots I suppose) and none of them were created for the use of this guide, I take no credit for anyone's art. Please add and message me if you want to talk.**

I'm going to be updating this guide every so often depending on what's going on for a while, so I'll be adding what additions/changes are being made to the guide here to save you time and to save on you wondering "wait, was this like this before...?"

• I had forgot to add this, so I added Nine Lives to the Abilities / Ability Overview section. :)
  
• Added more tips for Rouge's Gambit in the Legendaries and You section.
  
• Updates here and there for more insight on the new gamemode Onslaught.
  
• Added this section. :^)

• Small update touching upon the changes to projectiles done in OB53 in the Abilities / Ability Overview section.
  
• Soon there will be a complete change to the part about Cat Burglar since in OB54 it is going to be completely different.

• Rewrote section about Cat Burglar.

• Added more to Nimble.

• Added a little more to Nimble.

• Moved Nimble to Items Pt. 1.
  
• Changed description of Chronos slightly.
  
• Made Items Pt. 1.5 to account for lack of space in the first part.
  
• Added a little bit to how to play Maeve.

• Changed what was said about Nimble in Items Pt.1.
  
• Minor change to Chronos in Items Pt.1.
  
• Minor change to Liferip in Items Pt.1.
  
• Edited the Playstyle/builds section.
  
• Added Drogoz and Strix to Who You Counter and Vise Versa.

• Added various changes throughout all the guide to accomodate for the changes done to Maeve in OB61. Please comment if you see any mess-ups.
  
• Changed several points in the guide. i.e. recommending Nimble, moving Morale Boost to be more important, etc.

• Updated the guide to be in OB64.

• Updated all the cards from Cards Unbound and made a reminder that Resilience is 300/600/900 credits now.

• Updated loadouts in Playstyles/Builds.

• Updated items, cards, and legendaries.

I'm too lazy to update this part but I updated the guide okay