Rocket League: Does the Car matter? Part 2

Click here for Part 1. The contents of this article, besides the statistics themselves, are purely personal opinion. What I find best in certain situations will not apply to everyone so it is important to try all vehicles to find out what suits you; I play very offensively, thus my favoured tactics will be reflective of this. Huge thanks to Reddit user ‘Varixai’ for his detailed post and spreadsheet(s) on the topic, which can be found here.

As vehicles are added all the time to Rocket League, this article series will cover cars that were present up to version 1.25 of the game. Upon finishing this, I will go back over the series, taking into account any and all new cars (where data is available).

 

Dominus*

Length Ranking: 6th

Width Ranking: 9th

Height Ranking: 18th

Turn Ranking: 4th

Coming in strong in eSports and competitive play, the Dominus is arguably one of the most frequently used premium cars. Offering a great combination of length and width, its short height is compensated thus, allowing noticeable enhancements for dribbling, both on ground and in air.

Hotshot

L. Ranking: 2nd

W. Ranking: 18th

H. Ranking: 15th

T. Ranking: 3rd

I’ve found, as have friends of mine, that the Hotshot is often used by new players. Nobody really knows what it is about the Hotshot that makes it alluring, but almost everyone I’ve spoken to remember seeing these all over the place when they started playing. Whilst it has a fantastic length on it, it’s other statistics falter, making it often one less favoured amongst higher level play.

Paladin

L. Ranking: 10th

W. Ranking: 12th

H. Ranking: 23rd

T. Ranking: 10th

The Paladin is also rarely used, due to its unfortunate state of not really having a particularly strong attribute, but rather a mostly average performance albeit one setback. Players looking for a ‘balanced’ vehicle tend to steer more towards the Octane.

Grog*

L. Ranking: 14th

W. Ranking: 16th

H. Ranking: 4th

T. Ranking: 18th

Having covered more of the favoured vehicles, we’re beginning to head into the territory of cars that are sparsely used by the player base, and the Grog is one. Especially being a DLC car, this taller car is considered by some as the premium version of the Merc, with it having one of the best heights, whilst sacrificing length and width.

Merc

L. Ranking: 13th

W. Ranking: 22nd

H. Ranking: 1st

T. Ranking: 24th

Thanks to it’s hulking appearance, the Merc is a favourite of newer players, and experienced players use the its beefy hitbox to excel in defence, blocking and certain 50/50 encounters. The Merc is a very unusual car though. Whether it’s due to the taller hitbox or some other variable, it hits the ball noticeably lower than any other vehicle. To help explain, if you hit the ball straight-on with constant boosting upon kick-off, the Merc is the only car in the game that will cause the ball to go straight into the net, as opposed to hitting the crossbar. A video by LocalContent explains this fully, showing examples and details of every car in this situation.

 

Be sure to check back for the next edition, where I’ll cover the Dark Knight’s signature car, take a look at the Masamune, and inquire into the very puny-looking Scarab.

 

*DLC Car