Smite

I don't know if it's just my bad luck but for 2 days straight I tried to play Assault and kept losing all of them. Granted, I think one of those days I dodged a queue and made a deserter...

Does Goodwill have an effect to what kind of people I fight?

I don't think so. If it does it's very miniscule, and it's easy to build back up anyways.

Anyway, here's the datamining link. Figure I cover some of the stuff, since it's far more interesting than the patch itself.

First, I love how the Japanese god is just "God 72". Tricky little bastards.

Not much on the Ravana rework, though the idea of a passive health shield does seem kinda interesting. Also, the "Sash" mention hints that they might tweak some of Ne Zha's abilities again in addition to the remodel. Still waiting for Arachne to get a re-fix.

The "Conquest Basilisk" and "Conquest Lion" really catch my eye. We know we're getting another Conquest map (which they do kinda need, because you can't have things perfectly mirrored and then thrown a zigzag in mid-lane without messing something up), so I'm curious if they're going to mess with the jungle and just how much. I don't think I'd mind seeing one or two of the buffs disappear entirely, since the metagame is so heavily anchored on each role having a designated buff (except for Support, who gets squat).

And then there's the big news: the items all having actives. The subreddit seems to be going on fire over this one, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is that several current items actually do have "active" abilities like Lo L. It's just that those "actives" are passives that "activate" under a certain condition rather than being directly controlled. But they still have cooldowns like Lo L items. Overall, however, there's too little info to say anything definitive, especially when it sounds like such a massive change.

EDIT: And apparently the wiki is already jumping the gun in declaring "God 72" as Amaterasu. Given the evidence we already have it's very likely to be true, but I'm not a fan of such hasty action. Always leaves the chance to be wrong.

edited 27th Nov '15 9:30:33 AM by Watchtower

The Reborn Prince Patch highlights: Ne Zha has been remodeled◊, the famous Opera Singer Bacchus◊ concept has been fully made a skin, Clash has been made a permanent mode (though it seems in part to bypass any time restrictions from having the Beta tag), several noteworthy bug fixes, and Ravana has received a rework extensive enough to lock him out of the SWC.

I'm digging Ne Zha's remodel. Other than a bit of extra red it adheres strongly to the original design, and the way his sash now seems to snake around him is cool. General consensus is that he looks more like a girl than ever before, but I actually think he lands more definitively in the Bishōnen category.

Ravana's rework, meanwhile, is looking real strong. There's a clear intent throughout his kit to stick to and outlast his opponents, the passive meter now has a stronger purpose, his ult now has both utility and a little extra punch, and thank Shiva he actually uses his other hand. He might need to get toned down a tad after the SWC, but it's good to see him in a much better state after such a lackluster debut.

That was Opera Singer Bacchus? It looks more like a Shout-Out to Marvel's rendition of one of those Thor characters, the fat Boisterous Bruiser one. Volstagg, wasn't it?

Difficulties prevent me to see the rest, so that'll have to wait.

edited 9th Dec '15 10:06:41 PM by ChrisX

A little bump, and... well I got something for ya, Smite fans!

edited 13th Dec '15 3:35:25 PM by ChrisX

Datamining hints that not only is Amaterasu the next god, but that Susanoo and Raijin are quickly following after her. Fairly decent news, though a lot of people on the subreddit are pissed that it's small considering they hyped it up 3 days beforehand.

Personally, I think the bigger issue is that they hyped it at all. I have nothing against datamining and leaks in general, but I don't like the swagger that the guys behind Smite Datamining try to swing with. We're all just nerds tap-dancing legal lines for early tidbits of a video game. Do you really think so highly of yourself that you want to pull this corporate-style "teaser trailer" bullshit? I suppose it's karmic that the website itself isn't strong enough to handle the load, but it's still incredibly smug.

Anyway, onto Hi-Rez shenanigans: the latest reward as we come to the end of the Odyssey is a code to get access to The Pantheon War Part 1, a new comic tie-in once again done by Dark Horse Comics. Unfortunately, DH fucked up, and it's available for anyone with an account and a couple bucks to spare. Even then it's kinda underwhelming as one of the last rewards, though from what I've heard it is much better done than the last one.

Finally, some miscellaneous stuff: First, I swear to God the voice for the new Xing Tian skin is Jon Bailey. Dude's got the same inflections and everything. Second, I take back what I said about Ne Zha: while his face in the card art looks manlier, his face in-game definitely looks more feminine. It's weird.

Don't really care about those shenanigans (or maybe I am just stone hearted). Looking forward for Amaterasu regardless. From the look of it, I think she would be a graceful Lady of War. We haven't gotten that, have we? (Athena is more a Stone Wall)

That being said... Are you guys actually watching? Because I just finished my whole damn video of favorite Smite. Obvious choices, but behold my favorite lineups. Enjoy!

edited 26th Dec '15 3:25:23 AM by ChrisX

New cinematic trailer, in anticipation of the upcoming SWC.

The cinematics is nicely done. The music, on the other hand, ruins it for me.

in which Bellona becomes FFXIII's Lightning

Video consisted of one team making a mockery of the other after killing the Fire Giant.

...so that's basically one of the most accurate cinematics to match the game it's of. Just needed less flips & dodges in addition to the characters actually hitting each other constantly but to no effect until the last one, and it'll be the game, but fancier-looking!

I'm actually more excited with how Amaterasu would be like. We already got her picture.

The only one really flipping around was Wukong, but holy shit did he just go wild with it.

Whoever did the art for Amaterasu deserves a medal, because it's just breath-taking.

Trailer's awesome as hell, but I can't help but feel like it could've been....more. Like, the last trailer just had a handful of characters duking out (with several of the pantheons being no-shows), and all this trailer really does is shuffle half the cast and set it to a rock track. Personally, I would've at least thrown a tiny hint or something foreshadowing Amaterasu, since that's supposed to be a big deal and all.

The Fire Giant buff being treated like some kind of mystical wonder-drug was a nice touch. And the facial expressions were just fantastic.

Ammy's trailer is also up. And she has Old Guan's ult.

Interesting, I might consider coming back to the game.

I love just about everything about Amaterasu's design, and word through the grapevine is that she's a bit on the strong side, primarily from her movement speed aura. Funny little Book Ends with Bellona kicking off this season, a great start for the Japanese pantheon as a whole, and I'm glad this is ending Season 2 instead of starting Season 3.

The new Joust map also looks real good, with the biggest change being the Bull-Demon-King, a mini-boss that not only gives a buff but also shuts down the enemy structures. Considering one of the biggest issues with the previous Joust map was easy turtling, it sounds like a good idea. It also seems to be using different Titans, something I hope gets done for the other maps.

Here is a quick little bit on some stuff coming into Season 3. Some things not mentioned that I've heard: the Masters rank is getting replaced with "Grandmasters", a similar rank that's limited to the top 100, a major balancing focus is the reduction of CC across the board, and there's teases that Arachne is next up for a major overhaul.

Arachne is overhauled... AGAIN? Really? They weren't enough with the first overhaul?

As an Arachne Main, she still has problems. Excellent ganking power but so escape outside her ult and cant deal with multiple foes at once at all.

First, Arachne needs a new model. There's a sizeable list of characters that need looking at model-wise, and she's IMO one of the worst.

Second, her new kit is so boring save for the web wall. I'd love to see some kind of return of the broodlings, since it's not something that anyone else has in their disposal. At the very least they need to make it so that she doesn't have two AA steroids.

Incidentally, Odin was reworked in the same patch, and I have issues with him as well. Too much of his damage is focused on the Bird Bomb, which in my experience actually makes it a pain in the ass when it comes to stacking his passive. His original passive sounds interesting, though it'd probably make more sense on, say, Heimdall.

Anyway, video of map changes. Specifically, they're removing the purple buff, moving blue buff, and doing some weird shit with yellow buff. Next season's going to be real interesting, with everything going on.

edited 10th Jan '16 8:06:59 PM by Watchtower

Round 1 of the Season 3 PTS goes online tomorrow. There's a ton of shit going on, but a general run-through: the new Conquest and Joust maps are available, actives have been replaced by Relics (better name than Trinkets), items have been added and adjusted across the whole goddamn board, and some god balancing to top it off.

This season is going to be fun.

PTS Round 2 coming out later tonight.

The subreddit and the forums are on fire, and I can kinda see why. The expectation was for a similarly-exhaustive nerfing of CC, but instead we get some map experiments and more item adjusting. The few god changes are okay, but overall it feels very lackluster.

Season 3 may not turn out as fun as I thought it'd be, but damn it's going to be chaos.

TBH, I'd prefer the devs take their time and see how subtle changes play out on the PTS instead of making a ton of changes all at once and not fully figure out how the changes are effecting the game.

Also, the 3rd Round of changes is out: http://www.smitegame.com/season-3-pts-patch-notes/

It's here!

Season 3 changes are live. https://www.smitegame.com/season-3-patch-notes/

hoh shit odin can finally escape his own spears

The Daily Quest system is getting reworked. Now, not only will we have the original Daily Login bonus, but we'll also have a Weekly Quest system for additional gems.

The login bonus, while overall fantastic, was also exceptionally generous, and I knew and accepted that it would not last long. The daily quests are theoretically a good idea, but it underestimated just how stupidly greedy the playerbase could be, and even disregarding that it was still a very steep grind. The new system is now even more generous than it was before, not only because of the increased gain but also because the one major caveat, the fact that the bonus would reset if you missed a day, is now somewhat mitigated.