Smite

Apologies, but I gotta rant about something that I've been seeing a lot of lately, something that I'm hoping only comes up in low-level play (I'm Level 18).

I'm running into too many players that don't have any clue what the roles are. Sometimes I get people who think "right lane is solo lane", which can be pretty groan-inducing when we're on the Chaos side, especially when they start talking to me as though I'm the idiot. However, those can usually be dealt with well, and I've even had a game where an ADC-Support duo accidentally went to short lane and proceeded to casually carry.

The big problem, however, has been the people that don't call any role whatsoever, leading to weird-ass picks in weird-ass positions. It completely throws me off my game as I try to figure out how to properly adjust. It doesn't help that these players usually start wandering around feeding their brains out before going AFK. I now make everyone announce their roles pre-game because I can no longer trust the team comp, and even that doesn't guarantee anything.

I mean, as shitty as League Of Legends building the meta into the game is, at least that makes sure people know what the fuck they're supposed to do. I can handle playing off-meta. What I can't handle is random bullshit.

edited 7th Feb '16 8:07:51 PM by Watchtower

One thing, amongst Smite gaming, the one map I rarely touched is Conquest, because I still don't get the positioning. Playing in other modes are a lot fairer. Pick a God, then let it rip.

Not really. Sure, they've usually got less gods going around then conquest does, but there's certain team comps that work better then others. Joust for example always works better with a mage and a tank or a warrior that builds tanky. The third slot is a little more open and depending on the tank and mage can be either an assassin or adc. But Mage, adc and assasin? That never works well.

Also, people not knowing their roles isn't just a new player issue. I'm at Lvl. 30 and I'm still seeing weird team comps in Normal mode. Although I think part of that is that it's the beginning of the season so everyone's scrambling to figure out what the new meta is.

Long story short, I never lock in until every one else has chosen their roles...

edited 8th Feb '16 9:14:15 AM by ObsidianFire

yeah conquest randos seem to be a complete hit or miss

either people are actually patient and pick classes to fit the team comp

or three of them auto-lock with assassins and the guardian is a feeder

The issue I'm having isn't with people that don't understand the meta, it's more with people that don't understand any meta.

My last game I had a Russian (Cyrillic username and all) lock in Neith mid...when we already had a mage at mid. An earlier game had a guy who picked Chiron, went to solo, pushed until he died, transitioned to duo, pushed more until he died, then went mid to do the exact same thing. Rinse and repeat with random lanes for the rest of the game until he finally died one too many times and bailed.

edited 8th Feb '16 10:48:44 AM by Watchtower

edit: ignore this

edited 9th Mar '16 9:23:05 PM by MetaflarePrime

The Rolling Thunder patch highlights.....uh......we really got nothing. Some item adjustments and some unseen map stuff, but pretty much the only thing we've got is the new god: Raijin, Master of Thunder.

And holy Gods, Raijin's ugly as sin and beefy as fuck. Pretty damn awesome, and I like the complexities in his kit, from the way Raiju works to the different attacks he's got with his ult. Really interested in seeing how this all works out.

So I haven't had time just yet to try Raijin out, but because I have no other avenues to do this, I want to present the following argument:

Ravana and Raijin's passives are broken.

Not in the sense of "overpowered", though they may very well be contributing to how strong they currently are. I mean they don't work in what I would deem any rational sense. And I will further elaborate in a series of snark-intoned questions.

Why are Ravana's stacks permanent? Why does an AA-based passive, especially one trying to invoke fighting-game combos, have no timer between attacks? Why do they never reset, even upon death? Why was it considered a good idea to let someone keep their 7 stacks upon respawn, thus needing only a single slap on a minion to get his first shield?

Why can Raijin get stacks regardless of whether or not he actually hits anything? Why does an AA-based passive proc just by mashing the attack button? Why even have additional stacks on his abilities when it's so stupidly simple to fully stack it?

edited 24th Feb '16 6:27:49 PM by Watchtower

I kinda did a shitty job trying to mention it previously, but to reiterate, Smite is officially coming to the PS4, with exclusive skins for Odin and Kukulkan and a bunch of beta keys incoming. I'd joke about just going all the way and getting on the Wii U, but at this rate it might just be better to wait for the NX.

The Victory Lap patch comes next week, and it just brings a bunch of skins, some miscellaneous stuff, and some balance changes. Not a whole lot, though Ullr's got a nice buff, and the gods that have been nerfed are most likely gonna feel it.

I will say, however, that this patch notes show has to be the most unprofessional show from Hi-Rez that I've ever seen. I honestly can't tell which is the worst: Hinduman passive-aggressively pandering through Take That Us, PonPon having nothing prepped and fumbling with admin controls, or the production being so low-budget that they streamed one of their browsers to show the balance changes. I don't know if they're still reeling from Bart and Kelly leaving, if they've become too thinned-out by having so many projects, or if it's something else, but it honestly feels like Hi-Rez has been regressing since last season, and I do hope that they can turn this right back around.

Anyway, datamining is also out, and apparently Susano-o's gone from the schedule. Instead, it seems like the next god after Skadi is Jing Wei, a Chinese girl who drowned, became a bird, and dedicated the rest of her life to trying to fill the sea with rocks and shit. Y'know, as bizarre as Hi-Rez's priorities can be when it comes to god choice, at least they have a good eye for batshit crazy.

I, for one, welcome the bird god, god of bird

Goddess, you mean.

Also I would like to ask permission to PURGE the comic elements in some Smite character section. I have to say this: The comic doesn't seem official, some characters do not act like they are in games.

• Hades being The Starscream when he was usually on Dark Is Not Evil page
• Loki being 'less enthusiastic' to bring about Ragnarok (Game!Loki would do so in a heartbeat, given the chance)
• Hel not bickering at each other and... more trying to bring an end to the world, that Loki had to call her out.
• Anubis speaking with Third-Person Person

To name a few.

Am I the only one who thinks that the comic isn't meant to be official?

Also Watch Tower, can I have your nickname? I might add you soon.

edited 29th Feb '16 7:26:25 PM by ChrisX

The comic definitely is official, but it seems like writer John Jackson Miller was given a lot of creative liberties. The current mini-series doesn't exactly jive with the original one-shot, and neither really connect with the actual game. I don't really see an issue with keeping the tropes, so long as it's clear that it's coming from the comic.

And if you're really interested then shoot me a PM.

If it isn't connecting with the main game, with liberties and all, I don't think it is counted as canon to the game, though.

It isn't a matter of being canon, it's a matter of being from official material. It's a lot less tied in than, say, the side-comics for Team Fortress Two, but I think it's still fine. For example, for Anubis I'd do something like:

edited 1st Mar '16 7:09:13 AM by Watchtower

Apparently earlier this morning an upcoming god became temporarily available in Jungle Practice. It's since been patched, but here's a vid of pro player Incon getting his hands on it.

There's no way to tell who it's supposed to be, but general consensus is that this is Jing Wei. If that's true, then I gotta admit, while I think the kit's going to be fun, I don't think it really jives with what we've heard of her lore, barring one ability that seems to resemble bird flight. Time will tell where this goes.

(Speaking of, it's come to question whether or not Jing Wei will be avian or human due to different depictions. I actually think she's more likely to be a bird, if only because I don't see Hi-Rez ignoring the chance to have their own version of Anivia.)

(Also, fun fact: Jing Wei's name supposedly comes from townspeople hearing her say "Jingwei, jingwei" and believing that she was chanting her own name for motivation. So in other words, she's a Pokemon. Fantastic.)

edited 1st Mar '16 2:49:13 PM by Watchtower

holy shit AOE crits

edited 1st Mar '16 3:44:58 PM by MetaflarePrime

Winter's Bite patch coming next week. A lot of good stuff, especially with Kukulkan getting some much needed attention, though I can't believe the recolors turned out to be real. I'm still convinced this is some elaborate April Fool's bullshit.

Skadi's looking fantastic right now. Her design is great, her use of Kaldr is incredibly unique but not too crazy to handle, the new "Permafrost" CC is hilarious, and best of all it looks like she's looking to be pretty solid balance-wise. Hi-Rez, please make Ajax lead designer. This is a guy that seems to actually know what he's doing.

Oh, and datamining's popped up a little early. Seems like Susano-o will be coming in sooner than expected. The post seems legit, but after last year's shenanigans I think it'd still be best to keep guards up. Just as a safety precaution.

edited 9th Mar '16 4:48:15 PM by Watchtower

Ah yes. The Celtic Pantheon hoax. We still remember that one...

Lol. I love that Apollo mastery card design. Destroy tower, get away from the enemy gods sent to kill you with The Moves... happens nearly every game I play with him. And that punk skin for him looks awesome...

Although, what's been up with the latest string of Tier 2 skins? All of them look, I don't know, overdone I guess... none of them have made it to my "save up gems for this" list since I only get skins I like the look of.

Also, it turns out that all the recolors on the season ticket are of skins I don't have yet. And the new ones don't look bad either (Rambo-Rama, lol!). Given how much the Season Ticket usually goes for vs. the price of the Tier 4 Skins... I'll probably get it sooner rather then later.

edited 10th Mar '16 9:21:52 AM by ObsidianFire

I wonder when do we actually get Skadi. Also after Skadi, I think I'm going to miss Nevercake's "Who is X" videos. It was so swag.

Anyway, really had fun playing with Vuther yesterday. Thx bro! Though that one BM-er kind of ruins the already perfect situation. I hope my gameplay wasn't that crappy.

Also one of these days, I gotta change my name there. IceBoi200 gets silly and old quick.

edited 13th Mar '16 11:51:25 PM by ChrisX

Nevercake is immortal

Todd Harris: What's that? You thought you were done? Get back in there and start cranking out videos, boy! *cracks bullwhip*

Anyway, here's a neat look out how they do the announcer packs, since Hinduman's getting his own soon. Also confirms that Kou Mang, Green Dragon Spirit of the East, and Anjana, mother of Hanuman, are in the pipeline. Maybe. Supposedly.

EDIT: Oh, and starting next patch weekly quests won't give gems anymore. Perfectly understandable - it was a lot of free money pouring in - but it'll still suck a bit. All I care about are the default VPs, dammit.

edited 14th Mar '16 6:37:05 PM by Watchtower

Loki in his natural environment of being a dick everyone hates.◊ (It's for the game's birthday)

Next Week: the Protect and Support Patch.

I'm starting to get nervous with how much Khepri's been nerfed. From my experience, Khepri feels more annoying than truly fearsome. His passive and abilities rely a lot on your allies being around/cooperative, and his ult, while strong, is only really effective if you can time the revive. I'm still kinda bummed that they gutted Xing Tian so badly, and it feels like Khepri's getting real close to that line.

Also, I can't claim to be good at item balance, but I think people are undervaluing the changes to Golden Bow. I mean, AMC, Artemis, and Baka are all gods that are strong once they get around their terrible wave/camp clear, and this seems to be addressing that.

Those are some nice Athena skins!

The thing with the Khepri nerfs is that Khepri has a ton of "forced positioning" potential. He's a lot like Athena in that regard. If you've got a good ADC who knows what to do when Khepri pulls and roots enemies, then Khepri doesn't have to do a lot of damage to wreck team-fights. Combine that with a good who can get rid of 25% protections with an easy to hit ability (never mind his ult and his passive) and ouch. He's awesome for getting the ball rolling on which god his allies should be focusing all their attacks on.

The thing though is that he's horrible on his own or if the ADC ignores what he's doing. But that's kinda okay. He's a good team-player sup as opposed to a good solo sup.