Smite

Khepri, the Dawn Bringer comes to Smite next week. The design is overall fantastic; the abundance of white threw me off a bit, but looks a whole lot better in-game, and his voice is just great. Admittedly, the only issue I have is that he doesn't look as...imposing as I thought he'd be (he's really the biggest god now?).

His kit, meanwhile, looks nice. Liking the bit of challenge with the skillshot, his passive seems designed to keep the likes of Anubis alive, and his ult is just all-around better than Zilean's could hope to be. Plus, it has the Drybear Seal of Ownership, which means that everyone's going to bitch about him being OP for the next month.

The Rising Dawn Patch also includes deteriorating grass in Arena, several item changes to try to encourage more options, and some noteworthy nerfs to Ah Puch, Bellona, and Ratatoskr. Overall seems pretty good, though I hope Ah Puch and Ratatoskr haven't been hit too hard.

Wow, didn't realize it's been nearly a month. Then again, kinda standard, and the last patch wasn't exactly all that interesting.

Xing Tian, the Relentless comes next week, and he looks awesome. I love just how absolutely intimidating he looks, with the Hulk-like build and the giant creepy face-chest and the huge ax and shield that he comes swinging. The flame-infused helmet where his head should be is a nice touch, and his deep voice is just great. His kit's also fairly straightforward, with a passive that makes him hard to kill, some cool dunks, and a ridiculous ult. Props to HiRezFish, who got chewed out for Ravana's kit but has come back hitting hard with Xing Tian.

The Indomitable Sprit Patch (cool new website btw) also comes with good buffs for Guan Yu and Khumbakharna, a nerf for Khepri, a shift in power for Ao Kuang, and several item changes, most notably the seeming return of the dreaded Manikin Scepter. Not much else beyond that, but overall some good stuff coming in.

edited 26th Aug '15 4:27:16 PM by Watchtower

I recently got this on XB 1 on the recommendation of one of my buddies. Pretty cool, mostly been playing Zeus until I get enough favor for Kali.

With how Datamining is now all about Hi-Rez' new game Paladins, I... I'm not sure. Either Smite is going to be more unpredictable, or most of their resources go to Paladins, so... I don't know if this would be a good future for Smite.

Smite datamining in general has been harder to come by due to rookies trying their hand at the process. While that should be a good thing (the datamining website shouldn't have a monopoly over it), the rookies made the extremely stupid/naive mistake of explaining their whole procedures on the subreddit, giving Hi-Rez the chance to crack down.

I'm going to be honest about Paladins: I have no idea why Hi-Rez is risking shit by putting another game out, especially one that so far looks like a poor man's Team Fortress Two. Hi-Rez is an indie developer that seems to really think they're AAA despite not having the resources available. The fact that Drybear, a Youtuber hired because of his passion for Smite, has been shuffled to Paladins seems to me to be a sign of how strapped they are.

If Hi-Rez is smart, they'll continue to make Smite their primary focus since it's their biggest moneymaker. However, between Paladins and their "plans" to go back to Tribes they're handicapping themselves far more than they should. There's a reason why League Of Legends has and will always be Riot's only game.

Poor man's TF 2... AND Poor Man's Overwatch. Overall I'm not quite sure if they're making a good move. Let's hope for the best, since Smite is very good.

Also thought that they might be emulating S2 Games, who I think is juggling between Strife and Heroes Of Newerth (it's still there). Though starting to wonder if Strife would continue on, or they'll just shut it down and get back to tending Newerth.

edited 27th Aug '15 4:47:37 AM by ChrisX

Last time I checked, S2 abandoned HON and let the toxic cesspool of a community run it themselves. It'd probably be better just to straight-up kill it off anyway, since it's basically unsalvageable with its current "fanbase".

Double-posting, but datamining has come in and found two new gods upcoming: Charon and Sol. Charon is clearly the Greek ferryman of the dead, but Sol is actually a bit ambiguous, referring to either the Roman sun god or the Norse sun goddess. Time will tell which one the name refers to and whether or not both popping up together is significant.

The next Odyssey event is also coming, with the first week focusing on the Mayans with a new Kukulkan skin. It's awesome as hell, but is so blatantly Rayquaza that there's bound to be lawsuits. Hopefully everything's cool.

That's actually pretty ballsy of you to say that HON has the worst, unsalvagable fanbase. Is it truly the worst, even worse than DOTA 2 or LOL? How? I'd like to know the standard of low... then compare if Smite hasn't fallen to such low.

@Charon & Sol: Huh. That'll be the second 'subordinate' of Hades after Thanatos. So basically Thanatos claims souls, dumps them to Charon, then Charon takes them to Hades...

I'm more inclined to think that this'll be the female Sol from Norse. Mostly because... they already got two Sun deities (Ra and Khepri) and they're all guys. But I could be wrong.

edited 27th Aug '15 7:33:55 PM by ChrisX

From the little I've seen of the fanbase, HON is worse because of one major thing: they embrace toxicity. They treat is as being "passionate" or "competitive", and expect newcomers to handle the trail-by-fire abuse and assault until they prove themselves worthy of respect. Don't like it? Then get the fuck right out, because they don't want you anyway.

With S2's abandonment, HON has become a Wretched Hive run by douchebags for douchebags. Thinking it over, it might actually be better to keep HON running, if only to prevent them from spilling into anything else.

Regarding the gods, some additional datamining info combined with Latin American spoilers about a female hunter make it seem like the Norse Sol is more likely. Why they would call her that instead of Sunna I don't know; maybe Hi-Rez deliberately did that to mess around with people. Also, given the info it seems like we're going to be getting Sol by the end of September, Charon by October, and the teased "monster god" for November (which everyone's hoping to be Jormungandr).

Good news: Smite's coming to Steam! From what I've heard, the only differences are using the Steam launcher, having access to the Steam wallet, and getting Steam achievements, which is all well and good. Hopefully we see another influx come in.

Bad/Interesting news: HiRezPonPon states that Charon isn't in the pipeline for 2015. Why his name came up in datamining is interesting, but that spot between Sol and the November tease just cleared up.

Well! This should be good. I hope that doesn't end up as Infinite Crisis though. Enter Steam a bit, then CLOSED. But they already have the X Box One version, so I would think they won't quit that easily.

That said, I hope I can transfer my current account to Steam.

HiRezStew confirmed that Steam and non-Steam users would be able to play together, which would mean that they're using the same servers. So yeah, shouldn't have a problem there.

And Smite should be fine. The whole reason they've avoided Steam for so long is because Valve takes a cut of their sales and it wasn't worth it. That they're going for it now implies Smite's stable and profitable enough to handle it.

edited 1st Sep '15 4:14:22 PM by Watchtower

I mean, I want to transfer my God Levels, God roster, etc into my Steam account, is that possible?

And what I meant was that there's no transferring at all, since same servers means same accounts. Curious however how they'll handle in-game achievements vs. Steam achievements, if they even bother at all.

Huh I see. I'll keep watch on how it turns out. I'm still fine with using my old accounts, but I just lament that I can't use steam wallet to fund my stuffs.

All this time, I was wondering why the game wasn't on Steam when Hi-Rez's other games are; I was figuring it had something to do with the competition.

Glad to hear it's finally making its debut. I'll happily switch over.

edited 1st Sep '15 11:14:47 PM by SonicWind

The Battleground of the Gods has arrived on the most popular gaming platform for PC!

...In other, less dramatic-sounding words, Smite is now available to download from Steam.

I got a site error. They say "The item is unavailable in your region".

Turns out, Smite is not available in Indonesia. God damn.

edited 8th Sep '15 4:45:33 PM by ChrisX

Also I just re-discovered that Agni and Thanatos are voiced by a certain recently controversial voice actor: Scott Freeman. Just... read the article why I said controversial.

Any of you gonna feel awkward when playing Thanatos or Agni (especially in Swagni skin) now?

Not really. The voices are still good no matter what happens to him.

Anyway, the Alien Attacks patch is on the way. Some cool skins, Bacchus getting a bit of a buff, Xing Tian getting nerfed, Blink getting heavily nerfed, executes now directly counter Khepri's ult, etc. etc.

The big thing this patch is Zeus getting a slight rework to his kit; he can now through his shield out and have it stick around as a little node, taking in charges and hitting an area when hit by his A As. He can also move now with his ult. Overall some real interesting stuff.

Finally, datamining has revealed kit info for Charon as well as Sol, confusing the hell out of everybody, and a new map concept is being tested, the only confirmation being that it's not related to the rework of Joust.

Charon is going to be a Physical-based God, but I don't think he'll take the missing Greek Warrior archetype, even if we have an AA-based Warrior already (Ravana).

I also wonder, just what are some of your most wanted Gods to be in Smite, somewhere in the future? I had a few:

• Achilles: Just to make sure the Greek Warrior archetype is filled, and could be fun if you remember Scylla named one of her doggie heads after him.
• Hera/Juno: Obvious want, but I'd like to see her as the Roman version, seeing that she's more involved in other Gods' lores. Plus making way to be the Top God of that pantheon since Jupiter is already used as Zeus, and Nox is more primordial than a leading Top God.
• Psyche: OK, so... well... this might be interesting. I think I have two visions of Psyche, the first is the classic goody-goody Goddess who fell in love with Eros/Cupid and overall be the Woobie party and made Aphrodite/Venus look bad again, as usual (again, I'd say she should be Roman, because we already have Cupid). But alternatively, I could see that she took down the Vulcan/Hephaestus route: Hiding her own resentment towards Aphrodite/Venus for her past abuses, she could be the epitome of Beware the Nice Ones, as in, having supportive and good normal abilities, but downright wicked Ultimate that can dominate team fights.
• Jormugandr: Probably shallow, but this would complete the children of Loki. Most of the serpents here seems to focus on more magic (Kukulkan) and poison (Medusa)... well I think Jormugandr would be perfect for the type of 'constricting snake' like anacondas...
• Zhu Bajie: We don't have a pig yet. While he's overshadowed by Wukong in the novels, by all means, he's a very competent heavenly general and I think we could be a nice compliment/addition to Wukong. And if you happen to like Bajie personally, some 'what-if' would look really nice if Bajie dominated Wukong for a change compared to the original literature.
• Ganesha: Because I frickin' love elephants, it's my favorite animals. I usually didn't bother much with the Hindu deities, but Ganesha would be one of the main things that changed my mind. Aside of...
• Ghatotkacha: I'm Indonesian, and as far as Mahabharata epics go in there, Ghatotkacha is the most famous over there, often compared to be like 'Hindu-ish' Superman. I'd like it if they make mention of this kind of nickname he got: "Wire muscles, steel bones"

What about you?

Honestly, I'm more excited for new pantheons. And more than just Shinto and Celtic too. Slavic has a shit-ton of potential, Voodoo would be fun just to have Baron Samedi, Abrahamic has a huge amount of use without having to put The Big G in himself, and there's tons of stuff to grab from the Native Americans, Africans, and Aborigines.

Personally, I'd at some point include an "Other" section, a la Dynasty Warriors. Because as good as the pantheon focus has been, not all pantheons are created equal. Some are literally only going to have a handful to offer. Might as well leave an opening for the potluck.

....And fuck it, thanks to the Koreans I want Douglas Macarthur in. Because fuck yes.

New datamining. One Reddit theory actually turned out to be right: Charon was in fact supposed to be Chiron, aka the famous centaur trainer of heroes. Much more reasonable given the last one. Also, while everyone's kinda suspected it there's clear-cut confirmation that "Sol" is the Norse goddess.

...I'll admit, I would've reserved the "centaur" slot for Epona, since she's, y'know, the Celtic Goddess of Horses and all that. But if Dota can have two taurs then so can we, I guess.

edited 17th Sep '15 8:29:55 PM by Watchtower

Wonder what they'll say about his totally lame death.