23 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindu, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios’ upcoming MOBA.
Lore: Ne Zha, or Nezha as his name is most commonly spelled, originally came to Chinese folklore as a Taoist protection deity in Buddhist mythology. The boy was born as such after gestating in his mother for three and a half years. Upon his unusual birth his father, a powerful military commander named Li Jing, assailed his son with his sword in fear of creating a demon. Unphased by the cut, Ne Zha sprang from the ball of flesh a boy grown, fully capable of talking and walking at birth. This would not be Li Jing’s last attempt on his son’s life.
Ne Zha is best known for his roles in the popular culture Chinese mythology of Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West. It’s not his competition and later friendship with Sun Wukong, or conquering of the sea that gave Ne Zha his identity as a protector. It’s his work against the summons of Ao Kuang for boys and girls of his home province, Chentang Pass, that the Third Lotus Prince is held in such high esteem. After hearing that his minions had been defeated, Ao Kuang arranged a meeting with his family and that of Ne Zha. The embarrassed Dragon King threatened to flood the entirety of Chentang Pass. To save his family name and the people of his hometown Ne Zha committed suicide, returning his body to his parents. Continue Reading
17 April 2013 | |
Mordil
**Update: Hi-Rez released the God Reveal video today, so you can find it below the cut now.
Hi-Rez Studios patched SMITE today, adding Ne Zha. This has been the first Chinese pantheon added since Guan Yu way back last summer during Closed Beta.
I quickly patched and headed into a Joust match against my wife as Anhur. We discovered that Ne Zha’s early game could potentially be very potent if played correctly, but his mid game is lacking. Without levels or items to negate other players, Ne Zha can easily be overtaken if abilities are missed. Anhur managed to kill me five times until I had the items to completely take him down.
Late game gets pretty crazy if you build movement and attack speed. Crits here and there will hit for anywhere between 300-600, with attacks being thrown out 2.5 times per second.
At any rate, here’s the list of things to note in this patch, according to me:
- Portal has had a major change from 1 use and indefinite lifetime to as many players every 2 seconds for a 30 second lifetime.
- Motivate has had a major change as well, from buffing the protections and health of nearby minions to the nearest 3 minions getting fully healed, and become fire minions.
- Cacodemon Ymir is released this patch. Anyone who is level 30 now, or hits level 30 before SMITE goes live will earn this skin.
- Twitch streaming integration is fully added to SMITE, allowing players to stream via the SMITE client without the need of a third party tool.
After the cut you can find Ne Zha’s abilities in text form, along with the rest of the patch notes. Hi-Rez hasn’t has released the God Reveal video for Ne Zha yet, so when they do, we’ll update this post to include it. Check out the official reveal after the cut!
Continue Reading
11 April 2013 | |
Mordil
Clearly this patch is missing the new god, Ne Zha, which has been delayed.
Other than that, this was mostly a bug fix and balance patch.
Most notable this patch to me was:
- Thor’s new skin, which is only for 300 gems.
- New gamemode: Assault (ARAM)
- The item store has a massive UI overhaul that people who have been playing since last summer will have to get used to
- Anubis got his animations updated, so now his ult is a little less overpowered by terms of usability with aiming
- Anhur also received the animation overhaul treatment that gives his abilities a little more particle effects.
- Kali, Arachne, Cupid, and Apollo all received buffs this time.
New Skins
- Blood Eagle Thor — This skin, drawn from the lore of Tribes: Ascend, can be purchased for gems, or is free to anyone that buys or has bought the Tribes: Ascend Game of the Year Edition (from the Tribes Ascend Store or Steam).
New Gamemode: ASSAULT
NOTE: This mode will be available only for special MEDIA/STREAMING matches on Thursday, April 11. It will be available for all players beginning Friday, April 12.
The Assault gamemode features a single lane with 2 towers, a Phoenix and a Minotaur surrounding both a friendly and enemy base. Your god selection is random. No recalls are allowed and you cannot return to the fountain area after leaving it. (ARAM) Continue Reading
14 February 2013 | |
Mordil
Honestly, this week’s patch has been the first one I’ve been the most happy with since back in November.
Neith is one of the most balanced gods right at release – from what I’ve seen. She doesn’t do too much damage, and she’s about as easy to kill as other gods, even with all her utility. Focus is gone, with it’s somewhat clunky mechanic that was changed almost 3 times before being removed.
Along with Focus being removed, every god had a pass through by the designers to re-assign static values for stuns, slows, damage, speed increases, etc. that used to be scaled by Focus. The lengthy list is below, along with Neith’s God Reveal video, her abilities, and the generic balance changes.
Things of note to me were:
- Hel’s abilities share half the CD time in both stances now (Her 1 in Healing Stance is used, both her Healing Stance and Damage Stance go on CD, with Damage Stance only being on CD for 1/2 the time)
- Hercules’ “Earthbreaker” (knockback) ability had the length of its range reduced by about 10ft.
- New Solo Practice Map for Arena: Ymir, Artemis, Ra, vs. Ymir, Artemis, and whomever you choose.
- Advanced Tooltips have been added for abilities now.
- and again, Focus has been removed.
Check out Neith’s reveal after the jump!
Continue Reading
10 January 2013 | |
Mordil
SMITE patched to include the Ladies’ Man, Hercules, yesterday. The update brought mostly balance changes with the new god. Some of them I felt were unnecessary, but we’ll see as time goes on if the changes are for the better or worse.
Things of note are Bakasura’s changes to his eating ability, giving him movement speed on kills as a passive, and not his eating ability; and the eating ability gaining a buff to its healing. Again. Freya no longer receives a 50% damage reduction when both Pulse (#1) and Irradiate (#2) are active at the same time, and Kali’s Frenzy ability now breaks CC.
New God: HERCULES!
- Strength From Pain (Passive): As Hercules takes damage, he gains 20 (+2 * your level) physical power based on a percentage of his missing health.
- Driving Strike: Hercules delivers a mighty strike, driving all enemies back and stunning them for .8/.9/1/1.1/1.2s if Hercules is at or below 50% health, increasing with Focus up to 1.7s. Anyone hit by the blow takes 80/130/180/230/280 (+60% of your physical power) physical damage. Cost – 60/65/70/75/80 mana. Cooldown – 14s.
- Earthbreaker: Hercules smashes the ground, sending a shockwave forward that does 60/110/160/210/260 (+50% of your physical power) physical damage to all enemies. Enemies at the end of the shockwave are thrown into the air towards Hercules. Cost – 70/75/80/85/90 mana. Cooldown – 15s.
- Mitigate Wounds: When Hercules activates this ability, 30/55/80/105/130% (+1% for every 2% health missing) of the damage taken in the next 4 seconds is returned to him as health over the next 10 seconds. Cost – 60/65/70/75/80 mana. Cooldown – 12s.
- Excavate: Hercules rips a huge boulder from the ground. Throwing the boulder does 200/300/400/500/600 (+100% of your physical power) physical damage and knocks back all enemies where the boulder lands. The boulder continues rolling, doing 50% damage to all enemies in its path. Subsequent hits on the same enemy do 50% less damage per hit. Cost – 100 mana. Cooldown – 90s.
Note: Hercules will be 11,000 favor for the first approximately 2 weeks after launch, then drop to 5,500 favor. The gem price is not expected to change in the near term. Continue Reading
24 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
They're real- and they're spectacular.
Neither Tribes: Ascend or SMITE are experiencing an invasion of ghoulish characters, but that hasn’t stopped Hi-Rez Studios from participating in the October event. One can only assume that the company has become a bit cash flush with the rising success of SMITE – 700,000+ players playing in the Closed Beta at any moment. The increasing audience enabled the production of a subtle trailer for SMITE revolving around the spirits.
In the video, a museum goer jumps the velvet rope and goes off the beaten path. Venturing into an under construction wing, the man stumbles upon an area named ‘Ancient Mythology Exhibition.’ The Blair Witch-esque cameraman gets in a spot of trouble.
Hit the jump for the short spooking trailer. Be sure to check out SMITE our lore column to learn more about the mythological creatures you saw. It’s too bad the farmed Halloween assets have been pushed live yet. Continue Reading
19 October 2012 | |
Mordil
Today is the Extra Life event, and I’ll be kicking it off at 6pm PDT (9pm EDT) with my guild’s first attempt at Normal Mogu’shan Vaults. Afterwards I’ll be starting up SMITE throughout the night and into tomorrow, trying out Freya, and owning as Bastet, Ao Kuang, and Cupid.
Check out the stream below, or join me directly at Twitch.tv here.
Watch live video from Mordil on www.twitch.tv or hit the jump for the embedded version. Continue Reading
19 June 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Every twelve years is far too infrequent.
SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a new column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindu, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios’ upcoming MOBA.
Lore: A monkey born of stone with supernatural powers, Sun Wukong is a mortal of many talents. An incredibly versatile fighter due to his supernatural strength and quickness, Sun Wukong’s very confident in his abilities. As if physical talents weren’t enough to set the Monkey King apart, Wukong sought immortality. Under the teachings of Subodhi, Wukong learned magic, including the ability to transform his hairs to inanimate or organic objects, including clones.
After boasting about his new talents, Subodhi banished Wukong from the Toaist temple. Short of immortality, Wukong began searching for heavenly items to further empower him. Ruyi Jingu Bang, the gold-banded staff with transformative powers, was acquired from a cocky Ao Kuang, sending the seas into turmoil. New weapon in hand, Wukong confronted the four dragons of the sea, relinquishing them of other heavenly items before aligning himself with a fraternity of Spirit and Demon kings.
Continue Reading
