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
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
4 October 2012 | |
Mordil
HiRez released yet another patch today, the hotly awaited one that adds in Ares – Pun intended. You can check for a quick recap on Ares here.
Along with a bug fix on Bastet’s jump ability – which annoyed the hell out of me and makes me happy it’s fixed – and some changes to Sobek and Sun Wukong, most of the patch is Ares and some new skins. The special skin of note is the Sobek Pirate one, which cannot be purchased with Favor, and costs 600 gems to unlock.
Check out the full change log from HiRez themselves:
General Features:
- CHANGES TO CONSUMABLES AND ABILITIES: There are now 2 consumable slots and 2 ability item slots (meaning you may now hold two different types of consumables at the same time). A button has also been added to “swap” slots on your abilities, for those wanting to keep an ability in the same slot (for consistency of key binding).
- NEW EPIC SKIN (HIGH SEAS SOBEK): Say hello to a pirate-themed Sobek, along with his sidekick parrot.
- ADDITIONAL NEW SKINS: Destroyer Ares, Typhoon Ao Kuang, Demon Slayer Kali, Death Dealer Sobek
- RANKINGS: A “Top Ranked Players” stats page has been added under PROFILE in the menus. In addition, some adjustments have been made to the algorithms for ranking players in Ranked Matches. For fairness, the ranks of players have been re-adjusted to reflect the changes in the new system, based on their previous match history (so some players may see changes in their rank).
- SPECTATOR: More spectator cleanups including a new process for viewing the match in the match lobby. 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
