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: As the God of Love in Roman mythology, Cupid is in charge of the happier moments in every mortal and deity’s life. Running the desire, affection and erotic love department, Cupid doles out his form of justice with the tip of an arrow. Suiting, as his parents are Venus, Goddess of Love, and Mars, God of War. Unlike the shaded morals of his pantheon, Cupid rarely had a dastardly side.
The diaper dandy is best known for inciting affection in others. Tales of his deeds indicate that the cherub was a notorious flirt, usually with the friendly nymphs, and mischievous. Ultimately, Cupid succumbed to his own talents when he went on a mission for his mother to ruin Psyche. Instead of putting her in love with a hideous being, Cupid accidentally scratched himself with an arrow causing a bound to Psyche. Cupid fled, but Psyche persisted, cutting a deal with Venus. She was assigned a multitude of tasks, each one more difficult than the last, until she was to deliver a box to Pluto. Curiosity overcame her. Upon viewing the box’s contents Psyche collapsed into eternal sleep. Cupid came to her rescue, then married her, which made her a goddess. The two fathered a single daughter, Voluptas.
In-Game: At first glance, many are probably wondering how the God of Love would be capable of doing battle in SMITE. Leave that up to the talented game designers at Hi-Rez Studios. Each move of Cupid’s is love based, giving the cherub a good amount of support capabilities. As a ranged assassin, his main damage is done by a true-damage his standard attack and with Heart Bomb, a move that fills his opponents with some much love that their heart explodes. Capable of stunning, increasing friendly movement speed, healing and slows, Cupid is a great co-laner and carry.
Cupid’s passive demands that he be built with Attack Speed in mind. Maximizing the buff for the combo stun is imperative for ganks and team fights. Physical damage is next in line to increase the pointedness of all those heart arrows.
Note: The oddest things about Cupid’s addition to the roster of SMITE is that he doesn’t belong in any of the current pantheons. This simply means that the suspected Roman pantheon is official!
Further reading:
- Cupid on Wikipedia
- Roman Mythology on Wikipedia
- Till We Have Faces – Modern retelling.
Head over to SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained for access to details for all of the playable characters.
I think you have a typo in lore paragraph 2 (next to last sentence) where you say “Venus” instead of “Psyche”.
Pssst… he doesn’t do true damage with his basic attack.
@Sion
Are you sure? My min-maxing friend has him doing a crap ton of damage if he goes pure damage + attack speed. He attacks almost 2 times a second, and deals 250-400 damage with those attacks.