SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive backstory 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’ new MOBA.
Lore: Ages ago, Yandi, the first of a long line of Flame Emperors, had a daughter. This daughter was enraptured with the greats seas that surrounded her father’s territory. Specifically that of the Eastern Sea, the domain of none other than Ao Kuang. It’s in the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea’s domain that Nuwa – no, not that Nu Wa of the creation myth – met her fate, drowning while playing too far from shore. Her father was no doubt heartbroken. To his great relief that heartache was but temporary.
After succumbing to a water grave Nuwa rose up from the water like a phoenix. She sought redemption from the endless sea in the reborn form of Jingwei, a bird bent on filling the sea with pebbles and stones. The sea, arrogant as it is vast, scoffed at her plans. Baiting and bullying her fruitless efforts. It would take millions of years to accomplish her feat with such detritus. Jinwei retorts that she’ll continue the cascade of debris for tens, hundreds of millions of years if necessary. Any price to stop others from the fate of her original corporeal self.
Thus the Chinese saying “Jingwei tries to fill the sea,” meaning a determined and tenacious spirit. As dogged as she may be, her SMITE profile has put her on the top of Google searches, at least in English-speaking countries.
In-Game: The game designers gave her the appropriate title of The Oathkeeper and a rather odd kit given her lore. The physical hunter is given her former corporeal body despite being named after her bird incarnation. In addition, she wields a crossbow and a dangerous arsenal. Built as an easy-to-use hunter, her optimal kit is as straightforward as her abilities. Her passive let’s her get back into battle quick. Make as little use of that as possible. Outside avoiding death, leverage your high mobility and knock ups to unleash bolt-based justice on the other deities, which, let’s be honest, are mostly water anyways.
Jingwei should be kitted like many of your basic physical hunters. Your rule of thumb is damage, attack speed and crit. If you can’t leverage her mobility well then you may want to increase your sustainability with something akin to Shifter’s Shield or Witchblade. If you can, then stick with leveraging death. And by that I mean Deathbringer, Rage or Ichaival if you’re a solid base attack player.
Further reading:
- Jingwei on Wikipedia
- Chinese Mythology on Wikipedia
- The Chinese Pantheon in SMITE
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Head over to SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained for details on all of the playable characters.