SMITE ( Hi-Rez Studios )

[Speedy Cerviche]

Picked this up on the weekend, it's overall some good fun. I don't play much MOBA, used to play RTS games but haven't found them so interesting recently, I guess I don't like the frentic clicking and jumping all over map, but this was easy to get into. I don't know how long this will hold my interest though, the "aiming" aspect is actually ridiculously easy, I guess dumbed down for people who just play RTS (moba) and console gamers. The width of even straight line range attacks is so forgiving, it makes arcade mode on war thunder seem like quake live.

[Falconeer]

Hey, it's ridiculously easy unless your opponents are juking or other four enemies are charging at you. I honestly love that it's all based on skillshots and they are easy enough to land, but hard to master so the keep the overall skill ceiling pretty high.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Well true you can miss with the line ones still if someone is spazzing out enough, but they are only about 1/4 of the powers. Not much excuse for missing with the numerous cone or point blank AOEs, which often have CC effects to setup a no-miss attack on some of the more precise ones.

[Spiff]

Compared to most FPS the skill-shotting is fairly forgiving in Smite (one of the reasons I enjoy this more nowadays, age caught up with me and my reflexes), but tactics are a bit more involved. When to use your skills and how they combo with your teammates, that's where a lot of the real skill is.

[Rendakor]

I've been playing this lately off and on (and loving it) but I'm having some weird issues with the launcher. Every time I play, it updates the launcher, relaunches, then tells me there's an error and that I need to restart my PC. I restart, relaunch, rinse, repeat. It doesn't actually stop me from playing, it's just annoying. Does that happen to anyone else?

[Trippy]

Haven't experienced that.

[Falconeer]

I thought I've encoutered pretty much all possible errors and glitches with Smite since 2012. Clearly I was wrong. Sorry, never had that issue and never heard of it.

[Setanta]

One of the launcher releases was a bit dodgy. I have issues updating unless I run as administrator. Then it's all fine.

[Rendakor]

I think it finally fixed after launch, reboot, repeat like 5 times.

If anyone else is playing this I've just gotten into it recently and love it. IGN: Rendakor. Always better to play with f13ers than PUGs.

[Falconeer]

I'll definitely add you and message you tonight. But be warned: me and my friends only play Arena. You are more than welcome to join us if you are up for that meatgrinder.

[Rendakor]

Ugh. Well, we can be friends at least. Arena is a mess.

[Falconeer]

NONSENSE!
I don't even know what you mean, honestly. Arena is pure PVP. You know, you go in there, there's a set time (the minions), and you compete with the enemy team to score more (kill them more) in that set amount of time. It's much closer to team sports than anything else, and maybe that's why I like it. What I don't like about the traditional towers/three lanes games is that there's too much PvE, too much waiting, too much snowballing.

Arena is about killing, not objectives. In a PvP game, what's wrong with that? What is ever wrong with two teams fighting each other face to face?

[Rendakor]

I like playing Assassins, who aren't very effective in 5v5 teamfights. With 3 lanes you have more chances for asymmetrical combat. I also like the PVE stuff, the farming, etc. The snowballing isn't a huge issue if you can defend; once everyone hits 20 it evens out and comebacks are very possible.

[Sophismata]

I normally play assassins in Arena. I just avoid heroes designed to gank, for the most part.

[Rendakor]

Can you give an example of a good Assassin for Arena?

[Falconeer]

Loki, Bastet, Kali, Thanatos. All good in arena. The problem with Assasins in arena is that they get vaporized in a milliseconds in team fights unless they know their timing and their targets. I love to play Bastet in arena and it's one of my most succesful goddesses. Good thing with assassins in arena is that they do not depend on their team, they can just hide in the sidelines and and take on the role to finish off fleeing enemies. Then again, it depends on the character and build of course.

[Sophismata]

Did Mercury get nerfed?

[Falconeer]

Right. Not sure, not really. I mean, assassins are all pretty good in arena in good hands. They just take some time to adjust to how squishy they are. But so lethal, all of them. Sometimes you find teams with two assassins and if they are half decent then the last five minutes of the game (arena, I am always talking about arena) are gonna be hell no matter what. But always keep in mind that if you keep exploding in one millisecond over and over it's not because the class is bad.

[Rendakor]

Having tried Loki and Thanatos both in Arena with no luck, I'll chalk it up to the mode not being for me.

[Setanta]

Play Ares or Hades in arena. Spam Ultimate is ready, trap as many noobs as you can and pray your team also has their ults up. :)

[Falconeer]

Season 2 starts today with a big huge new patch with lots of balance changes to items, gods/goddeses, improved UI, and most importantly a new gorgeous looking map, with improved creeps and all.
If the Map or the UI were turning you off, it's the right time to check this again.

2.0 recap video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-r-JsfrRQ0

New map Dev notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9B3HIt8PPk

[Spiff]

This is pretty much the biggest patch since beta I think; map does look excellent and a few small tactical changes made a lot of difference to the meta at first glance.

- Gold per 5 items have been removed (making a very passive or second rate support the biggest liability a team can have now imo)
- mana buff for the 'duo lane' was changed to an attack speed/in hand attack damage buff
- some new items, like the the 'endless mana' starter item for adcs (it's practically as good as having a permanent blue buff tbh, can't imagine they won't nerf it some)
and a fairly awesome new item for healers  that gives protections to everyone when you heal them.
- camps don't instantly reset when leashed (which is a big improvement imo) and the fire giant does a lot of fancy new attacks (most of which are dodge-able).

Hard to say what the effects will be, atm the biggest effect is a lot of people running around clueless and games snowballing quite hard because of it.
I do like that they seem to be making a real effort to steer the game away from what had become a too rigid meta of tank + adc - mage - bruiser - assassin

[Falconeer]

New goddess, Bellona sister of Mars, is fuckin amazing.  She has 4 weapons and changes them based on the last skill you played.

[Ginaz]

I have an XBone One closed beta key if anyone wants it.

[NiX]

Just because I want to gloat: The most satisfying kill I've ever made in Smite.

[Pennilenko]

Just because I want to gloat: The most satisfying kill I've ever made in Smite.

That was pretty sweet and single-handedly responsible for causing me to re-install this.

[Draegan]

Did the game get  graphics boost?

[NiX]

Did the game get  graphics boost?

No, they've redone all of the maps and are still slowly going through the earlier Gods though.

[Falconeer]

Just because I want to gloat: The most satisfying kill I've ever made in Smite.

That was amazing, Nix. Smite sometimes can be histerically satisfying.

[Pennilenko]

I just get stomped again and again, I have no idea what I am doing. I don't know which heroes are good or how to build them.  Although, I do roughly understand moba tactics somewhat.

[Falconeer]

I just get stomped again and again, I have no idea what I am doing. I don't know which heroes are good or how to build them.  Although, I do roughly understand moba tactics somewhat.

I would say that's exactly the same problem you (I) have with any new MOBA. The additional problem with Smite is the extra player skills required to dodge and hit stuff. Learning curve is deceptively low but the skill ceiling is insane.

[Pennilenko]

I would say that's exactly the same problem you (I) have with any new MOBA. The additional problem with Smite is the extra player skills required to dodge and hit stuff. Learning curve is deceptively low but the skill ceiling is insane.

My problem is that I am not really that new to it, I was playing it when it was in alpha because I bought the alpha support "get all gods forever" package when they were trying to make it. Every few to six months I log on play a few matches and whine about how much time some matches take and the move on to other stuff I can play for shorter periods of time.

[Falconeer]

I know I said it a million times, but to me Arena is where it's at exactly because of the shorter match time. 15 to 20 minutes, perfect.

[NiX]

I know I said it a million times, but to me Arena is where it's at exactly because of the shorter match time. 15 to 20 minutes, perfect.

I think Assault would be a better choice. The random assignment means you learn a variety of Gods.

Hopefully you're not playing Conquest, Penn. I love Smite, but I think the meta balance has been shit for a good long time now. Assault and Arena are good quick fun without any expectations.

If you do play the assault or arena modes: Magical - Get Chrono's Pendant, first level boots and meditation. Physical - Jotunn's (usually), first level boots and some potions. After either of those sets just go with the recommended build unless you're the tank. Then you got heartwards or sovereignty based on the make up of the other team.

[Falconeer]

Without any kind of warning, this is now on Steam.