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[drotahorror]

lol he is pure scum, his messages were barely legible too perhaps he was trying to feed your team so he could lose? dunno what the reason for such anger for winning.

I took an extra step. I don't normally go this far, but it really annoyed me.

Response Via Email (HirezL******) 10/27/2014 02:11 PM
Hello AH,

We expect all players to abide by the Terms of Service that was agreed to upon account creation and initial game log in. We take continuous measures to identify and remove users breaching that agreement. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will investigate and take the appropriate action.

Thank you.

Thanks for the response Hirez!

 

[Lollipop Dave]

Soooo... what are timed queues supposed to help with again?

The longer waits aside, my recent matches have been much more balanced.

Probably just a coincidence though.

 

[Strazyplus]

The longer waits aside, my recent matches have been much more balanced.

Probably just a coincidence though.

I would say its a coincidence however the same would go for me too my last few matches have been more balanced than normal.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Timed queues worked great for me this morning. I never waited more than a minute or two. Sometimes it literally took less than 10 seconds.

drotahorror, forget about that shitbag. MOBAs are full of them. You did good by not firing back. The best way to deal with them is to not talk back at all — they are looking at someone to lash out at.

And I love that predator Kali skin. I'd totally buy it if I wasn't a cheap bastard who only uses gems to buy gods because I didn't buy the god pack.

 

[QisTopTier]

You can't get the god pack anymore?

 

[Head of Vengarl]

You can't get the god pack anymore?

You can, but I am too cheap to buy it.

I've managed to unlock like 39 gods just by spending free gems and favor. By now I have every god I want, so there's no point in buying the god pack for me anyway.

 

[Liberty4all]

So I haven't played Conquest for 6 months or so (I play arena/assault daily).

At the start of the match in the lobby i called dmg on my Athena. So much hate at the start. I couldn't believe how pissed people got i wasn't tanking.

Went 26 - 3

At the end of the match my team realized the power of dmg Athena.

On an off note, the skill level in Conquest i found to be wayyy less than arena. Might be fluke, but i think maybe players in conquest are so stuck in their meta roles that nobody knows what to do when somebody shatters their pre conceptions. The guy (Rama) laning with me said as much ... He had no idea what to do and ended up supporting me rather than vice versa.

It was a very satisfying match and made me eager to try more conquest.

 

[gogosox82]

Tried out Nox. Is it just me or does she do like no damage? You have to use your 3 and 2 to clear the wave and in team fights I find it a bit difficult to get your ult off (at least in arena) and then they just run away and break the link then come back and kill you. I really think she needs to do more damage. She doesn't need be another Scylla or Janus but something that will give her some control. It also kind of doesn't make sense that she has a silence. I mean, given her passive and her ult, don't you want people to cast spells not silence them?

So I haven't played Conquest for 6 months or so (I play arena/assault daily).

At the start of the match in the lobby i called dmg on my Athena. So much hate at the start. I couldn't believe how pissed people got i wasn't tanking.

Went 26 - 3

At the end of the match my team realized the power of dmg Athena.

On an off note, the skill level in Conquest i found to be wayyy less than arena. Might be fluke, but i think maybe players in conquest are so stuck in their meta roles that nobody knows what to do when somebody shatters their pre conceptions. The guy (Rama) laning with me said as much ... He had no idea what to do and ended up supporting me rather than vice versa.

It was a very satisfying match and made me eager to try more conquest.

What build do you use to get damage Athena? I always build her tanky since she a guardian.

 

[Indignate]

Her kits works against itself. She does shit damage. Her ult hardly does anything in both damage and utility. She's a terrible character.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

looks like china gets ao kuang first trailer up for him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGezXusEazM

i think well be getting awilix next

 

[Strazyplus]

looks like china gets ao kuang first trailer up for him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGezXusEazM

i think well be getting awilix next

all that excited talking Chinese made it sound epic ha ha!

however I still am gonna miss the original AO skin and that voice pack

"Celebration!" Gonna have to get that Chinese new year skin so I can get the VO

 

[Liberty4all]

What build do you use to get damage Athena? I always build her tanky since she a guardian.

In this Order (first two items are crucial as you need the cooldown):

Shoes of Focus (cooldown + Power)
Chronos Pendant (cooldown + Power)
Rod of Tahuti (Power)
Soul Reaver (Power)
Obsidian Shard (Power + Penetration)

Last item I either go with

Polynomicon or Ethereal Staff

In Arena I usually get 25 - 40 k dmg (30k average). In Conquest this build will start off average but it scales up crazy where you just stomp squishies and hurt even tanks badly. I do usually add in meditation rank 1 when in Conquest. Just be aware that you will get massive hate from your own team at the start due to not doing a tank build.

The thing is, even without tank items, Athena can still take damage and use her dash ability to get out. She has a lot of health right from the get go, and she can escape easily after doing a hit and run. The above build is designed to let you dish out massive amounts of damage dash + soldiers + taunt or Ult + Soldiers + Taunt + dash .

Her skillset is so versatile and in Conquest you can ult in to help where needed.

 

[drotahorror]

New Ao Kuang looks so good. Can't wait for him.

 

[Liberty4all]

all that excited talking Chinese made it sound epic ha ha!

however I still am gonna miss the original AO skin and that voice pack

"Celebration!" Gonna have to get that Chinese new year skin so I can get the VO

The old VP is still available if you have the dragon skin.

Edit: I miss original skin too it had character

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Bamelin what order do you level Athena's skills? I gotta try that build.

Put me in the "Nox is pretty lame" camp. You know a god isn't that great when you barely see anyone play her a day after her release. That's pretty bad. I've seen one good Nox player so far, thankfully on my team (KingBottle):

http://account.hirezstudios.com/smitegame/match-details.aspx?match=107562691

Did 25k player damage (1k less than me as Merc) and was very good at positioning. Honestly I just think that dude is a really good Smite player, so he was able to do OK with a bad god. Because almost every single other Nox I've seen has either fed or has had very low presence on the battlefield. She doesn't do enough damage to be scary, and once her shield is down she is extremely easy to pounce on.

Also: Speaking of new gods, I love how Sylvanus got nerfed and nobody plays him anymore lol. I played 2 games as him today and did quite well. I think his nerfs were very fair. He is still a CC monster and with only 2 protection items (BoV and Gaia) he is really tanky. My standard item build for him is:

Core: Breastplate of Valor, Shoes of Focus, Stone of Gaia
Damage: Gem of Isolation, Rod of Asclepius, Void Stone
Extra Protection: Sovereignty, Magi's Blessing

I almost never need extra protection items though. Gem of Iso is great because your DoT will slow enemies on each tick. I'm kinda iffy on Asclepius ever since they nerfed Syl's heal, but the move speed increase is really nice. Still, I'm debating replacing Asclepius with Ethereal Staff.

 

[Liberty4all]

Bamelin what order do you level Athena's skills? I gotta try that build.

In Arena I build two into her 3 , one into her dash and one into her ult. Next I do 1 into her taunt. Then I level up her 3 to max, then level up her 1 to max then level up taunt last. I find with Athena's taunt it's pretty effective even with just one point into it. With the build above the exception is always level up her ult when possible.

In Conquest I put one into her 3. Next one into her dash. Next one into taunt. After that same as above.

I should also add that it's important to get buffs with this build. In Conquest Cooldown and the Damage buff noticeably help late game, early game you may need mana buff depending on whether or not you bought meditation. In Arena I try to get the Cooldown buff first (as my first 2 cooldown items are not yet active), and mid to late game grab damage buff.

 

[Indignate]

Sylvanus is still amazing. People who don't play him anymore are insane.

 

[gogosox82]

I'll try that build out in Arena and see how it goes. That sounds like a lot of fun. And Sylvanus is still really good even with the nerfs but its true I haven't seem him played that much since the nerfs.

 

[QisTopTier]

I really really suck at playing a tank in this x.x

 

[Indignate]

Always buy Sov.

 

[Tabby]

I really really suck at playing a tank in this x.x

I know how you feel bruv.
When I see other people play tank they flash in, stun everyone and make all these flashy plays then I play tank and I end up dying while no one follows up, wondering what I did wrong.

 

[QisTopTier]

I know how you feel bruv.
When I see other people play tank they flash in, stun everyone and make all these flashy plays then I play tank and I end up dying while no one follows up, wondering what I did wrong.

We obviously dont mash the group tells hard enough

 

[gogosox82]

I know how you feel bruv.
When I see other people play tank they flash in, stun everyone and make all these flashy plays then I play tank and I end up dying while no one follows up, wondering what I did wrong.

Just had a game like this. Wanted to play Nu Wa but everyone else picked hunters or mages so I'm like "ok I'll be the nice guy and tank with athena". So after about three or four initiations with me initiating and getting literally no follow up. I say "guys when I initiate, be ready to blow them up" since we have like the three mages and there all like "your running away from us so we can't". I'm thinking, how the hell am I running away from you when I charge in to initiate? So then I start spamming VAA (attack) before I initiate, still nothing from these guys until its too late. So we were destined to lose because these guys just refuse to initiate right after I do and they get blown up and are like "why'd you let me die athena?" FML.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Tried damage Athena. Results:

Match #1 — 7 / 2 / 20 and 22,549 damage

Match #2 — 4 / 2 / 27 and 21,357 damage

I'd say it worked pretty well! She really comes online once you finish Chronos Pendant. Oh man, you can pretty much constantly fight with full CD reduction. She takes a beating though. I found myself going back to base pretty often.

 

[Lollipop Dave]

Tried damage Athena. Results:

Match #1 — 7 / 2 / 20 and 22,549 damage

Match #2 — 4 / 2 / 27 and 21,357 damage

I'd say it worked pretty well! She really comes online once you finish Chronos Pendant. Oh man, you can pretty much constantly fight with full CD reduction. She takes a beating though. I found myself going back to base pretty often.

I used to see a ton of damage Athena's in the beta but, as Bamelin mentioned, people are so stuck in the 'meta' I rarely come across anything different these days.

 

[MightyKAC]

Just out of curiosity, do we have any Aussies that play this game on any sort of consistent basis?

 

[FireSol]

Bamelin's damage Athena is good, its really funny to watch how she breaking carry faces lol

 

[Liberty4all]

Tried damage Athena. Results:

Match #1 — 7 / 2 / 20 and 22,549 damage

Match #2 — 4 / 2 / 27 and 21,357 damage

I'd say it worked pretty well! She really comes online once you finish Chronos Pendant. Oh man, you can pretty much constantly fight with full CD reduction. She takes a beating though. I found myself going back to base pretty often.

That's the beauty of shoes of focus/Chronos Pendant though. The cooldown on Athena's ult is so quick that you can return to base and then ult back to the frontline very quickly in Conquest. Dmg Athena is an In and Out/Hit and Run proposition. You go in, dish out massive damage, but lose half your life bar in the process. Ideally you are laning with a hunter or mage who can finish off what you initiate (early game). That's why Damage Athena is still Guardianish ... she can take enough damage without dying to still be able to initiate, the difference being you are trading her long term sustain for burst damage. By late game though damage Athena is an absolute monster in terms of what she can dish out.

One other thing it's important to let your lane partner know that you are more damage focused so they will follow up on your initiation and also that they are aware you will be returning to base often.

 

[BurningNad]

Man, I haven't played Smite in so long, I want to get back in but I'm intimidated with all the new gods and changes. My one buddy who used to group work me all the time has no interest in it anymore, so I don't even have back up if I suck. Haha. Oh well. Maybe I'll get the balls up for it soon.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I played damage Athena again this morning but it did not go well this time. Thankfully I got matched with some exceptional teammates who carried me to victory, but I went 3 / 11 / 19. I found out the hard way that Janus and Cabrakan are both hard counters to Athena. There is a bit of a delay when she uses her 3, and the enemy Janus was really good at dropping a portal on me right when I would use it. This killed my momentum and allowed the other team to set up and murder me. Cabrakan was also able to interrupt my attacks with his stupid CC and then I'd just get focused down. The other team had so much CC I couldn't even do hit-and-run tactics because as soon as I got near I'd just get chain-CCed. It was very frustrating. Beware of Cab and Janus.

That's the beauty of shoes of focus/Chronos Pendant though. The cooldown on Athena's ult is so quick that you can return to base and then ult back to the frontline very quickly in Conquest. Dmg Athena is an In and Out/Hit and Run proposition. You go in, dish out massive damage, but lose half your life bar in the process. Ideally you are laning with a hunter or mage who can finish off what you initiate (early game). That's why Damage Athena is still Guardianish ... she can take enough damage without dying to still be able to initiate, the difference being you are trading her long term sustain for burst damage. By late game though damage Athena is an absolute monster in terms of what she can dish out.

One other thing it's important to let your lane partner know that you are more damage focused so they will follow up on your initiation and also that they are aware you will be returning to base often.

Yeah I always tell my team in the pre-game lobby that I'm going damage. Nobody has cared so far. I only do it if we have another tank. Otherwise I've been picking Sylvanus. I don't play Conquest but it's a similar deal in Arena. It's really nice to be able to ult from base and jump right back into the fight. In that last match I played I ulted right onto a teammate who was falling into a Janus portal. It got all bugged out and I fell through it twice. Weird lol.

 

[Liberty4all]

Yeah nobody cares about meta in arena and only a little in assault. In conquest though people will whine long and hard if you don't build to the meta.


Regarding dmg Athena counters .. Go for the squishies. Dmg Athena has trouble handling tanks until late game. The counter to CC is cloak of magi but I hate wasting a slot on a non power item.

Oh and cloak of magi ruins an enemy Athena's day.

 

[XT Vengeance]

always ignore the tanks for the squishies. Rule number 1.

 

[Strazyplus]

always ignore the tanks for the squishies. Rule number 1.

no do pay attention to the tanks, us squishies taste bad go after them tanks!

 

[Xyber]

I have no idea how we managed to win this one. Our Thanatos played the entire game, not intentional feeding or anything. He got 3K player damage.

https://account.hirezstudios.com/smitegame/match-details.aspx?match=108615528

 

[Head of Vengarl]

After playing Hades and then damage Athena, I got hungry for more damage guardian fun. So when I reached 5,500 favor today I spent it on buying Cabrakan. I built him pure damage and it was great. He has a bit of a learning curve with his ult, landing Blink + his 1, and remembering to cancel his 3 in a timely manner, but man I am enjoying him. He hits like a truck and a lot of people didn't seem to expect it. I absolutely demolished a Mercury in Seige today and made him rage quit.

Item build:
Shoes of Focus
Chronos Pendant
Gem of Isolation
Void Stone
Rod of Tahuti
Obsidian Shard or Divine Ruin or a defense item like Magi's Blessing.

Skill Build:
2 > 1 > 3
I've been changing the order around, but this one seems to work well. His 3 is great but I found that you don't need to dump points into it until later. His 2 and 1 are more important. His ult does great damage so of course level it when available.

 

[Xyber]

You should try Cabrakan with Ymir. Ult with Cab and then Ymir puts up a wall to completely block them in and you start to pound the ground. A squishy hero won't stay alive for long with no way to get out if they don't have some jump escape.

It's so fun when you get a perfect wall with Ymir.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Haha that sounds awesome, I'll try it out if I get the chance.

 

[Xyber]

lol

 

[Liberty4all]

lol

I'm really trying to make her work ... Not succeeding at all. Even a pure dmg build I'm barely breaking 20k. Nox really does need to be buffed.

 

[SteveWinwood]

do they still have that buy everything forever package?

 

[Indignate]

There is no getting Nox to worth. She is literally worthless. Chick might be like bottom 3.

do they still have that buy everything forever package?

Yeah. It's on their website somewhere and also on Amazon.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

One of the Hi-Rez employees posted in a reddit thread a few days ago and said they are reworking Nox's kit. They are definitely aware that she sucks.

At least it's a little refreshing that they didn't make her OP as fuck like they usually do with new gods... right? Lol.

 

[gogosox82]

Cabraken is really good but he feels more like a warrior and not a guardian to me. He needs to build some magic power along with some defense to be good. I was reading on Reddit that Nox was supposed to have some sort stealth/teleport ability and be able to blind you. Kinda sounded like the Hades teleport and the Ra blind. It could be bs but that sounds a lot more interesting than what we got. Either way, I'm glad HR is going to try and make her better.

 

[dejan]

Cabrakan as a magic bruiser in solo lane works and i personally think is really fun to play.

 

[Lollipop Dave]

Played my first ranked conquest in a long while last night and my days, the amount of abuse that was being flung between everyone. It was a refreshing reminder why I stopped playing ranked.

Little of it was aimed at me but it was just an unpleasant experience overall.

 

[Turin Turambar]

One of the Hi-Rez employees posted in a reddit thread a few days ago and said they are reworking Nox's kit. They are definitely aware that she sucks.

At least it's a little refreshing that they didn't make her OP as fuck like they usually do with new gods... right? Lol.

At least they should buff or remake her so so she turns into a "counter god". A god which is a bit below average in comparison with other gods, but it's very good doing her specific role, countering enemy mages.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I played Nox a few times. She is really great in lane against a lot of gods but the problems start when you are not in 1v1 all the time. She is too specialised as a counter god in a way.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Cabraken is really good but he feels more like a warrior and not a guardian to me. He needs to build some magic power along with some defense to be good.

Yeah he is most definitely a magical warrior, and that's what I love about him. He's kinda like Hades in that sense, except I tend to build Cabrakan even more aggressively. Even damage Hades needs at least 2 good protection items to be able to ult without getting blown up. Cabrakan is a lot more of a "hit and run" attacker so I've been able to get away with minimal defense. The only protection item I regularly buy for him is Void Stone. I don't build any physical protection unless I really need to.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I'm debating between pushing to 40 mastery (I'm currently at 33) or focusing on a selection of my favorite gods to play since I don't play ranked anyway.

The upside of pushing to 40 mastery is that it's always good to be more well-rounded. And you get a nice new icon to show off. The downside is that most of the remaining gods I have left to master are ones that I don't particularly like (there's a reason I saved them for last). Vamana, Hel, Odin, Aphrodite, Neith... there are several gods of each class that I would rather play than any of those.

The upside to focusing on the gods I enjoy is, obviously, that I will have more fun playing them. And I will (hopefully) be able to fine-tune my skills with their particular kits. I enjoy a good amount of gods, but if I were to focus I'd have to pick my favorite of each class. I already know my favorite assassin (Mercury), warrior (Hercules), support guardian (Sylvanus), and damage guardian (Cabrakan). My favorite hunter is either Xbalanque or Artemis; Artemis hits like a truck and has a great steroid, while Xbal is more mobile and less prone to getting picked off. My favorite class is mage, so that's a little harder to choose. I'd say it comes down to Isis or Scylla; Scylla does huge damage and has a reliable escape, while Isis has better utility and still does great damage, and has better early wave clear. Tough choices.

 

[Indignate]

Vamana, Hel, Odin, Aphrodite, Neith

You are severely missing out.