How To Improve Smite! 

To add on to this, the new Mast video is also great and I basically agree with every single thing he said in that video down to the tee. I personally think if the devs improve the the things in this video and that video (maybe easier said than done of course,) Smite 2 will get back on track. Let me know what you guys think! It’s okay to disagree 😊 (even though you’re wrong)

Just thought about an interesting warhorn alternative... Reintroduce totem but put half of it on duo. Once solo fills it up, duo has to finish it from their lane. If enemy duo does it, maybe they steal it or they reset and deny it! Totem was strong and intersting as a mechanic but this way you reward teams that are communicating! As far as starter items, make them starter passives. Axe passive for solo, extra gold from minion assists and hp regen for support, mana regen and cd for mid and movement speed with attack speed for adcs. These are all examples BUT the player chooses it! You can go for a strat where you want to invade as a supp so you can choose the jungle passive for the camp clear and early rotations in the jungle. It would put another layer of tactics to the game! Just brainstorm hirez people, we need to make Smite 2 work!

Combat blink by default. Put beads on an item. Early game and CC with be way more satisfying

Yeah the map and minions changing based on whos winning would be a big improvement over the first game and help with the "this is an actual sequel" feeling.

It could be really interesting to have a the map up for role selection that you pick the role and it shows your "lane" or "zone" with some flavor text and if there is a role passive include it there. It would be great for new players and add a good visual/reminder. I love the idea of the winning team "taking over" the map!

Okay, I'm just gonna say it... Strarter items system like Pred crests. They are not necessarily have to be active items, but the evolution system through mini quest is quite good, we already had this with the blessings, they could bring back the blessings with useful upgrades in late game. Two to three blessings per role just like the current starters we have now in smite 1

I think a cinematic giving more depth to the chaos vs order lore would be cool. Chaos and order is actually a concept of greek mythology so I think they could absolutely give it more depth. Something with as much hype as the cthulu. Which reminds me, add more characters from the lovecraft mythos.

I think there needs to be a like a mini stat boost for the gold pick ups. Like a wingshard aspect but a bit more powerful. Make those gold pick ups contestable.

Late to this, but yeah the thing i agree with the most is role-specific starters. If there's a jungle starter in the game, it means that camps can be made much tankier and more deadly which i think is 100% the right approach. Locks off a bit more of that farm from the laners & prevents them getting super far ahead off a small lane lead

I want them to add the Ward pinging system similar to predecessor. One of the smoothest ward systems ever in that game, and it is impossible to miss when an enemy steps on where you have a ward.

1. Buff mitigation 2. Buff defense 3. Buff hp 4. LET TANKS TANK

So many good ideas dude. I read a bunch of nonsense on reddit, well some good some bad, some neither here nor there, but this vid is the best stuff ive seen on the subject.

The starter item idea where you just load in with one makes so much sense it's crazy it hasn't already been implemented.

One thing that has turned me off of smite is how much Hard CC (or honestly, CC in general). I still play and enjoy it sometimes, but there are way too many monents of “welp, i cant play the game. I dont have beads, dont play a good that cant counter CC, gg”. And it gets quite frustrating to play the game. I do agree with you adding in changes to existing gods would actually be really cool and help with the issue i discussed. It isnt just me, the friends i play with complain about it too (idk what the smite community says about it cuz i dont really pay that much attention to them). I just think there needs to be a way to tone it down. CC is fine, but too much CC just makes the game unfun and turns me off from even wanting to see Smite 2. Making Ymir have a knockup on his wall now doesnt make me happy tbh. Im just scared these changes make CC even more of an issue and that would lead to me just not ever playing the game anymore. Idk, what are other’s thoughts on it?

I don't entirely agree on ranged characters being polished. Kuku and Zeus abilities constantly bugged for me and ranged autos felt off honestly. Also, unless they plan on drastically reducing CC, having no beads would feel absolutely miserable IMO.

Even if they get rid of beads and give combat blink, they could just go the league of legends route and just make situational cleanse cc items for classes. And also, people gotta realize that it makes the game harder but more rewarding as u dont always have a get out of jail free card on your terrible positioning. It forces u to always think about your position to the other gods. If u get hit by cc, bad positioning and skill issue 😏

I really hope videos like this gain some steam and cause changes.

I think relics weren't that bad. The problem in smite 1 is that it's the only active items you have and you have 2. In smite 2, you could choose at the beginning of a match between beads, combat blink and maybe a third teamplay/support relic (i think a choice between 3 is always healthier than choosing between 2 options)

I agree with everything. I would also love for minions to be fixed. I've been playing since closed beta smite 1 and the minions have ALWAYS been fucked up. Make them come out 3 at a time and in their fighting formation. Why do they have to run single file instead of 3 and 3? Just spawn them 3 at a time, have the melee run a little, then spawn the archers 3 at a time. I absolutely hate when I run up to a wave and the archers run all over the place or the last archer stops JUST far enough away from an ability that I clear all but 1.

I know the game is in alpha, but i hope the final product pays attention to smaller stylistic choices to enhance the gameplay. E.g Things like better music (smites map always felt too quiet to me), maybee fire giant and gold fury can have its own theme when its health get to say 75-85%. Better ambient lane music. Minions that have a few lines while in lane. When you take a tower they cheer, if you get killed by minion wave they hype each other up or praise the gods in their team. I want the the titans to feel like they apart of the world, better designd that have something to do with the map. E.g What even are the Order snd Chaos titan? Give them more voice lines separate from your announcer pack, to feel like the battle has a narrative and theme. Or better yet replace the base announcer pack with two unique ones for order and chaos. One thing smite suffers from is the lore feels mid because we have these characters with somewhat established cultural backgrounds but in the world of smite its loose and disjointed. I don't know if its possible, but if Smite 2 had better background writing for all the gods the game itself can feel elevated because there is a greater narrative you play out when you play a game mode or a soecific god. God animation and graphics to reflect health, not just the health bar. When gods are at low health they have a hurt run animation, different idle animations if they stand still, there outfits are torn, dirty, beat up etc. E.g Instead of "A tower has fallen" the titan could say "we have lost our (insert) tower", but with different inflections. T1 towers voice line has slight concern, T2 more serious and the phoenix a unique line depending on order or chaos like "The final Battle has begun" Ambient sound in the jungle , birds chirping, light russle of leaves when you go into bushes, water flowing etc. (Generally more ambient sound when note in team fights) Jungle camps should have conversations with characters that aren't specific to gameplay, like mythology related characters that hang out around the camp tile set that have comments related to gameplay performance. E.g If your team is stomping they mention how powerful the gods of chaos are, comments on recent mutli kills, objectives etc. And imo the final artistic direction of the map needs to be none greek/ lava based. For all the pantheons we have it would be cool to finally see two mythologies that havent been paired together. E.g Imagine a Hindu vs Polynesian map? Or Japanese vs Norse? Half the map covered in Sakura's with feudal japanese architecture vs Norse evergreen/snowy jungle with runes around camps, the towers being figure heads of long boats and a giant Jarl house for the fountain? I can see it now. And of course even better graphics for god models and their abilities, but with a more animated art direction. The semi realistic doesn't really feel like smite it feels like smite. (They most likely are gonna fix these anyway, alpha after all). Of course gameplay is top priority, but i think small stylistic additions can really add to that "new game smell" for Smite 2. So far my favorite potential thing is the UI. The Gold with the purple already looks xlclean, all we need are better backgrounds that have something to do with game's current narrative arc. Imagine if the god cards were animated and when you hover over them and they had cool one liners? (Similar to marvel rivals or the premium cards in gwent) Different skins could gave different one liners and different animations, and when in the match ready screen some animated cards have interactions with lore accurate rival gods, but either stepping out of the card frame into unique face off animations or they simply have verbal line exchanges. Imagine if the menu had cool transitions from different pages as if zeus casted a thunderbolt, or bellona slashes the screen in half with her sword or Hecate caste a spell to toggle from gamemodes, to gods, to store, clan, ranked etc. Imagine if while in the menu if you are idle for too long, Nut (lore lady appears and starts to mention random lore facts about gods, relationships between gods or new lore writing for smite 2? IMO these small changes will either make or break Smite 2's feeling as a new and fresh experience ontop of everything you and madt mentioned.

As a player who isn't as good at the game as you or Mast, I agree with the points you've both brought up. Also, funny enough you are both the only content creators I watch for Smite lol.

Having a role passive would be great! Combat blink over beads 100% and that whole evolving map idea is perfect. Didn’t they always talk about having a living map? UE5 is the perfect playground to experiment with it! Overall yes to it all.

Athena's Shield Wall should block autos from the outside or some sort of damage reduction. Don't flat out want a free aegis lol

just add combat blink,shell,beads and rooting sprint as an option as relics instead of just forcing everyone to have 1 of those let people choose 1 to start. Not that big of a deal.

If you can bind 30 abilities on FXIV, you can fit all abilities, 6 actives and 2 consumables very easily in Smite 2. There is 0 argument for the “no space on controller.”

I have to say that for anyone being opposed to the combat blink and arguing that cc is a problem and would have to be toned down first before having combat blink I will say this. From playing LoL more lately I can say that being hit with cc in LoL even though there is less of it in the game feels so much worse than in smite and their system works perfectly having flash. There is ZERO DR in LoL only until you get hit with about 4 ccs in a row do you gain immunity but you’re 99% of the time dead before that ever happens anyway. Positioning is the reason you get killed not the cc. If you are able to be hit by a cc you’re probably not playing the scenario optimally. If someone uses their blink to get to you and can cc you before you get yours off that is unlucky. But you’d have yours for next time. Combat blink is infinitely a better option to have as default. It allows way more skill expression and safety than beads. Not to mention it’s just more fun to use than beads.

i have played smite for about 7 years and i agree with pretty much all your points, although when it comes to the combat blink thing i have a suggestion, combat blink works in pred due to pred having less mobility and overall less hard cc, i think smite 2 would feel alot more fun and skill expressive if we tone down cc and mobility across the board and have combat blink be our default relic

I think smite can really benefit from a lot of good items. Focus on buffing more than nerfing imo. Smite 1 I felt anytime there was something OP, they brought it back down instead of bringing other things up to pace

Definetly love to see some changes, I love Smite and I want to love Smite 2, but man I just do not enjoy playing it. looking forward to see what the devs do for the game.

100% think they should do designated role passives. that was my main feedback point in the first weekend. you don't want starters, cool, but there still needs to be something to help define each role. side note playing off that, i think supports should lower their base damage by x%, but increase their damage mitigation by x% based on how many teammates are alive. this would give a heavy focus for the support player to actually be frontlining and peeling for their team, rather than chasing kills like a lot of people get caught up in doing, and gives a big reward for actually keeping your teammates alive. there are some really effective ways you could create role defining passives.

I'm not going to yap about the combat blink anymore because I've yapped about it for long enough, but besides that, adding a Dota 2 style talents system would be great for the game. Maybe make your god have a very strong disadvantage, like for example, Anubis gets slowed when using his 1, but add a talent that maybe increases his MS during it. Based on levels, you can get more talents that you can unlock and unlocking them gives you more bonuses as the game progresses. That way, you can have, for example, two god of the moons, like Awilix and Tsukuyomi have some talent(s) in common to make sense for their lore and then others different to help their unique playstyles. Also jungle/support starters are a must. Currently, there is no real roles outside of laners.

I think we already spoke about why I disagree with combat blink being default so not gonna touch up on that again. Anyway, I also kinda disagree about the potions, not because it's a bad idea but that it's pointless to add an entire slot for 2 types of potions. Maybe it there were more consumables that gave different effects, something like shards but a 1 time use, they lasted only a few seconds and cost let's say 250-500g then yeah but an entire new slot for hp and mana is just not worth it. Also I hate starters, hated them in Beta all the way to today and I'll continue to hate them in s2 if they're there lmao. Everything else I absolutely agree with, I especially like the Order/Chaos map change, maybe with the destruction of a tower one side starts dominating that portion of the map. It'd kinda be like this: Order takes t1 from Chaos it moves in favour of Order. Then Chaos takes t1, it moves back to neutral, then chaos takes t2, it moves in it's favor and when chaos takes phoenix the entire side becomes chaos for the duration of the phoenix being down. It's basically neutral if both sides are equal but if a side has a structure advantage the map changes to signify a shifting front line.

I thought of something for athena. What if you charge the 1 and then press 2 or 3 and it activates a different version of her abilities and consumes the cooldown of the 1. I don't' know what those abelites would do. Maybe she throws those solder looking things as a ranged attack. Maybe her 2 becomes a fear. idk.

As a long time player that has attempted to get people on the game, smite 2 needs to not push new players onto just conquest and arena only. Too many times seeing players quit because they are overwhelmed from the conq map. Maybe one of the role-less but still tower and titan game mode should be the new player route instead.

Idk about combat blink, but beads is a problem, if uve made something a "requirement" in ur game uve already failed. And its doubly worse for beads, if you require beads to counter CC or you just cant play the game until youre dead thats just not fun. I like the equipment system of Smite 1 and would prefer it stay more like that, consumables are just that not part of your build or taking up a slot. I like that in Smite 1 items are passives w/o actives. I dont like active abilities on items, i want the game to be about my character and their abilities not about the items abilities. Someone also suggested something like the Dota talent tree, i think thts a great idea, it doesnt have to be huge differences but would give more variety to playing your favorite characters. I also play on controller due an issue w/ my hands so having more buttons I'd have to use concerns me

I think warhorn is dumb right now in smite 2. It should definitely be the capture point in midlane in Smite 1. Cuz right now theres not really a way to get the warhorn back once the other guy gets it first when all they have to do is auto you once to cancel your interact.

one of the things I wish they would do is what I had initially thought was going to be done when they announced smite 2, is adding the items from smite 1 to the game. There was so many things I wanted to try with there no longer being magic or physical requirements with the items. Yeah I know its suppose to be a new game but I dont think I'm alone in this thought. Example, give us back frostbound cern that I can now add gem of iso to lol

@DudeImFonz I watches this video a couple times... I watched interest and incons thoughts as well.... I'd like everyone to consider smite changing its art direction cell shaded as I believe this will help with longevity of the game .example being something like borderlands vs oblivion in the way the game looks ten years later... .maybe it would also help with the rendering and optimization of the game and player into what you said about smite 1 graphics being more cartoonish in nature which I think helps legend last as it does and I've never even played it

Imagine if each god had their own unique item that was extremely op like for Athena you can buy Medusas head and then if you land it they turn to stone or ymir buys his hammer and is able to completely box someone in or hades has the ability to raise the minions so you can now split push as hades and neiths bow can now burn something simple that each god can now build

I think changing oloruns 3 would make him a lot better maybe a dash or a movement speed buff. His ult is really good but his kit is not that good.

Make ymir freez a channel ability so it warrants a 1.5 sec stun (at full channal)

I like the idea of starters at that come from your role call don't have to be big just enough for a boost to your role. God changes I think Herc needs a wall at the end of Earthbreaker. This would give him something to driving strike enemy gods into and a double bounce for Excavate. your thoughts? Overall think the game is fun when played with friends hard to solo que with so many rage quitting and ruining it for the other players trying to experience the game I believe there should be a punishment during the alpha if your gonna constantly quit the game.

Your first 2 points: fix clunkiness on melee characters & add more god changes. You said that "They can instantly fix these things". How do you propose they do this? Both of these things take work & time. On the clunkiness issue, if you point out *specific* issues with a character, then maybe they can fix it instantly. But generalizing and not providing specifics isn't considered constructive criticism, it's just criticism. On the kit changes, these are things that are planned in advance, not something that can just be instantly changed on a whim. The brightness fix should be an instant fix though. Fully agree on Potion take, Predecessor's system is good. Overall, I agree with most of your critiques and would love to see Smite 2 in a better state. But you can't say that these changes can happen instantly when that's just not the case, even with a new engine it still takes time & testing to implement new things. We all need to keep in mind that the *primary* focus is getting the game to a good state where there's no bugs and all the gods are brought over, yet there are lots of critiques (from *many* different people) about small systems such as the items or the buffs. These have to be a secondary focus for the dev team or else Smite 2 will be in a Alpha/Beta state longer than any of us want.

There lighting in the game is more complicated. There was already a brightness slider in the game, but to see everything clearly you have to crank it up by a lot and everything looks washed out. The map itself need better lighting, maybe secondary lights

I fully agree with all of these points.

I agree with everything, but the default combat blink. That shit is toxic af, beads is a necessity and having a higher cooldown than Smite1 makes it balanced.

Might be a hot take biggest issue They only added two gods to the second Alpha 14 gods feel kinda underwhelming when you are used to playing 136 gods

Combat blink 👍🏼

Combat blink is just crazy. I agree its fun, but players will adapt and optimize and when they do, combat blink is going to be a annoying problem. Have you ever gank a Heimdal? They just escape! Every god will have a Heimdal escape but instant. PLUS a instant chase down potential. Imagine Smite 2 combat blink Heimdal. He cant be gank! He will have 2 instant escape. That will be annoying and a problem. I guess bring in combat blink until Smite 2 reaches that bridge. It will become a annoying problem once the roster gets bigger and players optimize.

Selam fine you didn’t tell us how ur Italy trip was😞

I agree with everything you and Mast said I hope they make these changes but it seems like HI-Rez is super slow or against some of these suggestions. I genuinely think we need combat Blink, league of legends has it and it’s awesome and play making. HI-REZ GIVE US A REASON TO PLAY SMITE 2. We don’t need balance at this stage we need fun.

Is the beta gonna be closed?

Okay, fine

i think the best outcome for the beads situation is if HIrez figures out a way to make it dynamic, make your relic combat blink but have it switch to beads while youre ccd. i dont know how to make that work in engine but if its possible i think that would be the best case scenario

I only played a few games and most were Hades in alpha 2 but I don't think it's a boring game I just think it's not that interesting to play the gods that have almost no changes and when they only add in 1 extra god to mess with there just is not much to do, they should just throw in like 25 gods even if they aren't polished yet it's an alpha.

Smite 2 Take: I think they should remove/remake relics into items

Just one weekend with combat blink please 😢

Thank you for being a positive voice on how to actually improve the game instead of making videos saying it’s DOA

Barrier to entry needs to be lowered for new players. Simplify Conquest and make the game more fun.

Nieth feels better, Sol feels better, Hades feels better

Combat blink as default absolutely needs to be tested, but I think HiRez needs to nerf hard cc times across the board for most gods. Getting locked down for 4 whole seconds before you can even blink out makes the combat blink idea less appealing. How strong CC is currently is the main reason why the community thinks we should have beads as default to begin with.

something I wish they did was add a new ability to each gods kit, so they have 4 abilities and an ultimate. That would immediately make each character feel at the very least fresh. I feel like a big reason to not do that is because it would be a disaster on console. And would definitely change up how they balance each god but thats not necessarily a bad thing.

For every god that has had a rework in the past, give the player an option to choose which version they want before leaving the fountain. Make it clear what version they are on the tab screen. Some people miss the old versions and some like the new ones. Look I just want to play my favorite god ever, old Persephone. It’s just unfair I can’t EVER play her again

Abilities feel weird, i feel like they are too transparent, example: Hades Ult or Kukulkan's tornado.

Soul Devourer is just bad design, it was already WAAAY overtuned in the first alpha and they made it even stronger in the second. I built it on every character, even Loki who has like no int scaling and it was easily half my damage overall if not more. Average game I was going like 9-1. Default relic should be by role too, mid and carry don't want blink relic and they will get destroyed without beads. Your take on it just seems short sighted based on what you like to play from my perspective. Totally agree on damage recaps and game chat

I also agree the map art isn’t that good and I feel like people are already sick of playing on this map.

I just feel like they wanted another new game but didn't want it to fail so they took their one successful game and ripped the life out of it and pasted it on whatever smite 2 is supposed to be

Predecessor

Day 4 asking for crit bake when he’s released in smite 2

Getting rid of beads is a bad idea ngl. You'd have to radically change the game and smite 2 is a good game rn. Also we need to remember the good that aren't there yet. Imagine face a hiem da ji and khumba with no beads in the game. Combat blink is just useless in too many scenarios tbh. Not to mention the other basically no misable ccs like hunbats and nieth etc. If anything just let us cost between the 2. If you take away beads bad players with struggle even more and then they will take it out on all of us

I am still excited for smite 2 but was immediately disappointed with the effort they are putting in. The fact that Cern was a 1 to 1 port character was unbelievable. His kit is so boring and so bad and they decided to put him in anyway. It is going to be years before we have all the gods in smite 2 so they really need to make the few we have fun to play.

Half all cc times and make all hard cc skill shots. Pred is like this, and it's just a better system

I’ll play Smite 2 if it has a co-op PvE mode. PvP MOBAs just aren’t my thing anymore.

Make beads, blink etc. like smite 1. the current forced into playing beads is dumb.

The combat blink thing does not seem even remotely likely. The only way default beads isnt required by backliners is if both mobility and cc are hard nerfed across the board. Hi-Rez, with Ymir, Kuku, Hades, etc. have shown that they intend to increase the amount of mobility in the game, and I havent noticed a significant decrease in cc. Significant CC is also integral to so many gods kits, how would one even go about significantly tuning down Ne Zha cc? Do you turn Cab abilities into slows instead of stuns? Nerfing cc to the point of not needing beads doesnt seem feasible to me, or even like a fun change to make. Im also not sure combat blink would be a more fun change to make to the game. The least fun part of this game, consistently, is scenarios where you have no counterplay. Smite 1 has counterplay to heavy cc, or even just heavy slowing, through beads. Given your changes, what is the counterplay to blink Ne Zha ult? Pray that the Ra laser waiting at the bottom isnt lethal? On one last note, personally I think combat blink is a dumb relic anyways. Beads allows for a higher skill ceiling, and securing a kill with offensive beads or turning a gank with defensive beads feels better than blink ever has.

Combat blink sucks i don't need Smite to turn into league. I hate flash and will always hate how its something you have to "get through" to actually be able to kill someone. And some characters only beign good with flash and becoming a joke without it. Bad take

Cater to newcomers. I'm talking hold their hands and carry them across the road kind of catering. Pro's and vets will hate it but it'll garner a bigger fanbase overall

All these mentions of “doomers” makes me sad. The game was awful man. I played 2 games and got off (this time being alpha 2) I had such a bad time I didn’t even watch the tourney. I’ve watched every one since season1. Addressing concernes, while not being completely toxic is healthy mate. Saying a bunk version is ok isn’t cool. Now 9.5 update too? This is what the glass half full brings sadly .

remove the physical intelligence shift, remove the crafting of items and having 4 lvl1 items going into a single. remove the grass from lanes. focus on making the game more action packed. get crazy with the map. add a 4th lane even. make attacking and movement speed better. everything feels slow. smite is primarily an action game with moba features. build on that and stop adding features from point and click games.

1st!

Day 3 of asking for free money. I also hope they improve smite 2