u/Marston_vc

BLUF: The fundamental issue is that lower-pressure gods get bullied out of their lane and are perpetually fighting from behind. I think role passives would be a great way to give lower pressure solo/supports more identity by passively buffing the "low-pressure builds" that these characters tend to favor. By linking the buffs to the role-passives/laning phase, you can help the low-pressure niche without having balance-spillage issues elsewhere.

Context: I got a lot of feedback from my last change-suggestion post and it, as well as all the daily posts I see here, made me think a lot about contradictions in the way the game is built and in what the community complains about.

Problem Statement: You see it every day here. Posts claiming that "Solo/Support is dominated by the high-damage, often times off-role, gods" and as a result, its hard to enjoy playing the more "traditional" gods we got used to playing in these roles from Smite 1.

The Great Contradiction: But what happens if you buff the damage or sustain of the more traditional bruisers/tanks? You end up with gods like Pele aspect who are both unkillable and also does quite good damage. Or possibly Herc Jungle which is an unintended effect. Both of which people were livid about! And now we've nerf-nuked Pele and Herc into obscurity. And then were back to the original problem statement of traditional tanks/bruisers being out-classed by high-damage gods. And so the cycle continues!!!

Solution: Add role passives that are targeted towards the laning phase and lower-pressure gods/builds. This way, you can target the god-types that need it most (low pressure gods) in the time they need it most (laning phase), without incurring the risk of unintended effects that buffing base stats or items typically have.

Conclusion: These changes would give the roles identity by nudging benefits towards more "traditional" playstyles/builds. But not outright banishing the off-role approach many players enjoy. They buff these gods in the laning phase but not such that they become an undue menace in the late game. I think this narrowly tailored approach on role passives has the best chance of helping lower pressure gods without causing unintended balance issues.

Thoughts?

TLDR: The fundamental issue is that lower-pressure gods get bullied out of their lane and are perpetually fighting from behind. I think role passives would be a great way to give lower pressure solo/supports more identity by passively buffing the "low-pressure builds" that these characters tend to favor. By linking the buffs to the role-passives/laning phase, you can help the low-pressure niche without having balance-spillage issues elsewhere.

Another day, another post saying "TANKS ARENT TANKY". Half the comments: "YEAH THIS GAME IS DED" and the other half: "ITS A SKILL ISSUE"

You see these posts and the responses almost every day....

It seems that there's just no way to be tanky

Penetration is a god damn Psyop

Supports are kinda under whelming. Smite 2

Tanks are supposed to (be able to) W key

I'm honestly at my breaking point as a Support/Solo Main

Holy shit just buff the stats on defense items

These are pulled from just the last two weeks and I skipped A LOT. Let-alone content on other platforms like what Rogers Aquarium is putting out on Youtube. I don't agree with the core premise or conduct of that video, or really any of these posts. They all amount to bitching that you can't face-tank with impunity and that the absence of that gameplay loop means that support/solo as a role is dead. I couldn't disagree more and honestly I feel supports are more impactful today than they ever were in Smite 1.

But I can acknowledge that these players are feeling a sort of way, and its not productive to just say "skill issue" over and over again. To be clear, "face-tanking" style supports (like Geb as an example) are definitely struggling to compete with higher pressure supports. Pressure in lane during the first 5-7 minutes of play pretty reliably dictates the outcome of the match. And right now, "low-pressure" gods don't get enough compensation to have much chance against high-pressure gods.

So I sat down for a couple hours and brainstormed some starter items that could help enable lower pressure supports by rewarding/incentivize aggressive play even if they themselves don't do too much damage.

TLDR & Disclaimer: These changes/items are quite likely busted. But I wanted to encourage a more nuanced discussion and invite HiRez's design team to consider adding a bit more variety for tank starters. I do sometimes get the itch to play more "traditional" supports like Geb or Ganesh. But its pretty difficult to justify picking them when I know I'm effectively giving up the lane by doing so. And even though I like playing gods like Yemoja, I'd also like to at least have the option to provide more utility at the expense of less damage.