devtrackers.gg
I was super lucky to be invited by HiRez to be a part of today's God Design Panel, where we basically had an hour to read through 10 billion twitch chat ideas on what to do with the design of a theoretical goddess, Epona: Goddess of Horses and Bounty.
If you missed the panel, here's the recap!
VODs of the recap (I'm on the right (in the vod, not politically)):
https://clips.twitch.tv/CreativeObliviousPlumageBibleThump
https://clips.twitch.tv/PleasantSpunkyPandaKippa
Chat voted, and decided that Epona would be a guardian. The designers also talked about it and decided that she should have a Scythe as her weapon and always be mounted on--you guessed it--a horse.
Lots of these design decisions are very incomplete because it happened over the course of an hour, but here's the rough outline of the kit that chat + the designers came up with!
Passive: Mounted. Epona is always mounted and has lower strafing and turn speed. As she moves in a straight line, she builds up speed up to a certain maximum. She also has a small kick/push that happens, on a cooldown, when a god gets too close to her, so she has a built in anti-bodyblock mechanism.
Ability 1: Spirit Horse. Epona summons a spirit horse to go forward in a line. The spirit horse will buff allies and damage + debuff enemies. Intended to be her primary damaging ability, and is there to give her a solid, simple skillshot to lean on in fights and in lane.
Ability 2: Cornucopia. Epona summons a cornucopia (medium sized AoE object) at a target location, knocking enemies away. It then spits out food around it randomly, giving certain effects to those that eat the food (think cupid hearts). E.g. Apples give basic attack power, oranges give movespeed, etc.
Ability 3: Grain Field. Epona conjures a field of wheat/grain in an area. Allies who are inside of the field are invisible, unless they attack. Stealth grass in Smite :D Lasts until the ability is re-cast.
Ability 4: Stampede: Epona summons horses to her side, who create an arrow formation and charge forward. Enemies hit are carried with them, and knocked away after the ability. There is a semi-global tremble that happens around the ult before & during the stampede, and the stampede creates a cupid-style movespeed slipstream behind it to encourage allies to follow the charge.
External link →