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First of all, before I head into this opinionated post, I'd like to make some things very clear:
If you main any of the gods I talk about negatively in this post, I want you to realize that I have nothing against you. Smite has a very "diverse" roster, and you should play who you want to, whenever you want to. Thank you for understanding.
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Hi, I've played Smite since the release of Kuzenbo, being early Season 4, and have played many other MOBA's out there. Your League, your Hots, your Dota. You name it, I've probably played it. By no means am I an amazing player though. Just your average one.
Over the past few seasons since Smite's 5th, barring Season 8 of course as its still very young in its lifetime, I've started to think about how I feel about the game's general design, and if I had any major gripes with it. And, well, as much as I love Smite and it's dev team, boy howdy do I have gripes, but those gripes aren't what I'm making this post for.
More specifically, the game's playable roster, Smite's Gods, are what I wanted to talk about. After having played League etc, I've come to a personal conclusion that, in my opinion, Smite's skill expression, or lack thereof, can be extremely frustrating. Let me explain.
Every game with a playable cast of characters has their easier to play/understand characters, and their more difficult ones. Look at Smash Ultimate, for example. There's Mario, a well-beloved character that almost any beginner can just pick up and have fun with. Then, on the other side of the spectrum, there's Shulk. Shulk's Monado Arts alone give the character so much depth and skill expression, it's a completely different story. Except, the thing here is, while Shulk is just objectively mechanically harder than Mario, they both have one thing in common: The skill expression is there.
If you don't think I should compare a platform fighter to a MOBA, fine, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Let's look at League. Vayne, a hunter with a simple to understand kit, though hard to master. Then, in 2018, Kai'sa was released. Which... Yeah, around the same thing as Vayne, honestly. I'd personally say that Vayne has more skill expression than Kai'sa, but were they on the same level on balance, I'm sure they wouldn't be that far off.
Now, let's look at smite. Let's look at some mages, shall we? First, Ah Puch! I'm a massive fan of the necromancer fantasy, so messing around with corpses (in game) seems like a very interesting playstyle. What's he do? Press 1, then 2 in quick succession. Ah, man, I wish he did something more interesting with his corpse mechanic. Now, lets look at a semi-recent mage release, Hera! Surely, her kit would be revolved around her main gimmick, that being Argus. The fantasy of controlling a hulking colossus of raw strength sounds exhilarating... Oh? The only ability that directly impacts Argus in any shape, way and form is Hera's 3, which is her shield. Right. That's a bummer, if her 1 and/or 2 had some direct synergy with her protector, then surely she'd have more depth/interactive gameplay.
I know I've boiled down the general playstyle of all the aforementioned characters, and I'm sorry, I'm not the best explainer out there. This should at least have been sufficient enough to bring over my point though. In my, and I'd imagine a few other people's opinions, Smite's overall god design could really use more skill expression, depth and interactivity... kinda.
Am I saying that there are absolutely no gods in Smite that have the aforementioned traits? Absolutely not! Just look at Smite's recent releases and, as of writing this, upcoming release! Gilgamesh looks like a blast to play, has a fluent, working kit, and actually has interactiveness/depth with his Ultimate and Drop Kick! Tiamat is a nice breath of fresh air and, if we ignore her state of balance, is arguably one of Titan Forge's best releases in a good while. I've seen some folks call her "King Arthur 2.0", but I simply cannot agree there. Last example. Anhur is a very old god in Smite, yet has one of the most skill expressive kits out of all of the Hunters in Smite, in my opinion. While he may not be for everyone, you can absolutely tell the difference between a really good Anhur, and your average one.
Of course, for every skill expressive god, there has to be an easier one, too. Ra and Kukulkan are great examples of easy to understand, pickup and play gods in Smite that I can't see Smite without. But then we've got another case, being Zeus. Zeus absolutely has a fluent kit that works extremely well with itself, and doesn't feel like its just abilities slapped together. Though, Zeus might have one of the most toxic "skill" expressions I've ever seen in a MOBA character. EDIT: I forgot that Zeus' in game difficulty is portrayed as Average. Hm.
The reason I made this post is because I wish Titan Forge would get to polishing up those gods that have a great concept, but just lack that bit of expression, interactivity and/or fluidity. I completely understand that, as developers, you don't want to take those risks as you could absolutely anger a passionate player base for a certain god by soft reworking their kits, but that shouldn't be a reason to not do just that. Heck, you've done god reworks before, they just don't fit this context. If you don't know why, feel free to ask my take on that.
I'm extremely interested in seeing people's takes on this. This is just from one person's view, after all, and I'm all for different opinions. I really, really do like Smite, I just cant bring myself to come back to playing it this season, due to the sheer amount of gods that are just "press button do thing that has nothing to do with other thing". Please, though, do try to keep it civil. I didn't mean to anger anyone with this post, after all.
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