[2022] I hit rank 10 on Lance last night and I want to share my thoughts and explain why I think some people's ideas are off base.

Ah yes this reddit comment comes up a lot. Ive been looking for an opportunity to jump in and share some insight on this exact type of justification.

So, to get right to the point, this did not happen on Lancelot and pretty much has never happened in SMITE history ever. We do not "design" gods as another class and then change course.

Gods are often planned out over 12 months in advance and adhering to the class rotation is very important. Its not a very practical option to change classes mid development. This could throw off classes for gods down the timeline who are also being worked on and have their own specific goals.

It also generally isn't how the game design process works. We always start with the specific class, visual themes, and gameplay themes clearly defined before we start any kit ideation. We work through multiple kit pitch rounds using documentation and presentations, then we move to a prototype. The key thing about the god design process that can change is adjusting abilities in that prototyping phase.

Once you start actually feeling and using the ability, things do change, but generally changes are smaller tweaks toward making the ability and kit feel as good as possible. Certainly not changing an entire class.

Now we do sometime change course in the early planning phase. As I mentioned in the blog post we did rough out pitches for two different Lancelots. One was a lighter geared and agile assassin. The other was a heavy armored guardian. Differentiating from Arthur was a key discussion point before we even agreed to spend any time on Lancelot.

We have had only 1 god in my almost 7 years that we changed class mid development, I wonder if people can guess who it was. The reason we changed was specifically because of magical vs physical reasons. It was a warrior but it changed to a guardian with no other kit changes and it was always planned to have solo lane appeal.

Anyway, we don't do this like top comment suggests. This is never the reason why a god might play differently than the class norms or differently from the blog post goals. The reasons gods do play differently is for 2 reasons.

1. the changes to kit feel during prototyping

2. player reinterpretation. Mobas are intended to be designed with flexibility in mind and sometimes the players choose to do things we didn't quite intend, but that's part of what makes this genre awesome.

Thanks!

DANG SOMEONE GOT IT ALREADY! yep thats the only god I can recall that changed class during development. As in, after the kit was designed, but before the initial launch. +1 respect point to you!