Yes I came back here just to rant about ratatoskr
It is UNBELIEVABLE how they had a hot knife and a butter and they ate the knife and threw away the butter.
What makes S1 Rat so good? It is a refinement of 2 major reworks, fixing what didn’t work originally and mixing with his new kit. Then hirez have the BRILLIANT IDEA of port him as is and your “upgrades” is literally “bringing back” the original kit that had problems. *slow applause*
PASSIVE: Pretty much the same as S1 but with a “plus one” of you being able to buy multiple acorns that proved to be actually a “minus one”
PASSIVE (ACORNS): The acorns suck. That’s it. The non aspect, aka power/damage one DO NOT upgrade your kit, they literally just make switches, trades that usually are worse versions of your base kit (There was a reason why it was reworked hirez :p).
Plus the biggest downside on S1 was that although your acorns were good itens, they might not be the best item for that match, yet you had to keep it anyway. So, in smite 2 hirez thought it would be a great idea make the acorns EVEN WORSE. The stats are trash, straight up trash in all them.
So you waste item slots for half baked acorns that removes stuff of your kit, good stuffs, to give back worse versions of what you already had. If a hirez employee read this, tell me who thought that it would work?
- Red acorn: The only switch that actually (can) end up as an upgrade. Well, this one is not that bad, it can help you output significantly more damage but having your dash cut in half MIDDLE MATCH is clunky AF. You get used to the range only to it get shorter suddenly. Apparently, even without crits it can be good since rat CAN proc items more than once with this (crusher and Heartseeker). This acorn is the only one worth without asppect.
- White one: Useless. It gives Attack speed, something that is not that good on rat and can only work well IF you have the red one. If you buy 2 acorns, you wasted 2 item slots that could help you way more AND if you pick the red one, you want either crits, which you will need at least 2 crit items, probably 3, and 1 pen item OR YOU WANT cdr/heartseeker/crusher/titans. which means you WILL ALWAYS use the same build no matter what happens in the game. Did I mention you lose the protection decrease that would actually increase your damage to attack speed IF a good amount of acorns pass through the enemy AND you can stay closer to him hitting basics? This acorn giving you AS makes no sense, it is the clunkiest.
- Orange/yellow acorn: You nerf yourself removing your stun to decrease the damage nerf hirez gave to you on your normal ability and yet it uses slighty weaker numbers. With the amount of CC in smite, dashes, leaps, combat blink, etc, do you really think it’s a great idea lose your only hard cc outside the ultimate? Would you give up of susano 2 pull in order to do more damage with that ability? sigh...
The aspect just make the acorns tank version of themselves and give different bonuses. They are better but tanks builds ARE NOT ONLY HP. They need CDR, Prots, Damp, Tenacity, etc, and what the acorns do? Yes, only HP and a minor stat… sigh.
- Red: Could be great for support, the push back is good. But I do think it is the less valuable in passive than the others.
- White: The only acorn that is exactly like smite 1, minus the power, thus why it still good. If you went aspect, this one is a must.
- Orange/yellow: The acorn that increases your lockdown and damage is on the tank category and gives you nothing but HP and a minor CDR (laughs). Yes, no strength. What is even the point of buying this? Increase your damage but it doesn’t give you power to help you do more damage, what a joke.
Overall the tank ones are not as bad as the power ones because, hear me out, I know it is crazy but they ACTUALLY BOOST your abilities and not just trade stuff for worse version. WOW!!!!!!!
If hirez fix the stats of these acorns I think they have a great future ahead.
- 1ST ABILITY: Same as S1 with a plus one of always being able to crit.
- 2ND ABILITY: Same as S1.
- 3RD ABILITY: Same as S1.
- ULTI: Same as S1.
What can be done to fix this mess? (IMO)
Sorry to hirez but their work with rat was lazy AF. To fix it, the RIGHT WAY to do is:
Non as aspect rat should be 1:1 as smite 1, including the acorns, you can even remove the walking fountain acorn if needed since you are all rushing porting gods. Aspect rat should be the old kit, with old acorns (the power ones).
In addition to that, all acorns MUST provide better stats, perhaps consider even allow rat carry only 1 acorn in the non aspect version, as in S1. The aspect his base kit should be the old abilities and you could buy 1 acorn to increase one ability as well, as it used to be or you could be less powerful acorns but rat can buy multiple boosting multiple abilities (but less is not abysmal like rn)
But knowing hirez and clearly how poorly thought this rat was, I can believe they want the EASIEST WAY to fix it. In that case it would boost acorn stats, specially in non aspect that you are already getting a worse version of your kit.
- Red: Add crit chance and basic attack power. Reduces STR. Or alternatively makes marked enemies take like 10% extra damage from rat, or dont do anytrhing (while dart can proc up to 3x items), this one is ok as it is.
- White: Add basic attack power. Allow it to remove prots with each acorn that goes through the enemy and the passive must proc on minions and jg bosses as well with MAYBE a reduced amount.
- Orange/Yellow: Adds CDR. Allows it to stun anyway, damage remains the same of normal ability on hit but the extra damage comes from the explosion. Decrease the STR of it.
Aspect
- Red: Add 10 Damp or Plat (full tank option)
- White: Add 15/20 Strength. Decrease HP to 250.
- Orange/Yellow: Add 30/35 Strength (bruiser jg option). Decrease HP to 150
Balance might be a little off but my point is to make each acorn more unique and MAINLY remove the feeling that carry a non-aspect acorn is wasting a item slot.
The ideal is rat to be rewored (already) as in the first option, but if hirez wants something easy, then at least make the damage acorns less painful to play with and fix the minor problems with the tanks one.
In any case, making the acorns GOOD items potentially is mostly a matter of balance and I would just say to have patience there. However, they do need to think about what the different acorns offer, to make it a different playstyle while still being functional. Increase AS on him seems super weird other than making him more efficient at jungle clearing or something maybe.
Also, it is very funny how every god was broken or near broken until now, take daji as an example. Also don't even lemme get started with Gilga aspect. Almost 200% scaling on his 1+4 combo, dealing 600 damage level 5 and it is a frustrating and infuriating combo to deal with, some gods were reworked for less in the past but hirez really thought that was a good idea. I am starting to think someone on god design was fired and the new one is not as good.
Well, as I said, make the acorns good would actually require some rework on my view, since besides the red, both are a waste of item slot for the reasons I already said. I really cant think the white one being useful under any circunstances, same for the other until it can stun.
Anyway, I edited it with new considerations since after last patch hirez fixed/buffed him secretly.
I think they're still learning how to balance when they're implementing new ideas and interactions...even though in some ways they've had over 10 years to learn balance I guess, and that's maybe the problem.
But while this game is in beta (technically even though it's also officially replaced SMITE 1), I think they're allowed to experiment. It's not bad to try stepping outside of bounds and seeing how things go. But we're also allowed to think some of these are ****!
Improvements to base acorns, non-aspect:
Simple stats fixes that would actually make sense and achieve the variety hirez is looking for.
I genuinely think power rat can be at least good with these changes (or what he should have been on launch).