Ne Zha willl NOT be getting nerfed!

So I decided to pay a little visit to the official forums to see what the general opinion of the newest god was. Then I happened to come across this quote that was taken from Bart during one of his livestreams last night, which apparently went like this:



So yeah, not only does HiRez believe Ne Zha isn't as good as everyone says he is, but it turns out he is going to be getting a BUFF next patch to boot! What's more, HiRez is actually telling us to stop being baddies and play better! Who would've thought that it's not the god that is overpowered, but us being unskilled? Shocker, I know! >_<

But in all seriousness, what Ne Zha is doing and how HiRez is treating it is nothing we haven't seen before in SMITE, or even other MOBAs for that matter. Anubis generally comes to mind when players describe a pubstomp god. Against any players who don't understand some of the finer concepts of the game, Anubis will kill them with ease for a simple mistake and get super fed to the point where he will just melt his enemies left and right. But against anyone who understands how crowd control works and how to negate it ( Purification Beads usually does the trick), Anubis cannot wreck face against them without taking very clever approaches.

After playing several games with a Ne Zha in them, my earlier speculations were correct that yes, he is very strong, but he has a glaring weakness as well, and if you can exploit that weakness, he stops being threatening. In this case, it's his lack of an escape combined with his frail defenses and having to fight at melee range. He is just as squishy as Loki, but Loki has an escape move that not only makes him invisible, but also removes slows and increases his movespeed for four seconds. Ne Zha's only option for escaping is his ultimate, which has a lengthy cooldown and is better used to temporarily remove someone from a teamfight. No escape moves means the moment Ne Zha is in the heat of a fight, he has no easy ways out when things get bad... and you can easily make things bad for him with CC. Like Bart said, a good stun or other form of CC counters him. CC will not only weaken his ability to hurt you, but also leave him extremely vulnerable to attacks for an easy kill.

Your thoughts and opinions?

I think he is very powefull, doesn't need a nerf but a buff would make him very OP I am not sure what Hi-Rez is thinking. I do think that he gets focused down very easilly with some stuns :P

Melee character my ***,

Ne Zha is almost OP from when I faced him. I really want say he is OP since I only faced him a few times but everytime I faced him I just thought to my self what a ********* god.

Why is he *********? For the simple fact that little ********ter is a STRONG MELEE GOD but yet he gets 3 LONG RANGE SKILLS???

YES YES YES!!! There is like no cons to the ********ter, hes amazing at close range and 3 of his skills are LONG RANGE so at what range are you suppose to have the advantage thats the real question. Why? Because his LONG RANGE skill can bring you to her MELEE RANGE HOW NICE!!!

So basically ne zha is ******** because he can camp LONG RANGE and not be touched, instead of walking up to you melee all he has to do is use his LONG RANGE skill to bring him to MELEE RANGE to beat your ***.

Oh and I remember a ne zha ****ping on my in 1-3 seconds MAXIMUM!!!
Ne Zha was attacking so fast and doing so much damage my brain starting talking to me and my brain said WHY DOES THIS SEEM LIKE ********* that this god can **** on you that fast, camp at long range and be deadly at close range???

CC??? Her ult is his escape and yes its good enough because its far.
Who cares about CC anyways when most of the time CC doesn't stop you from getting your *** destroyed when they are in your face. SLow? Okay I will still beat that ***, A stun is the only thing stopping him unless you just simply out smart him.

i'm not saying he is OP but he is def not weak, that little bastard is strong and seeing how he has LONG RANGE moves that can bring him in MELEE RANGE makes me say ********* every time.

Again I'm not saying OP my brain just simply wants me to say ********* for some odd reason because my brain likes to think that I don't know why reflex I guess.

More like that attack speed needs nerfed, I don't know what the buff is on that skill but I was getting destroyed in less than 3 seconds flat.

I never really got to play 1v1 since he always has team members around

Melee character my ***, more like LONG RANGE MELEE CHARACTER!

ICEN,many gods have this "Gap-closing" ability in MOBAs but they are just different!

Ne Zha has a single skill shot which will take you there if it hits only, it's a small line to aim and difficult to hit! Sun Wukong/Bastet have leaps which close the gap and gets you melee range, so many gods have these!
The only exception is loki and he has invisibility and speed buff skill!

Less caps, more grammar checks. Countering Ne Zha is as easy as building a Midgardian Mail, activating beads preemptive to his sash, or simply engaging him with only cc-heavy god kits. If you're letting a predictable melee carry feed on you, then you are incompetent and should stay with your teammates as often as possible.

Wow, ICEN. Heaven forbid you actually have to face a Thor, who has a ranged throw that can double as a teleport, a quick line stun that also creates a wall, and a spin that does a lot of damage and makes him immune to slows and knockback. None of that is even factoring his ultimate that allows him to gank lanes and show up in teamfights with zero warning. If any melee needs to be nerfed at the moment, it's him.

Thor, Herc and monkey are all S, but I don't see a way of balancing Herc and Thor without ruining them again. As if for monkey I think the same exept that he had been S tier since the beginnIng and that he doesn't even get picked up in pubs :P

Most people, including myself, will say that the best way to balance Thor would be to change the stun on his wall to a slow. Keep in mind, he can still use his wall to trap enemies without having to CC them. His damage has been in a good place for a long time, it's just that he had too much CC with two skills having stuns attached to them.

I don't think Ne Zha is overpowered at all. His 2 is his main damage ability. Not even his ult does that much damage, it's more of an ability to setup other gods like a Ymir ult or to let your team surround. His grapple is way slow and easy to dodge, and his rings don't do much damage unless you find 2 or 3 gods in a pack with no minions nearby. He's considered an Assassin, but plays more like a carry where as he doesn't get very useful until late game.

Yeah but his ult is extremely hard to hit and his wall/stun is kinda needed to nail that dubble hit :P