Athena Patch Notes 06/04/2013

I want to argue that Ne Zha was beatable, but the latest statistics from SmiteRepo don't lie. Ne Zha currently has one of the highest winrates in Solo Ranked, along with the highest usage among melee assassins (tied with Fenrir, whose winrate is MUCH lower).

Meanwhile, nearly every other melee assassin is rarely seen. Arachne, Bakasura, and Bastet are all considered to be garbage picks in the ranked environment. Loki and Kali are slightly better off, but still struggle to find a spot on most teams.

And then there's Sun Wukong. For a very long time, the monkey used to be considered a top-tier pick until just a couple months ago. His usage has plummeted ever since Ne Zha and Fenrir showed up, and he now sits on the bench with the rest of the rarely-used assassins. How does someone go from being superstar to nearly forgotten so fast? The powercreep effect. Those two gods, whose kits were loaded with damage and utility, ended up drowning the monkey into the sea of obscurity.

When you look at it like this, Ne Zha had that nerf coming to him.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention Ne Zha was the second most common banpick in Solo Ranked, just behind Bacchus who was the top ban.

I think you have a good point Sunfall, but people really started picking other gods than monkey when ranged physicals became so important in the meta, which happened around the time Thor and Hercules became better picks.

Correction: Ranged physicals have been important since Anhur and Cupid. That didn't keep Wukong down though, because he's always held a few strong niches, namely how effective his ultimate was for initiating teamfights. He was also very mobile and a good harasser earlygame. That combination of traits made him a top pick for a very long time.

Thor and Hercules are bruisers, so that's not a fair comparison: I'm talking about assassins. A good amount of players also consider Thor to be overpowered in his current state as well. Hercules kind of bounces between being good one patch and being bad the next. Nobody can make up their mind with Herc.

I'm actually thinking if Athena is a tank or bruiser? Her 3 and 1 is good damage and her basic attack seems to be magical. Other than that, her 2 can bring enemy back and her 4 can make her fault go into team fight as well escaping. She is definitely good but not OP. I think this is one of god hirez has put much work on

She can fit both roles

Oh god. I'm so excited to play her.

Athena sounds more like a Magical Bruiser than of a Pure Tank, imo. All of her abilities does damage, and her passive makes the fact of her having some magical power useful( I still think it's pretty ridiculous adding a Mini-Impale as a passive, but anyways).


About Bacchus nerf, it was trully needed. Although people don't play Bacchus so much on Casual, he is constantly banned on Competitive. But as people said earlier, Bacchus needs a nerf on his Buffs.

Honestly, I'm expecting a nerf on her.

She has the stats of a tank with the damage of a magic bruiser. She excels in preventing damage and does a significant amount of damage.

She will get nerfed.

Bacchus needed the nerf I suppose. He didn't do a lot of damage, but he is one of the few tanks that can actually be considered a "tank", Athena being the other.

Honestly, Hades does so much more damage on top of AoE heals, he slows more and his silence/ fear is on a much shorter cooldown than her taunt. Athena is in no way overpowered, in fact she may even get a buff or two. Her Shield Wall is lackluster atm, but I still think it's a fun ability and she's a nice addition to the game.

She's not overpowered, that is for certain. However, I still think that her numbers are a bit too high for a tank.

Hades does more damage, sure, but if you think about it he is required to be more up-close, and his Ult leaves him vulnerable to attack despise the protections.

Athena can deal damage as well as prevent it, at the same time too.

Her Shield wall has got some high base damage and scales very nicely. Maybe a bit too nicely, but the fact that Ares' Shackle still exists means I can't complain about anything else until Ares gets his nerf. I think Hades and Athena both require close range to tank effectively and they can both deal and prevent damage with their cc.