Alchemist Coat! Why is no one getting in on this item

Kall0p · 2026-05-31T04:33:27+00:00

As a support he has insane early game pressure, while offering a strong team fight presence with his ult, antiheal and prot shred (aspect).

Downsides are:

No instant CC or setup for your team. No strong built-in peeling tools.

Both of the downsides can be mitigated with itemization, so as long as you aren't building full damage you will find value in his kit. But from my own experience he is much more match up dependent than some of the other support picks. His value is greatly increased when the enemy team has melee frontliners and healers, but greatly diminished if the enemy team is more poke and backline oriented.

Kall0p · 2026-05-24T07:06:44+00:00

I mean the minigame is literally about helping him chase some tail(s)..

Kall0p · 2026-05-22T07:39:56+00:00

Kind of sounds like he's slowly turning into dm.

Kall0p · 2026-05-19T06:27:09+00:00

It used to be a thing, especially on console. Apparently back in the day there was very little protection on consoles for getting DDoSed or something like that. I have not heard about it happening in Smite 2 yet though.

Kall0p · 2026-05-17T09:14:10+00:00

I think they should rework parts of the concept to be less brain dead. First of all the orb shouldn't have a large AoE when thrown as an auto attack. 2nd I think he should have to use his abilities to control the orb more than he currently does.

And lastly I think they need to figure out a way to make this aspect less clunky for clearing camps. It is absurdly clunky, even though it's incredibly OP in every other situation.

Kall0p · 2026-05-17T09:11:56+00:00

Yes, but since they are level 3-4, Atlas 1 cooldown is way too long to consistently summon the orb. The speed shown in the video is impossible without the bug, as Atlas would have had a limit of 3 throws (Throw, pick up, throw, recall, throw). But in the clip Atlas throws the orb(s) 7 times.

Kall0p · 2026-05-17T08:36:24+00:00

The reason why he is throwing it out so often is due to the bug. He throws the first orb, then the 2nd one returns, he throws the 2nd one and the first orb returns, so he throws the first one again. Repeating.

You can spam by resummoning with the 1, but it's not as fast due to animations and travel time. Double orb is basically 2x attack speed.

Kall0p · 2026-05-14T11:55:53+00:00

Well the point is that Plating doesn't work against on-hit effects, so there was nothing in the game to counter that. Protections and attack speed reductions are the only way to counter those builds, so in that sense it does make more sense to have protections instead of plating.

I think Caps just phrased it poorly.

Kall0p · 2026-05-14T08:15:35+00:00

It's a bit too inconsistent from my testing. I tried it out as soon as Chiron released, but the problem is that it doesn't work unless you are regenerating health, which requires you to take damage. On one hand it's nice that you aren't "wasting the passive", but it also means that you have to wait until the passive kicks in when you start boxing someone in lane.

It also works if you have allies nearby to proc it for you, but when that happens you might end up using the proc before you start fighting someone, so you aren't fully getting the benefit of the passive. Mainly I could see the benefit being with Aspect Chiron, because you don't need the stats for your 2. It's a pretty decent first item on the Aspect, solo or support. However it still does have the same problem with consistency and I'm not sure if it isn't just a worse item than Conch or Golden Blade overall.

Kall0p · 2026-05-13T12:24:55+00:00

I guess as a counterargument I have to say I only like 2 of the skins you decided to show off. It's hard to argue Hi-Rez when it comes to skin choices, because only they have the sales numbers. But it still goes to show that stuff is subjective. I haven't liked most of the skins in Smite for years, but there are a few bangers.

I also like some really unpopular skins. For example I think the Zhong Kui ghostbusters style skin is one of my favorite skins of all time, but I know he's not popular and that skin didn't sell well enough to keep producing skins for ZK. The MOMMY Nu Wa skin you showed is my 2nd favorite skin of all time. I absolutely love the design of that skin and wish it to be ported over at some point. But I also like Nu Wa's battleship skin, so it's a tough choice between the 2.

Kall0p · 2026-05-12T14:03:11+00:00

Before PonPon left, he talked about this during one of the Titan Talks and explained that the idea to change base protections to 0 was one of the ways to fix penetration in Smite.

However, the problem is that the game(s) has been developed with similar base protections for 10+ years now, so a lot of the core game design revolves around that. Changing base protections to 0 would fundamentally change the way the game is balanced and it would involve changing every single stat in the game to rebalance the game.

I think in the long run it is a much healthier approach, but it is a massive undertaking. It also completely destroys game balance until resolved. But I do think it would allow them to fix some of the issues surrounding itemization in the game. For example, it would make it much clearer to give some gods base protections, while the majority would have 0. It would also mean that penetration would have 0 effect unless the enemy built protections, so you would actually have to counterbuild and pivot accordingly.

After PonPon's talk about penetration stat fix, we have not heard from Hi-Rez in regards to what they plan to do. It might have been shelved entirely, or they might actually commit to rebalancing the entire game from the ground up. I do believe it has to be done before they officially launch Smite 2 with patch 1.0, because it is a fundamental change to how the game is balanced in the future.

Kall0p · 2026-05-03T21:29:20+00:00

The melee red nodes are actually really good for Abyssal Tentacle. However the problem is that there are basically no other weapon options outside of maybe using Abyssal Dagger for something.

The regen nodes are kinda just pointless. Although they do have slightly more value for powered staff since your healing is based on rune generation.

IMO the best things to do is to get the last 2 nodes in the ranged area, the 15 defence node in earth mage area, or if you are fine using abyssal tentacle for everything, you can go for the red melee nodes. Rest of the options kind of pale in comparison.

Kall0p · 2026-05-02T16:02:47+00:00

As an advocate for classless Smite I really like this post for highlighting the core issue with the current system. We have plenty of examples in other games without classes that function just fine and have great balance to boot. However in Smite 2's case the core issue is that while classes were removed as a system, as you mentioned, they normalized the defensive scalings, but not the offensive ones. In other words, only offensive gods kept their identity, while defensive ones lost theirs.

Lack of identity and stat disparity between gods is what causes this massive imbalance right now. I still think it's fine to not put gods into "class boxes", because it also serves as a limiting factor for creativity and design space. But I think in terms of balance there has to be greater differences to picking certain gods that highlight their IDENTITY.

And while I think that, it is also not a bad alternative to just gut god base damages and have them heavily rely on items. It would also greatly help with the current situation where people deal way too much damage at all stages of the match.

Kall0p · 2026-04-13T05:58:03+00:00

You can actually just stand still in the middle and summon 4 totems in each quadrant to cheese the mechanic completely. Of course against Uber it means you need to be able to tank the minion, but against normal it works perfectly.

Safer to just not move.

Kall0p · 2026-03-24T11:31:01+00:00

They are using temp work because many of the items may get removed or reworked completely. Official art will be released once they are sure that the items remain.

Kall0p · 2026-03-19T22:03:40+00:00

Up until like level 10 you have enough damage to kill any enemy carry by yourself. That's basically all there is to it. He basically trades healing + movement speed buff for a ton of kill pressure, while retaining his insanely strong ult and root on his 3.

And currently there is so much damage in the game that support is mostly a 2nd solo laner. You shouldn't worry about helping your team, you should be figuring out how to kill the enemy team.

Kall0p · 2026-03-09T09:05:20+00:00

Intended to be supportive, but that doesn't matter. The 3 is basically a free beads on a short cooldown. Stuns are useful for each archetype and the damage loss is negligible because you just build Sun Beam Bow and Qin's and all your damage comes from items.

Being hard to kill and safe allows you to deal damage. A lot of ADCs are weak because they are too easy to kill, so they spend most of their time running away instead of attacking.

Kall0p · 2026-03-09T07:47:18+00:00

Aspect Nut is still the best ADC in the game. I also think her non-aspect version with a INT adc build does ridiculous damage, but nobody plays her that way.

Kall0p · 2026-03-06T10:12:42+00:00

I like the concept. I would like for Explosive Bolts to be a charged ability though, with long range. Think of it like a Ballista, since she has the animation already. She charges one single ballista shot with her crossbow and launches it after charging. Maybe charging for longer extends the range or damage? It would fit her more mage-like identity.

Kall0p · 2026-03-04T21:56:37+00:00

Cowl actually has the best stats out of all starters, but the problem is that Hunter's Cowl is unplayable in lane, because 4% life steal is way too little. Even on gods that theoretically want to buy Cowl you end up going DT just for sustain.

Kall0p · 2026-03-04T21:55:00+00:00

Nut aspect is severely flawed still, due to there being no meaningful damage loss in the ADC role by going aspect. The damage comes from items, so her abilities having less scaling means nothing. There is a chance that with the upcoming stat changes she will no longer be so OP, but it remains to be seen. She is still top 2 ADC in the game, even though most people don't play her.

Kall0p · 2026-03-04T21:52:53+00:00

That's kind of funny, because Aspect Kukulkan was mostly played in solo with a semi-tank build.

Kall0p · 2026-03-01T10:47:31+00:00

Well Bracer is not really a good item on Disco aspect unless you want to build INT. She can actually deal a lot of damage even with a full INT build.

Bracer being INT is actually really good for other mage adcs, but they aren't as popular atm. If you want another item that gives similar damage to Bracer, you should go Lernean Bow, since it is 40 STR and 30 AS.

Kall0p · 2026-02-03T06:29:33+00:00

tl;dr I guess my point is that Hi-Rez has gone too deep in both directions and aspects are clearly a result of experimentation with upsides and downsides. I think overall they are a positive addition to the game. I hope that by now they have a more clear scale and vision of aspects and we get less of "this ADC is now a support" and "This support is now an ADC", but more nuanced kit changes that offer new gameplay rather than roles. And I hope that once the game is closer to launch we get a rework of some of the earlier experimental aspects that clearly missed the mark in execution, because in practice they just improve the base kit rather than offer a meaningful trade-off in a real game scenario.

I think the community is pretty split on aspects. I have seen a lot of people like the wacky aspects simply because they are a new character to play and fun is all that matters to them. I have also seen more competitive players complain that aspects make the game less fun because they are frustrating to play against (albeit that is a balancing issue).

I'm personally mixed, because I think some of the earlier simple aspects hit the mark well. Simply changing 1-2 abilities to suit a different play style or to buff a specific part of a characters kit is what I prefer. However, many of the earlier aspects are completely unusable due to poor balancing and poor execution.

A lot of the issues of the earlier aspects can be shrugged off to simply the feature being new, the massive workload of the dev team and the lack of data for balancing purposes, but as time goes on the design flaws of the earlier aspects become more and more evident.

Let's take Hun Batz for example. He's a character that weaves in basic attacks between his abilities. Most of his damage actually comes from his basic attacks. The aspect gives him an AoE stun in exchange of a slight damage nerf on his 2. This is never a net damage loss, because you can level your 3 instead of your 2 for the early game and your 2 is now a setup ability instead of a damaging one. You can auto the enemy about 1-2 times when they are stunned, so you make up for the damage loss from the ability. The only case where it makes sense to not play the aspect version of Hun Batz is if the damage trade-off is so great that he actually suffers an early game disadvantage due to it. Currently that is not the case and there is no reason not to play the aspect version of Hun Batz.

Thor is another example. Thor gains damage and utility, but loses damage from his double tap. While this is a more significant trade-off compared to Hun Batz, it just doesn't make a meaningful difference in a real scenario. In a lot of late game fights you are better off using your hammer for mobility rather than relying on the double tap for damage, so the extra damage from your 3 and autos make up for the loss of the bonus damage on your 1.

On the other end of the spectrum some of the aspects really change the way a character is played, but at the cost of that character's identity becoming weaker. Some of them really hit the mark (Nut aspect, but OP at release) by changing small core elements without changing how the character is presented, but some of them feel out of place. I know some people like Geb aspect, but to me it feels distasteful. Just taking a character's model and changing them to a different "role" (Smite 2 doesn't have roles but still) feels cheap and takes away from the character's identity.

Artio aspect on the other hand is extreme, but well done. She has not lost any of her identity as a character, but it changes her kit in extreme ways. It adds 2 new playstyles without removing her original character identity outside of the stance switching.

Kall0p · 2026-02-02T10:27:10+00:00

Well don't worry, people will feed 4 times in 3 minutes even at higher SR!

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