Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Jason, that’s your favorite game of all time! Why would you start a series about underrated games with your favorite? Is it really all that underrated?” and I would say it has to be one of the most underrated RPGs that I can think of right off the top of my head, and one that really captured my attention. I’m going to try and look at it from a more neutral standpoint, though. Everyone knows I love it, and quite a few people might even know why. However, when EarthBound released back in June of 1995, that was what I’d consider the Golden Age of RPGs. Final Fantasy 2/4, Final Fantasy 3/6 was on the way. Chrono Trigger, 7th Saga, the Dragon Quest franchise, Illusion of Gaia, Lufia [another underrated title!], Phantasy Star over on the Sega Genesis. Almost every RPG at the time was incredibly serious though, with the exception of probably Secret of Evermore, with its fantastic B-Movie references.
Everything was serious, deadly, dark, and lacked a certain spark. There were funny moments in Final Fantasy 6, and Chrono Trigger for sure, but they had a pretty dark tone. Chrono Trigger was about the destruction/distortion of time itself, and how horrible man was over the ages. How no matter how far we go, things never change: We kill each other over greed, want of power, wanting to be on top of the food chain. There’s a lot of philosophy to unpack there, but it’ll have to wait for another day. EarthBound’s advertisements were pretty awful and gross, thanks to Nintendo trying to be edgy in the 90s. But the world was in peril, Gigyas trying to throw his influence over the whole of the world, clouding animal and man both with darkness. That’s pretty terrifying, right? A modern setting in Eagleland, modern tales were pretty rare in those days. But it bright, cheerful, and it didn’t look grimdark. All of the colors were vivid, sharp, light-hearted. The end-of-the-world threat was hidden behind a childlike appearance. And the main character was like. . . a ten year old boy and three friends he meets from around the world.
So that’s probably why the game was so cheerful looking: You are looking at it through the eyes of Ness, a young boy who misses his dad, and has a cute dog. He’s tasked with saving the world from a bee. Yes, from a bee. It’s a game that doesn’t take itself seriously, despite how dire the actual threat was. It was a collection of jokes, bad humor, puns and satire. Parody, satire, nothing was safe, not even the Blues Brothers, who were in the game as the “Runaway Five”, or the Tonzura Brothers. It was an adventure, a boy placed into circumstances he had no business being in, who had the will and gumption to tackle a task that even an adult would probably fail at. But he does it! No matter what is asked of him, this young boy takes care of business. The longer the game goes on, you can see [if you’re looking] some pretty depressing issues. They come across as very light, but if you’re looking, you can take something away from this game that you didn’t come into it thinking you’d find. Professor Andoughnuts basically has no idea who his son is, not remembering him since he shipped him off to a boarding school. Paula is kidnapped by the Blue Blue/Happy Happyism Cult. She was going to be a sacrifice to the Mani Mani Statue.
This game had hours of entertainment, philosophy, happiness, tear-jerking moments, and absolute sorrow. It was a game that was impossibly ahead of its time. When I tell people that EarthBound is my favorite game of all time, they don’t really get it at first. Well, unless they’re familiar with it anyway. It’s a part of a series that we really didn’t get here in America [except for a retranslation of Mother 3, and a ROM dump of Mother 1]. Smash Bros really helped increase awareness of the franchise, but EarthBound is a game that simply must be played to be believed. See the world through the eyes of a young boy who just wants to do the right thing. Want to see more on it? Then hop over to Bottom Tier, we’re doing a playthrough of it!
I’m not trying to get sued by a shoe corporation! So, Just Win It. Nike is the latest addition to the Smite cast, and she joins the group of already impressive/terrifying warriors. Spoiler alert: she fits in just fine. She’s along the Odin style of fighter, in that she brings a lot of damage, and a lot of frustration to the other team. A huge shield, armor shred, a knock up, a leap? In mythology, Nike’s favor is the key to victory. If you do not have her eye, you will only be a sufferer of abject failure. Anytime a great physical deed occurred, it was Nike that gave her blessing to that person. She was also a key warrior against the Titans, and that apparently mattered a lot to Zeus. Without her, the Titans would have no doubt won, and Zeus, Hades and Poseidon would not have the popular role in the world of the Gods they still enjoy. She has a pretty familiar look, reminding me vaguely of Hawkgirl from DC Comics, while wielding a brilliant weapon, and gorgeous armor. She’s added to the “Easy” list of fighters, and I can definitely see that. She’s not rocket science to play. There’s only a few different ways to build her, and you can decide early if you’re going to set up kills for your friends, or if victory is measured by how many bodies you can stack up.
I love Nike though. She brings an interesting blend of tankiness and damage to a team, and I can personally see her doing hilarious things with her knock up, making her viable with quite a few comps. I’d like to see her paired with people like Zeus [knock up into ult], Anhur [knock up into damage], Ares and Poseidon [Ult Slow into Ares Ult into Poisedon Ult], and there are so many more silly things that you can do with her. She’s powerful, potentially ban-worthy in my opinion, but just because she’s “Easy” doesn’t mean that she’s going to be free wins. Being awful with her will not guarantee you anything. I’ve tried playing her with two build styles, and both of them were fun, though admittedly. . . building damage was far more fun simply because once I lept in, people evaporated into a fine mist thanks to my ludicrous attack speed. She’s the Goddess of Victory, and few Gods I’ve played lately really felt like they filled their mythological shoes quite like her.
Pros:
She’s in Control: Nike has a pile of crowd control, even without building Frost Hammer! Her ult slows, she has a knock-up, and she influences every battle she’s a part of with this. Not to mention that slow also comes with an absolutely ludicrous shield, so it’s unlikely that she’s going to be risking anything with it.
Regeneration? For Free? Yup! Plan of Action gives HP5, just for having it. That’s going to make her a pretty risky force to deal with because she comes with free lane survivability right out of the box! You can get Stone of Gaia on her too to make it stronger, but that’s not really necessary.
Gold Medal for Asskicking: She’s got tons of damage, and she gives damage to her team just for doing well! A max of 12% Power awaits her whole team [and movement speed] in exchange for just putting work in on your foes. She feels like a genuine threat to anyone in her path, and she definitely gets the gold medal for beatdowns.
Cons:
Stop, Criminal Scum: Okay, so her 1 is her primary damage outside of auto-attacks. It’s pretty easy to interrupt the 1, and ruin all of her damage. Not to mention that she doesn’t get the disarm unless she’s using Plan of Action with her 1. She still gets the armor shred for two hits at least.
Long Jump, Slow Jump: Sure, she’s got an awesome leap. It goes pretty far! But… it’s incredibly slow and easy to avoid unless, again, she’s using Plan of Action [her 2] with it. In general, without her 2, she can be evaded/dealt with. But the Plan of Action buff (the faster leap) is a little lame.
Cooldowns: She’s got pretty hefty cooldowns. Sure, her 2 can stay active indefinitely, and the cooldown won’t start until you’ve actually used an ability with it, but her cooldowns are 12/18/18/100. Yikes. You really have to plan your movements, and failure to do so will get you killed.
Now HiRez said she’s not a support, and you shouldn’t really play her support. However instinct is a hard thing to fight, and I ended up doing it anyway! She’s got interesting tools for it. But my “support” was more, I tried desperately to get kills, and wound up setting them up for my friends instead. Or they stole them; dealer’s choice. But with her cleaving auto-attacks, I’d be able to see her as a jungler too. She also has a terrific initiate in that leap, and her ultimate makes her incredibly hard to kill. Nike can go practically anywhere she pleases and do well, but I’d try to not play her against ranged characters unless you’re incredibly skilled in that risky business. She’s got beefy early-game damage, and even with a few defensive items, the Goddess of Victory can bring the pain, and there’s not a lot people can do to stop her once she gets her hands on them. She also brings free damage to her team, just for completing a series of goals, which I’ll get into very shortly. Her kit works well with itself and with others, such as her knocking up a group of people, or just one person that she has targeted to die.
Passive: To Victory [Buff]! Nike sets three goals for her team to meet. Completing these will give them Power [+8/10/12%] and Movement Speed [+3/5/7%], which is wonderful. These goals are: 1: Eliminate 10 Gods as a Team 2: Eliminate 200 Minions as a Team 3: Two Gods reach level 20. It’s a fantastic, fitting passive, and is pretty easy to get all three, though the last one will clearly not happen until end-game unless your team is insanely far ahead.
1: Rend [Damage, Line]: Charging her weapon, Nike slams it down onto the ground twice, dealing damage [50/85/120/155/190 (+50% of your physical power)] to anyone in the path of the blows. If she hits someone twice, they lose Protections [4/8/12/16/20] for five seconds. Plan of Action Buff: If Plan of Action is active, Nike gets a third swing. If the third swing hits, that god is disarmed! It’s easy to stop, but the damage is worthwhile.
2: Plan of Action [Stimulant]: Nike comes up with a brilliant plan for victory! The next ability she uses will have a greater/additional effect in addition to bonus damage [20/30/40/50/60]. Passive: Nike gains HP5 [10/15/20/25/30] simply for having Plan of Action. Plan of Action will not go away until she’s used an ability, once it’s been activated.
3: Valiant Leap [Leap, CC]: Nike spreads her wings, and leaps forward! Anyone she happens to land on gets knocked up and dealt damage to [65/115/165/215/265 (+60% of your physical power)] as a result. The jump is fairly slow though, and not terribly hard to predict unless she uses it to get in front of them instead of using the knock up. Plan of Action Buff: The leap is much faster. That’s it!
4: Sentinel of Zeus [Ground, Shield, CC]: Everyone in a pretty wide radius is slowed, as Nike activates the power of Zeus, turning her into an armored sentinel. She deals damage [100/165/230/295/360 (+80% of your physical power)] and slows [30%, 6 seconds] to everyone in the shockwave range. Then she gains a shield [40% of Max Health] for the duration of the ult [10 seconds]. Plan of Action Buff: Instead of 40%, it’s now 60% and is definitely worth utilizing and the slow is 60% instead of 30%.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of talk about how to build Nike. I’ve tried a few different ways to play her, and I found them all to be ultimately fun. It really depends on what your end-game is. Are you trying to be a beefy wall and set up kills for your friends/teammates? Or do you want to do tons of damage and make other people sad? Even if you’re going Attack Speed/Damage Nike, you will still want at least one protective item anyway. That’s just smart business. You won’t always have that ultimate to get you out of a position you shouldn’t be in. If you’re going to be tanky Nike, she’ll still have damage. Here are some of my favorite items for that: Midgardian Mail, Hide of the Urchin, Mail of Renewal, Breastplate of Valor, Jotun’s, Boots. Of course there are other options, and you should always build to counter the other team’s damage…
I also very much like Stone of Gaea as far as tank/survivability items go. You can also go with damage/attack speed. This was so. Damn. Fun. Is it viable or even advisable? Eh, I dunno about that. But lots of people are doing damage Nike, so I can’t say “Don’t do it!” I built Frostbound, Warrior Boots, Hastened Fatalis, and another Attack Speed item depending on what you need, then a couple of the damage preventing items. I really enjoy Nimean Lion on her too to make late game hunters think twice about dueling me. But if I’m going to get Urchin, it’s going to be early/got to be first. You don’t want it to go to waste.
I don’t have a lot of complaints about Nike. I would like to see you be able to pick the goals for her passive, but I imagine that would be annoying, and either make it too easy/too hard to get the buff, depending on what options there were. It would just be annoying in the end, but I like that. One of the keys is using her 2, Plan of Action correctly. It’s a huge part of her kit, and knowing when to use which buffed ability is so damn important. I tend to leave 2 on and not activate abilities until I need to, but that’s probably a really bad idea. But like I said earlier, she pairs well with so many different Gods. Her kit lets her do ridiculous things with almost anyone. I feel like she is… a weaker Odin in some regards. His shield can be used virtually all the time, but Nike can only use hers once every 100 seconds, depending on CDR [TRY AND GET CDR WITH HER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD]. I do feel like the Plan of Action buffs are a little bland, but not enough that I wouldn’t play her. Because I will. She’s one of my favorite fighters, next to Odin and Bellona. She makes herself a threat simply by being in the fight, and though she can be a little squishy, she must be dealt with, and that makes me feel good. She’s a unique and fun fighter, and fighters [to me] can be a little boring sometimes. She is anything but. #justdunkit
Today, DOTA2 7.00 goes live, and I had to ask myself an important series of questions, like “What does this mean?” and “Do I care?” and “Why does every single MOBA have Sun Wukong in it?” That one is one of the most important questions. Seriously. Monkey King. Sun Wukong. Wukong. Why is Wukong in every single MOBA? I’m sure he’s even in the defunct DC Infinite Crisis. Are there no other interesting mythological creatures, that we have to resort to him every single damn time? Anyway. . .
7.00 is live, and there are a ton of changes hitting DOTA2! But again, the big questions are “Do I care?” and “What does it mean?” Do I really want to go back to DOTA 2 after about a year of inactivity? It is fun and all, but it’s possibly even more frustrating, gameplay-wise, than League of Legends. It’s not a MOBA that holds your hand, but it does offer all the characters all the time without having to spend money on them. That’s definitely a bonus in my book. But there are some pretty humongous updates coming in 7.00, and they are big enough to get my attention again. Maybe I will play again. . . We have a new talent system, a new character, a backpack upgrade, changes to Illusions, and a variety of character/item changes that you can get the full details on right here.
Talent Trees: The ability to add points to your attributes is gone! Which is good, because that’s stupid. But now every hero has a series of talents they can invest into, at levels 10, 15, 20, and 25. They are talents that make sense for that hero, too. For example, ShadowFiend at level 25, can gain 150 bonus attack range, or a -7 sec CD on Shadow Raze! You really have to consider what each match will need, how you are doing, and other things. Ultimate levels are now 6/12/18 as well. But I love these, and being able to adjust my gameplay will help, because I’m not known for getting tons of gold in Dota 2.
Backpack: Players get three more slots for their backpack, but it’s not for things that give buffs, stat points, or damage amplification. Instead, it’s just for items to complete recipes/items and things of that nature. Do you want to buy an item recipe, but don’t want it to take up space, and don’t want to wait on it to be brought to you via minion? I know you don’t. I don’t! You can swap these items to your main backpack with a slight cooldown and will definitely make building items a bit better.
Map Changes: Rohan was moved! He was in a kind of weird area, anyway. He also became a bit easier to kill, and I can’t help but wonder if there will be more level 1 Rohan ganks like there used to be. But, I’ll have to see for myself. There are now Shrines, which appear in your base, and near your side’s secret shop. They can be teleported to, which will make getting secret shop stuff a bit faster I think, and can give a short buff! Runes have been slightly changed, and the jungles were completely redesigned, The Primary jungle for each team now has 1 Ancient, 2 hard, 2 medium, and 1 small camp and the Secondary jungle for each team now has 1 Ancient, 1 hard, and 1 medium camp. There are tons of changes here too, so please read the patch notes for more details.
Illusions: Illusions now give XP/Gold bounties! This is a huge change in my eyes.
Monkey King: Seriously. Seriously? Monkey King? I will never understand the worlds obsession with Monkey King, Sun Wukong, outside of Dragon Ball. That I get. But now the Monkey King has flown down off his cloud to cause mischief in the Arena of the Ancients.
So, tons and tons is happening in DOTA 2 to keep it fresh and interesting. It’s a game that I think desperately needs it, it’s a fantastic MOBA that really doesn’t get enough credit or attention that it probably should, even if it’s on Steam. If you have been away for a while, you owe it to yourself to check out everything that’s going down in 7.00.