Yearly Archives: 2016

Atlas Reactor Kaigin Hero Review

Kaigin the Warpstalker is a deadly and elusive firepower assassin that can solo carry games by unleashing extreme damage while being dodgy enough to almost always escape the counter assault. That’s not to say it’s easy, as reaching his skill cap is going to take some serious knowledge of the Atlas Reactor mechanics.

 

With multiple dashes, wide high damage melee swings, ranged shurikens, and rewarding all-ins, Kaigin is an ideal choice for the carrying soloQ player. Or is he?

Abilities

  • 1 – Twisting Blades (Blast Phase)
    Deal heavy damage to enemies directly in front of you, deal reduced damage to enemies on the sides.

    • 2 – Razor Temptest (Blast Phase)
      Throw 3 separate damaging shurikens a moderate distance.

    • 3 – Void Strike (Dash Phase)
      Dash and deal damage to a visible target. Additionally, after the dash you can pick a nearby square to land on, and choose a move command.

    • 4 – Shadowstalker (Blast Phase)
      Drop a smoke bomb at current location obscuring enemy vision; also become stealthed until the next decision phase.

    • 5 – Spectre of Death (Dash Phase)
      Teleport to a target location and deal damage to all nearby enemies, deals less damage per enemy hit. Can move on the same turn.

  • Passive: Enemies hit by any of Kaigin’s abilities are marked (denoted with a small electric sphere on the target’s character model). Marked enemies take an additional 10 damage when hit with any of Kaigin’s abilities. Not affected by guard.

 

Strengths
+High Damage Potential
+Extremely Elusive
+Strong Solo Carry Capability

 

Weaknesses
-Incredibly Difficult to Play Well
-Requires Dangerous All-Ins to Do Damage
-Must Frequently Change Gameplay Style to Stay Relevant

 

Role
Kaigin is by definition a firepower freelancer, meaning he is expected to do loads of damage while staying alive. However actually doing so is quite difficult on both fronts.

Not dying by itself is obviously important, and while Kaigin is certainly elusive with 2 dashes, a teleport, and stealth, he’s still quite squishy and must get into melee range to get off the big hits. He can be compared to Asana, the frontliner, with a similar look and feel. The major difference is Asana relies on damage negation to just take the hits and shrug it off. Kaigin must evade attacks entirely or he could get 1 turn killed and violently swing the momentum in the enemy’s favor.

So, effectively, Kaigin I believe requires some of the most cunning tactical decision making to make most effective. He needs to hit and run while continually proc’ing marks for maximum damage, but do so with near expert level knowledge of the game and opponent’s potential kit use to make it work. Knowing when to all in while keeping up with predictions and evading death is incredibly difficult with this melee assassin. Should you find a way into the center of a melee though, you will discover Kaigin has the potential to be one of the strongest lancers in the game.

 

Gameplay Overview
While a significant amount of time is still necessary to render a best course of action, I have discovered two vastly different play styles that have worked well for me.

The first is the obvious when glancing over his profile: he’s an assassin. Generally this has you running around the side going from stealth zone to stealth zone until you either meet someone and focus them down, or using shadowstalker to stealth up again and rush the backline to kill the likes of high priority targets Zuki, Blackburn, Lockwood and so on. Assuming the enemy does have a high priority target like mentioned previously, then this tactic works well enough. Disrupting the enemy’s strategy while also getting a fair amount of damage done is effective, if a bit predictable, and fairly straightforward. Definitely try this style of play first, especially since opponents are likely less capable of reacting appropriately to a diving assassin.

The second playstyle is when your team has a high priority target and are facing several divers like Rask, an enemy Kaigin, Tidus etc. Then, you play somewhat like Asana, except instead of just tanking, you find the first diving enemy and burst them down with your high priority team member. It’s sort of a vanguard role that reacts and shuts down enemy aggression with damage instead of damage negation.

 

Mods
Generally speaking I don’t like the mod options available. I like the idea of mods, the tweaking of a character to play a specific playstyle, but Kaigin’s options do not assist in that goal. My build looks something like:

  • 1 – Focused Assault: extra damage in the center, less on the sides.
    Other viable options are increasing the frontal con, and damage done to the sides for more consistent aoe damage, but by that point why not just play Asana?
  • 2 – Void Empowered: Deal extra damage with each shuriken, but lose the extra damage done with multiple shurikens on one target. I like this mod because it allows your ranged attacks to do more damage overall instead of betting on hitting one target with everything. Otherwise, the other options are not worth it or plain bad (please do not pick Flurry of Knives, do not bet against your own skill to play the character)
  • 3 – Through the Void: Increase the range by 1 when dashing to a marked target. Helps chase, everything else is garbage.
  • 4 – Cover of Night: Reduce cooldown by 1 if nothing else is used on the same turn. Personal preference, I could see going for any one of the other mods. I go for this one because I often use it to sprint to the backline on turn 2 and it’s helpful to have an additional escape a few turns down the line.
  • 5 – Master Assassin: If only 1 target is hit they are slowed and revealed until next turn. Helpful for bursting down a single high priority target.

 

Catalysts
For players who frequent the forums this usually remains pretty static. Turtle Tech (give 30 shields for the turn) helps the player survive (especially on a squishy firepower lancer), Shift (teleport a medium distance) gets you out of sticky situations, and Second Wind (Heal 45 HP over 3 turns) heals you back up to join the fight once again.

 

Essentially these options keep you alive and negate mistakes which everyone is bound to make.

 

Tips

  • Look to hit marked targets as much as possible. 10 damage at a time doesn’t seem like much, but it quickly adds up over the course of the game.
  • Don’t use the dashes to initiate unless absolutely necessary. Sprint to the frontline and dash out as necessary – especially to chase a dashing high priority target like Zuki.
  • Grey is a hard counter due to her elusiveness, nigh unavoidable damage, reveals, weakens, and roots. Be very careful of a Grey and look to fight elsewhere.
  • The ult hits on a moderately large circle. Wait for people to group up after hitting multiple people with shuriken to get several mark procs off. Additionally, unlike his other dash, the ult does not need vision to hit. Be wary of the damage reduction against multiple people when you just want to assassinate one person in a single turn.
  • You can move after both dashes, use this to get out of sticky situations.
  • Shadowstalker drops 4 panels of stealth at your current location, this can be great to block vision for your high priority targets instead of just yourself.
  • Both the basic attack and shurikens allow for prediction. Aim them to cover as much space as possible.
  • You don’t have to go ham every turn. It may be necessary to do nothing several turns in a row to allow your abilities to come back off cooldown. Better to be alive and doing nothing.

 

Long Term Viability
Kaigin, like many high skill cap champions, will have an abundance of one trick ponies at every step of the ranked ladder (like Yasuo/Riven from League of Legends). Throw in the fact that he’s a cool cyber ninja and you get another segment of the crowd clamoring for such a stylish, difficult to play, but exceptionally rewarding lancer.

However, whether or not he will actually see success is another question entirely. My guess is no. Kaigin’s skill floor is very high due to being a squishy melee firepower character that must evade attacks entirely to stay alive. Just surviving is difficult, but he still has to do damage. Successfully hitting shurikens and getting reliable melee attacks while balancing mark damage, dashes, and avoiding hits is hard. Much too hard, I think, for most people to see a consistently good winrate.

I don’t doubt some will be able to completely annihilate their opposition, maybe he’ll even see some competitive play (note: I have not yet watched competitive Atlas Reactor), but generally speaking I think he’s too much of a gambit for the average player. Why take the risk of throwing yourself into the action with a diver when Blackburn or Lockwood will usually do as much damage from the safety of a backline and guard cover?

 

Ryujin No Ken o Kurae!
Every competitive multiplayer game has to have the Kaigin archetype: high damage, elusive mobility, a Japanese inspired style, and a ridiculously high skill floor and skill cap. Although, I’m not complaining. Just stating the obvious.

 

He’s bound to be annoying both on your team and on the enemy’s due to the inconsistently of play from such a versatile lancer, but one thing’s for sure: he’s a whole lotta fun.

SMITE God in Review: Thoth – Ibis Heads Are Cool; Honest

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

 

Thoth is one of the most interesting Gods in SMITE‘s Egyptian Pantheon, as far as creation myths go. And as November moves closer and closer towards Thanksgiving, and we progress towards Smite Worlds/HiRez Expo, we get another God! Thoth, Harbinger of Knowledge, Arbiter of the Damned is really something else. He has to be my favorite caster that I’ve played in the game so far. He reminds me a bit of Jayce from League of Legends, namely his gate/glyph, and how important it is to his kit. Being able to swap his auto attack for a powerful set of blasts that won’t hamper his movement is also a very important element to how he works. Thoth is listed as “Average” difficulty, but I’m inclined to say “easy to play, hard to master.” His combos are manifold and easy to learn, but it’s the timing and length of them that’s the really interesting part. Moving through the glyph with his dash, for example, increases the length of the dash and the damage on the extra hit. If you can get just the end of your dash in the Glyph, it’s like getting two for one. Thoth is a God so arrogant, so powerful, that he willed himself into existence. He is the embodiment of arrogance, and his tome, the Book of Thoth, contains all the knowledge in the world.

Thoth is incredibly mana hungry, but buying his own book early can offset that. While yes, he has a heavy mana burden with his kit being so important, his 3, Glyph of Pain, has an incredibly low cooldown that will pretty much be up anytime you need it for something. Thoth has an impossibly long list of potential combos, and you can fire your 1 through it in lots of different angles to mix people up.  Though one of the coolest things about Thoth? His laugh, and his walk animation. He has the best walk animation in the game. It encapsulates him as a God. He moves as though he has nowhere in particular to be, slowly strolling forward, moonwalking even, to propel himself to whatever destination lesser gods believe Thoth is needed at. It’s classy, it’s stylish, and it made me want to play him even more. His kit’s pretty simple to understand, but he’s got some holes in his game.


 

Pros:
 

  • Real Pharaoh Damage: Firing through the Glyph of Pain makes him a walking beatstick. It’s very gratifying to full charge his ultimate and obliterate whole groups of people with absolute impunity.
  • Free Is My Favorite Price: His passive gives him Magic Pen simply for killing minions/players. At five stacks of his passive he has a free 20 Magic Penetration, and Mpen is wonderful.
  • Wave Clear/Glyph of Pain: He can be particularly good at sieging thanks to his powerful wave clear. Fire up the glyph, shoot through it, wave is dead. It’s great for defense and offense, whether you want to chase kills, or escape through the Glyph.

Cons:
 

  • Too Much Commitment: The cooldown on Evade and Punish [2] is quite long, 18 seconds out of the box. It doesn’t get shorter, but CDR helps. So once you’ve used it, there’s not much of a chance of him getting out. If you use it to commit, you better get the kill. He’s not mobile at all.
  • I Can See The Enemy: His Glyph of Pain is obvious, visible, and anyone laning against him is going to know what the Hell it means. You’re up to something, and it can be easy to evade shots from it if you know they’re on the way. His ult charges up to four times, and while he can release it early for less damage, I can totally see it flying harmlessly by or dodged by anyone with real mobility.
  • Giving Chase: He can’t really chase people down without his 2.  Sure, you can get Swiftness Relic or something, but as a whole, he cannot chase. If his shots miss, and you’ve already tried to use your 3+2 combo, that kill is gone. He works best with Crowd Control gods.

 

Thoth is a solo lane monster.  I cannot see him in the jungle at all, but I’m sure there’s someone in Smite willing to prove me wrong. Mid lane seems to be the best place for him, but with a partner like Artemis, Cupid, or any other CC Hunter that might be a really fun duo-lane. Stun their carry, smash them with shots from behind the Glyph of Pain, engage and kill them before they can get away. But honestly? Play him mid lane, be aware of faster/more mobile casters, and make them cry and write their name into the Book of Thoth. Don’t forget wards, because he’s a wimp and can’t really get away.  And as much fun as he’d be in a duo lane, he’ll be worthless if you don’t win the lane, because now he’s just a caster with no damage, and you are probably down one tank. So consider him for the solo experience.

 

Thankfully, once you have a nice amount of mana under your belt, you can just melt waves of minions, and force the other caster to fight on your terms. If your opponent’s solo lane is melee, without a dash/engage, Thoth might be okay there too. His capacity to do lots of damage combined with free penetration to punish people who get too greedy/underestimate the Ibis-headed Arbiter should be enough to make even the most regenerative solo lanes question pressuring him.

 

Passive: Dead Reckoning [Buff]: Thoth pens the names of the fallen into the Book of Thoth. For every 30 enemies slain, he gains a stack, which provides 4 magic penetration. Every four levels, he unlocks a new stack. Killing a player will complete the stack you’ve presently been working on.  He caps out at 20 Magic Penetration.

 

1: Hieroglyphic Assault [Buff]: Thoth trades his auto attacks for a blast of energy, which he can do three times. These attacks ignore the Basic Attack Movement penalty, move through enemies and apply Ability Damage [35/55/75/95/115 (+25% of your magical power) per shot] instead of regular damage. If the shot goes through the Glyph of Pain, range is increased by 30.

 

2: Evade and Punish [Dash, Special]: Thoth dashes in the direction he’s currently moving, and for the next five seconds after that, his next attack will be a projectile that does magical damage [ 70/110/150/190/230 (+60% of your magical power)] and a slow [20/25/30/35/40%]. The damage portion will deal more after passing through the Glyph, and the dash reach will increase by 30, as will the damage portion. However the shot must be fired through the Glyph to get the extra damage/range.

 

3: Glyph of Pain: Thoth throws up a Hieroglyph that appears as a transparent wall. Any projectile ability that passes through it will go farther and hit harder [15/25/35/45/55 (+10% of your magical power)]. It has an incredibly short cooldown [5 seconds] and will likely be up again by the time the old one is gone. Thoth and his allies receive a lesser damage bonus to their auto attacks traveling through it, but no bonus range [5/10/15/20/25 (+5% of your magical power)]

 

4: Final Judgment [Attack, Line]: Thoth summons pages from his book, channeling up to four of them. When all four have come into existence, he fires them forward in a line, dealing damage to everything caught in its path [360/440/520/600/680 (+140% of your magical power)]. The range and damage is increased through the Glyph of Pain, and has a long range on its own [100]. Thoth can trigger it early however, for lessened damage. Unlike most ultimates, you’re not immune to CC and can be interrupted while channeling.

 

Don’t you know about the Word?

 

I’ve seen two pretty popular builds for Thoth; one is straight damage, maybe a defense item or two, and one is magical damage of course but focuses primarily on CDR. I can see the argument for it, because that CD for Evade and Punish is brutal. I think I got it down to 15 seconds or so? As far as build though, I like to mix those up. A little CDR, with items like Boots of Focus, and Chronos’ Pendant, maybe Telkhine’s Ring, or Breastplate of Valor if I’m in a real bind for CDR.

 

Items I’m also fond of for the damage department: Spear of Desolation late game, because damn-it, that thing is expensive. Saving for it as your first item is a ludicrous and stupid idea, unless you are just farming Gods instead of minions. Doom Orb, if I’m feeling cocky, or Banecroft’s if I’m feeling froggy. Both are incredibly risky unless you have a knack for squishy low mobility mages already. Spear of the Magus is another fun buy because who doesn’t love more Magic Pen?

 

Dynasty Plate Helm isn’t a bad one for him, as far as defensive hybrid items go, as well as Spirit Robe or Magi’s Blessing. Depends on what you’re after! A starting item to consider is the Soul Stone too. But what do I want to rush first? Book of Thoth of course! It’ll offset your mana hunger, help you build some stacks, and give you the lane presence you most certainly want/need.

Like I said before, Thoth is my favorite caster in the game right now. He’s probably not the strongest, but he brings plenty to a team. He’s got butt-tons of damage with the right positioning. That’s what Thoth boils down to, as far as I’m concerned: Position, position, position. He takes practice and a little bit of daring to get in with him, but with the work put in, you’ll make sure everyone knows the bird is the word, and that you’ve got a story to tell them: Dr. Thoth’s Wacky Book of Asswhippins has their name on it. Literally! I don’t know if he’ll see a lot of bans or SPL action, but I would love to see CC/tank teams built around his ultimate. Stun everyone in a clump and watch them melt into nothingness under the weight of the Ibis-headed Thoth.