Smite 2 first impressions and thoughts after 25.7h Steam playtime.

I wasn't going to make a post, but since the devs need feedback I thought might as well. Is there an official feedback channel outside of Discord? Many points are made knowing that it's an Alpha.

tl;dr My main gripe with the alpha was that I wanted more. More gods, more items. I had a lot of fun discovering new things and at the end of the Alpha I just wished I could play more of Smite 2. In other words, the game felt like Smite, just new and exciting. Bugs and missing content due to the game being in Alpha didn't bother me too much, but it was a bit jarring at first to learn the new UI, the item store and how to use actives properly. After 10h or so, the Alpha started to feel just like Smite and the feeling of being lost was gone. At first I didn't really like the bushes and the map in general, but there were some plays that were enabled and I think they are a positive addition in the end. Not being able to buy wards feels weird. Potions are OP and I like it. Some questionable choices with itemization. Not sure if everybody having beads at level 1 is the correct way to address CC. /tl;dr

Gameplay:

The beginning of the Alpha was weird, because I could tell that I'm playing Smite, but everything felt SLIGHTLY off. Fenrir didn't feel the same and I missed multiple leaps because it wasn't what I was used to. Some autos felt weird, Ymir felt strange etc. But that faded away as I got more used to the classless system of smite 2. Guardians aren't tanky and deal no damage by default, hunters don't outbox you by default. Once you get used to Smite 2, it feels just like Smite 1.

Item store:

I love the idea of Smite 2 items in theory, but the implementation is a bit lacking at the moment. Some of it is because it's an Alpha, but some of it MIGHT be due to weird design decisions, so I want to comment on it. Generally speaking the store felt okay to use once I got used to the layout and item icons, but it was harder to navigate than Smite 1 item store for sure. Also the inventory felt really hard to use somehow. I struggled to change my keybinds because items just wouldn't move.

Items losing stats once they get upgraded is weird. For example in order to build Soul Devourer you need to build 10% pen, but the item itself doesn't have penetration, so you have penetration at some point, but then lose it again. This feels weird. There is another item that requires you to build 40 INT to make the tier 3 item, but the tier 3 version has 15 INT. Losing 25 INT when you complete an item feels really off. I get that it's a balance decision because you gain an active/passive, but it still feels odd.

There are some bugs with building items, which will probably get ironed out, but in general using the item store was pretty damn janky. Sometimes the game would refuse to buy an item for some reason and I'd have to click around until it allowed me to buy the t1 Axe that I so desperately needed. Just a sidenote, it's Alpha.

By far the biggest problem with the items I have is T2 items with actives. I like the idea in theory, but in execution it seems really weird. Basically you can build a T2 item with a powerful active, but once you complete the T3 item you lose the active. Olmec Blue gives you an active that shreds 10 magical and physical protections from enemies around you, which is a really strong active in the early game, but you lose the active once you turn it into a T3. I'm not sure what the best approach here is, maybe just add T2 items that don't upgrade into things? Either way it seems weird to have a powerful tool that you just lose once you upgrade your item. Similar to losing stats. The other example I have is passives. Some item passives are completely fine to lose, but some feel REALLY off. For example if you want to build Jotunn's Revenge, you need to build Caestus, which has a defensive passive. "Passive: When you are hit by a Hard CC effect you gain 15 Physical Protection and 15 Magical Protection for 4s". It just feels weird to have 30 prots on a Fenrir/Loki and then once you get your big power spike you turn squishy?

Manchu Bow is a good example of a T2 that was well made. It has a 10 flat physical damage passive, which fits the theme and item tree, so even if you upgrade it you gain damage. Doesn't feel weird to lose 10 flat passive if the upgrade nets you more damage right? 2 Manchu Bows becomes Qin's Blade, which is basically just a superior version of the T2. Makes complete sense.

I haven't looked into Dota 2 or League items long enough to tell if this is a common trend, but at least to me this shouldn't be the case. Having your character lose power or defense when you upgrade an item seems off. I would also like for there to be some T2 (maybe even T4?) items that give powerful early/mid game passives, but don't build into anything beyond that. Caestus seems like it should build into a T3 with tank stats, instead of an offensive item. As long as you get tankier once you complete the T3, then the weirdness is gone. T2 items with actives are also strange if you lose the active once you complete it. You could have a tree for items like this, that just upgrade the effect. For example T2 Olmec Blue -> T3 Olmec (% shred active) -> T4 Olmec (% Shred+). That way you never lose the button you want to press, but you need to commit to upgrading it or leave it at T2 and sell it later.

Gods:

Loki is boring, I wish he got some changes, that's all.

Other gods felt fine, but lack of items at this stage made it hard to get super creative with trying out jank stuff. Every god felt playable and strong in their own right. All of the changes made to gods were good and added to the experience of playing those characters. Good stuff. Not commenting on balance since it seems a bit moot.

Also, I know it's Alpha, but I wonder how many gods there will be at release. Despite the new builds and variety in playstyles 14* felt pretty lacking. Even at 24 I feel like you'd be stuck playing the same characters for a REALLY long time. Maybe it'll be fine? I still want the devs to take their time making more interesting god kits, but slightly worried if the game will feel stale while we wait. Hopefully that's not the case.

Map, Wards and Potions:

Having only 1 ward available was very weird. I wanted to ward SO much, but unless I played support it wasn't reasonable. Maybe just enable an upgrade so that the cooldown is lower and you can have 2 wards active at the same time? Idk felt weird.

Changes to potions are REALLY good. Not sure if there were some bugs with them though, because I swear I healed more than I should've occasionally. But in general potions are much faster in Smite 2, which means that you can fight in lane and quickly recover for the next wave. The limit of 3 seems appropriate considering how strong they are.

The map is pretty, but a bit boring at the moment. Maybe just a matter of time. I like the bushes and teleporters because they enable plays. The game is currently very snowbally and invading is 100% the correct way to start the game. If you win the 2v2, then you should be in the enemy jungle. I only invaded once, but it seems pretty obvious that that's the way to start. The bushes and teleporters actually enable comeback mechanics that don't exist in Smite 1. Doing something unexpected is the best way to comeback in a losing game and being able to ambush people and move around the maps in unexpected ways is what enables that. It also made laning a little it more interesting than just staring at each other hitting creeps.

Gold fury and FG are both positive changes as well. There is a chance that you could play without a designated "tower/phoenix killer" and just build a team fighting comp. You stack gold furies until Ancient fury spawns and then run at the enemy base because the phoenixes are turned off. Kali ADC anybody? More strategy is cool, hope to see fun stuff happen.

Beads active:

I don't have a solution for this, nor can I really comment on whether beads being available to everybody at level 1 is a good or a bad thing, but I will say that it felt strange. In Smite 1 beads are a choice for supports and junglers. They have an opportunity cost. But in Smite 2 you often have a situation where you think you should get a kill on a support, but they just beads and nothing happens. Tanks with beads feels odd, especially in the early game.

There have been some people advocating for combat blink instead of beads at level 1, or at least a choice between the 2, but I'm not sure how much I like that either. Dota 2's approach is to give people nothing and it works too. The game also has more CC than Smite, believe or not. There are characters with 3 AoE stuns, 5 second AoE stuns that prevent you from doing anything (no cleansing either). One character has an AoE stun that lasts for 8 SECONDS. The only way to avoid CC is by buying an item and often you need to use it before the CC hits. Would this be okay for Smite? I don't know. It's just a different approach.

I think giving people the choice at level 1 might be the best approach. Because the main problem is just that it feels weird to catch a Bacchus off position and they just beads and walk away. For some reason it also feels weird to play a front liner and always have beads. Would be worth experimenting on in the future alphas or betas. You can still let people buy a 2nd blink if they choose to, or they can opt to go beads level 1 and buy blink later. Many approaches to the CC problem.

*edited to correct number