I decided to step away from my typical news and opinion based articles and tell you a little story about one of the best MOBA experiences I’ve had to date. Any of the MMOAttack regulars are probably aware that I’ve become somewhat of a SMITE fan-boy of late and it’s experiences like this that continue to drive me into the game day after day.
It began like any other arena match with both teams choosing heavy AoE God’s to make use of ultimate ability combinations. Despite how effective this combination can be, it’s common enough that practically every self-respecting SMITE player will purchase items, consumables or actives to counter the abilities of their opponents. To my surprise, every player from both teams immediately grabbed Purification Beads; an item that cancels and makes the user immune to CC for a short duration, perfect when playing against God’s like Ares and Hades.
For the next 10-15 minutes it was a pretty standard match. The Hades on both teams would initiate with his ultimate ability before the rest of the team activated every AoE ability in their arsenal. My hopes were high but as the match progressed I noticed my teammates ignoring the minions, a vital point-scoring system featured in the games Arena Mode. The enemy team slowly crept head, having a comfortable 70 point lead nearing the final few minutes.
Our tickets were dwindling and along with it, our hope. The chances of obtaining my First Win of the Day bonus seemed slim and the team began to fall apart in chat. That was until Hades stepped out of the mist like a spandex cladded hero stepping in at our time of need.
I cannot repeat what he said word for word but to sum it up he told everyone to shut up and get on with it, before suggesting a possible strategy to wipe the enemy team. A solid wipe and a good push on the minion waves could be enough to claim victory, but could we pull it off?
The enemy team was bunched near their base and it appeared they were attempting to bait Hades to use his ult. Instead Thor came crashing down from the skies stunning two of them before they quickly escaped with beads. Hades was attacking the two stragglers and became very low on health, as he retreated the entire enemy team attempted to chase him down. Thor hit his stun and forced another wasted used of the Purification Beads, leaving 3/4 of their team defenseless against our almost dead Hades.
They continued to attack Hades, ignoring Thor as he hammer went spinning amongst them, then followed one simple word, “Now”. Hades popped Mediation Rank 3 which gave him enough mana to use his ultimate ability and restored enough health to keep him alive. As Guan Yu I rushed straight in with my ultimate ability and stunned their team before throwing another heal towards Hades. Zeus opened the heavens and rained down bolt after bolt as one by one, the enemy team fell.
They respawned fast enough but the wipe was all we needed to get back into the fight. It was literally down to the final kill as the teams eventually tied with 5-5. Sadly they were able to beat us to the finish line but the previous fight was enough for my team to leave with a smile.
I was too pumped to take any notice of the summary screen so I’m not sure if I was with a 4-man pre-made but the precision in that last attack was one of the best team fights I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t ranked and it was just a single match, but damn was it a blast.