Hecate aspect

[Lorska]

I believe it's fair to say the aspect for hecate has not had the desired effect.

1) bad in conquest
It's an aspect that completely neuters your early game and with only one enemy in mid it offers no value in that role. While it's technically better in support, it's still heavily outclassed by no-aspect.

2) broken in assault
Every hecate just auto-picks this and ends up with top damage every time, proccing all the nice items like bluestone, soul reaver and divine. It's just immense pressure even healers tend to be unable to mitigate.

3) new player unfriendly
A new player will just be really stranded against this because he's being actively punished for playing the game. It sets a bad precedent and is really unfun for them to deal with.

4) feels bad
All these no-skill effects that punish you for playing the game have been notorious in smite 1 and have all been nerfed into oblivion. Notable mentions going to kuzenbo, nox, thorns, nemean lion which have all been reworked/nerfed/both to deal with the bad play experience they created.

5) player tension
It's already bad enough to be on the receiving end of this by your own fault. It's worse when you are starting to actively hate your teammates for using abilities (= playing the game) near you (= team fighting). Creating animosity just for doing what you are supposed to do is a great way to create frustration which can't be intentional.

6) no skill expression
Another intrinsic issue is that the play style this creates is just going for max cooldown, proc items and just spam the 2 for 100% uptime and throw out ults hoping for the best. There's no nuance to this, it's just spamming one button on cooldown. If the counterplay to this wasn't just not playing the game this wouldn't be too bad because at least it creates something interesting for the other side, but for modes like assault that's not even an option. Especially once you get near 100% uptime.

Now the problem is that because it's not strong in conquest, you can't just nerf it. The aspect just needs a rework so it has a reason to exist in a conquest environment without completely messing up other modes.
Short term one could just ban the aspect in assault (the bench system makes getting her way too consistent) or just only make the 2 go on cool down after it dissipates so there is always a reasonable downtime. But this aspect really needs a good look so it's a viable alternative in any mode without breaking it.

Tl;Dr
It's too bad in conquest, too strong in casual modes, creates bad player experiences and lacks any form of skill expression

[Thombussy]

Don't worry, you're gonna get flamed the exact same way I did when I said the same thing when her aspect first came out. It is relatively bad in conquest, but in every other game mode it is absolutely oppressive in every way. And it is a staggering prod at newer players. Hard to enjoy the casual game modes so they can learn the basics of the game when they can't even do the basics of the game unless they want to lose 1/4 of their HP.

[Loryk]

Agree with pretty much all of this. The ultimate point of the game should be fun and this thing is not only quite weak most of the time, but completely anti-fun when it isn't. Pretty clear case of a design not working imo.

If they want it to be the support aspect the ability damage reduction can be buffed a bit to compensate but this thing honestly just shouldn't be able to to damage. Its not interactive, and punishing players for doing basic game actions they normally would be encouraged to do is just bad design. For new players its just awful and it probably is driving some away.

[Lorska]

Originally posted by Loryk:

Agree with pretty much all of this. The ultimate point of the game should be fun and this thing is not only quite weak most of the time, but completely anti-fun when it isn't. Pretty clear case of a design not working imo.

If they want it to be the support aspect the ability damage reduction can be buffed a bit to compensate but this thing honestly just shouldn't be able to to damage. Its not interactive, and punishing players for doing basic game actions they normally would be encouraged to do is just bad design. For new players its just awful and it probably is driving some away.

Yes!
Considering the huge amount of assault players and percentage of new players especially in that mode this can become an issue rather quickly, in particular thanks to the added consistency of getting specific characters due to bench changes.
You really don't want to end up in a situation where there's an aspect hecate almost every game tormenting new players.

[HEX: SOLO QUEUE]

She's in my top 3 of hating playing against in Arena right now, ridiculously OP. Ama and Achilles probably being the other two - why are tanks and warriors out DPSing full damage mages? It's stupid.

[Demilios]

Originally posted by HEX: SOLO QUEUE:

She's in my top 3 of hating playing against in Arena right now, ridiculously OP. Ama and Achilles probably being the other two - why are tanks and warriors out DPSing full damage mages? It's stupid.

Exactly this. I can't wrap my head around what you're supposed to do as a carry or mage against a tank that does more dmg than I do

[Jackster]

Hecate aspect is the worst possible one I've seen so far, in terms of Ï do not need to use ANYTHING to be able to master it". They SERIOUSLY need to nerf it.

[Cicios]

The aspect is horrible, in fact Hecate herself is just overpowered in Arena. She has way too many things in her kit that are very overtuned. Mesmerize, teleport, stun, shield, massive area denial with her aspect (you get punished if your allies spam spells), Teleporting into fountains and out of them. Very long range on her skills as well, I seriously hate when I see a Hecate on the enemy team and it's killing the fun.

And if I recall correctly Hecate's aspect triggers on Rama's aspect, meaning Rama can't shoot without being bombarded constantly..

They could start by nerfing Spell Eaters range

[Thombussy]

Originally posted by Cicios:

The aspect is horrible, in fact Hecate herself is just overpowered in Arena. She has way too many things in her kit that are very overtuned. Mesmerize, teleport, stun, shield, massive area denial with her aspect (you get punished if your allies spam spells), Teleporting into fountains and out of them. Very long range on her skills as well, I seriously hate when I see a Hecate on the enemy team and it's killing the fun.

And if I recall correctly Hecate's aspect triggers on Rama's aspect, meaning Rama can't shoot without being bombarded constantly..

They could start by nerfing Spell Eaters range

I think having a longer fire cooldown would be a simpler option. Pop it on purpose, eat the hit, and then get a window of opportunity. Otherwise it is just a free mortar bombardment and makes playing anyone that is just AA completely dogwater. Also having the aspect should remove the spell damage decrease. There is no reason why her aspect is just so damn oppressive AND still reduces damage taken in the area.

[jrharbick]

Honestly don't agree. It's supposed to oppress. Just means you can't spam abilities in her aspect zone. there are plenty of work around options. I kill Aspect Hecate all the time. Just have to time the skills right or have a movement increase so she can't auto hit every time. Up against her is literally a get good or get wrecked scenario

[Joshua Bagwell]

i want to go non aspect but it doesn't work well in arena as you need a smaller lane and people using powers to build that stacking dps. only balance is make her 1 in non aspect stay in stun mode and aspect loses the stun.