Beginnings In SMITE and MLB

Trying out a new champion is not always easy, particularly in a game that you’ve only tried a few times, but that’s exactly the situation I found myself in.  Beyond that, I had to watch as my Angels threw away their season oepener.  Hopefully improvements occur in both soon.

A New Champion

I played a bit of SMITE again today but this time around I didn’t get one of the 2 gods I knew how to play. This time my teammates selected Ra and Neith so I had to figure out someone new. Since I had played against Jing Wei in a previous game and she seemed pretty good, I decided to give her a try.

She’s more mobile than the champs I’ve been playing which is both good and bad. Good because she can get outta troublesome situations and bad because I had no idea how to use her abilities. And trying to figure out a new champ, even though the abilities are on auto level, is hard to do while trying to learn a new game.

After the game, a loss, I looked up what exactly her abilities were.

Figuring out her Abilities

Rapid Reincarnation was pretty cool and was easy to use since I didn’t have to do a thing…it is her passive and just ‘happens’ whenever she goes back to base, either by choice or if she dies.

Persistent Gust knocks enemy champs into the air and causes AOE damage but I had a difficult time figuring it out. I wanted it to do damage to minions, and it did, but it didn’t seem like much. I also had a hard time landing it on the bad guys.

Explosive Bolts were easy to use but seemed to get used up quickly. I got 3 shots that hit everything in front of me and did decent damage. It was good for wave clear and short range damage to bad guys. I think it would have worked better if I knew how to use her mobility, but I mostly used it on minions.

Agility is a short dash that seems to be like Lucian’s in League. Not being a fan of ADCs, I was completely unused to having this type of ability. I definitely did not use this one to its fullest possibilities. Actually, every time I used this, I ended up dead since I dashed into the middle of the bad guys with my dash now on cooldown – not fun.

Air Strike was fun to use as an ultimate but I never quite got the hang of it. You fly up in the air dropping bombs in a line, kinda like Rumble’s ultimate in LoL and then you crash down at the targeted location. It does a bunch of damage and feels impressive but I had trouble always landing it properly.

The Game

On the whole, Jing Wei was fun and I’m sure she’ll be even better once I learn what I’m doing with her, but I proved to be pretty inept in this game. It didn’t help that I got to experience AFKs in the game for the first time – I had 2 people disconnect. 3v5 is near impossible even in games you’re expert at, but with something you’re just learning, it’s pretty dismal.

It was a learning experience at least.

The Angels Drop Their Season Opener

Last night was the 2017 season opener for my Angels and even though Mike Trout tried real hard, he couldn’t carry the team to victory. He went 2–4 with a double and a home run, driving in ALL of the teams runs, but it was not enough. Between the 4 pitchers that the Angels threw at the A’s, they gave up 9 hits, 5 walks, and 3 home runs – not a good outing. I certainly hope this is not how things go all season, but at least Trout helped my fantasy teams out.