Since I made my first post about the current meta we've had a lot of new or refreshed gods enter the mix. Let's take a look at each one, how they changed the casual scene, the ranked scene and then how they impacted the competitive scene and what adjustments have been made since their release. Its important to not that a when a god is released, whether it is a new god or a new kit for an old god, they are not available in ranked or competitive play, usually for about two weeks. Hi-Rez is willing to let new gods and abilities affect the meta, but they don't want them to be mandatory or game breaking.
Nu Wa - August 5th, 2014
Nu Wa was always a split push specialist. She was popular in ranked but never saw the light of day in the competitive scene. The rework gave her a fairly reliable stun/cc/damage combo as well as the coveted global ultimate, joining other global ultimate gods like athena, apollo, and janus in the first pick first ban list. She can be seen in all three conquest types (casual, ranked, competetive) very regularly as both a mid and solo. She is not among the easier gods to play however as her combo relies on understanding minion AI and her ultimate can be wasted easily if used at the wrong time. Even with this being said, she remains popular in casual as she is a very fun god to play.
Cabrakan - August 19th, 2014
Released with much fanfare as having a very unique kit, Cabra was quickly relegated to the back seat in conquest. His kit isn't really a counter to any other god. As a support he doesn't have the CC to compare to any of the other top guardians, and as a solo he doesn't really have the damage nor sustain. He does see a fair amount of play in Seige and Arena, but without some sort of retooling he probably won't see play in conquest any time soon. Oh, and this is after two rounds of buffs to his damage, animations and cooldowns.
Arachne - September 10th, 2014
This little spider launched strong, was toned down a little but still maintains the respect of many as a strong jungler. She falls into the category of a Loki or Thor that are amazing if they are snowballing, but are tough to play from behind. She does have more sustain than any of them and often is compared to Bakasura in how you want to jungle with her.
Odin - September 10th, 2014
Originally thought to be very strong this god saw a lot of play early on and still does in casual and somewhat as a counter-pick in competitive. His new kit is now exciting and fun, but the leap is telegraphed enough that it is completely avoidable by any competent player. He's fun to play and okay as a solo, jungle or support, but there are far better choices for each role.
Sylvanus - October 1st, 2014
Sylvanus is considered extremely strong even after some severe nerfs after the PTS testing and the initial testing in casual. He is not an easy god to play however and hasn't really seen his full potential as this writing. The guardian most played order goes Athena, Ymir, Geb, Sylvanus, Ares, then Bacchus. Sylvanus will likely find his footing soon though, once the supports start learning how to make full use of his heal. Also, with the regional qualifiers coming up in competitive, I think more than a few teams are counting on Sylvanus as being their ace in the hole.
Nox - October 29th, 2014
Unfortunately, for how cool this god looks, she is currently considered very weak in general with not much going for her outside of as a debuff monkey, which in all honesty, He Bo could do better.
So there you have all the new gods. The success stories can be seen in Nu Wa, Arachne, and Sylvanus, while Nox and Cabraken are pretty abysmal failures leaving only Odin as the fun but not good enough god. Nu Wa is really the only one to make it to the first pick, first ban tier though.
Thanks for reading, have fun and remember to sign up for email alerts at the top of the page as well as to check out any of my other posts.
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