Beautiful and Terrible, All Shall Love Her and Despair
The Smite team has outdone themselves in Season 8. Their newest god, Tiamat, is the single most ambitious player character the game has featured to date, on every level, and good lord does she look amazing. Hailing from ancient Babylon, Tiamat is the goddess of the salt sea, creator deity, source of all life, representing the chaos of the primordial sea–and she’s also a giant, terrifying dragon who’s introduced smacking Cthulhu like a fly. In her legend, this mother of monsters was all but invincible, waging war on her own divine children after they killed her husband Apsu. This version of Tiamat is no slouch, either, featuring a record-setting 11 abilities: one for each of the monsters she created in Enuma Elish, the Babylonian story of creation. Her cinematic trailer gives us a glimpse of her full might and it is awesome.
“Tiamat is the primordial queen, Goddess of the Salt Sea, and a massive labor of love from the Titan Forge team,” says Dishant ‘Clumzy’ Samtani, one of the Game Designers behind Tiamat. “She is a Mage with two stances and the ability to summon multiple creatures, her monstrous children. With her Flying stance, Tiamat portrays her elegant, regal nature. In her Ground stance she plays as a feral, draconic, brawling character.”
With her ability to switch from majestic to terrifying at the push of a button, Tiamat’s gameplay reflects her dual nature as creator and destroyer. In flight, she rains down long-range magical damage, directs her creations, and gains health from the deaths of those around her. On the ground, she charges head-long into the fray with high melee damage, instant kills for targets with low health, and enhanced durability. This is one mage who can hold her own in close combat. Her overall theme is about as far from Smite‘s last new arrival, Danzaburou (who is being nerfed, by the way), as you can get, but we’re already in love with them both. Tiamat’s God Reveal video explains why you should love her, too.
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