The most recent addition to Smite’s roster, Chernobog, has been a hot topic of debate recently in the Smite community. Upon first glance, the Lord of Darkness looks like an incredibly strong Hunter. However, that theoretical viability unfortunately didn’t translate perfectly into the minute details of his kit. In this week’s article, we’re going to discuss how good Chernobog really is, what could possibly be wrong, and how he could be fixed to be both balanced and feel good to play.

Firstly, let’s take a glance at Chernobog’s kit. His first ability, Crystallized Curses, is probably his most important ability since his playstyle revolves around it. Crystallized Curses is a circular area of effect ability that does damage after being fired as well as damaging and rooting after three seconds.

His second ability, Vicious Barrage, is a line ability that functions as an auto attack, meaning it applies on-hit effects like Frostbound Hammer or critical strikes. Vicious Barrage also will provide a huge attack speed steroid as well as detonate Crystallized Curses early, should it be aimed at the central crystal. This combo is your main tool for clearing wave, self-peel, and following up. Also, both of these abilities go through walls, giving it that extra bit of reach toward the skill ceiling.

Next, let’s check out Chernobog’s passive, Heart of Cold. Every time Chernobog connects an auto attack, they will be given a stack of Cold. Once a target has two stacks of Cold, the next auto attack Chernobog connects with that enemy will detonate into area of effect damage, removing all the stacks. Another thing to note about Vicious Barrage is that, because it is an auto attack, it will apply a stack of Cold just like Chernobog’s normal autos would.

Chernobog’s third ability, Into Darkness, is a short slowing dash that, upon coming into contact with a wall, makes Chernobog untargetable at the location he dashed to and gives him the ability to dash again, should he choose. If not, he may remain still in the wall for three seconds with total immunity.

Finally, Chernobog’s ultimate, Living Nightmare, is a global ability that allows the Hunter to first become crowd control immune, then fly up into the air where he becomes untargetable, and then pick a spot near an enemy anywhere on the map for him to fly to. At the same time, Chernobog also spawns untargetable copies of himself at every enemy’s location that both reveal them to Chernobog’s entire team and fire attacks every second that slow but do no damage. Also, on Chernobog’s landing, he receives refreshed cooldowns, increased movement speed, damage mitigation, and every one of his auto attacks procs the final tick of Heart of Cold. Altogether, these buffs persist for six seconds.

Glancing over the description of his abilities, you’d be shocked to hear that many find Chernobog underwhelming and unfun. However, when bringing his various numbers into context, one might agree that something just feels off about him. As previously mentioned, his key combo is his 1-2, but because Crystallized Curses fires so slowly and takes so long to detonate, its root is rarely confirmed unless pretty much perfectly aimed. Also, upon release, Chernobog had a ton of collision issues regarding Into Darkness and Living Nightmare, meaning he could get stuck in, forced out of, or shot up through a number of walls in almost every map. In Patch 5.9, HiRez thankfully fixed a lot of the glitches happening with those abilities, but they still can act a bit shaky at times.

Even looking at the numbers on his abilities and such, some pieces don’t quite fit with the rest of the puzzle. For instance, why does a Hunter, one of the squishiest classes in the game, have an Athena-like ultimate that travels to enemies? Why should a god be totally immune for three seconds? Why are his damage numbers so high but his kit so dysfunctional and lacking in synergy? To further prove my point, let’s take a look at all the things Living Nightmare does. In one ability, Chernobog gains crowd control immunity, untargetability, the ability to travel to any enemy of his choice, a global slow and reveal, a basic attack stim, damage mitigation, and movement speed. Doesn’t that seem like the design is compensating for something? Or rather, why would they try to make Chernobog something he isn’t?

When a new god comes out, of course it will take the player base some time to get used to whatever new abilities and mechanics that god brings to the game. However, on Chernobog’s release, these issues were simply pushed away by bumping his numbers a little bit up or a little bit down. That’s really not what he needs most, especially considering that even if he is mathematically very strong, people will not play him if he is not enjoyable or clunky feeling. So then, what does Chernobog need?

If you ask me, the first thing that needs to be addressed is the clunkiness of Chernobog’s 1-2 combo. The projectile of Crystallized Curses visually functions very similarly to Discordia’s first ability, Unruly Magic; it fires, bounces, and detonates. The only difference is that Crystallized Curses does not do damage during its air time. Even still, I almost feel like it should function at a similar speed to keep the visuals standardized. Not only would this make the root easier to hit, but it would allow for a much easier time when clearing. After three seconds, the wave likely would have moved or been auto attacked out of Crystallized Curses’ range. If a wave of computer-controlled minions will almost always get out of Crystallized Curses, imagine how frequently a human player would be trapped in it.

While a change to the pre-fire and post-fire times of Crystallized Curses would be nice, another thing to consider would be to make the targeter of Living Nightmare clearer as to whom you are travelling to. As it exists currently, you are able to select one of the shadows you create, though it doesn’t always seem to bring you to the right one or it may actually bring you much farther away from your target than you originally anticipated. By giving users the ability to see which enemy each shadow belongs to (much like how Athena ult works, just with allies), it could clear up some confusion and guarantee that they would be going to the right place every time.

Another very important thing to note is that Chernobog’s animations are very same-looking, meaning that it’s hard to tell exactly what he is doing at any given time. For example, in his base skin and recolor, it’s so incredibly hard to see his auto attacks in some parts of certain maps, such as the chaos side of the Conquest map. Also, it’s very difficult to tell when Chernobog has used Vicious Barrage. Yes, the auto does become a little bit redder and wider-looking, but it still can easily be confused because of how quickly it moves. A way to fix a couple of these problems might be either to mix up the color profiling or to liven up and differentiate the animations. Instead of the pinky-red or purple-blue autos he normally has, maybe give them a more distinguishable glow or brighter color.

Rather than just changing the color of the projectile for Vicious Barrage, perhaps it could be better to give it a more unique shape or animation to Chernobog for when he fires it. For an example, look to Jing Wei. When she has her second ability, Explosive Bolts, active, her crossbow glows a bright and contrasting bluish-green and her firing animation is drastically different. By applying this same principle of visual design to Chernobog, he might be more easily read by both the person playing him and those against him.

With just these few little tweaks, Chernobog could easily become the most powerful god in the game. To make sure that his potent kit gets balanced out, his numbers need to become pretty deflated as compared to what they are now. As mentioned before, the best places to look to knock down a few digits are in Vicious Barrage and Living Nightmare. My first suggestion would be to take down the attack speed steroid on Vicious Barrage to about 40-50%, which would then rival the strength of Rama’s second ability, Pick Me Up.

Table illustrating desired changes to Chernobog's ultimate, Living Nightmare

Secondly, we’ve got to address Living Nightmare. As a whole, I don’t feel like the ability is best suited for Chernobog, however, if HiRez are adamant about sticking to it, there are a few things that need tweaking. First things first, drive down that damage mitigation to 25%. Having it so high makes it pretty hard to punish the Lord of Darkness, even considering he is a squishy Hunter diving into one or more enemies. Next, take away his increased movement speed. Now, you might argue that he could never be able to catch up to his enemies, but the next change I propose is that the applied slow is initially 10%, increasing by 5% per clone attack to a max of 20% like it is now. Finally, tone down the cooldown refresh to only five seconds rather than an absolute refresh. That way, the player will have to be very aware of their cooldowns and not just have a free pass. Additionally, I would argue for giving Chernobog access to these buffs even if he cancels the ability.

These changes would definitely need tweaking and significant user testing, but I feel like most of the suggestions here would put Chernobog in a better, and more importantly more enjoyable, state than he is currently. My motto is that a character should be enjoyable and fun to play before they are balanced and shifted into meta. Want to learn more about how Chernobog is played at the competitive level? Be ready, he’ll be available for play in week four of the SPL. Or, if you’re looking to learn how to play him in ranked, check out Team Dignitas’ own Kenny “Arkkyl” Kuska play him in his ranked adventures during his streams here.

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