Editor's note: this is a brand new God so please take this with a grain of salt and don't be afraid to try your own ideas!

In this article I'll go over my understanding of Tyr's kit, it's strength and weaknesses, similarities to other champions, and how he fits into the greater picture of gods in Smite. First off, I encourage you to watch the god reveal video if you haven't already done so:

Additionally, here is a google doc of the patch notes with detailed info on Tyr's ability ratios and such.

Tyr's Kit (Passive and Abilities):

Unyielding (Passive) - Stuns, Taunts, Fears and Mesmerize cannot affect Tyr for longer than 1s.

At first glance this passive may look overpowered. While it is very strong in the late game against god's with hard crowd control (Cupid, Apollo, Ymir for example), it's rather lacklustre in the early game, where most gods' hard crowd control is either directly at 1s, or slightly above that. Rather than his passive scaling with items (% increased or % decreased damage), his passive scales directly with the other team's levels (or amount of levels put into crowd control abilities).

Fearless (1st ability) - Tyr charges forward, damaging enemies.

The strength of this ability lies in the utility provided by both stance modifications. First off, since switching stances refreshes the cooldown for assault or guard stance, you're given two gap closers. Both also provide extra utility in that they displace enemy gods. The different effects of this ability in regards to stance fulfil two different tasks.

Assault would be more aimed at removing someone from a teamfight through displacing them. Take into account that Tyr's 2nd ability (Power Cleave) knocks back enemies that are knocked up. Fearless combined with Power Cleave will be good for sending that enemy physical carry (could be used on any high priority target that should be disabled) on a nice vacation. You can also try and use this combo to knock back multiple enemies so that you single out a high priority target, such as a squishy.

Guard would be more useful to split up targets and non-targets. By this I mean knocking a magical carry away from a bruiser assigned to peel for them. With that you would provide your team a clear and available target.
This ability, as it is not single target, also provides Tyr with mildly decent waveclear.

Power Cleave (2nd ability) - Tyr makes a massive melee attack, hitting all enemies within a 180 degree cone.

As I've already talked about the assault variant of this ability in combination with Fearless above, I'll focus on its guard stance application. In guard stance, power cleave gives Tyr some sustain. This is universally helpful, as it helps his jungling, his laning, and his extended teamfighting. You'll max out your healing received at 3 enemies hit, so aim for at least that many enemies when possible. Also, just imagine for a moment ganking someone with [assault] Fearless -> Power Cleave into your tower, and then a Change Stance -> [guard] Fearless to guarantee they stay under tower. Awesome, huh?

Change Stance (3rd ability) - Tyr changes between ASSAULT and GUARD stances. Changing stances refreshes the cooldown on Fearless and Power Cleave.

When to use assault or guard stance appropriately will be up to you (outputting damage vs. being tankier). The most important part of this ability is the fact that switching stances refreshes the cooldown on Tyr's Fearless and Power Cleave.

- Need to close a gap on an enemy squishy or run away from a 1v5 (real gods never run)?
Fearless -> Change Stance -> Fearless.

- Want to clear a wave or jungle camp quicker?
Power Cleave -> Change Stance -> Power Cleave.

- Want to just do a whole bunch of things and look flashy?
Fearless -> Power Cleave -> Change Stance -> Fearless -> Power Cleave -> put on shades and bask in your glory.

As you can maybe tell, the funnest part about Tyr will be how you use his Change Stance to do catch and kill enemies, escape ganks, and cause pure chaos in teamfights.

Lawbringer (4th ability) - Tyr leaps through the air, bringing indiscriminate justice upon all enemies in the target area, and slowing them.

As this ability isn't modified by what stance you're in, its uses are not as complex as the other abilities. This ability is yet another gap closer, which also provides a slow. You can use this to initiate, chase, or run away. This one's short because it's kinda straightforward.

Strengths of Tyr:

1. Essentially, you have three gap closers.
2. Your high mobility will let you chase and run away very well.
3. You have the ability to lane or jungle.
4. You have waveclear.
5. You have sustain.
6. You have 'soft' crowd control in the form of a slow.
7. You have 'hard' crowd control in the form of knock-ups and knock-backs (airborne cc).
8. Lategame hard crowd control will not impact you as negatively as others.

Weaknesses of Tyr (some of these are assumptions):

1. You have no long duration (>2s) hard crowd control.
2. Your Fearless can be interrupted (through hard crowd control or roots) and you can then be kited [assumption].
3. You can't dispense indiscriminate justice from your base.
4. You aren't indestructible [assumption].

Conclusion:

I think Tyr will be strong at release. Once players get used to the nuances in his stance changing they will have the ability to make plays in the early game and in later-game teamfights. I think his kit will make him attractive as a jungler (high mobility -> better ganks) and even as a solo lane bruiser (waveclear, sustain, tankyness with his guard stance).

What do you think? Is he overpowered? Underpowered? Do you like the idea of stance switching gods like Hel and Tyr (both 3 letter names, conspiracy incoming)?

Thanks for reading and I encourage you to write out your thoughts in the comments section below!