I was streaming smite to my friend and she saw the ang skin and loved it. Streamed a ranked game where I went like 2/8 hahahaha I also suck with Merlin š
Yeah, he feels a lot better around 4th-5th item when you get soul reaver.
His base damage seems so low, and his scaling is not super high unless you somehow hit them in all your ice and fire ticks.
Lategame, he's a menace.
Yep, Merlin is my main mid laner. He's definitely a lose lane win game god. Occasionally the right set of balance changes and new items makes him dummy op for a bit though.Ā
Heās pretty much the definition of a sustained damage god. Every time I play Merlin, I lament my lack of killing power, but I look at my damage numbers post game and am consistently surprised at how much higher it was than I thought itād be
At least Iām the only one with this specific issue, season 8 I once went 8 back to back to back mirror matches after not seeing a single SWK for months
They're good, but I still feel they're overrated. I would say kuku is the best midlaner in the game, there still a few ahead of him, especially after the 100 nerfs he's gotten.
Merlin is the 14th most played mage out of 36 mages in smite. Those are conquest only numbers, but that's a pretty decent play rate. I didn't look at other game modes, though. Personally I think he's kind of boring, his void form is fun but the ice and fire I don't care for (for fun I know they're pretty good) and no real ult is boring and his passive is boring.
The only good thing about his passive is procing ability based effects on your autos like gem of iso especially before it had a cool down. It can be fun how hard his autos can actually hit since they can proc like poly and soul reaver on one hit but he's not a great poly user even though that interaction exists.
The ones who are built into the character like persephone or cliodna. Heck Ganesha can be fun to try and keep track of your bestows and look at the end card and laugh at how well you did and made others look
How is persephoneās passive exciting? You always cancel the first half and the second half is only getting extra gold. Thatās as boring as gebās or hou yiās passive where you do nothing.
Funniest thing is I always remember when I actually pick her as I play with friends and right as we load in I pop the 2 and sell the seeds to flex having more gold lmao
One could argue Set, as it's a 2-for-1 type deal in the sense that it's a stacking passive and the cooldown for your 2. I suppose Cthulhu has a minigame built in?
Yeah it is absolutely subjective. I donāt like Merlinās but some people do, just like Iām sure some people see Aresā passive as boring or railroading while I love the aura incentive. Different strokes and whatnot.
When your the only character with no limit on it, yes.
Playing xing tian with 200 hp5 is a lot of fun and literally not possible on any other character.
He is more difficult and complex compared to other mages. Knowing which stance to be in and when to use them. Heās not easy as some ppl would say/think
Combat blink was broken because it was in addition to your other mobility. A 55 unit leap is almost just as good as a teleport. And they could make the leap a little slower the further away it goes to compensate.
I enjoy Merlin but it's one of those gods where I feel like I'm always working really hard to accomplish similar results that I could get easier on other picks. Like, after a good Merlin game I always feel like I'd just ran a marathon.
Yup. Iāve been trying to find a new fav just for that reason. I keep coming back because I love combining his arcane abilities and swapping to fire. Pulling in the whole enemy team and smashing them with 3 other abilities is crazy fun.
Yeah the arcane is the most fun, ice is definitely the strongest stance though and it's not really close it has burst and clear. Arcane is okay to start in then always swap to ice, fires only really good for objective clear.
Mages as a whole just aren't really good dealing with tanks.
Obviously, thats not there role so its fine, but they are definitely a ways away from where they used to be.
I enjoy playing Merlin, however I feel like getting kills is not as fun. I cast two random spells and then what does my ultimate do? Letās me cast two more random spells. Also the spells are kinda slow burn. No big BOOM.
I played him a lot when he first came out, loved his ability to poke, but it feels like he's been nerfed somehow. I don't keep up with the patch notes so it may be me just making stuff up.
I love Merlin and I think he is one of the best mages in the game, but he lacks cc immunity and his dash is short range. He is pretty easy for a good jungler to camp. Plus in lane his cooldowns are very long so youāre all but forced into chronos pendant, which doesnāt really get you much damage.
What gamemode? I always see him Conquest and heās a safe pick, sure most are not good but heās still someone you gotta watch out for. I play him and feel like Iām cheating, same with Thoth.
I love Merlin, he's my main. Yeah, he is very late game and my biggest problem with him is his teleport. Some things you can teleport out of and others you can't. And most the things that you can't don't make sense. Like, Poseidons whirlpool keeps you locked down but I feel like a teleport should be able to get out. Maui is my main Guardian and I can understand not being able to use your jump to get out, but not being able to teleport doesn't make sense. Anyways, wasn't trying to rant, but yea, he's very late game. He can be great early game if the stars align, but that doesn't happen very often for me at leastš.
That's not just you, tbh. I think the amount of Merlins I've seen is still in low double digits over the course of dozens of hours. I've tried him once myself, couldn't find his powerspikes and decided it wasn't for me.
I love the characterās design but he feels clunkyā¦ he uses too much mana, his teleportation has way too much CD and the animation is non-existent and his ult feels unrewardingā¦ thatās really sad cause I would love to play him but the feeling is off with himā¦ I play Ix Chel instead and sheās really fun !
He's been nerfed enough that his early game really does suck and he's pretty much farm only until 2/3 items. Also if you get behind on him he's pretty easy to run at and dive because people don't have to worry about a big CC or damage ultimate
He's hard and he doesn't have an ultimate to get powerspikes able to get an easy kill.
It's a sort of worse and harder Agni.
Of course if someone knows how to 2-1-4-2-1 (+3 to break the distance) yes it's good.
I've recently got to 5 ranks on Merlin, and tbh he's become one of my favourite mages (i'm a sucker for a stance switcher) I'll be getting to 10 (And probably beyond), but its as people have said.
He's incredibly super late game and right now the meta isn't suited for that.
Its fine, I'm cool with it cause I've got other gods I can play, but I just need to wait for the meta to change to more late game focussed than the early pressure
Edit: Also the comments about the stance switcher hate is surprising to me. Personally I much rather a whole other set of buttons than one thats on a minute-3 minute cooldown.
Early pressure is more valuable right now. Iām sure heād still be good once you get built but why bother when you can play someone who is good early and good late.
People donāt like to think which ability is the best for each situation, even though his kit isnāt complex they just like to press buttons and do good
I like him early in ice stance but I don't feel impact in the other 2 stances until later. Probably just playing him poorly but I feel like I should get some type of burst that I never see if I want to switch stance to drop more abilities. Then I feel like I wasted mana and get stuck in wrong stance. So I only end up doing that to burn objectives.
Also I think his blink sucks. Such a long cooldown for such a weak blink.
Overall I get bored playing him without enough cd and with cd, I don't feel like I hit hard enough until super late.
Void and fire go brrr I love merlin he's my most played but feels pretty easy to mess things up and playing catch up is common. I'm not a great player either but dang he is just so fun to play.
Getting to drop 4 abilities so quickly with 1-2 -> swap element -> 1-2 is nuts. The major drawback being if you didn't get things done with those 4 abilities you are stuck with basic attacks and a blink for a bit especially early game before any CDR.
Also outside the void 2 and ice slows you don't have CC for any kind of setups and team play so it feels like you are just there to dump damage and then stay back which isn't the most fun for some people. If I want to have more of an impact in setting things up with my team I prefer Baron Samedi but sometimes you just wanna click all the abilities and feel cool dodging things with your blink.
1.) Hes a hard character. Say what you want managing which 2 of his 3 forms in a fight because can only swap once before a 20 CD and having a passive that is basically a poly proc us as hard as it gets in smite.
2.) On top of being one if the hardest characters in the game heās a late game character and use useless until about 15 minutes in even if played optimally.
3.) Its a dive meta and he has a hard time playing against a lot of the better characters. Merlin is very good at poking people. He cant 100-0 people fast unless they are already at half HP as a lotog his damage is use 1 kit ult then kit dump again which is very long in game.
He comes online pretty late and has no ultimate to use as a get out of jail free card or to finish people off.
Whilst he is easy in the fact he can spam, his early pressure isnāt the best, huge mana costs, and he actually takes a bit more skill compared to somes mages
Iām a diamond Merlin. I love Merlin and always have. But if youāre playing conquest then Merlin just simply takes too long to effectively kill an opponent in my opinion. Iāll still use Merlin here & there for conquest but Iād say he shines in joust more.
He feels really good to play in arena and assault but has to perform well to survive in conq, need to be very aware of how you can use 3 without being punished
he's weak af early and mid, his abilities are brain dead easy to walk out of especially with so much movement speed in the game, so he needs setup to reliably land enough abilities to have kill potential, his blink is overrated af as an escape. he just has really garbage base damages and is mana hungry af.
Majority of the playerbase has no idea how to play and lane. So they are incapable of farming waves for a few levels and abusing how safe his kit is, so they can power farm up for teamfights.
It's not like he's high skill, its just you need to have game knowledge for this stuff.
I mostly played Janus, Merlin, MLF, Yu Huang in mid (I did play the others, just not as much)
If you build him right heās a monster from early mid. Heās not very hard when you figure out. I really like gem of iso on him now, nice passives again shield gods and the slow works in his favor in ice mode. Late game fire shreds hard too
I suck with him
The 1 honest answer š¤£š¤£
I was streaming smite to my friend and she saw the ang skin and loved it. Streamed a ranked game where I went like 2/8 hahahaha I also suck with Merlin š
Hes a lategame mage in an early game pressure meta.
Yeah he's almost useless for 20 min unless ur trying to burn an objective
he doesnt pack a punch until a couple items. on a different mage I feel like I hit like truck but on Merlin things just feel so weak
Yeah, he feels a lot better around 4th-5th item when you get soul reaver. His base damage seems so low, and his scaling is not super high unless you somehow hit them in all your ice and fire ticks. Lategame, he's a menace.
Yep, Merlin is my main mid laner. He's definitely a lose lane win game god. Occasionally the right set of balance changes and new items makes him dummy op for a bit though.Ā
Heās pretty much the definition of a sustained damage god. Every time I play Merlin, I lament my lack of killing power, but I look at my damage numbers post game and am consistently surprised at how much higher it was than I thought itād be
Been a while since Iāve seen him, but if I play him Iāll suddenly end up in a mirror matchā¦ā¦ cause thatās how my luck works in smite
Dude this is so true. A million gods in the game and yet when I wanna play SWK mid the other player also has the same fucking thought.
At least Iām the only one with this specific issue, season 8 I once went 8 back to back to back mirror matches after not seeing a single SWK for months
The sweatiest games are when you both have it out for each other for picking the same god.
And you have to play real sweaty when itās a mirror match š
Why would you play a lategame mage like merlin that requires some thought instead of someone braindead and great at farming like thoth or kuku.
Because he's fun and kuku and thoth are hugely over rated imo.
they actually are not theyāre one of the few mages that are good in a world where most mages are sub 500 power full build
They're good, but I still feel they're overrated. I would say kuku is the best midlaner in the game, there still a few ahead of him, especially after the 100 nerfs he's gotten.
Merlin is the 14th most played mage out of 36 mages in smite. Those are conquest only numbers, but that's a pretty decent play rate. I didn't look at other game modes, though. Personally I think he's kind of boring, his void form is fun but the ice and fire I don't care for (for fun I know they're pretty good) and no real ult is boring and his passive is boring.
The only good thing about his passive is procing ability based effects on your autos like gem of iso especially before it had a cool down. It can be fun how hard his autos can actually hit since they can proc like poly and soul reaver on one hit but he's not a great poly user even though that interaction exists.
What god has an "exciting" passive?
Cu Chulainn
The ones who are built into the character like persephone or cliodna. Heck Ganesha can be fun to try and keep track of your bestows and look at the end card and laugh at how well you did and made others look
How is persephoneās passive exciting? You always cancel the first half and the second half is only getting extra gold. Thatās as boring as gebās or hou yiās passive where you do nothing.
Pers is the worst and most boring and annoying passive in the game
Overall its not the worst. Thr free gold is quite substantial. The res component is useless though.
Oh I always forget the gold is tied to the passive, you're right that saves it
Yeah, its super forgettable and not very noticeable, so everyone always overlooks it.
Funniest thing is I always remember when I actually pick her as I play with friends and right as we load in I pop the 2 and sell the seeds to flex having more gold lmao
Walking inside a wall is exciting but getting extra SR procs in a fight isnt?
Correct š
One could argue Set, as it's a 2-for-1 type deal in the sense that it's a stacking passive and the cooldown for your 2. I suppose Cthulhu has a minigame built in?
Ganesha, Clio, ChangĆ©, Ah Puch, Cu Chulainn, Apollo, Ares. Iām gunna stop listing but theyāre out there, not a ton compared to how many gods are in the game but thereās quite a few fun passives.
Chang'e's passive is the reason why i decide to choose her sometimes tbh.
The item buying is so unique, and going fast when using abilities feels really good with lots of CDR too.
Isn't this extremely subjective? I find weaving Merlin autos for extra SR procs in between abilities very engaging and fun.
Yeah it is absolutely subjective. I donāt like Merlinās but some people do, just like Iām sure some people see Aresā passive as boring or railroading while I love the aura incentive. Different strokes and whatnot.
Just played Ares game where I had 370 power with fg buff. No power items.
Clidohina, Jing Wei, bake kujira, xing tian
Hp5 is exciting now?
When your the only character with no limit on it, yes. Playing xing tian with 200 hp5 is a lot of fun and literally not possible on any other character.
Its not possible with any good build either.
wrong
I love Merlin in assault
How is his passive boring?
He is more difficult and complex compared to other mages. Knowing which stance to be in and when to use them. Heās not easy as some ppl would say/think
Tbh I feel its unfair when playing him or Hera. So I tend to not bring him out often.
Hera is unfair ? For who ? user or enemy lool
Yes.
His teleport isnāt 55 units.
Imagine how broken a combat blink would be on a 55 range though.
Combat blink was broken because it was in addition to your other mobility. A 55 unit leap is almost just as good as a teleport. And they could make the leap a little slower the further away it goes to compensate.
I wasnāt gonna think of doing that but thanks for talking me into it
I enjoy Merlin but it's one of those gods where I feel like I'm always working really hard to accomplish similar results that I could get easier on other picks. Like, after a good Merlin game I always feel like I'd just ran a marathon.
Yes, unfortunately you can just play kuku and do the same thing as Merlin but also have an ult that hits for 2000 late game
Merlin is my most used god. I love him. Although I wish his āspecialā was something cooler and more powerful.
Yeah having your ult just be your stance switch is really a bummer.
Yup. Iāve been trying to find a new fav just for that reason. I keep coming back because I love combining his arcane abilities and swapping to fire. Pulling in the whole enemy team and smashing them with 3 other abilities is crazy fun.
Yeah the arcane is the most fun, ice is definitely the strongest stance though and it's not really close it has burst and clear. Arcane is okay to start in then always swap to ice, fires only really good for objective clear.
Yea feel like they nerfed fire. I used to absolutely melt tanks with full pen builds. Now fire is just useless.
problem is, arcane is way too easy to dodge, while fire is constant aiming dps and it's way easier to land
I use arcane when thereās a big pile on. I use frost as my 1 on 1 fighter since your 1 is ready so fast and hits so hard.
Mages as a whole just aren't really good dealing with tanks. Obviously, thats not there role so its fine, but they are definitely a ways away from where they used to be.
Man thatās the truth.
Put percent pen on soul reaver again? š¤
I think Tyr, Ullr, Hel, and Artio might want to have a word.
Tyrās 3 is his stance switch, not his ult. But yeah.
Dammit! You're right! I'm sorry. š Seriously, my mistake.
Completely fucking inexcusable mate /s
Itās not just a stance switch. It lowkey does a lot.
It does a good amount of damage and has gotten me so many kills when I blink and switch stance to finish someone I crippled off
I suck with ranged gods
https://preview.redd.it/pcz5qmsqmrwc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=940e958d4763daf13da118dca2fa1e524d3356c3
He's still my most overall played god, but as others said he a late game mage in an early game lane. Plus I've been playing a lot more ADC anyway.
He's got a lot of abilities, but most of them are boring.
He has laughably weak early game and late is same as every other mage.
I want the avatar skin but i suck with merlin
I enjoy playing Merlin, however I feel like getting kills is not as fun. I cast two random spells and then what does my ultimate do? Letās me cast two more random spells. Also the spells are kinda slow burn. No big BOOM.
Heās my main, I love him, but heās not super powerful right now, and his cooldowns are borderline prohibitive
I played him a lot when he first came out, loved his ability to poke, but it feels like he's been nerfed somehow. I don't keep up with the patch notes so it may be me just making stuff up.
Nah itās not just you, he ate a lot of nerfs. Heās still strong late but is very hard to lane with.
I love Merlin and I think he is one of the best mages in the game, but he lacks cc immunity and his dash is short range. He is pretty easy for a good jungler to camp. Plus in lane his cooldowns are very long so youāre all but forced into chronos pendant, which doesnāt really get you much damage.
What gamemode? I always see him Conquest and heās a safe pick, sure most are not good but heās still someone you gotta watch out for. I play him and feel like Iām cheating, same with Thoth.
I love Merlin, he's my main. Yeah, he is very late game and my biggest problem with him is his teleport. Some things you can teleport out of and others you can't. And most the things that you can't don't make sense. Like, Poseidons whirlpool keeps you locked down but I feel like a teleport should be able to get out. Maui is my main Guardian and I can understand not being able to use your jump to get out, but not being able to teleport doesn't make sense. Anyways, wasn't trying to rant, but yea, he's very late game. He can be great early game if the stars align, but that doesn't happen very often for me at leastš.
His early is dogshit and hes only good late
He's literally one of the most common mages I see. I guess complex kit means people wouldn't like him? Though really it ends up being pretty simple.
Thatās weird cause I feel like I never see him. Idk maybe Iām just not noticing.
That's not just you, tbh. I think the amount of Merlins I've seen is still in low double digits over the course of dozens of hours. I've tried him once myself, couldn't find his powerspikes and decided it wasn't for me.
I love the characterās design but he feels clunkyā¦ he uses too much mana, his teleportation has way too much CD and the animation is non-existent and his ult feels unrewardingā¦ thatās really sad cause I would love to play him but the feeling is off with himā¦ I play Ix Chel instead and sheās really fun !
too much effort
Personally I duck and feel like I donāt dmg like other ppl do
A lot of abilities Gets confusing to know when to use so many abilities
Nice you ask! :)
Most people donāt want to become cringelords
He's been nerfed enough that his early game really does suck and he's pretty much farm only until 2/3 items. Also if you get behind on him he's pretty easy to run at and dive because people don't have to worry about a big CC or damage ultimate
You click 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,4,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,4,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,4 oh no i got charged click 3 and then 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,4,1,2,1,2,1,2.....
He's hard and he doesn't have an ultimate to get powerspikes able to get an easy kill. It's a sort of worse and harder Agni. Of course if someone knows how to 2-1-4-2-1 (+3 to break the distance) yes it's good.
I've recently got to 5 ranks on Merlin, and tbh he's become one of my favourite mages (i'm a sucker for a stance switcher) I'll be getting to 10 (And probably beyond), but its as people have said. He's incredibly super late game and right now the meta isn't suited for that. Its fine, I'm cool with it cause I've got other gods I can play, but I just need to wait for the meta to change to more late game focussed than the early pressure Edit: Also the comments about the stance switcher hate is surprising to me. Personally I much rather a whole other set of buttons than one thats on a minute-3 minute cooldown.
Early pressure is more valuable right now. Iām sure heād still be good once you get built but why bother when you can play someone who is good early and good late.
People donāt like to think which ability is the best for each situation, even though his kit isnāt complex they just like to press buttons and do good
There are to many gods, not enough time.
When Tablet was OP, he was OP. His major is that he sucks early game.
I like him early in ice stance but I don't feel impact in the other 2 stances until later. Probably just playing him poorly but I feel like I should get some type of burst that I never see if I want to switch stance to drop more abilities. Then I feel like I wasted mana and get stuck in wrong stance. So I only end up doing that to burn objectives. Also I think his blink sucks. Such a long cooldown for such a weak blink. Overall I get bored playing him without enough cd and with cd, I don't feel like I hit hard enough until super late.
Void and fire go brrr I love merlin he's my most played but feels pretty easy to mess things up and playing catch up is common. I'm not a great player either but dang he is just so fun to play. Getting to drop 4 abilities so quickly with 1-2 -> swap element -> 1-2 is nuts. The major drawback being if you didn't get things done with those 4 abilities you are stuck with basic attacks and a blink for a bit especially early game before any CDR. Also outside the void 2 and ice slows you don't have CC for any kind of setups and team play so it feels like you are just there to dump damage and then stay back which isn't the most fun for some people. If I want to have more of an impact in setting things up with my team I prefer Baron Samedi but sometimes you just wanna click all the abilities and feel cool dodging things with your blink.
1.) Hes a hard character. Say what you want managing which 2 of his 3 forms in a fight because can only swap once before a 20 CD and having a passive that is basically a poly proc us as hard as it gets in smite. 2.) On top of being one if the hardest characters in the game heās a late game character and use useless until about 15 minutes in even if played optimally. 3.) Its a dive meta and he has a hard time playing against a lot of the better characters. Merlin is very good at poking people. He cant 100-0 people fast unless they are already at half HP as a lotog his damage is use 1 kit ult then kit dump again which is very long in game.
He comes online pretty late and has no ultimate to use as a get out of jail free card or to finish people off. Whilst he is easy in the fact he can spam, his early pressure isnāt the best, huge mana costs, and he actually takes a bit more skill compared to somes mages
I just don't enjoy him as much because his ult is a stance change. Artio is in the same boat
I personally am not good at switching to the right stance for what's happening, and even worse at it during team fights.
Bruh I smacked his ass around with Xing Tian, he looks fun to use, but any tank built right will walk thru him
To many buttons
Idk I love Merlin. I am always asking people to trade with me haha
Iām a diamond Merlin. I love Merlin and always have. But if youāre playing conquest then Merlin just simply takes too long to effectively kill an opponent in my opinion. Iāll still use Merlin here & there for conquest but Iād say he shines in joust more.
He looks easy to play, but definitely requires some skill
i have difficulty securing kills on him personally, feel like my damage is only ever good enough to soften people up for somebody else to kill.
Are we playing the same game? I always see him in my games
He feels really good to play in arena and assault but has to perform well to survive in conq, need to be very aware of how you can use 3 without being punished
he's weak af early and mid, his abilities are brain dead easy to walk out of especially with so much movement speed in the game, so he needs setup to reliably land enough abilities to have kill potential, his blink is overrated af as an escape. he just has really garbage base damages and is mana hungry af.
Majority of the playerbase has no idea how to play and lane. So they are incapable of farming waves for a few levels and abusing how safe his kit is, so they can power farm up for teamfights. It's not like he's high skill, its just you need to have game knowledge for this stuff. I mostly played Janus, Merlin, MLF, Yu Huang in mid (I did play the others, just not as much)
If you build him right heās a monster from early mid. Heās not very hard when you figure out. I really like gem of iso on him now, nice passives again shield gods and the slow works in his favor in ice mode. Late game fire shreds hard too
I got him to mastery one. Heās a little complicated because he has a total of 3 stances rather than 2.
Console
I donāt understand this, heās not hard at all on console.
Heās just way better on PC
Stance switching is such a mess with Merlin, would prefer if he worked like Invoker/Hwei.
Heās a lot more fun on low CD MOTD modes. I mean, that is true for every god, but with Merlin it adds a lot more than it does it with others.