There’s a new Warrior Goddess on SMITE! Bellona is a Roman melee/physical and high defense warrior. Check out the promo page here.
Rome has forgotten her…
Bellona, Goddess of War, took no time to build temples or gather worshippers. She favors only those for whom war is life; for that is where she thrives- not on the steps of hallowed basilicas or in whispered prayers, but in the blood-soaked mud, among the breathless armored troops, in the roar of victory.
ABILITIES
Master of War (Passive): Upon giving or receiving hits from basic attacks, Bellona gains protections and movement speed for 5s. (max 5 stacks).
Protections: 5 Protections per Stack
Movement Speed: +6% per Stack
Shield Bash (Q): Bellona dashes forward and bashes with her shield, dealing damage and slowing enemies. Bellona gains 1 stack of block for each enemy god hit. Block absorbs all damage from a single basic attack and reflects a portion the damage in an area around her. Bellona then makes basic attacks with sword and shield until out of combat, and every 3 successful basic attacks she gains another stack of block (max 3).
Damage: 80/120/160/200/240 (+40% of your physical power)
Slow: 30% for 2s
Block Reflect: 30%
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Cost: 60 mana
Bludgeon (W): Bellona summons a Hammer and spins, hitting every enemy around her and then smashing forward in an overhand attack. Each enemy god hit in the spin increases the damage of the overhand attack. Bellona now makes basic attacks with her Hammer until out of combat. Every Hammer attack hits all enemies in melee range.
Spin Damage: 30/60/90/120/150 (+25% of your physical power)
Slam Damage: 70/130/190/250/310 (+60% of your physical power)
Slam Damage Increase: 30% Per Enemy God Hit
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana
Scourge (E): Bellona summons a Scourge, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. Enemies hit are Disarmed, and cannot make basic attacks. Bellona now makes basic attacks with a Scourge until out of combat, which has extended range (+4) and every third attack heals Bellona.
Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+50% of your physical power)
Disarm Duration: 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3s
Healing: 30/50/70/90/110
Range: 55
Cooldown: 18 seconds
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana
Eagle’s Rally (Ultimate): Bellona plants a Roman flag, granting protections and increased physical power to allied gods. Enemies directly under where the flag is placed take damage and are stunned for 1s.
Damage: 100/200/300/400/500 (+50% of your physical power)
Physical Power: 10/20/30/40/50
Protections: 15/20/25/30/35
Flag Duration: 6/8/10/12/14
Cooldown: 75/70/65/60/55 seconds
Cost: 100 mana
GAMEPLAY
SKINS
200 Gems or 9500 Favor
ART TEAM Q&A
What was the Art direction you initially envisioned for Bellona, and how did that change throughout the creative process?
As the Roman Goddess of War, it was very clear where we wanted to go with her from the start: the essence of Roman warfare; an unequaled soldier and battlefield leader who was a master of every weapon. This basic idea held through the process, though one element did change. Initially we were going to have her main weapon, the sword, broken near the end. The thought was that she didn’t need a special weapon to be amazing and powerful, she could pick anything up off the battlefield and be deadly with it. However we began to realize that this went against her developing personality, a perfect soldier who wouldn’t care if her clothes were ripped or hair disheveled, but she would make sure her weapons were in perfect shape and in peak killing condition.
SMITE is a game of epic figures, powers, and armaments, how did you decide how big to go when creating Bellona’s larger weapons?
Having big weapons is part of Smite’s larger-than-life style. They have to be big and glorious to fit the god wielding it. We design the weapons to be one of the major focal points of the God, they add a lot of interest to the overall design and help define the silhouette at distance. After having created over 60 gods now, finding the appropriate scale is something we almost intuitively know how to do, although occasionally we do have to make adjustments once animation gets the model and are able to test things out.
Bellona has four sets of weapons. How does that impact animation and was any one weapon set more challenging to animate?
Bellona was a fun challenge- her kit called for 4 weapons stances, but we couldn’t devote 4x the time to her, so we had to be clever about when the weapons switch, and then use the time we did have to try to make her handle the different weapons as a weapons master would- altering her fight style and her approach to the weapon, and to have that approach carry in to her demeanor to degrees (ie- the Scourge being the most precise and elegant weapon, so we carried that into her stance and personality in the pose). The Scourge had the hardest technical requirements of the 4 weapons, but building a differentiation between the Sword and Sword/Shield was a bit more of a challenge, especially within the in-hand fire system and timings, and that is something we hope we have achieved
As a warrior, Bellona’s effects have to convey action and impact. Do you approach warrior effects differently than those of other roles?
Most warriors (and Bellona certainly) have heavy melee weapons, so there’s a lot of weapon trail work. In her case, she has multiple weapons which are used not only for her abilities, but also as in-hand weapons. For SMITE, most melee attacks are very very fast. Due to this, we have developed our own weapon trail technology to generate weapon trails from the animations. For melee characters (mostly warriors / assassins) who use metallic weapons, we create a ghosted image of the weapon for the trail material and use a cube map to make it feel reflective. We also use special hit FX that have a directional slice material, allowing the hit to convey the specific direction of each individual attack.
DEVELOPER Q&A
What themes from her lore did you most want to incorporate into her character and why?
Having another opportunity to do a god of war, we really wanted to make her the penultimate soldier and weapon master of Smite. Rome’s history of military conflict provided a lot of material to work with, from the Eagle Standard of her ultimate, to the visual design of her armor and weapons.
What sets Bellona apart as a Warrior?
She’s the first character in Smite to have an ability that Disarms (prevents basic attacks). More than any other warrior, she’s been built as a counter to basic attack focused gods.
What inspired her multi-weapon ability kit?
We wanted her core mechanic to be something new and original, and we had never done a character that changed weapons so frequently! It fit very naturally with the idea of a weapon master, and the weapon swaps allowed us to do a lot of fun things, like give each weapon a different attack chain and secondary effect.
Where do you think Bellona will fit in the current state of the game?
She’s pretty flexible, and could fill a number of different roles. She’ll shine the most picked against basic attack dependent teams.
What interesting events occurred during her development and testing?
We actually debated using her older name Duellona, rather than Bellona, to avoid the obvious parodies that would result for our english speaking users. We decided those parodies would be pretty funny though, and it was better to keep with the more commonly known name.
MATCHUPS
Strong Against
Artemis has no major movement abilities and functions solely on her ability to Basic Attack. Combining the ability to block with the ability to Disarm her target, Bellona is well equipped to fight Artemis.
Bakasura focuses on Basic Attacks in order to proc his Butcher Blades and devour his victims during Regurgitate. Disarm works excellent against this and more specifically will burn through the duration of Butcher Blades effectively reducing Bakasura’s burst potential.
Kali can operate on short time windows in which she has fully committed to her target during her ultimate Destruction in order to earn a large healing bonus when she finally kills her target. Bellona can nullify Kali’s kill potential by disarming her but also stunning her with Eagle’s Rally and protecting her teammates under the flag’s location.
Strong Paired With
Ares brings all of his enemies to the yard, and Bellona’s like my hammer hits hard. Bellona excels when many enemies are grouped up together, and Ares facilitates that scenario with No Escape as well as preventing his enemies from fleeing by using Shackles.
Hades brings burst damage to the table and groups his enemies up with Pillar of Agony. Bellona can combo into this using Bludgeon, while protecting Hades during his channel with Eagle’s Rally and a mass Disarm from Scourge.
Poseidon’s Whirlpool provides a large area of effect Cripple that opens many opportunities for Bellona. Bellona can also initiate with a leap from Eagle’s Rally to stun targets at its center that allows Poseidon to Release the Kraken on unsuspecting foes.
Struggles Against
Scylla is capable of incredible Magical burst, but also may Root and Cripple Bellona. Scourge’s Disarm and Shield Bash’s blocks do nothing to stop Scylla from getting her kill.
As the Goddess of War, Bellona is well equipped to handle any matter of weapons that are brought to bear against her. The massive amount of burst damage that He Bo provides goes right through Bellona’s shield.
Bellona struggles against Assassin’s that focus on ability-based damage much like Bastet. Along with this, Bellona’s block stacks are easily shredded with the three cats summoned from Cat Call. Bastet’s slowing capability from Declaw and her summoned cats ensures Bellona won’t escape.
