There’s the smell of blood in the air. And a new contender is lapping it up as the body count rises in SMITE Season 3.
Emerging from his darkest of domiciles, Camazotz has hit the Battleground of the Gods like a bat out of hell. So follow us as we dive into the deep cave of tips and tricks for playing and building Camazotz, and soon you’ll show every meatbag trodding your turf exactly what “bloodlust” means.
Cashing in on Camazotz
Camazotz, SMITE‘s powerful new Assassin entry into the Mayan Pantheon, may be half man and half bat — but he’s all murder. Carrying enough damage to quickly reduce most enemies to a quivering fountain of gore, Camazotz is a melee Jungler that has given up most of an Assassin’s escapes and engages for the ability to almost instantly snack on anything less durable than a dedicated tank, making him a much higher risk/reward pick than more traditional Jungle gods like Thor.
While more traditional Assassins had the mobility to get in, score a kill, and get out, this bloodthirsty butcher is more in line with a Hunter mentality. His damage soars above most of his competition (as long as he avoids coming under heavily focused fire from the opposition), and his powerful ranged Slow can be a death sentence for many escape-less gods, making Camazotz a dangerous pick in any SMITE game.
While his high-risk, high-reward playstyle (and stats) make Camazotz a daunting pick up for newer players strategically, his raw power and damage output may make him more than readily accessible mechanically for anyone out for blood. Careful selection of fights and targets is more important here than usual, but with a little practice using the skills we cover below you can easily sink your fangs into more than a few victories.
Abilities
Essence Drinker
Camazotz has a passive Vampirism bonus. Also, any time a god dies, they leave behind a pool of their essence in the spot they were slain. Camazotz may stand inside these pools to drink the essence, replenishing his health and mana. If Camazotz is out of combat he drinks faster.
Heal per tick: 2% max health and mana
Drinks per pool: 10
Vampirism buff: 5% increased physical lifesteal and healing
Essence Drinker is one of the better ways a relentless killing machine like the Deadly God of Bats can keep the KBs coming. Like Kali before him, Camazotz has a passive that can help erase the damage targets inflict before they bleed out, keeping him topped off — and ready to find his next victim.
While actually draining a pool of essence entirely for its staggering 20% max health and mana regeneration is much more time consuming than the Hindu goddess’, it’s also much easier to come by. That’s because Camazotz doesn’t have to be the one doing the killing for a pool of essence to spawn. Even better, he doesn’t even have to be involved. A Camazotz currently helping the far solo lane in a Conquest match will still spawn — and see on his minimap — the pools of life force left behind by slain enemies on the other side of the Battleground.
There’s also no limit to the number of pools which can exist at any time, and they never dry up. And thanks to the way SMITE calculates things like anti-healing, even Odin’s Ring of Spears can’t stop the bat from drinking his fill – though it does severely reduce the effectiveness.
All in all, Essence Drinker is a subtle but incredibly powerful passive, nearly guaranteeing that any trade with Camazotz not resulting in his immediate death is a bad one for his enemies. He will escape, he will drink, he will heal, and he will come back to finish off the wounded.
Screech
Camazotz screeches loudly and launches a sound wave that pierces through minions and deals damage. If the screech hits an enemy god, the sound wave will echo. If Camazotz is hit by an echo, he gains vision of the target that was hit by Screech for the next 15s and gains bonus physical power for the duration.
Damage: 90/135/180/225/270 (+70% of physical power)
Echo Buff: 20/25/30/35/40
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana
Cooldown: 15 seconds
The first of two powerful line shots in Camazotz’s big book of bloodletting, Screech is a hugely powerful source of direct damage that keeps the hurt coming with a strong power boost attached — if you can catch the echo.
Luckily, two things tend to be true about the purple echo waves – they operate on the same bouncing geometric mechanics as Hou Yi’s Richochet (making them nearly impossible to miss in the jungle), and they will 100% return to Camazotz as long as he’s running at his prey in a straight line from when he fired off a Screech. Two more echolocation waves also bounce from the target when it hit, but the center screech wave will always return along exactly the same line of fire Screech originally covered.
It’s worth noting that while the last level is missing the 10 physical power bonus of Kali’s similar ability, the bottom of the damage buff is 10 full points higher. So attached to a particularly powerful nuke itself is a buff that’s more or less on par with the Mother of Mayhem, except even better in the early game.
Landing echoes is not only a huge “free” bonus on par with a full item, but also a powerful wave clear tool — even earlier levels of the ability tend to wipe (or nearly wipe) whole minion waves, making this a great first level up for laning and jungling Camazotz alike.
Yes, laning. As it turns out, Camazotz is batshit insane at bullying even tanky laners like Hercules straight back to their fountain — thanks mostly to Screech’s power to both shred waves and gods alike. But also thanks to the sustain provided by his swarm of…
Vampire Bats
Camazotz commands a swarm of bats to fly out and attack a single target, damaging and slowing them by 30% and then carrying back a heal. If the target was a jungle buff monster they will be marked, and Camazotz will receive a heal as well as a stackable Vampirism buff that lasts 210 seconds. Marked monsters will not provide Camazotz with another stack of Vampirism.
Damage: 100/180/260/340/420 (+130% of physical power)
Heal: 20 (+100% of physical power)
Buff per stack: 3% increased healing and lifesteal
Maximum stacks: 3
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Fully stacked from a quick run through the jungle, Camazotz is holding enough free stats to make even Fafnir jealous. 9% increased healing and lifesteal combined with his natural 5% leave him with a whopping 14% lifesteal increase after his initial jungle buff clears — on par with a full lifesteal item, except it boosts the heals from his Vampire Bats and Devour as well.
On top of his most powerful single-target nuke (unfortunately, this one won’t pierce minions or jungle monsters) comes a free 0-9% buff to the powerful heal carried back to him by the swarm — making Vampire Bats a powerful tool for Camazotz to come out on top in nearly any trade. A straight fight will really suck for your opponent.
Deciding whether to max out on Vampire Bats or Devour is a major decision point for Camazotz in lane, however. More aggressive Camazotz players seeking to kill their lane opponent outright — or at least drive them back to the fountain — should certainly maximize such a high-damage ability with great power scaling early. But more farm and sustain-oriented Bat gods that are looking to ignore the opponent outright can put a single point into Vampire Bats at level 2 (for the slow and great heal), then leave it for last.
Jungle Camazotz should level this up second, behind Screech, as the powerful 1-2 punch of line shots are a great way to down a gank target quickly before moving on to the next meal.
Devour
Camazotz leaps forward a short distance, dealing damage on impact and healing himself for each enemy hit.
Damage: 80/140/200/260/320 (+75% of physical power)
Heal per hit: 15/25/35/45/55 (+25% of physical power)
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana
Cooldown: 15 seconds
The “utility pick up” for most Camazotz games, Devour is a short range leap (more of a skip, really) that functions mostly as a sustain tool when jungling, or leaping onto a few enemy minions in lane. While it certainly looks like your usual Assassin-ish escape/engage (and can be under some circumstances), it’s a little weaker than average, and better suited to keeping health high than diving on unsuspecting enemies.
Most importantly, Devour simply doesn’t have the range other leaps do. Not only will you not cover the same distance many other gap-closing abilities will — leaving you at a bit of a mobility disadvantage you have to make up for by landing your Vampire Bats to secure the Slow. But Camazotz also simply cannot leap over walls a player may be used to leaping over. This means that Deadly Bat Gods on the hunt for weakened prey are going to have to make much better use of their Vampire Bats and Screech (and the vision it provides) to outmaneuver victims rather than just chasing them down with raw mobility.
Luckily, what Devour lacks in distance-covering ability is more than made up for in sustain — healing a full quarter of a power-oriented assassin’s damage (with a bonus) mid fight is an excellent way to turn the tables on prey that’s fighting back. By the time Devour recovers a good chunk of your missing health (and the Vampire Bats return with the rest), many enemies are going to find themselves drastically low on cooldowns and health, staring at a Camazotz every bit as healthy as he was when he first wandered into lane and started drinking their blood like they were some kind of gold-filled Capri-sun.
Bat Out of Hell
Camazotz flies into the air for the next 3s. While flying, he may swoop forward to deal damage. He may do this up to 3 times, landing on the 3rd time. Hitting more than one enemy god in a single swoop will deal increased damage per god.
Damage per hit: 140/180/220/260/300 (+20% of physical power)
Damage bonus: 10% per god
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 90 seconds
There are very few Ultimates currently in SMITE that so perfectly describe its attached god or goddess and their playstyle — but Bat Out of Hell sums up Camazotz and his kit perfectly.
There are no fancy stuns like Thor ults. No health thresholds like the executes of Thanatos and Ao Kuang. No minion AI like Bastet cats — just pure, unadulterated damage. Screaming death from above. A minimum of 900 (+60% of physical power) damage on any target hit by all three swoops…that’s more than enough to kill many Mages, Assassins, and Hunters that can’t hide from the dark hunter’s hunger for blood.
Bat Out of Hell is a workable semi-escape tool similar to Freya’s Ultimate. The CC immunity certainly goes a long way, and the swoops do cover a fair bit of ground and can be used rapidly in succession. Where it shines, however, is in its ability to completely devastate clustered teams in a manner more consistent with the widespread destruction of Mages than the traditional 1 by 1 strategy of Assassins. Around 1000 damage is a lot of pain to lay on an enemy team stuck together in a jungle chokepoint, and can easily turn a fight from “fair” to “fatal”.
One thing to watch out for, however, is that while the ability uses the word flying — it’s even classified as Flight — it currently does not actually fly. I repeat: YOU DO NOT FLY. Not like Apollo’s Chariot, not even like Freya’s Discretion. Camazotz certainly looks airborne, but ground-based impediments such as Odin’s Ring of Spears, Terra’s standing stones, or Cabrakan’s Tectonic Shift will keep the Deadly God from flying much of anywhere. So you’ll want to keep that in mind before you try to flit away from danger.
Items and Gameplay
Camazotz is a dangerous killer — a winged demon from the darkest parts around who is sure to live up to his Assassin title. But he’s got more than a few bats in his belfry when it comes to acting like his more traditional Assassin lineage, and works best with Guardians and Mages that can peel focus away from him (like Fafnir or Khepri), or Warriors that can take some of the pressure away from him as he tears through the enemies one at a time (like Tyr).
If Camazotz is jungling, start with a Bumba’s Mask to keep health topped off (without costing mana). Laners may want to either pick up Death’s Toll or (more profitably) rush straight to the first major buys of Transcendence and Warrior’s Tabi to get those incredible physical power coefficients charged up early.
Many Assassins have recently been looking towards the Tower Shield items like Shifter’s Shield or Void Shield, but avoid those for now. No amount of defense is really going to keep Camazotz up under heavy focus fire, but your damage and self healing with Jotunn’s Wrath is more than enough in every other case.
From there, grab a Qin’s Sais to aid your sustained damage between cooldowns. Once Camazotz is in a fight, he tends to want to stay in a fight and attempt to sustain through it, so he’s going to need his basic attacks to pack a punch while Vampire Bats and Screech are offline. Asi helps keep him afloat while offering a fair bit of armor penetration. And lastly, Frostbound Hammer can help keep squishy enemy bloodbags in biting range — though Bloodforge is also a solid power boost that synergizes well with Camazotz’s passive bonuses.
Here’s the TL;DR:
Bumba’s Mask (if jungling) > Transcendence > Warrior Tabi > Jotunn’s Wrath > Qin’s Sais > Asi > Frostbound Hammer / Bloodforge
Remember to keep your eyes peeled and stay aware of the (echo)location of nearby enemies. Camazotz is fully capable of winning most duels, or swiftly downing high-priority enemies with low health like Mages, but he’s almost certainly dead almost immediately if he comes under focused fire. Stay near the edge of a fight, bide your time as the Deadly God of Bats did, and strike when an opening presents itself.
Once you and your team move in for the kill, however, turn the bloodlust up to 11 and let the bodies hit the floor. Camazotz may not be as good at escaping as some other Assassins, but he is much better in prolonged combat — rivaling Kali in her ability to tear through enemy after enemy. Grab one victim and drain them dry, drink up in their pool of essence for a few seconds, then sink your fangs into the next one in line — and keep going until there’s no more red to spill.
If enemies begin turning on you, use your massive ability to self-heal to win the damage race. You’re probably not getting away, but you probably can live if you just eat your way through their attacks as you shred them one god or goddess at a time.
Trust me, they do bleed — and they will.
Now that you’ve learned how to drive your enemies batty and leave them seeing red, go forth and conquer! But be sure to stop back and tell us how you drank your fill of victory with Camazotz, the Deadly God of Bats.
Published: Oct 13, 2016 12:38 am