Team Dignitas First Impressions on The Morrigan

The Morrigan is the newest god in Smite. She was revealed at Hi-Rez Expo and released in patch 3.25. The Morrigan is a unique goddess that utilizes new technology. She was designed to be a mid laner and a jungler. She has wave clear, strong burst potential, and stealth. The most standout of The Morrigan’s abilities is her ultimate, Changeling. Changeling allows The Morrigan to temporarily become any other god in the current match, inheriting their abilities, stats, and items. Changeling is a very fun mechanic that requires a lot of game knowledge to use successfully.

On release, The Morrigan release was very buggy, but most of the issues have since been fixed. The Smite community has mixed opinions on the new goddess. Some people think she is just a situational pick or a gimmick while others believe her high skill cap and combo potential make her overpowered. We asked the members of the Team Dignitas Smite team some questions about their first impressions of the Phantom Queen.

How strong of a mid laner is The Morrigan? What parts of the game does she excel in and what are her weaknesses? 

ShadowNightmare: The Morrigan is probably one of the weakest mid laners in the game. Her kit is very inefficient at clearing waves and her damage application on enemies is very risky resulting most of the time in her own death. Ideally, she should excel late game when she has enough items to one-shot somebody, however, because of the wind-up on her 1, one-shotting somebody before they can react is not possible, again often resulting in her own death due to the aggressive position she has to be in to have a chance at killing somebody.

 

What are some of her lane matchups like?

ShadowNightmare: She loses every lane match up in the mid lane due to no escape, no safe clear, and low early damage.

 

The Morrigan was designed to be able to jungle. How does she fare in the role? How does she compare to other junglers in terms of clearing, ganking, and fighting?

Frostiak: The Morrigan’s jungle buff clear is slightly worse than that other junglers can offer, mainly because she has worse stats than assassins, and less in-hand damage. On paper the ability Confusion looks perfect for sneaky ganks, but in reality her footsteps are loud enough to allow enemies to predict her position and escape before taking any damage. Also, Deadly Aspects has too long of a cast time, so even if by any chance someone doesn’t hear her footsteps, they will definitely hear that ability and dodge it before it goes off. She struggles a lot in 1vs1 fights because she has only two damage abilities and one of them is easy to avoid. The Morrigan’s ultimate can turn any situation in her favor but because it has been bugged since release, I couldn't see its true strength. However, her escape system can be countered by tick damage which makes her easy to kill especially in the jungle.

 

Some people have been talking about a tanky or bruiser build. How do you feel about that build on The Morrigan?

Frostiak: In my opinion, it’s best to build her as a bruiser in the jungle. She doesn’t provide much damage without the ultimate, so it’s better to stay alive, use her Deadly Aspects as a utility ability and set up a kill with the stun. If for some reason the team needs some extra damage, her Changeling copies not only someone's god but also their stats and items and that's why she can get away with building defense items.

 

Does The Morrigan have any potential in the solo lane?

Duck3y: I do not think The Morrigan has much potential in the solo lane because for her to deal damage she needs to be relatively close to the enemy gods/minions, and in the solo lane that will put her in a bad position, since most gods you will go up against will more than likely be warriors who will have long range poke and sustain. This will cause her to get bullied out of lane very early in the game because she has to get close to the wave to clear. Plus, her third ability "Confusion" (which is her escape) gives her stealth whilst creating a decoy to run to a target location, because of this it is very difficult for her to escape from warriors especially if they have bluestone, since if The Morrigan takes damage during her stealth, she is instantly revealed, cancelling the stealth and can be chased down. Furthermore, in the current meta it is best to have a strong front line character in the solo lane that can initiate and peel for the carries during team fights. The Morrigan just doesn't fit this role as a solo laner, however, with the new season comes new metas, so it is possible with the recent changes that she might see some play in the solo lane but we will have to wait to find out.

With Changeling allowing The Morrigan to copy any god in the current game, how does she influence the drafting phase of a game?

Barn: The Morrigan brings a unique variable to any game she is in, and if she proves to be a strong god in the upcoming Season 4 meta, then we could definitely see some early bans directed at her. Aside from that, we could see more top tier gods being banned away instead of being looked at for first pick if the other team could respond with The Morrigan and have the opportunity to also utilize that god albeit in shorter bursts. The main benefit from Changeling is its versatility both gameplay-wise and draft-wise, allowing on-the-fly adaptations to how your team can play teamfights depending on which gods you can transform into - whether that is utilizing something like a Khepri ult, a high utility ultimate like Janus’ Through Space and Time, or just becoming another front-line nuisance for the opposing team to deal with by becoming a tanky, disruptive warrior. In the hands of a competent player with competent leadership, she could prove to be a nightmare to deal with.

 

Would a team be careful to not a draft a god that is too synergistic with the enemy composition that contains The Morrigan?

Barn: It’s definitely a hard decision that teams will have to make, and relies upon whether or not you are more confident in your team's ability to play the draft to risk it also synergizing well with the opposing composition. If you aren’t, then you would have to look to draft a composition from which none of your gods would be useful for The Morrigan to turn into, but that is not an easy task whilst maintaining a solid competitively viable comp. In general I think that, if she proves to be strong in the new meta, she is going to create a lot of interesting diversity in drafting styles.

 

How much does having The Morrigan on your team increase the value of gods that have big ultimates that require relic answers, such as Ares and Xing Tian? Is Changling enough of a force to choose these types of supports over others?

Suntouch: Morrigan can definitely have a huge impact when taking form of big characters such as an Ares. The issue comes with then comboing proactively, the first Ares would have to jump in and ultimate while surviving (which is a big problem for Ares currently). The Morrigan then has to repeat this without dying, so I think on paper it could be broken in casual queues - I think in competitive it won't be used in this way. More likely you will copy your carry role players and try to snowball this way.

 

How do you think The Morrigan will fit in the meta in her current state and do you think she needs any buffs or nerfs?

Suntouch: I think she can be picked in any game due to fact she can copy 9 different characters and her base kit is strong enough to compete. However, as I haven't seen her in competitive yet, I don't know how broken the combos can be. If it is broken in the current state, it would simply be banned by all teams.

 

Thank you to our Smite players for their insights on The Morrigan you can follow them on Twitter at @DIG_Shadow @DIG_FrostiaK @DIG_Duck3y @DIG_Barn @DIG_Suntouch 

Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shop