Camazotz, Deadly God Of Bats Swoops Into Smite

I did not know that there was a god of bats. I guess that's what happens when you're not a bat and you don't have any observant bat friends. Hi-Rez have heard about the god of bats though, and have invited him to join the cast of their MOBA, Smite [official site]. His name is Camazotz, by the way, and he fits into the assassin jungler class. Let's take a closer look...

I've just had to uninstall and reinstall Smite for some reason so I can't take him for a spin yet. Instead, I'm reading through the patch notes to get a feel for his abilities and how... bat-esque? they ended up going:

Passive – Essence Drinker

This one is a nod to the vampirism stuff so Camazotz has a +5% Lifesteal and Healing passive. There's also a thing by which a God dying leaves behind a pool of their essence where they were slain. Camazotz can stand in that for a health and mana boost. I've seen shows about cleaning up after dead bodies and I feel like the essence that gets left behind when someone dies really really isn't something I'd want to stand in because it's a lot of bodily fluids and waste matter but maybe that's why I'm not a god of bats.

Screech

This one is a damaging sound wave with a cute nod to how bats use sonar: "If the screech hits an enemy god, the sound wave will echo. If Camazotz is hit by an echo, he gains vision of the God that was hit by screech for the next 15s and gains bonus Physical Power for the duration."

Vampire Bats

Camazotz sends out a swarm of bats to fly out and attack a single target. They damage and slow the target as well as carrying back a heal component to Camazotz. Interactions with some targets will affect vampirism stacks but I haven't had enough coffee for vampirism stacks.

Devour

Camazotz leaps forward a short distance. He does damage on impact and heals himself a bit per enemy hit. I guess it's a kind of pounce 'n' munch.

Ultimate: Bat Out of Hell

"Camazotz flies into the air, becoming CC immune 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." I think this sounds like a kind of weaponised bat version of skimming stones. According to the dev insights post:

"Camazotz started off with a different ultimate where he flew higher in the air and then dove down and attached to an enemy, dealing damage over time. This ability failed the Bat test. Bats don’t dive bomb, they flutter around erratically and his new Ultimate suits him much better."

Regarding his contribution to a game:

"Camazotz brings a few new things to a team that junglers usually don’t. First, his sustain. He can remain in the jungle for a very long time and apply constant pressure to lanes without having to back, especially if kills are happening and he has essence pools to drink. The other things he brings, is early game tower dives. His Ultimate allows him to deal sufficient damage to enemies very deep under their own towers. Not many Assassins can do that."

Okay, so Smite is now playable on my PC and I'm just going to say that I seem to have forgotten everything I ever knew about jungling.

In other news, I do really like the plague bearer skin for Izanami.