Blink Rune has seen a surge of popularity in Smite since Season 5 launched. Junglers are starting Blink as their first Relic and other roles are seeing prominent use of the item as well. The new Conquest map and the tempo change it brought allow for Blink to see a lot of use in the early game. Even though the Relic was nerfed in Patch 5.4, it is still powerful and allows for junglers to have a lot of influence in their games. In this article, we will discuss how Blink Rune can be utilized in the Season 5 map.



Icons for the base and upgraded forms of Blink Rune

Blink Rune allows the user to teleport up to 55 units forward. When upgraded, the user gains 10% damage mitigation for 2 seconds. In both its base and upgraded forms, the user must be out of combat for 3 seconds before Blink can be activated. Blink Rune’s most obvious use is on the offensive front; teleport on the target or into the enemy team and wreak havoc. One can also Blink reactively to sound cues such as ability windups or other Blinks Runes to quickly cover distance and survive aggression. The damage mitigation from the upgraded Blink Rune gives initiators more safety when they teleport into an engagement. Blink is often considered one of, if not the, most fun Relic to use because of its immediate and obvious effect.

One of the big draws to Season 5 is the new Conquest map. The design of the map accentuates the strengths of Blink Rune. This year, Conquest has more walls, smaller corridors, and less visibility than previously. Blink is often used to surprise opponents in a gank, so the less likely the target can predict or see their attacker, the stronger Blink Rune is. Surprising someone on the other side of a wall can result in a kill and snowball a game. Blinks can also be used to escape over a wall if pressed in time or after enough juking to reset the out-of-combat timer. Blink can also be used while defending a phoenix siege. If the enemy hugs the wrong wall, a surprise Blink engage with followup from afar can turn around a fight and put your team in the driver's seat. The new map introduced in Season 5 really promotes the usage of Blink Rune.

Junglers are especially good at taking advantage of Blink Rune in the current meta. In the competitive Smite matches we’ve seen in the start of Season 5, from the Minor League to the Global Series, almost every jungler is starting with the Blink Relic. Towards the end of Season 4, some junglers were experimenting with using Blink as their first Relic. This was often done against compositions with low crowd control or on gods that were beefy and had had high early game damage and control, such as Nemesis and Ravana. In Season 5, junglers starting the game with a Blink Rune is much more common and the item is and being built on gods who never previously built Blink, such as Ratatoskr. There a couple reasons why.

First off, the laning phase in Season 5 is longer. Teams are farming up for mid game instead of team fighting at level 4. This allows a squishy jungler to skip Purification Beads at the start of the game and instead pick up that Relic in their second slot, at level 12. Junglers are also spending more time farming the jungle and not just hanging out in mid lane, so they are also safer to farm and level up without being cc chained to death.

Junglers are controlling the pace of the laning phase. A good jungler can get themselves and their team ahead with a couple well-timed kills and build an advantage to prepare for sieging the enemy base. Blink Rune can help junglers grab early kills buy getting them in place to execute ganks and catch opponents off guard.

Meta junglers tend to have very high base damage in the early levels, a game changing ultimate, or often both. Gods like Da Ji, Serqet, and Ravana can kill an enemy with their early damage and later have ultimates that can pick off single targets and disrupt an entire fight. Physical junglers have access to very strong items such as Transcendence, Heartseeker, and The Crusher. If one jungler can pull off early game ganks and get to their second item power spike earlier, they are in a great position. Most junglers should be able to blink into the middle of mid lane a couple levels in and 2v1 a Mage for a quick kill, or at least send them to base and force them to lose experience and gold. However, a counter engage could be just as devastating, so junglers have to be careful when they engage and track the enemy jungler as best as possible.



Many junglers are starting Blink Rune in Season 5.

Blink usage is not limited to the jungle role. Every role has already demonstrated the ability to use Blink Rune this season. Supports and Solo laners looking for more help initiating have always relied on Blink, and it is no different this season. Starting with Blink Rune can help you get ahead or get a gank off, but sometimes another Relic or two are more important. Hunters and Mages are squishy and the least likely roles to utilize a Blink Rune, especially first Relic. In the past, there have been periods of successful Blink play on these squishy laners, such as PandaCat’s famous Blink Artemis and the surge of Blink Mages in Season 3. While viable, picking up Blink Rune on Hunters and mids is situational and risky.

Patch 5.4 brought a nerf to Blink Rune. Because the relic had been performing so well, its cooldown was increased from 100 seconds to 120 seconds. At 100 seconds, Blink has the lowest cooldown of any relic and now it is more in line with some other options. Blink still has a lower cooldown than Beads, Aegis, and other defensive Relics, meaning you can force an opponent to use their Relic in response to a Blink initiation and then attack again in the window in which Blink if off of cooldown and their relics are still unavailable. This window is smaller now with 5.4, but it can still be played around. While noticeably weaker, Blink is still a powerful tool.

Chalice of the Oracle was also nerfed in Patch 5.4, its cost increased by 100 gold. Hi-Rez thought that the item made wards too cheap and prevalent. With less wards on the map, teams have less visibility and safety, thus promoting an environment that Blink Rune thrives in.



The nerf to Chalice of the Oracle in Patch 5.4 helped out Blink Rune.

Season 5 has brought a Renaissance of sorts to Blink Rune. The Relic is being used more than ever due to map and meta changes. Blink is a key part of junglers controlling the early game and snowballing their team to easy victories. Other roles can also make use of the Relic to devastating effect. Blink was nerfed in Patch 5.4, and we will see the impact its continued strength and presence will have on competitive Smite.

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