Nike is the Goddess of Victory and she proved it at the Smite World Championship. Nike was one of the best gods at the tournament. She has a very powerful kit and can be played in multiple roles. This article will discuss aspects of Nike and how she was utilized to become one the best characters in Smite.

Nike was one of the strongest gods at the SWC. She was picked or banned in 21 out of 30 games, which is significantly lower than powerhouses like Jing Wei and Sylvanus at 27 and 28 respectively, but around that of other strong gods such as Terra and Janus. Nike received a respectable 13 bans and was played in 8 games. Of these 8 games, she won 7 of them, making her the most successful god overall at the tournament.

Nike’s strength was utilized mostly by the European teams Obey Alliance and NRG Esports. She appeared in every game featuring either team, a total of 20 appearances just from games involving these teams. Nike’s true power was only realized later in the tournament. Seven of her picks were from the first two days of competition. She was picked in one semi-finals game, but banned in the all the others and remained banned throughout the finals as well. All of her bans were from semis and the finals. There were mixed opinions about Nike going into worlds, but she silenced the nonbelievers with her showing at the championship.

The Kit

Because Nike is a newer god, we are going to briefly cover her kit. Nike has perhaps the best passive in Smite. To Victory! requires certain team-wide goals to be met, and grants her entire team movement speed and power when she is alive, up to 7% and 12%, respectively. These goals can be completed in any order and are: 10 kills across the team, 250 minions killed by her team, and 2 players on her team reaching level 20. This is a very strong passive that allows Nike and her team to excel in the mid to late game when this passive comes online.

Her second ability, Plan of Action, alters her other abilities, so it will be discussed first. Leveling the ability gives Nike passive hp5, which provides Nike sustain to lane. When activated, Plan of Action grants extra damage to the next ability she uses and gives it a stronger effect.

Nike’s primary ability is Rend. This ability sends out two line attacks in succession. Enemies hit by both strikes lose protections. Plan of Action gives Rend an additional attack and gods hit by all three strikes are disarmed. Rend is Nike’s strongest damage source, but is easily interruptible, giving some counter play to the Goddess of Victory.

Valiant Leap is Nike’s movement ability. It is a jump that knocks up targets on impact. The jump is fairly slow, but Plan of Action causes it to travel very quickly. This is the skill Nike is least likely to empower, but it can be used to initiate or escape.

Nike’s ultimate is called Sentinel of Zeus. The ability briefly makes Nike CC immune and sends out a damaging shockwave. This shockwave also heavily shows enemies and grants Nike a shield equal to 40% of her maximum health. Plan of Action increases the slow even further in addition to bumping up the shield to 60% of Nike’s max health. This skill is very useful as it hampers enemies while also greatly increasing Nike’s effective health.



The in-game text of Sentinel of Zeus

Strategies

Roles

One of Nike’s biggest strengths is her versatility in the draft phase. Nike was played in three roles at SWC and excelled in two of them. Nike is a Warrior, and most Warriors tend to do well in the solo lane. Nike is no exception to this, but she is very matchup dependent. Nike’s main clear ability is Rend and it can be interrupted, forcing Nike to clear with just her basic attacks, which cleave so are still pretty efficient, but not as much as using Rend on the wave. Nike was played into Bellona and Guan Yu, gods without ways to interrupt Rend. Because she was allowed an early game and to get ahead of other roles, solo Nike was allowed to disrupt team fights and sway the late game in her favor.

Nike was also an amazing jungler, winning all five times she was played in the role. A huge draw to Nike jungle is that she does not have to lane against someone that can interrupt Rend. This means that she can use Rend and her cleave attacks to quickly clear camps and roam the map. Nike can also gank fairly well. A surprise Rend strips protections and the slow from Sentinel of Zeus can set up enemies or forces relics. The shield from her ultimate also makes her safe while ganking or counter jungling.

Nike was played in the mid lane once at worlds. It was her only loss that tournament, but the theory is solid. Nike laned against a Zeus, a mage who could not interrupt her Rend and a god she could out pressure in the lane. Nike is a strong god that can fill multiple roles in a team composition, making it difficult to draft appropriate counters.

Mid and Late Game Synergies

Nike’s passive ensures that even if she gets behind, she can benefit her team in the mid to late game. The passive goals of To Victory will inevitably be achieved. The minion kills and level 20s are a factor of time. The 10 kills goal is dependent on the state and pace of the game. A fast-paced, back-and-forth game will cause Nike’s passive to stack early, while a slower, one-sided game will make finalizing her passive much harder.

Nike synergizes best with high-scaling mages and was often paired with the magical hunters Sol, Chronos, and Freya. Nike’s passive is perfect for these gods. Magical power items give higher power than equivalent physical items because each point of magical power is generally less impactful than a point of physical power. This means that flat power boosts will provide greater impact to physical gods, but percent power increases, like Nike’s passive, favors magical gods. These gods also rely on positioning to be safe, so the movement speed from To Victory! is impactful.

Nike is also great in team fights. The damage and debuffs from Rend can hamper enemies while the slow from Sentinel of Zeus can help pin them down. Nike is also very hard to kill, being naturally tanky in addition to her huge shield. Nike can tear through teams with Rend and needs to be cc’ed out of it, but that takes away a control effect to use on a kill target. Valiant Leap has many uses in a team fight. It can be used to initiate, disengage, peel, or disrupt enemy lines. Nike is a strong fighter at all stages of the game, but her passive allows her entire team to be stronger and faster.

Nike was one of the strongest gods at the Smite World Championship. She was picked or banned in about two thirds of the games and won almost every game she was played in. Nike’s passive is very strong and grants her team additional movement speed and power. The rest of her kit comes together to make her a team fighting machine. Nike also synergizes well with late game Mages, using her passive to take advantage of their high magical power values. In all, Nike is a powerful addition to the Smite roster and made the Smite World Championship her domain.

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