Even though he doesn’t arrive until next week, the Bake Kujira abilities were showcased by the developers in the Patch 12.13 Update Show.
Bake Kujira, SMITE’s 129th playable god has ramped some hype up in the past few days. Hi-Rez Studios and Titan Forge Games revealed the undead whale Yokai on December 4th, and a day later, the team at SMITE gave us more insight on the creation of the character.
While Bake Kujira doesn’t join the ranks of divine deities until December 12th, in the Update Show of Patch 12.13, Aggro and Lermy showed the newest character’s abilities – and he’s incredibly cool and unique. Let’s take a look!
Bake Kujira Abilities
Bake Kujira Passive – Curse of the Ghost Whale
Bake Kujira’s Passive gives him Area of Effect Basic Attacks, capable of hitting multiple enemies around him in a single hit. As he’s intended to be a Solo Lane Guardian, who is also a Lane Bully, he needs the waveclear and the trading power. Sadly, just like Jormungandr, his abilities doesn’t proc Basic Attack enhancing Item effects. However, he converts 30% of any Protections into Basic Attack damage to make up for not proccing items.
His Attack Speed is also capped at 1.25, which he gets at level one and keeps for the rest of the game. Instead, he converts AS into Attack Haste, which reduced the penalty to movement while attacking at a 100% conversion rate – so 1% AS is 1% AH.
There’s another component to Bake Kujira’s passive. If an enemy hard CC’s Bake Kujira, they become Cursed, dealing less damage to EVERYTHING: gods, minions, monsters, you name it. It is an incredibly busted ability that could push the whale to the OP Range. CC-ing Bake Kujira while cursed will enhance the Curse, amplifying its effects.
Bake Kujira 1 – Rough Waters
His one gives him 50% Attack Haste, as well as a larger AoE for his Basic Attacks, also gaining Protections when hitting enemies – and don’t forget, that Protections are damage for Bake Kujira.
Bake Kujira 2 – Sonic Wave
Bake Kujira sends out a wave in a cone shape, Cursing, slowing and damaging enemies. Any time he Basic Attacks an enemy, the cooldown of Sonic Wave is reduced, less so for hitting minions. This ability also enhances the Curse if an enemy already has the debuff, slowing them even more.
Bake Kujira 3 – Twisting Dive
The main movement ability of Bake Kujira. He swims forward, pushing enemies in front of him, knocking them up at the end of the charge. This ability can hit and push multiple enemies, which is ideal for ganks and skirmishes.
Bake Kujira Ultimate – Yokai’s Lament
The developers revealed that Bake Kujira will have a form of rare CC that has only been used once. The community tried to guess what this CC will be, as there’s not many that have only been used once. Those who guessed Time Dilation – the CC on Olorun’s Ultimate – guessed right, as Bake Kujira fills an area with dread, applying stacking Time Dilation to only enemies on the edge of the circle around him, while increaseing the damage taken by enemies in the whole are. This ability could be a gamechanger in teamfights, as enemies will have to decide to be slowed in every regard, even Basic Attacks, or take the full brunt of the waves the whale causes.
Bake Kujira is looking like an incredibly cool god – that will also be very hard to balance. Bake Kujira could just be a stat check god, as he doesn’t have to do much to deal damage outside of beign in the midst of the fight. While he has some unique abilities that need good positioning to get the most out of, like his Ultimate and his 3, he has mechanics that make it very hard to interact with him, such as his Curse, which makes it harder for CC-heavy gods to fight against him.
That being said, Bake Kujira seems like one of the most unique gods in the game. We saw with Sylvanus, Jormungandr, Yemoja and Cthulhu that Guardians that have damage and special Basic Attacks can be incredibly strong, and have a place in the meta. With mages dominating the Solo Lane, it’s good to see that Titan Forge Game wants to bring tankier gods back to their home (even buffing a number of Warriors to make them capable of taking down mages). My only problem is the balance, but Titan Forge managed to bring Cthulhu and Jorm to and acceptable level after them dominating the meta, so Bake Kujira should be able to be kept in check – and become a great fit in SMITE! He certainly got the look of a deity.