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When reading various strategies for Smite, I have encountered terms such as:

burst assassin

and

burst damage

What exactly does "burst" mean?

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Burst characters are on the opposite end of the spectrum from sustained damage characters.

Look at Xbalanque. His damage tends to be linear over time. If you fight him for 5 seconds, let's say, he might do 1000 damage. If you fight him for 10 seconds, he'll do 2000 damage. He just deals damage at a constant (fast) rate for the duration of battle. He's a sustained damage character.

Burst characters, by contrast, deal tons of damage in a short time, but then have very little damage while all their skills cool down. For example, Scylla's ult and AoE explosion are the only real ways she has to deal damage. They deal a lot of damage, especially if she hits with both of them, but after she's used those abilities she has to run and hide and wait for her cooldowns before being useful in battle anymore. She deals lots of damage in short "bursts".

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  • So is this a case of some abilities not doing any damage (e.g. stun, heal etc) leading to only 2 abilities actually doing damage? Also, does "basic attack damage" come into this definition in any way?
    – user101016
    Apr 15, 2016 at 11:35
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    No, burst simply means, you deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Even a sustain character can do burst damage, if he is sufficently ahead. A burst damage character is focused on doing bursts, though. This may be something as extreme as having 4 abilities doing 1000 damage each with a 30sec cooldown. This allows you to do 4000 dmg essentially instantly, but afterwards you have nothing but a 100 dmg autoattack for half a miunte.
    – Dulkan
    Apr 15, 2016 at 11:39
  • @camelCase It's not about the number of abilities that deal damage. It's about how that character plays in general. Xbalanque is built to deal most of his damage from his basic attack. Scylla's basic attack is supplemental damage at best, as built properly, all her meaningful damage comes from abilities with significant cooldowns.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Apr 15, 2016 at 11:39
  • @Dulkan Feel free to write a more comprehensive answer.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Apr 15, 2016 at 11:42

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