How does torment and insanity work in Smite?

Smite introduced a new pantheon of Gods called the Old Ones, and the first one representing them is Cthulhu. He is the high priest to the Great Old Ones, and while he is powerful, there are far more terrifying beasts than him. In Smite, he brings two new status effects that many who face Cthulhu will become familiar with: torment and insanity.

Torment is the first part of insanity in Smite. Upon Cthulhu’s launch, he will be the only one capable of giving torment to other Gods, but others in the Old Ones pantheon will likely have the same capability. Torment originates from the final hit in Cthulhu’s basic attack combo and all of his abilities. The first initial attacks from his chain only do regular damage, but if he hits you with the final blow, that’s when the torment stack happens. All he has to do is hit you with that final attack. He does not have to do the full combo on you for it to count.

When you have four stacks of torment on you, it becomes insanity. While you have insanity, you will start to see animations all over your screen in the game. These include floating eyes, tentacles, and you will hear additional sound effects like someone nearby is blinking on you or the sound of a Loki using their stealth ability. These sound effects can occur even if no one in your game has blink, or there’s no Loki on the enemy team. During this time, Cthulhu receives 25 magical power for each enemy that has insanity that is facing him. The insanity effect lasts for 20 seconds.

Insanity is the true problem. Torment won’t do anything to you, not until you reach four stacks. You can try to avoid receiving these stacks by avoiding Cthulhu’s basic attacks, but all of his abilities also apply stacks of torment to you. It will be challenging to prevent insanity from eventually befalling you, especially during aggressive engagements with Cthulhu. The only thing you can do is prepare for the annoying sound effects that happen while you have it and prepare for Cthulhu’s additional magic power stacks while you have it.