SMITE – 9.4 Patch Notes | New God Revealed!

Online Connectivity and Server Issues

• The team is working to mitigate the issues resulting from last week’s attacks, and the first performance fix is going live with this update, 9.4. We expect to continue working on this throughout 9.4’s live dates and release additional improvements in future updates.

General

• Introduced the Achievement and Avatar for mastering 120 gods

Jungle Practice

• The God Bots, Fire Giant, Gold Fury, and Buff Camp areas are now classified as Jungles so that some item interactions (e.g. Protector of the Jungle) behave as they would in Conquest’s Jungle
• Added a button spawner for a Titan in the Tower & Phoenix area
• Added HUD health bars for the Fire Giant and Gold Fury

UI

• • Fixed an issue where players audio settings would be automatically lowered at unintended times
  • Fixed an issue where PC players were unable to copy/cut/paste text within the game UI
  • Fixed an issue where some players ranked matches were not being properly counted specifically only for god leaderboard progress
  • Fixed an issue where the Welcome Pass would display the incorrect end date for some players
  • Fixed an issue where all 6 Conquest Role Icons looked like the “Fill” Icon
  • Localization
    • Fixed a variety of text issues across the game for the Spanish Language
      • Fixed spacing, spelling, and grammar issues on multiple items
        • Infused Sigil, Warlock’s Staff, Heartseeker, Emperor’s Armor, Staff of Myrddin, Charon’s Coin, Spirit Robe
      • Fixed spacing, spelling, and grammar issues on multiple Gods
        • Serqet, Pele, Bacchus, Ravana, Set, Odin
      • Fixed an issue where Zeus’ Detonate ability would remain in English
  • Custom Games
    • All Pick and  Enemy Pick Options will now work as intended

• God Builder
  • Fixed an issue where god abilities would show up as undefined/blank text
  • Fixed an issue where the consumable amount variable was not working
  • Fixed an issue where Ratatoskr could not build his acorns through the god builder

General Gameplay

• Fixed an issue with “Account Boosters” not providing the proper bonuses

Gods

• • Hera
    • Fixed an issue on Conquest where Hera’s Polymorph would sometimes turn enemies invisible
  • Olorun
    • Overflowing Divinity
      • Updated text to state: Hitting the same Enemy deals 20% less damage each time, capped at 90% reduction.
  • Tiamat
    • Primordial Onslaught

• Updated text to state: Hitting the same Enemy deals 15% less damage each time, capped at 70% reduction.

• Chang’e
  • Fixed an issue where activating a vision shard at level 12 would open the item store
• Achilles
  • Fixed an issue where his passive meter would display incorrect self buff stats
• Shiva
  • Fixed an issue where Shiva could dash inside of structures then fall through the map
• Ne Zha
  • Fixed an issue where the petals on his passive meter were not being displayed
• Charybdis
  • Fixed an issue where Charybdis would be invisible if she transformed into her whirlpool form at specific distances from her opponents
• Atlas
  • Fixed an issue where he could pull Tsukuyomi to him at unintended times
• Mercury
  • Fixed an issue where his ultimate could trigger some item effects from activating and canceling the charge-up

Items

• Berserkers Shield
  • This item will now auto-activate at low hp when it comes off cooldown, to be more consistent with similar items like Asi
• Aegis of Judgment
  • This Relic will no longer deal damage to structures
• Seer of the Jungle
  • Fixed an issue where Towers and Phoenixes would not target an invisible God with Seer of the Jungle passive activated
• Magic Shell Relics
  • Fixed an issue where Shell Relics were providing reduced basic attack damage buff for longer than intended

Game Modes

• Conquest
  • These first two Conquest changes are subtle, but have a lot of potential to create change. The goal of these changes are to make Duo Lane less volatile, and to slow down the Gold and XP gain of Mid and Jungle. We think that shifting XP away from Mid/Jungle and into the hands of Carry/Support at an earlier time in the match will help move us toward both goals simultaneously. We are also decreasing the total team XP awarded by the Obelisk. This will slow down the pace of the game and decrease the snowball factor. Conquest will also be seeing more significant changes in future updates.
  • Support Buff Camp
    • Increased Base XP Reward of Support Buff Holder from 45 to 90
    • Increased Base Gold Reward of Support Buff Holder from 24 to 44
  • Back Harpy Camp (Duo Side)
    • Removed an Elder Harpy from Back Left Harpy camp
    • This camp will no longer be Marked by the Obelisk
  • Obelisk
    • Decreased Team XP gained per offering from 25 to 15

The Nerf Update

• We hinted at this type of update in the previous update notes as well as in some extra communications from Design Director Ajax, and now the moment has arrived! This update will be a Nerf Update – meaning that the entirety of the God and Item balance sections will be focusing only on nerfs!
• The SMITE community has been vocal about damage being too powerful and too present in SMITE and this update will be taking a major step to address that. In the previous update we looked at the two most specific meta sources of burst damage – Mage Penetration and Berserker’s Shield. Those changes were just the beginning though. This update features a multitude of nerfs across many of the top Gods and Items to continue this effort.
• The damage topic is often described as a “game wide” issue – but changes have to be implemented specifically across various gods and items, so the process inevitably requires us to work through one god or item at a time. When going through that process it made the most sense to start by nerfing the most powerful and highly prioritized gods and items in the game. Applying this many changes all at once could have far reaching and unpredictable results, but we saw the clear community desire for it. We think we have formulated a cautious and consistent plan to execute this large amount of nerfs in a single update.
• We are eager to hear feedback and to monitor game data from this update, and we are open to doing more nerf passes like this in the future if necessary.
• Goals
  • Nerf a large amount of top performing gods and items
  • Achieve a net decrease of damage in SMITE through these nerfs
  • Make changes that will be felt in all game modes
  • Do not buff. Even though we felt like there were some good options, buffs will be saved for future updates
• God and Item Selection
  • Evaluate the highest pick/ban rate, purchase rate
  • Compare that with the highest damage output, win%, and community sentiment
  • Consider Conquest data as highest priority but compare with non conquest modes too
  • Nerf God damage output wherever possible or things that contribute directly to damage like self buffs and cooldowns
  • Nerf Item Physical or Magical Power whenever possible or things that contribute to damage like attack speed or bonus damage
• Exceptions
  • Do not nerf gods or items who are already perceived as weak (low pick/ban rate or low win%) even if they have high damage or high power
  • There are a few defensive nerfs to gods as we felt that the god needed nerfs but damage wasn’t as much of a factor for them
  • There are a few item protection nerfs to make sure we don’t shift the game too much in favor of tanks
  • 2 Reworks
    • These do not tie directly into the goals of the nerf patch, but were already in progress from multiple departments when balance work on this patch began.
    • Both of these changes felt like meaningful quality of life improvements that people would be excited to play with, so we kept them in the update. Both are shifts with considerable nerfs and buffs combined in order to achieve specific gameplay goals.
      • Erlang Shen
        • Erlang is losing an entire form of CC but gaining some new features to help him better perform in the solo lane or duo lane.
      • Archmage’s Gem
        • The item is getting a long quested buff to make it feel better to use, but also seeing a damage nerf at the same time.
• Final Counts
  • 29 Gods Nerfed (including bonus)
  • 37 Items Nerfed
  • 8 Relics Nerfed (2 Relics, 4 Upgrade States Each)
  • 2 Reworks

General

Diminishing Returns

• Another common point of discussion is Crowd Control. There is a game wide rule that impacts the strength of CC chains in SMITE, so we can effectively nerf CC game wide with a single set of adjustments.
• Diminishing Returns (DR) is a concept applied in many multiplayer games, and it is always active and present in SMITE. DR causes gods to be CC’d for a shorter duration than the ability specifies if and only if they have been affected by another CC effect within the last 15 seconds.
• This weakens the overall effect of “CC chains” in which multiple gods or abilities can work together to keep a single opponent locked down for a long period of time. If you get stunned, then stunned again, the 2nd one will be affected by DR and thus be shorter. There are some exceptions like Knock-ups and Channeled effects like Grabs – these are not reduced but do apply DR to reduce the duration of subsequent CC effects.
• We are open to addressing CC further by nerfing the duration of the effects on specific god kits in the future. We are also open to revisiting the CC and DR rules in general to make this system more clearly communicated and consistent. Those possibilities will be decided upon at a later date depending on the data and feedback from this update.
• Increased CC duration reduction from 33% to 40% per stack
  • Max 2 stacks (unchanged)
• Decreased the CC duration minimum from 0.5s to 0.4s
  • CC duration cannot be reduced to lower than 0.4s through DR’s effect

Items

BELT OF FRENZY

• Decreased Damage Buff from 15% to 10%

GREATER BELT OF FRENZY

• Decreased Damage Buff from 15% to 10%

BELT OF INSATIABLE HUNGER

• Decreased Damage Buff from 15% to 10%

BELT OF THE BERSERKER

• Decreased Damage Buff from 25% to 20%

BRACER OF RADIANCE

• Decreased Power Buff from 15% to 10%

GREATER BRACER OF RADIANCE

• Decreased Power Buff from 15% to 10%

BRACER OF BRILLIANCE

• Decreased Power Buff from 20% to 15%

BRACER OF ILLUMINATION

• Decreased Power Buff from 15% to 10%

CHRONOS PENDANT

• Decreased Magical Power from 100 to 90

ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Magical Power from 140 to 120

CALAMITOUS ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Magical Power from 140 to 120

NIMBLE ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Magical Power from 140 to 120

DIVINE RUIN

• Decreased Magical Power from 110 to 100

SPEAR OF DESOLATION

• Decreased Magical Power from 120 to 110

TELKHINES RING

• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%
• Decreased passive bonus damage from 15% to 10%

RING OF HECATE

• Decreased Magical Power from 90 to 80
• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%

CADUCEUS SHIELD

• Decreased Physical Power from 30 to 25

BREASTPLATE OF VALOR

• Decreased Physical Protection from 65 to 55

BREASTPLATE OF DETERMINATION

• Decreased Physical Protection from 65 to 55

BREASTPLATE OF VIGILANCE

• Decreased Physical Protection from 65 to 55

ANCILE

• Decreased Physical Power from 50 to 40

MYSTICAL MAIL

• Decreased Passive Base damage from 25 to 20

BULWARK OF HOPE

• Decreased Magical Protection from 80 to 70

HIDE OF THE NEMEAN LION

• Nemean Block stacks now prevent 50% of basic attack damage instead of the full 100%

THE CRUSHER

• Decreased Attack Speed from 15% to 10%

HYDRA’S LAMENT

• Decreased Bonus damage scaling from 40% to 35%

JOTUNN’S WRATH

• Decreased Physical Power from 45 to 40

JOTUNN’S FEROCITY

• Decreased Physical Power from 45 to 40

JOTUNN’S VIGOR

• Decreased Physical Power from 45 to 40

SERRATED EDGE

• Decreased Physical Power from 35 to 30
• Decreased passive Physical Power from 10 to 8 per stack

ASI

• Decreased Physical Lifesteal from 20% to 15%

ATALANTA’S BOW

• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%

WIND DEMON

• Decreased passive duration from 5s to 4s

DEATHBRINGER

• Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 50

ENVENOMED DEATHBRINGER

• Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 50

MALICIOUS DEATHBRINGER

• Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 50

GAUNTLET OF THEBES

• Decreased base Health provided from 300 to 250
  • Affects Evolved item as well

PRIDWEN

• Decreased Shield health scaling earned Protections from items from 100% to 90%

SOVEREIGNTY

• Decreased Physical Protection from 45 to 40

HEARTWARD AMULET

• Decreased Magical Protections provided from passive aura from 20 to 15

AMULET OF SILENCE

• Decreased Magical Protections provided from passive aura from 20 to 15

AMULET OF THE STRONGHOLD

• Decreased Magical Protections provided from passive aura from 20 to 15

CELESTIAL LEGION HELM

• Decreased Magical Power from 80 to 70
• Increased time taken to gain stacks from 2s to 3s
• Increased time after being hit by Physical Damage to gain a stack from 2s to 3s

VAMPIRIC SHROUD

• Decreased Magical Power from 30 to 20

MANTLE OF DISCORD

• Decreased Physical Protection from 60 to 55
• Decreased Magical Protections from 60 to 55
• Increased Cooldown of the Passive Effect from 90s to 110s

REWORK: ARCHMAGE’S GEM

• This item no longer procs and consume the stacks unless a god is successfully damaged
• Decreased Scaling per stack from 1.5% to 1% (decreased total scaling from 30% to 20%)

Gods

TIAMAT

PRIMORDIAL ONSLAUGHT

• Decreased Base Damage per shot from 80/90/90/100/100 to 80/85/85/90/90

AGNI

COMBUSTION

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 10% to 8%

RAIN FIRE

• Decreased Base Damage from 140/180/220/260/300 To 120/160/200/240/280
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 65%

PERSEPHONE

HARVEST

• Decreased Explosion damage
  • Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 80% to 70%
• Decreased Bite damage
  • Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 35% to 30%

GRASP OF DEATH

• This ability no longer applies any attack speed reduction to the caged target

SOL

STELLAR BURST

• Decreased base damage from 40/70/100/130/160 to 40/65/90/115/140

SUPERNOVA

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 45% per hit

THOTH

HIEROGLYPHIC ASSAULT

• Decreased damage increase on successfully hitting a god from 20% to 15% per shot
• Decreased the cooldown reduction on successfully hitting a god from 1s to 0.5s per shot

FINAL JUDGEMENT

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 120% to 115%

ZEUS

CHAIN LIGHTNING

• Decreased Base Damage from 40/70/100/130/160 to  30/60/90/120/150
• Decreased Slow from 30% to 20%

DETONATE CHARGE

• Decreased Base Damage from 50/80/110/140/170 to 40/70/100/130/160

ACHILLES

GIFT OF THE GODS

• Decreased Protection bonus per level from 2 to 1.5
• Decreased Physical Power bonus per level from 2 to 1.5

SHIELD OF ACHILLES

• Decreased long range damage from 75% to 70%
  • This affects base and scaling damage

CHAAC

RAIN DANCE

• Decreased his self healing Physical Power scaling from 15% to 10% per tick

STORM CALL

• Increased Cooldown from 75s to 90s

GILGAMESH

SUN-FORGED SCIMITAR

• Decreased base buff duration from 4s to 3s
• Decreased maximum buff duration from 7s to 6s
  • (Which decreases the total possible duration of this effect from 11s to 9s)
• Decreased bonus damage from 3% to 2.5% of his max health per hit

WINDS OF SHAMASH

• Decreased Binding Damage Physical Power scaling from 60% to 50%
• Decreased Wind Wall Slow from 50% to 40%

MULAN

CROSS STRIKE

• Decreased Physical Power scaling from 35% to 30% per hit

SPEAR THRUST

• Decreased Bonus Damage when hitting the same target with both hits from Spear Thrust  from 20/35/50/65/80 to 20/30/40/50/60
• Decreased Physical Power scaling when hitting the same target with both hits from Spear Thrust from 15% to 10%

SHIVA

PILLAR OF DAWN

• This ability is now immune to all CC except stuns, as opposed to being entirely CC immune. Stuns will interrupt Shiva out of this ability if he is hit at any time during its 3 phases.

BELLONA

SHIELD BASH

• Decreased Slow from 15/20/25/30/35% to 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%

BLUDGEON

• Decreased Spin Base Damage from 45/75/105/135/165 to 35/65/95/125/155

CAMAZOTZ

BAT OUT OF HELL

• Decreased Base Damage from 100/140/180/220/260 to 100/135/170/205/240 per hit

ARACHNE

PREDATOR

• Decreased Arachne’s Basic Attack Damage Increase from 1.5% to 1.25% for every 5% of a target’s missing Health.

VENOMOUS BITE

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 10% to 8% per tick

CLIODHNA

BANSHEE’S WAIL

• Decreased Final Hit Physical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

LURCHING CLAW

• Decreased Claw Damage Physical Power Scaling from 85% to 80%

TEARING THE VEIL

• Decreased Opening Damage Physical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

LOKI

BEHIND YOU!

• Decreased Bonus Damage from 20% to 15% on basic attacks that hit from behind

VANISH

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 25% to 20% per tick

TSUKUYOMI

DARK MOON SHURIKEN

• Increased Cooldown from 10s to 12s

SILVER MOON CALTROPS

• Decreased Bonus Damage Physical Power Scaling from 40% to 30% on the ranged follow-up attack

AH MUZEN CAB

SWARM

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 75%

STINGER

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 110% to 100%
• Decreased Slow from 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% to 20% at all ranks

APOLLO

ACROSS THE SKY

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 30% to 25% per tick

HOU YI

MARK OF THE GOLDEN CROW

• Decreased Damage Increase provided from 3/4/5/6/7% to 2/3/4/5/6%

IZANAMI

SICKLE STORM

• Decreased Attack Speed from 55/60/65/70/75% to 45/50/55/60/65%

MEDUSA

VIPER SHOT

• Decreased Attack Speed from 40/50/60/70/80% to 40/45/50/55/60%
• Decreased Base Damage from 15/20/25/30/35 to 10/15/20/25/30
  • Prev Total 180/240/300/360/420 (3 ticks * 4 shots)
  • New Total 120/180/240/300/360 (3 ticks * 4 shots)

LACERATE

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 70%

ARTIO

ENERGY SURGE

• Decreased Base Damage on Druid Stance from 80/110/140/170/200 to 60/95/130/165/200

HEAVY CHARGE

• Decreased Base Damage on Bear Stance from  70/120/170/220/270 to 65/110/155/200/245

ATLAS

KINETIC CHARGE

• Decreased Base Damage from 80/135/190/245/300 to 80/130/180/230/280
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 45% to 40%

ARES

SHACKLES

• Decreased God Damage from 25/45/65/85/105 to 20/40/60/80/100 per tick

BACCHUS

INTOXICATE

• Decreased Base Damage from 250/325/400/475/550 to 230/300/370/440/510
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

CABRAKAN

SEISMIC CRUSH

• Decreased Base Damage from 100/145/190/235/280 to 80/125/170/215/260

TECTONIC SHIFT

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

CERBERUS

PARALYZING SPIT

• Decreased Base Damage from 50/80/110/140/170 to 40/70/100/130/160
  • Decreased by 28 damage if hit by all 4 hits on all ranks

Reworks

ERLANG SHEN

HOWLING CELESTIAL DOG

• Reduced damage from 15% to 7.5% of Erlang Shen’s basic attack damage
• Increased damage from 1% to 1.75% of target’s max health

SPOT WEAKNESS

• Decreased Bonus Damage per hit from 15/27/39/51/63 (+10% of your Physical Power) To 12/22/32/42/52 (+5% of your Physical Power)
• Erlang Shen now gains 4/8/12/16/20% Physical lifesteal while this ability is active
• Erlang Shen now applies a stacking debuff to enemy gods hit by this ability which reduces their damage output by 3/4/5/6/7% per stack, stacking up to 3 times. Stacks last 3s.
  • 9/12/15/18/21% damage reduction max

72 TRANSFORMATIONS

• Erlang Shen is now knock up and slow immune while he is transformed into either animal
• Mink form
  • Erlang Shen now gains 15% Movement Speed for 4s after the dash completes
• Turtle form
  • This ability no longer knocks enemies up
  • Shield health changed from 70/110/150/190/230 to 50/100/150/200/250 (+75% total protections from items and abilities)

9 TURNS BLESSING

• Increased Damage Mitigation from 10/11.25/12.5/13.75/15% to 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%

• Yu Huang: Cory Yee
• Bionic Demon Gilgamesh: Kyle Chapple
• Shadow Bloom Persephone: Bryarly Bishop
• Crocfather Sobek: Dave Fennoy
• Honorable Machina Tyr: Arthur Romeo Atlas
• Almighty Archon Zeus: Jeffrey Hunt
• The Magic Dragon Tiamat: Tamara Ryan
• Haunted Nightmare Chernobog: Blythe Melin
• Demon Puncher Mercury: Chase Kloza
• Abyssal Slayer Anhur: John Doyle

General

• The 9.4 Jade Emperor Update was a unique update with a large variety of nerfs across many gods and items in all classes and roles. It also included changes to Diminishing Returns (DR)
• As a prologue to this bonus update and the next full update we would like to review the Goal: Nerf top Gods and Items to decrease creep/bloat and buff lower performers indirectly
  • We have seen a significant shift in god win rate data.
  • Gods who were not nerfed in 9.4 saw significant increases in win rate with gods like Nu Wa, Mercury, Rama, Terra, and King Arthur seeing the largest increases in Conquest win rate for each class.
  • Most of the gods who were directly nerfed did drop heavily. Most importantly: Bastet from her bonus balance change, who had the single biggest drop in Conquest win rate in the entire update.
  • Item data often lags well behind god data, as players will take much more time to optimize new builds and wait for pros and influencers to drive the meta. We haven’t seen any game-wide trends in item data yet, but with the first SPL rounds in 9.4 we expect to see some new builds that will then ripple out further into the game causing even more shifts that are not reflected in the data at this time. Even some of the most obvious changes, like pro hunters building Devourer’s Gauntlets now, are not widespread enough to make significant impacts on data from all players.
  • We have seen the various comments about individual gods being more affected than others by the change to DR. So far in the win rate data we have not seen anything too concerning. Horus and Eset actually increased in win rate from 9.3 to 9.4. Thor is down and was struggling heavily even before this change. The god single most affected by DR nerfs instead of direct nerfs seems to be Serqet, with Hades not far behind. Bacchus and Hou Yi received direct nerfs but were also potentially hurt by DR changes due to the magnitude of their decreases. It’s possible that it was itemization that also affected these gods but DR changes look to be a likely culprit. At the moment we are happy with the nerf to CC across the game and it likely will have a lot of long term benefits. We will most likely be planning buffs for Thor and Serqet in 9.5 as initial test cases for this issue because they are the gods who statistically need buffs the most after 9.4.
• Goal: Decrease average damage
  • We are seeing changes to, but in very small amounts.
  • Non-Conquest modes saw average total damage go down, with every class individually seeing a decrease in damage. However, this damage decrease was generally quite small – in the range of about 2%.
  • On Conquest we saw damage in total come down, but even less so than in Non-Conquest modes, and we also saw it mostly only apply to Mages, Guardians, and Assassins. Warriors and Hunters went slightly up.
  • Historically we have not seen this data change drastically. The biggest peaks and lowest valleys in damage from multiple years tend to be within about 10% of each other, and that usually occurs over longer periods of time as metas shift. So a 2% change in a single update is something players certainly could feel, and we have seen comments from players claiming that things do feel slightly different.
  • Damage per class as a stat is also heavily affected by new god launches. With so many people playing that one god – that gods individual performance becomes the biggest part of the equation. So, by this logic, the fact that Yu Huang launched underpowered could be the main driving factor in damage stats decreasing. When removing Yu Huang from the equation we still saw general damage decreases in the same situations as described above, but in even smaller amounts for mage damage, and thus totals (that include mage damage).
• General Comments on 9.4 Bonus balance
  • The God and Item balance shifting was quite successful. We saw win rate increases in many gods who were untouched by 9.4 and previously considered weak. These gods might have not broken into the ranked or SPL meta yet, but they are now certainly closer to do that than they were before.
  • As mentioned above we haven’t been able to clearly identify any big changes in build patterns yet, but we have seen a lot of chatter and intrigue about what new builds will look like.
  • We will extend similar logic into 9.4 Bonus to continue nerfing some top performing gods and items with universal goals, not just damage focused. See the dev notes below for the thought process and action items related to this bullet point.
• General Comments on 9.5 balance and beyond
  • As part of this bonus update we want to convey some previews looking forward to 9.5. The Bonus update will further target early game time to kill, general damage, and top performers, but based on the feedback and data from 9.4 we feel like more action is indeed required.
  • We designed 9.4 with a lot of caution in mind. We wanted to make our first move at game-wide balance a safe one. “The Nerfening” was always designed as a multi-step plan, and it seems we could have done better to clearly communicate that on the 9.4 patch show. Many people felt like we oversold the changes in 9.4, and under communicated our future intentions. We wanted to see what magnitude of results we would get from these safer changes in order to better prepare the dev team and the players for the concept of even more intense change.
  • We also saw a lot of confusion about nerfing protection items and a few god’s protective abilities, which would have made much more sense if we had communicated more clearly that the 9.4 update was more about bringing down top performing “bloat” cases, with a smaller goal of experimenting with damage changes.
• 9.5 Preview
  • We plan to deliver another game-wide change in 9.5 that will have a more powerful and targeted effect on time to kill, especially in the early game. We want to be careful here to not oversell or undersell this planned change, nor reveal it fully yet, but we have discussed the specific details with Pros and Olympians and everyone is very excited about it. It should be significantly more intense compared to 9.4 and it’s going to affect all gods as equally as possible. We still want SMITE to feel like SMITE though, and some calls for change are simply unrealistic. We want to find a solid shift to get our toughest critics excited to re-engage with SMITE without scaring off the many players who still love and play the game in Season 9.
  • 9.5 Will also be the first Conquest update of Season 9, with new environment art, mechanical changes, and heavy balance adjustments across the map. We have seen significant decreases in the snowball factor on the Conquest map since 9.1, but we have some lofty goals for pacing and game-feel changes that require a significant balance pass. These changes will compound with the above point, leading to a shift in all modes, but an even larger one within the Conquest mode.

Items

(STARTER) DEATH’S TOLL

• Decreased Physical Power from 20 to 15

(STARTER) GILDED ARROW

• Decreased Basic Attack Damage from 25 to 20

(STARTER) LEATHER COWL

• Decreased Physical Power from 20 to 15
• Increased Attack Speed from 5% to 7%

(STARTER) BLUESTONE PENDANT

• Decreased Passive Bonus Damage from 25 to 20

(STARTER) VAMPIRIC SHROUD

• Decreased Health from 100 to 75

(STARTER) SAND OF TIME

• Decreased Magical Power from 30 to 25

(STARTER) CONDUIT GEM

• Decreased Magical Power from 30 to 25

(STARTER) EYE OF THE JUNGLE

• Decreased Magical Power from 25 to 20
• Decreased Attack Speed from 10% to 7%

(TIER 1) MACE

• Decreased Physical Power from 15 to 10

(TIER 2) HEAVY MACE

• Removed the 5 Flat Penetration from this item

(TIER 2) WARRIOR’S BANE

• Removed the 10% Penetration from this item

(TIER 1) MAGIC FOCUS

• Decreased Magical Power from 25 to 20

(TIER 2) ENCHANTED SPEAR

• Removed the 5 Flat Penetration from this item

(TIER 2) SPELL FOCUS

• Removed the 10% Penetration from this item

(TIER 1) EMERALD RING

• Decreased Magical Power from 25 to 20

(TIER 1) KATANA

• Decreased Physical Power from 10 to 7

(TIER 1) SHURIKEN

• Decreased Physical Power from 10 to 7

(TIER 1) ROUND SHIELD

• Decreased Physical Power from 10 to 7

(TIER 1) ENCHANTED BUCKLER

• Decreased Physical Power from 10 to 7

BERSERKER’S SHIELD

• Decreased Physical Power from 30 to 25
• Decreased Physical Protection from 60 to 50

SHOGUN’S KUSARI

• Decreased Magical Protection from 60 to 50

CADUCEUS SHIELD

• Decreased Physical Protection from 35 to 30
• Decreased Magical Protection from 35 to 30

Gods

YU HUANG

FLAMES OF THE PHOENIX

• Increased Cinder Damage from 15/25/35/45/55 to 25/35/45/55/65
• Increased Magical Power Scaling from 15% to 25%

DAO CULTIVATION

• This ability now deals 100% damage regardless of how quickly it is fired

DUELING DRAGONS

• Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s
• Increased Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 60% on the Push Damage
• Increased Magical Power Scaling from 45% to 50% on the Explosion Damage
  • Total increase from 95% to 110%

SHIVA

SHIVA TANDAVA

• Removed the 20% Damage Mitigation Shiva gains while channeling

CLIODHNA

PHANTASMAL

• Removed the 10% Physical Ability Lifesteal she gains While inside a wall only (she still gets it for 5s upon exiting)

CTHULHU

DESCEND INTO MADNESS

• Decreased Max Health from 25% to 20%

SEVER (ULT FORM ABILITY 1)

•   Decreased Base Damage from 100/150/200/255/300 to 100/140/180/220/260

DA JI

PAOLAO

• Increased Cooldown from 100s to 110s

HE BO

STEADY FLOW

• Decreased Magical Power Buff per stack from 5% to 4%
  • (Decreased Total Magical Power % buff from 15% to 12%)

CRUSHING WAVE

• Decreased Base Damage from 370/450/530/610/690 to 350/430/510/590/670
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 115% to 105%

Bug Fixes

• Hotfixed Friday 4/22
  • Fixed an issue where Conquest had incorrect jungle spawn timers
  • Ymir
    • Fixed an issue where his Freezy Bot skin would fail to spawn walls
  • Yu Huang
    • Fixed an issue where charging up and canceling his second ability could trigger some item effects
    • Fixed an issue where he would get locked out of auto attacking
    • Fixed an issue where he couldn’t pass through player-made walls with his third ability
• Hide of the Nemean Lion
  • Fixed an issue where this item’s passive would lose stacks from Minions, Jungle Camps, Jungle Bosses, and Towers
• Chiron
  • Fixed an issue with his Shining Chivalry skin missing ability SFX audio
• Kuzenbo
  • Fixed visibility issues with the Nene Kappa on his base skin
• Yu Huang
  • Fixed an issue that caused clients to crash when he died during his ultimate