Introduction
In the latest patch notes for the popular game, several quality of life improvements and bug fixes have been implemented. Players will be pleased to know that the cooldown for pausing ranked matches has been adjusted, making for a smoother gameplay experience. Additionally, various UI issues have been resolved, such as fixing cropped card art and restoring the console controller vibration option. The patch also addresses specific god abilities, like Sol's inability to gain Heat from immune targets and Hou Yi's Divebomb ability receiving a visual update. Overall, these changes aim to enhance the overall gameplay and address player-reported issues.
In addition to the quality of life changes, the patch introduces exciting updates to the Chinese Joust Map and the Conquest mode. The Chinese Joust Map has received positive feedback from players, leading to its extended use as the default map. To further improve the Joust experience, the XP Split Bonus has been increased, encouraging players to stick together and maximize their XP gain. The Bull Demon King, a formidable Jungle Boss, has also been made more challenging to match the modern SMITE Jungle Bosses. On the Conquest map, a winter theme has been introduced, bringing a visually stunning change to the battleground. The addition of Eerie Lanterns introduces a new mechanic, allowing gods to lurk within areas of stealth coverage. However, gods inside the Mist will be briefly revealed to enemy gods under certain conditions. These updates promise to bring a fresh and immersive experience to players as they navigate the winter deadwoods.
QUALITY OF LIFE
General
- Pause cooldown changes – Olympian Suggested
- decrease combat timer for ranked pauses with no DC from 3s to 2s since last combat action
- increase unpause cooldown from 3s to 5s
BUG FIXES
UI
- Fixed an issue where card art would be cropped for players with no Loading Frame equipped if they were playing gods at rank 1-4
- Fixed an issue where the console controller vibration option was missing. This option will now be configurable again – Olympian Reported
- Fixed an issue where the Role Selection in lobby could get large negative numbers attached to it
- Fixed a visual issue with the Grandmaster Midgardian Macaque Loading Frame
- Fixed a visual issue with the Sanguine Loading Frame
Gods
- Jungle Bosses
- Jungle Bosses that move will no longer be bodyblocked by god pets (like Arachne’s spiders or Bastet’s cats)
- Kumbhakarna
- Fixed an issue where General Nosseris Kumbhakarna Special Emote (VXG) was not playing as intended – Olympian Reported
- Sol
- Will no longer be able to gain Heat off of immune targets
- Hou Yi
- Divebomb
- Updated this ability to make the landing fire feel more smooth and responsive (currently only his newest skin has this effect) This is purely a visual change.
- Divebomb
- Artio
- Fixed an issue where her ability 1 text displayed the incorrect mana cost
- Thanatos
- Fixed an issue where some skins would throw the scythe horizontally
BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 8.10 UPDATE OCTOBER 19
Game Modes
- Chinese Joust Map
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The player response and metrics for the Season 3 Chinese Joust Map have been phenomenal! We will most likely keep this map as the default for a longer period than the Classic Joust test. With that in mind, we are applying a few balance changes and fixes to make sure this map provides the best possible Joust experience. Players are still struggling to reach lvl 20, so we are increasing the XP Split Bonus. This will increase your XP gain from anything on the map, as long as it is shared between at least 2 players. So make sure to stay grouped up! We are also applying some fixes to the outer walls to better interact with abilities, and increasing the tankiness of the Bull Demon King to better match more modern SMITE Jungle Bosses.
- Increased Split Bonus from 0.65 to 0.75
- Fixed various issues where abilities could travel to areas outside the map
- Bull Demon King
- Increased Max Health from 1750 to 2250
- Increased Physical Protections from 25 to 45
- Increased Magical Protections from 25 to 30
- These changes apply to both Joust and Duel (although XP splitting won’t apply)
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- Conquest Update – The Winter Deadwoods
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The seasons are changing, and winter arrives early to the SMITE universe. The war of the gods is taking a toll on those around them. Humans are losing trust in those that they worship while the lands they loved are overrun with death. This has manifested itself into a blanket of snow and fog across the battleground. We can only hope that there will eventually be peace, but things may get worse before they get better.
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With this theme, comes a huge artistic change to the map. For the first time in SMITE history the map will be overseeing a huge visual change outside of an actual rework. The lanes and jungle paths will remain in their current state, but the visuals will be drastically changed. A new mechanic will also be introduced in this update. Eerie Lanterns have been tactically constructed across the map – shattering them with a basic attack will allow the Mist to set in – creating a small area of stealth coverage that any god can lurk within. The jungle gets even more dangerous in The Winter Deadwoods!
- New Art Set
- Snow and Ice has covered the Conquest map, and will remain there until 9.1
- New Mechanic
- Lanterns
- Can be destroyed with a single basic attack
- Once destroyed, the Lantern releases a cloud of Mist in a small circular area of effect which lasts 1 minute
- Respawns 5 seconds before the Mist expires
- Mist
- Gods inside the Mist are hidden to all enemy Gods outside
- Reveal rules – Gods hiding inside the Mist will be briefly revealed to enemy Gods if:
- They basic attack
- They cast or channel an ability
- They take damage
- They are hit by an enemy ability or passive item that grants extra vision
- An enemy ward is placed inside the Mist with them
- Note: enemy wards placed outside of the Mist still ping enemies within the Mist on the minimap, but do not fully reveal them
- Abilities that grant Stealth override the Mist’s reveal rules
- AI minions ignore enemy Gods inside the Mist, unless that God is revealed
- Lanterns
- Green Buff Camp
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This new jungle buff will continue to be an objective on the new iteration of this map, but we are going to continue making changes to improve the experience. We have seen the feedback of players attempting to start at this buff before minions start, and we want to address it further. We feel that making this camp available too early could have a large ripple effect on other role’s starts and their early game experience levels, so instead we are pushing its spawn even later. We are also decreasing its health scaling by a significant amount to make sure it can be cleared more quickly, even if by a lone support player.
- Support Buff
- Increased Base Health and Mana provided by this buff from 50 to 100 of each
- Increased the HP5 and MP5 from the enhanced effect from 10 to 15 of each
- Mangy Draugr
- Increased Spawn Time of this buff from 00:35s to 01:00m
- Decrease HP Scaling per stack from 135 to 90
- Support Buff
- Other Notes
- The Draugr boss and his arena will remain on the winter map
- The new XP camps introduced by Duo and Solo lane will also remain on the winter map
- New Art Set
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Items
ELIXIR OF DEFENSE
With the departure of boots the endgame item options have opened up a bit more. Speed Elixir and a 6th item was a significant cost, which is now going right to relic upgrades, power pots, and elixirs. In the later stages of games the DPS gods are enjoying their Elixir, which felt distinctly more powerful than the defensive one, we are increasing the damage mitigation to get them to be on more equal footing.
- Increased Damage Mitigation from 5% to 10%
(STARTER) WARDING SIGIL
Solo Lane has been through quite a journey this season, especially with their items. At the start of the season we introduced a variety of more defensive items to the lane, but now we are seeing even more focus on power, especially with the new meta start of the Solo Laner killing their Blue Buff by themselves. We are reworking the entire Sigil tree to have physical power for this reason. We should see this better compete with Bluestone pendant, and we even plan to go through a similar design pass with Warrior’s Axe.
- 600g
- +75 Health
- +15 Physical Power
- +10 Magical Protections
- +10 Physical Protections
- PASSIVE – When you are hit by an ability you gain a stack of Dampening, gaining 5 Protections for 5s. This occurs only once per ability cast. This can stack up to two times.
(UPGRADE) SIGIL OF THE OLD GUARD
- +200 Health
- +35 Physical Power
- +75 Magical Protection
- +45 Physical Protection
- PASSIVE – When you are hit by an ability you gain a stack of Rebuke, decreasing damage taken by 4% for 5s. This occurs only once per ability cast. This can stack up to three times.
(UPGRADE) INFUSED SIGIL
- +350 Health
- +50 Physical Power
- +35 Physical Protection
- +35 Magical Protection
- PASSIVE – When you are hit by an ability the Infused Sigil gains a stack. This can occur only once per ability cast. At 4 stacks it explodes after 0.5s, dealing 500 Physical Damage to enemies within 30 units of you.
(UPGRADE) WAR BANNER
War Flag has been updated to provide protections, but the upgrades weren’t touched. This creates a strange effect in the tree where stats were lost. We are doing the same shift on War Banner for players who want to get the War Flag Starter and continue to stay tanky through the late game. We are also choosing to leave Spartan Flag as a power item option, even though certain stats would be lost from War Flag. This will make sure War Flag starts feel like they have the most possible options.
- Removed 30 Physical Power
- Removed 60 Magical Power
- Added 40 Physical Protection
- Added 40 Magical Protection
(STARTER) BUMBA’S DAGGER
Junglers are BACK! We have seen a huge array of Assassins back in the Jungle this week and seeing more high power builds. This item has shown to be so strong that even other roles are picking it up, so in a similar way as the Bonus Balance, we are toning things down slightly. We have seen 3 power make a big shift on Starter Items before (Bluestone) so we are applying that same shift here to make sure Jungler’s still feel good, without being OP, and to slightly decrease this item’s allure to non-Jungle roles.
- Decreased Physical Power from 10 to 7
- Decreased Magical Power from 15 to 12
(STARTER) MANIKINS SCEPTER
Doing a partial revert on Bumba’s runs the risk of Manikins coming back to dominate the meta. We want to bring them down together in this case, and one of the very specific reasons that Manikins was over performing in previous months was because of how it interacted with Jungle Scorpions. These are counted as Jungle Bosses, but Manikins still did 4x damage to them, we are nerfing Manikins’ damage toward bosses to remove this specific advantage.
- No longer does 4x burn damage to jungle bosses, including jungle scorpions
- Will now do the 1x damage to those targets like it does to gods
(STARTER) LEATHER COWL
This change comes along with the same logic as Manikins. Bumba’s Dagger is a popular choice for hunters now, but with it being nerfed slightly it’s possible we go back to 100% cowl. We would like to see the basic attack focused Hunters branch out into Diamond Arrow or Death’s Toll, so these small nerfs to Cowl should help those other options look more attractive.
- Decreased MP5 from 7 to 5
- Decreased Lifesteal from 10% to 7%
(UPGRADE) HUNTER’S COWL
As the more popular upgrade to Cowl, and a source of a huge amount of attack speed, we are toning down this item as well for the same reasons as Leather Cowl.
- Decreased Attack Speed from 20% to 15%
- Decreased Attack Speed Aura from 25% to 20%
PRIDWEN
This is a big one. This is the primary item that has enabled tanky Junglers. We are applying a shift to make this item passive only scale based on item protections, so you’ll need to be buying more protection items to make this effect worth it. However, it will also scale better to better reward those who do fully build into it. We may have discouraged full tank Junglers in the short term with recent changes, but its always possible that they come back, so this change will discourage that even further, while still being a strong option for full tanks in the Support role.
- Pridwen now only scales based on protection from items (no longer includes base protections)
- Increased Shield Health Scaling from Protections from 100% to 125%.
- Increased Magical Damage Scaling from Shield Health from 50% to 75%.
SPECTRAL ARMOR
This is less of a nerf to an item and more of a buff to a single god. It does have some fringe applications like interactions with Fail-Not, but primarily this change is being applied so that Olorun can have a chance to shine. Since Olorun has no choice if he wants to build into crit, it seems unfair to punish him with a counter item.
- This item no longer reduces damage from Magical Critical Strikes
- This affects Olorun and mages or guardians hitting a target that is afflicted by Fail-Not’s passive effect
Gods
TIAMAT
Although most players might feel like Tiamat is much more manageable now, her reign of terror is still ongoing in the higher ends of ranked and in competitive play. We are taking down part of Tiamat’s tankiness as well as her top end power scaling as a two-pronged approach to get her down to the power level of other Mages.
- Decreased % Mitigation Tiamat gets from this abilitie’s base value from 30% to 25%
- Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 35% to 30% per hit (122.5% to 105% total for all 5 projectiles)
RAIJIN
With the threat of physical gods taking over, we took some more time to collect data and feedback before nerfing any Mages. For this reason we do have 2 Mage nerfs in the main patch instead of the Bonus Balance. Raijin and Tiamat have shown themselves as the top gods in the role even after 8.9. Raijin’s Ultimate can deal a huge amount of damage or provide long range CC, we are taking this damage down to nerf him even further, hoping to make room for new Mages in the meta.
- Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 50% per shot to 40% (200% total on full damage options to 160%)
SYLVANUS
The RNG passive is gone and passive has been doing quite well lately. We kept the cooldown reduction low on this new passive for most of the game because of its power to be stacked. As players have now seen, you can find ways to collect a lot of seeds through this passive all at once. We don’t want to let that scale up too soon, but we are willing to make a slight adjustment to align with what is considered an “endgame Support” – so this ability now upgrade at lvl 17, along with Support Starter Items.
- Decreased Level where it upgrades from 20 to 17
CHARYBDIS
New gods are always a learning process. This is true for the dev team as well as the players. Charybdis had some bugs, as well as a steep learning curve. We sought out to fix this goddess’ bugs first, as rushing to buffs on new gods can quickly backfire. However, even after fixing her bugs, this goddess’ win rates have stayed low. We are buffing her across a few different places in the kit, mostly focusing on improving her basic attack damage and her lane clear. We still feel like this goddess has a lot of potential, and are looking forward to see how people utilize her after these buffs.
- Increased base Physical Power from 34 to 38
- Increased % Damage on the triple shot basics from 33% each to 40% each
- Decreased the Item Damage Reduction from 35% to 30%
- (Item damage being increased from 65% to 70%)
- Increased Damage done to minions from 60/70/80/90/100% of her base to 80/85/90/95/100%
- Increased Splinter Damage Physical Scaling from 10% to 15% (she gets this damage on direct hits of enemy gods as well as the bouncing projectile)
- Charybdis now can move freely in all directions while in her Ultimate state
CERNUNNOS
Ability hunters are running rampant, so we are looking to buff back a few basic attack hunters who haven’t been able to keep up. Cernunnos is getting a small buff here that should feel like a big QoL improvement. His ultimate will now deal damage to minions, jungle monsters, and bosses. This will give him a big bonus in lane 1v1s as he can now CC the enemy and clear the wave at the same time. This could also help him steal jungle bosses. Cernunnos will be back on the hunt!
- Now Deals damage to minions and jungle camps/bosses
OLORUN
Spectral Armor is just one part of the buff plan for this god. Olorun was heavily countered by an item, and now that is being removed, which should help him a lot. The team didn’t think this would be enough to really give him a shot in the current meta, though. So we are also increasing the amount of damage his Overflowing Divinity ability deals on hits after the first. This will help him in pvp in some cases, but be an even bigger advantage when it comes to securing objectives.
- Increased the damage dealt on subsequent hits from 30% less damage to 20% less damage
VULCAN
Another mage that hasn’t seen much competitive play recently. Vulcan Ultimate can have a big payoff but tends to be avoided often. We are taking this cooldown to much lower levels as you rank it up to make sure he gets the proper chance to blow up the enemy team.
- Decreased Cooldown from 90s to 90/85/80/75/70s
AGNI
This god has been long considered “perfectly balanced” but he also hasn’t shown up in a competitive match in a long time. His stats have slipped over the years, and certain god pools and item options can affect Agni a lot. Agni misses out on a lot of potential damage when detonating his ability combo, so we are making that feel better to do. Agni players will now receive a small amount of bonus damage when they successfully stun enemies. We are also taking his mana costs down a bit, and making his Ultimate cost a small amount of Mana to make sure it triggers on items that it feel like it should – like Gem of Focus.
- Now deals bonus damage when it successfully stuns an enemy when combined with agni’s fire abilities
- 20/40/60/80/100 + 20% Magical Power Scaling
- Decreased Mana cost from 60/70/80/90/100 to 60/65/70/75/80
- Increased Mana Cost from 0 to 10
MULAN – OLYMPIAN SUGGESTED
Practice makes perfect. Mulan’s Training Arc ability can be rewarding, but can also be a bit slow. She takes too long to get online which can hold her back. We are speeding up that process across the board, by giving her more skill from minions. We are further increasing the rate on her first two abilities by lowering the thresholds required.
- Decrease Skill required to unlock the upgrades on her Sword ability from 600/2400/6000 to 500/2000/5000
- Decrease Skill required to unlock the upgrades on her Spear ability from 600/2400/6000 to 500/2000/5000
- Increase Skill Gain from Minions 20% to 30% toward all 3 abilities
AMATERASU
This god with a storied history has really fallen into the shadows. She brings a great amount of utility to her teams, but most of that was stacked toward her late game. For this pass we wanted to buff her early game utility, which should increase her damage as well as her defenses in the early stages.
- Increased the Bonus Power from the Valor Aura from 10/15/20/25/30 to 14/18/22/26/30
- Increased Self Damage Mitigation while charging this ability from 3/6/9/12/15% to 7/9/11/13/15%
ACHILLES
We are looking to bring some new Warriors into viability, and Achilles has been out of the spotlight for quite a while. He got some heavy nerfs over the years, one of which we are partially reverting in this update. Combat dodge is an important ability for his lane clear in the Solo Lane which should give him a leg-up against the rest of the roster.
- Increased damage from 50/85/120/155/190 to 60/95/130/165/200
NEW SKIN VOICE ACTORS
- Cliodhna: Elsie Lovelock
- Cybershadow Merlin: Kestin Howard
- Crimson Steel Ares: Kyle Phillips
- Omniscient Oracle Zeus: Chris Guerrero
- Cosmic Fortune Ganesha: Brent Mukai
- C.A.T. Force Hercules: Deneen Melody
- Deadly Doll Cliodhna: Lily Emil Lammers
- Halloween Hysteria Baron Samedi: Thomas G. Burt
- Wiseguy Cupid: Jeff Shine
- Screamy Chibi Izanami: Lisa Ortiz
- KittyKarna Kumbhakarna: Nazeeh Tarsha
COMMUNITY CONCEPTS
POST-PTS BALANCE
(UPGRADE) BUMBA’S SPEAR
Bumba’s Dagger and Bumba’s Spear have become a staple in rolls even outside of the Jungle. While we are adjusting Bumba’s Dagger already; Bumba’s Spear was another point players mentioned as a reason for this tree’s sudden pickup strength. With a 50% increase in damage to objectives the ability to control objectives in the late game was too valuable to pass up. We are reducing it to 35% to temper how valuable this is outside of the Jungle role.
- Decreased Ability Damage on Jungle Camps, Structures, and Jungle Bosses From 50% additional damage to 35% additional damage
(STARTER) WARDING SIGIL
Warding Sigil’s adjustments offer an exciting opportunity for Warrior’s to gain a new option in the Solo lane but we want to ensure it doesn’t become the only option. At 600 gold it had a clear advantage in build strength and power; allowing it to be combined with both another T1 item for 600 and a Health Chalice. Since it offers potent power and defensive stats we are increasing the cost from 600 to 650 to make it better match Bluestone Pendant’s first buy power and keep Warrior’s Axe with this unique strength.
- Increased Cost from 600 to 650
CLIODHNA
Cliodhna certainly left a scary impression on everyone! Her unique strengths and playstyle will be interesting to follow during her release and as players master this goddess but we wanted to do some adjustments before her official release. Tearing The Veil had an issue where ranking this ability did not properly increase it’s damage and in spite of this issue she did quite well. Since fixing this alone is a strong buff we wanted to pull back how much per rank this provided in the first place. To further offset this fix we are looking to remove some extra strength she likely did not need in the Movement Speed of Flickering Visions. Now at later ranks she won’t zoom quite as fast while chasing down her prey. Finally we are lowering the scaling of Lurching Claw to lower the raw burst she can hit an enemy with.
As a goddess who relies more on strong positioning and utilizing her tools over hard lockdown her ability to provide high damage numbers is a strength we feel like she needs and so we were conservative in bringing them down before her launch. Once players both learn to play as and against her we will be able to fine tune these values.
- Decreased Movement Speed from 20/25/30/35/40% to 25% at all ranks
- Decreased Claw Damage Physical Power Scaling from 95% to 85%
- Fixed an issue where she could be put into a broken animation state if hit by a knock up while dashing
- Fixed an issue where the initial burst was dealing rank 1 damage regardless of rank
- Decreased Base Damage of Burst hit from 150/275/400/525/650 to 150/225/300/375/450
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