Smite

Introduction

Several quality of life improvements and bug fixes have been implemented. Players will now notice an updated Jungle Practice Queue Art, as well as the addition of Martichoras' Avatar. Additionally, a bug that awarded the Charon Diamond Avatar prematurely has been fixed, and players who achieved Charon Diamond in the previous patch will receive the avatar in this update. Localization issues have also been addressed, specifically with tooltip descriptions appearing as Undefined on Charon's abilities for Spanish clients. Furthermore, Ix Chel has been correctly classified as a Tier 2 healer for Assault, fixing a previous issue. In terms of game modes, a bug with the Order Titan's model in Assault has been resolved. Moving on to the balance changes in the 10.8 update, the developers have made some significant adjustments based on player feedback. The Soul Surge mechanic, which has sparked much discussion, has been removed from all game modes. In Conquest, the Unleashed Titan mechanic has been tweaked to create slightly faster fights. The Beacon cooldown has been reduced by one minute, allowing for more intense clashes. The Titans themselves have also been buffed to pose a greater threat. Additionally, a bug that made the Enhanced Fire Giant (EFG) excessively tanky has been fixed, making it easier for players to engage and defeat. These changes aim to maintain the challenge while providing a more balanced gameplay experience.

QUALITY OF LIFE

General
- Updated the Jungle Practice Queue Art
- Added Martichoras’ Avatar

BUG FIXES

UI
- - Fixed an issue with the Charon Diamond Avatar being awarded to players too early without getting him to Diamond. Players that achieved Charon Diamond in the 10.7 patch will receive the avatar in this patch

Localization
- - Fixed an issue where tooltip descriptions were appearing as Undefined on Charon’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th abilities on Spanish clients

Gods
- - Ix Chel
    - Fixed an issue where she was classified as a Tier 3 healer for Assault instead of Tier 2
Game Modes
- Fixed an issue with the Order Titan’s model in Assault

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 10.8 UPDATE

Game Modes

General

There has been a lot of discussion regarding this seasonal mechanic and perhaps there could have been alternative methods for their success. Making the Soul Surge Spirits more passive was attempted but the consensus was clear and the Surges have been removed from all modes.

Soul Surges have been removed from all game modes

Conquest

The Unleashed Titan mechanic has been quite an interesting addition to the Conquest game mode and most of the feedback has generally been pushing for slightly faster fights. Reducing the Beacon cooldown by one minute will shorten the loop and bring the momentous clash in earlier. We also wanted to buff up the Titans, making them more of a threat. Finally we wanted to acknowledge a bug that caused EFG to be significantly more tanky than expected. In fixing this issue we expect there will be a noticeable change in how easy the EFG will be to engage and defeat. Still a challenge, but not as insurmountable.

Stygian Beacon cooldown decreased from 6m to 5m
Unleashed Titan Stat changes
- Increased
  - Base Health from 5500 to 6000
  - Base Physical Prots from 45 to 55
  - Base Magical Prots from 35 to 45
  - Base Physical Power from 175 to 200
  - Kill XP from 200 to 210
  - Kill Gold from 150 to 170
Enhanced Fire Giant fix
- Fixed an issue where on enhancement from FG to EFG, EFG was gaining twice the intended amount of increased stats
  - This affects the increased enhancement stats only and not the entirety of the base stats of the jungle boss

Underworld Arena

The return of the cataclysmic, Underworld arena but with fiery twists! Pyroclast boulders are a new feature that spice up the deathmatch experience, becoming even more important when the new Fire Giant challenger arrives. Watch your feet and get to the Pyroclasts first to get an advantage. The Bonus Round will also be returning with a new lava field ringing the smaller arena that, while dangerous over time, is not immediately threatening.

Pyroclast Boulders
- 2 of these spawn offset near the center of the Arena when the match begins (at 0 min) and respawn every 30s
- On being attacked by a basic attack these boulders fire off in the direction hit damaging and knocking back enemies in an area
Fire Giant
- At 8 min Fire Giant spawns in the center of the Arena, ringed by many, quickly respawning Pyroclast Boulders
- The team that kills FG gains Gold, XP and a short term FG buff reward alongside short term CC-Immunity
  - Fire Giant’s Fury Buff
    - +80 Magical Power
    - +50 Physical Power
    - CC-Immunity
    - 2% Health and Mana restore
    - 20s duration
- Killing Fire Giant decreases enemy team ticket counter by 10
Bonus Round
- Once a team loses all their tickets and the game ends, the bonus round begins
  - Players can still purchase items during the phase change
- There is a row of Pyroclast Boulders that can be utilized if quick enough
- Lava rings the smaller arena that deals damage to players inside it over time

Joust

The starter item changes in Joust created an interesting and unique meta which has allowed us to better understand the core issues surrounding the previous tank concerns within the mode

Starter items provide an important stat boost going into a game even beyond being a fun choice to diversify builds. However, between our internal playtesting and external data, the strength of the additional gold spooling and sustain that Support starter items provide proved to be too much, so we will leave them disabled while re-enabling all other starters.

Additionally, Emperor’s Armor has become a must-by in most situations, as diving the towers is perhaps the most important strategy to the double tank style. By removing it from Joust, we are encouraging players to break the enemy’s defenses in other ways that don’t involve a race between who can finish Emperor’s first.

We will continue to keep a close eye on these changes to see if there are any other outliers or if more needs to be done to make Joust as fun as it can be!

Re-added all starter items and upgrades except for
- Sentinel’s Gift and upgrades
- Benevolence and upgrades
- War Flag and upgrades
- Lono’s Mask and upgrades
Banned Emperor’s Armor from this mode

Items

Starter Items

Small changes here to accommodate for the recent Item shifts as well as bringing Spartan Flag a little more in-line with other options.

LONO’S MASK BUFF

Reduced Protection from items requirement per stack from 50 to 45
- Overall Prots from items required goes from 250 to 225

SPARTAN FLAG BUFF

Increased GP5 from 6 to 8
Also now provides 10% Attack Speed to allies in the area

Basic Attack Tank Items

While Tank proc damage has been quite the heavy topic, another archetype has been suffering silently. These changes should help Basic Attack Warriors get a bit more of an edge and the team will continue monitoring their performance.

BERSERKER’S SHIELD BUFF

Decreased Cost from 2400 to 2300g
Increased Health Threshold from 50% to 60%

SHOGUN’S KUSARI BUFF

Increased Health from 100 to 150
Increased Magical Protections from 40 to 45

Underutilized Healing Items

The Season of Hope brought in several new items but a few of these needed a little adjustment to feel more in-line and less of a detriment in healer-adjacent builds.

REJUVENATING HEART BUFF

Increased Healing dealt per stack from 6% to 10%
Decreased Max stacks from 8 to 5

SEKHMET’S SCEPTER BUFF

Decreased Cost from 2500 to 2400g
Decreased Buff duration from 6s to 5s
Increased Cooldown benefit from 0.5s to 1s

Physical Ability Damage Items

Somewhat similar to the Warrior situation, but flipped, Basic attack Physical DPS classes (both Hunters and Assassins) have been doing very well. Contrary to that, the Ability DPS counterparts have been slowly falling behind. Ideally these changes should help both classes and the Ability damage archetype as a whole to catch back up.

BRAWLER’S BEAT STICK BUFF

Decreased cost from 2500 to 2400

HEARTSEEKER BUFF

Upper threshold changed from 300 to 250 Physical Power required

THE CRUSHER BUFF

Decreased cost from 2600 to 2500
Increased Attack Speed from 15% to 20%

Mage Items

Mages as a whole continue to be an explosive topic and while we have seen a healthy change from the recent Class Bonus Magical Power Scaling buff, there are a few targeted items we thought could use a little more Oomph (that’s the scientific term).

BANCROFT’S TALON + GLYPHS BUFF

Increased Magical Power from 70 to 80

BOOK OF THOTH BUFF

Increased Magical Power from 60 to 70

EVOLVED BOOK OF THOTH

Increased Magical Power from 60 to 70
Increased Mana conversion from 6% to 7%

ROD OF TAHUTI + GLYPHS BUFF

Increased Magical Power from 100 to 110

Gods

Buffs

ARES

Our iconic God of War took some time off to hone his battle strategy but is now returning with a little more offensive and defensive options. He is drafting up additional plans that should be ready soon, should he need it.

SHACKLES

Decreased Cooldown from 15s to 13s

BOLSTER DEFENSES

Increased CC Reduction from 10/15/20/25/30% to 30%

ARTIO

Season of Hope’s healing shifts brought a lot of changes to Artio but as the dust cleared we noticed that she could use some additional support. We wanted to be careful on providing extra sustain but noticed that despite her ursine strength, Artio’s damage could use a push.

DECOMPOSE

Decreased Max Stacks from 6 to 4
Increased Protections Debuff Per Stack from 2% to 3%

ENERGY SURGE (MAUL PREY)

Increased Damage from 60/95/130/165/200 to 70/105/140/175/210

MAUL PREY (ENERGY SURGE)

Increased Damage per swipe from 35/65/95/125/155 to 40/70/100/130/160

AWILIX

Moonlight’s blessing guides Awilix to greater strength helping Suku charge into battle even more ferociously into the late game. Alongside that Awilix gains a bit more flexibility early on to help her get to that state.

MOONLIGHT CHARGE

Increased Physical Power Scaling from 70% to 80%

GRAVITY SURGE

Increased Attack Speed from 30/40/50/60/70% to 50/55/60/65/70%

CHAAC

Chaac has been one tough god to buff, but slowly and surely, he has gotten better over time. Despite the improvements, he is still underperforming compared to many other Warriors, so he’s getting more frequent sustain alongside easier access to Protections to help him bring the rain!

TORRENT

Increased Protections per stack from 4/8/12/16/20 to 5/10/15/20/25
Decreased Stack cap from 5 to 4

RAIN DANCE

Decreased Cooldown from 16s to 15s

GILGAMESH

In ages past, Gilgamesh was a terror to all who opposed him. Nowadays, the King of Uruk has become a niche pick that has fallen a bit short of expectations. We want to continue to encourage his synergy with building tanky, but also we feel like he needs just a slight bump in clear potential.

SUN-FORGED SCIMITAR

Increased bonus damage from 2.5% to 3% of his max health per hit

HERO’S ADVANCE

Increased damage from 60/100/140/180/220 to 70/110/150/190/230

LANCELOT

This dashing horseman hasn’t seen much success in the jousting list as of late, so with a bit of extra survivability and a small damage boost, we may yet see a new champion arise!

MOUNT UP

Decreased time it takes to reach Max Health shield from 4s to 3s

CRASHING DIVE

Increased Physical Power Scaling from 90% to 100%

MEDUSA

This sneaky snake has been in hiding for a while! Nothing like a little extra clear and some late game damage to help coerce her back into the spotlight for all to gaze upon!

ACID SPRAY

Increased Base Damage from 90/140/190/240/290 to 100/150/200/250/300
Increased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 85%

PETRIFY

Increased damage taken by enemies not looking at Medusa from 75% to 85%

NEITH

Ability hunters unite! With the meta shifting to tank buster-style hunters, we want to make sure a wide variety of gods and goddesses are able to play their part, including Neith!

SPIRIT ARROW

Cooldown decreased from 13s to 13/12.5/12/11.5/11s

UNRAVEL

Cooldown decreased from 14s to 14/13.5/13/12.5/12s
Note this ability was listed as a 15s cooldown but has been at 14s

NU WA

The Guardian of Heaven is a very popular pick in Non-Conquest but has struggled heavily when it comes to her mid-lane potential. We wanted to give her some quality of life love, but we also wanted to make sure her performance in other modes was not too overbearing. Please see below for her additional Non-Conquest nerfs.

MYSTERIOUS FOG

Increased the speed the fog moves from 300 to 300/320/340/360/380

CLAY SOLDIERS

Increased number of soldiers spawned at rank 1 from 1 to 2

YU HUANG

Few have been able to master the Master of the Dao, so we are giving him some additional tools to make that challenge just a bit easier. With more frequent access to Dao and his escape, we hope Yu Huang players will be able to thrive!

MASTER OF THE DAO

Decreased time to gain stacks from 8s to 6s
Stacks gained from hitting an enemy god outside of combat increased from 1 to 2

CELESTIAL FLIGHT

Cooldown decreased from 20s at all ranks to 20/19.5/19/18.5/18

Shifts

RAVANA

CHAIN OF BLOWS

Decreased Health Shield gained per stack from 8% to 7% of Ravana’s max HP

PRANA ONSLAUGHT

Increased damage from 90/140/190/240/290 to 90/145/200/255/310

Nerfs

CHARON

We have been very satisfied with the feedback from Charon’s release, but he is statistically overperforming just a smidge. As such, we’re taking the survivability he gains and provides down by a slight amount. We will continue to monitor him as more players learn to masterfully row it down in order to assess if he needs any additional adjustments.

DAMNATION

Decreased Max Health contribution from 3% to 2.5%

IZANAMI

Izanami has become a very popular selection by ADC players of all levels, and her excellent performance indicates she needs to take a slight hit to her shred potential.

DEATH DRAWS NIGH

Decreased Penetration per Stack from 4% to 3%

MERCURY

This speedster has been going over the limit! In order to slow him down, we’re decreasing his combo burst potential just a few notches to make sure he’s obeying all the traffic laws of the battleground.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Decreased Physical Power Scaling per tick from 20% to 16%
- Ticks 4 times for a total decrease of 80% to 64%

SUN WUKONG

After a long hiatus, the Monkey King has returned and is more ferocious than ever! With the recent change to Undefeated Body, we recognize that the free Power he was gaining was simply too much for his fellow deities to handle.

UNDEFEATED BODY

Decreased Physical Power gained per level from 2 to 1.5

SUSANO

The winds are finally starting to calm down! Susano has been causing a bit of a storm, so we are taking down his burst potential to give his foes more room to fight back.

WIND SIPHON

Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 75% to 70%

TYPHOON

Decreased Physical Power Scaling of the Max Damage. fire of this ability from 125% to 115%

ZHONG KUI

After the Demon Queller’s most recent buff, he has jumped up the charts quite quickly! His statistics improved more than anticipated, so we want to cut down Zhong’s survivability by just a smidge, especially considering Protections as a whole were decreased throughout the Season of Souls.

DEMON BAG

Decreased the Protections gained per stack from 1.5 to 1.2

Non-Conquest God Changes

God disparities between Conquest and the Non-Conquest game modes tend to fluctuate often enough that we did not feel comfortable doing larger passes on a frequent basis, especially with how drastic some of the seasonal changes can be. That being said, we have heard the community’s desire and took a look at some of the gods that tend to be more resistant to change, specifically for Non-Conquest, throughout the year.