Introduction
In the latest update, the game developers have focused on improving the quality of life for players. While the ranked leaderboards changes are not yet ready for deployment in this update, they remain a top priority for future updates. Additionally, several bug fixes have been implemented, addressing issues such as role trades not swapping properly and the Neo Olympia Loading Frame failing to load card art. Spectators will also now be able to see ticket counts when watching arena games.
In terms of gameplay, various gods have received fixes and adjustments. For example, Ah Puch's Galactic Invader skin now has resolved texture issues, and Zhong Kui's Nekomancer skin will no longer T-pose in the lobby. Kukulkan's victory/defeat screens no longer have animation problems with certain skins, and Janus' Presidential Punisher skin will consistently display portal targeters on long-range portals. Persephone's Bone Rush ability has been adjusted to prevent it from dealing more damage than intended when used on minions and jungle monsters.
Furthermore, several item fixes have been implemented. The range of the passive for Leather Cowl has been corrected, and Manikin Hidden Blade's text now accurately describes the health damage as a percentage of maximum health. Charon's Coin no longer provides 15 HP5, but the intended 7. Lastly, the FX for Seer of the Jungle will no longer despawn before the duration of the buff ends.
In other news, the Ceaseless Whirlpool update on August 24 brings exciting changes to the game modes. Chinese Joust from Season 3 is making a comeback, replacing both Joust and Duel for Normal, Co-Op, and Ranked matches. Classic Joust will still be available for Custom lobbies. The XP Split Bonus has been increased, and there are various quality of life and bug fix updates.
Additionally, the Conquest mode has undergone adjustments to the jungle buff camps. Players will now need to clear and pick up a new enhanced buff to maintain its aspect, and the green buff will no longer freeze enhancement durations. The developers aim to create unique game loops for each round of enhanced buffs. The Dragur mini-objective in the Duo Lane has also been buffed to encourage players to value its effects more.
Lastly, there have been fixes related to minions, such as lane minions no longer ignoring enemy Gods in their line of sight. Draugr, a playable character, has received improvements as well, including the addition of a global death sound and adjustments to his knockup ability. Draugr's Boon now provides increased damage mitigations to structures. These updates aim to enhance the overall gaming experience and address player feedback.
QUALITY OF LIFE
- General
- Ranked leaderboards are undergoing a series of backend engineering changes and fixes. This is not ready to be deployed to live in this update but will continue to be a priority for future updates.
BUG FIXES
UI
- Role Trade
- Fixed an issue where role trades could sometimes not swap when accepted, and could sometimes still swap even when declined
- Neo Olympia Loading Frame
- Fixed an issue where this would not properly load the card art
- Spectator
- Fixed an issue where spectating arena games would not show the ticket counts
General Gameplay
- Draugr
- Fixed an issue where the Draugr’s knockup ignored knockup immunities.
Gods
- Ah Puch
- Fixed texture issues on the Galactic Invader skin
- Zhong Kui
- Nekomancer skin will no longer T-pose in lobby
- Kukulkan
- Fixed an issue where certain skins would have animation problems on victory/defeat screens
- Janus
- Fixed an issue where the Presidential Punisher skin would sometimes not show portal targeters on very long range portals
- Persephone
- Fixed an issue where Bone Rush could deal more damage than intended when used on minions and jungle monsters.
Items
- Leather Cowl
- Fixed an issue where the range of the passive said 66 units, it is intended to be 55 and should now read as 55
- Manikin Hidden Blade
- Updated the text to correctly describe the health damage as % Maximum Health.
- NOTE: This was always how it functioned and given its balance state if felt like keeping it working as it was rather than making it match the text was the most appropriate fix.
- Fixed an issue where this item was dealing incorrect % health damage to jungle bosses and minions.
- Updated the text to correctly describe the health damage as % Maximum Health.
- Charon’s Coin
- Fixed an issue where this item was providing 15 HP5 rather than the intended 7.
- Seer of the Jungle
- Fixed an issue where the FX despawned before the duration of the buff ended.
BALANCE LIVE WITH THE CEASELESS WHIRLPOOL UPDATE AUGUST 24
Game Modes
- Chinese Joust (Season 3) Returns!
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Classic Joust has had its time and now we must move on. We gathered a lot of interesting gameplay data from these last 2 updates, where Joust playtime actually increased for a good few weeks before leveling back out to the average amount. Even with some rather intensely negative comments from certain SMITE communities, classic joust never dropped far below the recent average. We are excited to move onto the next Joust map in the rotation – Chinese Joust which originally debuted in Season 3! There were some issues with XP trailing behind Gold in this map as well, so the splitting coefficient has been updated to match moden SMITE maps. There are also some smaller QoL and bug fix updates, but no major balance changes. We know this map is highly anticipated and we can’t wait to have you all playing on it again!
- Replaces both Joust and Duel for Normal, Co-Op, and Ranked matches
- Classic Joust remains available for Custom lobbies
- S3 Joust changes
- Death’s Toll and Benevolence are unavailable to buy in this map
- Increased XP Split Bonus from 0.0 to 0.65
- Added out-of-combat speed boost to fountain during the setup phase
- Mana Camp Turtles can now be hit during their intro, once they burrow out of the ground
- Bull Demon King can now be hit during his intro, as soon as he lands
- Damage Camp now uses Jade Corruption Tiger skins
- Reduced the volume of some looping ambient sounds
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- Conquest
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Since the Mid Season Update, jungle buff camps have some more complex interactions, which we are slightly adjusting the rules to. In the next update, you will need to clear and pick up a new enhanced buff to keep that aspect of the buff, and the green buff will no longer freeze enhancement durations. We want each “round” of enhanced buffs to be its own unique game loop, and the previous system allowed players to keep enhancements much longer than intended, and also prevented certain types of buffs from refreshing properly.” The Dragur has become a fun mini-objective, which has added some new gameplay options to the Duo Lane. The objective provides gold and experience, but we would like to see people value its buff effect a bit more, so that is being buffed.
- Buff Drop Rules
- Reverted pickup behavior
- Picking up an enhanced buff with an enhanced buff equipped
- Normal and enhanced effects are refreshed
- Picking up a normal buff with an enhanced buff equipped
- Normal effects are refreshed
- Picking up an enhanced buff with a normal buff equipped
- Normal effects are refreshed
- Picking up an enhanced buff with an enhanced buff equipped
- Support Buff will no longer freeze the lifetime duration of enhanced buff effects
- Reverted pickup behavior
- Minions
- Fixed an issue where lane minions would sometime ignore enemy Gods that entered their line of sight
- Draugr
- Added global death sound
- Reduced the volume of his intro and death sounds
- Fixed an issue where his knockup ability could still CC targets who were CC immune or knockback immune
- Draugr’s Boon
- Increased the amount of Damage Mitigations that structures receive from this buff from 5% per stack to 7% per stack (15% total to 21% total)
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Items
SUPPORT STARTER ITEMS
Support starter items currently can be upgraded at level 17 which is different from the requirement of 20 on our other starter upgrades. This was selected at the start of Season 8 as it seemed to put supports in line with upgrading it around the time of all other members of their team. The removal of boots in 8.7 as well as the continued optimization of Season 8 by our players has drawn attention to a different issue; how much gold Supports have to upgrade with. We are lowering the cost to upgrade Support Starter items to better reflect the current pacing of Conquest’s end game.
- War Flag, Sentinel’s Gift, and Benevolence now only require 1250 gold to upgrade to their Starter Upgrades.
- This is in addition to them only requiring level 17.
BRACER OF RADIANCE
Bracer of Radiance saw some experimentation, and while it seems successful from our data it lacks some impact that makes it feel worthwhile. We are increasing the potency of the buffs it provides to reward strong placement and reward players who utilize the aura. It is also getting a new icon, better reflecting its new radiant visuals!
- Now has new artwork!
- Increased Movement Speed Aura from 10% to 15%.
BRACER OF RADIANCE UPGRADE BUFF
- Increased Movement Speed Aura from 10% to 15%.
- Increased Power Aura from 10% to 15%.
SUNDERING SPEAR
Sundering Spear has continued to bring high impact with its rework, with improved flexibility making it quite potent. We are decreasing the frequency at which you get charges of Sundering Spear while taking some of the followup damage the upgrade provides. This should bring its power level more in-line with other offensive relic choices.
- Increased Cooldown from 110s to 125s.
SUNDERING SPEAR UPGRADE
- Increased Cooldown from 110s to 125s.
- Decreased Damage Amplification from 10% to 7%.
CHARON’S COIN
This high value token has certainly been sought after by Mages. A core to most builds its combination of utility, penetration, and power makes it a solid choice. We found an issue where Charon’s Coin was providing more HP5 than intended; but felt fixing that along wasn’t quite a strong enough nerf for the value this item provides. A hit to its overall power will allow other Penetration items to better compare.
- Decreased Magical Power from 80 to 70.
- This change also applied to the Evolved form.
FROSTBOUND HAMMER
Frostbound Hammer has seen a strong amount of play at mid levels of play, providing strong defensive potential with its health with strong lockdown potential that can feel frustrating to fight against. We are lowering all these strengths by just a hair; making it feel more fair when playing against.
- Decreased Health from 300 to 250.
- Decreased Movement Speed Slow from 30% to 25% for Melee Attacks.
- Decreased Movement Speed Slow from 20% to 15% from Ranged Attacks.
JADE EMPEROR’S CROWN
In this Patch you will see quite a few tank items that have seen limited play for some time get some buffs. We want to ensure that Support and Tank players feel like their utility options allow them to answer different situations rather than always ignoring these options. Jade Emperor’s Crown is especially potent against low power, high attack speed builds; hitting their damage outputs especially hard. A boost to this aura should help it excel in these situations.
- Increased Physical Power Reduction from 20 to 25.
HIDE OF THE NEMEAN LION
Hide of the Nemean is another tank option that hasn’t seen much play since a round of nerfs. The change to how many prots are required for block stacks really limited the use case of this item. Since Shell not longer provides even more block stacks and item that provides them more frequency has an application to fill that is currently open.
- Increased Physical Protection from 75 to 80.
- Decreased Protections needed per stack of the block from 120 to 100. (Revert).
BULWARK OF HOPE
Bulwark of Hope has not been relevant for a long time, with stats that don’t appear bad but with nothing strong enough to pick it up over other choices. We are beefing up the protections it provides while changing the shield to scale with health; giving high health builds some extra synergy to play with.
- Increased Magical Protections from 60 to 80.
- The shield provided by Bulwark of Hope will now be based on 15% of the holder’s Maximum health, rather than 150 + 10 Per Level.
STONE OF FAL
Stone of Fal’s rework offered a reward to supports (or carries looking to box) who could find windows to mix it up with their opponents. The stats and payoff however were not there to make this change in gameplay feel rewarding. A solid boost to its defense with a more rewarding proc should alleviate that and open it up to more experimentation.
- Increased Health from 150 to 200.
- Increased Physical Protection from 30 to 40.
- Increased Magical Protection from 30 to 40.
- Increased Passive Buff from 2% to 3% per stack.
BLACKTHORN HAMMER
Blackthorn Hammer had its moment with the other hammers but was quickly nerfed and has struggled to see use since; even on cooldown and mana intensive Warrior’s that would love its stat spread. We think we simply over-nerfed this item and are bringing back its raw power and health to help it out.
- Increased Physical Power from 35 to 40.
- Increased Health from 350 to 400.
STAFF OF MYRDDIN
Staff Of Myrddin was intensely discussed during Mid Season PTS, showcasing some strong use cases. We nerfed it preemptively and took the nerf too far, hitting both the otherall cooldown provided AND how long you have to play with the effect. We are bringing back the duration of this buff, allowing players to actually utilize some of the stronger combinations and play with this cap-breaking CDR item.
- Increased the duration of the Passive from 4s to 6s.
DOMINANCE
Dominance doesn’t seem to do much dominating in play. Even in situations where Hunter’s are looking for Penetration for the Basic Attack focused build we have seen Titan’s Bane see more play. The passive wasn’t quite potent enough to let itself stand apart in heavy Basic Attack Builds so we think a simple buff here will let this item start dominating the competition.
- Increased Basic Attack Bonus Penetration from 10% to 15%.
VAMPIRIC SHROUD
Vampiric Shroud saw quite a few buffs and they have worked! Vampiric Shroud has all but taken over as the go to choice for Mid Mages and Bruiser Mages alike. We are toning the power back down just to make sure that Sands of Time and Conduit Gem (getting its own buff this patch) feel just as competitive.
- Decreased Magical Power from 30 to 25.
BLOOD SOAKED SHROUD
Blood Soaked Shroud also contributed to Vampiric Shroud’s boost for Bruiser Mages. The raw healing this item provides was difficult to match and allowed for quick restoration from minion waves and jungle monsters. We are lowering the intensity of this heal, keeping it as a strength but making it more manageable for enemy players.
- Decreased Health heal proc from 2% to 1.5%.
- Decreased Mana heal proc from 2% to 1.5%.
CONDUIT GEM
Vampiric Shroud and Sands of Time have been competing for mid mages; with Conduit Gem seeing less play. When built it is often skipped in favor of more immediate power; with the goal being Gem of Focus down the road. We think a small boost to its raw power will make it more comparable to the rest of the options.
- Increased Magical Power from 25 to 30.
MANIKIN SCEPTER
Manikin Scepter requires a target has the burn applied to them when they die to gain the health and mana heal. We have tweaked this to provide a small window of extra time past when the dot would fade to still benefit from the heal. This mostly matters very early on when you don’t have quite enough attack speed to keep the burn active on 3 monster camps.
- There is now some extra forgiveness for the health restore when an enemy dies shortly after the burn debuff fades. This should help this item feel more consistent when spreading the burn around on multiple targets during early jungle clear.
BUMBA’S DAGGER
The jungle items should feel unique in their use cases. Bumba’s should provide strong clear and safety, Eye of the Jungle is all around, and Manikin is focused more on aggressive play. Bumba’s has largely fallen behind on the strong clear department being overshadowed by Eye and Manikin. A bump to this clear speed should make its strength stand out more.
- Increased Basic Attack Damage on Jungle Camps from 20 to 25.
- Increased Ability Damage on Jungle Camps from 30% to 35%.
BUMBA’S HAMMER
Here starts a large pass to Jungle Starter upgrades. Overall we have seen a trend for Junglers where upgrading is less common than other roles. The overall impact and feel of the Jungle Starter upgrades has felt underwhelming compared to the rest of the upgrades. Additionally the upgrades failed to really double down on an Assassin’s strength; high burst damage. Here are changes focused at bringing back some removed strength while pivoting more defensive choices that didn’t see play to offensive powerhouses that should find a spot.
Bumba’s Hammer should sit as a more defensive and utility focused item however; but the removal of both CDR and Penetration was too much. We are bringing back the Cooldown Reduction to highlight its strength without overdoing it.
- Increased Cooldown from 10% to 20%. (Revert)
BUMBA’S SPEAR
Bumba’s Spear however is seeing a heavy shift. It is losing its health entirely but more than making up for it in the offensive department. This starter upgrade will now be a potent source of Power, provide a much longer buff that you can bring into teamfights and sieges, and most importantly will be a solid source of 10% Penetration. This should make the item much more attractive to damage focused Assassins.
- No longer provides 200 Health.
- Now provides 10% Penetration.
- Increased Physical Power from 60 to 70.
- Increased Magical Power from 90 to 105.
- Increased Power Buff Duration from 10s to 30s.
PROTECTOR OF THE JUNGLE
Protector of the Jungle saw quite a few nerfs upon the initial release in Season 8 and after quite a bit of time and balance we think we overdid it. We are bringing back the offensive strength of this item, reverting some key nerfs to the passive power gain and raw power provided by the item.
- Increased Passive Power Increase from 12% to 15%. (Revert)
- Note : The Protection Increase remains at 12%.
- Increased Physical power from 55 to 65. (Revert).
- Increased Magical Power from 80 to 100. (Revert).
SEER OF THE JUNGLE
Seer of the Jungle is also getting the offensive bump, but not quite as much as Spear and Protector. The passive ward clearing capability is still the defining feature of this item and the timer on the duration to clear wards is still pretty restrictive. We want to bring this up first and see where it falls.
- Increased Physical Power from 60 to 70.
- Increased Magical Power from 90 to 105.
- Increased Passive Duration from 15s to 20s.
GILDED ARROW
Gilded Arrow saw a large drop in its value with the nerfs we hit this tree with earlier this year. The tree itself looks for future payoff but reverting our nerfs there runs the risk of recreating a similar problem. Rather than revert we want the item to feel more solid on its own with the currently balanced future payoff as a nice reward. A drop in cost for some build flexibility with some extra punch from Basic Attack Power should do the trick.
- Decreased Cost from 700 to 650.
- Increased Basic Attack Power from 15 to 20.
WAR FLAG
War Flag rewards aggression, but it looks like the reward wasn’t quite worth the payoff. While Benevolence is receiving an additional nerf which should make War Flag and Sentinel’s Gift more likely options on its own, we wanted to further push the reward for War Flag. The gold reward has been increasing, allowing aggressive supports to quickly spike their gold if they play well.
- Increased Gold Reward from 8 to 10.
BENEVOLENCE
Benevolence is a unique item that can be played with in a variety of ways. Passive experience and gold is a scary stat and its continued presence shows this. One aspect we have not adjusted is one of its unique identities; a personal loss of experience with the goal of spiking a teammate you are around. We are increasing the intensity of this effect which will likely narrow when it is applicable (and allow room for other starters to have their shot).
- Decreased the experience and gold earned from any time you would gain either resource from slain enemies from 90% to 85%.
- The full lost reward still goes to an ally within 40 units of you. (10% to 15%).
ANIMOSITY
We have started to see cases where specific roles can skip a starter, opting for Animosity late to spike their damage. A reduction to its proc strength will make sure that strategy remains in check with more traditional build options.
- Decreased Damage Proc from 4% of your Maximum Health to 3% of your Maximum Health.
Gods
TIAMAT
Tiamat has been less frustrating with the change to her minion pushing strength but it hasn’t stopped her strong showing at high levels of gameplay. Her raw damage output, especially in her ‘tanky’ stance makes her feel difficult to fight against. A scaling hit to Consume and Outburst will lower her overall lethality.
CONSUME
- Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 60% to 50%.
OUTBURST
- Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 40%.
RAIJIN
Raijin has a history of entering and leaving the meta in a flash; but his current stay has been one of his longer runs. Our last round of adjustments helped temper his current streak but he still feels too impactful. We are decreasing the spread damage Raiju can deal to a middle point between the original values and the most recent buff to this damage to try to find the right balance point.
RAIJU
- Decreased Bounce Tick Damage from 14/23/32/41/50 to 14/21/28/35/42.
JORMUNGANDR
Jormungandr was a powerhouse on his launch and it took some time to lower his power enough that players felt like they could fight him. Since then he has seen buff after buff in incremental steps; as we wanted to avoid recreating his previous strength. However the incremental steps seem too slow and have not had the impact we have wanted so we are being more aggressive with some of these buffs. He is getting the full strength of his Basic Attacks returned, a boost to the base damage on Venomous Haze, and the scaling returned to Consuming Bellow when consuming multiple Hazes. Finally he is also getting extra empowered duration to better leverage his stronger Basic Attacks.
GENERAL
- Increased Base Basic Attack Damage from 10.4 to 11.2.
VENOMOUS HAZE
- Increased Base Damage per tick from 5/15/25/35/45 to 10/20/30/40/50.
CONSUMING BELLOW
- Increased Magical Power Scaling of Bonus Damage from 5% to 10% per stack.
- Note : This can stack up to 3 times.
- Increased Duration of the Empowered Basic Attack Buff from 1.5s to 2s per stack.
- Note : This can stack up to 3 times.
BELLONA
Bellona was a goddess we held buffs for to see how changes to Death’s Toll, Berserker’s Shield, and Shogun’s Kusari affected her. While her item builds have gotten stronger other Basic Attack Warriors have seen more success, indicating she needs some core strength buffs to help her out. Shield Bash and Scourge are seeing cooldown reductions, allowing her more frequent access to her unique utility. Additional Shield Bash will hit just that much harder, allowing her to be more threatening over the course of a fight.
SHIELD BASH
- Increased Physical Power Scaling from 40% to 50%.
- Decreased Cooldown from 15s to 14s.
SCOURGE
- Decreased Cooldown from 20/19/18/17/16 to 18/17/16/15/14.
AMATERASU
Similarly to Bellona, Amaterasu likes to flex a basic attack focused item here and there; but she still needs some additional buffs to let her compete with the meta solo laners. More Attack Speed per level rounds out her late game while Glorious Charge is seeing a cooldown reduction. More frequent mobility and utility will give her flexibility during fights.
GENERAL
- Increased Attack Speed per level from 1.2 to 1.4%.
GLORIOUS CHARGE
- Decreased Cooldown from 18s to 16s.
SKADI
Skadi slid out of the meta and has struggled to remain competitive with the other hunters. We want to play up her unique strengths, rewarding skilled control of Kaldr and giving her more frequent access to Permafrost. These two changes should give her stronger early boxing power, clear potential, and safety.
RUNE OF THE HUNT
- Increased Kaldr’s Basic Attack Damage from 40/40/50/60/70/80% to 50/50/57.5/65/72.5/80%.
PERMAFROST
- Decreased Cooldown from 18s to 16s.
THOTH
Thoth is seeing an interesting buff targeted towards some specific early pain points and boosting his team utility. Early on the extra bump to Glyph of Pain’s base damage will let him clear a buff more reliably on his own. In the late game he will be rewarded for placing it in a way that he AND his team can benefit from.
GLYPH OF PAIN
- Increased Base Bonus Basic Attack Power from 10/15/20/25/30 to 20/25/30/35/40.
BABA YAGA – QUALITY OF LIFE
Baba Yaga’s Cabin is a gigantic structure with long chicken legs, allowing it to stomp over the battlefield; yet minions can stop it dead in its tracks. We saw the feedback that this felt weird, especially given that the minions blocking you can be difficult to see. The cabin now has no problem walking over any minion.
HOME SWEET HOME
- While in the Ultimate, Baba Yaga can now walk through minions.
SUSANO
Susano has fallen out of favor compared to most assassins. We wanted to round out his base damage to bolster his mid game, making him more of a threat before his late game teamfight takes off.
WIND SIPHON
- Increased Base Damage from 80/105/130/155/180 to 90/120/150/180/210.
JET STREAM
- Increased Base Damage from 20/30/40/50/60 to 25/35/45/55/65 per tick.
ARTIO
Artio has bearly made a mark. While she has the potential to claw her way through her opponents, she has mostly been hibernating this season. A lower cooldown on her primary damage and some extra chase down power on Heavy Charge should help her back into the meta.
LIFE TAP / MAUL PREY
- Decreased Cooldown from 12s to 10s.
HEAVY CHARGE
- Increased her charge speed from 75% increased Movement Speed to 100% increased Movement Speed.
KUZENBO
Heeeeeeey! Kuzenbo has struggled since our last nerf which limited how much damage he could bring in the early game. To offset this without turning him into a one-shot machine with the right setup we are boosting the wave clear and poke NeNe Kappa can bring.
NENE KAPPA
- Increased Base Damage on the throw from 70/105/140/175/210 to 80/120/160/200/240.
NE ZHA
Ne Zha saw heavy shifts and since then not much has come from it. While his build options are more opened up and less focused on Critical Strike, he suffers to fight for control early. Flaming Spear can be a powerful stim and heal but since it is often ranked last it sat at a long 18s cooldown. Making it 14s flat should help ease that pain point.
FLAMING SPEAR
- Decreased Cooldown from 18/17/16/15/14 to 14s at all ranks.
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