As the semifinals of the 2016 Smite World Championship begin in just a few short hours, many players, as well as the developers at HiRez, are already looking forward to the launch of Season 3. While no one can speak about the post-SWC "Roster-pocalypse" just yet, there have been several official gameplay changes announced that will most likely be introduced to the live servers within a few weeks after the tournament's conclusion. Some were expected, while others may surprise you. Read on to find out about the new and exciting modifications coming to Smite soon.

Actives

First off, actives. They're gone, or at least as we know them. Gone are the three different tiers of each active. Gone is the price tag. Gone is even the name itself. Instead, actives will now be referred to as "trinkets." You no longer have to purchase them, as all players will be able to pick one trinket of their choice at level 1 for free, and will be able to select their second free trinket at level 12. Trinkets will still have the same effects as the actives we all use now, but without the tier system, every trinket will have flat values. These values will fall somewhere between the current tier 2 and 3 values on actives in the game today, and do not scale with god level. While such a drastic change will certainly require close attention to balancing, HiRez is implementing such changes with good reason. After surveying some of their player base, it was determined that not only were actives underutilized, but many players also believed spending gold on actives was detrimental when behind.

Item and God Balancing

Regarding the rest of the items in the game, there will be general stat adjustments to existing items, some new items introduced (none confirmed yet), and changes to items that have become too popular/dominant in the meta (i.e. cookie-cutter items). As for the gods themselves, you can also expect sweeping rebalances for the majority of the gods currently in the game, as well as a change in how each god feels. By this, I mean that the roles of each god and their particular strengths will become very distinct in Season 3. For example, Neith's focus on the early game will be clearly defined, and the player will notice her fall off in the late game far more clearly than before.

Crowd Control Effects

Ever wonder what happened to you in the middle of a hectic teamfight? After the commencement of Season 3, this should be a less difficult question to answer. In order to add further clarity to the game's various crowd control (CC) effects, there will now be universal debuff icons for each particular debuff (i.e. slow, stun, disarm, etc.). Previously a debuff icon would display the art of the god ability that inflicted it upon you, which can be very confusing for new and veteran players alike in the heat of combat. This change hopes to alleviate such confusion, and will be paired with modifications to how each CC effect is physically displayed on your god as well.

Daily Quests

Similar to the system utilized in Heroes of the Storm, Smite will soon have its own version of the daily quest system, which will be replacing the current daily login bonuses in the game client. In its place, players can now receive a number of quests depending upon their account level which provide favor rewards, eventually culminating in gem rewards via a quest progression system. Some example quests include "Play a god from the Mayan pantheon X times" or "Win X number of games as a Warrior." Players can't fail any quest, so you don't need to worry about that. Since everyone has lives, the quest system should prevent those disappointing moments where you couldn't log in to Smite on the 6th or 7th consecutive day, therefore losing your gem rewards.

Ranked

The final change is of course the soft elo reset, where players will see their divisions and TP changed to be more in line with their current elo. This is always done in preparation of the hard reset prior to the start of a new ranked season, where all players must start fresh and climb the ranks once more. A 3v3 Joust ranked mode will be introduced, which you can read more about here. There will also be changes to the ranked system and how it works, but as of now, nothing has been announced. This will definitely be something interesting to keep an eye on!

That was a lot of information! A new season always means big changes in Smite, and Season 3 will be no exception. The goal of the majority of the announced changes so far appears to be to improve the clarity of gameplay, while also making the game a bit friendlier to casual and competitive players alike. To hear all the changes discussed here in more detail, check out the Dev Talk video from HiRez below! Thanks for reading, and I hope you're now looking forward to playing more Smite in the near future!