Published by Ashyko, 4 days ago at 6:10 pm.

Smite Patch Notes with commentary. The notes are directly from Hirez, and the comments are a combination of my own thoughts and those of the several professional Smite players I spoke with about the changes.First, and possibly most importantly, Sun Wukong has been revamped and replaced with the god Hun Batz.I will note here that all skins you already have for Sun Wukong will transfer to Hun Batz. At the same time, Odin will become the god in the free god pool. Hun Batz will continue to be available to all players who currently have Smite accounts; however, all new account will gain access to Odin instead of Hun Batz.Revamped God: Hun Batz (formerly Sun Wukong)Sun Wukong has been removed from the game and a new Mayan Monkey God, Hun Batz, has taken his place on the battlefield. The new Monkey has similar abilities, but there are some important differences. Those players that owned Sun Wukong or any Sun Wukong skin will now own Hun Batz and/or the skin equivalent.•. Infused Strikes (Passive): Using an ability gives Hun Batz’s next basic attack within the next 5 seconds additional physical damage. The effect can only apply once every 2 seconds. Damage: 25 (+20% of your physical power).•. Somersault: Hun Batz flips through the air, crashing down at his target location, doing damage to all nearby enemies and slowing them. Damage: 50/90/130/170/210 (+70% of your physical power). Slow: 50%. Slow Duration: 2s. Cost: 60. Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11s. (1 - .•. Overhand Smash: Hun Batz smashes his staff to the ground in front of him, doing damage to all enemies. Damage: 85/150/215/280/345 (+100% of your physical power). Cost: 60/65/70/75/80. Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8s.•. Sacred Monkey: Hun Batz commands a monkey through the air that pounces on enemy targets, doing damage on each pounce, hitting each god only once. If the last target is an enemy god, Hun Batz teleports to that target. Damage per hit: 80/125/170/215/260 (+70% of your physical power). Max Targets: 4. Cost: 75/80/85/90/95. Cooldown: 13s.•. Fear No Evil: Hun Batz summons a totem from the ground to ward off all evil. Any enemy caught within the radius is feared directly away from the totem and takes damage every .25s. Damage per Tick: 40/45/50/55/60 (+15% of your physical power). Lifetime: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s. Cost: 100. Cooldown: 90s.When I asked Resterian about the new god and it’s effect on play, here were his thoughts “…visually I think he looks awesome. As he is basically a buff to the old Sun Wukong, I can say that he looks playable in competitive. The changes work nicely to bring him up, especially the escalating auto attacks. However, I worry that players will mis-use his 3rd ability and teleport to their deaths.”I’m just a casual player, but I agree that the new 3 will cause some possible mishaps in casual matches. The skill requires… well skill, to use effectively.The Joust map is only the first to update. The patches over the next several weeks will introduce visual changes to all of the maps, including conquest. These will all match the style of the new joust map.Updated Map:•. The Joust map has undergone significant art revisions. The art style and quality shown in this map reflects the current art style direction of the game. Other elements of the game, including the other maps are expected to undergo changes over future patches to better align them with this style.New Skins:•. Apollo Golden•. Hun Batz Red Demon (NOTE: Anyone that owned the Sun Wukong Red Demon skin will receive this skin for free).New Voice Packs:My own thoughts on these… Hun Batz sounds like a random speech generator, Anhur sounds like Mufasa, and Bacchus sounds like a drunken guy having fun. I don’t think Bacchus burbs or is quite as rude as I thought his voice pack would be.•. Hun Batz•. Anhur•. BacchusGeneral:The thing I think that was most significant in this group is the pretty new UI and that when you use a potion, rather than the time resetting, it adds additional time to the existing time. In this way, nothing gets wasted.•. The free gods permanently given to new players have changed.◦. For players that create new accounts after the patch, their permanent free gods will be Kali, Ra, Artemis, Ymir and Odin.◦. For players that created accounts before the patch, they will still own (for free) Kali, Ra, Artemis, Ymir and Hun Batz. They will still have to unlock Odin and will not receive him for free.•. The in-game HUD has undergone visual and layout adjustments. Significant further changes to the in-match UI are planned for future releases.•. All consumables now “stack time” when consumed. Additional time is added to the end of the duration of the consumable when you consume a new one while the first one was still active. This excludes wards.•. You may now search for a player’s stats by name on the STATSPROFILE page.•. Athena and Neith have a new targeter for their Ultimates. This treatment should make it easier to identify your target.•. Fixed issues with team coloring of several FX.•. Fixed an issue in which gold frames would randomly appear on other players.•. Fixed an issue in which the most recently released god would never be picked in Random gamemodes (such as Assault).•. The gold rewards from the monsters in the jungle has been increased by 30%.•. Players no longer get a last hit bonus from monsters in the jungle.•. Fixed an issue where minions would not sink into the ground after dying in training mode.•. Fixed an issue where death animations on a victim would be canceled if the victim was stunned while dead.•. Diminishing returns will not take any crowd control durations below .5s or the effects initial duration, whichever is lower.•. The new god rotation is Hades, Loki, Ne Zha, Neith and Zeus.•. The cell shading effect around players has been removed (along with the Setting to turn this shading on/off).Spectator ChangesI’m interested to try these out. Bart referred to them as the “eat your cereal and watch” type of changes.•. Fixed an issue where the camera motion of the 3rd person view wasn’t smoothing.•. A beta version of Director Mode is released. To toggle Director Mode, click the movie clapper icon (just to the left of the replay clock).◦. Director Mode will automatically attempt to find the most interesting players to spectate.◦. At any point you may interact with the game, which automatically puts Director Mode into stasis. If no additional input is given by the user after several seconds of being in stasis, the director will automatically reassume control over spectating the match.◦. While in Director Mode, the camera view will periodically change between third-person and isometric view modes.Items:These, I think, will introduce a new play style. When talking to Paindeviande, he worried the reintroduced Midas Boots would create a passive farming lane that was much less fun to watch. He worries it’ll be the new standard on ADCs. While I think this will create interesting new builds, I also worry that for newer players it will be difficult to navigate which is best to purchase.•. New Tiered Movement Items◦. These items have 2 choices at the top tier:▪. Boots•. Boots of Celerity◦. Price = 1425g◦. +95 Health◦. +95 Mana◦. UNIQUE - +28% Speed while in combat / +40% Speed while out of combat (Speed does not stack with other boots).•. Midas’ Boots◦. Price = 1400g◦. +95 Health◦. +95 Mana◦. UNIQUE - +21% Speed (Speed does not stack with other boots). PASSIVE - Gold per 5 is increased by 6.▪. Greaves•. Plated Greaves◦. Price = 2140g◦. +25 Physical Protection◦. +25 Magical Protection◦. +15 HP5◦. UNIQUE - +21% Speed (Speed does not stack with other boots). PASSIVE - All damage taken is reduced by 5%.•. Reinforced Greaves◦. Price = 2095g◦. +25 Physical Protection◦. +25 Magical Protection◦. +15 HP5◦. UNIQUE - +21% Speed / +33% Speed while out of combat (Speed does not stack with other boots). UNIQUE PASSIVE - Resolve - 30% reduction to all crowd control durations.▪. Shoes•. Shoes of Focus◦. Price = 1875g◦. +50 Magical Power◦. +250 Mana◦. UNIQUE - +21% Movement Speed. (Speed does not stack with other boots). PASSIVE - You gain +15% Cooldown Reduction.•. Shoes of the Magi◦. Price = 1925g◦. +50 Magical Power◦. +250 Mana◦. UNIQUE - +21% Movement Speed. (Speed does not stack with other boots). PASSIVE - You gain +15 Magical Penetration.▪. Tabi•. Ninja Tabi◦. Price = 2090g◦. +30 Physical Power◦. +9% Attack Speed◦. UNIQUE - +21% Speed (Speed does not stack with other boots). PASSIVE - You gain +7% Critical Strike Chance.•. Warrior Tabi◦. Price = 2150g◦. +30 Physical Power◦. +9% Attack Speed◦. UNIQUE - +21% Speed (Speed does not stack with other boots). PASSIVE - You gain +15 Physical Penetration.▪. Ankh now has a third tier 3 option•. Ankh of the Reborn◦. Price = 2135g◦. +50 Physical Protection◦. +450 Health◦. PASSIVE - Your HP5 is doubled for 10 seconds when hit by a basic attack. Can only occur once every 60 seconds.•. Consumables◦. The following potions have had persistent FX added to them while they are active:▪. Potion of Magical Might▪. Potion of Physical Might▪. Superiority Damage▪. Superiority Protection•. Bumba’s Mask◦. The price has been increased from 750g to 800g.◦. The passive of this item has been changed to this:▪. PASSIVE - When a jungle camp boss dies, you gain 10% movement speed and 15 MP5 for 30 seconds.▪. You are also healed for 10% of any jungle camp monster’s max health. If you have an ally nearby, you get the normal gold and XP reward as if you were solo.▪. Multiple Bumba’s masks will split movement, mp5, and heal.•. Death’s Toll◦. The price has been increased from 750g to 800g.•. Mark of the Vanguard◦. The price has been increased from 750g to 800g.•. Vampiric Shroud◦. The price has been increased from 750g to 800g.•. Ward◦. Priced at 75g. This item now only reveals enemy movements; it does not reveal enemy wards. Lasts 180 seconds.•. Sentry Ward◦. Priced at 75g. Reveals both enemy movements and enemy wards. Lasts 90 seconds.GodsThese changes will bring some interesting changes to competitive play. When asked, Resterian thought they would result in Athena as a first pick or perma ban. He also thought Anubis looked like he might be a good viable choice in competitive play with his buffs. He also observed that, even though Bart said there would be no dps change, Loki’s changes combined with a hydra could cause more dps in the early parts of the game.When asked about the changes to Artimis, Paindeviande still felt she wasn’t quite viable/balanced yet. She still lacks a true escape, and while the new distance on her root effect will make her more effective, she will still be trapped by gods like Odin.•. Agni◦. Noxious Fumes▪. Fixed an issue in which Noxious Fumes would tick its damage an additional time.•. Anubis◦. Special FX have been improved.◦. Anubis’ basic attacks now deals 35 plus 25% of his magical power as magical damage◦. Sorrow▪. Now also grants Anubis 5% magical lifesteal per stack◦. Plague of Locusts▪. Anubis is immune to knockback effects while channeling▪. Plague of Locusts now hits through walls and barriers•. Ao Kuang◦. Tornadoes▪. Fixed an issue in which Tornadoes would tick its tornadoes an additional time. This does not affect the number of times the tornado ticks on a player once they are affected. It only affects the amount of time that a player could have a tornado applied to them.•. Apollo◦. General▪. Some visual adjustments have been made to his model.•. Artemis◦. Transgressors Fate▪. The range at which Artemis can place traps has been increased from 10ft to 35ft.◦. Calydonian Boar▪. Artemis now moves 20% faster for 3 seconds after activation of this ability.•. Athena◦. Preemptive Strike▪. Fixed an issue where this ability could hit targets behind her.◦. Leaping Lunge▪. Can no longer fire when silenced.◦. Defender of Olympus▪. The visual presentation when targeting a friendly player has been improved.▪. If the targeted player uses a charge, Athena will no longer drop them as a target.▪. While using the Defender of Olympus, Athena continues to automatically update her location to her target until she physically lands.▪. If Athena's current target becomes invalid e.g from leaping, performing a special move, etc., but then valid again before she leaves the ground, she will travel to the target's location.•. Bakasura◦. Eat Minion▪. Fixed bug that allowed some ranks to deduct mana in some cases where a minion can’t be completely eaten.▪. Fixed issue with tooltip for Rank 1.•. Freya◦. Freya’s model has undergone modest visual improvements (textures only).•. Guan Yu◦. Taolu Assault▪. Fixed an issue where Taolu Assault would tick its damage an additional time.•. Hercules◦. Hercules basic attacks have been changed to a melee progression, where his attacks scale at 1/1/1.5x.•. Loki◦. Loki’s basic attacks now use a hit progression with a 1/.5/.5/.5/1.5x timing and damage scale◦. Loki’s model has undergone modest visual improvements.•. Neith◦. Broken Weave▪. The lifetime for the weaves has been reduced from 2 minutes to 1 minute.◦. World Weaver▪. The visual presentation when targeting an enemy player has been improved.▪. A confirmation sound now plays (only for Neith's player) when she successfully hits a target with her World Weaver.•. Poseidon◦. Whirlpool▪. Fixed an issue where the whirlpool would tick its damage an additional time.▪. Reduced pull-in value slightly•. Zeus◦. Zeus’s model has undergone visual improvements.And that’s it for this week’s patch notes. We’d love to hear your thoughts on how these changes will affect the coming weeks in competitive play, as well as the immediate play in both casual and competitive tournaments. Don’t’ forget to sign up for this week’s Casual Tournament with Denial eSports!