8.7 - Mid-Season | July 13, 2021

New God Skins

Eleven Scylla
Exclusive - Stranger Things Battle Pass
Hopper Apollo
Exclusive - Stranger Things Battle Pass
The Demogorgon Bakasura
Exclusive - Stranger Things Battle Pass
The Mind Flayer Sylvanus
Exclusive - Stranger Things Battle Pass
Starcourt Eleven Scylla
Exclusive - Stranger Things Battle Pass
Hopper, P.I. Apollo
Exclusive - Stranger Things Battle Pass
Hyperspace Loki
Exclusive - Court of Midnight
Crimson Magus Morgan Le Fay
Exclusive - Court of Midnight
Might of Neptune Poseidon
Unlimited - Court of Midnight
Sunny Side Up Bacchus
Exclusive - Brunch Time Chest
Doomsayer Sensei The Morrigan
Exclusive - Sensei Chest

New Voice Packs

Update Release Schedule

June 29 - 8.6 Bonus Update

More Details here.

July 13 – 8.7 MidSeason Update

Stranger Things Battle Pass
Court of Midnight Event
Brunch Time Chest
Sensei Chest

July 27 - 8.7 Bonus Part 1

Court of Midnight Event
Summertime Chest
From the Shadows Chest

August 10 - 8.7 Bonus Part 2

More details here.

Battle Pass

Stranger Things Battle Pass (750 Gems)

Stranger Things Battle Pass Plus (1350 Gems)

Paid Track Items:

Hopper Apollo Skin
Waffle Avatar
Hopper Announcer Pack
The Upside Down Loading Frame
The Upside Down Pedestal
The Demogorgon Bakasura Skin
The Mind Flayer Loading Screen
The Demogorgon Death Stamp
The Mini Demogorgon Ward
Nat 20 Global Emote
The Mindflayer Sylvanus Skin
Eleven Avatar
Waffle Ward
Neon Poster Level Up
Portal Entrance Jump Stamp
Hopper Avatar
Eleven Scylla Skin
…and more!

Prestige Track Items:

The Mindflayer Avatar
Ahoy! Avatar
Hopper Loading Screen
The Upside Down Avatar
Hopper, P.I. Apollo Skin
Eleven Loading Screen
Camp Know Where Cap Avatar
Baby Demogorgon Avatar
Starcourt Mall Avatar
The Demogorgon Loading Screen
Starcourt Eleven Scylla Skin
…and more!

Free Track Items:

The Demogorgon Avatar
RUN! Global Emote
Eleven Announcer Pack
The Mindflayer Title
Cutesy Avatar Chest
Battle Emote Chests
Battle Cosmetic Chest
Battle Avatar Chests
Boosters
…and more!

Quality of Life

Ranked

Ranked Reset for Masters/GM only

Players above Diamond 1 will be reset to Diamond 1.
Players above 2400 MMR will be reset to 2400 MMR.
Good luck to everyone on this split’s grind to Grandmasters!

Increased Ban Count from 5 to 6 per team in Duel.

Bug Fixes

UI

Fixed an issue where Role Queue lobbies had a chance to assign multiple players the same role
Fixed an issue where multiple Role trades could cause duplicate roles to be assigned

Gods

Sylvanus

Added a basic attack successful hit sound to all skins
Fixed an issue where plant deployable shadows could persist for longer than intended
Fixed multiple visual issues with Nature’s Grasp on all skins

Persephone

Allies will no longer see her minimap icon while she is in her dead passive state

Yemoja

Fixed issues where her Omi bar could display unintended information

Odin

Fixed an issue where the Birdbomb combo was not properly dealing damage (went live in previous hotfix)

Morgan Le Fay

Fixed an issue where her Basic Attack animations could get out of sync when she had high attack speed
Fixed an issue where she could get stuck in an unintended state when repeatedly targeting and cancelling her first ability
She can now use relics while in the targeting state of her first ability
Fixed an issue where enemies could be permanently slowed by her first ability.

There have been multiple hotfixes that resolved some cases this could occur.

Fixed an issue where her sword could disappear if basic attacking at the same time as casting her second ability
Adjusted the timing in which Arthurian Items trigger with her Ultimate
Fixed an issue where some of her abilities did not reflect the effect of CDR stats in the text only

Poseidon

Various visual FX updates have taken place across Poseidon’s abilities and his skins
Adjusted the visual FX on whirlpool for all skins to more clearly show the difference between warming-up and active states. And adjusted it across many skins to be more consistent in its visuals with base
Adjusted visual FX and Animation on Release the Kraken to make the Kraken emerging from the ground animation timed more closely with the damage and knockup, and adjusted it across multiple skins to be more consistent with base

Aphrodite

Fixed an issue where love birds would sometimes not hit enemies who were in the area and standing very close to Aphrodite

Chaac

Fixed an issue where his deployed rain area of effect could rarely persist much longer than intended

Gilgamesh

Fixed an issue where allies could be buffed from his 3rd ability for longer than intended

Loki

Adjusted the Flurry Strike ability text for grammar issues

Set

Adjusted the targeter on the close + skewer combo targeter to be more accurate in its hit area

Items

Seer of the Jungle

Fixed an issue where this item was not applying Bonus Damage to Jungle Bosses

Bumba's Spear

Fixed various issues where this item was not applying bonus damage or healing when killing jungle monsters, bosses, or structures
It should now we properly applying both Bonus Damage and Health on kill to all 3 categories of enemy targets

Infused Sigil

Fixed an issue where this items passive could not hit enemies if the owner was being pushed, pulled, grabbed, or knocked up while the effect triggered

Purification Beads

Fixed an issue where some gods would not be able to use beads immediately if they were CC’d while in the casting time certain abilities.

This only affects a small amount of abilities. Notably Zhong Kui’s Book of Demons and Chronos’ Stop Time.

Balance Live With the MidSeason Update

Game Modes

Conquest

The Ocean’s Fury Conquest Update has arrived!
A raging storm summoned by Tiamat culminates in a massive tidal wave washing over the lands between Olympus and Babylon. The skies clear, shining a light on the effects this event has had on the map. The storm has passed but the sea just outside the map still seems angry.
General Map Changes

We’re excited to present new areas, pathing, and points-of-interest to spice up this Conquest Refresh for Mid Season. Heavy layout changes for Duo-lane, including a new playable area, adds more geometry and NPCs to fight around. Solo-lane, which historically has had less points of interest than the other lanes, is getting contestable XP camps added into the mix. These sources of farm on the edges of the map encourage Junglers to make more rotations, increasing the benefit of successful ganks while reducing the amount of lost farm when the opportunity for a gank slips out of reach. With all of these new additions, Vine Walls have been removed to prevent any slowdown in rotations to each of the new map features.

Duo lane has a new side jungle area on the outside of the lane, as the landmark here was washed away by the wave
Duo lane Alpha Harpies have had their pathing adjusted and split into 2 Alpha Harpy spawns, one that favors each team
Solo lane has a new XP camp area, marked by a wrecked ship on the environment
Back harpy location on the Red Buff side have been adjusted to make room for a new camp
The maps lighting has been returned to its 8.1 state
Various sea life, puddles, and damage are scattered across the map
Vine Walls have been removed

New Objective – Draugr

The Draugr is a medium-tier objective with similar health and strength to the Greater Scorpions. Slaying it rewards your entire team with a nice Gold & XP injection, plus a long-lasting defensive buff to your Towers and Phoenixes. In the mid-game, this buff can help relieve pressure in a match that has veered out of your team’s control, allowing you to group up and make a stand at your towers more effectively. While not strong enough to be a direct counter to the Enhanced Fire Giant buff, teams on the defensive can race to grab this before preparing for a phoenix defense to help turn the tide of battle.

This aquatic entity has risen from the deep to challenge the gods. Slaying it grants your entire team Draugr’s Boon

Towers and Phoenixes receive a stacking buff of +7% increased Power and +5% Damage Mitigation for every allied God within their radius. Max 3 stacks. Lasts 240 seconds.

Spawns in the new Duo Lane side jungle area

Base

Health: 720
Power: 60
Physical Protection: 16
Magical Protection: 16
XP (Team): 30
Gold (Team): 35

Scaling (every 1 minute)

Health: +135
Physical Power: +2
Magical Power: +1
Physical Protection: +1.5
Magical Protection: +1
XP (Team): +1
Gold (Team): +1

New Jungle Buff – Support (Green)

Rejoice! Supports are getting their own buff! This aptly named Jungle Buff belt allows Supports to provide a direct benefit to their lane partners while sharing farm. Later in the game, being able to extend the lifetime of your allies’ Jungle Buffs during Fire Giant stand-offs becomes a decisive advantage. As a bonus, this buff also gives Supports that normally build tanky a nice boost to their sustainability. Also, you’ll never have to fear accidentally picking up Red while this buff is on you!

While wearing this, Jungle Buffs on nearby allied Gods will not expire. This effect does not apply to other Support Buffs. Also grants +50 maximum Health and Mana, plus an additional 30 for every 50 total protections on the wearer

Enhanced: Grants +10 HP5 and MP5

A Draugr minion holds this buff on the red camp side, just outside bases

Base

Health: 300
Physical Power: 15
Physical Protection: 9
Magical Protection: 2
XP: 35
Gold: 24

Scaling (every 3 minutes)

Health: +135
Physical Power: +4
Physical Protection: +2
Magical Protection: +1
XP: +9
Gold: +1.5

Balance

Adjustments to map balance were needed to counteract the removal of boots and the addition of several new Jungle objectives. Fire Giant, Furies, and Oracles have had their base stats increased to help account for the additional Penetration that Carries will receive earlier in their item builds. Small buffs were given to the rewards of both Scorpion types to make them more useful to take among an abundance of options in the Jungle. With new and major changes to the map, we will be keeping a close eye on balance and make any necessary adjustments as everyone gets their hands on this map.

Buffs

Enhanced Damage Buff

Increased Lifesteal bonus from +7% to +10%

Enhanced Speed Buff

Increased Movement Speed bonus from +5% to +7%

Enhanced Mana Buff

Increased Maximum Mana bonus from +10% to +15%

Fire Giant

Increased Max Health from 6300 to 6600
Increased Physical Protection from 110 to 120
Increased Magical Protection from 70 to 80

Gold/Primal/Oni Fury

Increased Max Health from 3250 to 3500
Increased Protections from 30 to 35

Oracle

Increased Max Health from 500 to 600

Lesser Scorpion

Increased Healing effect from 10 to 12 per tick
Base

Decreased Max Health from 450 to 390

Scaling

Decreased Max Health from +140 to +110

Alpha Harpy

Base

Decreased Max Health from 630 to 580
Decreased Physical Protection from 12 to 9
Decreased XP Reward from 71 to 38
Decreased Gold Reward from 28 to 24

Scailing

Decreased Max Health from +150 to +90

Other Modes

Classic Joust and Duel

While Animosity has become a prevalent upgrade that is difficult to build defensively against, Benevolence itself adds a lot of free reward for playing passively or even overtly reckless. These items made this starter tree overwhelmingly desirable, and have been banned from Joust and Duel. Also, the collision around Phoenix pedestals has been updated to allow projectiles to pass through. This matches the behavior in Conquest.

Once a Phoenix is slain, all ranged auto-attacks will now pass through its pedestal
The Benevolence starter item and both of its upgrades are now banned in these modes

Arena

Arena has a very aggressive yet delicate economy. Mid Season changes have given players extra Gold to spend, giving them a bit more time to play with expensive builds and upgraded starters. This is a fantastic side-effect, but a very precise XP boost was required to keep the XP curve in the same place relative to Gold. Thus, this spooling increase only applies to the 3 lowest XP members of each team.

This map has had a complete visual overhaul to match the theme of this Update’s Crossover: Stranger Things. The Greco-Roman Arena now lays in darkness, covered in otherworldly life as the gods battle through this parallel world known as “The Upside Down”.
The 3 lowest XP members of each team will now receive 1 extra bonus XP per second

Relics

Meditation Cloak (Rework)

Meditation and Neith, name a more iconic duo. Meditation has struggled to be taken seriously as a relic, offering easily countered healing and lacking in utility to compare against Shell or more purely defensive choices like Beads and Aegis. We are changing it from a single burst health to many pulses of healing that restore based on missing resources. This means its healing can be much higher and gives it a clear goal to shoot for to maximize its effect. It’s upgrade takes this a step further and reduces cooldowns of all nearby gods by 2.5s if they stay nearby, giving this much more utility than it previously provided.

Enter a meditative state where nearby allies gods within 50 units restore 8 + 5% of their Missing Health and Mana each tick. Heals occur once every second for 4s.
Cooldown : 160s

Meditation Cloak Upgrade (Rework)

Enter a meditative state where nearby allies gods within 50 units restore 8 + 5% of their Missing Health and Mana each pulse. Additionally each pulse reduces cooldowns for all abilities by 0.5s. Pulses occur once every second for 4s.
Cooldown : 160s

Sundering Spear (Rework)

Sundering Spear has seen some play but it struggled due to its variance. Unlike most relics this relic had a clear fail state which made it highly variable. Combined with the ability to 100% counter shields this relic had some wild swings. We are giving it two charges and toning down each individual component. Not only can you achieve slightly more by double casting this relic on a single target, gods now have the flexibility to spread out its effects and have a second shot to get some of the benefits on a pure miss.

Fire a bolt that travels 70 units, stopping on first god hit dealing 10% of their Current Health as True Damage and reducing any active shields by 50%. Targets hit take 10% increased damage for 5s, stacking 2 times. This relic has 2 charges.
Cooldown : 90s

Sundering Spear Upgrade (Rework)

Using this item fires a bolt that travels 70 units, stopping on first god hit dealing 15% of their Current Health as True Damage and reducing any active shields in by 75%. Targets hit take 10% increased damage for 5s, stacking 2 times. This relic has 2 charges.
Cooldown : 90s

Bracer of Undoing + Upgrade

Bracer of Undoing and the new Meditation overlapped in quite a few ways. We are removing this relic and making room for a new Bracer to take its spot.

Removed these relics from the game.

Bracer of Radiance (New Relic)

Bracer of Radiance is designed as a Support Relic to rival other utility relics like Girdle, Shell, Meditation, and Heavenly Agility. Bracer of Radiance allows you to create an area of safety and power for your team. This area will not only serve as a ward but boost players ability to fight or flee depending on their health. It’s upgrade further empowers Supports to control the area of the map by making the relic reveal wards in the area. A well placed Bracer of Radiance at Fire Giant can not only clear out enemy vision but boost your team’s ability to threaten taking the objective, putting pressure on your foes.

Place a radiant glow at a target location for 90s. Allies who move through this field gain 10% increased Power if above half health or 10% Movement Speed if below Half Health for 8s. This fragment acts as a ward. If destroyed the cooldown of the relic is reduced by 20s.
Cooldown : 100s

Bracer of Radiance Upgrade (Upgraded New Relic)

Place a radiant glow at a target location for 90s. Allies who move through this field gain 10% increased Power if above half health or 10% Movement Speed if below Half Health. This radiant glow acts as a Sentry Ward. If destroyed the cooldown of the relic is reduced by 20s.
Cooldown : 100s

Item Balance

Boots

Welcome to SMITE without boots! Boots have been in SMITE since its inception and served an important role. At the start of the game lower movement speed encourages laning and contributes much of the feel of the early game we are used to. This base speed however feels too slow when teammates need to begin rotating and grouping up. In come boots, a cheap and stat efficient way of gaining this speed and making the mid and late game rotation speed feel right. It comes with drawbacks however. First, these are required. Not building boots is a death sentence in many situations. Second, many of our modes don’t have the same considerations with keeping speed lower at the start of the game. Finally, this takes up an item slot which really limits item expression during the early and mid game.

With boots being removed players will now gain 18% Movement Speed over their first 7 levels. This pacing felt the most consistent with when players of all roles obtained boots and considers that players are gaining incremental speed with each level, rather than a sudden spike when they finish boots. This will change balance quite a lot. In our internal tests we have seen a large shakeup in builds and a lot of experimentation. Items that previously felt too slow to build or utility items that had to compete with getting boots online feel very different. This will affect power curves, which roles feel impactful, and at that time they feel impactful. We are excited for everyone to get their hands on this change and we will be ready to make any adjustments necessary as players explore this bootsless world

Removed this item and all boots upgrades from the game

Players in all modes now receive 18% Movement Speed (Boots Speed) over their first 7 levels

Shoes

Removed this item and all shoes upgrades from the game

Players in all modes now receive 18% Movement Speed (Shoes Speed) over their first 7 levels

Elixir of Speed

With boots and shoes gone this elixir doesn’t have much of a purpose anymore in freeing up that extra item slot.

Removed this elixir from the game

Enchanted Spear

Enchanted Spear and Heavy Mace were standouts from our initial testing. While we have our theories as to what is strong and what isn’t; we only wanted to adjust items we had strong feeling were going to be too strong or limit build options. With ~1500 gold freed up to spend items that are incredibly efficient such as Enchanted Spear and Heavy Mace with their 10 Penetration can create very early snowball opportunities. We are shifting their stats around, lowering their Penetration but providing some offset benefit in return.

Decreased Magical Penetration from 10 to 5
Increased Magical Power from 30 to 40

Heavy Mace

Decreased Physical Penetration from 10 to 5
Decreased Cost from 1500 to 1450

Brawler’s Beat Stick, Jotunn’s Wrath, and The Crusher should have their total costs unchanged

Ichaival

Ichaival, Mystical Mail, and Winged Blade fell into a similar boat as Enchanted Spear and Heavy Mace. Previously these items made you very difficult to fight but came at the cost of not rushing boots in the early game. This limited how useful these items could be. With that limitation gone we felt we needed to shift their strength around (or tone it back a notch) to ensure they didn’t become the only viable early option for Hunters, Solo Laners, and Supports.

Decreased Attack Speed Reduction from 10% to 7% per stack.
Increased Physical Power from 30 to 35

Mystical Mail

Changed Passive damage from 40 to 30 (+1 Per Level)

Winged Blade

Decreased Crowd Control Reduction from 20% to 10%

Staff of Myrddin (Rework)

Staff of Myrddin is receiving a rework. The previous version had some un-intuitive interactions and struggled to find use on all but a few gods. The fantasy of the item is to be a spell slinging, cheating the cooldown system. This is something we wanted to preserve with the rework.

The new Staff of Myrddin will trigger like all Arthurian items do but will now provide 80% Uncapped Cooldown Reduction for a small window. Rather than affecting only a single ability you can use your full rotation and, if done quick enough before it decays, get a second rotation during a teamfight. We feel this rework will not only be more applicable on most gods, but remove many of the unintuitive interactions with the previous version of Staff of Myrddin.

Decreased Magical Power from 110 to 95
NEW PASSIVE – When your ultimate ability has finished casting you gain Myrddin’s Brilliance which provides 80% Uncapped Cooldown Reduction, decaying to 40% Uncapped Cooldown Reduction over 7s. Uncapped Cooldown Reduction overrides normal Cooldown Reduction. At the end of the 7s you lose Myrddin’s Brilliance. This can only occur once every 45s.

War Flag (Rework)

War Flag struggled to see play in Conquest, lacking the economic reward needed for supports. The items identity was to offset the need for economy with early lane aggression but even in that situation it fell short in Conquest. Now when you have obtained enough stacks of War Flag, each of your damaging abilities and Basic Attacks will pulse a strong heal on your allies and provide you with gold. This reinforces the items identity as the aggressive support option while giving it what it needs to succeed in Conquest.

NEW PASSIVE – Getting an assist when an enemy dies provides a stack that gives 1% Movement Speed and 2% Attack Speed for 8s to nearby allies up to 10 stacks. While at or above 4 stacks each time you damage an enemy god you restore 15 Health and Mana to nearby allies within 55 units and you gain 8 gold.

Spartan Flag (Rework)

The upgrade mirrors the change to War Flag, but successful hits allow you to extend the buff in addition to restoring health. Skilled supports can not only provide a burst in speed and Attack Speed, but if they can find opportunities to fight enemy gods they can bring this into a tower siege, a phoenix siege, and even when they try to end the game.

NEW PASSIVE – Getting an assist for an enemy dying provides a stack that provides 2% Movement Speed and 4% Attack Speed for 8s to nearby allies up to 10 stacks. While at or above 4 stacks each time you damage an enemy god you restore 1.25% Health and 1.25% Mana to nearby allies within 55 units and refresh the duration of these stacks.

Corrupted Bluestone (Rework)

Corrupted Bluestone was intentionally a weird upgrade, asking ability gods to pivot towards an Attack Speed build right at the very end. It turns out this was just too weird, only seeing use in very limited capacity. We are simplifying its rules and shifting around what it provides to be more all around for Warriors. It still focuses on pivoting your build but the shift is much less severe and provides more general protection that Warriors need to fight.

Decreased Physical Power from 60 to 50
Now provides 150 Health
Will now provide its stacking benefit for applying Corruption, rather than actively tracking how many applications of Corruption are active. This stacking benefit now lasts for 6s.
Decreased Attack Speed provided per stack from 15% to 10%
Stacks now provide 4% increased Protections

Death's Toll (Starter)

These next few changes are focused around Basic Attack Warriors who have struggled to fight against the Bluestone Warrior meta. Death’s Toll in particular should provide strong sustain and boxing power to gods like Osiris and Bellona but the cleave sustain was too low. We are boosting it for Melee cleaves specifically to help provide additional sustain for gods who need to fight in the thick of a wave to sustain.

Increased the heal on melee cleave Basic Attack hits from 50% to 75%

Ranged cleave basic attack hits remain at 50%

Death's Embrace (Upgrade)

Increased the heal on melee cleave Basic Attack hits from 50% to 75%

Ranged cleave basic attack hits remain at 50%

Berserker's Shield

Berserker’s Shield is receiving a unique change we have avoided doing for a long time. The idea of class restricting items often is a last resort or limited to trees where that is the core identity of the tree. In most cases we have been able to balance and tune bruiser items to work but Berserker’s Shield offered just the right stats that it had to be tuned down so much that Assassins and Warriors could not use it due to Hunters ability to leverage those stats.

This is something we don’t plan to do more in the future as most other cases have ways they can be adjusted in case one role is using an item that limits it for other roles. With this class locking we are boosting the Attack Speed and Physical Protection this item provides to better work with Basic Attack Warriors or Assassin’s looking for some extra tankiness.

This item can only be built by Assassins and Warriors
Increased Attack Speed from 15% to 25%
Increased Physical Protection from 20 to 35

Shogun's Kusari

Shogun’s Kusari provides strong team utility but it is difficult to build. The lack of raw health made it difficult for Supports to purchase and even for Basic Attack warriors looking for some extra Magical Protections it struggled to bring enough to feel worth the tradeoff. Replacing the Crowd Control Reduction with Health and a bump to the Aura’s strength should make this feel like a more viable choice for Supports and Warriors alike.

No longer provides Crowd Control Reduction
Now provides 150 Health
Increased Attack Speed Aura from 25% to 30%

Serrated Edge

Serrated Edge made a big impact when we first launched it but quickly fell after a round of nerfs. A bump to its Physical Power should round it out as a powerful offensive choice.

Increased Physical Power from 25 to 35

Manikin Scepter (Starter)

Manikin Scepter has not delivered on being a viable option for Junglers looking for some extra aggression in ganking. Specifically the lack of sustain, its lack of enough clear speed, and it struggling to really be felt as a boost to your lethality all came together to create this feeling. We are adjusting it quite heavily to address all of these and make it better compare to Bumba’s Spear and Eye of the Jungle. Its damage over time not only reaches maximum strength more quickly, but it now scales with your power. Similarly, the heal upon defeating a Jungle Monster scales off your health and mana, making it relevant past your first clear.

Increased burn Physical Damage from 12 over 2s to 16 (+5% of your Physical and Magical Power) over 2s
Decreased the amount of stacks from 4 to 3
Increased Health Restored from 15 to 3% of your Max Health
Increased Mana Restored from 15 to 5% of your Max Mana

Manikin Mace (Upgrade)

Increased Health Restored from 2.5% to 3% of your Max Health
Increased Mana Restored from 2.5% to 5% of your Max Health

Sentinel's Gift (Starter)

Sentinel’s Gift and Benevolence walk a fine line with each other but as Season 8 has progressed Benevolence has become the go to. We are boosting Sentinel’s Gift’s strength to further differentiate the two items. With an even lower cost and some raw protections, players with Sentinel’s should feel more comfortable pushing against Benevolence at its weakest point; the beginning of the game.

Decreased Cost from 600 to 550
Increased Both Magical and Physical protections from 7 to 10

Conduit Gem (Starter)

Conduit Gem is gaining some additional mana to better support other Mage builds. Specifically the lack of a Mana providing starter weakened Book of Thoth and Book of the Dead builds; leaving those items to live only when Book of Thoth can be safely rushed. With the removal of boots we expect some pretty serious shake ups with what can be started and rushed and felt a little mana here could ease this shakeup some.

Now provides 100 mana

Vampiric Shroud (Starter)

Vampiric Shroud struggles to compete even where it would be expected to be strong; with Brusier Mages. Rather than bringing up power more to compete with Conduit Gem and Sands of Time we want to highlight its unique strength as a defensive option. A boost here should help it stand out as an option when a mage is particularly worried about early physical aggression.

Increased Health from 75 to 100
Increased Physical Protection from 10 to 15

Blood-soaked Shroud (Upgrade)

This upgrade had an identity that fought with itself. This was the tanky option but encourages heavy lifesteal builds which scale their healing off damage. This made it lackluster for damage dealers who would simply go Sacrificial Shroud and lackluster for bruisers who didn’t benefit enough. We are removing the stacking lifesteal and making this item more focused as a direct upgrade to Vampiric Shroud for Bruisers.

Increased Physical Protection from 40 to 55
Increased Health restore from 12 to 2% Max health
Increased Mana restore from 6 to 2% Max Health
Removed the Bonus stacking Lifesteal from this item’s passive

Sacrificial Shroud (Upgrade)

Sacrificial Shroud promises heavy damage at a cost, but the damage tradeoff didn’t feel quite there for most players. Some extra Magical Power will help this item stand out as a potent damage option.

Increased Magical Power from 100 to 115

Warrior's Axe (Starter)

Warrior’s Axe has been mostly overshadowed by Bluestone Pendant in recent play. Since our last nerf on Bluestone Pendant we saw some use of Warrior’s Axe but it still struggled. Looking at the current Bluestone Pendant we feel its overall power is where it should be and rather than nerfing it we need to bring other starts that compete with it up. Warrior’s Axe will now not only steal health more effectively at the start but will now scale over the laning phase and game. Gods who feel like they can win trades should feel rewarded for playing into this trading playstyle in between clearing the wave.

Increased Passive Bonus Damage and Health Steal from 30 to 35 (+1 per level)

Atalanta's Bow

Atalanta’s Bow is getting an extra bump in power, letting it flex more into Hunter builds as an option.

Increased Power from 35 to 40

Leather Cowl (Starter)

Leather Cowl is an all around starter but with no mana sustain it can be difficult to utilize at the start of the game. Some extra MP5 should help it compete as an option with Death’s Toll, Gilded Arrow, and Bluestone.

Now provides 7 MP5

Hunter's Cowl (Upgrade)

Now provides 15 MP5

Warding Sigil (Upgrade)

Warding Sigil is a strong defensive choice but doesn’t quite offer anything else to help in the early game. Freeing up some gold in the early game to pair this with what you need in the early game should help it find a spot more often.

Decreased Cost from 700 to 600

Tainted Steel (Starter)

Tainted Steel is seeing quite the change. While minor anti-heal can be impactful in some matchups, it doesn’t really help you personally in ways you would expect a starter to. We are now letting it steal healing like Tainted Amulet does, giving it something more direct to feel in the laning phase.

Decreased Healing Reduction from 20% to 15%
You are now healed for 100% of the healing reduced

Tainted Amulet (Upgrade)

Tainted Amulet and Breastplate struggled to see play largely because it only made sense in matchups where you could justify Tainted Steel. Upon looking at it closer even with Tainted Steel being a more attractive choice Tainted Amulet and Breastplate don’t quite stand on their own as potent end game starter upgrade. We are boosting both these items to make sure this feels rewarding in matchups where they make sense.

Increased Healing Reduction from 20% to 30%

Tainted Breastplate (Upgrade)

Increased Physical Power from 40 to 50
Increased Magical Power from 60 to 75

Jade Emperor's Crown

Jade Emperor’s Crown can be a potent counter to high Physical Power teams but it lacked enough personal stats for the wearer to feel tanky enough. Some extra help with make this team utility choice feel better to buy for the wearer.

Increased Health from 150 to 200

Tyrannical Plate Helm

Tyrannical Plate Helm boosts a specific game plan but its high cost makes it a difficult game plan to go all in on. A lower cost removes some of the friction in building this item and frees up some gold for Supports who go this route.

Decreased Cost from 2600 to 2400

God Balance

God Balance in Mid Season is really focused around bringing up gods that have struggled since the start of Season 8. We took a look at all our metrics, Win Rate, Pick Rate, Ban Rate, SPL Performance, Ranked Performance, Casual Performance, and general sentiment to create a list of gods that struggled in most of these metrics. Boots removal will change things a ton, item balance and relic reworks will change things a ton, but we want to make sure these gods don’t need to wait for how things shake up to get some love.

Amaterasu

Reflecting upon Amaterasu’s balance we saw her be a strong Warrior towards the end of Season 7, needing multiple nerfs. Since Season 8 however she has not shone with the same brilliance and is in need of some buffs. Heavenly Reflection will now charge more quickly and reliably, helping Amaterasu get her damage out more quickly during teamfights and while laning. Additionally we are reverting the nerf we did in late Season 7 to her Dazzling Offensive.

Heavenly Reflection

Increased Charge Rate from taking damage from 4 to 4.5
Increased Charge Gained from hitting an enemy from 0.15 to 0.2

This means Amaterasu will gain charge on Heavenly Reflection more quickly for taking damage and for each enemy she hits

Dazzling Offensive

Increased Base Damage from 80/120/160/200/240 to 80/125/170/215/260

Artemis

Artemis often feels like the hunted rather than the huntress. We want to improve her tools that put her on the offensive so she can feel safer putting on the pressure. Transgressor’s Fate can be a really solid follow up to CC or emergency safety. It will now be available more often and a boost to its damage can let her turn on foes who get caught. Vengeful Assault will also give some extra speed to flee or follow and is also getting a cooldown reduction to lower her downtime.

Transgressor's Fate

Increased Base Damage from 25/40/55/70/85 to 35/48/61/74/87
Decreased Cooldown from 18/16/14/12/10s to 14/13/12/11/10s

Vengeful Assault

Increased Movement Speed from 20% to 25%
Decreased Cooldown from 18/17/16/15/14s to 16/15.5/15/14.5/14

Baba Yaga

More buffs are brewing for Baba. We are blasting off some cooldown on Blast Off while making her Ultimate a better defensive tool when she is under pressure. Some extra Shield Health combined with a stronger knockback will give her the space to unleash a volley of Witchfire on her foes.

Blast Off

Decreased cooldown from 16 to 14.

Home Sweet Home

Increased Shield Health scaling from 15% to 25%
Increased Knockback Strength from 330 to 400

Baron Samedi

Who wouldn’t invite Baron to the Mid Season party? Baron Samedi is gaining a boost to his utility rather than raw damage. Hysteria from Basic Attacks is getting a substantial boost while a double hit from Vivid Gaze will now automatically apply its debuff, even if the target is at 0 Hysteria. Consign Spirits is also seeing a cooldown reduction. These changes help both Mid Baron Samedi in gaining some extra safety and more frequent wave clear while Support Baron Samedi has more freedom to play with applying Hysteria for maximum effect.

Hysteria

Increased Hysteria applied from Basic Attacks from 2 to 5

Vivid Gaze

Increased Hysteria applied from 10 to 15 per hit
Added Power Debuff duration to the description (3/3.5/4/4.5/5s)

Consign Spirits

Decreased Cooldown from 15/14/13/12/11 to 13/12.5/12/11.5/11

Da Ji

Da Ji hasn’t quite clawed her way into the Meta. While there was a lot of talk about her being stronger with Shell losing its block stacks we didn’t quite see that play out. One Thousand Cuts is her primary clear ability but it has a large cooldown as it doesn’t go on cooldown until it finishes casting. Lowering this cooldown will bring it closer to other Assassins and their clear speed in the Jungle.

One Thousand Cuts

Decreased Cooldown from 13s to 11s

Freya

Freya has seen a recent spike with the Mage ADC itemization but she still struggles. One aspect that holds her back is her early laning phase and the demand on her mana. Reducing these costs should help her out in a way that doesn’t directly increase her hyper carry playstyle.

Irradiate

Decreased Mana Cost from 60/80 to 45/65

Pulse

Decreased Mana Cost from 60/80 to 45/65

Hachiman

Hachiman is definitely showing why he is a Master of Arms and the Lord of the Eight Banners. Eagle Eye will now fire 4 shots consistently, giving him some extra trading power in the early game. Heavenly Banner is also getting some buffs, scaling better with Hachiman’s power and providing extra utility to him and his team when fighting around the banner.

Eagle Eye

Increased Ammo count from 3/3/4/4/4 to 4 at all ranks
Decreased Cooldown from 12 to 12/11.5/11/10.5/10
Decreased Mana Cost from 50/60/70/80/90 to 50 at all ranks

Heavenly Banner

Increased Physical Power Scaling from 45 to 55%
Increased Attack Speed from 5/7.5/10/12.5/15% to 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%.

Hades

Hades wants to get into the thick of a fight to Devour Souls and pull enemies in with Pillar of Agony. Our goals here are to reward Hades for doing just that. Devour Souls having a reduced cooldown will allow Hades more frequent opportunities to restore health and burst enemies which helps Hades during all stages of the game. In teamfights Hades will now gain reduced cooldowns for each enemy hit with Pillar of Agony, allowing him to engage, use Pillar of Agony, and continue the pressure much more quickly.

Devour Souls

Decreased Cooldown from 11s to 10s

Piller of Agony

When Pillar of Agony damages an enemy all of Hades’ other abilities have their cooldown reduced by 0.2s

He Bo

He Bo is known for his burst but he has been struggling to make a splash. Finding the right point for his early game strength compared to his late game burst is a fine line but he is currently on the weak side. A boost to Water Cannons early game base damage will help him clear and compete with other mages.

Water Cannon

Increased Base Damage from 60/110/160/210/260 to 80/125/170/215/260

Hel

Mid Season came with a large change to healers overall. Since then things have settled down and Hel has felt underwhelming for some time. We want to increase her ability to trade and burst her opponents rather than boost her sustain as a way to bring her back.

Decay

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 60%
Decreased Mana Cost from 55/60/65/70/75 to 45/50/55/60/65

Restoration

Decreased Mana Cost from 55/60/65/70/75 to 45/50/55/60/65

Repulse

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 75%

Hera

Argus is getting a tune up for Mid Season. Argus has high impact when he first lands in a fight, but in later stages of the game his output for how quickly he can die feels mismatched. Rather than boosting his tankiness we want his attacks to feel more impactful. Additional Royal Assaults fist damage is getting a solid base damage bump, helping Hera clear and burst enemies down with a strong combo.

Commanding Presence

Increased Magical Power Scaling on Argus’ First Hit from 30 to 35%
Increased Magical Power Scaling on Argus’ Second Hit from 30 to 35%
Increased Magical Power Scaling on Argus’ Third Hit from 40 to 45%

Royal Assault

Increased fist damage from 80/130/180/230/280 to 80/135/190/245/300

Jormungandr

The cycle continues with another Jormungandr change! Jormungandr has struggled to find a spot supporting his allies and being a bruiser for his team. His breath is now more corrosive, getting a nice burst in base damage while Submerge gets a solid boost to its Movement Speed, letting him chase down his enemies.

General

Increased Basic Attack damage from 9.6 to 10.4.

Submerge

Increased Movement Speed from 25% to 35%

Kali

The Goddess of Destruction lives up to her name in the late game but she struggles to get there at the start. High mana costs combined with limited gank burst damage make it hard for her to compete against other junglers. Alleviating but not removing something of these early limitations should help her reach the later stages of the game.

General

Increased Base Mana from 205 to 225

Nimble Strike

Decreased Mana Cost from 70 to 60

Lash

Increased Blade Damage from 35/45/55/65/75 to 37/49/61/73/85

Total increased from 105/135/165/195/225 to 111/147/183/219/255

Incense

Decreased Mana Cost from 70 to 60

Mulan

Mulan wants to master her arsenal to overpower her opponents in the late game, but she isn’t quite getting to that point. Improving her base health is a start, but extra scaling on Cross Strike with some bonus Protections on the Mastery and base hit of Grapple will round out that late game and let her brawl with the rest of the gods.

General

Increased Base Health from 480 to 490
Increased Base Health per level from 82 to 84

Cross Strike

Increased Physical Power Scaling per hit from 30% to 35%

Total increased from 30/60/90% to 35/70/105%

Grapple

Now provides 5% Protections in addition to the Movement Speed when mastered.
Increased Grapple Protections from 20/25/30/35/40 to 25/30/35/40/45

Nox

Minions beware! Nox’s unique playstyle focuses on locking down her opponents, winding up big burst windows, and disrupting enemies’ plans. These work great in non-conquest modes where she sees significant success but conquest is a different story. This was helped when we added damage on Shadow Lock, augmenting her clear, but we were overly cautious with the numbers we chose. A boost to this should further round her out for Conquest.

Shadow Lock

Increased minion damage from 50/85/120/155/190 to 50/90/130/170/210
Increased minion damage scaling from 40% to 50%

Odin

Odin has been in an interesting spot since his rework. He released quite strong seeing a slew of nerfs, but over time it has become clear the nerfs went too far. Some of the ones that hit him the hardest were around his main ability cooldowns and Gungnir’s Might overall damage. We are reverting some of these to find a solid middle ground for the god.

Lunge

Decreased Cooldown from 16/15/14/13/12s to 15/14/13/12/11s

Raven Shout

Decreased Cooldown from 16/15/14/13/12s to 15/14/13/12/11s

Gungnir's Might

Increased Physical Power Scaling Throw Damage from 50% to 60%

Olorun

Magical ADCs were a group that we watched very closely with recent buffs. While some of them underperformed, Olorun underperformed the most. Looking at the aftermath of the ring buffs we saw a large rise in all Mage ADCs except Olorun who hardly moved. It is clear he needs some additional buffs. Overflowing Divinity now scales better with his Magical Power while early game Sanctified Field has a reduced cooldown, giving him some extra safety he didn’t have access to. The final change is a fix to make his ultimate interactions more consistent and expected. Currently, enemy CC applied to him is lengthened due to how Time Dilation interacts with him. This 40% CCR functionally removes these unintuitive interactions and brings CC effects into more neutral territory rather than being extra punishing to Olorun.

Overflowing Divinity

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 15% to 25%

Sanctified Field

Decreased Cooldown from 140/130/120/110/100 to 120/115/110/105/100
Olorun now gains 40% Crowd Control Reduction while in this area

Ratatoskr

Ratatoskr’s Acorns replace boots in his build, which means he need special consideration when we decided to remove boots. His acorns allowed him to move slightly faster than everyone on the map while offering him flexibility. We adjusted the speed values so this remains and feels potent enough to feel good about buying these acorns while other gods have different options opened up to them earlier.

Acorn of Yggdrasil

Magic Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 8% to 2%

Lively Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 10% to 4%

Nettle Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 10% to 4%

Thickbark Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 20% to 6%

Bristlebush Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 20% to 6%

Thistlethorn Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 20% to 6%

Evergreen Acorn

Decreased Movement Speed from 20% to 6%

Susano

Susano and Terra are gaining a similar change that Scylla received some time ago. Typhoon and Crushing Earth are abilities that can be refired and do not disappear upon the death of the god. Since both those conditions are the case we want to make sure those gods can finish what they were attempting to do at the time of death.

Typhoon

Susano can now refire Typhoon while dead

Terra

Crushing Earth

Terra can now refire Crushing Earth while dead

Thor

Thor has strong potential as shown by the many times he has been a prominent pick. He has however not hit that mark in Season 8. We are boosting his ability to generate power with his Passive while fighting by increasing its range and giving Anvil of Dawn just that little extra to let him coming crashing down on his opponents.

Warrior's Madness

Increased Radius from 30 to 55 units

Anvil of Dawn

Increased Physical Power Scaling from 90% to 100%

Thoth

The arbiter of the damned is getting a boost to his Hieroglyphs, putting some extra threat into is primary artillery mage ability.

Hieroglyphic Assault

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 20% to 25%

Tiamat

Tiamat is the only nerf on this list, receiving a change focused at adjusting a high level concern. Summon Serpents should be a powerful tool for pushing up and lane and creating pressure. This pressure however shouldn’t be enough on its own to topple your bases primary defenses but rather open up your team to find opportunities to push. Serpents will now die when attacking a Phoenix or Titan twice, making them unable to take these objectives on their own without assistance from a god or a particularly beefy wave of Oni minions. Summon Beasts is also seeing a reduction in lifetime, lowering Tiamats ability to zone control for extended periods of time.

Summon Serpents

When Serpents damage a Phoenix or a Titan they take 1 pip of health in damage

Summon Beast

Decreased Lifetime from 30s to 15s

Yemoja

We made it to the end of the Patch Notes! Congratulations for reading this far, but we got one more to go and it is definitely a big one. Yemoja’s Omi casting system brought a unique style of casting to SMITE but has left Yemoja in an interesting balance state. Her overall performance is very low but she is consistently among the highest banned gods in Ranked and in SPL. We are looking to make adjustments to alleviate some of the strength that pushes her to be a top SPL contender but bring up other aspects that will help her in overall play.

First up, Omi. Omi requires a very specific build that when optimized allows Yemoja to spike in efficiency. We are removing the mana conversion to Omi, instead letting her gain Omi at a set rate and converting that mana to health in a similar way to Cu Chulainn.

Second, Bouncing Bubble and Moonstrike. During her ultimate especially Yemoja is very flexible in being able to support her team and heavily disrupt the enemy team with a volley of slows and stuns. Bouncing Bubble especially has a very quick follow up into Moonstike and these can be paired back to back very quickly. We are adding some postfire to Bouncing Bubble to better match her animations and adding a build in delay when heavy spamming of her first ability takes place. Enemies will have some extra breathing room due to this and an increased cooldown on River’s Rebuke.

To offset this Bouncing Bubble is getting a solid bump to its base damage which will especially help her in lane and during early rotations. This combined with some extra flexibility on her build path will hopefully help her perform at all levels while high level players have more opportunity to play against this fluid goddess.

Omi

Yemoja no longer needs to gain Mana or MP5 to obtain extra Omi. She instead gains 1 Omi at levels 6, 11, and 16
Mana and MP5 are now converted to health at a rate of 20%

Bouncing Bubble/Moonstrike

There is now a small delay when attempting to spam these abilities back to back to back. For example, if you use Bouncing Bubble into Moonstrike as fast as possible, there is no delay. If you then attempt to use Bouncing Bubble again as fast as possible there is a small delay.

Bouncing Bubble

Increased Base Damage from 30/65/100/135/170 to 40/75/110/145/180
Increased Postfire from 0.3s to 0.43s

River's Rebuke

Increased Cooldown from 110s to 120s

POST-PTS BALANCE

Staff of Myrddin

The new Staff Of Myrddin has definitely resulted in some quick ability casting! We are going to reduce some of its raw effectiveness to bring it into a better spot for live. A small power reduction combined with a quicker decaying a lower amount of Uncapped CDR should make this item feel closer in balance to old Staff of Myrddin, allowing you to get one or two spells back quickly, not multiple rotations.

Decreased Magical Power from 95 to 85.
Decreased Uncapped CDR provided from 80% to 70%.
Decreased time to decay from 7s to 4s.

Sundering Spear

Sundering Spear is another of the top performers from PTS, taking an already powerful relic and adding consistency to its list of strengths. While each individual bolt is less effective, the reduction in cooldown and potency of the damage amplification was a step too far in attempting to compensate. We are increasing the cooldown back to match live Sundering Spear and toning down its power when not upgraded.

Increase cooldown from 90 to 110
Decrease stacking damage increase from 7% to 5%.

Sundering Spear Upgrade

Increase cooldown from 90 to 110

Transcendence

Transcendence (and Stone Cutting Sword) both stood out in PTS as items that when rushed provide a huge spike in power that are difficult to counter. We adjusted a few of these items already but wanted to add these to the list. Our goal is to bring down their strengths to ensure there is strong item diversity at launch but not to overdo it before we see what they can do. If these items need further adjustments (up or down) we will once players get their hands on shaping the item meta.

Increased Cost 2450 to 2600 (reverting a buff from 8.6)

Stone Cutting Sword

Decreased cost from 2350 to 2250
Decreased Protection Debuff from 10 to 7 per stack
Increased Protection Buff from 10 to 7 per stack

War Flag/Banner

War Flag’s description was unclear with how it interacted with multiple War Flags, creating ambiguity as to whether stacks gained from another player contributed towards you being ‘at or above 4’. The passive component of getting health, mana, and gold will only trigger when you have gotten 4 or more stacks from Assists, not from another War Flag user.

Updated the description to better reflect how this functions when multiple War Flags/Banners are stacked.

How exactly do we get 18% Movement Speed by level 7?

One thing we were not super clear about was how exactly the Movement Speed per level worked. Some players thought you got 18% for hitting level 7, with no in-between amount, while others thought it might be a strange formula. Sorry for the confusion but here is explicitly how it works!

Players at level 1 will have +0% Movement Speed.
Players at level 2 will have +3% Movement Speed.
Players at level 3 will have +6% Movement Speed.
Players at level 4 will have +9% Movement Speed.
Players at level 5 will have +12% Movement Speed.
Players at level 6 will have +15% Movement Speed.
Players at level 7 will have +18% Movement Speed.
Players at level 8 through 20 will have +18% Movement Speed.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is getting an additional nerf. While we expect the Bonus Balance to be a step in the right direction we feel due to his overall performance he needs some more. One thing that stood out is how powerful Winds of Shamash can be at splitting the enemy team on initial cast and how punishing the final root/cripple can be for those who choose to stick it out and fight. An adjustment here should give more flexibility in how teams choose to fight around the Winds of Shamash.

Winds of Shamash

Decreased Initial Slow from 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% to 20% at all ranks
The Root at the end of the ultimate no longer cripples

Source

SMITE Version 8.7.6665.1