Honestly, this week’s patch has been the first one I’ve been the most happy with since back in November.
Neith is one of the most balanced gods right at release – from what I’ve seen. She doesn’t do too much damage, and she’s about as easy to kill as other gods, even with all her utility. Focus is gone, with it’s somewhat clunky mechanic that was changed almost 3 times before being removed.
Along with Focus being removed, every god had a pass through by the designers to re-assign static values for stuns, slows, damage, speed increases, etc. that used to be scaled by Focus. The lengthy list is below, along with Neith’s God Reveal video, her abilities, and the generic balance changes.
Things of note to me were:
- Hel’s abilities share half the CD time in both stances now (Her 1 in Healing Stance is used, both her Healing Stance and Damage Stance go on CD, with Damage Stance only being on CD for 1/2 the time)
- Hercules’ “Earthbreaker” (knockback) ability had the length of its range reduced by about 10ft.
- New Solo Practice Map for Arena: Ymir, Artemis, Ra, vs. Ymir, Artemis, and whomever you choose.
- Advanced Tooltips have been added for abilities now.
- and again, Focus has been removed.
PASSIVE (Broken Weave): A Broken Weave appears at the last location that each enemy god dies. The Broken Weaves give Neith minimap visibility and her abilities have secondary effects when used on the Broken Weaves. These weaves last for 2 minutes.
Spirit Arrow: Neith fires a shot through the world weave that passes through everything, dealing 80/140/200/260/320 (+80% of your physical power) physical damage and rooting the first target for 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2 seconds. Successive enemies hit take 75% of the damage and root duration. If it hits a Broken Weave, the Weave detonates, dealing an additional 100% of the damage and applying the root to all enemies in the area. Cost – 60/65/70/75/80 mana. Cooldown – 15s.
Unravel: Neith neatly unravels the world weaves, damaging all enemies in the target area for 70/100/130/160/190 (+80% of your physical power), reducing their attack speed by 30% for 2s, and healing Neith 20/40/60/80/100 for each enemy hit, up to 3. Any Broken Weaves in the area are removed, healing Neith an additional 60/80/100/120/140. Cost – 70 mana. Cooldown – 15s.
Back Flip: Neith back flips through the air, creating a Broken Weave as she leaps while damaging enemies in a narrow cone in front of her for 60/100/140/180/220 (+80% of your physical power), slowing them by 25% for 2.5/3/3.5/4/4.5s. Cost – 70/75/80/85/90 mana. Cooldown – 10s.
World Weaver: Neith charges up and fires an arrow across the entire world, seeking its target and passing through all obstacles. Enemy gods are hit for 230/295/360/425/490 (+120% of your physical power) and are stunned for 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s where Broken Weaves that are hit will apply the same effects to everyone in the area. The arrow can be fired quicker for diminished results. Cost – 80/90/100/110/120 mana. Cooldown – 90s.
New Skins
- Sacred Dragon (Ao Kuang)
- Loverboy (Cupid)
- Mischievous (Neith)
General
- New functionality has been added under the TV menu. From this new section, players can watch the top Smite streamers on Twitch.TV, as well as play demo recording from recently concluded top matches.
- When creating a Challenge Match, players are now presented with additional setup options, including Region, God Pick Mode, Starting Level, Starting Gold and whether or not to require all members from a joining party to be on the same Team. You may also choose to have players pick by the order in which their party was formed, instead of their Ranking.
- Buy what the top players build: A new tab has been added to the in-game item store. The “Popular” tab shows the Top 10 items used for a given god in the last 7 days by the Top 200 Smite players.
- A “Solo Arena Practice” mode has been added under the PRACTICE tab on the PLAY menu. This mode allows a single player to play in an Arena Deathmatch mode, with 2 friendly AI bots on his team versus 3 enemy bots. At present, the bots are Ra, Artemis and Ymir. Future versions will improve upon and advance this mode.
- In Arena, once a team’s score reaches 10 points, non-gladiator minion kills against that team will no longer deduct a point. Points will continue to deduct normally for all minions who enter the enemy gates. Gladiator kills continue to deduct points. The intent is to put a higher premium on God kills during the ending phase of Arena matches, giving more chances for a “comeback”.
- The towers in the Conquest map have undergone visual modifications.
- The hit reactions that play when minions take damage from auto-attacks have undergone changes.
- While stunned or silenced, your ability bar will now do a better job of indicating that your abilities are unusable.
- When mousing over god thumbnails and portraits in the Match Lobby, you now see tooltips with additional information on the gods.
- The tooltips in the in-match HUD while in free-mouse mode have undergone improvements and provide more information presented in a clearer format. You may also review your god’s passive by mousing over the portrait of the god on the HUD.
- On the Home Screen, the New God and God Rotation widgets now have improved tooltips, showing you stats on the gods. Left-click on the god icon to view additional information.
- Map pinging is now allowed only within the playable boundaries of the map.
- Fixed an issue in which some tooltips in the in-match HUD (when in mouse-free mode) would not appear correctly at lower resolutions.
- Some minor cleanups and bug fixes have been made to the Party Management screen.
- Sounds heard through walls now attenuate much more aggressively.
- Added Tower Kills and Healing Points to the end of match lobby stats screen.
- Minor visual modifications have been made to the login process, preventing users from spamming the login button.
- Players may now change the volume for the Out of Match Notifier popup from inside the game on the Audio tab in the Settings menu (previously, the volume could only be changed through the options menu on the game launcher).
- The in-match chat now makes it easier to whisper to another player, reply to someone that has whispered to you, or chat with your Team (Clan).
- Fixed exploit with the console command “suicide”
- Added new all random MOTD support
Spectator Changes
- Added a rewind point early in the match time. Depending on when players load in, the first rewind point should be between 0-10 seconds.
- Fixed some bugs where party-spectating could get out of sync after the party leader rewinds when paused.
- If playback is greater than 1x speed, after a rewind, the playback speed will reset to 1x.
- Improved smoothness of the character movement.
- Clicking the minimap outside of the playable area no longer moves the spectator camera outside of the map.
- Fixed an issue where the targeting beam from a structure could get stuck on after rewinding.
- Fixed an issue where the viewpoint could thrash while playing the end sequence of a minotaur death.
- Fixed an issue where a destroyed tower would not be visible after rewinding back to a time where the tower should still standing.
Jungle Camps
- Difficulty escalation has been reduced for the small fury camps.
- Starting health of the camps has been reduced by ~10%.
- Cooldown buff has had Focus removed.
Items
- Some aura items should no longer stop working after standing near an enemy with the same item
Focus
- Focus has been removed from the game. That includes items, buff camps and all of the god abilities. Gods that have abilities with Focus contributions have been modified and their new values for those abilities affected are listed below.
Boots of Celerity
- Focus removed from all ranks.
Fatalis
- Focus removed from all ranks.
- Attack speed added back to the passive.
Circlet of Focus
- This item has been removed from the game temporarily.
Gods (Focus Changes to Abilities)
Agni
Noxious Fumes
- When detonated, all enemies are stunned for 1s at all ranks.
Anhur
PASSIVE – Cripple
- Basic attacks reduce the enemy targets physical power by 15% for 3 seconds.
Shifting Sands
- The sands slow by 15/20/25/30/35%.
- Increase damage of Anhur’s basic attacks by 4/8/12/16/20% against enemies in the sands.
Impale
- Enemies that are impaled into a wall are stunned for 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s.
Disperse
- The amount of knockback is not variable and is at the maximum amount.
Anubis
PASSIVE – Sorrow
- Protections stolen are now 7 per stack, stacking 3 times.
Mummify
- Stun for 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2s.
Grasping Hands
- Slow by 25% for all ranks.
Ao Kuang
Squall
- Slow by 25% for all ranks.
Slither
- Movement speed is increased by 20/25/30/35/40%.
Arachne
Drain Life
- Healing per tick no longer scales with additional stats.
Tangled Web
- Slow by 20/25/30/35/40% for 7 seconds.
Cocoon
- Stuns for 1s at all ranks.
Ares
Shackles
- Movement speed buff and debuff is 15% for all ranks.
Bolster Defenses
- Protections increased by 10/15/20/25/30.
- Crowd control durations are reduced by 10/15/20/25/30%.
No Escape
- Stunned for 1s, +.3s for each enemy god hit by the ultimate.
Artemis
Transgressors Fate
- Enemies are rooted for 2s at all ranks.
Suppress the Insolent
- Slow by 25% for 2s at all ranks.
Calydonian Boar
- Stun for 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s.
Bacchus
PASSIVE – Drunk-O-Meter
- When he is Tipsy, he takes 5% less damage and gains 5 physical power.
- When he is Smashed, he takes 10% less damage and gains 15 physical power.
Chug
- Protections are increased by 15/20/25/30/35 for 6s after drinking.
Belly Flop
- If Tipsy, slow by 20% for 2s after they land for all ranks.
Belch of the Gods
- If Tipsy, stun enemies for 1s at all ranks.
- If Tipsy, debuff healing by 25% for 3s at all ranks.
Intoxicate
- If Smashed, gain 20/30/40/50/60 physical power.
Bakasura
Take Down
- Reduce the damage done by enemies hit by 20% for 3s at all ranks.
Regurgitate
- Slow by 15/20/25/30/35%.
Bastet
Nine Tails
- Slow by 30% for 2s at all ranks.
Cupid
PASSIVE – Lovestruck
- At 10 stacks, Heart Bomb and Fields of Love stun for 1s at all ranks.
Share the Love
- Healing no longer scales with additional stats.
Flutter
- Allies movement speed is increased by 30% for all ranks.
- Attack speed is increased by 5/10/15/20/25% for 6s after fluttering.
Fields of Love
- Mesmerize for 2.5s at all ranks.
Freya
Pulse
- Slow by 25% for 2s at all ranks.
Banish
- Banish enemies for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s.
Guan Yu
PASSIVE – Fortified Defense
- Gain 15 protections when near a map structure.
Warrior’s Will
- Slow by 20% for 2s at all ranks.
Taolu Assault
- Each hit debuffs enemies protections by 10, stacking 3 times.
- Rank 2 & 3 are only debuffing by 15.
- Description doesn’t mention stacking 3 times.
Tactician’s Advantage
- Stun lasts for 1.5s at all ranks.
Hades
Death From Below
- If Blighted, slow by 20/25/30/35/40% for 2s.
Shroud of Darkness
- Silence and fear for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s.
Pillar of Agony
- Gain 40/50/60/70/80 protections while firing.
- If Blighted, protections are debuffed by 10/15/20/25/30.
He Bo
Flood Waters
- Speed buff/debuff is 20/25/30/35/40%.
Waterspout
- Slow by 25% for 2s at all ranks.
Hel
Hinder
- Debuff protections by 5/10/15/20/25.
- Slow by 5/10/15/20/25% for 3s.
Hercules
Driving Strike
- Stun for 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s.
Kali
Enrage
- Gain 20% lifesteal when below 25% health.
Kali Rage
- Gain 15/20/25/30/35% movement speed.
Siphon Blood
- Healing no longer scales with additional stats.
Loki
Vanish
- Gain 35% movement speed after vanishing at all ranks.
Aimed Strike
- Slow by 25% for 3s at all ranks.
Assassinate
- Stun for 1s at all ranks.
Odin
Odin’s Shout
- Attack speed increased by 15/25/35/45/55%.
Gungnir’s Might
- Physical protection increased by 10/20/30/40/50.
- Slow by 25% for 2s at all ranks.
Ring of Spears
- Protections are increased by 25/40/55/70/85.
Ra
PASSIVE – Speed of Light
- Movement speed is increased by 5% on ability use.
Sobek
PASSIVE – Blessing of the Nile
- Gain 5 protections for 4 seconds.
Sickening Strike
- Healing reduced by 50% for 4s at all ranks.
Lurking in the Waters
- Slow by 15% at all ranks.
Sun Wukong
PASSIVE – Fleet Footed
- Movement speed is increased by 10%.
Year of the Monkey
- Fear duration is 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s.
Thor
PASSIVE – Warrior’s Madness
- Physical power is increased by 15 for each nearby enemy god.
Tectonic Rift
- Stun for .8/1/1.2/1.4/1.6s.
Anvil of Dawn
- Stun for 1.5s at all ranks.
Vamana
Umbrellarang
- Attack and movement speed is debuff by 30% at all ranks.
Vulcan
Thumper XVI
- Slow by 5/10/15/20/25%.
Xbalanque
Poison Darts
- Slow by 4/8/12/16/20% for 3s.
Darkest of Nights
- Movement speed is increased by 20/30/40/50/60%.
- Stun for 1.5s at all ranks.
Ymir
Ice Wall
- Wall lifetime is 2/3/4/5/6s.
Glacial Strike
- Slow by 35% for 4s at all ranks.
Frost Breath
- Stun for 1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25s.
Shards of Ice
- Slow by 30% while in the buildup.
Zeus
Aegis Shield
- Gain 15/20/25/30/35 protections.
- Movement speed is increased by 15%.
Gods (Balance / Other Changes):
Ao Kuang
- Updated FX and animations on some abilities.
Artemis
- Updated FX on some abilities
Hel
- When Hel uses an ability in one stance, the ability in the other stance incurs half of the cooldown cost.
Switch Stances
- The cooldown has been reduced from 4s to 2s.
Decay (Restoration)
- The magical power contribution of these abilities has been increased from 40% to 60%.
Repulse
- The magical power contribution of this ability has been increased from 60% to 80%.
Inspire
- The magical power contribution of these abilities has been increased from 50% to 60%.
Hercules
Earthbreaker
- This ability now goes 40 ft instead of 55 ft.
Sobek
Sickening Strike
- This ability now only heals off of up to 3 enemies.
Vulcan
Forge – PASSIVE
- Vulcan’s structures were scaling off of 20% health and protections since the last patch. The description has now been updated accordingly.