Xbalanque: Make his ultimate feel more impactful on a game.
2. Reasons.
Ah Muzen Cab: His harass was blatantly broken, and his waveclear is the best of any hunters, all from ranking one ability. Something has to go.
Anhur: Anhur has too much utility and survivability in one package. He needs to be more vulnerable for a god who deals damage on the same level as Artemis.
Xbalanque: His ultimate is just too underwhelming and needs something to make it more like, well, an ultimate. Make players feel like they want to use it.
3. How? (Generally speaking)
Ah Muzen Cab
A simple drop to damage would work.
I would like to note that apparently, the recent nerf to AMC's Honey has not be uploaded. Or at least, that's what it looks like to me, as the Honey clears waves just as quickly as before, at rank 2.
Right, the problem with AMC was that his Honey dealt too much damage and did too much. It made his poke utterly insane, was a strong AoE slow, and can clear the waves and poke at the same time. His Bees! is fairly balanced, his ultimate is fairly balanced, and his Swarm does a good chunk of burst damage but you sacrifice that damage to clear. So the rest of his kit is alright.
Honey deals (I think) 20/30/40/50/60 damage per tick, 20% contributions, and has a 10/15/20/25/30% slow, along with a flexible area of effect. It is impossible to dodge.
I actually think the change by HiRez was pretty good. 8/21/34/47/60 (+15% of your physical power) prevents him from clearing at rank 2, and by max rank, pretty much every ability can instantly clear a wave. If I had to add something, it would be to limit this ability's area of effect, "shortening it" so an AMC can't poke you and hit ALL of the minion wave at once.
Jordenito suggested halving minion damage while keeping the old stats.
arka222 suggested putting a cap on the Honey like Lovestruck, and/or lowering the slow or damage.
I think that wraps up AMC.
Anhur
The main problem is that Anhur is extremely powerful early game despite having comparable damage to Artemis in the late game, who is supposed to be the only ADC hyper carry right now. We can go two ways about this: Nerf his late game, making him deal less damage, or nerf his early game, making him more of a hyper carry. This post concerns the possibilities of the former.
Anhur's laning phase has two components: His general durability and his kill potential.
Anhur's durability is complicated, and it is tied into all of his abilities:
His amount of health/defenses in the early game, aka his base stats.
In my eyes, he simply has too much options, providing a huge barrier to killing him. We can tweak his abilities in various ways. We can reduce the effectiveness of his CC, we can reduce the amount of his CC by raising or modifying cooldowns, and we can change his ultimate's Cc-immunity.
The second part of Anhur's strong early game is his kill potential. This is also complex.
His passive, Enfeeble, allows him to deal near-true damage to targets.
His pillar-stun combo, while difficult to do, gives him a huge amount of kill potential if done right. Remember, skillcaps/floors should have nothing to do with balance.
His burst, mainly on his Desert Fury. On the first level alone, it can deal 240 damage + 120% of his physical power (Cupid deals 220 + 100%). If Anhur expends all of his abilities in the pillar-stun-bodyblock-ultimate combo, he has even more kill potential than Cupid himself.
His starting amount of power, which ties in with the point above. He starts with 40 + 2.5 per level, making him have 52.5 power at level 5.
This section can also be addressed through multiple ways. You can decrease his starting stats, you could reduce the impact of his CC, you can reduce the amount of his CC, or tweak the base numbers and/or contributions on his abilities.
Specifics: Base Stats (HiFromBuddha)
Lower his base health to 420 from 460, and increase his health per level from 78 to 80.
Reduce Base Physical Protections slightly.
Passive Changes
-Make it reduce 15%, instead of 15.
-Make it apply only to basics (Jordenito)
Specifics: Impale
-Increase CD to 20-12 seconds
Specifics: Disperse
-Make his Disperse leap a shorter distance, but be quicker. (Raventhor)
-Increase Damage, lower damage on Impale, to force a more risky playstyle for more damage. (HiFromBuddha)
Apollo: Increase the cooldown of his Serenade, either to a flat number or simply increasing the numbers from 17-13 to 18-14.
Artemis
Artemis: Her Laning Phase is weak due to two reasons: Her ineffective traps and poor waveclear make her overly reliant on her support. The latter makes her too easily harassed by hard pushers like Neith or Anhur.
Her traps are her primary defensive measure besides the support; improve her traps to improve her survivability. The traps' weaknesses have two components: the difficulty of snaring someone in these traps, and the underwhelming consequences of stepping into a trap.
Artemis' waveclear has two components: her basic attacks, and her Suppress The Insolent. The latter is easier to buff, either by simple damage numbers or radii or something else. The former is more complex, and can be approached from multiple angles. You can buff her passive, buff her steroid, or buff her base stats. Buffing her power would allow her to simply deal more damage, while buffing her attack speed would allow her to stack her passive faster and "push" the minion wave easier. Pushing the minion wave forces them into a tighter group, making it easier to hit the entire wave with one Suppress The Insolent.
What should NOT be touched: Her late game. It is already strong enough, the problem is getting there. If you are buffing her late game, there better be a good reason.
Artemis Specifics: Traps
(Sorry if I don't mention you by name)
Utility Increase:
1. Increase radius, maybe to 10 feet. (Sasquatch180 and Ghraf)
2. Give them vision again (Romanians and Razemage)
Punishment/Deterrence Increase:
1. Grant increased damage to trapped targets, maybe 20%. (Jordenito)
Edit: 3. Trapped enemies have reduced protections. (Jordenito) I'm not a fan of this one because make it shave flat sclaing protections only makes it useful late game, and making it shave % protections also only makes it useful late game, while her problem is with the early game.
Artemis Specifics: Basics
Damage Increase:
1. Buff her old passive to give a max of 20% crit chance, slightly increasing her overall early game damage. (Jordenito)
2. Give her a swing chain where the third hit is 1.5x and deals extra shots to minions. (Jordenito)
Utility Increase:
1. Vengeful Assault now pierces enemies with basic attacks. (Sasquatch 180) I would add reduced damage on enemies pierced.
If I missed something, please let me know. Which of these would be the best change? (You can pick all, some, or none.)
Razemage, I did not include your health % damage because that seems more like a late-game buff, which I think Artemis does not need.
The first seeks to preserve his early game strength while slightly weakening it, by reducing the impact of his abilities.
The second is bringing his late game closer to other hunters. by either buffing his utility or damage. I would argue for the former.
HiFromBuddha has also suggested another kind of change closer to a total rework: Making him more like other ADCs by making his early game rather weak and his late game very strong.
Cupid Specifics: Lovestruck + Heart Bomb
Cupid's passive with Heart Bomb is what makes his early game so strong. 30% bonus damage in a time where base damage is king is a recipe for a LOT of damage. Let me put it this way: With a 30% buff, Cupid's Heart Bomb had more contributions than Anhur's Desert Fury: 260% versus 120%.
The passive has two problems: Early game, where it is easy to stack the passives, it is too strong. Late game, where stacking it is too difficult, it is too weak.
Heart Bomb has a similar problem. Late game, the damage it deals was fine, the problem was it paled in comparison to plain ol' basic attacks, making it a virtually useless skill, since you would rarely get a stun.
My solution is to reduce his damage early game and increase his utility late game, while not significantly affecting his late damage damage numbers.
My Proposed Solution
How? Give it a max stack count of five stacks, with a damage increase of 5% per stack. This makes it a LOT easier to stack, and proc more stuns. Late game, your stun duration won't increase, but the amount of stuns you will have will, which increases his utility late game.
There is another component of this change: Reduce the base damage on his Heart Bomb from 100/160/220/280/340 to 80/145/210/275/340. For levels 1-5, this will deal significantly less damage.
Rank two Heart Bomb, Old with Maxed Passive: 208 base + 260% power
Rank two Heart Bomb, New with Maxed Passive: 181.25 base + 250% power.
You might be thinking, 5 stacks is overpowered! Cupid will be stunning all the time!
I plan to limit this by using Cupid's odd cooldown mechanics. Both his stacks and his actual cooldown limit the strength of Heart Bomb. Early game, where Cupid has no CDR, the cooldown will be the main limiting factor. Late game, the stacks will be the main limiting factor.
Hi From Buddha also had a specific change in mind:
HiFromBuddha's Proposal
Lovestruck
-Now only consumes stacks at 10 stacks.
- Lovestruck bonus damage and healing per stack changed to 1/1.5/2/2.5/3% from 3%
- Heart Bomb and Fields Of Love stun duration changed to 0.5/0.75/1/1,25/1.5s from 1s
The change in consumed stacks is elaborated above. The stun duration change, which increases at the levels you can level your ultimate, is to reduce his abusiveness early game, but buff his utility late game. Personally, I feel like Cupid should go down the utility/support carry that Neith has, so buffing the stun late game enforces this. The change to damage is also to reduce his early game abusiveness. Of course, this won;t kill Cupid as the stacks now only consume at 10 stacks, meaning a 10% damage increase, which is definitely a respectable amount that early.
Heart Bomb
-Damage changed to 60/85/110/135/160 (+100/105/110/115/120% of your BONUS physical damage) from 50/80/110/140/170 (+100% of your physical power).
-Slow changed to 10/15/20/25/30% from 20% at all ranks.
I increased the early game damage for the sheer fact that it now scales of bonus attack damage, meaning early game, you essentially are just dealing the base damage of the ability. Of course, once again, to remove the abusiveness of Cupid. The scaling is up at later levels as, after all, it's bonus damage and it's Cupid's late game that is lacking. The increase is to keep the damage on par as it is now. The slow increase is, once again, to give him more late game utility, but the reduced early game means basic attacks are easier to dodge.
Cupid Specifics: Share the Love
This is one of Cupid's best laning skills, as it allows him to trade easily, sustain both himself and his tank, and not worry about mana.
I believe that early game, this is fine. But Late game, due to the nature of this ability, it is mainly used for post/pre-combat healing, and not much of it.
My solution seeks to increase its utility rather than raw healing. To me, its post combbat healing is enough.
My Proposal
I propose granting it a flat 20% movement speed bonus at max Lovestruck stacks for three seconds, increasing his late game utility slightly.
And here is HiFromBuddha's Proposal:
HFB
Share The Love
-Heal changed to 20/35/50/65/80 (+60% of total physical power) from 30/50/70/90/110 (+25% of physical power).
-Mana heal removed.
-Mana cost reduced to 40/45/50/55/60 from 60/65/70/75/80.
The base heal was changed in order for him to not be able to sustain as well after trading with the enemy, but the physical power was increased significantly to make it much more relevant late game. The mana heal was removed in order for duo lane Cupid to actually be restricted by mana, but the mana cost was reduced so the mana problems aren't all too horrible.
Cupid, at level five, has 46.5 physical power.
HiFromBuddha's Rank 1 Share The Love at level 5: heals for 20 + 27.9, for a total of 48 healing. With a maxed Lovestruck (his version), it heals for 26 + 36.27, for a total of 62 health healed.
The old version, with the old passive, at rank 1, at level 5: 30 + (25% of 46.5), for a total of 30 + 11.625 healed, or 42 healed. With max Lovestruck stacks, Cupid would heal for (30 x 1.3) + (32.5% of 46.5) for a total of 39 + 15.1125, or 64 health healed.
My version is a slightly weaker version of the old version, except with a 20% speed buff.
Honestly, in terms of mana use, HiFromBuddha's proposal and mine aren't that different. There is a slight change in the mechanics, but not much of a noticable impact.
HFB: Over time, Cupid's heal would become very effective, gaining a LOT of healing with a high-power build. 60% contributions becomes 78% contributions. Tripled, it becomes 234% contributions.
Old/Mind: Over time, Cupid's heal becomes like Chang'e's heal, spammed repeatedly for a small heal and a speed buff. Contributions are 25%, becoming 31.25%. Tripled, it becomes 93.75% contributions.
Cupid Specifics: Flutter
Not much to say here. It's an escape crossed with a mediocre attack speed buff.
HFB
Flutter
-Attack speed bonus increased to 20/30/40/50/60% from 10/15/20/25/30%
From my knowledge, the most popular Cupid skill order right now is 4>1>2>3. By simply increasing the attack speed buff, those that choose to max this over Share The Love will feel really good as it offers a much better trading potential. While this does allow you to be more aggressive, it offers more counterplay as those that max this second won't be as sustained, and since Share The Love is nerfed as well as having better contributions, maxing this second becomes more appealing. Also, remember that attack speed isn;t too useful early, but gets a huge power-spike mid-late game, when damage is built.
I propose changing nothing, since if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I also want him to be less like other ADCs, and HiFromBudddha's Cupid, to me, feels too much like a pseudo-Artemis for a few seconds after using his dash.
Fields Of Love
-Mesmerise changed to 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3s from 2.5s at all levels.
-Slow reduced to 25% from 35%
Once again, very straight forward. Increase his late game utility, lower his early game abusiveness. The slow decrease is so people can actually get out of it, but a well placed Cupid ult is rewarded much more as the cc duration is increased.
I'm fine with this. It has an easy transition from early game damage to late game utility.
My very slight proposed change to HiFromBuddha's proposal is reverting the slow to 35%. They have three seconds to get out or use sprint, and I think there is plenty of counterplay, and the 25% slow is unneeded.
Neith
Neith is complicated. A lot of people have multiple conflicting ideas about her and how to balance her, and honestly, no consensus has been reached. I think I'll pass on any changes on Neith.
Xbalanque
The problem with this guy was not in his kit, which had it's ups and downs, like all hunters', but his ultimate, which felt incredibly underwhelming and too easy to counter*.
The goal was to make his ultimate more...fun to use? More useful? More impactful? Something like that.
*Except if you have high ping, where you must stand still for at least two seconds to not be hit by the stun, because Smite.
Specifics: Darkest of Nights
There are two main categories of proposed changes: Global, and Personal.
Global Changes:
1. Have the darkness shrink over the duration, from 35 feet to 20. Let me put it this way, 13 feet is melee basic attack range. (No idea who to credit this to.)
Personal Changes:
1. Darkest of Nights grants global true sight of gods only, increasing utility. (Ghraf)
2. Darkest of Nights grants immunity to CC for the duration, increasing utility. (Ghraf)
4. Darkest of Nights grants CC immunity for 1.5 seconds, rather than three. (me)
6. Branching Bola deals doubled damage on its branches and applies on-hit effects but not critical hits while Darkest of Nights is in effect. (me)
As usual, you can opt for all, none, or some of these changes.
Making patch notes is like a crossword puzzle. You need something to start with rather than randomly guessing. See those blank spots with ???. We need to fill them up, starting with goals and reasons, before determining the how.
Remember, not everyone has to be changed! Some gods are perfectly fine. If you feel that a god doesn't need a change or feel like he/she needs a different one, then say so, and list your reasons.
I'll fill in with posts with specifics on the how's. I will also edit this post to incorporate any other suggestions. Keep in mind that this ^ post is more about general stuff.
Artemis:
Increase Entangling Vines's radius, as right now its a little too small to actually trap people with, and is easily avoidable.
While her 2 is active her basic attacks can pierce through enemy gods and minions, dealing reduced damage based on how many it has pierced.
Xbalanque:
Enemies take extra damage while the ult is active. If he gets an assist from using his ult he gets a stack from his passive.
Honestly, I would prefer Cupid to be an early-game damage-based carry, like Anhur, and here's how I plan to do it:
New 2: some kind of reliable waveclear, that doesn't do much to gods.
There. Done. I can reminiscence on what type of waveclear it is (maybe some type of high-radius level 1 HoG that only affects lane minions, ha!), but this simple change will do two things:
Switch him from support carry to damage carry.
Match his earlygame harass/kill potential with Anhur's, maybe higher.
The reason being: his old 2 was useless, he had the lowest waveclear of all the carries, and he's based around earlygame, where Anhur can do so much better, and still be a factor in teamfights. He honestly needs this.
Edit: 3. Trapped enemies have reduced protections. (Jordenito) I'm not a fan of this one because make it shave flat sclaing protections only makes it useful late game, and making it shave % protections also only makes it useful late game, while her problem is with the early game.
Which and how many of these changes are acceptable?
Tal, to be honest, I think there aren't any fundamental changes we need to Cupid's kit. His waveclear is better than Artemis' with more harass and more sustain. His healing is also an important part of his kit and his early game strength, since no other hunter could regen mana like that. (Seriously, his heal is FAR from useless. At max rank, all three hearts give 330 + 75% as healing, or 396 + 90% with all passive stacks.)
Sasquatch, I don't think Xbal's change is a good idea, not only because he already has a basic attack steroid, but because his ultimate can get assist from across the map, making it pretty much guaranteed that he'll be getting stacks.
Edit: Yeah, before the nerf, Cupid was pretty strong due to his ability to destroy any other hunter with an escape (read: Anhur, Apollo, Neith) and being able to do literally everything during the laning phase. He could poke, burst, passively clear, had a very safe time due to his dash, could outsustain other pokers, could poke down burst laners, could outburst sustain laners, etc etc.
I think the best way to go with Xbalanque's ult is allow true sight to all enemy gods for the duration of the darkness. Fitting for his lore as a hunter, and also synergizes well with the self-buff from it.
Or we could simply increase the duration of the self-buff to last through the stun as well and also make Xbalanque CC immune for the duration of the darkness.
Other alternatives: enemies that are stunned by his ultimate lose a certain amount of phys protection, enemies that are stunned become "targets" and Xbalanque gains a small direct penetration buff against them and also has true sight of them for a duration (similar to Bounty Hunter from Dota 2's Track).
Things we don't want to do with his ult:
Make it deal direct damage. This is simply diluting its real purpose and will be spammed constantly. Plus, a global ult that deals damage is just too.. LoL.
Make the stun unavoidable. A global CC would simply be too overpowered and would eliminate the "chance" aspect of it. You take quantity over quality.
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