Let's Make Patch Notes - Mages

I have an idea that just popped to my head.

What if we made Clay Soldiers be affected by the activation of her other skills.
For example, if you summoned the clay soldiers and then used flame strike, they instantly become ranged (like TT suggested) and deal a small AoE (without applying on-hit effects). And when she activates her ultimate they gain 2x damage.

I know it doesn't completely negates her dependency on her ultimate but it actually grants her minions some usefulness. Also we could lower their overall and increase their damage is 20 damage doesn't seem like much.


Another option is to make her Clay Soldiers apply on-hit effects.

Another idea that popped to my head: Grant her a CDR aura per clay soldier. Not sure about the % per soldier, but I think that 3-4% CDR per soldier is a good idea.

I agree with Arka's point, her Wood Crystal feels lazy.

New Wood Crystal: You gain 15% lifesteal on your basic attacks only, on all the time. Hooray.

HiFromBuddha, personally, I think her Clay Soldiers already have high utility. I mean, they are purely a utility move, and I'm not sure if I want to change that. Adding on-hit effects or a slow would change it from creative utility to mindless CC stacking ( Gem of Binding/ Demonic Grip). (That said, I wouldn't mind if they attracted minion aggro.) The Crystal effect, on the other hand...I have another idea for a Earth Crystal, but it might be a bit...weird.

New Earth Crystal: You deal 10/20/30/40/50 additional NOT innate damage on your basic attacks.

I intentionally made this effect clash with pillars of heaven, not benefiting from the x2 bonus, but this also provides valuable synergy with flame strike's fire crystal. It provides more flexibility over raw power (which is why I didn't turn it into a contribution boost, or additional innate damage), and I think it fits well with Nu Wa's kit.

I'm worried about turning her Clay Soldiers into Clay Archers, because she not only loses some utility, but it now becomes focused on damage, and pet damage is something that can turn overpowered really quickly. As for the synergy effect between crystals, I find it difficult to execute.

For example, let's say Water Crystal increases their movement speed, Fire Crystal causes splash damage, Earth Crystal provides protections, and Metal Crystal provides doubled damage. Now you have five superfast and fairly tough soldiers who deal strong splash damage, and five of them.

That said, I find it interesting as an option, but as Bakasura proved, ranged minions can be extremely overpowered.

Wait, Baka used to vomit archer minions? lol...

I like your idea of the bonus innate damage. Yet, I wonder what would happen if you get that with Telkhines Ring early on. But I'm not worried.

Also, I like the new passive idea (although it's pretty much Brisingamen's Blessing). An alternative if we want to still see the HP5 would be to grant her 10 HP5 (+1 * her level).

I've really ran out of ideas. I'm not sure what else to do and I see we, still, haven't got to a conclusion.

A common strategy was to swallow only archer minions, because they dealt absurd amount of damage (8 + 20% of Baka's physical power, I believe), with all six minions dealing 48 + 120% of Baka's physical power per second, as ranged unavoidable damage.

Rushing Telkhines Ring and Clay Soldiers would make your basics deal a lot of damage, but at the expense of everything else, losing burst damage with flame strike, over-reliance on your basic attacks, and losing mobility and penetration. I'm not sure how drastic this would be, as we can't exactly test this. But I think it is balanced.

Don't forget that I interrupted your regularly scheduled program: Zhong Kui. I think beyond the change to his passive, he's good. Who's next?

I think that aphro could use a buff:
A harem, make the cooldown longer and get rid of the full cd when kissing a friendly god but could have 2+? soulmates still within the range it has now.

Uh...I don't think the term "harem" works well with "soul mate."

I had an idea for Aphrodite, which I got off of the Smite Reddit. Make her heal AoE, by doing this you're getting her on the level of other such mages with heals, all of which are AoE. Then make her link global, the heal does not effect the linked target. But if the linked target is within a certain range then the heal would effect them even if they aren't standing in it (hope that made any sense). And make her [[Back Off] work the same as the new heal. Also, how would changing her to a magical bruiser work? It could add more variety and could allow her to fit into the current support meta.

I guess Muas and Maximus volunteered the next topic. I don't really know Aphro, so I'll back off for now.

A man's got to have his sense of pride and self-worth.