Patch 4.18 - Bran's Thoughts

Official patch notes are here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/new-in-smite-journey-to-asgard-4-18-patch-notes


Project Olympus: Spectator mode improvements...that's okay. Better queuing/matching. Randomizing loadouts (things like loading screens, recall skins, announcer packs, etc.)...that's cool. Talking about TP a lot...who do they think they are, Beavis & Butthead?


Skins:

• Belly Ache Ymir: OMG this is over the top. I lost my sweet tooth a long time ago, so I can't say I find him appetizing. That said...the ice cream sandwich wall is badass, and his strike looks really.........sweet.
  
  
  Belly Ache Ymir

  
  
  
• Inu Gami Fenrir: Oooooh, white fur. I like it!!! I like it a lot. The effects are really nice, and the color scheme is solid...the gold, purple, green.
  
  
  Inu Gami Fenrir

  
  
  
• Sequined Sadist Da Ji: pretty cool...like the peacock feathers. T2 skin so reskin only. That said, those peacock feathers have a great, smooth animation when she's running. Very good job.
  
  
  Sequined Sadist Da Ji

  
  
  
• Harbinger Nike: like the wing color, but otherwise, eh.
  
  
  Harbinger Nike

  

Item/god fixes: lots this patch. Cleaning things up. Changed hitbox width of basics of some gods that were wider than probably should have been...this is nice.


Item changes:

• Ancile (buff / shift): offensive shift...power increased from 25 to 40, and magical protection decreased from 60 to 50. It's nicer, but I don't know if it makes me start picking it up. I'm sure others will make some use of it.
  
  
• Atalanta's Bow (not enough buff): attack speed increased from 20 to 25%. Really? Meh...still not that good...maybe if they went to 30% it might have more effect.
  
  
• Chronos' Pendant (buff): price buff, from 2,900 gold to 2,750. This is nice, but to me, it's one of those items that seems so-so on some and possibly OP on others...and now scrubs have a bit more of an excuse to build it earlier rather than late. Ugh.
  
  
• Witchblade (shift): Removed lifesteal, and added 10% CDR. Welp, there goes my use for Freya, but maybe this is an okay change? Seems weird though, because of still retaining attack speed. Some health, 20% attack speed, 10% move speed, 10% CDR, and aura of attack speed reduction. So it's a more functional counter to attack speed for a wider spread of gods...like, Ymir, some Warriors, things like that...just seems weird to me though. You?

God changes:

• Artio (nerfs): Decompose passive decreased protection debuff from 3% to 2%. This is probably nice...max 24% to max 16%. Also, Life Tap CD increased from 15 to 17 seconds. Honestly, I played her a couple times over the past week, and just...didn't get the feel for her. Felt like I should have been way more effective than I was. I just suck.
  
  
• Camazotz (nerfs): Screech decreased physical power buff from 20-40 to 10-30. This is pretty significant. Vampire Bats decreased initial damage in late-game (unchanged at level 1). Two nerfs might be a bit much, but he did deal a lot of damage to me.
  
  
• Kuzenbo (buffs): Sumo Slam's CD from 16-12 seconds to a flat 12. This is good for his CC capabilities. Watery Grave got a HUGE CD buff...from 100 to 75 seconds, holy. Well, still not the best Support, but maybe stronger Solo.
  
  
• Ratatoskr (buffs): Flurry power scaling from 20 to 25%, with better protection shred, from 2/2/3/3/4 to 2/3/4/5/6, which is actually pretty significant for late-game. That's up to 24% at max rank (16% previously), which is basically 2/3 of The Executioner. Add some flat pen and/or a Void Shield (still needs a minor price reduction) and he's good to go.
  
  
• Skadi (MORE NERFS): Kaldr's Rune Of The Hunt dash damage decrease and Permafrost (radius shrinking). Ouch.
  
  
• Terra (nerf / shift): Monolith doesn't root on shattering, but slows by 30% for 1.5 seconds instead, and takes 5 hits (up from 3) to destroy. This is a good adjustment. That radius and ease of rooting was too easy to apply. I like that it's more difficult to destroy now though. That's a pretty reasonable adjustment in my estimation...Duo, your thoughts?
  
  
• Thoth (nerf / shift): Final Judgement adjustment...lower scaling (125 down to 100%), but higher initial damage if you fire it more quickly. This seems like a reasonable adjustment.
  
  
• Tyr (buffs): Fearless mana decreased cost... Change Stance early CD reduction...14/13/12/11/10 to 12/12/11/11/10. Okay.

Those changes to Witchblade lately are definitely weird. Now I think it could be situationally good on Hunters that are more reliant on abilities like Medusa, Chiron and others, or some Warriors like Bellona.

Also I think that removing that big area Root from Terra's kit is a big nerf, but maybe the Slow will feel solid enough?

And poor Artio, nerfed again :(

I don't even play Ymir, but I want that skin so bad. Same for the Fenrir one. Even though I play Da Ji regularly, not a big fan of the new skin, I'll just stick to the SOS skin. Can't say much about some of the item changes except Witchblade and Atalanta's Bow. Witchblade is down from a situatuional item to almost never getting it, except maybe on Ravana and that's just for the CDR and the Aura. As for Atalanta's, I still probably won't get it, but I am curious as to how this will affect things especially since I ran into a Hachiman earlier who did pretty well with it.

Hi Bran, bet you didn't expect to see me so soon :)

What was wrong with Witchblade when it provided a weaker version of Brawler's Beat Stick anti heal? It was a perfect support item. Why not just go back to that?

I might farm some odyssey points to get that new Fenrir skin :)

Or is it gems only?

That was a quick hiatus. Can't stay away, eh?

Witchblade has just never found a perfect groove...I dunno.

Says Odyssey exclusive for those skins (except the direct purchase Nike one).

(☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞

I'll see YOU in-game, sir.

Noooo not Skadi again... understandable nerfs though. The Kaldr dash decrease will hurt me more than the shrinking permanfrost.

I like the Ancile change if it still has the CDR as well. I haven't picked it up in quite awhile though. Maybe will have to try it on Serqet again haha.

I think Chronos Pendant will be OP now. With the stats it provides and cheap cost. I think it will be more of a staple for magical gods.

I don't like the Witchblade change. I liked the lifesteal aspect of it for ADC, along with the aura for boxing as well. Now I have no idea who should get it.

Atalanta's- No idea. Haven't picked it up before. Be nice if it had some base movement speed as well. Maybe would be able to get this instead of boots if so.

Yeesh, Artio nerfed again. Getting nerfed to oblivion.

All the other god adjustments I am generally okay with. The Terra one is interesting, I would maybe have considered just decreasing the radius of Monolith and keep the root perhaps.

Sorry, newb...you got hit hard =(

Also, I think your idea for the Monolith adjustment is good...either that, or she should have a slow that lasts longer than 1.5 seconds...seems a bit short, when she only has 1 other CC ability, and it's relatively small and situationally easy to miss.

Item changes:
Ancile: Was usable before and is a bit more interesting now

Atalanta's Bow: Still sucks

Chronos' Pendant (buff): Gods like Janus and Nox can look to grab it earlier which is nice. It wasn't being bought really until maybe super late so it seems like a fine spot

Witchblade: Returning a Warrior item to the Warriors by making relevant stats. Can see Guardian use as well but Warriors still make best use of it

God changes:
Artio: Probably still high tier but this is good. Allows for counterplay but may still need to reduce healing or adjust the 1 cooldown

Camazotz: Solid changes

Kuzenbo: meh god still meh

Ratatoskr: Cool buffs but not sure if he fits this meta, definite possibility though.

Skadi: Good nerfs

Terra: Doesn't change the ult which is why she's picked every game. Making it a slow hurts her slightly but the 2 is fairly easy to hit and the slow is a giant AOE so if you catch a bunch they probably have to blow heavenly. So buffed the already op relic to nerf an op god

Thoth: Stops outperforming every mage at their late game job to an extent. He was in a weird place and pretty easy to kill before and I think this drops him a significant amount.

Tyr: Cool, but I don't know that it makes him really viable

Why they do this to my favorite bat since month or two after his release, Hi-Rez keeping nerfing him. He was devastating at his launch so those changes mad since. One change I didn't understand they did a bit back was when they nerfed his Bat Out of Hell damage. I don't know why they did it that was unnecessary. Now they nerfed the power buff you get from Screech all ready to have to aim and able to catch one of those without getting interrupted. I understand with his Vampire Bats change it did too much damage than it suppose to do late, especially a ability that could also heal you. Otherwise I don't care about the other changes to talk about them.