Patch 4.23 (Rally to Rome) - Bran's Thoughts

Official patch notes are here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/new-in-smite-rally-to-rome-4-23-patch-notes


Again didn't watch the stream. Was busy at work. They also take so long to go through everything...find that just reading the notes is way more efficient =P Only thing I miss out on is seeing the skins in action, and usually being disappointed because the card art is WAAAAAAY better than the actual in-game look. BUT...I just went back and watched the video of the stream. That works too.


Skins:

• Defiant Bellona (Exclusive: Odyssey): Okay, the card art is...gorgeous. That is badass. The in-game effects are cartoony-cool with the light blue and yellow, but not sure the yellow fits in with the motif.
  
  
  Defiant Bellona

  
  
  
• Badlands Vulcan (Exclusive: Odyssey): Last patch it was Cu, now Vulc...Sort of Fallout-y theme or something. The moving parts of his skin are good. That turret missile looks nice, but when it's planted, the missle looks like it's angled about 10 degrees up...but it fires horizontally. That's stupid, and they should fix that ****. All of the other weapon effects look great.
  
  
  Badlands Vulcan

  
  
  
• Order and Chaos Hel (Exclusive: Odyssey): Looks nice, they did a good job with the effects (I particularly like the order/chaos transition. That said, I don't like her armor that much...just not a big fan of gold in the order stance.
  
  
  Order and Chaos Hel

  
  
  
• Abyssal Knight Ares (Exclusive): Okay yeah. Those effects (especially on the Shackles) are great! Moving tentacles on the shield, awesome-looking sword.
  
  
  Abyssal Knight Ares

  

Item changes:

• Jade Emperor's Crown (nerf): Reduced physical protection from 60 to 50. This seems good overall on the item balance front, as it clearly took the place of Sovereignty. That said, it sucks as a whole for Supports. I would have preferred seeing a slight self-protection increase on Sov, rather than reduction on Jade.
  
  
• Gladiator's Shield (nerf): further nerfed the item, reducing physical protection from 35 to 30. This is, for all intents, a minor nerf, as it's still shown itself to be a great bridge item. Makes it a bit more difficult for Solo Warriors, which is probably a good thing.
  
  
• The Executioner (nerf): reduced physical power from 35 to 30. This is what they should have done last patch, at the same time they nerfed Titan's Bane. If I recall correctly, this is the power it used to provide back in like, S1/S2 or something. LOL.
  
  
• Devourer's Gauntlet (nerf): price nerf. Increased cost from 2,000 to 2,100 gold. This is minor and is fine, as it provides such a strong set of stats at full stacks.
  
  
• Hydra's Lament (buff): increased bonus basic attack damage from 30% to 40%. Honestly didn't see this coming, but this is nice. Don't see this really hurting anything. (FYI, if your attack would deal 200 damage, it would increase the bonus damage from 60 to 80, so it's not a lot)
  
  
• Jotunn's Wrath (buff): price buff. Decreased cost from 2,450 to 2,350 gold. Not really sure about this, but think it's okay. Most ability-based Assassins would go into this as either a 2nd item (after Boots) or 3rd item (after something like Heartseeker, and 2,450 was a bit high for an earlier-game item. Then again, it's a huge threat spike (big jump in power, huge CDR boost, and a bit of pen).

God changes:

• Awilix (nerf / buff): very minor. Moonlight Charge stated 65 units but actually went 73, so they're increasing stated range to 70 and fixing the targeter to be accurate. Gravity Surge got a slight range increase from 70 to 75, to more closely match Moonight Charge and prevent a true nerf to a god they feel is in a good spot. Okay.
  
  
• Camazotz (buff): Screech gets an increased power buff from catching the Echo from 10-30 to 20-40. This is a revert from a previous nerf, and should be ok.
  
  
• Discordia (nerf): Her first nerf is probably going to be a disappointment to those who hate her. Strife gets a minor scaling reduction from 70% to 60%. I have no clue how she's been performing in Conquest...have only seen her in casual teamfight modes, where she definitely can be powerful.
  
  
• Fafnir (nerf): Coerce gets a minor CD increase (from 15 to 16 seconds) and the attack speed buff got an overall nerf (slightly higher at level 1, but goes downhill from there)...10-50% changed to 15-35%. 15% attack speed at the top end is very significant, but is probably needed...50% attack speed increase is pretty insane.
  
  
• Kukulkan (buff): Base movespeed up from 350 to 355. LOL. WATCH OUT GUYS, DRAGON'S COMING FOR YOUUUUUU!!!
  
  
• Medusa (buff): Viper Shot gets a slight damage boost, from 10-30 to 15-35 base damage. Extremely minor...barely even worth it.
  
  
• Ra (buff): Holy schnikies on Divine Light. Okay, it's not the main damage dealing ability and only helps when he moves in to aggress or when he's being chased, but base damage up from 60-220 to 70-270. 50 extra damage top-end. Increased scaling from 40% to 55%, and reduced mana from 60-100 to 60-80 (top end buff). At least this will help a bit when he's getting ganked.
  
  
• Susano (buff): Wind Siphon gets a base damage increase from 60-120 to 80-180. It's not a huge damage dealing ability, but should have an effect. I dunno...I see Taco wreck with this guy as-is.

Overall, these all seem like positive directions, and nothing is overdone. Good patch in my estimation.

So, Bran. Are you excited for next Season?

Yes! A little apprehensive about the amount of work I'll have to do on all of the guides, but also always interested in change, new items, new builds, new strategies, etc.

In many ways, I'd be perfectly fine with stopping the release of new gods in general. There are so many that the variety is great. If they were able to just stop releasing new gods, they could focus more on balance, innovation of other ideas, maybe dedicating more to cleaning up the UI and code, etc. Not that that can happen...it's their main source of income (more gods, more skins, more $$$). But I just really wish they'd clean up more of the issues that seem to continually plague the game.

But it's not just the new Conquest map...we'll likely see (at some point) a revamped Assault map, and maybe siege. OH, one thing Draisaitl said last night...a new type of assault map, semi-random, where each person on a team is assigned a class, but could choose from gods within that class (or in the case of healer, a role). This would prevent starting with 4-5 physical gods, rerolling and STILL ending up with mostly physical, etc. This makes a TON of sense, and seems like it would be fun.