Patch 5.10, "Medusa's Deathmatch" - Bran's Thoughts

Patch notes are found here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/medusas-deathmatch-5-10-pc-update-notes


Blah blah boy am I getting immune to these new boring skins blah blah


New Adventure: Medusa's Deathmatch

Alright, so this is potentially interesting, as it's the first mode that pits 3 individual teams against each other. That's right, 3 v 3 v 3. They've also taken queues from PUBG/Fortnite in that as the match progresses, a sandstorm slowly creeps in, making the map smaller and forcing more close-quarters fighting. I'll probably play it a bit, but it likely won't be on my normal playlist.



Item changes:

• Heavenly Wings (nerf): The bonus movespeed has been reduced from 30% to 20%. That's reasonable, as it's definitely been one of the most popular relics around. I love the item, but I'm okay with this.
  
  
• Hydra's Lament (buff): Bonus damage increased from 40% to 50%. Yay (not yay) for Loki. Casual pubstompers rejoice!
  
  
• Hastened Katana (buff): Just sees a price decrease, from 2,400 to 2,200 gold. This is probably needed, as most basic attackers that use this item have seen less effectiveness against the burst ability Assassins lately.
  
  
• Midgardian Mail (nerf): Sees a minor health drop, from 350 to 300. This item has been considered strong. This isn't a huge adjustment, and shouldn't change the frequency at which it's picked up, but it's a good move.

God changes:

• Achilles (nerf): The passive Gift of the Gods sees a nerf to the shirtless version (the more dangerous one) by getting a reduction to base power and movespeed bonus. This has a bigger effect on his early game, so will help with his easy early steamrolling...but probably not enough. He's basically a ban for all ranked games, so likely will see some future nerfs as well.
  
  
• Chiron (buffs): Training Exercise gets a buff on the CC immunity, from just instant to 0.3 seconds. The size of the AOE is a bit small, so is a very specific, targeted effect for likely just 1 teammate, when used defensively. Doubt this does much except at higher levels of play. Masterful Shot also gets a buff, increasing the physical protection reduction from 3% to 5%, which is small but nice. Did you see that the Fabulous Chiron skin has been added to the Fantasy Points store? TIME TO PICK IT UP.
  
  
• Guan Yu (nerf): Conviction gets a boosted healing nerf, decreasing the bonus from 2x to 1.5x base healing. I know he's gotten really popular, so this is probably an okay buff, especially since the CD can get crazy with good ability use and CDR items.
  
  
• He Bo (buffs / nerfs): Gets a base health boost (from 365 to 400) and a decrease in HP per level (from 68 to 67) to help with his early game squishiness. Also gets an early game nerf to his Water Cannon, starting at 20 damage less at level 1, but the same damage at max rank. Ok.
  
  
• Medusa (buff): Viper Shot sees a slight boost at levels 4 and 5, by increasing the total number of shots from 3 to 4 at those ranks. This is a nice buff. I think I'd prefer to see a 3/3/4/4/5 progression, but I'll take what I can get.
  
  
• Nike (buff): Sentinel of Zeus' slow effect has been made consistent at 40% whether or not Plan of Action has been used. This is nice, because the charge-up time is slow, and having to use Plan of Action to get the bonus slow was ****py. You still have to use it to get the additional shield boost, but this is a nice buff.

Not much change to items overall, which I think is good. Some good buffs and nerfs to underperforming and overperforming gods is reasonable. I think Achilles might get further nerfs in the future, and Zhong Kui might see some as well...gotta wait and see.

A disappointing patch overall.

I'm excited that they finally fixed Vamana. I've been using him occasionally and I couldn't figure out why my ult always ended so suddenly in the heat of battle. Glad they're fixing it.

It's great how Hi-Rez is starting to buff weaker gods who really needed it, like Chiron and Guan.