Patch 5.3, "Hero of the Trojan War" - Bran's Thoughts

Until SF gets patch notes up, the official ones are found here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/hero-of-the-trojan-war-5-3-pc-update-notes


Not going to go over the skins...I mostly only care about balance =P

That said, some general updates:

• Console gets full VGS commands: this one has been asked for for a long time. I hate console VGS personally...but for those using it, you finally get full functionality.
  
  
• Non-Conquest blessings are finally back. You can now get Attacker's Blessing (bleh), Defender's Blessing (bleh) or Specialist's Blessing (okay good).

NEW GOD: Achilles

• Passive: Achilles adapts to the tide of Battle. Achilles can choose to wear armor, granting him bonus Health and Protections, or forgo it, granting him bonus Movement Speed and Physical Power Armored Bonus: Achilles gains an addition 35 +10 Health per lvl and 5 +1 Protection per lvl. Unarmored Bonus: Achilles gains an addition Movement Speed 3% +.25% per level and 10 +2 Physical Power per level. Wonder how you toggle this (or is it something you just choose at the beginning and you're stuck with it? (I didn't watch the patch notes on this part)
  
  
• Ability #1 ( Shield of Achilles): Achilles punches forward with the edge of his Shield, inflicting massive damage and stunning enemy targets hit by the impact. The force of his punch continues to radiate past his initial target area, dealing 80% damage to targets farther away. Very high damage in the initial area, with some range as well doing 80% damage is not bad at all...with a stun, that's a powerful ability, topping off at 340 damage at max rank. And 90% scaling? Yeesh.
  
  
• Ability #2 ( Radiant Glory): Achilles is blessed by the gods, giving him bonus Physical Power, Protections, and Crowd Control Reduction for 6 seconds. While this blessing is active, Achilles will heal himself upon successfully damaging enemies with abilities. Provides some sustain if combining this with damaging abilities, which is a nice way to limit the healing function...and it's somewhat low. Nice power and protection bonus, rewarding you whether you go damage or tank. I like the idea of this ability a lot.
  
  
• Ability #3 ( Combat Dodge): Achilles dodges his enemies’ attacks before striking them in swift response. If Achilles successfully hits an enemy god with this strike, Achilles can use this ability once more before it goes on Cooldown. This is pretty interesting too...a way to negate an attack and counter? Depending on how this works, this is extremely powerful. Chang'e / Ravana on steroids, with an extremely low CD? I mean, really, probably should be 5 seconds longer on the CD. (Okay, I really need to see this god's abilities in action)
  
  
• Ultimate ( Shield of Achilles): Achilles winds up a large attack and dashes forward. While dashing, Achilles will pass through minions, stop and hit the first enemy god he encounters, dealing damage to all he hits. If the god is below 30% Health they are Executed. If Achilles successfully Executes a god with this ability, he can use it again, up to 5 times.
  
  As Achilles successfully Executes his enemies, he becomes more reckless in combat and leaves his heel exposed. Achilles will become more susceptible to damage, stacking up to 5 times. Okay WTF?!? It had better be freaking difficult to hit this ult, LOL. Basically Ne Zha / Thanatos
  / Ao Kuang but with Scylla potential? So what if he takes more damage after each execute...the more he executes, the less around to hurt him!!! Unless it's a permanent stack...maybe it's permanent.
  But wait...that's really risky then...up to 50% damage increase? I don't think that's how it works...ugh...should have watched this part.

Item changes:

• Soul Gem (welcome back): gets a new passive (On successful hit of an Ability you gain 1 stack. At 4 Stacks your next Ability that damages an enemy God will deal bonus damage equal to 40% of your Magical power, and will heal yourself and allies within 20 units for 40% of your Magical Power and will consume the 4 stacks.) Seems good. Should be nice, especially for gods with very low CD abilities, like He Bo maybe?
  
  
• Typhon's Fang (nerf): lifesteal decreased from 15 to 10%, and passive healing bonus decreased from 50% to 40%. This was needed. Still probably pretty strong.
  
  
• Warlock's Staff (nerf): base power decreased by 10, power per stack decreased from 0.6 to 0.5. Final power contribution is now 115 instead of 135. This is probably a needed adjustment...this makes it more clearly the defensive stacking item compared to Book of Thoth.
  
  
• Book of the Dead (nerf): Shield potential decreased, created from 15% of your mana now, instead of 25%. Okay.
  
  
• Malice (shift): power decreased to 40 (like DB), and crit chance increased to 25% (also like DB). New passive...every 3rd crit gives full stacks, and the next damaging ability used does 120% of your physical power as a DoT...so...also like the old Bluestone, similar to The Crusher. This is weird though, cuz HR states that they wanted to make this more of an ability-based god's crit item...but most ability-based won't build crit. Maybe the random hunter like Neith and whatnot, but...really weird.
  
  
• Rage (shift): 100 gold increase, power decrease from 30 to 20, provides up to 40% crit chance when fully evolved. Okay, this is a good shift, while keeping crit builds in line and not too crazy, due to the increased price and decreased power...works well with the DB shift. I like it. Rage + Deathbringer FTW.
  
  
• Soul Eater (buff): only needs 75 stacks instead of 100. Gives 20 bonus power evolved instead of 10. This is probably nice. I still haven't built it though. Guess I should try it out...this is now a high power item in similar vein to Shifter's Shield and Bloodforge.
  
  
• Warrior's Blessing (shift): gains 5 protections once evolved (total 15 of each), and decreased the stacks gained from gods from 5 to 3. Probably important to decrease those stacks.

God changes:

• Arachne (buff): Web CD reduced by 2 seconds, and can now have 3 webs up. This is a very nice buff for Arachne, helping to better lock down areas of the jungle or at least have the ability up a bit quicker for better fight potential.
  
  
• Cerberus (buff): Ghastly Breath damage up by 5 per tick, Soul Expulsion range increased from 40 to 50, and better combo function wtih Stygian Torment. This is nice overall...interesting adjustments to the ult, giving him knockback/up immunity but crippling him for over 1 second after using it so he can't just jump.
  
  
• Freya (nerf): now has lower base passive lifesteal, but ending at the same 15%. Irradiate damage decreased by 5 per rank and 5% drop in scaling per shot. This is fair.
  
  
• Khepri (buff): Abduct and Solar Flare, his CC abilities, have reduced CD...this is good for him, and needed.
  
  
• Scylla (buff): Quick Learner gains 5 power per stack, and Sic Em has a minor scaling increase of 5%. Okay?
  
  
• Serqet (nerf): Deathbane CD increases by 3 seconds, which is pretty significant, and phys protection reduction decreased from 15 to 10%. Seems good. She should still be very good.
  
  
• Ullr (nerf): Scaling on Bladed Arrow and Hail of Arrows reduced by 10% each...well...that's a start, I guess.
  
  
• Vamana (buff): gets a buff to his ult, Colossal Fury...giving more protections and a targeter for his hit area. Think he still needs a bit more.

Seems like all good adjustments overall, though I'm still personally confused about Malice's implementation. Really, really need to see Achilles...he sounds OP but maybe the actual function of his abilities is more limited than I'm thinking.

So hey, check it out...3 of the gods considered tops (per r/Smite) got nerfed...but AGAIN, no Cu Chulainn...hahahahaha. Cyberhawk94 is heading this community vote up now, pretty cool!

Real quick comment cause I got limited time. Achilles seems really good and really scary to go against. And Bran, for his passive, you change it in base by clicking so you can technically change every time you back if you want, and his ult has a big windup like Thanatos ult and Xing Tian ult. I’ll talk more about him and some of the other changes when I have more time.

I'm with you on that whole Malice change. Confused the **** out of me when I read HR's notes on it. Also, terrified to see that Achilles ult in action... Thanks for the post Bran!

I wonder how the new malice will work on ne zha.

Are you able to stack it up in the ult, then prock it on the damage when you go down from the ult?

Will it proc on only the first hit if you got it stacked (i guess that is how it will work).



Guess I will have to hit the pts after work and check :p