Patch 5.4, "SMITE Birthday" - Bran's Thoughts

Until SF gets patch notes up, the official ones are found here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/smite-birthday-5-4-pc-update-notes


Item changes:

• Blink Rune (nerf): CD increased from 100 to 120 seconds. Yeah, this is probably a good call. I do see it being used a ton, and with the really long CDs for Beads and Aegis, it seems fair.
  
  
• Chalice of the Oracle (nerf): back up to 400 gold. Not a huge issue, but is warranted.
  
  
• Gauntlet of Thebes (buff): now provides 5 stacks from a god kill or assist. This is good. I like HR's reasoning behind it also.
  
  
• Stone of Gaia (nerf): 150 gold price increase to 2,250 gold, and nerfed the regen from 0.4% of your health per second to 0.3%. That's a significant nerf...that's a 25% drop, which is big. Emerald Talisman, the T2 variant, also sees a similar nerf. I think this is fine...it DOES provide a ton of sustain and is relatively cheap, even with the price increase.
  
  
• Heartseeker (nerf): bonus damage decreased from 100% of your physical power to 80% of your physical power. Guess it was being used way too much. For the price and the stats it provides, I understand why. This is probably a reasonable move.
  
  
• Doom Orb (buff): increased base power from 60 to 70. Really? I thought it was pretty decent as-is.
  
  
• Soul Reaver (buff): cost decrease and 10 power increase. Meh, still don't like the item, personally.
  
  
• Shaman's Ring (shift): 100 gold cost increase, but also a 20 power increase. Seems reasonable...the item wasn't getting enough attention. This should help.
  
  
• Telkhines Ring (buff): decreased cost to 2,700 gold, and increased passive bonus damage on basics from 10 +5% of your magical power to 10 +8%. Oooh, I like this =) Thanks, says Freya.

God changes:

• Achilles (nerfs): Shield of Achilles drops in power significantly, and the stun duration is set at 1 second at all ranks. This was the big thing people were complaining about...too much damage in his 1. This is a solid nerf that I think will automatically get him into a more balanced situation. Combat Dodge also sees a nerf in its CD, from 10 to 12 seconds. Also reasonable, as that was a very low CD on a mobility + damage ability.
  
  
• Apollo (buff): So Beautiful gets a buff to base damage at all levels. I'm amazed he's not used more...as HR did, I figured his global ult would make playing him appealing for his split-push potential. Guess not.
  
  
• Fafnir (buff / nerf): Cursed Strength gets a slight buff, increasing his stun slightly per rank, while Coerce gets a nerf to his base and scaling for the self healing aspect. Eh, fine, I don't really care because I don't like him much anyway XD
  
  
• He Bo (nerfs): Water Spout gets a scaling nerf, and Atlas of the Yellow River (stupidly longest name for a skill ever) gets a 2 second CD increase. He's been considered a pretty strong god for a while now, so this is probably good, though not sure it's enough...?
  
  
• Kumbhakarna (buff): our favorite big boy gets some love. Throw Back gets a 2 second CD decrease, and Groggy Strike gets a base damage increase. Reasonable, I guess. He needed buffs. Glad they didn't increase his ability CCs.
  
  
• Nemesis (nerf): Divine Judgement gets decreased self buff duration from 8 seconds to 5 seconds, with a steady 90 second CD at all ranks. This is reasonable. Don't touch her normal abilities which makes her a solid jungler, but cut into her tank-killing capabilities with that insanely low 70 second CD.
  
  
• Nu Wa (buffs): holy buffs. A lot of quality of life buffs overall that really make her better. Mana cost decreases in 2 abilities, clay soldiers move a bit faster, magical scaling increase on Shining Metal, and Fire Shards can now actually bypass player deployables like Ring of Spears, because you know, completely leaving the ground for 3 isn't good enough.
  
  
• Ra (buff): gets a movespeed buff to match most other mages, and increased scaling on Celestial Beam from 80 to 90%. Ok.
  
  
• Thoth (nerf): sees some decreases to scaling on penetration per stack for Dead Reckoning and to power scaling bonus on Glyph of Pain. Seems reasonable here too.

Another series of adjustments that I think are pretty solid.

I find it funny how I just watched Dukesloth’s video on the patch notes and he says this patch was ****, but you like it. Upset at the heart seeker and Nemesis nerfs, but I can kinda understand them. Heart seeker is pretty much required on every assassin (at least all the ones I play a lot), so can’t be too mad about the nerf. Nemesis nerf pulls her away from the “ult-bot” god she has always been close to and it’ll feel good to not feel like you need your ult to do any real damage. Cutting down the time you have the buff will hurt and take some getting used to, but makes the ult more risky and make you have to think before you use it.

Well I'm a nobody so I'm probably wrong LOL.

As a fenrir main, i dont like the h. Seeker & blink nerfs, but everything else seems really solid. Good patch.

There's probably gonna be a new, limited nu wa skin.

I like the blink nerf, hopefully it makes it so that not every jungler picks it up now and just the once that actually should have it.

Also like HS nerf, 20% nerf is not that significant either. You still got the MS. So still super strong. But I think it will make it so that you don't just 100% lose a 1v1 vs the enemy jungle if he/she got 5 HS stacks and you do not.

Ofc going to miss the spammable blinks and the siq HS damage though :p

This is actually what I meant.
Also do you have a psn, Marki?

Guessed you saw the need for the nerf hehe.

Yes it is like major_parkinson or something. I will go check later ;)

this was the first time I actually really disagreed with DukeSloth, I thought everything in this patch was really solid

The only thing I am worried about is that they didnt touch the main sources of frustration on Achilles, so while he should be balanced now, people will continue to complain and then he will be overnerfed like Terra was.

Same.
Kind of feel they should have removed the slow cleanse on He Bo though, and nothing else.
At least see how that would play ought, they might have tested it though.

The +2 sec cd and damage nerf might be enough though. But the slow immunity is what makes him so hard to counter in the jumgle.

I do not really understand the Nu Wa and Ra buffs though. Really dont lkke not being able to cage Nu Wa TBH.

So you're saying maybe I'm not full of $#!+?