Patch 5.6 "Inner Demon" - Bran's Thoughts

Do you peeps still like me doing this? Who even reads this?


Patch notes are found here: https://www.smitefire.com/smite/forum/news/5-6-pts-update-notes-inner-demon-58616


Blah blah skins holy****thatlokione blah blah WTF NEW ARENA? (Oh it's an adventure mode, bah)


Hel's Inner Demon Arena


PVP Adventure with a revamped Arena, with new environment and features.

• New Hazards: water pools will kill players if they stay there too long. This is great to make sure people keep moving.
  
  
• New Objectives: 3 serpent demons will spawn in the center of the map every 2 minutes. Whichever team kills 2 of 3 will get a titan juggernaut...these juggernauts will actually attack nearby enemies when they are stopped, unlike the normal ones that just sit there like dumbasses.
  
  
• Demon Jungle Buffs: 60 second durations (down from 120), but provide some enhanced effects...Red provides 20% MS in addition to power, blue provides 10% damage mitigation in addition to CD and MP5, and purple provides haste effect in addition to basic attack power and attack speed. LOL Freya, have you missed me? I'm going to have to try for an early kill XD
  
  
• Bonus Round returns: 5v5 close quarters deathmatch after the match for extra points. This was always pretty fun to me, though stupid at the same time. I'm cool with or without this.
  
  
• QoL: respawn timers are now consistent (instead of 2 seconds one time then 30 seconds (WTF) the next). Other minor things.

Pretty cool overall, but still hoping for an official Arena mode revision.



Item changes:

• Rage (buff): Now has a base 30% critical strike chance, increasing to 40% at max stacks. This is nice and needed.
  
  
• Soul Gem (nerf): bonus damage decreased from 40 to 30% of your magical power. Guess it was over-performing. I hadn't been picking it up, to be honest, so I'm fine with this.
  
  
• Warlock's Staff (nerf): health per stack down from 4 to 3. Max health bonus is now 500 instead of 600. This was necessary...mages got too much survivability from this, especially in combination with their increasing inherent magical protections buff.
  
  
• Shield of Thorns (nerf): Decreased damage reflect from 50 to 40%. Feels like people have been already picking it up less, and now it's being nerfed more? This was a nice alternative to decreasing DPS via the recently buffed Midgardian Mail, but it pushes things even further in that direction...and wait for it...the next item does the same thing!!!
  
  
• Hide of the Nemean Lion (nerf): physical protections down from 80 to 70. It only counters basic attackers (especially hunters), and hunters are already on the somewhat weaker side of things, so I guess this helps them when building into crit...but again, pushes things toward Midgardian, which to me honestly feels like a better protection item due to the health boost.
  
  
• Celestial Legion Helm (buff): increased physical protection from 30 to 40. This is fine...not often picked up.
  
  
• Shogun's Kusari (shift): They just haven't been able to balance this item in a way that they're comfortable with...increased magical protection from 40 to 50 (good) and decreased passive attack speed from 25 to 20% (also good). I like this adjustment a lot.
  
  
• Jade Emperor's Crown (buff): Increased physical protection from 50 to 60. Brings it closer to Sov, which is by far the preferred item right now. I still don't really like this item much, though.
  
  
• Bulwark of Hope (buff): Price decrease from 2,550 to 2,400 gold. This is okay.
  
  
• Pestilence (nerf): Increased cost from 2,150 to 2,250 gold. This is good...provides nice health and extremely high protection...way cheap for what it gives.
  
  
• Rod of Asclepius (buff): Increased power from 75 to 90, and increased in combat healing bonus from 10 to 15%. I like these changes too...always love me some Asclepius.
  
  
• Toxic Blade (shift): Increased pen from 10 to 15, reduced stacks needed from 3 to 2, decreased anti-heal from 60% to 40%, and increased stack duration from 5 to 8 seconds. I think this improves the item overall...the anti-heal is nerfed, but don't feel that's a huge deal. Still could probably use something else though.

God changes:

• Ares (buff): WTF No Escape no longer needs line of sight??? BLEH. Oh I definitely need to see how this one changes things.
  
  
• Cerberus (buffs): Paralyzing Spit now goes through walls (distance isn't really long enough to matter a huge amount in most modes other than cutting corners. Radius of the projectiles slightly increased, and the stun is subject to diminishing returns. Soul Expulsion range increased slightly, and Stygian Torment, like No Escape, no longer requires line of sight (but won't pull enemies through obstacles, which is good). Okay, I guess? This will help his Solo lane strength, and he's pretty strong already there.
  
  
• Ne Zha (buff): Mostly just an adjustment to how the damage is applied via Wind Fire Wheels, but helps his damage a bit if enemies use beads.
  
  
• Nemesis (nerf): Divine Judgement gets another nerf, to the top end...now scales less and maxes at 30% of a target's current health. This is fair.
  
  
• Nu Wa (nerf): Very slight nerf to Shining Metal's stun duration to make progression consistent. Not really much of a change.
  
  
• Sol (nerf): Her passive, Unstable Manifestation, gave her incredible late-game damage potential for DPS and objective takedown. It's shown itself to be very powerful in tandem with all of the mage item changes, and so is getting nerfed. Bonus attack damage decreased from 25 to 20%, attack speed from 1.2% to 1% (max 30% down to 25%) and power bonus from 1 to 0.8% (25 down to 20%). These changes should probably be good.
  
  
• Terra (shifts): Monolith now roots people again! Instead of a global ult, she has a new one, called Earthen Fury.
  
  Terra channels her strength into the world around her, buffing her allies and debuffing enemies for 10s. Allies gain 10% damage mitigation as well as a Heal over Time and protective stones that heal the ally if all 4 are activated. Enemies receive 10% more damage from all sources and harmful stones that damage the enemy if all 4 are activated. Stones are activated when an ally or enemy takes damage.
  
  Radius : 55 units
  Heal over Time : 5/8/11/14/17 (+2% of your magical power) every 0.5s for 10s
  Heal : 100/150/200/250/300 (+30% of your magical power)
  Damage : 200/250/300/350/400 (+60% of your magical power)
  Cooldown : 90 seconds
  Cost : 100 mana
  
  Her global ultimate buff was really nice...this one provides a lot of benefits, and I see it being extremely useful in the competitive scene, but less so elsewhere. (As far as I understand it, she plants it, and it doesn't move with her) This will help zone enemies when trying to secure objectives, so is great for coordinated teams. The return of her root also really boosts her back up into relevance.
  
  
• Thoth (nerf): Evade and Punish no longer begins cooldown until the projectile is shot (or expires). Since I hate his crazy range poke potential, I'm happy about this =)

Good patch overall, I like it.

xD LOL


I think you and I interpreted the Rage change differently...

My take on it was that they moved the +10% Critical Strike chance when evolved effect onto the base item stats. The permanent +2% Critical Strike Chance for 5 stacks still remains in effect, but when the item "evolves" or reaches max stacks, it doesn't provide any additional benefit. So the item's "final form" will still give +40% Critical Strike chance.

Ohhhh if that's the case then okay, it's still fine.

So is the new Arena mode going to be a redesign of the current Arena mode, or will it be an adventure?

It said PVP Adventure...so...adventure? I originally thought it was a new Arena map, but I didn't watch the stream. Oh well...less interested now.

Nice

If the next patch doesn't have a new god, I'm going to eat my hat.

Oh please Gods don't have a new god...

You'd better record that and put it on YouTube.

(also, why do you want a new god? It'll just be another one that will frustrate the hell out of you)

I read these Bran. One of the few things I wait for on patch days. I don't have anything to say about the patch that you didn't say. I'm not happy about the Nemesis nerf, but Nem is my main assassin so kinda expected. I'll just work through it.

The cerb buff is way too much I am pretty sure.

And I think the Terra change will be a pretty big nerf.
The Ares/Ceeb buff is interesting, pull ppl from the purple/blue buff and into tover or out of tower and into blue/purple buff?
The Ne Zha "fix" might end up beeing a pretty big nerf I think (if i understand it correctly). Because it makes it a lot easier to burst Ne Zha after he ults, so you basically set up to kills by ulting someone. One kill on the person you ult and one on yourself unless you ult the enemy mage.
The damage buff is nice though, so if the "fix" is unnoticeable I'm happy. But always scary when they remove immunity frames.