Patch 6.10, Odyssey Underworld - Bran's Thoughts & Balance Rant

Alright, so I'm not going to break down all of the different things like I usually do. I'm going to post some quick thoughts on the patch, and then go on a mini rant about the balancing process.

Firstly, official patch notes can be found here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/odyssey-underworld-update-notes

Thoughts on the Patch:

• Yay on tons of skins that I don't want to spend $$$ on. I do like the Chibi Medusa (of course), we finally get ThanaToast, I like the Galaxy Shaper Nox, and Pirate Admiral Chang'e. Oh and Crime Boss Kuzenbo is pretty boss. Stellar Demise Baron, I do like the concept.
  
  
• Tons of bug fixes. This game is so buggy.
  
  
• Wow...Project Olympus "What's New" screen...actually adding in a link to current patch notes. About time.
  
  
• 1 actual item change. 1. Heartseeker gets a major shift. It's now the physical variant of Soul Reaver, as damaging abilities now deal 3-6% maximum health damage as physical damage (but scaling based on your power from <200 to 400 max, rather than based on enemy health). Also gets a major power boost, from 30 to 75, and an MP5 boost, from 5 to 20, along with a price boost, from 2,300 to 2,900 gold. This is a nice shift for junglers, and a solid go-to item for the late game.
  
  
• Ah Muzen Cab: Massive nerf, IMO. Bees no longer trigger item effects, meaning The Crusher is no longer that functional for him (at least the way it used to be). Also got a nerf to the damage for his ult.
  
  
• Amaterasu: Her late-game is the weakest point, and she gets a boost to the early damage from Heavenly Reflection. A much bigger boost when she's taking some damage, so she'll probably want to try to get aggro to build that up...but having that max charge damage at 140, while Nike gets slightly higher damage with all 3 hits of Rend...well, using that comparison, Nike's Rend just needs a nerf to the damage...lol.
  
  
• Erlang Shen: Nerf...no haste effect in Mink form anymore, and decrease to turtle damage. I know he's generally one of the better gods due to flex pick capability. I guess this is a good change. His turtle knockup just got a huge damage decrease though.
  
  
• Eset: Nerf to Dispel Magic's shield health and slow. This is good.
  
  
• Olorun: base power increase and slight base damage increase to Overflowing Divinity. Seems okay overall, but I think he's one of the stronger magical ADCs right now...Freya and Sol have sort of fallen on the wayside....hmmm.
  
  
• Persephone: mostly fixes. She's gonna need nerfs.
  
  
• Sun Wukong: slight base damage increase at higher ranks for Master's Will, which is fine.
  
  
• Sylvanus: CD decrease on Wisps and Nature's Grasp, which is good, his CDs were just way too long.
  
  
• The Morrigan: CD decreased on Changeling at the lower ranks. Okay.
  
  
• Zhong Kui: Demon Bag has an increase on max souls, and max protections decreased from 32 to 30, which is good. Also Expose Evil got a CD increase from 10 to 12 seconds. Seems weird when Exorcism is still at 10 seconds.

So...I know they said they weren't going to touch Thor, but still...that's pretty lame. He's just way overtuned right now. He needs a CD increase to Berserker Barrage, at least.

Any god that has semi-global to global ults need to be watched very closely as you start controlling MS like they are. This is such a huge advantage over other gods, allowing you, even when way out of position, to jump into a fight and create odd-man situations.

Balancing is a tricky thing, I get it. I like that they're moving away from the massive MS meta by dropping MS from the rings and lowering the MS on some of the katana tree. I still think Fail-Not should get a further nerf, and drop the CDR to 10% (and maybe drop the price by 100 gold). Allowing a double-hunter meta is just stupid to me. Hunters have a major advantage in objective damage already. Now you're allowing them to take over the mid-lane due to that super-high CDR? Bleh.

You forgot to say that SWK passive persist for 10 secs after you regen health.

It’s not even double hunter meta though? Some mages are still picked in Mid, though lower pressure ones like Thoth are picked in ADC while you have a hunter in Mid. No Thor nerfs? Ok. Oh and Hi Rez buffing Morrigan and Olorun... also King Arthur and Susano just going to completely abuse new Heartseeker...

Eh I don't like the potential of even having a double hunter meta. The loadout for hunters is, IMO, very strong right now, and giving them a way to have strong basics coupled with an incredible 20% CDR making them half-mages is stupid. Again, just my opinion.

And yeah, Morrigan's ult shouldn't have under 120 seconds base at max rank. She gets to choose from all gods present, and that flexibility should mean a significantly longer CD. She'll get some CDR items, so 30% CDR would mean 84 second CD. That seems reasonable to me.

Oh, and wasn't even thinking about synergies for HS...yeah, some gods will abuse like crazy.

As one who's trying to be an Olorun main and getting draft hate, I'm happy... haha

My problem is, I don't know if the Heartseeker change is what jungler's need. Not sure what they do need, but I feel like this might not be enough or the right thing.

you could change one paranthesis on Sylvanus "Wisps" so it shows correctly ;)
besides: Thanks very much for your insight. It always helps me to see an opinion on those Things.

Concerning Persephone: i don't know. On one Hand, she's fairly Weak when she enters a Fighting Place where she haven't been yet. As soon as she plants her Thingies, she seems okay. Since you can basically walk away from her Flowers who run at you. So you can very easily avoid her Damage. On the other Hand, you can't do nothing against those Plants / Seeds really (like destroying them like the Corpses from Ah Puch). So it feels kinda even.

Fixed, thanks Caf. I typed it up pretty quickly, so I'm surprised there's only one typo.

Yes, Persephone is an interesting one, where she becomes amazingly threatening if she's already set up in an area. But anything outside of that area she has much less influence. My bigger concern, although when she does deal damage it's pretty significant, is her ult. It's a mobile form of lockdown (either trapped inside or tethered outside), it deals a decent amount of damage, it has an attack speed slow, and it lasts for 5 seconds. I mean, Odin is PISSED at HR right now. That's an extremely bloated ult. Yes, you can Beads out of it (unlike Ring of Spears, which you can only leap/teleport/Phantom out of), and yes, you can completely miss it, but in narrow confines of the jungle, say, it's a death trap if you don't have those beads. IMO they need to shorten duration a bit, maybe reduce damage just a bit as well.

Bran just completely ignored my comment
Okay ;-;

Quoted for prosperity.