Patch 6.7, "Ruler of the Heavens" - Bran's Thoughts

Link to the official patch notes is here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/ruler-of-the-heavens-update-notes



Class: Mage
Intended Role: Carry, Mid
Kit Features:

• Magical basic attack crits
• Attack speed steroid
• Minor self/teammate heal
• Physical/magical protection buff
• Knockback + 20% Slow
• AOE Attack/Cast/MS 40% Slow, Self Attack/Cast/MS 30% Buff
• No mobility (e.g. teleport, leap, dash)

I'm uh...gonna write a separate post about this guy. Would like others to chime in with thoughts.


Item Changes:

• Odysseus' Bow (nerf): Decreased base damage on the passive from 30 to 15. Freaking good. Tired of seeing this as an early-game item. Probably will still see it, to be honest, but at least it won't be quite as effective for wave-clear.
  
  
• Charged Bow (nerf): Same as O-Bow, base damage reduced from 20 to 15.
  
  
• Doom Orb (buff): Price decreased from 3,200 to 3,000 gold. I dunno, I just don't really like the item or its passive that much. Might get picked up more, cuz the power is enticing, but...bleh.
  
  
• Gem of Isolation (nerf): MS slow % decreased from 25% to 20%, duration decreased from 2s to 1s. This is a good way to decrease MS/control altogether, and a way to continue nerfing Merlin without directly affecting his damage or CDs. Obviously also affects other gods that get a lot of use out of Iso, but I think this is a great adjustment overall.
  
  
• Malice (buff): Decreased cost from 3,000 to 2,650 gold. Increased CDR from 2s to 3s. Hmmm...the passive is still the main issue with this item, but, well, that's a huge price drop. Considering that it also provides 25% crit chance and 50 power (both very strong values)...it's not going to be picked up by ADCs, but probably has more appeal now to select assassins that could use the CDR.

Guess we're never going to see buffs or adjustments to ****py items like Mail of Renewal, huh?


God Changes:

• Achilles (buffs): Gift of the Gods protections per level increased from 1.5 to 2. Shield of Achilles damage outside the initial area increased from 70 to 85%. They liked the nerfs they gave him, but wanted to adjust him in other ways. He still seems strong overall. This just makes him a bit tankier, and helps his damage output when he doesn't actually get to stun.
  
  
• Ao Kuang (nerfs): Dragon Call ranged slow decreased from 30% to 20%. Wild Storm increased CD from 7s to 9s. Targeted nerfs, seem fine.
  
  
• Athena (buffs): Shield Wall increased initial damage from 60-200 to 70-230, while decreasing secondary damage from 80-360 to 70-330. Preemptive Strike slow duration increased from 1.25-2.25s to 2.25 straight. It's always easier to hit the first part of the Wall, so keeping the overall damage potential the same while buffing the initial hit is a solid buff (though still somewhat minor in damage overall). The Slow from her dash being at 2.25 at all ranks is a very strong buff.
  
  
• Cerberus (buffs): Soul Expulsion health of the souls created decreased from 95-235 to 6i0-220, while increasing heal from 30-110 to 40-140, and decreasing CD from 18s to 16s. Stygian Torment decreased CD from 115-95 to 100 at all ranks. Solid buffs all around, continuing the shift to heal meta. Ugh. Easier to kill the souls, making it quicker for him to heal up, and heal more strongly...probably with Solo in mind to help him compete against the shields' sustain functions.
  
  
• Cu Chulainn (buff): Barbed Spear increased scaling from 45% to 55%. Eh.
  
  
• He Bo (nerfs): Water Cannon decreased damage from 70-290 to 70-270. Atlas of the Yellow River decreased MS and slow from 30-50% to 25-45%. Mostly just a top-end nerf.
  
  
• Horus (buff): Updraft CD decreased from 18-14 to 16/16/15/15/14. Early game CD reduction, which should help his Solo presence, and give him slightly more opportunities for CC for initiation/peel as Support.
  
  
• Jormungandr (nerf): Consuming Bellow decreased bonus base damage from 20-60 to 20-40. Ouch, but needed. Sorry Boog.
  
  
• Khepri (buffs): Rising Dawn increased damage per tick from 10-22 to 10-26. Solar Flare decreased CD from 16s to 14s. Solid buffs for the cricket (where are you, GGF?). Funny, just a bit earlier today I was talking about looking to play him more.
  
  
• Set (buffs): Relentless duration increased from 4s to 5s. [[Kingslayer decreased prefire time from 0.8s to 0.33s. Solid buffs that are mostly QoL, without directly affecting the damage of his abilities.
  
  
• Ymir (buff): Frost Breath CD decreased from 18s to 16s. This had a very long CD...but is also a very strong CC ability. It's probably a good buff.

At least we didn't see more buffs to healing overall. Seeing less burst and more control overall, though.

Olorun is very interesting. I'm a bit afraid of his initial tuning, but we'll have to see.

Look how they massacred my boy... (even though it should've happened long ago).

I'm just confused on why HiRez is wasting (probably not the right word, but you understand) their buffs/nerfs attention towards gods who don't need it. In ranked Horus and Set are both working completely fine, if anything they're overbalanced, and yet they both received buffs, Horus getting one that's pretty strong. Achilles is still one of the top P/B gods I see in ranked, so I don't understand the buff behind him, and still would have rather him kept his auto attack range and they fiddled with his ability numbers otherwise. Athena doesn't really need buffs when gods like Cabrakan or Ganesha are being quite outclassed in the support role. Gods like Loki, Bastet, Odin, and Thoth who are all quite outclassed right now.

Edit: I should clarify that I'm glad Horus is getting more solo capability, but it reminds me a lot of Ne Zha where they tried to strengthen his other roles, Solo and Jungle, and ended up making him a great support again. He's a really really strong support right now, and this buff might just make him more oppressive in support rather than viable in solo.

Nerf then buff, what HR have in mind?
Achilles didn't need this buff, neither Horus and specially Seth. Cu Chulainn also didn't need it. All these unnecessary changes While necessary changes like King Arthur destroying anyone in lane due Gladiator's Shield don't happen.

The Official Patch Notes said in the description that this buff was aimed at his Support gameplay.

At the same time, it will also improve his Solo viability.

I like the change to Malice too. Thought it was an underrated item before. Now it has much more appeal.

Bran, Malice is 40 power, not 50 power. Thought it would be nice to give it 50 power, since it's such an underused item.

Malice needed the stuff. Agreed adcs won't pick it up however it doesn't look aimed at them. Cost reduction is going to do a ton.

While ymir stun is quite punishing it is also his only way. Therefore he could be quite bad in support as other supports are allowed to engage sooner. If hr wants to balance his 3 right CD isn't the full way mana cost would be or early game stun