Goddess of the Salt Sea | 8.2 Update Notes (w/ 8.1 Bonus Update)

By: TitanIsiah | 2021/2/3



Source (8.1 Bonus Update): https://www.smitegame.com/news/8-1-bonus-update-notes-live-february-9/
Source (8.2 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/goddess-of-the-salt-sea-8-2-update-notes/
Bonus Balance Patch scheduled to go live: February 9
Main Patch scheduled to go live: February 23

*NOTE* For full patch notes, please visit the source. Only Update Schedule, Item and God Balance will be listed here.

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

FEBRUARY 9

• Season 8 Bonus Update – Get the details on balance and new content here!

FEBRUARY 23

• Tiamat
• Dawn of Babylon Bundle 3
• New Viewer Pass and Viewer Store content
• Critter Chest

MARCH 9

• Goddess of the Salt Sea Bonus Update – More info coming soon!

Please note that these dates are tentative and subject to change.

TIAMAT - GODDESS OF THE SALT SEA

PASSIVE - DEATH BEGETS LIFE


While in Flying stance Tiamat gains health from nearby ally and enemy deaths, less from minions. In Ground stance she gains up to 5 Hardened Scales, damage mitigation that breaks after a certain amount of damage is taken. Normal minions do not provide Hardened Scales.



ABILITY 1 (FLYING STANCE) - PRIMORDIAL ONSLAUGHT


Tiamat gathers power, allowing her to fire orbs of energy at the end of the channel. Each orb damages enemies and stops on enemy gods. Hitting the same enemy deals 15% less damage each time, to a minimum of 70% reduction. This ability can fire additional projectiles at ranks 3 and 5.




ABILITY 2 (FLYING STANCE) - RUINATION


Tiamat creates an energy field dealing low damage to enemies in the entire area and then a larger amount in the inner area. The inner area of the field also stuns enemies for a short duration.




ABILITY 3 (FLYING STANCE) - GROUNDING DIVE


Tiamat dives into the fight landing on all fours, dealing damage and switching to her Ground stance. This ability also provides Tiamat one Hardened Scale.




ULTIMATE (FLYING STANCE) - CHILDREN OF CREATION


Tiamat is able to summon one of her children onto the battlefield. Summon Serpents: Serpents that travel down lanes and act as minions. Summon Beast: Kusarikku who stands guard waiting for enemy gods. Summon Storm: Umu Dabrutu, the storm that chases enemies.




ULTIMATE SUMMON 1 (FLYING STANCE) - SUMMON SERPENTS


Tiamat places a pit of creation which spawn Serpents of Tiamat that act like minions, traveling down lanes and attacking nearby enemies. 2 Serpents spawn every 10s and the deployable creates 3 waves before disappearing. Enemies hit by the serpents have their damage done reduced. Enemies can also stand on the pit to destroy it early.




ULTIMATE SUMMON 2 (FLYING STANCE) - SUMMON BEAST


Tiamat calls forth Kusarikku who stands guard at the target location. If an enemy god comes too close, he charges, slows and attacks them.




ULTIMATE SUMMON 3 (FLYING STANCE) - SUMMON STORM


Tiamat calls on the power of Umu Dabrutu, conjuring a violent storm that follows enemies before knocking them upward and dissipating.




ABILITY 1 (GROUND STANCE) - CONSUME


Tiamat fires a cone dealing damage and slowing enemies hit. Minions, Large Monsters or Buff Holders hit under a health threshold are executed. Tiamat can immediately consume her Serpent and Beast pets to provide a Hardened Scale. When Tiamat consumes a Buff Holder she gains their buff while the original can still be picked up by allies. This allows Tiamat to pick up a second buff as well. Tiamat can only have one consumed and one regular buff at a time.




ABILITY 2 (GROUND STANCE) - OUTBURST


Tiamat slams the ground creating seismic rifts that erupt in succession in front of her, damaging and knocking up enemies hit.




ABILITY 3 (GROUND STANCE) - RISING FLIGHT


Tiamat rears up sending out a blast of energy, dealing damage to enemies and sending herself backwards as she returns to her Flying stance.




ULTIMATE (GROUND STANCE) - TEMPEST OF UNDOING


Tiamat causes a celestial outburst around her, dealing initial damage and a damage over time effect to every enemy nearby. Tiamat also gains one Hardened Scale per enemy god hit.

BONUS UPDATE LIVE FEBRUARY 9

ITEMS



CONDUIT GEM

"Conduit Gem has largely been the top performer. Its raw power combined with solid regen and solid upgrades put its direct competitor, Sands of Time in a strange spot. Nerfing the regen and Magical Power both puts more focus on playing around its passive but gives Sands of Time a better shot as succeeding in its regen niche."

• Decreased MP5 from 15 to 10
• Decreased Magical Power from 30 to 25.

ARCHMAGE’S GEM

"Archmage’s Gem was also the go to choice for upgrading Conduit Gem. The raw burst provided from this item created an extremely bursty late game for mages. Taking the edge off this items scaling will still let this item burst but at a more reasonable level."

• Decreased 2.5% scaling per stack to 2%

PENDULUM OF AGES

"Archmage’s Gem was also the go to choice for upgrading Conduit Gem. The raw burst provided from this item created an extremely bursty late game for mages. Taking the edge off this items scaling will still let this item burst but at a more reasonable level."

• Increased Cooldown Reduction from 10% to 20%
• Increased Magical Power per 10% Available Mana from 7 to 10

MANIKIN SCEPTER

"Manikin Scepters adjustments will be in two parts. We originally planned for a single bonus balance adjustment that targeted this item’s ability to trade effectively in lane. A decrease in Physical Protection and lane damage should help bring it more into line, especially to help Warriors Axe remain competitive against it with its nerfs. However, we saw very quickly this week Manikin Scepter explode in popularity above other items more than anticipated. With Bonus Balance already prepared to ship to all platforms, we cannot add to it. However, we have seen the item’s usage continue to grow and will be applying an additional nerf in the 8.2 launch."

• Decreased Physical Protections from 15 to 10
• Decreased Bonus Damage from 16 to 12
• Increased Bonus Jungle Damage from 3x to 4x.

BLUESTONE BROOCH

"Bluestone Pendant has been a highlight for many players, but struggled to fight solid use at the top levels of play. Particularly Warriors struggle to upgrade this item as none of them provide any defensive benefit. Bluestone Brooch will now serve as the bruiser option for the bruiser focused Warrior."

• Now Provides 200 Health

WARRIOR’S AXE

"Warrior’s Axe was another solo lane item that we have heard a lot about at the top level of play. This item was not only a solid counter to the tick damage of Manikin and Bluestone but was outright good at trading due to the health steal. Removing the flat damage reduction should make matchups against it feel more fair while a small health increase should offset the nerf from feeling too intense."

• No longer provides 2 flat dmg reduction
• Increased Health from 50 to 75

SUNDERING AXE

"As the direct upgrade from Sundering Axe, it no longer felt like it should provide this flat damage reduction and it seems to be doing quite well already!"

• Removed the 5 flat dmg reduction

WARDING SIGIL

"Warding Sigil struggled to see any play as it was too niche, focusing too heavily as a counter to Magic Damage. We are making it a true tanky option with a slight lean on Magical Protection."

• Now provides 10 Physical Protections.
• Decreased Health from 100 to 75.

INFUSED SIGIL

"The upgrades for both of these items also struggled from both being niche in countering Magical Damage and in Infused Sigil’s case, a passive that didn’t quite feel impactful enough. Infused Sigil will now trigger more often and more an extra punch."

• Decreased stack count to detonate from 5 abilities to 4.
• Increased detonate damage from 400 to 500 Magical Power.

SIGIL OF THE OLD GUARD

"Sigil of the Old Guard is the direct upgrade to Warding Sigil, so to meet with its more tank focused stats this item is gaining some protections as well."

• Now provides 30 Physical protections.

WAR FLAG

"War Flag is unique in that it is a starter item that really encourages aggression and controlling the lane to get farm rather than it being generated on its own. The tradeoff, especially for 700 gold, felt too intense. A cost reduction will allow supports to have more flexibility with additional consumables and item choices to help them succeed with this item."

• Decreased cost from 700 to 600.

BENEVOLENCE

"Benevolence similarly felt punishing in its cost. This item both asks the Support to sacrifice farm but also incur a high burden of cost. Bringing this cost down will give more freedom in item choices for Supports."

• Decreased Cost from 750 to 600

SENTINEL’S EMBRACE

"Sentinel’s Embrace really embodies what it means to support your team. The raw protection provided made this item difficult to ignore and overpowered many other support options. At 100 protections this item will still provide a strong stat line to your team but open up other options to compete."

• Decrease both protections shared between allies on the passive from 120 to 100

COMPASSION

"Sentinel’s Embrace and Compassion are often compared as they do similar effects (protecting your team) in different ways. Without any mitigation on its own the incoming damage taken from allies was too much of a penalty. An extra 40 Magical Protections will soften incoming damage and allow supports to utilize this effect for longer."

• Now Provides 40 Magical Protections

Animosity

ANIMOSITY

"Animosity has been fun to watch. While many players have tried to find multiple opportunities to skip buying a starter to utilize the split push power of this item, we have seen that largely fail as a strategy in the stats. However, even if it does struggle the bonus structure damage also doesn’t feel particularly fun to fight against. If it is both ineffective and not fun to play against, we would rather remove this aspect of the item and allow supports to use it to beat up enemy gods. For example, Ymir has been the most successful with this item over Zhong Kui and Erlang Shen, boasting a solid winrate amongst the other starter options available! Go Ymir!"

• No longer deals bonus damage to structures.

DEATH’S TEMPER

"Death’s Temper had an issue that made it not as strong as it should have been, but it also had an issue when it came to gaining stacks. The range on getting a kill was so short it often felt buggy, feeling like a stack should have been given but not receiving one. The range on this should now feel comparable to other items that stack on kill."

• Increased range at which you can gain stacks from fallen enemies from 30 units to 80 units.

ROD OF TAHUTI

"Rod of Tahuti definitely excelled with the bonus Magical Penetration. We do like this item having the Magical Penetration as it feels like a natural item for it to be on, but the Power it now has is too high. Decreasing it to 140 will make this item more comparable to other percent penetration options."

• Decreased Magical Power from 160 to 140

GODS



SET

"Set’s high base damage combined with a strong brawling ultimate makes him a monster at most stages of the game. In particular this change focuses on his level 5 to 10 range where Skewer’s Base damage has come online and the flat healing of Kingslayer is most impactful. In this window Set should be a more manageable threat."

SKEWER

• Decrease Base Damage from 85/135/185/235/285 to 85/130/175/220/265

KINGSLAYER

• Decreased Base Healing from 45/55/65/75/85 to 35/45/55/65/75

CUPID

"Cupid really climbed the hunter ladder with his changes to Heart Bomb in Season 7. Heart Bomb’s scaling bring a hair too much damage in teamfights while Fields of Love is a constant and difficult to answer threat. The longer cooldown on Fields of Love will lower how often Cupid can burn relics and punish them by himself when they are down."

HEART BOMB

• Decreased scaling from 80% to 75%. (10% on double hit)

FIELDS OF LOVE

• Increased cooldown from 90s to 100s.

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE UPDATE OCTOBER 6

ITEMS



GILDED ARROW

• This Item should no longer mark jungle bosses

MANIKIN SCEPTER

"And here is the second Manikin Scepter nerf! For more information we suggest reading the dev notes in the Bonus Balance section. For this adjustment we saw one other area of high frustration. The Attack Speed slow on this item, especially early, can limit gods ability to box and even clear in some cases. This should feel like a solid perk but currently when this became fully stacked it was nearly impossible to punch back. A reduction here should make this item more engaging to play against.”"

• Fixed an issue where Manikin Scepter was dealing Magical Damage rather than Physical Damage.
• Decreased the Attack Speed Slow from 7% per stack to 3.5% per stack.

GODS



DANZABUROU

"Danzaburou responded well to our last round of nerfs, going from a top performer to closer to the middle of the pack. We however think he still has some room to climb as players learn the new Season and wanted to do a small adjustment to the scaling potential of Uproarious Rocket."

UPROARIOUS ROCKET

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 110% to 100%.

KING ARTHUR

"King Arthur is receiving a similar fix that Jormungandr receives in Season 8 PTS. We previously allowed King Arthur’s Basic Attacks to proc blessings, which bled over into our new starter items. Since these starters are more like true items they should be treated as such for Basic Attacks that don’t trigger item effects."

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue where King Arthur could proc item effects with his basic attacks. Arthur should not be able to proc any item effects through basic attacks

BABA YAGA

"Baba found a brewing catalyst shoved away in the back of her Cabin! She can now brew at speeds never before seen! We have heard feedback on her Brew feeling particularly clunky to use. Initially we felt this delay was important for player reaction time but given the strength of these potions and the strong sound and visual cues that exist for it, this delay mostly got in the way. This should smooth out Baba Yaga’s moment to moment gameplay."

BABA’S BREW

• Decreased Potion Brew Prefire time from 0.4s to 0.2s.
• Decreased Potion Brew Postfire time from 0.2s to 0.1s.
• Decreased Potion Swap Prefire time from 0.3s to 0.1s.
• Decreased Potion Swap Postfire time from 0.3s to 0.1s.
• The travel speed and warning time of the lobbed potion is unchanged.

JORMUNGANDR

"Jormungandr cannot be stopped! Except by Flat Damage Reduction. This stat while feeling fair in most contexts feel arbitrarily punishing on Jormungandr. Rather than buffing and nerfing Jorm around these items prevalence in the Meta, we felt it made sense that his unique basics should ignore this stat, normalizing his strength when fighting different items and builds. In addition we have seen him struggling as a whole and wanted to revert the damage taken debuff that we did some time ago. This should help him stay in the fray, especially when playing a true tank build."

BASIC ATTACKS

• Jormungandr’s basic attacks can no longer be reduced by items that have flat damage reduction

IMMOVABLE

• Decreased damage taken debuff from 15% to 10%

CERNUNNOS

"With a new SEASON it is time for Cernunnos to SHIFT into the Meta! Ha! Shifter of Season’s is a one of a kind ability that felt largely underwhelming to put a point into. The level 1 effects didn’t bring much impact, making some Cernunnos players skip it for some time. By increasing the Scaling on Summer Heat and the Protection reduction from Autumn Decay, skilled Cernunnos players will be able to feel the impact of utilizing this ability well sooner into the game."

SHIFTER OF SEASONS

• Summer Heat: Increased Scaling 5% to 10%
• Autumn Decay: Increased Protection Debuff from 5/10/15/20/25 Reduced Protections to 10/14/18/22/26. Increased Duration From 5s to 7s

ODIN

"Odin and Isis both had a similar rework cycle. Reworked to feel strong, got many many nerfs, and then since then we have been trying to buff them back into a healthy spot. While his ultimate punishes those who leave early, in situations where players can stay in the ring there isn’t much of a penalty encouraging escape. A consistent duration combined with a power reduction aura will bring Odin’s Ring of Spears to a similar use case as his old version, but with all the strengths of his rework."

RING OF SPEARS

• Changed duration from 4/4.5/5/5.5/6s to 5s at all ranks
• Enemies inside the ring now have their power reduced by 15%.

ISIS

"Isis similarly gained a strong amount of utility, but after the nerfs it ended up feeling a bit lackluster. Rather than continuing to bring up her damage we wanted to bring some strength back to Dispel Magic. Isis will now have more control in the late game, with a stronger slow and shield to stay in the fight."

DISPEL MAGIC

• Increased slow from 20% at all ranks to 20/22.5/25/27.5/30%
• Increased shield health from 50/95/140/185/230 to 50/105/160/215/270

A small dev thoughts on the 2 patches:

bonus patch:

-

Conduit Gem and archmages gem nerf was to be expected.
- Pendulum of Ages getting buffed is a bad choice if we combine the nerf from archmages. also poor Chronos' Pendant totally not needed anymore if people go this starter now.
- small shift for manikin's scepter which is good with an additional nerf promised.
- axe and bluestone might now be a little more competitive although I fear it is not enough.
- Warding Sigil getting physical prot was needed and the buffs to it's upgrades look good although infused might be a bit too strong now if it sees play.
- for the support items I am happy with the changes to the starters. No reason why the others were so expensive while Sentinel's Gift was super cheap.
- the changes to [[compassion and Sentinel's Embrace might have everyone go Compassion now as it might become the better make my team tanky item.
- animosity nerf was needed as it shredded towers to hard.
- aye death's temper got fixed
- Rod of Tahuti getting nerfed not to surprising. Still a go to pickup for mages cause % pen. the only way to et it not meta anymore is nerf it to close to staff of myrdinn or Typhon's Fang

- Set nerf was expected Cupid a bit more surprised about


Now for the main patch:
Tiamat got to many abilities, gonna be a hell to balance and she is likely to become Merlin & King Arthur 2.0

-global anti heal aura is probably still gonna bug some things.
-jungle camp spawners delayed. starts going to change slightly again on the solo side maybe.
-lane scorpion health scaling explains why it was so damn squishy.
-love that they made the aura perm so carries don't punish the support by one shotting it anymore.

-second manikins nerf looking fine

-nerfs to KA is going to not be fun for him.
-yay for jorm not being invalidated by flat reduction.
-that cern buff on autumn stance is going to be strong in the early lvls
-interesting

Ring of Spears change

I think to buff Ring of Spears leaving it to 6 seconds at all ranks would feel better than meeting in the middle at 5.