Love and War | 9.8 Update Notes

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By: TitanDandy | 2022/8/17

Source (9.8 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/love-and-war-9-8-update/
Main Patch scheduled to go live: August 23

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

PASSIVE - MARK OF VENGEANCE

When Ishtar drops below 75% Health, she marks the Enemy God that most recently damaged her for 10s. Each time Ishtar deals damage to the marked God with a Basic Attack, she gains a stacking Attack Speed buff. If Ishtar receives a kill or assist on the marked God, she gains a Movement Speed buff. This passive has a 20 second cooldown.

Attack Speed Buff: 5% for 4s
Max Stacks: 4
Movement Speed Buff: 20% for 5s

ABILITY 1 - IMBUE ARROWS

Ishtar imbues her arrows with heavenly light, enhancing her Basic Attacks in one of three ways for 5s. The three varieties include Strike Shot, a lobbed explosive arrow, Spread Shot, a volley of five arrows, and Storm Shot, a fast-paced long range snipe. Ishtar cannot hit Structures during the duration.

Duration: 5s
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
Cooldown: 9s

ABILITY 1A - STRIKE SHOT

Ishtar lobs bolts that explode in an area, dealing bonus damage. These shots may also be fired over walls.

Bonus Damage: 8/12/18/24/30
Crit Damage Reduction: 40%

ABILITY 1B - SPREAD SHOT

Ishtar notches additional light arrows and fires five shots in a cone. Only the center arrow triggers Basic Attack item effects.

Center Damage: 100% of your Basic Attack Damag
Side Damage: 5/6.25/7.5/8.75/10% of you Basic Attack Damage

ABILITY 1C - STORM SHOT

Ishtar enhances her Attack Speed and fires quick, long-range shots that deal reduced damage.

Attack Speed: 20/25/30/35/40%
Projectile Speed: 120%
Damage Reduction: 20%

ABILITY 2 - ROLLING THUNDER

Ishtar calls down four strikes of lightning in a line, damaging Enemies within their area. Ishtar may aim which direction the strikes travel. If an Enemy is hit by more than one strike, they are mesmerized.

Strike Damage: 40/60/80/100/120 + 40% of your Physical Power
Mesmerize: 0.75s
Cost: 55/60/65/70/75
Cooldown: 15s

ABILITY 3 - JOLT

Ishtar draws her plades and charges forward, striking all Enemies in her path. If she hits an Enemy God, she stops and roots them for 1s as she backflips off of them. As Ishtar is in the air, she fires her bow, dealing damage in an area around the affected God. This shot may Crit and trigger Basic Attack item effects.

Damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Movement Speed: 15%
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 20s

ULTIMATE - BLADES OF RETRIBUTION

Ishtar becomes CC-immune and summons five swords of light, firing them out in a cone in front of her. Each sword damages and cripples enemies for 1.25s. When the swords reach their destination, Ishtar may recall them to her location within 3s. If an Enemy is hit by both the initial fire and the recall, they are stunned for 1s. Each sword hit after the first deals reduced damage, resetting before recalling.

Sword Damage: 80/100/120/140/160 + 45% of your Physical Power
Damage Reduction: 30% per sword, up to a max of 80%
Cripple: 1.25s
Stun: 1s
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

AUGUST 23 - LOVE AND WAR UPDATE

New Goddess: Ishtar
Odyssey: The Soaring Isles Event
New T5 Hades Skin: Crow of Torment Hades
Community Celebration Calendar Event
& Much More!

SEPTEMBER 6 - LOVE AND WAR BONUS UPDATE

More Odyssey Content
Lifeform Chest & Frostbite Chest
& More to come!

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

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 9.8 UPDATE - AUGUST 23

ITEMS

"The level 15 Support starter items have returned! These items now have the proper restrictions in place to prevent them from being abused by other roles. Players will now need to be the lowest gold on their team in order to get the bonus gold. The lower upgrade level will give supports an extra edge in the late game."

All Support Starter Items can be upgraded at level 15

Sentinel’s Embrace
Sentinel’s Boon
Compassion
Animosity
War Banner
Spartan Flag
Lono’s Mask

"The new Earring Items set some high expectations but ultimately proved to be underpowered in practice. For this update we implemented a new round of testing that included influencers, olympians, and pro players getting their hands on the content early, but we still learned so much more once these items went to live servers. We are going to be doing pretty heavy stat adjustments to all of these items with the primary goals of buffing them and better fitting them to the class/roles that will want them."

SPHINX'S BAUBLES

"Of all the changes in Mid-Season, Sphinx’s Baubles got the most discussion. Community feedback toward this item rapidly changed from overpowered and game breaking to niche and undertuned. Ultimately we agreed that the 60% CDR threshold is just too intense, especially when combined with other CDR cap dodging items like Chronos’ Pendant or Bumba’s Hammer, so we will be leaving the item at that passive stat. However, we are changing the stats and downside of this item to entirely remove the damage reduction and replacing it with a protection reduction. This will make the item a more powerful choice for Mages who want to trade off some stats for more CDR, and will make this item a heavier tradeoff for tanks. We are taking the most cautious route with this item in the tree because of its ability to potentially warp the entire meta, we will continue to buff it as needed but incrementally over time."

Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 45
Decreased Magical Power from 80 to 70
This Item no longer has any damage output debuff (still has healing decrease)
This item now Decreases your Magical and Physical Protections by 15% (This applies to all protections including base, items, auras, player buffs, and jungle buffs)

GRIFFONWING EARRINGS

"The Griffonwing Earrings passive effect was generally undervalued by players. To better balance that out we are removing the downside entirely. Building this item already comes at a significant cost in that you do not get another strong Hunter item passive that is available to you. We are also buffing the Magical Power on this item to ensure its a reasonable option for Mage ADCs in addition to Hunters."

Increased Magical Power from 60 to 70
This Item no longer has any damage output debuff

ROSE SPIKE EARRINGS

Increased Health from 200 to 250
Removed 15 HP5
Added 25 Magical Protections

FAE-BLESSED HOOPS

"The “pickups” side of the tree is seeing a big stat shift toward protections, so the Tier 2 item is also being adjusted to flow into those stats. Fae Blessed Hoops will now provide Magical Protections and CDR to make it a better option for healing guardians or healing mages flexing their build paths in more casual modes. Overall these two stats should be a significant increase in total value compared to the lost HP5."

Increased Health from 300 to 350
Removed 20 HP5
Added 10% CDR
Added 60 Magical Protections

MANTICORE'S SPIKES

"Manticore’s Spike is seeing a similar shift as the Fae Blessed Hoops, gaining both types of protections to hopefully be a true contender in Support Builds. We are also buffing the item’s passive in multiple ways to increase the items usability and potency."

Removed 30 HP5
Removed 20% CCR
Added 40 Physical Protections
Added 40 Magical Protections
Increased the duration of the self buff after pickup from 5s to 15s
Increased the damage dealt from 3% to 4% of their max HP
Increased the damage dealt by the item owner from 6% to 8% of their max HP

"Mages have slowly been working their way back into the meta, although Hunters are still overshadowing them in many ways, sometimes even in the Mid Lane. This update is bringing a few different changes to boost Mage itemization across the board. First, flat penetration items are seeing a cost decrease to make sure they can be effective in the early game. Next, Rod of Tahuti and its upgrades is getting back some more Magical Power to help it better compete with the other top end mage items. As a treat, we are also making a small change to Polynomicon to make this fringe item a bit more powerful, although it would still be expected to remain as a fringe item."

DIVINE RUIN

Decreased Cost from 2300 to 2200

SPEAR OF THE MAGUS

Decreased Cost from 2550 to 2450

SPEAR OF DESOLATION

Decreased Cost from 2600 to 2500

ROD OF TAHUTI

Increased Magical Power from 120 to 135

CALAMITOUS ROD OF TAHUTI

Increased Magical Power from 120 to 135

PERFECTED ROD OF TAHUTI

Increased Magical Power from 120 to 135
This item’s passive effect can now affect Ultimate Ability Cooldown
Decreased passive internal cooldown from from 10s to 8s

POLYNOMICON

Decreased passive internal cooldown from 3s to 2s

BUMBA'S HAMMER

This item’s passive effect can now affect Ultimate Ability Cooldowns again

JOTUNN'S WRATH

Increased Physical Power from 40 to 45

JOTUNN'S CUNNING

Increased Physical Power from 40 to 45

JOTUNN'S VIGOR

Increased Physical Power from 40 to 45

BRAWLER'S BEAT STICK

Increased Physical Power from 50 to 55

THE CRUSHER

Increased Physical Power from 40 to 45

TITAN'S BANE

Decreased Cost from 2550 to 2450
Decreased Passive Internal Cooldown from 8s to 6s

"We are doing another pass across items and gods on the duration of anti-healing effects. This was adjusted on a few key items in the Mid Season Update to better work with the Brawling mechanic, we are completing this pass in this update as well as adding some buffs to these underperforming items."

SHADOWSTEEL SHURIKEN

Increased Attack Speed from 20% to 25%
Decreased Healing Debuff Duration from 10s to 5s

TAINTED STEEL

Decreased Cost from 650 to 600
Decreased Healing Debuff Duration from 6s to 5s

TAINTED BREASTPLATE

Increased Physical Protection from 70 to 80
Decreased Healing Debuff Duration from 8s to 5s

TAINTED AMULET

Increased Magical Protection from 80 to 90
Decreased Healing Debuff Duration from 6s to 5s

"The Reworked Mask items have shown a lot of promise since their debut. These items have the potential to be game changers but they needed a bit more tuning and a key fix to help them realize that potential. These items will now properly track bonuses gained from other item passives, and also will be slightly easier to stack and mitigate their downsides. Lono’s mask also gains Gold per 5s but with the necessary restrictions to prevent abuse, more on that in the next dev notes section."

RANGDA'S MASK

Decreased Physical Power Requirement from 325 to 275 (from 65 to 55 per stack)
This item now properly checks stacking items and item passives for power gained from them
This item no longer check god abilities for power gained

LONO'S MASK

Now provides 6 Gp5, only if youre the lowest gold on the team
Decreased Protection Requirement from 300 to 275 (from 60 to 55 per stack)
This item now properly checks stacking items and item passives for power gained from them
This item no longer check god abilities for power gained

COMPASSION

Gp5 Now only applies if you have the lowest total gold on your team
This item’s passive aura no longer stacks with other players using the same item

SENTINEL'S EMBRACE

Gp5 Now only applies if you have the lowest total gold on your team

SENTINEL'S BOON

15 Bonus gold per assist now only applies if you have the lowest total gold on your team

GODS

NOX

"Mage items got some buffs but we also want to target a few specific mages. In this case, its pretty much a support we are looking at, as thats where Nox primarily shines in higher skill tiers. We are continuing to improve her lane clear from Shadow Lock so that she can focus on using her other abilities in pvp situations. Along with this buff we are also implementing a Non-Conquest cooldown nerf to her. Nox is often seen as a fringe support in Conquest but she is a top tier mage in Arena and other similar modes. This nerf should ease a lot of frustration there while we continue to evaluate her conquest performance."

SHADOW LOCK

Increased Base Damage to Minions from 70/110/150/190/230 to 80/125/170/215/260
Increased Minion Damage Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 60%

NON-CONQUEST

+10% longer non-Ultimate cooldowns
+10% longer Ultimate cooldown

JANUS

"This one is sure to turn heads! Janus is a difficult to master god and the recent meta has not been doing him any favors. He has some of the lowest base stats in the game, even after the 9.5 buffs, so we are bringing these up to match the usual mage. We are also giving his primary damage ability a small buff to improve his clear and poke."

General

Increased Base Physical Protections from 11.2 to 14
Increased Physical Protections from 2.8 per level to 3 per level

UNSTABLE VORTEX

Increased Base Damage from 100/165/230/295/360 to 110/175/240/305/370

RAIJIN

"Lets try not to get any noise complaints, but its time for Raijin’s drum solo. This god tends to swing heavily with small buffs. Not long ago he was at the top of the pro meta and only some small nerfs brought him down to obscurity. Similarly to janus, we are buffing his primary damage ability to improve his clear and poke."

PERCUSSIVE STORM

Increased Base Damage from 30/45/60/75/90 to 35/50/65/80/95 per shot
(from 120/180/240/300/360 to 140/200/260/320/380 for all 4 hits)

THOTH

"As with the other mages on this list, the meta has not been friendly to Thoth, but he has also lost some potency through the changes that makes roots considered hard CC. A few gods in today’s update will be buffed for similar reasons. We think the reduction of chain CC was a big positive for the game overall, but it did cause a subset of root users to fall in win% slightly. We will be making that up through other buffs to their damage and utility, and will only increase CC durations in rare instances. In this update we are making Thoth’s passive come online a faster, and increasing the early game damage of his Ult to him help make an impact immediately at level 5."

DEAD RECKONING

Decreased the number of kills per stack from 30 to 20

FINAL JUDGEMENT

Increased Damage 360/430/500/570/640 from 400/460/520/580/640

SKADI

"There certainly are some Skadi specialists out there, but in general she is not considered a top tier Hunter. Skadi had some surprisingly low numbers on her ranged poke ability as well as her Ultimate, likely because of the power Kaldr has brought to her kit over the years. After many other adjustments it seems fitting to bring these numbers back up to modern standards."

PIERCING COLD

Increased Base Damage from 90/140/190/240/290 to 90/145/200/255/310

WINTER'S GRASP

Increased Physical Power Scaling per tick from 5% per tick to 7.5% per tick on both Kaldr and Skadi’s snowstorms (increased from 40% to 60% scaling per snowstorm total)

NEITH

"This Huntress especially relies on roots, and has some new competition in this update, so its certainly a fitting time for a buff. Spirit Arrow has a pretty long cooldown at Rank 1 for a primary damage ability, so this buff should be quite impactful. We are also decreasing the Mana Cost as an extra quality of life buff so that Neith can utilize this ability as often as possible."

SPIRIT ARROW

Decreased Cooldown from 15/14.5/14/13.5/13s to 13s at all ranks
Decreased Mana Cost from 60/65/70/75/80 mana to 40/45/50/55/60

GUAN YU

"One god we haven’t seen in the Solo Lane in a while is Guan Yu. He was hit with some heavy nerfs after his last stint at the top of the drafts, and it now feels to start safely moving him up. His damage output can already be very high, so we were careful about buffing back the top end damage of those channeled abilities, and instead we leaned into his low cooldown playstyle by taking a second of each of his utility abilities."

CONVICTION

Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 13s

WARRIOR'S WILL

Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 13s

SET

"This god can be unstoppable in the right hands, but is difficult to master and has fallen off more and more throughout the season. We are making Set a bit less of a glass cannon by allowing his sandstorm to mitigate damage of all types, instead of just physical."

SANDSTORM

This ability now reduces damage from all sources instead of just Physical Damage by 10%
Decreased Cooldown from 16s to 15s

ARES

"The god of war received a nerf in 9.4, which now has proven to be less necessary after the major TTK changes of 9.5. Ares god damage is being reverted on his chains, and we are also buffing his cooldown for conquest while nerfing it non-conquest to use our new tech to the fullest. This should give Ares a bit of more of an edge in conquest over the other modes where he already thrives."

SHACKLES

Increased God damage from 20/40/60/80/100 to 25/45/65/85/105 per tick

NO ESCAPE

Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s

NON-CONQUEST

Increased Ultimate Cooldown from 15% to 30% (from 115s to 117s)

CERBERUS

"Cerberus is a similar situation to Ares, his high damage output was a big concern before 9.5, but after a few months of data and feedback we can safely buff him back. We are returning a bit of damage to him in his leap, but mostly focusing on his utility for these buffs, which should help him when played as a Support."

SPIRIT OF DEATH

Increased Passive Healing Reduction Aura from 25% to 30%

SOUL EXPULSION

Increased Base Damage from 60/100/140/180/220 to 80/120/160/200/240

STYGIAN TORMENT

Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s

KUMBHAKARNA

"Its time to wake up! ***ba relies heavily on a root, which was nerfed, and he was struggling plenty before that change. Buffs are clearly in order, so he is getting multiple changes across various forms of his kit. His passive is now going to be considerably better, his dash/damage ability will scale down in cooldown for more impact lategame, and his Ult gets a damage increase to help his team focus down a specific enemy god."

SLEEPY

Increased Health and Mana he awakens with from 25% to 35%
Decreased Cooldown from 240s to 180s

THROW BACK

Decreased Cooldown from 13 to 13/12.5/12/11.5/11s

EPIC UPPERCUT

Increased Landing Damage from 200/290/380/470/560 to 240/330/420/510/600

TERRA

"This guardian also got a bit weaker with the root nerf. Terra seems to always have the potential to be SPL viable, so we focused on making her kit feel better and leaning into her flexibility. With lower cooldowns she will be able to more easily execute her combos, and Monolith dealing more damage will help her flex into the Solo Lane."

FORCE OF NATURE

Decreased Cooldown from 13s to 11s

MONOLITH

Increased amount of hits it takes to destroy Monolith from 3 to 5
Increased Shatter Damage from 70/100/130/160/190 to 90/120/150/180/210

SYLVANUS

"When you think of roots, I’m sure you think of Sylvanus. This is one the rare case where we want to increase root duration. This felt appropriate here for a few reasons. This ability virtually single target, having a very small AoE, and this root is key to helping Sylvanus hit his follow-up grab."

VERDANT GROWTH

Increased Root Duration from 1.25s to 1.5s

NATURE'S GRASP

Decreased Cooldown from 18/17/16/15/14s to 17/16/15/14/13s

BACCHUS

"Its time to party. Bacchus has made a few rare appearances but still lives slightly outside the meta. We are making his mana costs a little less restrictive, while also increasing the strength of his Belch in multiple ways. This will now be a better ability for lane clear as well as CC, making it an easy first priority to rank.

Additionally, Bacchus is the first of multiple gods who are going to be getting a slight buff to the duration of their anti-heal effects. This will complete the consistent pass on the durations of these effects and ensure they all work intuitively with the Brawling mechanic."