MidSeason | 9.7 Update Notes

By: TitanDandy | 2022/07/06



Source (9.7 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/midseason-9-7-update

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

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

JULY 12 - MidSeason Update

• Nickelodeon Event
• Zodiac Battle Pass
• New Glyphs & Earring Item Tree
• & Much more!

JULY 26 - MidSeason Bonus Update 1

• Busy Bee Chest & Hereafter Chest
• More info in the future!

AUGUST 9 - MidSeason Bonus Update 2

• More info in the future!

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 9.7 UPDATE - JULY 12

ITEMS


NEW GLYPHS

"Glyphs were introduced at the beginning of Season 9 and have been a major success! Players have been requesting more and we are happy to deliver. The major points we wanted to address with this round of Glyphs were two of the common pieces of feedback we got from the first iterations. 1. There isn’t a good option for each god archetype. A good example here would be “combo” mages that have low CDs and minimal CC, like Raijin and Merlin. These gods do not care about the attack speed of Nimble Rod of Tahuti and cannot easily confirm the meteor from Calamitous Rod of Tahuti. We don’t expect every single archetype to have a perfect Glyph, even after this round of new items. But the more types of gods that have a Glyph they are excited to build, the better! 2. Some gods wanted the passives that the Glyphs provided, but they were required to build an item that didn’t synergize well with their kits in order to get it. Take Jotunn’s Ferocity for example. A strong passive that in-hand Assassins love, but gods like Arachne and Baka don’t typically build Jotunn’s Wrath. So with this round of Glyphs, some existing Glyphs will be moved to a new T3 item. They will keep their passives, but receive new names and art. Any item that lost a Glyph has received a brand new Glyph to replace it!

JOTUNN'S WRATH

“First up on the list items with Glyphs that are receiving a change is Jotunn’s Wrath! As stated above, we feel that Jotunn’s Ferocity is a strong, fun passive. It just wasn’t in the right home. Jotunn’s Wrath is for ability based Physical Damage dealers that want Cooldown Reduction. Jotunn’s Vigor fits nicely and will be receiving no changes. Jotunn’s Ferocity is being removed to make room for Jotunn’s Cunning! Jotunn’s Cunning leans into the Cooldown Reduction identity of Jotunn’s Wrath, giving gods that like to poke with their abilities the potential to do so more often."

JOTUNN'S VIGOR

• Unchanged

JOTUNN'S CUNNING

• Every time you damage an enemy god with an ability you gain a stack of Wit. At 2 stacks, your next non-ultimate ability that damages an enemy god gets 25% of its cooldown instantly refunded.

ROD OF TAHUTI

“As mentioned above, the low Cooldown, minimal Crowd Control mages have been lacking a good Glyph option. Even though Nimble Rod of Tahuti has been successful and incorporated into Magical ADC builds, we felt that a change here was necessary to give as many viable options as possible. Don’t worry though, Mage ADC mains, just keep on reading a few items down. Perfected Rod of Tahuti is designed for the Mages that cannot guarantee their own Calamitous meteor and are able to easily confirm multiple abilities in short succession on the same target."

CALAMITOUS ROD OF TAHUTI

• Unchanged

PERFECTED ROD OF TAHUTI

• Successfully damaging an enemy god with an ability applies a mark for 3s. Damaging them a second time with another ability consumes the mark and provides you 10% movement speed for 2s and reduces your non-ultimate abilities by 1.5s. Only one mark can be active at a time and cannot be applied for 10s after consuming a mark.

BANCROFT'S TALON

“Our first new Tier 3 item to receive Glyphs is Bancroft’s Talon! Hope you’re still reading, Mage ADC mains, because your ability to be Nimble isn’t going anywhere. With Nimble Bancroft’s Talon, Mage ADCs like Freya and Sol can go for a strong early power spike item in Bancroft’s Talon and invest an additional bit of gold later on in order to make it scale properly. Bancroft’s Claw is a brand new Glyph designed for those short range Mages that are, for lack of a better term, getting in there. Gods like Zhong Kui and Hades love Bancroft’s Talon already since they can afford to lose some HP to get the increased damage and lifesteal, but now they will be even more incentivized to get that big blink Ultimate in the midst of 5 enemies. The passive of Bancroft’s Claw takes the users Magical Power into account so that tanky Guardians can’t use it effectively without committing build slots to do so."

NIMBLE BANCROFT'S TALON

• Inheriting Nimble Rod of Tahuti
• For every 40 Magical Power you have, you gain 2% Attack Speed.

BANCROFT'S CLAW

• Every 15s gain a stack of Hunger(max 3). Abilities cast within 30 units of enemy gods consume a stack, dealing bonus damage equal to 0.5% of their max HP for each 75 Magical Power you have. Each god damaged by Hunger provides you with a shield of 1% of your Max HP for each 75 Magical Power you have. This cannot exceed 35% of your Max HP.

THE EXECUTIONER

“The Executioner will also be receiving Glyphs in 9.7! As previously stated, we like the passive of Jotunn’s Ferocity but felt it would be better suited to an item that Basic Attack focused gods wanted. The Ferocious Executioner also had a nice ring to it, so it was an obvious fit. The Heavy Executioner is unique from every other Glyph in the game in that it doesn’t just inherit the passive from the Tier 3 item it builds from. It shreds more protections and shreds them in less total Basic Attacks but has a lower max stack count. While the traditional Hunter builds may not love how it feels to have their Attack Speed reduced, but when used in a Power focused build (maybe even on some Assassins that don’t mind building The Executioner) the damage you put out is….well…..heavy."

THE FEROCIOUS EXECUTIONER

• Inheriting Jotunn’s Ferocity
• Your next basic attack marks an enemy god. If you hit the marked enemy or the marked enemy hits you with a basic attack or ability, gain 1 stack. Each stack provides 2% increased damage towards the marked enemy, stacking up to 10 times. This effect can only occur every 30s.

THE HEAVY EXECUTIONER

• PASSIVE – Basic Attacks against an enemy reduce your target’s Physical Protection by 17.5% for 3 seconds (max. 2 Stacks).
• Attack Speed is capped at 1.75.
• NOTE: Silverbranch will still only provide power from passive once you have exceeded 2.5 attack speed. Silverbranch passive text has been updated to reflect this.

MAGI'S CLOAK

“The final new Glyphs can be found on Magi’s Cloak. These are passives that are slightly more skewed towards frontliners, but feel good no matter what class you are! Magi’s Shelter is perfect for when your teammates can’t afford to fit a Magi’s Cloak into their build but could really use the passive. Magi’s Revenge is a much more offensive version of Magi’s, allowing you and your team to punish whoever dares to try and Crowd Control you."

MAGI'S SHELTER

• The first enemy god to hit you with hard Crowd Control while you are protected becomes Marked for Revenge for 5s. Gods Marked for Revenge cause enemy gods within 40 units to move 20% faster towards them, and take 10% increased damage.

MAGI'S REVENGE

• The first enemy god to hit you with hard Crowd Control while you are protected becomes Marked for Revenge for 5s. Gods Marked for Revenge cause enemy gods within 40 units to move 20% faster towards them, and take 10% increased damage.

THE NEW MASKS

• All Masks in their current iteration are removed!
• The new Masks will now be Starter Items.

“Let’s talk Masks, and no I’m not talking about the coach of the Olympus Bolts. Lono’s Mask has been in the spotlight for a bit now, with gods like Serqet, Fenrir, Eset, and Nox frequently using the item to flex into Support. More recently, Lono’s Ravana has terrorized backliners everywhere. Rangda’s, on the other hand, has never really been a popular item outside of some particularly fun builds for playing with friends. We have decided that these items are not meeting our goals for them and will be reworking them in 9.7 to now be starter items! They will still be class locked as they are now. This allows us to achieve a few goals. First, this change allows players to achieve their class flexing dreams from the very beginning of the game. We think our players that want to play a Support Mage want to be a Support Mage all game, not just after they finish their Mask item. Second, it makes these items more clearly understandable for players who are starting to foray into creating their own builds. Third, we are introducing per level scaling to the benefits and drawbacks of each Mask. This allows the curve of the build to be much more smooth. Instead of losing all of your base damage and becoming significantly tankier all at once when you purchase a Lono’s Mask, you’ll be able to feel your damage being traded for tankiness as the game progresses. The same is true for Rangda’s, just the opposite! You’ll be dealing more and taking more damage at a smoother rate. Finally, we can address a longstanding issue with these items through their upgrades. If you are building Rangda’s Mask, you should be building full damage. And if you are building full damage, you’ll die quickly even without the damage taken increase. For Lono’s, you’ll be building full defense. You wouldn’t be dealing much damage with your build, even without the damage reduction. Since the upgrades are level gated, we can put some strict rules on them in order to let you “earn back your base stats.” Build the way the Mask wants you to, and you’ll lose the debuff! Your build will naturally have its weakness still, but you won’t be needlessly punished in the late game anymore."

PROTECTOR'S MASK (STARTER ITEM)

• Only purchasable by Mages, Assassins, and Hunters
• STATS:

• PASSIVE:

LONO'S MASK (UPGRADED FROM PROTECTOR'S MASK

• Only purchasable by Mages, Assassins, and Hunters
• STATS

• PASSIVE

FIGHTER'S MASK (STARTER ITEM)

• Only purchasable by Warriors and Guardians
  STATS – 650g

• PASSIVE

RANGDA'S MASK

• Only Purchasable by Warriors and Guardians
• STATS

• PASSIVE

THE NEW ITEM TREE

“For the first time since the Arthurian items in 2019, we will have a brand new full item tree being added in 9.7! Say hello to what we have been calling the Earring Tree. There are four Tier 3 items on the tree, and all bring something completely new to the table. Two of the earrings break some long established rules of the game in an exciting way. The other two are the first items in SMITE to cause something to drop onto the Battleground that you or your allies can pick up."

T1 - MYSTICAL EARRINGS - 400G

• STATS

T2 - GLEAMING EAR CUFFS - 1300G

• Builds into Griffonwing Earrings only
• STATS

T2 - JEWELED STUDS - 1400G

• Builds into Sphinx’s Bauble only
• STATS

T2 - ROSE SPIKE EARRINGS - 1200G

• Builds into Manticore’s Spike or Fae-Blessed Hoops
• STATS

T3 - GRIFFONWING EARRINGS - 2200G

“Griffonwing Earrings are designed to make your Basic Attacks feel more like a hit-scan shot! Hitting your Basic Attacks more easily is a very powerful effect, but we think it’s fun and unique enough to warrant adding in the item with an additional downside."

• CLASS LOCKED TO HUNTERS AND MAGES ONLY
• STATS

• PASSIVE

T3 - SPHINX'S BAUBLES - 2700G

“Who doesn’t love Omnipotence? Using your abilities is a huge part of what makes the game fun, so using more abilities = more fun, right? Just like with Griffonwing Earrings, this effect is powerful enough to warrant a noticeable downside. This item is more expensive than the other earrings because the downside does not impact Guardians enough to keep them from prioritizing this item. Between the high cost and the stat spread, we think that is enough of a tradeoff for Support Guardians to make."

• STATS

• PASSIVE

T3 - MANTICORE'S SPIKES - 2200G

“Manticore’s Spikes bring a new type of gameplay loop to itemization in SMITE! Hitting an enemy with Hard CC will drop a buff that you or an ally can pick up. This is an item that will make you take an extra step (or two, depending on how far away the target was!) in order to get the full benefit, but you are rewarded nicely for jumping through the extra hoop."

• STATS

• PASSIVE

T3 - FAE-BLESSED HOOPS - 2200G

“Just like Manticore’s Spike, Fae-Blessed Hoops require some extra Hoops to jump through in order to get the full effect of the item. This is an item that causes your healing to bring some extra utility, but also some extra choices that need to be made. Should you shield the team before a fight, or wait for it to break out so that you can bait with the shield? Do you need the shield or does your ally? Hopefully some long term players also recognize the small nod to a passive of the past."

• STATS

• PASSIVE

ITEM BALANCE



BRAWLER'S BEAT STICK

“As covered earlier, the duration of the anti-heal debuff is being changed on all items to match the new amount of time to be considered not Brawling."

• Decreased anti-heal debuff duration from 6s to 5s

DIVINE RUIN

• Decreased anti-heal debuff duration from 6s to 5s

TOXIC BLADE

• Decreased anti-heal debuff duration from 6s to 5s

BUMBA'S HAMMER

“We’ve seen Bumba bring the Hammer to all sorts of different gods, especially at higher levels of play. With its current state, Bumba’s Hammer provides damage and sustain that helps enable many Warriors in the Jungle. By changing the stat spread, we hope to keep it as a viable option for Assassins while toning down its effectiveness on tankier gods. We are also changing the Cooldown mechanic to non-ultimate abilities only, as this was a common player frustration point."

• New Stats / Passive:

AMULET OF THE STRONGHOLD

“After its initial popularity on 9.1 release and subsequent nerf, Amulet of the Stronghold has seen minimal amounts of play. We are bringing back the passive strength so that it can better compete for the coveted Glyph spot."

• Increased conversion rate of passive from 10% to 15%

AMULET OF SILENCE

“As with Amulet of Stronghold, Amulet of Silence needs a bump in order to compete for a Glyph spot in a build."

• Reduced internal cooldown of silence from 45s to 30s

SUPPORT STARTER ITEMS

“Even with our buff to help Supports stay closer in experience in Conquest, often times Supports get their starter upgrades too late in the game for it to feel impactful."

• The following can now be upgraded at level 15

SENTINEL'S GIFT

“We have seen Benevolence start to pull ahead of Sentinel’s Gift a little more than we would like, so giving Sentinel’s a buff to help bring it to the competition."

• Increased Bonus Gold per trigger from 7 to 8

SENTINEL'S EMBRACE

“Once Compassion gained GP5, Sentinel’s Embrace started to lag behind in strength. Adding some GP5 to Embrace should bring it up to that level."

• Added 6 Gold per 5s

RELIC DAGGER

“Another Support focused item buff, Relic Dagger is an item that allows Supports to use the gold they invest into their relics to be more frequently relevant."

• Increased relic cooldown reduction from 30s to 40s

TYRANNICAL PLATE HELM

“The buffs to Towers since 9.5 have outpaced the strength of Tyrannical Plate Helm’s minion buff, making the item lose some identity. We are hoping this buff brings it back to its siege-oriented place."

• Increased Minion Buff from 20% Health and Attack Speed to 25% Health and Attack Speed

MAIL OF RENEWAL

“This item has yet to find a home since its rework some time ago. Making it a more efficient pickup from stats alone should help it feel better to build more frequently."

• Increased Physical Protection from 20 to 30
• Increased Magical Protection from 20 to 30

THE SLEDGE

“Another item that has lost a bit of its initial identity, this buff should make Warriors think of grabbing this item against heavy Crowd Control teams."

• Increased CCR from 20% to 30%

Shield of Regrowth

SHIELD OF REGROWTH

“This item has always had one of the most fun passives to use, but lately it hasn’t been giving quite enough. You know what they say, gotta go fast and hit harder at the same time!"

• Passive now adds +15 Physical Power and +30 Magical Power for the 4s buff duration

PYTHAGOREM'S PIECE

“When the Magical Penetration shifts happened some time ago, Pythagorem’s Piece traded its Cooldown Reduction for Magical Penetration. While it still was viable in certain situations, it doesn’t take a mathematician to see that it was less popular after that change. Our theory is that Supports will be happy to slot this in again when they can afford to go a bit more Offensive."

• Removed 10% Magical Penetration
• Added 10% Cooldown Reduction
• Increased Health from 200 to 250

STAFF OF MYRDDIN

“With the introduction of Sphinx’s Bauble, we felt like Staff of Myrddin was a bit too close in functionality and that the Bauble passive felt like a more streamlined version of the “break the Cooldown Reduction Cap” mechanic. This new passive for Staff of Myrddin shifts what types of gods want to pick it up, but does so in a way that we think will be exciting to players."

• New Passive – When your ultimate ability has finished casting you gain Myrddin’s Rage which provides 25% Increased Damage Dealt, decaying to 2.5% Increased Damage Dealt over 8s. At the end of the 8s you lose Myrddin’s Rage. This can only occur once every 45s.

CELESTIAL LEGION HELM

“Players have been asking for more Critical Damage reduction on itemization, but the threat of stacking multiple of those effects has us wary of adding too much. With each stack of Celestial Legion Helm being lost on taking any Physical Damage from an enemy god, we feel like this is a place we can see how it feels to have more Crit Damage reduction in the game."

• Added 4% Crit Damage reduction per stack (20% max)

RELICS

“For this update, we are looking to buff some of the lesser seen relic upgrades!"

BRACER OF ILLUMINATION

“This relic is all about vision control and buffing your team. Even though the buff isn’t as strong as Bracer of Radiance, having a longer duration gives this relic upgrade a unique benefit."

• Buff duration increased from 8s to 12s

DROWNED ANKH

“Drowned Ankh’s pickup rate has been a bit dry lately in comparison to its counterpart. This buff should help close that gap."

• Increased miasma damage from 2% current HP to 4% current HP

CLOAK OF THE AVATAR

“The Avatar has learned how to control the winds a little better, helping you to create a bit more space between you and your enemies."

• Increased knockback strength by 33%

CHAOTIC BEADS

“This item was, understandably, a bit spooky at the outset of Season 9. But with the changes it has received to make sure you don’t insta-kill yourself for CCing someone with Chaotic Beads and the time for players to get used to playing around this effect, we think it’s ok to put a bit of Chaos back on the Battleground."

• Changed passive from 7% current health as magical damage to 5% current health as true damage

EMBLEM OF TREMBLING TERROR

“We didn’t see a whole lot of trembling out in the Battleground, except when Cabrakan was around of course. This item should proc much more consistently after this buff."

• Decreased Health threshold for Tremble to occur from 30% Max HP to 15% Max HP

SUNDERING BLAST

“Sundering Blast hasn’t exactly blown the doors off. We think some more firepower might do the trick!"

• Fixed bug where incorrect Sunder icon was being used to represent cooldown.
• Increased target’s damage taken increase from 5% to 7.5%

THORNS OF OVERGROWTH

“Once the summer heat kicks in, plants grow even faster. You could even say they Overgrow. Well the summer has arrived in full force here, and with it the Thorns of Overgrowth begin to extend their reach."

• Increased radius of passive from 55 units to 70 units

GOD BALANCE



DIMINISHING RETURNS (DR)

"Throughout Smite’s history, Diminishing Returns has been an invisible system that helps players who have received multiple sources of Crowd Control within a short period of time. In 9.7, we are making this system more official by providing in-game resources to help players identify when they are affected by it."

• DR stacks will now be a visible icon on the buff bar
• Max stack count increased from 2 to 4
• Stacks of DR last for 15s and this duration is refreshed on each new application (no change)
• CCR per stack decreased from 40% to 20%
• DR can no longer be applied to yourself or allies
• Fixed many code-driven displacement abilities that previously did not apply DR

CROWD CONTROL

"In officializing Diminishing Returns, we wanted to revisit our definitions of Crowd Control in order to assess the impact of each specific variation on a player. As such, we have shifted around the classifications of a few Crowd Control types to better fit these new definitions. Additionally, some Crowd Controls inherently do not respect CCR or Diminishing Returns rules due to specific animation, code, or other constraints, so we have created a third classification, True Hard CC, to make sure that being affected by those specific variations felt fair."

• “Hard CC” is now defined as any Crowd Control that makes it impossible to do at least one of the following actions: Basic Attacks, non-movement Abilities, and Movement Inputs. Hard CCs apply 1 stack of DR and their durations are affected by the number of DR stacks a player has

• “True Hard CC” is a new sub-classification of Hard CCs, defined as Hard CCs that are not affected by DR. As such, True Hard CCs apply 2 stacks of DR.

• Soft CCs are now defined as any Crowd Control that makes it more difficult to do a specific action, including Basic Attacks, non-movement Abilities, and Movement Inputs. Soft CCs neither apply nor are affected by stacks of DR.

• Individual abilities can apply more than 2 stacks of DR if the ability includes multiple types of CC

AO KUANG

"The King of the Eastern Seas hasn’t been feeling particularly powerful lately. These buffs should reward the most experienced Dragon wielders out there."

DRAGON KING'S SWORD

• Decreased time it takes to gain a stack from 12s to 10s

WATER ILLUSION

• Increased Magical Power Scaling from 60% to 70%

CERBERUS

"Cerberus is a god that is heavily affected by the DR changes, particularly on his ultimate. He is getting a buff and a revert to compensate."

SPIRIT OF DEATH

• Increased the Healing Reduction applied to nearby enemies from 20% to 25%

PARALYZING SPIT

• Increased Base Damage from 40/70/100/130/160 to 50/80/110/140/170 (revert)

CUPID

"Valentine’s Day is long in the rear view mirror, and poor little Cupid is feeling a bit left out. We’ve seen how strong he can be if his wave clear is good enough, so while this Heart Bomb buff will help his clear it shouldn’t make his early clear too oppressive."

HEART BOMB

• Increased Damage done to Minions from 50% to 60% on both the initial hit and explosion

SHARE THE LOVE

• Increased Base Heal per Heart from 30/50/70/90/110 to 40/65/90/115/140

DISCORDIA

"I did mention that the Battleground needed a bit more chaos, didn’t I? No one better to bring that than Discordia, who has felt a bit lackluster since the 9.5 changes took away some of her kill potential."

STRIFE

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

ERRATIC BEHAVIOR

• Decreased Cooldown from 16s to 15s

HERA

"Argus is an impressive force when he’s stomping around the Mid lane, but Hera was feeling lonely a bit too often."

COMMANDING PRESENCE

• Increased Cooldown Reduction on Argus from 1s to 1.5s
• Increased Cooldown Reduction on Commanding Presence from 0.33s to 0.5s

HERCULES

"Hercules has been hitting the gym, and it seems he’s been focusing on his cardio. He’ll be able to use his most impactful abilities a bit more often."

DRIVING STRIKE

• Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 13s

EARTHBREAKER

• Decreased Cooldown from 14/13.5/13/12.5/12s to 13/12.5/12/11.5/11s

HUN BATZ

"Giving Overhand Smash Knockup and Knockback immunity has been a long time request from the community, but we decided to not just stop there. After these buffs, Hun Batz would scare even Xibalba."

OVERHAND SMASH

• Hun Batz is now Knockup and Knockback Immune while channeling this ability
• Increased Base Damage from 75/130/185/240/290 to 85/140/195/250/305

NIKE

"As a Warrior that has an ability solely focused on stopping Basic Attackers, Nike’s absence has been telling."

REND

• Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 14/13.5/13/12.5/12s

BARRIER FORMATION

• Increased Damage from 70/130/190/250/310 to 80/140/200/260/320

PELE

"Pele is a volcano that is bubbling and ready to erupt. By increasing her clear, she should be able to make it to more fights."

PYROCLAST

• Increased Return Damage from 20 damage per shard to 30 damage per shard

SERQET

"Since her light rework, Serqet has shown glimpses of strength as a true Assassin but has been a bit too inconsistent for our liking. She is going back to her initial base damage on Deathbane, but keeping all of the scaling she received in the light rework."

DEATHBANE

• Increased base Damage from 50/68/86/104/122 per hit to 50/70/90/110/130 per hit (revert)

LAST BREATH

• Increased Damage Mitigation from 35% to 50%

"The next 3 gods have some pretty spicy changes coming. We now have the capability to differentiate bonus damage to minions, allowing us to improve specifically Jungle clear or specifically Lane clear. We understand that due to the nature of SMITE, these gods will be buffed not just in the Jungle, but in their traditional roles as well. These Jungle clear buffs are intentionally not on the primary clear abilities of these gods. Having only one ability that clears a Jungle camp well leads to one camp getting instantly cleared and then having to wait until that ability is back up before you can easily clear the next. These buffs are for gods that we think can fit the role of a Jungler because of past presence or Assassin-like kit synergies."

ARES

"Ares is a god that saw a bit of play in the Jungle a few seasons ago, and has struggled to consistently find viability in Conquest. With this change, we hope that he can be a strong counter pick option that also brings a bit of flexibility."

SHACKLES

• Now deals 40% extra damage to jungle monsters

DANZABUROU

"Danzaburou is a god that has a lot of Assassin-like qualities as a Hunter. He is tricky, hits hard with his abilities, and has one of the best gank tools in the game with his ultimate. Plus he bribed us into letting him Jungle a bit."

ALLURING SPIRITS

• Now deals 40% extra damage to jungle monsters

THE MORRIGAN

"Since her release, The Morrigan has been played as a Mid lane Magical Assassin. We really like this playstyle for her, and it makes sense for her to be able to be a Magical Assassin in the Jungle as well."

DEADLY ASPECTS

• Now deals 30% extra damage to jungle monsters

CHANG'E

"Chang’e is a god that plays as a Battle Mage, similar to a Zhong Kui or Hades. Her base stats did not reflect this playstyle, until now."

GENERAL

• Increased base HP from 574 to 650
• Increased base HP per level from 84 to 88
• Total Health at level 20 from 2254 to 2410

CRESCENT MOON DANCE

• Now deals 15% extra damage to minions

THOR

"It’s taken 9 Seasons, but Thor has finally attuned Mjolnir. This buff will not only help his Jungle clear, but his Solo lane as well."

MJOLNIR'S ATTUNEMENT

• Minions now take 100% damage from the return swing

ZHONG KUI

"For his stature, Zhong was not quite as tanky as you would expect early on. His base Physical Protections were near the lowest among the Mage class. Even when taking his passive into consideration, that felt out of line."

GENERAL

• Increased base Physical Protections from 11.2 to 18.2

NEW NON-CONQUEST BALANCE



NON-CONQUEST BALANCE’S IN-GAME ICON!

"We are super excited to share a big new feature coming to SMITE! Starting in 9.7, we have the capability to apply Non-Conquest Balance. These balance changes will be a bit different to our typical balance changes. They will not be changes to specific damage numbers or abilities. They will be blanket, percentage based changes applied to the god. Only Conquest and Ranked Conquest, as well as any custom matches or MoTDs on any Conquest maps, will not have this balance applied. We have always focused our balance around Conquest (and will continue to do so) but have had to consider the play experience of our Non-Conquest players when making changes. With this new system, we are able to buff and nerf characters for Conquest without needing to worry about how it affects this large portion of our playerbase. We can now adjust for them separately! Expect in future Update Notes for any Non-Conquest Balance to be in the main God Balance section."

• Gods will now have percentage base buffs or debuffs to all modes except Conquest
• Non-Conquest Balance Effects will apply equally in all modes, so Arena, Assault, Joust, etc. will all be using the same balance.
• If the god you are playing has any changes applied to them through Non-Conquest Balance, there will be an icon on your buff bar and a system message at the beginning of the match will tell you what changes you have.
• Buff or Debuff Effects available will be:

AH PUCH

"No surprise that Ah Puch’s Non-Conquest stats are very high. His wave clear and AoE damage is particularly strong when he is able to see the whole fight ahead of him."

• – 5% damage to gods
• -10% damage to minions
• +5% Non-ult CDs
• +10% Ultimate Cooldown

ARTEMIS

"Artemis is the highest performing Hunter across all Non-Conquest modes. Her teamfight-focused ultimate is a big reason why, so Tusky needs to take slightly longer breaks."

• -5% damage to gods
  +10% Ultimate Cooldown

ARES

"Believe it or not, Ares has the biggest difference in win rate between Conquest and Non-Conquest. That is to say, he is the god that improves the most in Non-Conquest modes. We think this is largely due to the strength of No Escape."

• +15% Ultimate Cooldown

KHEPRI

"One of the only gods that is top 5 in win rate in every single Non-Conquest mode, Khepri has been bugging our Non-Conquest playerbase for a long time."

• +5% Damage taken
• +5% Non-ult Cooldowns
• +15% Ult Cooldown

ZEUS

"Zeus’ Non-Conquest stats aren’t quite as high as the other gods on this list, but as a high frustration god for Non-Conquest players, we felt like he should be included in this list."

• -10% damage to gods
• +5% Non-ultimate cooldowns

AO KUANG

"Ao Kuang is bottom 10 in winrate for almost every Non-Conquest mode, making him a prime candidate for buffs in those modes!"

• -5% damage taken
• -10% non-ultimate cooldowns
• -10% ultimate cooldown

ARACHNE

"Arachne is low in winrate for every Non-Conquest mode.She also has one of the highest win rate differences for Conquest vs Non-Conquest, meaning she is significantly stronger in Conquest."

• -10% damage taken
• -10% ultimate cooldown

BAKASURA

"Similarly to Arachne, Bakasura’s winrate tanks in every Non-Conquest mode."

• -10% damage taken
  -10% ultimate cooldown

CAMAZOTZ

"This may be a surprise to some, but Camazotz is bottom 15 in winrate for every Non-Conquest mode. The bat needs some help!"

• -10% non-ultimate cooldowns
• -10% ultimate cooldown

JANUS

"Janus is, to no one’s surprise, the lowest winrate Mage in every Non-Conquest mode."

• +10% damage to gods

SET

"Set boasts the lowest winrate in any mode in the game! Before these changes, there was no lower chance of winning a game in SMITE than if you had a Set on your Assault team."

• +5% damage to minions
• -5% damage taken
• -5% Non-ultimate cooldowns

SERQET

"Serqet is another low range Assassin that struggles when her mobility and quickness isn’t as valuable as it is in Conquest."

• -10% damage taken
• +5% damage to gods

Bran, your notes on MAGI'S REVENGE is incorrect. Compared with original link.

Holy ****, did you go line by line just to catch any mistakes I might have made? XD

Fixed, thanks for catching. Was one of those cut/paste BBcode misses.

I was hoping to see "Bran's thoughts" as I miss that series. That would help a returning player adjust to the meta better.

I don't know how many people besides you would even read it though =P Most people just review the actual patch notes.

Maybe just me, DV8, and Myst.

I miss bran's thoughts. It was nice to read and complain about the patch together.

Well, I won't go line-by-line, but I can comment here on my current thoughts.

• Honestly, I've really liked the direction HR is trying to take w/ the game. There are still definitely a LOT of things to work on and a lot more balance needs, but for the past few patches we're able to see the bigger picture of what they are looking to do.
  
  
• TTK was a big one for me. It has noticeably increased duration of teamfights in many circumstances, which has been really fun. Sometimes you still get completely burst down in < 1 sec (if the entire team focuses you), but it was a significant adjustment and I like the concept. Where they need to adjust more is probably for solo lane...that's felt over the last year or two like it's fluctuated a lot in terms of just beating on each other and not dying, to going for first kills and snowballing your lane from there (Fighter's Mask start was something I totally disliked), jungle camping solo, etc. I assume that's going to be a continuing work in progress.
  
  
• In general, I also like their adjustments to brawling (anti-heal). The recent out of god combat adjustment from 3-5 seconds and aligning the anti-heal items to match is a smart move.
  
  
• The additional glyphs are a good move as well. 5 base Glyph options were a bit low, though these new ones are IMO either hit ( Bancroft's Talon) or miss ( Magi's Cloak, no offense but these are just sorta blah).
  
  
• I like the move to make the masks starter items with adjusted stats. Definitely increases flex potential and provides more options for gods in various roles. I don't know if these are going to make things busted for certain roles (got really tired of having Ne Zha support in every other match last season), so these may need further adjustments.
  
  
• New "earrings" tree seems okay. Interesting that 2 have dropped buffs and 2 have positives/negatives (like the masks). I wonder how much they'll be used. The Griffonwing Earrings projectile speed thing is very interesting to me. Since I play mostly on NA East and have 100+ ping while there, the projectile speed might help me connect on basics more. The delay is noticeable for me compared to when I do get to play on NA West, so I'm definitely going to be trying that out, despite the decreased damage effect.
  
  As for Sphinx's Baubles, the CDR cap change to 60% could be abused IMO. Take that as a single offensive item for a Supp...build something like Sentinel's Gift + Gauntlet of Thebes + Breastplate of Valor + Pridwen + Sphinx's Baubles + Genji's Guard/ Shogun's Kusari/ Spirit Robe and you could get an Athena taunt every 7 seconds. Or go Lono's Mask + Gauntlet of Thebes + Breastplate of Valor + Pridwen + Sphinx's Baubles + Genji's Guard/ Shogun's Kusari/ Spirit Robe on Nox and get a Shadow Lock every 4 seconds and a Siphon Darkness every 5. Gross.
  
  
• Then they're giving some love to supps. Decrease starter upgrade to level 15 instead of 17, give some bonus gold on Sentinel's Embrace...feels pretty good. Or bad. Combine that with the stupid 60% CDR and squishies aren't going to like the crazy CC.
  
  
• Quick one-sentence comments on some items...Good move on Bumba's Hammer. Sorry, but the adjustment doesn't make Amulet of Silence any more appealing. Tyrannical Plate Helm still fairly sucks. Interesting buff for Shield of Regrowth. Great revert for Pythagorem's Piece. Interesting buff for Celestial Legion Helm.
  
  
• I like the work they're doing to streamline CC diminishing returns.
  
  
• Finally get to see some ways to balance things in non-conquest modes...that's great news. I heard that LoL has this implemented in ARAM, and I like how they're able to apply generalized adjustments to gods rather than have to have different numbers for each individual ability, which would make things harder to track.

All in all, the devs are showing that they're willing to make some significant changes to the game, and while they may not have a good initial concept of balance, they're willing to listen and make adjustments. Now if only they could fix their code and stop the game from crashing etc.!