Season 8 Update Notes

Source (8.1 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/season-8-update-notes/
By: TitanIsiah | 2021/1/7
Main Patch scheduled to go live: January 26

*NOTE* For full patch notes, please visit the source. Only Update Schedule and a basic listing of general changes are listed here.

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

JANUARY 26

• Most Wanted Battle Pass
• Season Pass 2021
• Dawn of Babylon Event
• Valentine Chest
• Season 7 & 8 Ranked Rewards
• Season 7 Commendation Reward

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

BRIEF SUMMARY OF GENERAL CHANGES

Editor's Note: These patch notes are EXTREMELY long, and so I'm providing a very brief summary of the major changes. If you want a succinct list of changes, this might work for you. Otherwise, for full details, please read the official notes linked above. Thank you for your understanding! ~Bran


New DLC

• New DLC: Season Pass 2021 ($39.99 USD), includes 1,000 gems, Anubis skin, loading screen, Tyrant title, unlocks all gods (if you do not own the god pack), etc.

Quality of Life

• New Tutorial System - Role Guides: Works within Co-op or PvP, provides helpful information for newer players including where to start and where to path in the early game, draws attention to respawning camps, highlights bosses/towers, etc.
  
  
• UI: New escape menu option "Guides" to toggle settings, updated help tips, match lobby role trading option, god selection screen now displays recommended role for each god, builds will be recommended by role in Conquest, separate from other modes, etc.
  
  
• Ranked: Hard reset for 8.1, removal of variance system for more consistent MMR gain/loss, Max MMR adjustment no higher than 100, etc.

Game Modes

• All Modes - New Healing Rules: Global Anti-Healing Aura reduces healing taken by 30% while not "brawling" (i.e. in combat).
  
  
• Anti-Heal Item Changes: To balance the Global Anti-Healing Aura, all anti-heal items are getting decreases to % anti-heal and duration where applicable. Heal-boosting items ( Rod of Healing, Rod of Asclepius, Caduceus Shield are getting increases to base healing %.
  
  
• Jungle Camp Vision Changes: Gods that visit a Jungle Camp on their side of the map will now receive vision of the in-world and minimap respawn timers for that camp. This is granted even if the camp was invaded and cleared by the enemy.
  
  
• Entirely New Conquest Map:
  
  - Living Conquest Map: distinct updates to the map throughout Season 8 with specific themes that follow the SMITE storyline and god release plan
  
  - New layout: Wider, longer, reworked jungle with new pathing, new camps and different camp locations
  
  - New art set: Chaos side themed on Tiamat's Babylonian fortress, Order side is rebuilt Mount Olympus, towers have new models, Chaos titan and minions are new characters, new jungle monsters (scorpions)
  
  - Balance: Major changes to all spawn times, jungle monster stats, and objectives (see list of stats HERE)
  
  
• New Objectives / Features:
  
  - New NPC - Greater Scorpion (Jungle): mid-game objectives spawn on each side of the map in the Gold Fury and Fire Giant pits, preventing spawn of the major neutral bosses. After slain, its spawn location will move deeper into the enemy jungle depending on which team secured the kill, and enhances buff camps on in the quadrant where they're killed.
  
  - New NPC - Lesser Scorpion (Lane): Early-game objectives for Duo and Solo lanes that spawn on the outer edges of the map. They are "downed" when their HP bar is depleted, and require 3 more hits to secure kill and gold/XP rewards. While in the downed state, they emit a healing aura that heals 20 health per second for 10 seconds.
  
  - Base Gates: SMITE’s first dynamic geometry is being added to the S8 Conquest Map! These doors will act like a jungle wall when closed, and a jungle path when opened. Each base has two doors nestled in the walls between the phoenixes and are useful shortcuts into the Jungle. These doors will open when a god sets foot on a specific area inside the base. Doors cannot be opened from the outside, but gods, including enemies, can leap or blink over walls to open them. Players attempting to open enemy doors from the inside will be afflicted with Invader’s Curse and will need to stand on the trigger for longer to open the door.
  
  - Fountain: When all phoenixes are alive, Gods will receive "Reinvigoration" when exiting their fountain, increasing out-of-combat movement speed by 40% lasting 5s. Enhanced further by Pyromancer kills.
  
  - Jungle: All buff camps now spawn at 00:20. All Mid-Harpy camps now spawn at 00:35. Increased Mid-Harpy respawn time from 90 to 120 seconds. Jungle Shrine has been removed. Invader’s Curse now encompasses all buff camps until 01:00. Void Camp has reworked Void Sludge debuff.
  
  
• Starter Items: Huge slew of new starter items (16 in total, with 2 upgrades per item). There are 3 starter items designed mainly for each of the 5 roles, plus 1 neutral starter item.
  
  
• Item Adjustments: Huge list of item modifications. Without listing each one...
  
  - Elixir of Power and Elixir of Defense are getting buffs
  
  - Shield of Thorns and the upgrade are getting nerfs
  
  - Select physical offense items ( Jotunn's Wrath and Stone Cutting Sword) are getting buffs.
  
  - It looks like some physical "bruiser" items (providing offense and defense) are being tuned toward more offense and less defense, including Berserker's Shield and Ancile.
  
  - Other physical "bruiser" items are gaining buffs to the protections and other things, including Shifter's Shield, Frostbound Hammer, Runeforged Hammer.
  
  - The Sledge, which as overperformed due to bloated stats, gets a nerf.
  
  - Some magical items got power increases, including Celestial Legion Helm, Obsidian Shard, Polynomicon
  
  - Soul Reaver gets a shift, Spear of Desolation gets a passive buff, Rod of Tahuti gains 10% penetration
  
  - MS items Doom Orb and Shield of Regrowth get nerfs to movement speed
  
  - New Hunter item Dominance (built from Charged Morningstar: costs 2,500 gold, provides 55 physical power, 200 mana, 20 MP5, 10% physical penetration, passive (your basic attacks benefit from an additional 10% physical penetration)
  
  - Shifts to other Hunter items: Atalanta's Bow gets a penetration reduction and a cost decrease, The Executioner gains an additional stack of protection reduction (4 stacks, up to 28% prot reduction)
  
  - Crit item adjustments: T2 crit item trees no longer provide crit chance. Rage gains power at a higher cost, Deathbringer gains power, Shadowsteel Shuriken gains power and attack speed, Wind Demon gains % crit chance, Poisoned Star decreases cost and poison slow
  
  
• God Balance:
  
  - Janus gets a minor rework
  
  - General nerfs include:
  
  
  
  - General buffs include:
  
  
  
  - General shifts (some buffs + some nerfs) include:
  
  
  
  
• Upcoming Gods: Tiamat confirmed for Patch 8.2. Gilgamesh confirmed for patch 8.4. 4 more gods will be announced and released every other patch (8.6, 8.8. 8.10, 8.12).
  
  
• Upcoming God Reworks (in order of release date): Persephone, Bastet, at least 2 other gods
  
  
• Upcoming Item Reworks (in order of release date): Mail of Renewal, Stone of Fal. May be other item reworks as well. Some item particle FX are to be toned down.
  
  
• Upcoming God Remodels (in order of release date): Sobek, at least 1 other god
  
  
• Clans will return in 2 phases: Initial rework launch limited to only essential functions in early S8, and new systems and new rewards in late S8 / early S9
  
  
• Further UI updates: ESports and Livestreams, Viewer Store in Patch 8.2. Purchasing experience, in-match experience, ranked UI, other QoL features planned

Would love to hear all your thoughts on these huge changes for Season 8!

As for me:

• I really like the initial look at the S8 Conquest map! It seems HUUUUGE though.
  
  
• I like the new / additional camps. The base gates are really interesting too.
  
  
• WTF on starter items?!? I'm honestly a bit overwhelmed.
  
  
• I like the plan they have in place for S8's god reworks. I'm guessing the other god remodel they're thinking about is Cupid.

Lots of stuff is going to be rebalanced over PTS, also im not sure I like the gates mechanic - seems kinda aids for pheonix defense.

THEY GAVE TAHUTI PEN, WHY. it was fine now it goes back to S1 cause why wouldn't you pick it up. the item will bring colossal damage instead of huge.

not really happy on the way they try to tackle healing with the global aura. Also the gates don't sound great.

Curious about the starter items and bigger map.

not sure how to read it but crit is now only after finishing an item or did they remove it fro the T1 items?


but now let me read the notes fully instead of giving me a 404 Hi rez

looks like they are really looking to shake things up this season. Even for players like me that only play arena, it should be pretty interesting to see how it shakes out. I can only imagine how it will be in conquest. If their changes all work as they are intending them to, anyway. I don't think I saw if it specifically stated, so I guess with the starter items, if you decide to with one of those you basically will have standard builds being the starter and boots started and then 4 other items and in the ranked modes sell boots for something else as normal.

Hey Silent,

Yeah, I expect in most cases the starter item will just get upgraded later and will be a mainstay in the regular build, so the only items you'd consider replacing (depending on build) would be the Shoes/Boots and items like Stone of Binding and Golden Blade.

I expect the same unless there is an item that triumphs it and it maybe getting swapped out after boots are swapped.

Hi everyone, FYI all new items (starters, their upgrades, and the new item Dominance) are in the database. Some items may not show category filters or pictures properly due to caching; this should correct itself in a day or so. These will read as they do in PTS, NOT in the patch notes, as the patch notes are pretty sloppy.

Note that the rest of the existing items and gods have NOT been updated for Patch 8.1. It's not 8.1 yet, so they won't be updated until the new season is live.

Let me know if you have any questions or spot any errors. Thanks!

Thanks,

Do you think that the starter items will get a lot of play?

Check out my writeups that I've been doing. Starters will absolutely get very regular play, even in non-Conquest modes. That said, some are going to see much more play than others depending on how they balance things before official release.