The Dark Enchantress | 8.6 Update Notes (w/ 8.5 Bonus Update)

By: TitanCupcake | 2021/5/26



Source (8.5 Bonus Update): https://www.smitegame.com/news/8-5-bonus-update-notes-live-june-1/
Source (8.6 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/the-dark-enchantress-8-6-update-notes/
Bonus Balance Patch scheduled to go live: June 1
Main Patch scheduled to go live: June 15

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

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

MAY 26

• Update Show – Morgan Le Fay

MAY 29

• Update Show – Balance + Skins

JUNE 1

• 8.5 Bonus Update Live!

JUNE 15

• The Dark Enchantress Update Live!

JUNE 29

• 8.6 Bonus Update Live! – More details coming soon!

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








PASSIVE - EMPOWERED BLADE

Morgan Le Fay’s abilities Mark enemy gods also activating the shared Symbol on her sword providing Magical Power. Once her sword has gained all 5 Symbols, Morgan Le Fay becomes empowered, gaining double the Magical Power buff and reducing the cooldown of Consuming Power by 10s before the Symbols are all drained.




ABILITY 1 - SIGIL MASTERY

Morgan Le Fay summons a crashing magical sword, imbued by a sigil of her choice which is briefly carved into the ground. Enemy gods hit are Marked while the Sigil causes secondary effects.

• Mark of Mind, fearing enemies from the center of the Sigil.
  Mark of Body, creating a slowing field.
  Mark of Soul, spawning a decoy that attacks enemy gods hit for 4s.

ABILITY 2 - DRAGONFLIGHT

Morgan Le Fay summons a dragon apparition which bursts from the ground in front of her, dealing damage and knocking up enemies hit. The dragon then flies forward, dealing damage again and knocking back enemies. Applies Mark of Spirit to enemy gods hit.




ABILITY 3 - SHROUD OF WILDFIRE

Morgan Le Fay dons and sends forth a cloak of wildfire, damaging enemies and stopping on enemy gods. On expiration the wildfire explodes in an area, leaving a 4s debuff on enemies that continues to deal damage. While the debuff persists, enemies that use a movement ability combust, taking damage again. Morgan Le Fay gains Movement speed for using this ability and can extend the debuff on enemies with continued basic attacks. Applies Mark of Matter to enemy gods hit.




ULTIMATE - CONSUMING POWER

Morgan Le Fay rises into the air, consuming the Marks on enemies in front of her, dealing damage and empowering her next strikes. For a short duration after Morgan Le fay can fire out 3 devastating strikes of dark energy, dealing damage and providing a Missing Health Heal per enemy god hit. Initial Marks consumed increase the width of the energy projectiles. Subsequent heals per projectile is reduced by 50%.

BONUS UPDATE LIVE JUNE 1

ITEMS



ENHANCED PURPLE BUFF

"The enhanced Purple Buff provides a large damage increase above the rest of the enhanced options. We are decreasing the Attack Speed provided from the enhanced portion only to bring these enhanced effects closer to each other."

• Decreased Attack Speed from the Enhanced portion 15% to 10% (25% to 20% total)

GILDED ARROW

"Hunters, given how damage per second focused they are as a role, often focus onto one build given time. The Critical Strike build, bolstered by the strength of the Gilded Arrow starter and tree, has become the build of choice for every hunter. This build provided a strong power curve, high end game damage, and the gold generation confirmed a lead through the early purchase of the 3K damage potions. In this patch we are adjusting this build overall down in power while bolstering some underused anchor items. First up is Gilded Arrow. This starter is both potent in its own right and builds into Ornate Arrow, the main choice for top end hunters. The gold gain in particular allowed hunters to get key power spikes much earlier than their opponents. That is the strength of this item but at 10 gold it was simply too effective."

• Decreased Gold Gain per successful marked target kill from 10 to 7

ORNATE ARROW

"Ornate Arrow has a similar story. This item asks you to keep gold in reserve for stats and it makes up for it in the long term by being efficient and providing value in longer games. This value however was simply too intense. In games that went even a little over a standard match length multiple 3K potions could be purchased as other roles are getting their first. Even at 5% this item will still provide a high amount of value, especially in longer games."

• Decreased Gold Percentage Gain from 20% to 5%

DIAMOND ARROW

"While Diamond Arrow has not been built as much as Ornate Arrow we expect it will see a rise in purchase now that it is closer in power to Ornate Arrow. We are mirroring the change we did to Gilded Arrow, lowering just how much gold this item can generate to prevent a difficult to overcome surge in efficiency at level 20."

• Decreased the bonus gold per minion kill from 10 to 7
• Decreased the bonus gold per god kill from 30 to 21

THE EXECUTIONER

"Executioner is a core aspect of many hunter builds, but especially the Critical Strike build. Through little effort, items like Executioner allow Hunters to reach strong combinations of Power, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike chance. A small adjustment here can help Hunters make more meaningful item decisions later in their build when they look to specialize in a particular build path."

• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%

ATALANTA'S BOW

"Atalanta’s has seen heavy adjustments through its lifetime and it has settled in an overall underperforming spot. While it provides strong conditional utility the base stats made it undesirable compared to a higher throughput build. A bump in Base Power brings it closer to other options."

• Increased Physical Power from 25 to 35

ASI

"Asi is another potential ‘anchor’ item that can bring forth a bunch of different build options. Serving as a high attack speed and high Lifesteal option it has the potential to shape builds early. Given its potential we want to be careful with how we bring this item up. While a 5 Physical Power increase feels small, Asi’s combination of Attack Speed, Lifesteal, and Penetration amplify this power increase."

• Increased Physical Power from 20 to 25

BLUESTONE PENDANT

"Bluestone Pendant has pushed the Solo meta into a single direction. Everyone builds Bluestone and the lane itself is quite aggressive. One thing we have seen from feedback is that the aggression in the lane feels good right now so adjustments we make will be careful not to disrupt what is currently being enjoyed. Bluestone itself provided aggression through power and wave clear, but also a lot of defensive sustain. We are cutting the HP5 in half, lowering just how much health is restored in between each wave."

• Decreased HP5 from 20 to 10

BLUESTONE BROOCH

"Bluestone Brooch’s bonus damage increase really pushed Warriors ability to dive backliners and succeed in killing them individually. At 25 base damage on the proc it felt underwhelming but 75 was too much. 50 should be a solid middle ground that makes it more comparable to the utility of other upgrades."

• Decreased Bonus Damage from 75 to 50

REINFORCED SHOES

"Reinforced Shoes and Greaves have really taken a step forward in build placement. Supports and many Warriors are heavily valuing the early protection spike these boots provide and can make it feel too difficult for damage dealers to punish poor positioning or play. We do think its balance point however is quite narrow, given these items saw very little play for some time. While we have future plans for boots in general in the next patch (Mid Season) we did want to tone down one of its strong passive benefits; CCR. Supports will have to respect early CC more and be less resilient to strong CC chains."

• Decreased CCR from 20% to 10%

REINFORCED GREAVES

• Decreased CCR from 20% to 10%

GODS



PERSEPHONE

"We have been watching Persephone’s rework very closely. As described in her rework patch and blog post; she had a very unique style but created unhealthy gameplay scenarios. As far as early metrics go we are seeing many new players try Persephone and see much more success; and while early feedback was worried she would be weak, players are learning how to use her new kit to maximum effect. Given her strong performance, especially as players learn the new kit, we do feel she needs a downward adjustment on her primary burst combo. The bites in particular from a Harvest/Flourish combo seem to be contributing too much to her primary combo and are seeing a reduction in scaling this patch. We will continue to watch her closely and respond to feedback. In the main patch we are fixing many issues players came across (and bringing back that chunky skeletal bone rush sound) and in the long term will look at more long term feedback such as her passive feeling underwhelming."

HARVEST (FLOWER)

• Decreased Bite Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 40%.

GILGAMESH

"Gilgamesh has simply drop kicked all his previous nerfs away, proving quite resistant in attempts to bring his performance down. In this latest round we are targeting his frequent slow from Sun-forged Scimitar and the raw burst more offensive Gilgamesh builds can bring with Drop Kick. Enemies should find Gilgamesh easier to escape and more likely to survive that drop kick to the face."

SUN-FORGED SCIMITAR

• Slow duration decreased from 2.5s to 2s

DROP KICK

• Burst damage scaling decreased from 65% to 55%
• Bonus damage scaling decreased from 25% to 20%

KING ARTHUR

"King Arthur in particular benefitted from a strong Bluestone Pendant, but even before it was the go to choice he showed himself to be a strong solo laner. We think given his strong performance, especially in the SPL, he needs an additional nerf. Steadfast’s passive damage mitigation makes King Arthur exceptionally difficult to take down and synergizes well with Protections. A decrease here should be a noticeable decrease to his raw tankiness."

STEADFAST

• Decreased Damage Mitigation from1.5% per Stack to 1% per stack (6% to 4% total)

HEIMDALLR

"Heimdallr has been a fun god to watch, from his heavy hitting Critical Strikes to his fancy start with Bifrost to get to lane quickly he has been interesting to watch. Heimdallr has a decrease in how hard Critical Strikes can hit given his slower, heavier hitting attacks but this decrease was not enough to offset just how hard these could hit. A decrease in his damage output with Critical Strikes paired with a long cooldown for short Bifrost hops, enemies can be a little less afraid of this vigilant god."

THE VIGILANT

• Decreased Heimdallr’s Critical Strikes from 70% bonus damage to 65%

THE BIFROST

• Increased the base cooldown from 14s to 16s

YMIR

"YMIR IS HERE! Whaat? Ymir nerf?! Wall cooldown? But wall already cold! Ymir should always be picked. Ymir is everyone’s favorite! Why nerf? Ymir have words with Ajax!"

ICE WALL

• Increased Cooldown from 12/11/10/9/8s to 14/13/12/11/10s

ANHUR

"The slayer of enemies has sure been living up to his name. While not always resulting in a ban his pick at all level of ranked and in the SPL has shown this god to be quite strong. Desert Fury in particular provides long duration Crowd Control Immunity and solid damage output on a lower cooldown. This made him exceptionally hard to fight into and given the strength of this ultimate, it probably deserves to have the standard Ultimate cooldown."

DESERT FURY

• Increase Cooldown from 75s to 90s at all ranks

ATHENA

"Athena has been confounding her enemies to great success. While this extra damage really helped round out her kit, the raw damage add it provided was too high. Rather than fully removing we are looking to tone down Confound’s damage in addition to Reach’s damage. This should bring her overall damage to more normal levels while preserving the buff that brought her into contention after a long duration of being a low pick support."

REACH

• Decreased Reach’s scaling from 35% to 30%.
• Decreased Reach’s subsequent hit scaling from 25% to 20%. This feature always existed but was not documented. We rewrote the whole description to better describe this as well as to more clearly describe the damage Reach does as a multiplier on her Basic Attack damage rather than a scaling on bot her Bot Power and Magical Power from items.

CONFOUND

• Decrease 40/70/100/130/160 to 40/65/90/115/140

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE DARK ENCHANTRESS UPDATE JUNE 15

ITEMS



BENEVOLENCE (FIX)

"Benevolence was providing GP5 starting at 0:00 which created some extra options with opening builds if you waited in the fountain with it for some time. Now players will need to leave the fountain with it and the time needs to be above 0:00 before it will start granting this benefit."

• Fixed an issue where Benevolence could provide a GP5 benefit and still be sold for full value. Players will need to leave the fountain with Benevolence to gain GP5.

MASK

"The Mask tree as a whole is seeing some love this patch. These items allow for class shifting among different roles but their effects were often too intense and the build paths too difficult. While these items have potential to be unhealthy if everyone is using them we do think there is room for them as fun flex choices in key situations. The Tier 1 of the tree itself was underwhelming. At 500 gold is provided very little. We have doubled the amount of HP and Mana provided while increasing the cost to match this value."

• Increased cost from 500 to 700.
• All items above this still cost the same as they currently do.
• Increased HP from 50 to 100
• Increased Mana from 50 to 100

FIGHTER'S MASK

"Fighter’s Mask was also a large investment for little gain. When it lost flat penetration the stats provided for the cost no longer matched. A boost to power here makes building into Rangda’s Mask easier."

• Increased Physical Power from 30 to 40
• Increased Magical Power from 60 to 70

RANGDA'S MASK

"Rangda’s Mask is first up with what appears to be a shift. A small power increase helps but the main change is related to the boost/penalty applied to this offensive mask. If tradeoff is too intense (say 50%) this item arguably becomes weaker as players too reliably die before they can benefit. Similarly if this is too low (say 5%) the shift itself doesn’t feel like it contributes enough. There is a sweet spot for this value that maximizes the shift strength and minimizes the drawback. We believe this item will perform better at 15% than 20%."

• Increased Physical Power from 60 to 70
• Increased Magical Power from 100 to 120
• Decreased Damage Dealt Increase from 20% to 15%.
• Decreased Damage Taken Increase from 20% to 15%.

PROTECTOR'S MASK

"Protector’s Mask gets a nice boost of protections for upgrading to it from Mask, but at 50 it provides less health than the new Mask. This not only eases the build path but makes sure it never feels like a downgrade to upgrade to this mask."

• Increased Health from 50 to 100

LONO'S MASK

"Similar to Rangda’s Mask finding the sweet spot for the stat tradeoff is important. For Assassins and Mages shifting towards a more Guardian playstyle, the extra tankiness of 20% helped but the penalty towards healing and damage really limits how much they can contribute in fights with kits that often have less control. At 15% we feel this will be a stronger option for these types of shifts."

• Increased Health from to 250 to 300
• Increased Damage Taken Decrease from -20% to -15%.
• Increased Damage Dealt Decrease from -20% to -15%.
• Increased Healing Done Decrease from -20% to -15%.

TRANSCENDENCE

"Transcendence has strong potential for Assassins and Hunters alike but has struggled to see play. Its overall cost makes it a heavy investment that also takes time to pay off. We are decreasing the cost to make this more long term focused plan pay off."

• Decreased Cost from 2600 to 2450

DEATH'S TOLL

"The final item changes this patch are focused around Magical ADCs. Through Season 8 we have seen gods that really rely on strong Basic Attack focused play struggle. Freya, Olorun, Chronos, and Sol all feel this to some degree and we think their overall itemization can be improved. Death’s Toll will now provide some extra power, helping augment the abilities and Basic Attacks during early wave clear."

• Increased Magical Power from 25 to 30

EMERALD RING

"Emerald Ring could be a strong option to pair with Death’s Toll but its lack of immediately useful stats and low stats in the T2 Enchanted Ring didn’t lend itself well to Magical Carries who wanted to build towards that path quickly. An extra 5% on both Emerald Ring and Enchanted Ring should make this build path more appealing."

• Now Provides 5% Attack Speed

ENCHANTED RING

• Increased Attack Speed from 10% to 15%

RING OF HECATE

"Ring of Hecate offers the potential for high power and sustain but with its last nerfs it never really found that spot. It was overvalued for its sustain and didn’t provide enough of a punch. These two changes should help in both respects."

• Decreased Cost from 2600 to 2500
• Increased Magical Power from 80 to 90

VAMPIRIC SHROUD

"This change was done in the 8.5 Patch but went undocumented. In general Vampiric Shroud was underperforming and we wanted to better reward bruiser mages or mages looking for early safety with some extra gold to spend and some extra power on their abilities."

• Increased Magical Power from 25 to 30.
• Decreased cost from 750 to 700.

GODS



ATHENA

"This change does not actually affect balance, as all balance changes are in the Bonus Balance. Reach was often confusing and the tooltip did not fully describe how this ability functioned. While it said it did 35% scaling what it really did was take 35% of “In-hand” damage, a combination of “Bot” power and “Item” power. Combined with how Magical Gods only use 20% of their “Bot” power to get their “In-hand” damage it quickly got confusing and was not intuitive. It is much more intuitive and just as accurate to say that Reach deals 1.5x damage (after the latest balance changes) of your Basic Attack damage. So in short, nothing functionally changed here but it is all much more clearly written out."

REACH

• Reach’s previous description made it unclear how much Reach would deal in damage and missed describing key components. Rather than describing it as a scaling bonus we are now comparing its damage as a multiplier on your Basic Attack Damage. Nothing has changed but it should be more clear how to calculate how much damage reach does. Reach also did less damage on subsequent targets. This is also now described in the description.

AH PUCH

"Ah Puch is a low mobility mage that relies on slows, zone control, and the sustain from his passive to stay in a fight. This often leads to him fighting right in the thick of the whole team and encourages splashes of tank items. To further help him out in these situations we are giving him bruiser mage stats which should further assist in this playstyle. Combined with a standard ultimate cooldown Ah Puch will be able to better assist in teamfights."

GENERAL

• Increased Base Health from 400 to 450
  Increased Base Physical Protection from 9 to 13

EMPTY THE CRYPTS

• Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s

ARTEMIS

"Artemis haters will now have to face a stronger early game Suppress the Insolent. As a god with a strong teamfight potential and high throughput damage, a more consistent and high pressure early may just be the extra push this low mobility hunter needs to see some success."

SUPPRESS THE INSOLENT

• Increase base damage from 80/130/180/230/280 to 90/140/190/240/290

HORUS

"Last notes Horus’ wings became 8% more aerodynamic and the mad scientists here have pushed that even further. With a 14% improvement Fracture can now travel a further range, allowing him to engage and lock down opponents who were previously just out of reach."

FRACTURE

• Increased Dash Range from 35 units to 40 units

Hou Yi

"Hou Yi was a high contention hunter that has fallen from that position over the course of Season 8. A boost to Ricochets damage should give him some stronger early game potential and this bonus can be multiplied by a powerful triple hit."

RICOCHET

• Increase base damage from 75/120/165/210/255 to 85/130/175/220/265.

IZANAMI

"Fade Away has strong telegraphing and counterplay towards the stealth component, which made the 20s cooldown feel too intense. This should increase Izanami’s safety during the early game and give her more flexibility when being aggressive as well."

FADE AWAY

• Decreased Cooldown from 20/19/18/17/16s to 17/16.5/16/15.5/15s

KUMBHAKARNA

"Kumbhakarna just took a power nap and is ready…for another power nap. However he did get some solid boosts to help him out. Throw Back’s initial damage will provide some extra lethality when used on gods and not on a minion wave while Groggy Strike should feel more rewarding for its long channel time."

THROW BACK

• Increased Base Damage on the Initial Hit from 70/140/210/280/350 to 90/155/220/285/350

GROGGY STRIKE

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

MERCURY

"For a god as Fast as Mercury he struggled to keep up with other Junglers and their clear. Made You Look is getting some extra base damage to help close that gap."

MADE YOU LOOK

• Increased Base Damage from 70/105/140/175/210 to 80/115/150/185/220

MERLIN

"Dragonfire is seeing a solid update. This ability went on cooldown after the dragons despawned, making its cooldown significantly longer than listed. We are making this ability go on cooldown upon cast and adjusting the cooldown to compensate. This makes the ability easier to track and also lets it better interact with cooldown reduction."

DRAGONFIRE

• Dragonfire will now go on cooldown immediately, instead of waiting until the end of the ability’s effects. This effectively buffs the cooldown by 3s at all ranks.
• Increased Cooldown on Dragonfire from 16/15/14/13/12 to 18/17/16/15/14. Combined with this nerf, this is a 1s cooldown decrease buff at all ranks

RAMA

"Rama is the final hunter we are bringing up. Rama saw heavy success for a long time but introducing proper conveyance and counterplay to the ult landing really hurt his success. This was especially felt at high levels. We are reverting a change we did to Astral Barrage now that more counterplay opportunities exist and also giving some extra reward for aggressive uses of Rolling Assault."

ROLLING ASSAULT

• Increase Scaling on the bonus damage shot from 25% to 30%

ASTRAL BARRAGE

• Increased Base Damage from 180/265/350/435/520 to 180/270/360/450/540

VULCAN

"The Smith of the gods has been busy cooking up a stronger Meatball. Vulcan is on the cutting edge of technology and balance so this boost to his base damage should round out his early clear when competing with other Mages."

MAGMA BOMB

• Increased base damage 70/120/170/220/270 to 80/130/180/230/280

FYI everyone, Morgan Le Fay is up for building, but I haven't received the artwork yet. Should be up by tomorrow, I believe.