The Jade Emperor | 9.4 Update Notes

By: TitanDandy | 2022/4/13



Source (9.4 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/the-jade-emperor-9-4-update-notes/
Main Patch scheduled to go live: April 19

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









PASSIVE - MASTER OF THE DAO

Yu Huang attunes himself to the Dao, giving his Basic Attacks and Abilities additional effects. He gains a stack of Dao every 15s. He may also gain a stack by hitting an enemy after not taking or dealing damage for 3s. Once he has 6 or more stacks, Yu Huang becomes Attuned, allowing his Basic Attacks to chain to one additional enemy.

• Chain Basic Attack Damage: 75%
• Attunement Cost: 6 Dao
• Max Stacks: 12 Dao

ABILITY 1 - FLAMES OF THE PHOENIX

Yu Huang conjures four cinders of the phoenix, spreading them in an X shape. The cinders rush inward, dealing damage once as they travel. When the cinders meet, they explode in a field of flames that persists for 3s, burning enemies inside. If Yu Huang is Attuned, when the cinders explode, all enemies in the area have their Magical Protections reduced.

• Cinder Damage: 15/25/35/45/55 (+15% of your Magical Power)
• Initial Damage: 70/100/130/160/190 (+45% of your Magical Power)
• Burn Damage: 5/6/7/8/9 (+5% of your Magical Power) every 0.5s
• Burn Duration: 2s
• Protection Reduction: 4/6/8/10/12 for 3s
• Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
• Cooldown: 11/10.5/10/9.5/9s

ABILITY 2 - DAO CULTIVATION

Yu Huang begins cultivating his Dao before firing a projectile that damages and slows enemies it passes through. As it travels, it leaves behind a trail that explodes, damaging and rooting all enemies. This ability can be fired early to deal 60% of its damage, gaining additional damage up to 1s. Yu Huang can also continue charging up to 3s to earn more Dao on firing.

• Projectile Damage: 50/70/90/110/130 (+35% of your Magical Power)
• AoE Damage: 50/95/140/185/230 (+50% of your Magical Power)
• Slow: 20% for 1s
• Root Duration: 1s
• Max Dao Gain: 6
• Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
• Cooldown: 13s

ABILITY 3 - CELESTIAL FLIGHT

Yu Huang calls forth the Pearl Dragon from beneath him, banishing himself into the air and becoming untargetable. He then gracefully floats back down to the ground in a controlled flight, damaging enemies where he lands. While Yu Huang is floating, he may refire this ability to increase his downward momentum, causing him to fall faster. If Yu Huang is Attuned, the Pearl Dragon follows him as he descends, knocking back any enemies beneath him.

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

ULTIMATE - DUELING DRAGONS

Yu Huang manifests a huge surge of dragon-shaped energy, becoming CC immune and summoning the Pearl Dragon to oppose him. He then has 3s to aim his dragon of energy toward the Pearl Dragon, who will charge directly at it. Both dragons damage and push enemies caught in the blast. If the dragons collide, a damaging explosion occurs in the area. If Yu Huang is Attuned, the width of the dragons is increased by 50%.

• Push Damage: 150/225/300/375/450 (+50% of your Magical Power)
• Explosion Damage: 100/140/180/220/260 (+45% of your Magical Power)
• Cost: 100
• Cooldown: 100s

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

APRIL 19 - THE JADE EMPEROR UPDATE

• Yu Huang – The Jade Emperor
• New Heavenly Light Skins
• Zeus DLC

MAY 3 - 9.4 BONUS UPDATE

• New Heavenly Light Skins
• More info coming soon!

MAY 5 - SUPER SHREDDER PRIME GAMING RELEASE

• Super Shredder available via Prime Gaming

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

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 9.4 UPDATE - APRIL 19

THE NERF UPDATE

"We hinted at this type of update in the previous update notes as well as in some extra communications from Design Director Ajax, and now the moment has arrived! This update will be a Nerf Update – meaning that the entirety of the God and Item balance sections will be focusing only on nerfs! The SMITE community has been vocal about damage being too powerful and too present in SMITE and this update will be taking a major step to address that. In the previous update we looked at the two most specific meta sources of burst damage – Mage Penetration and Berserker’s Shield. Those changes were just the beginning though. This update features a multitude of nerfs across many of the top Gods and Items to continue this effort. The damage topic is often described as a “game wide” issue – but changes have to be implemented specifically across various gods and items, so the process inevitably requires us to work through one god or item at a time. When going through that process it made the most sense to start by nerfing the most powerful and highly prioritized gods and items in the game. Applying this many changes all at once could have far reaching and unpredictable results, but we saw the clear community desire for it. We think we have formulated a cautious and consistent plan to execute this large amount of nerfs in a single update. We are eager to hear feedback and to monitor game data from this update, and we are open to doing more nerf passes like this in the future if necessary."

Goals

• Nerf a large amount of top performing gods and items
• Achieve a net decrease of damage in SMITE through these nerfs
• Make changes that will be felt in all game modes
• Do not buff. Even though we felt like there were some good options, buffs will be saved for future updates

God and Item Selection

• Evaluate the highest pick/ban rate, purchase rate
• Compare that with the highest damage output, win%, and community sentiment
• Consider Conquest data as highest priority but compare with non conquest modes too
• Nerf God damage output wherever possible or things that contribute directly to damage like self buffs and cooldowns
• Nerf Item Physical or Magical Power whenever possible or things that contribute to damage like attack speed or bonus damage

Exceptions

• Do not nerf gods or items who are already perceived as weak (low pick/ban rate or low win%) even if they have high damage or high power
• There are a few defensive nerfs to gods as we felt that the god needed nerfs but damage wasn’t as much of a factor for them
• There are a few item protection nerfs to make sure we don’t shift the game too much in favor of tanks

2 Reworks

• These do not tie directly into the goals of the nerf patch, but were already in progress from multiple departments when balance work on this patch began.
• Both of these changes felt like meaningful quality of life improvements that people would be excited to play with, so we kept them in the update. Both are shifts with considerable nerfs and buffs combined in order to achieve specific gameplay goals.

Final Counts

• 29 Gods Nerfed (including bonus)
• 37 Items Nerfed
• 8 Relics Nerfed (2 Relics, 4 Upgrade States Each)
• 2 Reworks

GENERAL

"Another common point of discussion is Crowd Control. There is a game wide rule that impacts the strength of CC chains in SMITE, so we can effectively nerf CC game wide with a single set of adjustments. Diminishing Returns (DR) is a concept applied in many multiplayer games, and it is always active and present in SMITE. DR causes gods to be CC’d for a shorter duration than the ability specifies if and only if they have been affected by another CC effect within the last 15 seconds. This weakens the overall effect of “CC chains” in which multiple gods or abilities can work together to keep a single opponent locked down for a long period of time. If you get stunned, then stunned again, the 2nd one will be affected by DR and thus be shorter. There are some exceptions like Knock-ups and Channeled effects like Grabs – these are not reduced but do apply DR to reduce the duration of subsequent CC effects. We are open to addressing CC further by nerfing the duration of the effects on specific god kits in the future. We are also open to revisiting the CC and DR rules in general to make this system more clearly communicated and consistent. Those possibilities will be decided upon at a later date depending on the data and feedback from this update."

• Increased CC duration reduction from 33% to 40% per stack

• Decreased the CC duration minimum from 0.5s to 0.4s

ITEMS

"This is a long list of item nerfs and we aren’t sure if it’s worth it to individually explain why each one was changed. In general, all of these item changes follow the logic defined above. These items are the most popular or most powerful within their archetypes, and thus will be nerfed. Almost all class/role archetypes were nerfed in some way, this might create new imbalances based on which class/role is affected more heavily by these nerfs, and it will be a big priority in the next update to adjust more items and gods with the primary goal of making sure all roles continue to feel equally flexible and powerful."

BELT OF FRENZY

• Decreased Damage Buff from 15% to 10%

GREATER BELT OF FRENZY

• Decreased Damage Buff from 15% to 10%

BELT OF INSATIABLE HUNGER

• Decreased Damage Buff from 15% to 10%

BELT OF THE BERSERKER

• Decreased Damage Buff from 25% to 20%

BRACER OF RADIANCE

• Decreased Power Buff from 15% to 10%

GREATER BRACER OF RADIANCE

• Decreased Power Buff from 15% to 10%

BRACER OF BRILLIANCE

• Decreased Power Buff from 20% to 15%

BRACER OF ILLUMINATION

• Decreased Power Buff from 15% to 10%

CHRONOS' PENDANT

• Decreased Magical Power from 100 to 90

ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Magical Power from 140 to 120

CALAMITOUS ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Magical Power from 140 to 120

NIMBLE ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Magical Power from 140 to 120

DIVINE RUIN

• Decreased Magical Power from 110 to 100

SPEAR OF DESOLATION

• Decreased Magical Power from 120 to 110

TELKHINES RING

• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%
• Decreased passive bonus damage from 15% to 10%

RING OF HECATE

• Decreased Magical Power from 90 to 80
• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%

Caduceus Shield

CADUCEUS SHIELD

• Decreased Physical Power from 30 to 25

BREASTPLATE OF VALOR

• Decreased Physical Protection from 65 to 55

BREASTPLATE OF DETERMINATION

• Decreased Physical Protection from 65 to 55

BREASTPLATE OF VIGILANCE

• Decreased Physical Protection from 65 to 55

ANCILE

• Decreased Physical Power from 50 to 40

MYSTICAL MAIL

• Decreased Passive Base damage from 25 to 20

BULWARK OF HOPE

• Decreased Magical Protection from 80 to 70

HIDE OF THE NEMEAN LION

• Nemean Block stacks now prevent 50% of basic attack damage instead of the full 100%

THE CRUSHER

• Decreased Attack Speed from 15% to 10%

HYDRA'S LAMENT

• Decreased Bonus damage scaling from 40% to 35%

JOTUNN'S WRATH

• Decreased Physical Power from 45 to 40

JOTUNN'S FEROCITY

• Decreased Physical Power from 45 to 40

JOTUNN'S VIGOR

• Decreased Physical Power from 45 to 40

SERRATED EDGE

• Decreased Physical Power from 35 to 30
• Decreased passive Physical Power from 10 to 8 per stack

ASI

• Decreased Physical Lifesteal from 20% to 15%

ATALANTA'S BOW

• Decreased Attack Speed from 25% to 20%

Wind Demon

WIND DEMON

• Decreased passive duration from 5s to 4s

DEATHBRINGER

• Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 50

ENVENOMED DEATHBRINGER

• Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 50

MALICIOUS DEATHBRINGER

• Decreased Physical Power from 55 to 50

GAUNTLET OF THEBES

• Decreased base Health provided from 300 to 250 (affects Evolved item as well)

PRIDWEN

• Decreased Shield health scaling earned Protections from items from 100% to 90%

SOVEREIGNTY

• Decreased Physical Protection from 45 to 40

HEARTWARD AMULET

• Decreased Magical Protections provided from passive aura from 20 to 15

AMULET OF SILENCE

• Decreased Magical Protections provided from passive aura from 20 to 15

AMULET OF THE STRONGHOLD

• Decreased Magical Protections provided from passive aura from 20 to 15

CELESTIAL LEGION HELM

• Decreased Magical Power from 80 to 70
• Increased time taken to gain stacks from 2s to 3s
• Increased time after being hit by Physical Damage to gain a stack from 2s to 3s

VAMPIRIC SHROUD

• Decreased Magical Power from 30 to 20

MANTLE OF DISCORD

• Decreased Physical Protection from 60 to 55
• Decreased Magical Protections from 60 to 55
• Increased Cooldown of the Passive Effect from 90s to 110s

REWORK: ARCHMAGE'S GEM

• This item no longer procs and consume the stacks unless a god is successfully damaged
• Decreased Scaling per stack from 1.5% to 1% (decreased total scaling from 30% to 20%)

GODS

"It is easier to identify the top performers for gods, and god changes have much less ripple effect on the rest of the game than item changes do. With these changes we expect that some nerfed gods will continue to remain at the top of the meta, and then more nerfs will be planned for future updates for them. We also expect some number of new gods to find new room for viability, and those gods will be individually evaluated to determine their nerf status."

TIAMAT



PRIMORDIAL ONSLAUGHT

• Decreased Base Damage per shot from 80/90/90/100/100 to 80/85/85/90/90

AGNI



COMBUSTION

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 10% to 8%

RAIN FIRE

• Decreased Base Damage from 140/180/220/260/300 To 120/160/200/240/280
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 65%

PERSEPHONE

• Decreased Explosion damage (Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 80% to 70%)
• Decreased Bite damage (Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 35% to 30%)

GRASP OF DEATH

• This ability no longer applies any attack speed reduction to the caged target

SOL



STELLAR BURST

• Decreased base damage from 40/70/100/130/160 to 40/65/90/115/140

SUPERNOVA

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 45% per hit

THOTH



HIEROGLYPHIC ASSAULT

• Decreased damage increase on successfully hitting a god from 20% to 15% per shot
• Decreased the cooldown reduction on successfully hitting a god from 1s to 0.5s per shot

FINAL JUDGEMENT

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 120% to 115%

ZEUS



CHAIN LIGHTNING

• Decreased Base Damage from 40/70/100/130/160 to 30/60/90/120/150
• Decreased Slow from 30% to 20%

DETONATE CHARGE

• Decreased Base Damage from 50/80/110/140/170 to 40/70/100/130/160

ACHILLES



GIFT OF THE GODS

• Decreased Protection bonus per level from 2 to 1.5
• Decreased Physical Power bonus per level from 2 to 1.5

SHIELD OF ACHILLES

• Decreased long range damage from 75% to 70% (This affects base and scaling damage)

CHAAC



RAIN DANCE

• Decreased his self healing Physical Power scaling from 15% to 10% per tick

STORM CALL

• Increased Cooldown from 75s to 90s

GILGAMESH



SUN-FORGED SCIMITAR

• Decreased base buff duration from 4s to 3s
• Decreased maximum buff duration from 7s to 6s (Which decreases the total possible duration of this effect from 11s to 9s)
• Decreased bonus damage from 3% to 2.5% of his max health per hit

WINDS OF SHAMASH

• Decreased Binding Damage Physical Power scaling from 60% to 50%
• Decreased Wind Wall Slow from 50% to 40%

MULAN



CROSS STRIKE

• Decreased Physical Power scaling from 35% to 30% per hit

SPEAR THRUST

• Decreased Bonus Damage when hitting the same target with both hits from Spear Thrust from 20/35/50/65/80 to 20/30/40/50/60
• Decreased Physical Power scaling when hitting the same target with both hits from Spear Thrust from 15% to 10%

SHIVA



PILLAR OF DAWN

• This ability is now immune to all CC except stuns, as opposed to being entirely CC immune. Stuns will interrupt Shiva out of this ability if he is hit at any time during its 3 phases.

BELLONA



SHIELD BASH

• Decreased Slow from 15/20/25/30/35% to 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%

BLUDGEON

• Decreased Spin Base Damage from 45/75/105/135/165 to 35/65/95/125/155

CAMAZOTZ



BAT OUT OF HELL

• Decreased Base Damage from 100/140/180/220/260 to 100/135/170/205/240 per hit

ARACHNE



PREDATOR

• Decreased Arachne’s Basic Attack Damage Increase from 1.5% to 1.25% for every 5% of a target’s missing Health.

VENOMOUS BITE

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 10% to 8% per tick

CLIODHNA



BANSHEE'S WAIL

• Decreased Final Hit Physical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

LURCHING CLAW

• Decreased Claw Damage Physical Power Scaling from 85% to 80%

TEARING THE VEIL

• Decreased Opening Damage Physical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

LOKI



BEHIND YOU!

• Decreased Bonus Damage from 20% to 15% on basic attacks that hit from behind

VANISH

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 25% to 20% per tick

TSUKUYOMI



DARK MOON SHURIKEN

• Increased Cooldown from 10s to 12s

SILVER MOON CALTROPS

• Decreased Bonus Damage Physical Power Scaling from 40% to 30% on the ranged follow-up attack

AH MUZEN CAB



SWARM

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 75%

STINGER

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 110% to 100%
• Decreased Slow from 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% to 20% at all ranks

APOLLO



ACROSS THE SKY

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 30% to 25% per tick

HOU YI



MARK OF THE GOLDEN CROW

• Decreased Damage Increase provided from 3/4/5/6/7% to 2/3/4/5/6%

IZANAMI



SICKLE STORM

• Decreased Attack Speed from 55/60/65/70/75% to 45/50/55/60/65%

MEDUSA



VIPER SHOT

• Decreased Attack Speed from 40/50/60/70/80% to 40/45/50/55/60%
• Decreased Base Damage from 15/20/25/30/35 to 10/15/20/25/30

LACERATE

• Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 70%

ARTIO



ENERGY SURGE

• Decreased Base Damage on Druid Stance from 80/110/140/170/200 to 60/95/130/165/200

HEAVY CHARGE

• Decreased Base Damage on Bear Stance from 70/120/170/220/270 to 65/110/155/200/245

ATLAS



KINETIC CHARGE

• Decreased Base Damage from 80/135/190/245/300 to 80/130/180/230/280
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 45% to 40%

ARES



SHACKLES

• Decreased God Damage from 25/45/65/85/105 to 20/40/60/80/100 per tick

BACCHUS



INTOXICATE

• Decreased Base Damage from 250/325/400/475/550 to 230/300/370/440/510
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

CABRAKAN



SEISMIC CRUSH

• Decreased Base Damage from 100/145/190/235/280 to 80/125/170/215/260

TECTONIC SHIFT

• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 70% to 60%

CERBERUS



PARALYZING SPIT

• Decreased Base Damage from 50/80/110/140/170 to 40/70/100/130/160 (Decreased by 28 damage if hit by all 4 hits on all ranks)

REWORKS

"This update’s rework is Erlang Shen. We hear the player feedback that wants us to keep the flex capability of these gods as good as possible while still accomplishing our goals. We prioritized that feedback heavily with Erlang Shen’s design. With these changes we are trying to not just bring down the god’s performance in the role where they are overperforming, but also noticeably and clearly buffing the role where they haven’t been as successful. This is a potentially complex topic, as most reworks are, so we will break this out into more clear sections. Why would we want to rework Erlang Shen? What are his problems? Does he meet our criteria for rework? Erlang Shen is one of the top pick/banned gods in SPL, being the #3 most banned god at the S9 Kickoff Tournament, and #5 most banned god at SWC Season 8. Although he is clearly a top priority, his Normal Conquest play count is toward the bottom of the pack, coming in at #77 out of 119 gods. So even with his powerful performance in SPL he is not a god that many people are interested in playing. Erlang Shen also overperforms in his flex role. In Ranked Conquest his Jungle is played significantly more than Solo and boasts a nearly 4% boost in win% over his Solo, which is huge. In SPL his gameplay is nearly 100% in the Jungle. This makes him quite clearly one of top Junglers, if not the actual #1 Jungler. We are happy to support gods that can flex roles, but Erlang Shen is an outlier who takes this flex too far. His jungle performance pushes out many other gods who we would like to see in the role, and he sets a standard for tankier Junglers because of his Warrior stats."

• What are the goals of the changes and how do we accomplish them?

• It’s a lot of changes, but each buff or nerf has its purpose. We hope that players will enjoy these changes to Erlang Shen that continue to keep him as a strong flex god but with more appeal and viability in his core role, and less frustration from his opponents.

ERLANG SHEN



HOWLING CELESTIAL DOG

• Reduced damage from 15% to 7.5% of Erlang Shen’s basic attack damage
• Increased damage from 1% to 1.75% of target’s max health

SPOT WEAKNESS

• Decreased Bonus Damage per hit from 15/27/39/51/63 (+10% of your Physical Power) To 12/22/32/42/52 (+5% of your Physical Power)
• Erlang Shen now gains 4/8/12/16/20% Physical lifesteal while this ability is active
• Erlang Shen now applies a stacking debuff to enemy gods hit by this ability which reduces their damage output by 3/4/5/6/7% per stack, stacking up to 3 times. Stacks last 3s. (9/12/15/18/21% damage reduction max)

72 TRANSFORMATIONS (ES)

• Erlang Shen is now knock up and slow immune while he is transformed into either animal
• Mink form

• Turtle form

9 TURNS BLESSING

• Increased Damage Mitigation from 10/11.25/12.5/13.75/15% to 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%

IMO all of the items have just been getting more and more bloated over time. Pen was increasing, power was increasing on most items, etc. 90 of one type of protection on one item was a response to damage increasing out of control.

So I like this direction. I like they're holding off on buffing anything for now, and that there's a clear concept they're working toward. They're also right that they need to be careful not to nerf damage too much to throw us into a tank meta, but I think this is good for now.

I also like the CC diminishing returns adjustment. I think they could apply this, but also reduce the duration diminishing returns lasts, from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. 10 seconds is plenty of time to wipe DR.

I've not been playing for 2.5yr but I understand the erlang problem... yet still feel removing a hard CC is rough for any god but sure got a lot of shield in return