Smite mid season patch review

Time to review the newest smite patch, middle of season patch. Designers have made it clear, some minor adjusts not massive changes. Gentle changes to solve any balance problems, new goal going forward. 

Five recent items, one new tree, four items totals with minor changes to balance. Hard to fault anything wrong with this patch, goals have been reached. Three gods had some big balance changes, Nike, Thor and Isis. Thor gained better clear, extra damage for the ultimate. Isis casting changes and small health shield with the silence. Nike one creative ability, no more sustain or this benefit at the cost of much weaker passive. 

God re-balanced what happened?

Nike used to pick between better clear or sustain or faster jump or longer slow. You could exactly decide on one between the four options. Passive represented the most influential part of the god, but super situational difficult to use. Bonus percent power and movement speed which was global. Values from the passive were not tiny almost worth one item. 

Her main clear ability hits three times unless interrupted, last hit always a disarm. New ability front facing shield which blocks basic attacks, you move slower when casting it. Crowd control was added form of pushback which can be canceled for damage. The shield is frustrating but can be countered, slow movement speed during casting. Jump is faster plus further compared to the old version. Ultimate gains the benefits which were locked away behind an incorrect choice. Redesign of Nike makes her much more useful, decent front line present at last. Team fight is no longer merely walking passive. 

Thor had just two changes, faster casting and extra ultimate damage based on the combo. Faster casting on the clear much shorter cool down makes thor strong early to the middle. After landing the ultimate, each ability fires lighting for short period of time. Chain lighting effect is similar to Zeus. No longer a weaker version of ratatoskr who shares similar kit design. Isis two changes faster casting, death casting on one ability. Health shield was added to one ability. Minor changes which make her safer, harder to dive. Initial pressure at the cost of being immobile, worth the trade. 

New item tree mainly luxury items designed to push new build paths. Trait of this new tree after any ultimate X bonus happens. Health shield based on your protections, no mana cost for one ability and critical chance against anybody hit by basics or abilities. Last item is weaker compared to the others, providing you with ward vision and movement speed. Don’t forget the visible anti heal item which was added. 

Rest of the balance changes are minor compared the above focusing on gold costs. I quite like the changes overall feel it shifts the game towards the promising direction. Still some things I disagree with about the current balance mainly movement speed and clear. Honestly would like clear across the board reduced against high movement speed. Clear lack of weakness which causes big balance problems.

Ranked received some quality of life improvements making the ladder experience way better. Shorter wait times picking and banning, shorter time waiting for games. Experience still toxic pool sometimes, lobby chat is broken muting players don’t mute the chat. Not sure what going to be done about toxic players, something is implied to be planned. Overall I quite like this patch don’t like the balance on movement speed or clear but that it. Back to climbing up the ranked ladder and teaching my friends how to play better. 

Majority of players undervalue movement speed, misunderstanding the strength. More speed means quicker rotations which opens up more farming opportunities. Allows players potential ganking opportunities. Leaps or dashing allows players to avoid incoming damage if timed correctly. Walking faster allows the same thing, able to dodge incoming attacks. Rather frustrating watching somebody dodge everything just from movement. Haste effect which removed basic attack movement speed penalties caused major balance issues. Changes around general movement speed increases the list goes on. Two types of mobility hard or soft, soft mobility is movement speed, hard is anything that quickly moves you. Weird thing most players value both yet don’t fully understand how much it can shape the game.

Mobility with clear is problematic, designers understand this have made changes in the past around this. Increasing general clear or decreasing clear based on how mobile somebody can be. Recent example was golden blade mercury who could one hit camps. High soft movement speed with high hard mobility causes big problems with high clear. Currently smite has very high clear in general, high jungle clear and lane clear. Combine that with high movement speed you don’t have that much risk. Throw in some hard mobility, things start to power creep. I feel like the game has been creeping towards this for some time now. Limited weakness on various gods which just dominate. Strange thing the game has reached weird state of balance around it. I find it rather frustrating to play against high level players who abuse it. Lower level average player is unaware.

Recent changes have reduced the amount of power from Talaria, traveleers shoes or boots. Reducing the power from 20 to 15, should make minor impacts on the middle of the game. Other item players have been abusing is bumba mask. Couple minor price increases for certain movement speed items.

This that enough I don’t know yet…