SMITE Version 8.9.6801.5

# 8.9 - Cleanliness vs. Godliness | September 21, 2021

## New God Skins

* **Iron Maid Bellona**
Exclusive - Battle Pass
* **Battle Mother Nu Wa**
Exclusive - Battle Pass
* **Deliverer Nemesis**
Exclusive - Battle Pass
* **Deadly Dinner Discordia**
Exclusive - Battle Pass
* **Prince of the Night Hou Yi**
Exclusive - Odyssey
* **Sentai Mulan**
Exclusive - Odyssey
* **Toxic Tide He Bo**
Exclusive - Toxic Tide Chest
* **Jurassic Slasher Cernunnos**
Exclusive - Jurassic Chest
* **Krang Xing Tian**
Exclusive - Prime Gaming

## New Voice Packs

* Iron Maid Bellona
* Battle Mother Nu Wa
* Deadly Dinner Discordia
* Prince of the Night Hou Yi
* Sentai Mulan
* Toxic Tide He Bo
* Jurassic Slasher Cernunnos
* Krang Xing Tian

## Update Release Schedule

* **September 7 - 8.8 Bonus Update**

* More Details here.

* **September 21 - 8.9 Cleanliness vs. Godliness Update**

* Cleanliness vs. Godliness Battle Pass
* New Odyssey: Perilous Seas Skins
* Toxic Tide Chest
* Jurassic Chest

* **October 5 - 8.9 Bonus Update**

* More details here.

* **October 14**

* Krang Xing Tian available via Prime Gaming

* Conquest

* Level 30 (Unchanged)
* 20 Owned Gods at Mastery Level 2 (NEW)
* 30 Normal (PvP) Conquest games played (NEW)

* Joust

* Level 30 (Unchanged)
* 14 Owned Gods at Mastery Level 2 (NEW)
* 30 Normal (PvP) Joust games played (NEW)

* Duel

* No changes at all, keep existing restrictions

### UI

* Players on PC will now be able to type /block <playername> to block a player while in match
* They can also type /block or /b to block the most recent player who whispered them
* The /unblock <playername> or /unblock or /u can be used in the same way
* Fixed an issue where blocked players could still whisper you
* You can not whisper a player you have blocked

### General

* Shifter's Shield

* This item will now display 2 different colored Icons for the 2 different buffs

* Blackthorn Hammer

* This item will now display 2 different colored Icons for the 2 different buffs

* Bracer of Radiance

* The ward that this relic creates now has a new minimap icon

## Bug Fixes

### UI

* The Odyssey: Perilous Seas

* Fixed an issue where the Messina voyage would let you “Start Voyage” again, causing broken state where you cannot start another voyage (this will be fixed with bonus balance)
* Fixed an issue where future Odyssey Skin releases showed the wrong dates
* Fixed various text issues in multiple places of the event

* Achievements

* Fixed an issue where the Achievements for mastering gods were not obtainable

* Art of War – Master 5 Warriors
* Assassin for Hire – Master 5 Assassins
* Join the Hunt – Master 5 Hunters
* Love to Guard – Master 5 Guardians
* Once a Mage – Master 5 Mages
* Diamonds are Forever (all levels) – Master 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 gods to rank 10

* Leaderboards

* Fixed an issue where leaderboards would sometimes fail to load any data
* Fixed an issue where leaderboards would present players in the wrong order

* Fixed an issue where the in-game chat timestamps were not using in-game time
* Fixed an issue where the “Mute Voice Chat” button was also forcing the mute of VGS and chat instead of just voice chat

### General Gameplay

* Joust

* Fixed an issue where Bull Demon King was not playing a global audio cue upon being slain

* Jungle Practice

* Fixed an issue where Lane Minion AI was not working as intended in the Jungle Practice mode only

* Conquest

* Fixed an issue where Gold Fury special abilities could be avoided by placing a wall in front of them

### Gods

* Charybdis

* General

* Fixed an issue where certain abilities like Janus Portal and Fenrir Brutalize were ignored by Charybdis. This also solves bad interactions with abilities like Ganesha ult, and more.
* Added her god ability preview videos

* Spike Shot

* Fixed an issue where this ability would sometimes cancel early or stop the ability to keep firing while active

* Capsize

* Fixed an issue where channeling this ability would cause basic attack projectiles already in the air to deal full damage
* Fixed an issue where this was causing certain items to go on cooldown even if the ability was canceled

* Whirlpool Form

* Fixed an issue where chain lighting effects could still bounce to Charybdis while she was untargetable

* The Maw Hungers

* Fixed an issue where the charge hit of this ability ignored enemy knock-back immune states
* Fixed an issue where this ability would sometimes not fire when intended to

* Cthulhu

* Fixed an issue where Cthulhu could get into unintended states after using his Ultimate

* Baba Yaga

* Fixed an issue where you sometimes couldn’t aim at point-blank range during her ultimate

* Cernunnos

* Fixed an issue where the Warden’s skin summer basic attacks were invisible. This skin will be re-enabled.

* Heimdallr

* Fixed an issue where killing a transformed version of The Morrigan with the first hit of his Ultimate ability could put Heimdallr in a broken state

* Gilgamesh

* Fixed an issue where The Morrigan Ultimate was leading to Gilgamesh getting additional god kills counted towards his passive
* Fixed an issue where Gilgamesh could sometimes purchase items outside the fountain
* Fixed an issue where Drop Kick could not deal wall-collide damage to enemies who had their Spirit Robe trigger active

* Ymir

* Fixed an issue where Frostbite debuff icon displayed the wrong number

* Mulan

* Fixed an issue where the Wildstyle Skin weapon could become invisible if her Ultimate was canceled early

* Nu Wa

* Fixed an issue where the Old Wa Skin Clap Emote had no audio

### Items

* Meditation Cloak

* Fixed an issue where this relic could prevent players from basic attacking for a short duration after using it

* Bracer of Radiance

* Fixed an issue where the buff could last longer than intended if the ward was destroyed or a god died while in the area

# BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 8.9 UPDATE SEPTEMBER 21

## Game Modes

### Assault

* Assault

* Increased lobby duration during the re-roll/trading phase from 55s to 65s for this mode and MOTDs that use Assault format
* New Feature – Healer Tiers

* Healers in assault will now be assigned to tiers
* If a team gets a healer, the other team will also get a healer of the same tier
* Healers are no longer allowed to be rerolled by any player, but they can be traded
* Tiers are:

* Tier 1

* Hel
* Aphrodite
* Yemoja

* Tier 2

* Sylvanus
* Chang'e
* Ra
* Guan Yu
* Terra
* Horus

* Tier 3

* Olorun
* Cupid
* Baron Samedi

### Conquest

*The removal of boots items created a large change in the pace of SMITE matches. Players are gaining these movement speed stats for free now instead of spending gold from the map, so endgame builds are being reached faster than ever.*

*Along with this effect, there also has been a lot of metagaming and map optimization that is causing junglers to fall behind in experience when compared to the rest of the roles. Supports are also feeling a similar effect.*

*We are implementing some intense gold and experience changes to the Conquest map in this update to address the above issues. We are decreasing the base XP, scaling XP, and scaling gold earned from killing minions. While also increasing the XP gained from Buff holders, their minis, and from harpies. This is a clear decrease in gold in the map, and a shift in XP away from lane and into the jungle. As most of these effects are scaling, these changes will be felt more in the mid to late game, and the early game will feel mostly the same.*

*There are some additional changes to help individual roles. The “Lowest Level XP Bonus” is being increased to help Supports (or anyone on the team who falls behind). The movement speed effect from the Speed Buff is being increased to help Junglers. And finally, all of the key jungle camps that players clear before wave 1 are being spawned even earlier to make sure players have time to get to lane or to potentially find new starting routes. One specific change contrary to the previous point is the green buff, which is now going to spawn even later to help communicate to players that they should not be killing this camp as part of their starting route.*

*This is a huge set of changes for Conquest, and there are more exciting changes coming to the map in future updates. We hope this update has a strong effect on making each role feel impactful.*

* Increased Lowest Level XP split bonus from 0.25 to 0.35

* A reminder of how this mechanic works:
* Originally implemented in the 5.13 Mid Season Update
* After 2m on the game clock, Lowest Level  XP Bonus will turn on
* This rule will give the Lowest level player on each team a 35% increase to their shared XP only, not solo XP
* This means a 2 way split, yielding 120% XP total to both players, would yield 60% to the higher level player and 60 \* 1.35 = 81% to the lower player
* 3 man split – also yields 120% which would give 40% to each player, and 1.35\*40 = 54% to the lowest player

* Speed Buff

* Increased base Movement Speed bonus from 5% to 8% on this Jungle Buff

* Initial Spawn Times

* Damage, Mana, Speed, Void Camps

* Moved up from 00:20 to 00:15

* Support Camp (Green Buff)

* Moved back from 00:20 to 00:35

* Back Harpy Camps

* Moved up from 00:25 to 00:20

* Minion Balance

* All Lane Minions

* Decreased Scaling XP Reward from 5 to 4.5 per 3 minutes
* Decreased Scaling Gold Reward from 0.75 to 0.5 per 3 minutes

* Swordsmen and Brutes

* Decreased Base XP Reward from 45 to 44

* Archers

* Decreased Base XP Reward from 25 to 24

* Jungle Buff Camp Monsters (Buff Holder and Both Minis)

* Increased Scaling XP Reward from 9 to 12 per 3 minutes

* (Mana Camp: 27 to 36)

* Harpies (Small)

* Increased Base XP Reward from 22 to 24

## Item Balance

###   Belt of Frenzy

*Relics offer a way for gods to really push for a specific strategy and this flexibility often exists for our tanky support players. In recent patches however most of these relics have seen very little play and are often replaced with safer choices like Purification Beads. Our goal this patch is to bring up the power of these relics and see if they can bring an incentive to forgo the safety of beads. Belt of Frenzy is getting a boost to its Attack Speed, letting your team shred through the enemy team or objectives that much more quickly.*

* Increased Attack Speed Buff from 15% to 25%

###  Belt of Frenzy Upgrade

* Increased Attack Speed Buff from 15% to 25%

###   Heavenly Wings

*Heavenly Wings offers strong utility against heavy slow teams. Its cooldown however made it an unreliable tool for those cases. A reduction here (combined with a Relic Dagger) puts it below the standard 90s ultimate cooldown making it quite the reliable answer to slows.*

* Decreased Cooldown from 140s to 120s

###   Horrific Emblem

*Horrific Emblem offers a way to put the brakes on your enemies advance and offensive power. We are making it a stronger counter to Basic Attack focused comps and lowering its cooldown to help it be a reliable tool during teamfights.*

* Decreased Cooldown from 130s to 110s

###   Magic Shell

*Magic Shell has a strong place but we felt the base version of it felt underwhelming. It will now have some Basic Attack mitigation upfront which should help it feel more potent before its upgrade comes online.*

* Added the effect – all allies take 20% reduced damage from Basic Attacks for the duration
* The upgrade still has this same effect at 50%, unchanged

###  Meditation Cloak

*Meditation Cloaks redesign promised some interesting gameplay but the healing and cooldown utility wasn’t quite enough to compete with more offensive minded options. A reduction in cooldown and a doubling of its cooldown reducing capabilities can make it a solid option to plan around.*

* Decreased Cooldown from 160s to 140s

###  Meditation Cloak Upgrade

* Decreased Cooldown from 160s to 140s
* Increased the Cooldown per tick from 0.5s to 1s

###   Benevolence

*Benevolence has been reworked! From the go to Support starter to the go to everyone starter it has been a wild year for this item. Benevolence was always focused on rewarding the more roaming style of support and we hope to preserve that feeling in the rework without introducing an incentive for all gods to build it. New Benevolence will now be focused around gaining stacks of Benevolence and then bestowing the teammate of your choice with a powerful health restore. For your Benevolence you will gain some gold. With stacks being accumulated over time as well as from Assists you can wait for the right time to roam and feel like you are gaining some benefit as you go to help your team.*

* +100 Health
* +10 MP5
* +7 HP5
* Passive : Every second you are not near an ally you gain 1 Stack of Benevolence, stacking up to 50 times. For each assist you gain 4 stacks. While near a damaged ally you spend stacks to restore yours and their health equal to 0.15% of your Maximum Health. For each stack consumed you gain 1 gold.

###   Bumba's Dagger

*Bumba’s Dagger has started to see some play but we still think it has some room to go. While it does offer high sustain and clear speed, the early levels of this item feels roughly even with the other options without the added benefit of stats you can bring into a gank. A boost in flat power should round out this early game slump.*

* Added 15 Magical Power
* Added 10 Physical Power

###   War Flag

*War Flag has not quite hit the mark in encouraging a different playstyle compared to safer alternatives like Sentinel’s Gift. The effort in gaining gold combined with stats that can make it hard to stay engaged make it feel like high risk for moderate reward. We are making it easier to gain gold while also replacing Power with protections, allowing for that early spike in protections that can let you box directly with your enemies.*

* Decreased Stacks Required to turn on bonus gold effect from 4 to 3
* Removed 10 Physical Power and 20 Magical Power
* Added 10 Physical Protections 10 Magical Protections

###   Arondight

*This item begins a long list of buffs to damage focused Assassins. Our goal this patch is to ensure that damage focused Assassins feel like they have the items needed to be a strong threat late game and stay competitive against their tankier counterparts. This paired with the shift in Conquest experience should help Assassins reclaim their spot on the team. Arondight provided strong power and cooldown reduction; but it’s flat base power favored tankier gods. We are shifting the procs damage to focus more on scaling, rewarding high power builds more directly.*

* Decreased the Base Damage from 40 to 20
* Increased the Physical Power Scaling 30% to 40%
* Now Reads:

* When first striking a revealed target they take an additional 20 + 40% of your Physical Power

###   Brawler's Beat Stick

*Brawler’s Beat Stick is a common counter to healers but lacks the stats to make it not feel like a detriment to pick up. An extra 10 Power will help it along. Additionally, the Mace tree as a whole is seeing a solid buff. With the T2 Mace not offering the same level of spike it did previously we feel the tree as a whole needs more reward when finishing items.*

* Increased Physical Power from 40 to 50

###   Heartseeker

*Heartseeker should be a strong option for Assassins to get that extra damage in on tankier targets but the scaling isn’t quite enough to get that impact. We are reverting a previous nerf to help it find a slot in Assassin builds.*

* Increased Bonus Damage from the item’s passive from 2%-5% to 3%-6% (revert)

###   Jotunn's Wrath

*Jotunn’s Wrath trades raw damage output for Cooldown Reduction, and at its current cost that tradeoff isn’t quite worth it. A reduction here should really let Assassins get their abilities back much more quickly when it is called for.*

* Decreased Cost from 2350 to 2200

###   The Crusher

*The Crusher is about to start crushing it again. An extra 10 Power will help at all stages of the game and help it compete with other choices.*

* Increased Physical Power from 30 to 40

###   Transcendence

*Finally we are also buffing Transcendence. With the pace of Conquest changing without boots this stacking item saw a large falloff for both Assassins and Hunters alike. 10 Extra Physical Power upfront will help it compete with other fast starts like Ichaival or the newly buffed maces.*

* Increased Physical Power from 35 to 45

## God Balance

###  Awilix

*Awilix can feel strong given the right team composition but in other cases she has to commit everything to stay relevant. Increasing the base damage on Summon Suku and Moonlight Charge will give her extra clear to farm and extra options when she cannot safely commit to getting a fully powered Feather Step off.*

* **Summon Suku**

* Increased Base Damage from 80/130/180/230/280 to 80/135/190/245/300

* **Moonlight Charge**

* Increased Base Damage from 90/130/170/210/250 to 90/140/190/240/290

###  Bacchus

*Bacchus is limber and ready to flop. Reducing his cooldowns will round out his ability to set up for his team and give him more flexibility to engage for poke or to all in commit.*

* **Belly Flop**

* Decreased Cooldown from 16s to 16/15.5/15/14.5/14s

###  Bakasura

*Bakasura was expected to be quite strong in Season 8 and even stronger with the removal of boots but we have yet to see that pan out. Late game especially he lacks tools to commit to a fight and threaten a team before being locked down and deleted. Some extra time on the CC Immunity and duration on the Cone Attack should give him that extra flexibility he needs to serve as a carry in the late game.*

* **Regurgitate**

* Increased CC Immunity Duration from 1s to 1.5s (revert)
* Increase Cone Attack Buff duration from 5s to 6s (revert)

###  Chaac

*Chaac can really make it rain, at least in the early game. While his laning phase is quite solid most other Warriors either bring stronger control or more consistent pressure. Some extra base stats combined with a large decrease on Torrent should help him get into a fight more effectively, deal more damage while he is there, and stay there longer with the extra Protections provided.*

* General

* Basic Attack Speed Per Level Buff from 1.0 to 1.2

* **Torrent**

* Decreased Cooldown from 13s to 13/12/11/10/9s

###  Eset

*Eset is nearly fully reverted from her initial rework. While it was deemed quite strong at the time, players have both learned to play around these strengths and the meta has shifted in a way where her strengths aren’t quite as strong. A return of the damage mitigation on Circle of Protection highlights her ability to provide a massively strong area for her team to fight in, whether it is defensive or offensively used.*

* **Circle of Protection**

* Increased Damage Mitigation in the circle from 20% to 25% (Revert)

###  Ganesha

*Turn of Fate’s long cooldown made it difficult for Ganesha to consistently boost his team or clear something on his own in a reasonable time. This extra bit of utility and damage aside from Ohm and Dharmic Pillars should remove an obstacle stopping him from seeing more play.*

* **Turn of Fate**

* Decreased Cooldown from 16s to 14/13.5/13/12.5/12s

###  Geb

*Cataclysm functions unlike nearly any ability in SMITE, working entirely off Current Health to deal its damage. While unique, even the best case scenario for this ultimate saw it as not quite as effective as other teamfight ultimates and in worst case scenarios fell far short. We are now making Cataclysm deal a base amount of damage and then deal additional damage based on Current Health. We think the unique aspect is worth preserving but this should help the Ultimate feel impactful whenever it is used and have that extra oomph when used to start a fight.*

* **Cataclysm**

* This ability now deals base damage in addition to the % Health scaling. It will not have any magical scaling

* 120/270/420/570/720

* Now deals 15% Current health damage at all ranks (decreased from 15/20/25/30/35%)

###  Hel

*This god has recently started showing up in the solo lane. Can one god create a “healing meta” on their own? Maybe not, but Hel is sure trying her best. We are applying a shift to Hel. The first change is a fix to her kit to make her passive work the way that players have expected it to from the text. For some amount of time Hel has only been healing herself for more in light stance, which will now be fixed to apply to her healing of herself or allies. However, as she is performing quite well, we are also decreasing this amount of healing she can gain. The final result will be that Hel will heal herself for less, but her allies for more. We will keep a close eye on this goddess for future nerfs if needed.*

* **Stance Attunement**

* Fixed an issue where this was not providing Hel with increased healing to her allies while attuned to Light Stance
* Decreased the amount of Healing Hel provides to herself an allies when fully attuned to light stance from 20% to 10%

###  Hou Yi

*Mark of the Golden Crow can be thought of as Hou Yi’s stim, and when viewed in that way it doesn’t keep up with other Hunters. A lower cooldown to highlight its sight utility combined with some extra damage scaling should help this feel more competitive with other stims when directly boxing his enemies.*

* **Mark of the Golden Crow**

* Increased Damage Increase for every 10% of missing health from 1/2/3/4/5% to 3/4/5/6/7%
* Decreased Cooldown from 18s to 18/17/16/15/14s

###  Horus

*This Rightful Heir has struggled to find his rightful spot as either a Solo laner or support. By focusing on Updraft and Protector’s Surge’s base either option should feel a solid boost to their early gameplay. With his strong lockdown and potentially game shifting ultimate some extra early potency will go a long way.*

* **Updraft**

* Increased Bonus Damage of the Gust attack from 14/23/32/41/50 to 20/30/40/50/60

* **Protector's Surge**

* Increased Healing from 50/100/150/200/250 to 70/115/160/205/250

###  Sylvanus - Minor Rework

*Sylvanus has outgrown his RNG passive and something new has flourished; A passive that he is in direct control of. Nature’s Bounty will spawn a seed pod whenever he hits any enemy with an ability or where his abilities are deployed. For each Seed he picks up he will gain some mana and Cooldown reduction to help him continue the fight. In super late games this gets even further boosted to really help his team close out a game.*

* **Nature's Bounty (New Passive Ability)**

* When Sylvanus’ abilities hit or are deployed a seed pod appears at that location. When Sylvanus picks up this seed pod he restores 2.5% of his Mana as well as lowers his cooldowns by 0.25s. At level 20 this Cooldown Reduction is increased to 1s

###  Ullr

*The Glorious One has been anything but in recent patches. While he can be quite strong if he can get a lead; his late game has left him underwhelming and on the lower performing end of most hunters this Season. We are reverting a scaling adjustment on Bladed Arrow to help this out but are also boosting the passive stats provided by his stance switch. The extra Attack Speed and Lifesteal will give him some extra flexibility early and that raw scaling in the late game.*

* **Bladed Arrow**

* Increased Physical Power Scaling from 70% to 80%

* **Wield Axes (Wield Bow)**

* Increased Attack Speed (Bow) from 5/10/15/20/25 to 10/15/20/25/30%
* Increased Physical Lifesteal (Axe) from 5/10/15/20/25 to 10/15/20/25/30%

# Post PTS Balance

*It’s been an exciting PTS week for the next SMITE update, as it happened to coincide with the SPL Phase 3 Playoffs! In both the test server and the SPL we saw some significant new feedback that will lead to a few extra balance changes that will be launching 2 weeks from now with the 8.9 Main Update.*

###   Bluestone Pendant

*One last change to aid Warrior Solo Laners (and possibly ability Hunters) is a buff to Bluestone Pendant. This item became very popular for a while, and a few specific gods made use of it much better than others. Our current priorities are set on bringing back Warriors to Solo Lane and bringing back more early game aggressive play, so this is the perfect item to buff. We will be looking more into the Solo lane for the next update, though. And we plan to introduce more aggressive options and continue to monitor the Guardian vs Warrior balance.*

* Increased Physical Power from 12 to 15

###   Vampiric Shroud

*Guardians have started taking over the Solo Lane. In the bonus update, Fighter’s Mask and Sundering Axe were both nerfed which could contribute more to this imbalance. Both of those items are used by Guardian Solos as well as Physical Solos but Guardians still have access to one key tanky item to give them an early advantage: Vampiric Shroud. We are nerfing the Physical Protections on this item to help tip the balance back toward Warriors in the early game.*

* Decreased Physical Protection from 15 to 10

*In addition to the Vampiric Shroud nerfs, we are adjusting the primary counter item that Guardians build against Warriors in Solo lane, and decreasing the Physical Protections across the tree. This should make Guardians more susceptible to ganks from Assassins as well as make for a more fair lane fight against Warriors*

###  Dynasty Plate Helm

* Decreased Physical Protection from 30 to 20

###  Imperial Helmet

* Decreased Physical Protection from 20 to 15

###  Jade Mountain Helm

* Decreased Physical Protection from 30 to 20

###  Tyrannical Plate Helm

* Decreased Physical Protection from 40 to 30

###  Artio

*This goddess was the stand out performer from the SPL playoffs. With a relatively small amount of picks before this weekend, she showed up with 100% pick/ban rate – and many wins to go along with it. As we are adjusting many items for Guardian Solo Laners like Artio, we won’t be nerfing her too hard, but we did want to include some extra for this god who is clearly the top of the meta. Her primary lane clear and damage ability will be getting a cooldown nerf to slow down the pace of her laning and her teamfight presence.*

* **Energy Surge/Maul Prey**

* Increased Cooldown from 10s to 11s for both stances

###  Geb

*We are all very excited to see this earthy god rock and roll, but players expressed a mountain of concern toward his new damage numbers. After some PTS gameplay and reviewing the feedback we are decreasing the damage Geb will be gaining on his Ultimate. We still expect him to make quite an impact in the next update, but this little change will prevent it from being too intense.*

* **Cataclysm**

* Decreased Base Damage 120/270/420/570/720 to 110/240/370/500/630

###  Hel

*Another top pick from the SPL playoffs with 100% pick/ban rate: Hel. This goddess was seen in Solo Lane a few times but has now moved to dominating the Mid Lane. She is able to do enough damage to take out enemies, while also being a huge healing source for her team. She has a shift already planned for this update but it is now clear that she requires a few more nerfs. Repulse damage and another healing nerf are coming to bring this goddess down to a state that’s closer to balanced.*

* **Repulse**

* Decreased Base Damage of Repulse from 80/130/180/230/280 to 70/120/170/220/270

* **Inspire**

* Decreased Light Self Heal from 60/90/120/150/180 to 50/80/110/140/170.
* Decreased Heal Per Tick from 10/15/20/25/30 to 8/12/16/20/24

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