SMITE Season 4 PTS Changes 3

*For the first Season 4 PTS, see the list of changes here: SMITE Season 4 PTS Changes 1*

*For the second Season 4 PTS, see the list of changes here: SMITE Season 4 PTS Changes 2*

*For the fourth Season 4 PTS, see the list of changes here: SMITE Season 4 PTS Changes 4*

“*As we continue toward Season 4 Smite, we are releasing a large patch of balance changes to the PTS. This year has been, by far, the most successful PTS testing phase with many players and pros trying the new content and sharing their feedback. The Dev team is focused on making Season 4 as fun as possible and your feedback is very valuable for this. We will continue to watch how these changes affect PTS and will make more changes as needed.*”

## Conquest

* **Start Timer**

* Game now starts at -1:00 instead of -1:30

* Minions still spawn at 0:00s
* Jungle Camps still spawn at 0:30s

## Jungle Camps

“*Throughout the first seasons of Smite there was an unintended effect where jungle camps would scale their health over time differently depending on if they were dead or not. This has been fixed and a new constant health scaling factor has been applied. Feedback and statistics showed this made the jungle monsters slightly more tanky than usual, so it is being toned down slightly.*”

* **General**

* Jungle Mob Health Scaling over time decreased from our 1.85 multiplier to 1.75 multiplier.

* Elder Elemental

* “*This jungle monster has the stats, rewards and rules as a cyclops buff monster. So Bakasura will treat it as such.*”
* Now must be at 33% health for Bakasura to eat it.

## Relics

###  Hand of the Gods

* Now damages Jungle Bosses for the same amount as other minions.

###   Sundering Spear

“*Sundering Spear saw a lot of use on PTS which is awesome, but the burst potential it provided was a too high given the cost you pay to receive it. We are toning down the base form and upgrades for Sundering Spear in different ways to improve its counter play.*”

* Decreased debuff amount from ~~30%~~ → 15%.
* Sundering Spear Upgrade

* Decreased damage dealt from ~~60+20 per level~~ → 40+14 per level.
* Decreased cooldown from ~~100~~ → 90s.

## Items

###  Rallying Ritual

* Fixed an issue where this Ritual could be interrupted if the destination god was damaged or CC'd. Now should only be interrupted if the god using Rallying Ritual is CC'd.

###  Wind Demon

“*The added attack speed to this entire tree has had a great effect on hunter builds and diversifying crit items. However, it resulted in Wind Demon becoming a bit too strong, so it is seeing a power reduction.*”

* Decreased Physical Power from ~~40~~ → 30.

###   Soul Eater

“*Soul Eater is a clear example of trading raw power for sustain, and we enjoyed seeing where this item was used. The 3% heal was giving players a bit too much overall so we are bringing it into a better spot at 2%.*”

* Decreased Passive heal from ~~3%~~ → 2% of your Max Health.

###  Talisman of the Relentless

“*This item was meant to serve as an alternative to Magi's Blessing that triggered in a new way. Unfortunately it was confusing and was hard to use effectively, so we are removing it for now as well investigating other ideas for items.*”

* Removed from the game.

###   Rage

“*Rage was seeing very little play in Season 3 and was given a new passive and position for Season 4. We received lots of feedback and evidence from testing that showed the new Rage needed more power.*”

* Decreased cost from ~~2600~~ → 2200.
* Increased duration of Rage buff from ~~5s~~ → 8s.

###  War Flag

* Movement Speed and Attack Speed bonuses from this now affect all Allies within range.

###  Fatalis

* Removed the penetration from this Tier 2 item.

###   Ethereal Staff

“*Ethereal serves as a nice alternative to Soul Reaver, providing lower cooldown, non-true damage. At 3 seconds however, Ethereal Staff overshadowed Soul Reaver so we are limiting how often Ethereal Staff can proc.*”

* Increased Internal Cooldown from ~~3s~~ → 10s.

###   Soul Reaver

* Updated description to indicate this dealt true damage.

###   Heartseeker

* Fixed an issue where the stacks were being consumed on minion hits. This effect should now only consume stacks when hitting an enemy god.

###   Silverbranch Bow

* Now builds off of Short Bow.
* Increase Magical Power debuff from ~~10~~ → 15.

###  Rangda's Mask

“*Rangda's Mask is a very aggressive item, rewarding players for prioritizing fights and ganking over farming. Getting a benefit from this item took a bit too long to acquire in most cases, so we are making the first threshold a easier to hit.*”

* Decreased the number of stacks required for the first buff from ~~8 stacks~~ → 6 stacks.
* Fixed a bug where you could sell it and maintain the buff from this item.

###   Gladiator's Shield

“*Gladiator's Shield has served as a strong bridge item, especially for Warriors in the solo lane. We are lowering some of the Physical Power provided by this item to not only highlight this as a defensive bridge choice, but balance out its overall strength.*”

* Decreased Physical Power from ~~25~~ → 15.

###  Sands of Time

“*Sands of Time's passive is seeing an increase in the amount of mana restored to gives mage's a stronger mana regen starter item.*”

* Passive – Increased bonus MP5 per 10% missing mana from ~~1~~ → 1.5.

###   Spectral Armor

“*Spectral Armor's fear effect gives players a strong crowd control effect that can disrupt enemies combos. At 60 seconds this power was coming up too often, so we are increasing the internal cooldown for this item.*”

* Increased Internal Cooldown from ~~60s~~ → 90s.

###   Pythagorem's Piece

“*The new power of Pythagorem's Piece to provide a strong effect to your team no matter the composition is great, but the raw power it previously provided is now a bit too high. We made a few adjustments to the stats it provide to bring it more towards being a support choice.*”

* Decreased Magical Power from ~~60~~ → 40.
* Decreased Magical Lifesteal from ~~15%~~ → 12%.
* Decreased Magical Lifesteal on aura from ~~15%~~ → 12%.

###   Bancroft's Talon

* Decreased cost from ~~2400g~~ → 2300g.
* Increased Magical Lifesteal from ~~10%~~ → 15%.

###   Spear of Desolation

“*After a week of PTS testing this item has shown to not be at a relevant power level compared to other Magical Power and Penetration Items. It is seeing some stat increases and a new passive to preserve more of the spirit of Season 3's Spear of Desolation.*”

* Increased cost from ~~2700~~ → 2800.
* Increased Magical Power from ~~70~~ → 80.
* Increased Magical Penetration from ~~15~~ → 20.
* Passive: Earning a Kill or Assist subtracts 1s from all Abilities currently on Cooldown.

###   Stone of Gaia

“*Stone of Gaia in Season 4 is intended to be a situational counter item against knockup reliant gods. The new passive successfully achieved this, but limited the way players could heal from the item. Stone of Gaia is being changed to always heal, as it did before, but then also have the additional application of the new passive.*”

* Passive – 10% Health and Mana heal on knockup has been removed.
* Added Passive – Regenerates 2% of your max Health every 5 seconds.

###  Soul Stone

“*As part of our Starter Item changes, Soul Stone is being focused into more of a direct power item. Its updated passive affects multiple abilities, allowing for a large power spike, but it must sacrifice something for this.*”

* No longer provides mana when consuming stacks.

###  Swift Wing

* Swift Wing's passive effect will now fade when entering combat.

## Gods

###  Hercules

“*We initially made a change to Mitigate Wounds to allow players to heal quickly without relying on enemies, yet still give Hercules a bonus for using it in combat. With this change we removed the aspect of this skill that many players found unique. To remedy this we are bringing back some of its old strength, while encouraging players to be even more aggressive during its activation. The burst heal immediately after as opposed to a 10s heal over time, and the bonus protections, should greatly facilitate this.*”

* **Mitigate Wounds**

* This heal will now immediately heal hercules for 60/100/140/180/220 and applies a 10/20/30/40/50 protections buff to him for 4s. At the end of the 4s, Hercules will instantly heal back 30/40/50/60/70% of the damage he took during the 4s.

###  Janus

“*Janus has remained largely unchanged for the last few years. He has been a popular pick to many players, but at all levels of non-competitive play he has struggled statistically, only becoming a strong pick (Strong, not constantly a first pick or first ban god) at the absolute highest level of play. We have long since been OK with this, understanding he is a challenging god with a high skill ceiling. Recently his strength at the highest level through item and meta shifts has become a bit too strong compared to his previous standing, so we are changing Through Space and Time to match our previous statement about the cooldown of Global Mobility ultimates. We expect this to bring him even lower at all other levels of play, and we will be looking at ways to bridge the large gap between these levels of play while keeping his high skill cap that people have come to love.*”

* **Through Space and Time**

* Increased Cooldown from ~~90s~~ → 110s.

###  Susano

“*Susano has been struggling and seeing very little play, especially at the competitive level. We aimed to improve him through some additional damage, but received a significant amount of pro feedback that a level 5 Susano would be too strong with those changes. As a result we are scaling the bonus damage on his ultimate per level to help his positioning but keep him fair.*”

* **Typhoon**

* Decreased Bonus Damage from full charge from ~~100 at all ranks~~ → 40/55/70/85/100.

## To Do

“*These are things on our list to get done but were not available at this point in PTS.*”

* Re-evaluate which items are banned in which game mode.
* Make additional adjustments to Skadi.
* New Conquest Jungle Buff being update in color and name.

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