Smite Season 8 patch notes – New skins, Most Wanted Battle Pass release date, new starter items, god changes, and more

The patch notes for Season 8 are up.
Image via Hi-Rez

The start of a new season in Smite is about to begin. Season 8 is introducing a wave of new content with brand new starter items, god changes, a new conquest map, and a battle pass arriving on January 26. There’s a lot to cover, with a small portion reserved for this season’s roadmap.

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The new starter items will set the meta starting on day one. Traditionally, starter items were an essential jumping off point for every Smite role. However, not only will they be the first item, but they can determine your final build as they now feature advanced versions you can build into. There are multiple options, too, rather than one solid choice for every role.

While the new gods are not listed, the new battle pass and Season Pass will be available starting on January 26.

All new god skins

New DLC

Season Pass 2021 – $39.99 USD, Includes the following items:

  • 1000 Gems
  • Grand Magus Anubis Skin – Limited
  • Grand Magus Loading Screen – Limited
  • Tyrant Title
  • Provides the following for each new god in 2021 as they are released:
    • Unlocks gods for gameplay if you do not already own the Ultimate God Pack
    • Base recolor
    • New Limited recolor
    • Voice pack
    • Wave and Clap Emotes

Update Release Schedule

January 26

  • Most Wanted Battle Pass
  • Season Pass 2021
  • Dawn of Babylon Event
  • Valentine Chest
  • Season 7 & 8 Ranked Rewards
  • Season 7 Commendation Reward

Bug Fixes

UI
  • Gifting
    • Fixed an issue where the menu would sometimes close when attempting to search for “Other Players” to send a gift to
  • Fixed an issue where buying a skin in lobby would appear to make that the selected skin – but loading into the match would equip the previous selected skin before the purchase
General Gameplay
  • Implemented a Hotfix (Live Already) – that attempts to fix the issues where certain gods would appear to be stuck in certain animation states – for example: Serqet would appear to be repeatedly leaping. These gods were not actually firing these abilities repeatedly, it just looked like they were. This issue should be fixed already or greatly reduced in its chance of occurring.
  • Fixed an issue where almost any god/skin had a chance for its voice pack to become silent for a single match
  • Fixed an issue where it appeared to players who purchased a skin in the god lobby as though the skin was selected, until the loading screen where it would be reverted to their previously selected skin.
  • Clash Map
    • Removed an unintended fog volume that was visible in the jungle areas of this mode
Gods
  • Danzaburou
    • Fixed an issue where his Ability 02 – Alluring Spirits – could be canceled mid-fire without being put on cooldown
    • Fixed an issue where level-up effects would play on Danzaburou when he is in leaf form – these will no longer play on him at that time
    • Fixed an issue where the buff icons from his passive would sometimes not appear as intended
    • Fixed an issue where his ult could be interrupted while CC immune and already firing
  • Hel
    • Fixed an issue where Hel had unintended reduced healing while in her dark stance
    • Fixed an issue where Decay hit FX were playing in incorrect ways on enemy gods/minions hit by the effect
  • Set
    • Fixed an issue where Set’s sand clones would sometimes deal no damage when passing through enemies.
  • Ymir
    • Fixed an issue where it was possible to stack 2 copies of Frostbite in some scenarios.
  • Awilix
    • Fixed an issue where if Awilix was interrupted during the casting time on Suku’s Leap – she would be removed from Suku.If she did not leap, she should get another chance to leap. If she is interrupted while leaping – this ability will go on cooldown.
  • Aphrodite
    • Fixed an issue where Love Birds would sometimes not hit enemies clearly in the hit area
  • Hera
    • Fixed a typo in her achievement text
  • The Morrigan
    • Fixed an issue where her victory/defeat animations could get out of sync
Skins
  • Poseidon
    • Fixed an issue where Tidal Surge’s collision was different on the Dreadbead skin.
  • Nu Wa
    • Fixed an issue where the Caustic Skies Skin would T-pose in the game client and lobby
  • Vulcan
    • Fixed an issue where the Space Cadet Skin could become stuck in a specific animations
  • Nemesis
    • Fixed visual issues on the targeters for the Primal Vengeance and World Tour skins
  • Zeus
    • Fixed an issue where the Eternal Tormenter skin would sometimes not display the orange runic circle visual element of the skin
  • Xing Tian
    • Fixed an issue on the Gecko Gladiator skin where the Gecko heads could get into unintended positions
  • Ares
    • Fixed an issue where the Oni skin was using the ability 1 chains sound on death – it will now play a different chains sound on death
  • T5 Skins
    • Fixed an issue where these skins would have silent VGS when using “god” VGS instead of “skin” VGS
  • Chibi Skins
    • Fixed an issue where these skins would not display Nike’s Laurel effects properly

Quality of Life

New Tutorial System – Role Guides

As part of this year’s commitment to Conquest, we are expanding the Conquest tutorial in big ways. This system is a new type of dynamic tutorial and works along with actual SMITE gameplay instead of forcing you through a step by step process. We will work throughout the year to continually update the starts and routes this system shows players.

  • Detects your role from lobby to provide a unique guided experience for each role 
  • Shows you waypoints throughout the match
    • Guides you through your starting jungle camp and to your lane
    • Draws attention to respawning camps 
    • Highlights jungle bosses and towers as the game progresses
  • Can be manually toggled on or off at any time
  • Works within Co-Op or PvP matches
  • Never stops or slows down the gameplay
    • Adjusts automatically if you miss spawns, get invaded, or otherwise
  • This will default to ON for players under level 15, and OFF for those 16+
    • Turn this on by pressing escape to bring up the escape menu and selecting the GUIDES option to bring up setting toggles for Role Guides. This can be done at any time.
    • Or click the GUIDES button in match lobby
UI
  • New Escape Menu Option: Guides
    • New Escape Menu option called GUIDES which allows players to toggle the following settings at any time.
      • Auto Purchase Items
      • Auto Skill Level Up
      • Auto Filter by Class
      • Show Role Guides
      • Show Help Tips
      • Show Recommended Items for My Role
  • Help Tips Changes

In addition to the new Conquest Role Guides, we want to make our current new player features better, and draw more attention to the optional ones. Help Tips are on by default for new players, but they were outdated and far too large. They’ll be more sleek now with more relevant information. A group of other UI changes have been made to make our current new player features more discoverable.

  • Help tips pop up boxes have had their size adjusted to be less intrusive.
  • Help tips have been updated to display updated buff, camp, and objective  information.
  • Large art was removed from the help tips in order to make the tips less intrusive during gameplay.
  • Game Modes Page 
    • Players will now be able to access tutorial videos for each game mode via a new button within the list of game modes.
  • Match Lobby
    • Role Trading 
      • Added a new button that works like Ranked God Trading, but instead allowed players to trade role assignments 
      • Players will only be able to trade with one player at a time. 
      • The player receiving a trade request must accept the role trade request. 
      • There is a 10 second cooldown before the player can receive another role trade request if they decline a role trade request.
    • God selection screen now displays the recommended role for each god
    • Added a new button to the match lobby: Guides – displays the following match settings:
      • Auto Skill Level up toggle
      • Auto Purchase Items
      • Auto Filter by Class
      • Show Role Guides (Conquest Only)
      • Show Help Tips (all modes)
    • Recommended Item Updates  
      • Builds will be recommended by Role in Conquest, with separate recommendations for Arena and other non-Conquest modes.
      • If a build is available, players will automatically be shown a build for the role they selected in the match lobby, but will have an option to select a different role in-game.
      • Recommended items will once again show items that are popular among high-elo players, instead of being based on team composition.
      • Players will be able to freely disable / re-enable auto-purchase in the match, even after purchasing an item outside the recommended list.
Ranked
  • All of these changes apply to all Ranked Modes – and only Ranked Modes
  • All Players Ranked MMR will be Hard Reset 8.1
  • MMR system
    • Removal of Variance System 
      • Players will experience a more consistent MMR gain and loss from the first game they play to their 100th. MMR gain and loss can still change based on how even both teams appear to the Matchmaker.
    • Maximum MMR Adjustment
      • Players can no longer gain or lose more than 100 MMR in a single match.
  • Split System
    • TP/MMR resets will only apply to players above diamond who become inactive for 2 weeks 
    • Ranked Quests and Rewards will continue to reset every 2 updates
    • Ranked Rewards usually given out at the of the year will be available to be unlocked immediately in 8.1

Game Modes

All Modes – New Healing Rules

Healing in SMITE can be a polarizing topic. It is simultaneously true that healers in SMITE statistically perform very well across all levels of play but in individual matches healers can feel helpless fighting against Anti-heal. There are also players who feel their most recent fight can become completely negated by the enemy stepping back for a short time and healing back to full. All these moments can create negative experiences for all players so we want to approach this and make it a better experience for everyone involved.To accomplish this we are introducing a new global aura in all maps that reduces healing done by abilities and lifesteal. This aura will apply to all players who have not dealt damage or Crowd Control (or been dealt damage or Crowd Control) to an enemy god. From here on out we will refer to this type of “combat” as Brawling. The overall strength of healing “out of combat” is being brought down. Conflicts that occur will now have more meaningful outcomes.We do think at the same time that healing while directly fighting feels more fair to fight against but has the very high variability of being shut out. We are toning down the effect and duration of all Anti-heal items. Their long length and intensity was meant to help curb “out of combat” healing directly after a fight which the aura now does.In short with these changes we hope healing in SMITE will feel better to use as a direct combat strength while we can bring down the frustration cases on both sides that can occur when healing feels too strong. This change affects quite a lot so we are eager for everyone to get their hands on it and provide feedback on our goals and how well we have met them.

  • Global Anti-Healing Aura
    • While not “Brawling” your Ability and Lifesteal healing taken is reduced by 30%.
      • A god is considered Brawling if they have damaged or applied Crowd Control to an enemy god (or they have been damaged or Crowd Controlled by an enemy god) in the last 4s.
  • Anti-heal Item Changes
    • Divine Ruin
      • Decreased Anti-heal from 40% to 35%.
      • Decreased duration from 8s to 6s.
    • Brawler’s Beat Stick
      • Decreased Anti-heal from 40% to 35%.
      • Decreased duration from 8s to 6s.
    • Toxic Blade
      • Decreased Anti-heal per stack from 20% to 17.5%.
      • Decreased duration from 8s to 6s.
    • Pestilence
      • Decreased Aura Anti-heal from 25% to 20%.
    • Contagion
      • Decreased Aura Anti-heal from 25% to 20%.
    • Cursed Ankh
      • Decreased Anti-heal from 50% to 45%.
      • Decreased duration from 10s to 6s.
    • Cursed Ankh Upgrade
      • Decreased Anti-heal from 50% to 45%.
      • Decreased duration from 10s to 8s.
    • Shadowsteel Shuriken
      • Decreased Anti-heal from 40% to 35%.
      • Decreased duration from 8s to 6s.
        • This item has received additional balance changes, outlined in the item section.
    • Rod Of Healing
      • Increased Healing increase from 5% to 10%.
      • No longer increases by 5% when taking or dealing damage.
    • Rod Of Asclepius
      • Increased Healing increase from 10% to 20%.
      • No longer increases by 15% when taking or dealing damage.
    • Caduceus Shield
      • Increased Healing increase from 10% to 20%.
      • No longer increases by 15% when taking or dealing damage.
Jungle Camp Vision Changes
  • Gods that visit a Jungle Camp on their side of the map will now receive vision of the in-world and minimap respawn timers for that camp. This is granted even if the camp was invaded and cleared by the enemy.
Conquest
  • Living Conquest Map
    • In addition to the completely new 8.1 Conquest Map, there will be 3 more distinct updates to the map throughout the Season.
    • Each Update will have a specific theme that follows the SMITE storyline and god release plan.
    • Each Update will have art and design updates to the map to compliment the theme. 
    • Conquest is our most competitive game mode and we want to increase its ability to receive art and design updates to levels never seen before!
    • There will still be continual balance changes to the map every update, especially as we gather data and feedback at the start of the season.
  • An Entirely New Conquest Map
    • New layout
      • Wider map from lane to lane
      • Longer map from base to base 
      • Completely reworked Jungle with more variance in its paths and geometry. Some paths are especially narrow, and others are much wider. 
      • New Camps and different camp locations.
    • New art set
      • Chaos side takes the form of Tiamat’s Babylonian fortress
      • Order side is a totally rebuilt Mount Olympus
      • Order and Chaos towers have completely new models
      • Chaos Titan is a completely new character
      • Chaos Minions are completely new characters
      • New Jungle Monsters – Scorpions
      • Many of our favorite jungle monsters, as well as the Order Titan and Minions will be keeping their current Season 7 art on the new map.
    • Balance
  • New Objectives / Features
    • New NPC – Greater Scorpion (Jungle)
      • Mid-game objectives located in the Jungle
      • Two Greater Scorpions will spawn on each side of the map, in both the Gold Fury and Fire Giant pits
      • While alive, these monsters prevent the spawn of both major neutral bosses
      • After a Greater Scorpion is slain, its spawn location will move deeper into the enemy jungle, depending on which team secured the kill
      • Slaying a Greater Scorpion will enhance your buff camps on the side of the map where it was killed. These camps drop Enhanced Buffs that provide additional bonuses on top of their base effects
        • Enhanced Damage Buff
          • Additionally provides 7% Physical and Magical lifesteal
        • Enhanced Speed Buff
          • Increases CCR bonus from 10% to 20% (+10%)
        • Enhanced Mana Buff
          • Increases CDR bonus from 10% to 20% (+10%)
          • Additionally provides 10% increased Maximum Mana
        • Enhanced Void Buff
          • Increases Attack Speed bonus from 10% to 25% (+15%)
    • New NPC – Lesser Scorpion (Lane)
      • Early-game objective for Duo and Solo lanes that spawn on the outer edges of the map
        • 2 will spawn in Duo lane
        • 1 will spawn in Solo lane
      • These monsters will be “downed” when their HP bar is depleted, and will require 3 more hits to secure the kill and Gold/XP rewards
      • While in their downed state, they emit a healing aura that heals 20 HP per second for a maximum of 10 seconds
    • Base Gates
      • SMITE’s first dynamic geometry is being added to the S8 Conquest Map! These doors will act like a jungle wall when closed, and a jungle path when opened 
      • Each base has two doors nestled in the walls between the phoenixes and are useful shortcuts into the Jungle
      • These doors will open when a god sets foot on a specific area inside the base
      • Doors cannot be opened from the outside, but gods, including enemies, can leap or blink over walls to open them
      • Players attempting to open enemy doors from the inside will be afflicted with Invader’s Curse and will need to stand on the trigger for longer to open the door
    • Fountain
      • While all of their phoenixes are alive, Gods will now receive Reinvigoration when exiting their fountain
        • Increases out-of-combat Movement Speed by 40%
        • Lasts 5 seconds
      • This will still be enhanced by Pyromancer kills
    • Jungle
      • All Buff camps now spawn at 00:20
      • All Mid Harpy camps now spawn at 00:35
      • Increased Mid Harpy respawn time from 90 to 120 seconds
      • Jungle Shrine has been removed
      • Invader’s Curse now encompasses all buff camps until 01:00
      • Void Camp
        • Reworked Void Sludge
        • Now stacks up to 3 times
        • Applies 5% protection reduction per stack
        • Reduced ability cooldown from 30 to 7 seconds
        • Debuff lifetime reduced from 20 to 10 seconds
        • No longer lowers your targeting priority from other minions

Starter Items

Carry Starters

Death’s Toll

  • Restore Health and Mana for landing Basic Attacks.
  • Can be upgraded to Death’s Embrace or Death’s Temper at level 20.
  • 700g
  • +10 Physical Power
  • +20 Magical Power
  • +75 Health
  • PASSIVE – Hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack restores 2 Health (+1% of your Maximum Health) and 1 Mana (+1.5% of your Maximum Mana). Basic Attacks that deal AoE damage restore half as much for each enemy hit after the first. Can be upgraded at level 20.

Death’s Embrace (Death toll at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +80 Physical Power
  • +140 Magical Power
  • +200 Health
  • Passive – Hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack restores 3% of your Health and Mana. Basic Attacks that deal AoE damage restore half as much for each enemy hit after the first. Can be upgraded at level 20.

Death’s Temper (Death toll at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +50 Physical Power
  • +75 Magical Power
  • +30% Attack Speed
  • +100 Health
  • Passive – When an enemy dies near you gain 1 stack of Temper that provides 3.5% increased Basic Attack Power for 10s, maximum of 10 stacks. When an enemy god dies near you gain 5 stacks.

Gilder Arrow (Farming Carry Starter Item)

  • Mark a minion for a bounty every 10s. Last hit to claim the bounty.
  • Can be upgraded to Diamond Arrow or Ornate Arrow at level 20.
  • 700g
  • +15 Basic Attack Damage
  • +50 Health
  • +7 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Every 10s a nearby enemy minion is marked , prioritizing the highest health minion. If you secure the killing blow on that minion you gain 10 bonus gold and 20% attack speed for 8s, and restore 20 Mana.

Diamond Arrow (Gilded arrow at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +80 Basic Attack Damage
  • +100 Health
  • PASSIVE – When you kill an enemy you gain 10 gold and 20% attack speed for 8s, stacking up to 3 times. If you kill an enemy god you gain 3 stacks and 30 gold immediately.

Ornate Arrow (Gilded arrow at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +60 Basic Attack Damage
  • +150 Health
  • PASSIVE – All sources of gold gain are increased by 20%. For every 100 gold in you have gain 1% Attack Speed and 0.8% Critical Strike Chance, up to a maximum of 25 stacks.

Leather Cowl (Utility Carry Starter Item)

  • 700g
  • +15 Physical Power
  • +10% Physical Lifesteal
  • +5% Attack Speed
  • Passive – While you are near an allied god you gain 10% Attack Speed. While you are alone you gain 5% Movement Speed.

Hunter’s Cowl (Leather Cowl at level 20

  • 2200g
  • +60 Physical Power
  • +15% Physical Lifesteal
  • +20% Attack Speed
  • Passive – While you are near an allied god you gain a 25% Attack Speed aura. If you are alone you gain 10% Movement Speed

Leader’s Cowl (Leather Cowl at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +40 Physical Power
  • +300 Health
  • +15% Physical Lifesteal
  • Passive – For each nearby friendly god (55 units) you gain a stack of Outnumber. For each nearby enemy god you lose a stack of Outnumber. Each stack of Outnumber provides 3% increased Power to nearby allied gods.

Solo Starters

Warrior’s Axe (standard starter item)

  • 600g
  • +50 Health
  • +15 Physical Protection
  • +10 Magical Protection
  • +2 Damage Reduction
  • PASSIVE – Damaging an enemy god steals 25 health away from your target and restores it to you. This effect can only occur once every 10s.

Sundering Axe (Warrior’s Axe at level 20)

  • 2100g
  • +250 Health
  • +30 Physical Protections
  • +30 Magical Protections.
  • +5 Flat Damage Reduction
  • Passive – Damaging an enemy god steals 10% of their Current Health away from your Target and restores it to you. This effect can only occur once every 7 seconds.

Hero’s Axe (Warrior’s Axe at level 20)

  • 2100g
  • +300 Health
  • +35 Physical Protection
  • +35 Magical Protection
  • +30% Crowd Control Reduction
  • Passive – When an ally god around you within 55 units is hit by a hard crowd control effect, give them a shield equal to 10% of your Maximum Health. This effect can only occur once every 8s.

Bluestone Pendant (Aggressive starter item)

  • 800g
  • +10 Physical Power
  • +20 HP5
  • +10 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take an additional 25 Physical Damage over 2s. (Max 2 Stacks).

Bluestone Brooch (Bluestone Pendant at level 20)

  • 2300g
  • +45 Physical Power
  • +30 HP5
  • +30 MP5
  • Passive – Enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take an additional 25 +7.5% of their Current Health over 2s. (Max 2 Stacks).

Corrupted Bluestone (Bluestone Pendant at level 20)

  • 2300g
  • +60 Physical Power
  • +20 HP5
  • +20 MP5
  • Passive – Enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take an additional 75 damage over 5s and reduced enemy attack speed by 10%. (Max 2 Stacks). For every enemy afflicted you gain 15% Attacks Speed up to a Maximum of 5 enemies.

Warding Sigil (Magical protection solo starter item)

  • 700g
  • +100 Health
  • +15 Magical Protection
  • Passive – Whenever you are hit by an ability you gain a stack of Dampening, decreasing damage taken by 5 for 5s. This occurs only once per ability cast. This can stack twice.

Sigil of the Old Guard (Warding Sigil at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +200 Health
  • +75 Magical Protection
  • Passive – Whenever you are hit by an ability you gain a stack of Rebuke, decreasing damage taken by 4% for 5s. This occurs only once per ability cast. This can stack three times.

Infused Sigil (Warding Sigil at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +350 Health
  • +25 Magical Protection
  • +25 Physical Protection
  • Passive – Whenever you are hit by an ability, your Infused Sigil gains a stack. This occurs only once per ability cast. At 5 stacks it explodes after 0.5s, dealing 400 Magical Damage to enemies within 30 units of you.

Mid Starters

Vampiric Shroud (Standard starter item)

  • 850g
  • +15 Magical power
  • +75 Health
  • +15 Physical Protection
  • +5% Magical Lifesteal
  • PASSIVE – Damaging any enemies with an ability gives you bonus 6 health and 6 mana. Can only trigger once per target per ability.

Blood-soaked Shroud (Vampiric Shroud at level 20)

  • 2350g
  • +75 Magical Power
  • +200 Health
  • +40 Physical Protections
  • +15% Magical Lifesteal
  • PASSIVE – Damaging any enemy with an ability restores 12 Health, 6 Mana and provide a stack 1% Magical Lifesteal for 6s. This can stack infinitely. Can only trigger once per target per ability.

Sacrificial Shroud (Vampiric Shroud at level 20)

  • 2350g
  • +100 Magical Power
  • +100 Health
  • +20 Physical Protection
  • +15% Magical Lifesteal
  • PASSIVE – Your abilities deal 15% more damage, but cost 5% of your Maximum Health.

Sands of Time (Cooldown mid starter item)

  • 800g
  • +30 Magical Power
  • +5 MP5
  • +10% Cooldown Reduction
  • PASSIVE – This item grants 2 MP5 per 10% of your missing Mana.

Pendulum of Ages (Sands of Time at level 20)

  • 2300g
  • +90 Magical Power
  • +20 MP5
  • +10% Cooldown Reduction
  • Passive – This item grants 4 MP5 per 10% Missing Mana. This item grants 7 Magical Power per 10% Available Mana.

The Alternate Timeline (Sands of Time at level 20)

  • 2300g
  • +45 Magical Power
  • +45 Protections
  • +15 MP5
  • +10% Cooldown Reduction
  • Passive – When you would die you instead find an alternate timeline you are alive, becoming CC Immune, Damage Immune, and unable to act. After 1.75s you are restored to 25% Health and Mana and can act again. This can only occur once every 10 minutes.

Conduit Gem (Aggressive starter item)

  • 700g
  • +30 Magical Power
  • +15 MP5
  • Passive – Every second you gain a stack of Arcane Energy, causing your next damaging ability to deal an additional 2 True Damage and remove all stacks. This effect stacks up to 20 times.

Archmage’s Gem (Conduit Gem at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +100 Magical power
  • +25 MP5
  • Passive – Every 1s you gain a stack of Demise, causing your next damaging ability to deal an additional 2.5% of your Magical Power in damage and remove all stacks. This effect stacks up to 20 times.

Gem of Focus (Conduit of Gem at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +90 Magical Power
  • +150 Health
  • +15 MP5
  • Passive – Every time you cast an ability that costs mana you gain a stack of Focus for 10s, providing 3% Movement Speed, 3% Damage Increase, and 2% Damage Taken Reduction, stacking up to 3 times.

Jungle Starters

Bumba’s Dagger (Standard starter item)

  • 600g
  • +50 Health
  • +50 Mana
  • PASSIVE – Your Basic Attacks deal +15 True Damage and your Abilities deal +30% Damage versus Jungle Monsters. When a Jungle Monster is killed you are restored for 10% of the Monster’s Health and 25 Mana. Can be upgraded at level 20.

Bumba’s Spear (Bumba’s Dagger at level 20)

  • 2100g
  • +60 Physical Power
  • +90 Magical Power
  • +200 Health
  • +200 Mana
  • Passive – Your Basic Attacks deal +50 True Damage and your Abilities +50% damage against Jungle Monsters, Structures, and Jungle Bosses. When any of these die you are healed for 10% of their Health, restore 10% of your Mana, and are given 10 gold.

Bumba’s Hammer (Bumba’s Dagger at level 20)

  • 2100g
  • +300 Health
  • +200 Mana
  • +10% Cooldown Reduction
  • +10% Penetration
  • Passive – After casting an ability your next Basic Attack deals an additional 80 True Damage. After hitting a Basic Attack empowered by Bumba’s Hammer, your active cooldowns are reduced by 1s and you are healed for 5% of your Maximum Health.

Eye of the Jungle (attack speed starter item)

  • 650g
  • +10 Physical Power
  • +20 Magical Power
  • +15 HP5
  • +20% Attack Speed
  • Passive – You deal 30% increased damage to Jungle Monsters. Upon defeating a Large Jungle Monster, place a ward that lasts for 30 seconds.

Seer of the Jungle (Eye of the Jungle at level 20)

Can be upgraded from Eye of the Jungle at level 20.

  • 2150g
  • +60 Physical Power
  • +90 Magical Power
  • +25 Physical Protection
  • +20% Attack Speed
  • Passive – You deal 30% increased damage to Jungle Monsters and Jungle Bosses. Upon defeating a Large Jungle Monster or Jungle Boss, you gain the ability to see Wards for 10s.

Protector of the Jungle (Eyes of the Jungle at level 20)

  • 2150g
  • +65 Physical Power
  • +100 Magical Power
  • +35 Physical Protection
  • +35% Attack Speed
  • Passive – While in the jungle you gain 15% Power and 15% Protections.

Manikin Scepter (aggressive jungle starter item)

  • 750g
  • +10 Basic Attack Damage
  • +15 Physical Protection
  • +3 Damage Reduction
  • Enemies hit by your Basic Attacks are burned, taking 20 Physical Damage over 2s and have their Attack Speed reduced by 7%. Jungle Monsters take 2.5x the amount of damage. This effect can stack up to 4 times. Can be upgraded at level 20.

Manikin Mace (Manikin Scepter at level 20)

  • 2250g
  • +50 Basic Attack Damage
  • +100 Health
  • +30 Physical Protection
  • +8 Damage Reduction
  • Passive – Enemies hit by your Basic Attacks are burned, taking 60 physical damage over 2s and have their Attack Speed slowed by 10%. Jungle Monsters and Bosses take quadruple damage. This effect can stack up to 4 times.

Manikin Hidden Blade (Manikin Scepter at level 20)

  • 2250g
  • +75 Basic Attack Damage
  • +30 Physical Protection
  • +5 Damage Reduction
  • Passive – If you have not taken or dealt damage in the last 5s and hit an enemy god, Jungle Monster, or Jungle Boss, they immediately take 15% of their Current Health as Physical Damage and are slowed by 20% for 5s.

Support Starter Items

Sentinel’s Gift

  • 500g
  • +75 Health
  • +7 Physical Protection
  • +7 Magical Protection
  • +7 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Being within assist range of a minion or jungle camp monster death without dealing the killing blow awards 7 bonus gold, and also restores +12 Health and +8 Mana. If you are not near an allied god for 20 seconds or more, this passive is disabled.

Sentinel’s Boon (Sentinel’s Gift at level 20)

  • +300 Health
  • +45 Physical Protection
  • +45 Magical Protection
  • +20 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Assisting an enemy target dying provides 15 Bonus Gold and restores 3% of your Health and Mana.

Sentinel’s Embrace (Sentinel’s Gift at level 20)

  • +20 Physical Protection
  • +20 Magical Protection
  • +20 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Evenly split 120 Physical and Magical Protection among all nearby allied gods and yourself. If you are alone you only gain 60 Physical and Magical Protections.

Benevolence (Tactical support starter item)

  • 750g
  • +75 Health
  • +7 HP5
  • +10 MP5
  • Passive – Gain 2GP5 and 1 XPP5 (+0.5 per level). Any time you would gain experience or gold from an enemy dying you only take 90% and share 10% with nearby allies.

Compassion (Benevolence at level 20)

  • 2250g
  • +300 Health
  • +30 HP5
  • +15 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Damage taken by nearby allies is reduced by 15%, up to a maximum of 100 damage. The reduced damage is redirected to you as Magical Damage. If this redirected damage would kill you, it does not get redirected.

Animosity (Benevolence at level 20)

  • 2250g
  • +400 Health
  • +20 HP5
  • +20 MP5
  • PASSIVE –  Your Basic Attack deals bonus damage equal to 4% of your Maximum Health as Magical Damage. This effect is doubled against structures.

Warflag (aggressive starter item)

  • 700g
  • +10 Physical Power
  • +20 Magical Power
  • +100 Health
  • +10 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Being in range of minion or jungle camp death without dealing the killing the blow restores 6 Health and 6 Mana to all allies within 55 units and also provides allies with a stacking self buff of 1% Movement Speed and 2% Attack Speed. Lasts 8s and stacks up to 10 times.

War Banner (Warflag at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +30 Physical Power
  • +60 Magical Power
  • +300 Health
  • +15 MP5
  • PASSIVE – Each time you assist a kill on a minion or jungle monster you restore 1% health and mana to all allies within 55 units and also provide allies with a stacking self buff of 2% Movement Speed and 4% Attack Speed. Lasts 10s and stacks up to 10 times.

Spartan Flag (Warflag at level 20)

  • 2200g
  • +40 Physical Power
  • +65 Magical Power
  • +300 Health
  • +15 MP5
  • PASSIVE – When you damage an enemy god you call down a Spartan Flag at your location, providing 10% increased Power to allies standing in the radius. Lasts for 10s, can only occur once every 10s.

Neutral Starters

Tainted Steel

  • 750g
  • +10 Physical Power
  • +15 Magical Power
  • +15 Magical Protection
  • +15 Physical Protection
  • Passive: Enemy Gods that you hit have their healing taken reduced by 20% for 6s.

Tainted Breastplate (Tainted Steel at level 20)

  • 2250g
  • +40 Physical Power
  • +60 Magical Power
  • +30 Magical Protection
  • +70 Physical Protection
  • Passive: Enemy Gods that you hit have their healing taken reduced by 50% for 6s.

Tainted Amulet (Tainted Steel at level 20)

  • 2250g
  • +30 Physical Power
  • +50 Magical Power
  • +80 Magical Protection
  • +30 Physical Protection
  • Passive : Enemy Gods that you hit have their healing taken reduced by 20% for 6s. You are healed for 100% of the healing reduced.

Item Balances

Elixir of Power

  • Now provides 10% Penetration.

Elixir of Defense

  • Now provides 5% Damage Mitigation.
  • Now provides 20% Crowd Control Reduction.

Shield of Thorns

  • Decreased damage reflected from 40% to 30%.
  • Decrease cap of damage taken from 150 * Level to 120 * Level.

Shield of Thorns Upgrade

  • Decreased damage reflected from 40% to 30%.
  • Decrease cap of damage taken from 150 * Level to 120 * Level.

Witchblade

  • Now builds off Adventurer’s Blade.
    • No longer provides Attack Speed.
  • Now provides 30 Physical Protections.
  • Increased Attack Speed Reduction Aura from 20% to 25%.

Winged Blade

  • Decreased Health from 300 to 250.
  • Now provides 30 Magical Protections.

Relic Dagger

  • Increased Health from 300 to 350.
  • Now provides 10% Crowd Control Reduction.

Emperor’s Armor

  • Increased Physical Protection from 50 to 60.

Talisman of Energy

  • Now provides maximum stacks on a god death or assist.

Jotunn’s Wrath

  • Increased Physical Power from 40 to 50.

Stone Cutting Sword

  • Decreased cost from 2,500 to 2,350

Berserker’s Shield

  • Decreased Physical Protection from 30 to 20.
  • Increased Physical Power from 40 to 50.
  • Increased Physical Power from Berserk Passive from 20 to 30.

Warded Shield

  • Decreased cost from 1400 to 1150.
    • The cost of items that are built from Warded Shield have remained unchanged.
  • Decreased Magical Protection from 35 to 25.

Ancile

  • Decreased Magical Protection from 50 to 30.
  • Increased Physical Power from 40 to 60.

Serrated Edge

  • Now provides 10 Physical Power per stack.
  • No longer provides 10 Basic Attack Power per stack.

Celestial Legion Helm

  • Increased Magical Power from 60 to 70.

Spear of Desolation

  • Now decreases ultimate cooldowns by 8s on getting a kill or assist on an enemy god in addition to reducing non-ultimate cooldowns by 2s

Obsidian Shard

  • Increased Magical Power from 70 to 80.

Polynomicon

  • Increased Magical Power from 85 to 95.

Charon’s Coin

  • Added new art to indicate which stacks are gained on the buff bar. Green “Heads” for Hp5. Yellow “Tails”/boat for Movement Speed.

Soul Reaver

  • No longer provides 10% Magical Penetration.
  • Decreased cost from 2850 to 2650.
  • Increased % health damage at maximum strength from 7% to 9%.

Rod of Tahuti

  • Now provides 10% Magical Penetration.

Cursed Orb

  • Decreased Movement Speed from 3% to 2%.
  • Decreased Stack count from 5 to 4.
  • Increased Magical Power per stack from 3 to 4.
    • 15 to 16 total.
    • Extra stack of movement speed lost

Doom Orb

  • Decreased Movement Speed from 6% to 4%.

Shifter’s Shield

  • Increased Physical Protection from 15 to 25.
  • Increased Protections gained while under 75% Health from 35 to 40.
  • Decreased cost from 2400 to 2350.

Frostbound Hammer

  • Increased Physical Power from 25 to 35.
  • Increased Attack Speed Reduction from 15% to 25%.

Runeforged Hammer

  • Increased Health from 200 to 250.
  • Decreased Power from 50 to 40.
  • Increased Passive damage increase from 15% to 20%.

The Sledge

  • Decreased Health from 300 to 250.
  • Decreased Protections per stack from 10 to 8.

Shield of Regrowth

  • Decreased Movement Speed on Passive from 40% to 30%.

Dominance (New Item)

  • Builds from Charged Morningstar
  • 2500g
    • +55 Physical Power
    • +200 Mana
    • +20 MP5
    • +10% Physical Penetration
      • PASSIVE – Your Basic Attacks benefit from an additional 10% Physical Penetration.

Atalanta’s Bow

  • Decreased Physical Penetration from 20% to 10%.
  • Decreased cost from 2450 to 2200.

The Executioner

Increased Maximum Stack count from 3 to 4.

  • 21% to 28% Penetration total

8 Pointed Shuriken

  • No longer provides Critical Strike Chance.
  • Increased Power from 15 to 25.
  • Decreased Cost from 1500 to 1400.
    • All upgrades still retain their same full item cost.

Hidden Dagger

  • No longer provides Critical Strike Chance.
  • Increased Physical Power from 10 to 15.

Short Sword

  • No longer provides Critical Strike Chance.
  • Increased Physical Power from 20 to 25.
  • Decreased Cost from 1500 to 1350.
    • All upgrades still retain their same full item cost.

Rage

  • Increased Physical Power from 20 to 30.
  • Increased Cost from 2400 to 2500.

Deathbringer

  • Increased Physical Power from 40 to 50.

Shadowsteel Shuriken

  • Increased Physical Power from 30 to 40.
  • Increased Attack Speed from 10% to 15%.
    • This item received additional changes outlined in the anti-healing section.

Wind Demon

  • Increased Critical Strike Chance from 15% to 20%

Poisoned Star

  • Decreased cost from 2500 to 2300.
  • Decreased poison slow from 15% to 10%.

God Balance

Janus

Portal

  • Players falling from a Janus portal can now be damaged before they hit the ground. (Previously they were untargetable until after they hit the ground completely, which was inconsistent with other banish effects.)
  • Going through Janus’ portals now has a unique sound to different it from the Blink Relic

Unstable Vortex

Unstable Vortex now damages enemies who are in between the two Vortex projectiles.

  • A chain of energy connects the two orbs, showing this damage area.
  • Enemies can still be “double-hit” if they are hit where the orbs meet.

Through Space and Time

  • This ability can now only ever deal up to 75% of a target’s health.
  • This ability’s audio has been adjusted to be more audible as it travels.

Bakasura

Insatiable Hunger

  • Decreased Movement Speed from 7% to 5% per stack.

Ra

Speed of Light

  • Decreased Movement Speed from 6% to 5% per stack.

Poseidon

Changing Tides

  • Decreased Movement Speed from 15% to 10% at Max Tide.

Agni

Combustion

  • Basic Attacking a god now provides 2 stacks.

Chernobog

Vicious Barrage

  • Increased Attack Speed from 20/30/40/50/60% to 40/45/50/55/60%.
  • Decreased Mana cost from 70/90 to 60/80.

Chiron

Herbal Medicine

Provides Power to allies being healed.

Provides Power to allies being healed.

  • Provides Power to Allies being healed
  • 5 (+1 per level) Physical Power
  • 10 (+2 per Level) Magical Power.

Chronos

General

  • Increased Attack Speed per level from 0.8% to 1.5%.

Stop Time

  • Increased scaling from 40% to 45% (80% to 90%)

Danzaburou

Dubious Savings

  • Decreased Bonus Power from each pouch from 10 to 6

Foul’s Gold

  • Decreased base damage from 70/125/180/235/290 to 70/120/170/220/270
  • Decreased damage from subsequent hits of money bags and explosions from 20% to 15%

Fenrir

Unchained

  • Increased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 95%.

Seething Howl

  • Immediately generates 2 Unbound Runes upon cast.

Brutalize

  • Increased AoE damage from 50% of Brutalize Damage to 60% of Burtalize Damage.

Hachiman

  • Decreased cooldown from 14s to 12s.

Mountaed Archery

  • Fixed an issue where Hachiman can fire other abilities while exiting the ultimate earlier than intended.

Hercules

  • Increased damage from 80/125/170/215/260 (+50% of your Physical Power) to 90/140/190/240/290 (+60% of your Physical Power.)

Izanami

  • Izanami’s Sickle projectile speed increases as she gains attack speed. This should result more closely with her sickle returning before a second one fires.

Merlin

Frost Bolt

  • Decreased scaling from 60% to 55%.

Radiate

  • Decrease time between ticks from 0.5s to 0.25.
  • Change from 10/20/30/40/50 (+30% of your Magical Power) to 6/12/18/24/30 (+18% of your Magical Power) per tick.
    • Total : 40/180/120/160/200 (+120%) to 48/96/144/192/240 (+144%)

Ne Zha

Flaming Spear

  • Heal changed from 0.75% of your Maximum Health per stack to 2/4/6/8/10 + (10% of your Physical Power) per stacks.

Armillary Sash

  • This ability can no longer crit.
  • Increased damage from 70/100/130/160/190 70/120/170/220/270.
  • Increased scaling from 100% to 150%.

Wind Fire Wheels

  • Increased the beads window for Wind Fire Wheels. (0.4s)
  • Upon landing you gain 20/25/30/35/40 Protections for 5s.

Raijin

Percussive Storm

  • Decreased cooldown from 10s to 9s.

Raiju

  • Decreased cooldown from 16/15/14/13/12s to 14/13/12/11/10s.

Thunder Crash

  • Increased scaling on lightning and thunder damage from 20% to 30%. (40 -> 60% total)

Rama

Astral Barrage

  • Fixed an issue where Rama can fire other abilities while exiting the ultimate earlier than intended.

Sol

Unstable Manifestation

  • Increased Attack Speed from 1% to 1.2% (25% to 30%)

Stellar Burst

  • Increased damage from 35% to 40%. (70% to 80%).

Season 8 Roadmap

8.1 is only the start of another fantastic season of SMITE! What else can you look forward to this year? Well this section will answer that question by spoiling some big things early and hinting at a few others! This list will not cover all of our planned updates, and some things on this list might change.

Upcoming Gods

Our God schedule is keeping steady from past years. See our teaser trailer for your hints about who might be coming this year! There are currently planned to be 6 new gods this year, with at least one of each class. The Babylonian was our big “player requested” addition this year. The rest of the year will be a mixture of surprises and other interesting community requests. Anything players feel like is lacking in Season 8 will very likely be a part of Season 9! Player feedback comes in much faster than we can release gods, so don’t worry, we are listening, just give us some time!

  • Tiamat – 8.2 Launch
  • Gilgamesh – 8.4 Launch
  • 8.6 God
  • 8.8 God
  • 8.10 God
  • 8.12 God
Upcoming God Reworks (In order of release date)

The biggest of balance changes – the rework. When the tuning of numbers alone is not enough to improve certain gods, we apply the concept called “reworking” them. This leads to major changes in ability functionality, or possibly completely new abilities. Here is what we have planned for Season 8.

  • Persephone
    • This goddess is going to receive changes to the functionality of multiple abilities across her entire kit, with the main focus being decreasing frustration of her enemies and taking down her pro-play performance while increasing her casual performance. 
  • Bastet
    • We missed the mark on our previous Bastet update. Currently Bastet has strong win % stats in conquest, but players feel underwhelmed by her. We are giving her another new passive and a new Ultimate that should feel much more like a true Ultimate ability. 
  • At Least 2 Other Gods 
    • In Season 8, more gods will be receiving reworks that change at least 1 ability entirely, or make heavy adjustments kit-wide. We aren’t ready to name them yet but keep an eye out. Our designers have already begun the process on these gods, and we look forward to playtesting them!
Upcoming Item Reworks (In order of release date)

Usually we see more new items in the X.1 Update in each Season. This year the item content is dominated by new and reworked starter items. It’s a lot of items, but it did lead to less changes to traditional Tier 3 items. Because of that, we are going to see more item reworks in a few updates after 8.1.

  • Mail of Renewal 
  • Stone of Fal
    • These two are our current top priority, as both items are relatively unpopular. We are planning to make them into more interesting options for tanky gods.
  • Item Particle FX
    • Some Items create pretty bold particles on hit, which we think is cluttering the game and obscuring vision, we are going to do a pass on these particles to make sure only essential information is conveyed this way, and tone down a lot of item FX. We have done this before and it felt like a big improvement, so it’s time we did it again.
  • Other Items
    • It’s likely that other items will be reworked in Mid Season 8 or beyond, but we aren’t planning to share any more details at this time.
Upcoming God Remodels (In order of release date)

Everyone gets excited for a classic god being remodeled. Ares and Isis both look amazing after their Season 7 updates, and we plan to keep the process rolling through Season 8. Remodels are a time consuming process so we have to pace ourselves, but we plan to keep implementing them in the same ways as we did for Ares and Isis.

  • Sobek Remodel
    • A lot of gods get brought up for remodel, so we have to look closely at the feedback and data to decide who goes next. In our opinion we saw Sobek as the clear front-runner. Sobek’s remodel has already been concepted and started in 3D Modeling, and will be launching early in Season 8!
  • At Least 1 Other God
    • We have one more god pretty locked down for remodel, and hopefully will be able to find time for more
Upcoming Skins for Gods who aren’t often skinned

We want to make sure that all gods get quality skins within a reasonable amount of time. We have been actively tracking the gods who have gone the longest without a new skin to make sure we prioritize them in our planning. We can’t skin every god every year, but we can get close! Here are a few gods who have gone a while without a skin, and our plans for them in Season 8.

  • Artwork already started (definitely happening)
    • Cerberus
    • Baron Samedi
    • Kuzenbo
    • Serqet
    • Erlang Shen
    • Kali
    • Vamana
    • Zhong Kui
    • Thoth
  • Planned, but not started (likely happening)
    • Chronos
    • Sylvanus
Upcoming Events and Modes

And now we can zoom out a little, looking beyond each individual god or item. Game Modes and maps are a huge part of SMITE. We want to constantly be creating new twists on our current games so that they feel fresh and exciting. This year will have a heavy focus on Conquest but we want to reassure the community that we have specific plans for non-Conquest modes as well.

  • Maps and Game Modes
    • Conquest
      • As mentioned above – S8 Conquest is planned to have 3 more updates throughout Season 8 
    • At Least 1 other Map
      • We also have plans for art and design updates to other maps in SMITE that we expect to release within Season 8!
  • 2 Crossover Events
    • We cannot reveal any details about them, but this pace of “2 a year” is feeling really good for the dev team and players alike. We are going to try to continue this throughout Season 8 with a focus on making sure we find good fits for combat styles between each IP character and SMITE god. Crossover events should be somewhat rare and the skins need to be super high quality. We think Avatar and TMNT nailed this concept and we plan to keep the bar as high as those two crossovers did.
Upcoming Quality of Life, Systems, and UI

Gods, Items, Skins, and Modes have been covered, but there is so much more to SMITE. We have been keeping a constant focus on continually updating the SMITE client through UI and systems changes.

  • Clans will return in 2 Phases
    • Phase 1 – Initial rework launch limited to only essential functions – Early S8
    • Phase 2 – New systems, and new rewards  – Late S8 / Early S9 
    • Clans in SMITE had some pretty serious technical issues on the backend that could lead to game crashes and server crashes. In order to fix these we have had to scrap a lot of the code systems and start from scratch. We plan to release the core functions early in S8 focusing on facilitating social gameplay. This release will likely have more features cut rather than added when comparing to the previous Clan system. 
    • However, we do plan to bring in UI updates, new features, and new reward systems later in the year. We will take our time with phase 2 to avoid any future issues with the Clan system.
  • UI Updates (not in order of release date, just current top priorities)
    • Esports and Livestreams Updates – and Viewer Store Updates – in 8.2
    • Purchasing Experience – More intuitive and clear UI elements when buying things
    • In-Match Experience – Item Shop, HUD, and Gameplay Clarity for all platforms
    • Ranked UI – Improving Clarity on MMR, Rank, and Matchmaking 
    • Many more miscellaneous Quality of Life features are planned and we hope to continually ship these with and around the bigger updates.

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Author
Zack Palm
Zack Palm is the Senior Writer of Gamepur and has spent over five years covering video games, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Oregon State University. He spends his free time biking, running tabletop campaigns, and listening to heavy metal. His primary game beats are Pokémon Go, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and any newly released title, and he finds it difficult to pull away from any Star Wars game.