Mechanics and Quality of Life Changes in SMITE Patch 9.7

Hi-Rez Studios love to send us good news with some decent Quality of Life changes and mechanics updates. In this article, we’ll cover that aspect of the SMITE 9.7 Patch Notes. For other news on the patch notes, visit our main article.

Diminishing Returns

If you’ve played games like World of Warcraft, you probably have heard of Diminishing Returns. It’s a system that prevents someone from gaining an unfair advantage over their opponents with many Crowd Control spells applied in consecution.
The DR system has been in SMITE for quite some time, but it wasn’t officially and publicly addressed until now so you might want to inform yourself on how it works.

• DR stacks will now be a visible icon on the buff bar
• Max stack count increased from 2 to 4
• Stacks of DR last for 15s and this duration is refreshed on each new application (no change)
• CCR per stack decreased from 40% to 20%
• DR can no longer be applied to yourself or allies
• Fixed many code-driven displacement abilities that previously did not apply DR

In addition to that, there have been some changes to how some Crowd Control spells work:

• “Hard CC” is now defined as any Crowd Control that makes it impossible to do at least one of the following actions: Basic Attacks, non-movement Abilities, and Movement Inputs. Hard CCs apply 1 stack of DR and their durations are affected by the number of DR stacks a player has
  • Roots are now considered a Hard CC
• “True Hard CC” is a new sub-classification of Hard CCs, defined as Hard CCs that are not affected by DR. As such, True Hard CCs apply 2 stacks of DR.
  • These include Banishes, Grabs, Knockbacks, Knockups, Polymorphs, and Pulls
• Soft CCs are now defined as any Crowd Control that makes it more difficult to do a specific action, including Basic Attacks, non-movement Abilities, and Movement Inputs. Soft CCs neither apply nor are affected by stacks of DR.
  • Intoxicates and Trembles are now considered Soft CCs
• Individual abilities can apply more than 2 stacks of DR if the ability includes multiple types of CC

Now, because some spells would technically perform two Crowd Controls at the same time, in order to keep them from DR-ing themselves, some changes have been introduced:

• Anhur – Impale (Stun)
• Ares – No Escape (Stun)
• Awilix – Gravity Surge (Stun)
• Da Ji – Pao Lao (Stun)
• Gilgamesh – Drop Kick (Stun)

Quality of Life (QoL) Improvements in Smite 9.7

• The following Gods are now free to new players:
  • Bacchus
  • Chaac
  • Izanami
  • Poseidon
  • Thanatos
• The following Gods will no longer be granted to new players. Players who joined prior to Update 9.7 will keep these Gods:
  • Ares
  • Artemis
  • Guan Yu
  • Ra
  • Thor
• The new Free God lineup is now:
  • Bacchus
  • Bellona
  • Chaac
  • Izanami
  • Kukulkan
  • Neith
  • Olorun
  • Nemesis
  • Poseidon
  • Thanatos
  • Yemoja
  • Ymir