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Smite 9.8 Patch Showcase Summary (Love and War Update)

This Showcase has been a blast!

In case you have missed SMITE 9.8 Patch Notes Showcase (Love and War Update), no worries, we got you. We watched the live video on SMITE’s Twitch Channel and we are bringing you the most important bits of the update.

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Summary of 9.8 Patch Notes in SMITE (Love and War Update)

We will divide the showcase summary into four sections: General, Item Changes, God Changes, and Bug Fixes.

We have not covered the cosmetics part of these patch notes in this article, but have focused on the more technical part of this update.

Related: All Abilities and Ultimate of Ishtar – New Goddess in SMITE

General Changes in Smite 9.8

  • Smite Worlds will be played in front of the audience on January 13th-15th 2023 in Arlington, Texas #worldswithfans
  • The Duel will now be played on the Jade Corruption Map (Ranked Duel will still be played on the Chinese map)
  • The Duel will from now on ban all starter items.
  • Joust, on the other hand, will have starter items re-enabled on both Normal Joust and Ranked Joust
  • Smite Night – 5v5 Conquest with 2x favor reward
  • It was announced that this is the last time that they will do a full-team required game mode
  • 9.8 will feature Classic 4v4 Siege and Egyptian Clash
  • With fixes to Sphinx’s Bauble, we will see the return of cooldown-based MotDs!
  • Week 1 of SMITE Night will have Siege 4v4 (Reward: SMITE Night Avatar and Odyssey: Soaring Isles BONUS chest)
  • Week 2 will have Classic Conquest (SMITE NIGHT Avatar Chest and Pick-Your-Own-God Chest)
  • Week 3 will have the Egyptian Clash (SMITE NIGHT Emote Chest and Cosmetic Chest)
  • Week 4 seals the event with 5v5 Conquest (SMITE NIGHT Voice Pack Chest and 3-day Account Booster)
  • Milestone reward: (Crying Cupid Death Mark, and SMITE NIGHT skins chest)
  • Few Chests will be available for purchase with Favor
  • Odyssey: Soaring Isles Cosmetic Chest & Voice Pack Chest will be available
  • Over 100 more exclusive skins will move to direct purchase
  • For two full weeks, log in and play a game of SMITE to earn one free reward a day!

Item Changes in Smite 9.8 (Love and War update)

Related: Item, Relic, Glyph and Masks Balance Changes and Updates in SMITE Patch 9.7

Sphinx’s Bauble | Shift

  • Physical Power down to 45 from 55
  • Magical Power down to 70 from 80
  • Item no longer has any damage output debuff (but retains the healing decrease)
  • Item now decreases your magical and physical protections by 15% (applies to all protections, including base, items, auras, player, and jungle buffs)

The reasoning behind this change is to discourage support players from buying this item as much.

Griffonwing Earrings | Buff

  • Increased Magical Power from 60 to 70
  • Item no longer has any damage output debuff

Rose Spike Earrings | Buff

  • Increased Health from 200 to 250
  • Removed 15 HP5 Regeneration bonus
  • Added 25 Magical Protection.

Fae-Blessed Hoops | Buff

  • Increased Health from 300 to 350
  • Removed 20 HP5
  • Added 10% CDR
  • Added 60 Magical Protection

Manticore’s Spike | Buff

  • Removed 30 HP5
  • Removed 20% CCR
  • Added 40 Physical and Magical Protections
  • Increased the duration of the self-buff after pickup from 5 seconds to 15 seconds
  • Increased the damage dealt from 3% to 4% of their max HP
  • Increased the damage dealt by the item owner from 6% to 8% of their max HP5

Divine Ruin, Spear of the Magus, and Spear of Desolation will all cost 100 Gold less.

  • Divine Ruin 2300 -> 2200
  • Spear of the Magus 2550 -> 2450
  • Spear of Desolation 2600 -> 2500

All Rod of Tahuti variants will get their Magical Power increased from 120 to 135

Perfected Rod of Tahuti:

  • Passive can now affect your Ultimate Ability cooldown.
  • Decreased passive internal cooldown from 10s to 8s

Polynomicon:

  • Decreased internal cooldown from 3 to 2 seconds

Bumba’s Hammer:

  • Passive effect can once again impact the Ability Cooldown of your Ultimate

Jotunn’s Wrath, Cunning, and Vigor:

  • Increased Physical Power to 45 from 40

Brawler’s Beat Stick:

  • Increased Physical Power to 55 from 50

The Crusher:

  • Increased Physical Power to 45 from 40

Titan’s Bane:

  • Item is cheaper now and costs 2450 Gold (down from 2550)
  • Passive Cooldown dropped to 6 seconds (was 8)

Shadowsteel Shuriken | Buff

  • Increased Attack Speed from 20% to 25%
  • Decreased Healing Debuff Duration from 10s to 5s

Tainted Steel

  • Cost lowered to 600 from 650
  • Healing Debuff Duration is shorter and is now 5 seconds, instead of 6

Tainted Breastplate

  • Physical Protection is now 80 (was 70)
  • Healing Debuff Duration decreased to 5 seconds (was 8)

Tainted Amulet

  • Magical Protection is now 90 (was 80)
  • Healing Debuff Duration decreased to 5 seconds (was 8)

Rangda’s Mask

  • Decreased Physical power Requirement from 325 to 275 (from 6 to 5 seconds per stack)
  • The item now properly checks stacking items and item passives for power gained from them
  • This item no longer checks god abilities for power gained

Lono’s Mask

  • Now provides 6 GP5, Only if you’re the lowest gold on the team
  • Decreased Protection Requirement from 300 to 275 (from 60 to 55 per stack)
  • This item now properly checks stacking items and item passives for power gained from them
  • This item no longer checks god abilities for power gained.

Support Starter items:

  • Sentinel’s Embrace
  • Sentinel’s Boon
  • Compassion
  • Animosity
  • War Banner
  • Spartan Flag
  • Lono’s Mask

…will be once again available at Level 15 (revert from previous change)

Compassion:

  • Gp5 now only applies if you have the lowest total gold on your team
  • This item’s passive aura no longer stacks with other teammates who also have this item.

Sentinel’s Embrace

  • Gp5 now only applies if you have the lowest total gold on your team

Sentinel’s Boon

  • 15 bonus gold per assist now only applies if you have the lowest total gold on your team

God Changes in Smite 9.8 (Love and War Update)

See the previous God Changes (Buffs and Nerfs) in SMITE 9.7 Patch here.

Nox

Shadow Lock

  • Increased base damage to minions from 70/110/150/190/230 to 80/125/170/215/260
  • Increased Minion Damage Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 60%
  • Non-conquest: +10% longer cooldowns (all spells)

Janus

  • Increased base physical protections from 11.2 to 14
  • Increased physical protections from 2.8 per level to 3 per level

Unstable Vortex

  • Increased base damage from 100/165/230/295/360 to 110/175/240/305/370

Raijin

Percussive Storm

  • Increased Base damage from 30/45/60/75/90 to 35/50/65/80/95 per shot (from 120/180/240/300/360 to 140/200/260/320/380 for all 4 hits)

Thoth

Dead Reckoning

  • Decreased the number of kills per stack from 30 to 20

Final Judgement

  • Increased damage from 360/430/500/570/640 to 400/460/520/580/640

Skadi

Piercing Cold

  • Increased Base Damage from 90/140/190/240/290 to 90/145/200/255/310

Winter’s Grasp

  • Increased physical power scaling per tick from 5% per tick to 7.5% per tick on both Kaldr and Skadi’s Snowstorms
  • Increased from 40% to 60% scaling per Snowstorm total.

Neith

Roots Nerfed!

Spirit Arrow

  • Decreased Cooldown from 15/14.5/14/13.5/13 to 13 seconds at all ranks
  • Decreased Mana Cost from 60/65/70/75/80 to 40/45/50/55/60

Guan Yu

Conviction

  • Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 13s

Warrior’s Will

  • Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 13s

Set

Sandstorm

  • This ability now reduces damage from all sources instead of just physical damage by 10%
  • Decreased cooldown from 16s to 15s

Ares

Shackles (Revert)

  • Increased god damage from 20/40/60/80/100 to 25/45/65/85/105 per tick

No Escape

  • Decreased cooldown from 100s to 90s
  • Non-Conquest: Increased Ultimate Cooldown from 15% to 30% (from 115s to 117s)

Cerberus

Spirit of Death

  • Increased Passive Healing Reduction Aura from 25% to 30%

Soul Expulsion

  • Increased Base Damage from 60/100/140/180/220 to 80/120/160/200/240

Stygian Torment

  • Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s

Kumbhakarna

Sleepy

  • Increases health and mana he awakens with from 25% to 35%
  • Decreased Cooldown from 240s to 180s

Throwback

  • Decreased Cooldown from 13 to 13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds

Epic Uppercut

  • Increased landing damage from 200/290/380/470/560 to 240/330/420/510/600

Terra

Force of Nature

  • Decreased Cooldown from 13s to 11s

Monolith (Revert)

  • Increased amount of hits it takes to destroy monolith from 3 to 5
  • Increased shatter damage from 70/100/130/160/190 to 90/120/150/180/210

Sylvanus

Verdant Growth

  • Increased root duration from 1.25s to 1.5s

Nature’s Grasp

  • Decreased Cooldown from 18/17/16/15/14s to 17/16/15/14/13s

Bacchus

Belly Flop

  • Decreased mana cost from 70/75/80/85/90 to 60/65/70/75/80

Belch of the Gods

  • Added damage to lane minions 3/4/5/6/7 per tick (12/16/20/24/28 total)
  • Increased stun duration from 1s to 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s
  • Decreased mana cost from 70/75/80/85/90 to 60/65/70/75/80
  • Increased healing reduction debuff duration from 4 to 5 seconds

Sobek’s Sickening Strike, Chang’e’s Moonflower Dance, Cu Chulainn’s Barbed Spear, and Medusa’s Acid Spray ALL have their Healing Reduction Debuff duration adjusted to 5 seconds (increased from the previous duration of 4 seconds)

Bug Fixes in 9.8 SMITE

  • UI
    • Fixed an issue where Persephone appeared as “Ranged” in the Gods page filter
    • Fixed an issue where some God emotes were missing in the Battle Emote and Smite Night Emote chests
    • Fixed an issue where the Yulefest Loading Frame was displaying as The Trickster Loading Frame
    • Fixed an issue where the Infinite Assault Custom Game template was using Random Pick instead of All Pick
    • Fixed an issue where text could be entered into the New tags on the Gods page
    • Fixed an issue where Non-Conquest Balance System message text would appear when loading into Jungle Practice
    • Fixed an issue where Stone of Binding wasn’t showing under the correct filters in the Item Store
    • Fixed an issue where the Keyboard and Mouse setting on Console had unnamed labels on the chat box
    • Fixed an issue where switching between Gods in the Gods page wasn’t defaulting to the About tab
    • Localization
      • Fixed an issue where The Ferocious Executioner’s Glyph passive wasn’t displaying in the item tooltip in Spanish
      • Updated shop filters to provide clearer explanations for Cooldown and Crowd Control Reduction in Spanish
      • Updated item stat text for Crowd Control and Cooldown Reduction in Spanish
  • General Gameplay
    • Ranked
      • Fixed an issue where after promoting to Masters, players couldn’t duo queue with the same partner that was within MMR range until they played one game in Masters
    • Conquest
      • Fixed an issue where the Obelisk Mana Chalices were providing unintended Mana regeneration to teammates
    • Fixed an issue where Sphinx’s Bauble was allowing unintended cooldown in cooldown-based MOTDs (Grab Bag, Omnipotence, All Out Assault, and Cooldowns Runneth Over)
  • Gods
    • Lancelot
      • Fixed an issue where he could be grabbed by Fenrir’s ultimate ability while mounted
      • Added clarification to the description of his Mount Up ability stating it is not immune to Time Dilation
    • Geb
      • Fixed an issue where his model could turn invisible after using his VXG Special emote 
      • Added clarification to the description of his ultimate ability stating that he becomes immune to Crowd Control
    • Danzaburou
      • Fixed an issue where he could sometimes break Jungle Camps causing them to not spawn the rest of the match
    • Xing Tian
      • Fixed an issue where certain gods like Terra and Zhong Kui could be thrown by Xing Tian’s Ult even if they had Knockup Immunity 
    • Serqet
      • Fixed an issue where her ultimate ability was applying 2 stacks of Diminishing Returns to herself after casting the ability
    • Loki
      • Fixed an issue where his ultimate ability was applying 2 stacks of Diminishing Returns to himself after casting the ability
    • Scylla
      • Fixed an issue with her Eleven skin causing FPS drops after getting hit by her ultimate ability
    • Merlin
      • Fixed an issue where Dragonfire at Rank 3 didn’t deal damage in specific areas of the ability
    • Atlas
      • Fixed an issue where he could pull enemies into Phoenixes 
      • Fixed an issue with his ultimate ability where it could sometimes not be visible towards the end of the ability beam
    • King Arthur
      • Fixed the tooltip description of his Hamstring ability 
    • Heimdallr
      • Decreased the size of his passive meter
    • Ne Zha
      • Fixed an issue with his Fire Lord skin where the ring toss FX would become invisible after multiple bounces
    • Shiva
      • Fixed an issue where he could be displaced outside of the map by Ganesha pillars during his dash
  • Items
    • Malicious Deathbringer
      • This item’s passive effect will now only trigger once per ability or basic attack fire 
    • Magi’s Revenge
      • Fixed an issue where the passive movement speed wasn’t being removed properly when more than one Revenge passive was activated at the same time
    • Jotun’s Cunning
      • Fixed an issue where this item’s text did not describe its internal cooldown

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About the Author

Nikola L

Nikola has been a Staff Writer at Prima Games since May 2022. He has been gaming since being able to hold an Amiga 500 joystick on his own, back in the early 90s (when gaming was really good!). Nikola has helped organize dozens of gaming events and tournaments and has been professionally attached to gaming since 2009.