Shiva the Destroyer arrives to Smite in update 9.2 – Patch notes

The start of the year for Smite has already kicked off over the past few weeks. Players have the chance to try out the new glyphs, upgraded relics, and the Obelisk on the Conquest map. Now, the first update for season 9 has arrived, and it comes with Shiva the Destroyer, a Warrior.

Shiva will be swapping between two distinct modes, Bliss and Destruction, each with an aura to aid his allies. His attacks vary based on what mode he’s currently using, providing him with flexibility in team fights or if he’s facing off against an opponent by himself.

Before the big 9.2 update, there will be a bonus patch, 9.1 launching February 8 that addresses Sundering Siphon, Chaotic Beads, and the Cloak of Meditation tree. In addition, Bastet is receiving the largest nerf, as she dominates the battlefield with her abilities.

These are the Patch Notes for update 9.2.

Patch notes

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

February 8 – 9.1 Bonus Update

• More Details Here!

February 22 – 9.2 The Destroyer Update

• Shiva – The Destroyer
• New Dharmic Era Skins
• Big Gun Khepri & Shadow Prowler Bastet in Viewer Store
• Welcome Pass System

March 8 – 9.2 Bonus Update

• More details coming soon!

QUALITY OF LIFE

General

• Added highlighted text for all tier 2 relics to show their upgraded feature (which is always cooldown)

Esports and Live Streams Hub Season 9

• Viewer Store 
  • In the Season 9 Viewer Store will continue to have rotating legacy skins (75k) and cosmetics (10k)
  • There will be a Viewer pass purchasable for 600 gems that will give owners double points for the year and to immediately unlock a new skin
  • There will be a new skin to unlock for a long term gain of 500,000 viewer points 
  • Viewer Points will be soft reset with the release of the 9.2 Update.  Players who have more than 75k Viewer Points will be set to 75k.  Players with less than 75k Viewer Points will be unaffected.
• Match Voting and Esports
  • Added functionality to this system to allow for voting on matches that involve teams from the SCC

Welcome Pass

• This is a new reward system designed for new players that will be immediately available to all players.
• The Welcome Pass lasts 30 days from the time a player first logs in (or creates their account) after this update launches. Each player has their own unique 30 day timeline to complete their Welcome pass from the point they start it. 
• During the Welcome Pass you will earn a reward for completing Normal or Ranked matches. Each match played progresses one level and unlocks one reward.
• There are 20 levels of rewards, the final one being a free god of your choice from the entire roster.
• Other notable rewards include Nu Wa, Cerberus, Kukulkan, and Medusa  exclusive recolor skins, Gems, and Boosters.

• Rewards 

• Unlock Nu Wa, Cerberus, Medusa, exclusive cosmetics, Gems, and boosters by completing 20 matches of Normal or Ranked.

End of Match Lobby Updates

• The acquisitions are getting a rework for 9.2 to now be displayed as a full size screen, this will not slow the requeue experience for the players because they will be able to requeue from this screen.
• A new rewards section will be added, this will display all the items players earned in a match as well as their progression in either the battle pass or welcome pass.

New Player Experience Adjustments and Fixes

• Fixed an issue where bots not buying items in co-op queues and solo training queues
• Fixed an issue where new players were not getting conquest auto-builds

BUG FIXES

UI

• Fixed an issue where the console navigation of the new Commendations screen was not working as intended 
• Fixed an issue where the Cliodhna mastery cards showed the wrong art on the Commendation screens
• Fixed an issue where detailed health bars for Bull Demon King and Apophis were not appearing on the HUD
• Fixed an issue where the chat window in client would automatically close or minimize when a new message appears

General Gameplay

• Slash
  • Greatly smoothed the movement of the traveling teleport orb
  • Fixed an issue where Juggernauts could be eaten by Bakasura (hotfix is live already)
  • Fixed an issue where the Shadow of Apophis buff belt was overlapping other Jungle buff belts
  • Fixed an issue where Janus could place portals inside the teleport entrances while the doors were closed
  • Fixed an issue with pets not teleporting to their owners after they traveled through the base teleports
  • Applied various optimization passes that should decrease the likelihood of framerate drops 
• Conquest
  • Fixed an issue where Xbox players would have issues with freezing or crashing on this map (hotfix is live already)
  • Fixed an issue where Nagas would drop Offerings while the Obelisks were inactive
  • Fixed an issue where two of the single Harpy camps in Duo lane were spawning Elder Harpies instead of Alpha Harpies
  • Fixed an issue where Indra’s Scepter would rapidly teleport short distances to reach its owner
  • Fixed an issue where Indra’s Scepter would follow flying Gods while they were in the air
• Jungle Practice
  • Hand of the Gods will now properly affect the jungle camps in this mode

Gods

• Danzaburou
  • Adjusted the audio on the Space Scoundrel skin to make the fool’s gold ability sound less like other abilities in the game 
• Merlin
  • Fixed an issue where his Flicker ability would appear to be ranked up even if it had no point in it 
• Tiamat
  • Fixed an issue where certain glyphs would not trigger during her ground stance
• Morgan Le Fay
  • Adjusted Morgan Le Fay’s animations when strafing and attacking at the same time
• Hera
  • Fixed an issue where Hera’s leg would clip through her dress
• Chang’e
  • Fixed an issue where her foot would clip through the dress if jumping immediately after basic attacking
• Gilgamesh
  • Fixed an issue where Gilgamesh could sometimes receive no item for completing his passive quest

Items

• Emblem of Increasing Peril 
  • Fixed this items core functionality and the item has been re-enabled 
• Emblem of Trembling Terror
  • Fixed an issue where this item was not displaying the intended visual FX
• Nimble Rod of Tahuti Glyph
  • Updated description to state that this item has a cap
• Jotunns Ferocity Glyph
  • Updated description to state the duration of the mark debuff 
• Hide of the Nemean lion
  • Updated description to more clearly state that this items stack count is calculated off of Physical and Magical Protections from Items and Abilities (which includes buffs and consumables)
• Stacking Glyphs and Relic issues
  • Fixed an issue where Heartward Amulet and its two Gylphs could stack and provide a team with up to 3x the magical protection aura
  • Hastened Wings no longer stacks its movement speed with other Relics in the same tree

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 9.2 UPDATE – FEBRUARY 22

Game Modes

• Conquest
  • The new Season of Conquest has begun! Players are getting to work on optimizing the map and a few things are going to need adjustment. First, we will be addressing the Jungle start by changing one key timer. Both camps of “back harpies” will now spawn later in the rotation. This is to prevent Junglers from quickly leveling up to 2 before other roles and ganking mid. That strategy does not seem to be a popular way to start on the map, but we don’t want to leave this option available at all. The next change is to the Duo side. The Draugr pit harpy trio was too easy to kill and worth too much which could quickly snowball the lane, this is being changed to a single Alpha Harpy to reduce that effect. It will also spawn one wave later.” And last but not least, we are making some adjustments to the Obelisks. Overall the reward provided by this new objective was too much so we are bringing down the team gold reward a significant amount, as well as making Indra’s Scepter deal less damage and making these harder to invade.
  • he Draugr Harpy Camp trio is now a single Alpha Harpy
  • Jungle Spawn Timers
    • Delayed the initial Back Harpy Camp spawns from 0:15 to 0:30
      • For reference, the popular start seems to be:
        • Jungle and Mid start at Speed camp, go to red, then mid wave together
        • Duo and Support start at green camp, then to purple, then duo wave together
        • Solo starts at blue camp then goes to solo wave alone
    • Delayed the initial Draugr Harpy Camp spawn from 1:05 to 1:35  
  • Obelisk
    • Decreased the Team Gold and XP Rewards per Offering from 25 to 10 (max 175g to 70g gained for a filled obelisk per loop)
    • Decreased Indra’s Scepter damage to Gods from 3% to 2% of Max Health
    • Increase damage dealt by the Obelisk to enemy Gods stealing Offerings in the area from 10% to 15% of their Max Health
• Slash
  • For the first time in years SMITE has a new permanent game mode, and the launch has definitely been exciting. A huge amount of players have tried the mode and early numbers are showing many indicators of success. We plan to closely monitor this map and apply balance changes as needed. The first topic we are tackling is the Jungle Objectives. These are dying too quickly which does not give teams a chance to contest. We are scaling these up to ensure that more team fights take place over securing the Juggernauts.
  • Increased the Wild Juggernauts’ stat scaling values to match their counterparts in the lane:
    • Health: Increased from 150 per stack to 250 
    • Physical Power: Increased from 4 per stack to 6 
    • Physical Protection: Increased from 0 per stack to 4 
    • Magical Protection: Increased from 0 per stack to 1

Items

PERSISTENT TELEPORT

Increased Cooldown from 90s to 110s

AEGIS OF JUDGEMENT

Changed the damage cap from 30% of your max health to be 20% of the target(s) max health

CALAMITOUS ROD OF TAHUTI

• Decreased Warmup time from 1.5s to 1s
• Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 40% to 35%

BLUESTONE PENDANT

Increased HP5 from 10 to 15

STONE OF BINDING

• Increased Magical Protection from 30 to 35
• Increased Physical Protection from 30 to 35

TITAN’S BANE

• Increase Physical Power from 40 to 45
• Decreased Passive Items Cooldown from 10s to 8s

RELIC DAGGER

Decreased the cooldown reduction on relics from 40s to 30s

Gods

PERSISTENT GUST

• Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 12s

EXPLOSIVE BOLTS

• Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 12s

HERA

POLYMORPH

• Increased Base Damage from 80/120/160/200/240 to 90/135/180/225/270

ARGUS, THE DEFENDER

• Increased Argus’ Protections from 25/30/35/40/45 to 25/35/45/55/65

BAKASURA

EAT MINION

• Now subtracts 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s from Take Down and/or Butcher Blades cooldowns when he successfully eats a minion.

RATATOSKR

BRISTLEBUSH ACORN

• Increased Critical Strike Chance from 20% to 25%
• Increased Passive self buff after hitting with Dart from 15% Physical Lifesteal and 15% basic attack damage to 20% Physical Lifesteal and 20% Basic Attack damage

KUMBHAKARNA

MIGHTY YAWN

• Increased “wake up early” slow and attack speed slow debuff duration from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s to 2s at all ranks

TERRA

MONOLITH

• Decreased Cooldown from 18s to 16s

HERCULES

EARTHBREAKER

• Increased Physical Power Scaling from 60% to 70%

SPECIAL THANKS + NEW SKIN VOICE ACTORS

Special Thanks To:

• Krishnaa Bova
  • Cultural Consultant – Shiva God Development
  • Krishnaa participated in conference calls and feedback review sessions with the SMITE dev team at every stage in Shiva’s god design process. She helped verify that our reference material was accurate and provided thoughts on Shiva’s art, gameplay, and personality. She’s a military linguist with a passion for analysis, editing, and foreign languages. She spent her childhood in the U.S. and India, allowing her to give input from a multicultural background.

• Ravi Deo
  • Composer – Hindustani Music Theme 
  • Ravi specializes in Hindustani music and generally creates specifically for dance scenes in films. He performed some instruments within this music pack, but also worked with a team of musicians. 
  • https://www.facebook.com/ravideo
  • https://soundcloud.com/ravi-deo
  • http://ravindradeo.com/

9.2 Voice Actors:

• Shiva: Harish Bihimani
• Lunar Moth Discordia: Kristen Mcguire
• Mystic Moon Tsukuyomi: Blythe Melin
• Oni Huntress Artemis: Chloe Eves
• Crystalline Chaos Nu Wa: Eleanor Caudill
• Shadow Prowler Bastet: Rebecca Davis
• Big Gun Khepri: Stephen Elkins