Image via Hi-Rez

Smite update 8.4 adds Gilgamesh and starter item changes – Full patch notes

A new Warrior has arrived.

Zack Palm

Published: Mar 31, 2021 02:19 pm

Gilgamesh, a mighty warrior bent on defeating Tiamat, has arrived to Smite. He will be a warrior, and comes with several new passives and abilities that will shake up the current Season 8 meta. He’ll be going live in update 8.4, which is set to hit the live game on April 20.

Patch Notes Update 8.4

Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh Embarks! At level 5 and 10 Gilgamesh gains a quest. The first quest is to visit a specific location on the map. The second quest is to defeat half of the enemy team (rounded up) in a single fight. Each time Gilgamesh completes a quest he is awarded a Tier 1 item or 500 gold if he has a full inventory.

Sun-Forged Scimitar

Ability : Stim
Radius : 20
Gilgamesh ignites his sword with the ferocity of the Sun for 4s. Enemies around the ignition take damage and are slowed for 2.5s. Gilgamesh’s Basic Attack deals bonus damage equal to 3.5% of his Maximum Health to enemies hit. When Gilgamesh successfully hits an enemy with his Basic Attack the duration of this effect is extended for 0.8s, up to a maximum of 12s.
- Damage : 65/100/135/170/205 (+60% of your Physical Power)
- Slow : 15/17.5/20/22.5/25%
- Cost : 60
- Cooldown : 14/13/12/11/10s

Drop Kick

Ability : Line
Range : 25
Gilgamesh drop kicks an area in front of him. Enemies in the area are damaged while the closest enemy is launched through these enemies. The launched enemy takes bonus damage when hitting a minion or takes burst damage and is stunned if hitting a God or a Wall. If the launched enemy hits the Winds of Shamash they are thrown toward the center of the ring. Minions hit by the launched enemy take bonus damage. Gods hit by the launched enemy take burst damage and are stunned.
- Kick Damage : 70/100/130/160/190 (+50% of your Physical Power)
- Bonus Damage : 25/40/55/70/85 (+25% of your Physical Power)
- Burst Damage : 70/115/160/205/250 (+65% of your Physical Power)
- Stun Duration : 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s
- Cost : 60/65/70/75/80
- Cooldown : 14s

Hero’s Advance

Ability : Leap
Range : 50
Gilgamesh leaps into the air, crashing down at a target location. Enemies around the impact take damage. Gilgamesh infuses the ground with energy, causing a beacon to appear for 5s. Allies who run towards the beacon will gain Movement Speed, halving once they enter the beacon. Allies who enter the beacon will gain bonus Lifesteal, boosted by 15% of Gilgamesh’s highest Protection.
- Damage : 80/120/160/200/240 (+65% of your Physical Power)
- Movement Speed : 25/27.5/30/32.5/35%
- Lifesteal : 10%
- Cost : 70
- Cooldown : 15s

Winds of Shamash

Ability : Ground Target
Range : 35
Gilgamesh calls upon Shamash to create a ring of wind at a target location for 6s. Enemies inside this ring when it starts take damage and are slowed for 2s. Enemies inside the ring take wind damage every .5s. Enemies who try to escape the ring are heavily slowed. If Gilgamesh damages an enemy trying to flee they are thrown back towards the center of the ring. The wind turns into thread over 6s; damaging, Rooting, and Crippling enemies who are still inside the ring.
- Initial Damage : 90/150/210/270/330 (+50% of your Physical Power)
- Initial Slow : 20/22.5/25/27.5/30%
- Wind Damage : 12/16/20/24/28 (+5% of your Physical Power)
- Wind Wall Slow : 50/55/60/65/70%
- Binding Damage : 150/225/300/375/450 (+60% of your Physical Power)
- Cost : 80/85/90/95/100
- Cooldown : 90s

New Skins

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

April 6

8.3 Bonus Update

April 20

Gilgamesh
Talons of Tyranny
Groovy Chest

May 4

8.4 Bonus Update – Coming Soon!

QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES

New Slash Mode

This map is planned to launch in Q4 2021.
This new map is being designed to feel like both the Siege Rework and the Clash Rework, but at the same time. We are aiming to create a mode that both Siege mains and Clash mains will enjoy playing.
When looking at the problems with Siege, the team noticed that many aspects of Clash could be applied to help improve it. Clash had similar issues to be solved using Siege mechanics.
The two maps occupy a similar gameplay space in SMITE: Higher Combat, Lower Strategy – but with real lanes, towers, and jungle objectives.
These design conclusions are what compelled us to merge them into one map.
As the merging of the best parts of each map is such a primary goal – the name Slash will be sticking.
It will feature both Maya and Egyptian environments – each tied to the respective bases.
The mode will be 5v5, but using slightly more Siege mechanics than clash mechanics. SMITE is better balanced, a better social experience, and has higher player metrics on 5v5 modes.

Free Rewards – Additional Information

This system is fully enabled on PC and Xbox.
PS4 just recently released, however PS5 is still in development.
Nintendo Switch cannot support video streaming in game, and will never have access to these rewards.
Video opportunities are decided by a separate company from Hi-Rez.
There is a heavy amount of experimentation on how many total videos and how often video opportunities occur, so this system will feel mostly random to most players. It can also vary heavily by region.
The system will continue to feel random, so just keep an eye out for the button on the home screen to access them when available (or ignore them if you’re not interested).

Chest Screen

The section of the store where players can buy and roll chests has had its UI updated.

Baba Yaga

Applying a set of changes to improve the feel of playing Baba Yaga, mostly focused on her Ultimate Ability
- Fixed an issue where the player camera and movement would jitter as this ability was fired
- Fixed an issue where the Ultimate would go part of the way into its animation and FX but not actually fire
- Decreased the duration of the self root when initially firing this ability
- Fixed an issue where Baba’s movement and targeter would jitter when colliding with gods and walls while running around in her Ultimate state

General

The Babylonian Pantheon Music Theme that plays throughout the main menus has been adjusted to better fit the tone of Gilgamesh and to better fit the main menus.
Login Queue
- This will now show to all players all the time
- This is part of our server performance improvement initiative, and provides us a bit more time to properly log in players safely
- The text of this message has been adjusted to fit this new use
Now will display the match mode, duration, and ID on the “Details” section of the end of match lobby as well as the main tab

BUG FIXES

UI

Fixed an issue where the Free Rewards progress bar would stop showing the correct progress

General Gameplay

Fixed an issue where Conquest Match of the Day modes were using the Season 7 map(already fixed in Live)
Fixed an issue where players set to queue in one region could be re-queued in a different region instead if a lobby failed (such as when a enemy player failed to pick)
Fixed an issue where players could not queue with friends even with MMR range in certain cases, such as playing with a friend who had not played ranked that season, or playing with a teammate in masters.
Fixed an issue where the St. Patrick’s Day Avatar was using the wrong art
Fixed an issue where the Siege mode could lead to an unintended interaction with Baron’s Brew

Gods

Janus
- Fixed an issue where the Crash Test skin was invisible in game and lobby
Baba Yaga
- Fixed an issue where Baba would not always be able to cleanse herself when hit by Awilix Ult
Chaac
- Fixed an issue where you could interrupt the special emote of the Tier 5 skin and become invisible
Ra
- Fixed an issue where the Unholy Doodle Ra Ability 2 and 4 was using default visual FX instead of the intended FX
- Changed the motion of the Ability 1 visual FX to be faster and tighter, keeping it much closer to the intended hit area
Raijin
- Fixed an issue where Raijin’s passive meter would appear to reset stacks on death. Raijin keeps his stacks through death and the visuals will now indicate this.
Thoth
- Fixed an issue where the Book of Nightmares skin was missing an voice acted audio component on firing the ultimate.

Items

Sentinels Boon
- Fixed an issue where this item’s passive ability was triggering on kills as well as assists, instead of just assists
Midgardian Mail
- Fixed an issue where only this item would stack with other attack speed slows from items

8.4 BALANCE | LIVE WITH THE LAUNCH OF 8.4!

Game Modes

Live Conquest Update – The Rising Storm
- King Gilgamesh arrives to challenge Tiamat, an act of aggression many gods disagree with. Offended by this, Tiamat summons an intense lightning storm. She also commands her hanging gardens to rampantly overgrow with dangerous plantlife.
- The skybox and lighting of the Conquest map has changed to a dark and stormy style to display this development in the SMITE universe.
- Additionally, a new gameplay mechanic is being introduced:
  - Vine Walls
    - Spawn in specific, symmetrical places around the jungle
    - Function like player made walls, you cannot walk through them
    - Can be destroyed by basic attacks only (# of hits not damage)
    - Walls respawn when the adjacent jungle camp respawns (even if killed only seconds before)
      - Oracles
      - Mid Harpies (GF)
      - Mid Harpies (FG)

Also to use this for in-game queue image
Looking at tiamats castle + include skybox
- - - Conquest
    - Ranked Conquest
    - Rank background image
Additional Conquest Balance/Features
- Invisible Foliage Tech
  - When gods use an aerial ultimate, the leaves on trees within their ability range will become invisible temporarily.
  - This effect will only trigger when gods rise above a certain height
- Tier 2 Towers
  - Increased Base HP from 2,500 to 2,800
  - Increased Base Damage per shot from 260 to 290
- Greater Scorpion (Jungle)
  - Decreased Base Max Health from 780 to 660
  - Decreased Base Protections from 20 to 14
  - Decreased Scaling Max Health from +175 to +145
  - Decreased Scaling Physical Protection from +2 to +1.5
  - Decreased Scaling Magical Protection from +2 to +1
- Manticore (Red Buff Holder)
  - Berserk
    - Decreased physical power scaling from 18 damage per hit to 15
- Base Gates
  - Added new rules linking phoenix deaths to doors
    - Killing left phoenix removes the debuff area on the left door
    - Killing the right phoenix removes the debuff area on the right door
    - Killing the middle phoenix removes the debuff areas for both doors

Items

(UPGRADED) BUMBA’S HAMMER

Bumba’s Hammer, Death’s Toll, and its upgrade Death’s Embrace allow for strong benefits from ‘hitting’ enemies. This hit however could be easily procced from range on immune Jungle Monsters. For items with true Lifesteal or healing you need to engage with the Jungle Monsters if you plan on gaining a benefit. This will now be the same for these items.

This item no longer procs on “immune” jungle camps

(STARTER) DEATH’S TOLL

This item no longer procs on “immune” jungle camps

(UPGRADE) DEATH’S EMBRACE

This item no longer procs on “immune” jungle camps

(UPGRADE) ORNATE ARROW

Ornate Arrow struggled to compete against other late game Hunter choices. It was often only efficient at its maximum stack count which was difficult to obtain and pushed your late game out even later. We are lowering the stack count and giving it some extra upfront power to smooth out this power curve. You will still need to make a smart investment but the risk will feel worth the reward.

This item now provides 10% Attack Speed.
This item now provides 5% Critical Strike Chance.
Passive
- Decreased Maximum stack count from 25 to 20.
- Increased Attack Speed from 1% per stack to 1.25% per stack. (25% at max stacks.)
- Increased Critical Strike Chance from 0.8% per stack to 1% per stack. (20% at max stacks)

(UPGRADE) LEADER’S COWL

Leader’s Cowl was difficult to really build toward. Few gods could really go for Leather Cowl at the start of the game to provide their team with a strong late game aura. We are adjusting its base stats and giving the passive aura a baseline Power buff that can never be brought below 5% Power. The extra Attack Speed helps more gods itemize towards this strategy and that base Power Aura makes it useful even in direct 5v5 teamfights.

This item now provides 15% Attack Speed.
New Passive
- AURA – You provide 5% increased Power to all nearby allied gods. This aura gains a bonus stack for each ally god within X units causing it to provide an additional 3% increased Power. For each enemy god within X units a stack is removed.

(UPGRADE) SENTINEL’S EMBRACE

Sentinel’s Embrace is the go to upgrade path for Supports and no wonder! It brings incredible survivability and utility making it difficult to explore other options. We are shifting strength away from the Aura, ensuring it still feels tanky enough to the Support who builds it but lowering the teamwide utility it provides.

Increased Passive Aura Range from 30 to 55 units.
Increased Physical Protection from 20 to 30.
Increased Magical Protection from 20 to 30.
Decreased Protections split among all nearby allies from 100 to 80.
Decreased Protections gains while alone from 50 to 40.

(UPGRADE) COMPASSION

Compassion is definitely a candidate for an item being pushed out by Sentinel’s Embrace but it had its own problems. The aura range made it difficult to stay relevant to targets you wanted to protect while the mitigation this item provided from this extra incoming damage was lacking. With the changes below it might be time to show a little Compassion to your allies.

Increased Passive Aura Range from 40 to 70 units.
Increased Magical Protection from 40 to 60.
Increased HP5 from 30 to 45.

(UPGRADE) SUNDERING AXE

Sundering Axe’s Passive is high impact. Opening fights with a strong amount of burst and restoring health quickly made this item not only attractive to Warriors but Mages as well. We love the idea that gods can be flexible with starters but Mages were able to really benefit from the upfront burst and defensive stats in a way that was more frustrating than a Warrior utilizing the same benefits. We are shifting Sundering Axe to consider your own Protections, making this just as strong for Warriors who currently build this but asking more from Mages who want to benefit from this items strength.

Decreased bonus damage from 10% of the enemy’s current health to 5% of the enemy’s current health + 2% of your total protections from items.
Maximum Bonus Damage is 14% of the enemy’s current health
Requires 400 total protections to reach cap

(STARTER) BLUESTONE PENDANT

One of the most popular aggressive starters isn’t quite packing the punch that people expect it to. Bluestone users need to have an early game advantage to make the item worth taking, even with its upgrades it tends to fall of harder in the mid game than other starters. We are boosting the physical power here to give it the strength it needs to get ahead early.

Increased Physical Power from 10 to 15

(UPGRADE) BLUESTONE BROOCH

Bluestone upgrades have had a lot of discussion recently. Brooch is intended to be the standard go-to upgrade for classic bluestone users like ability-hunters and aggressive-warriors. This item just wasn’t up to the same level as other starter upgrades, so now the passive will deal significantly more damage.

Increase Base damage of the passive from 25 to 75

(UPGRADE) THE ALTERNATE TIMELINE

This item is scary. It scared the devs a bit more than the players, though. We launched it with an especially long cooldown to match the especially powerful effect, but it seems it was tuned to be a bit too safe for balance. We are cutting this cooldown by a large amount to hopefully see the item in practice before making any further decisions on how to balance it.

Decreased Cooldown from 10m to 6m

STAFF OF MYRDDIN

Fixed an issue where this item was not triggering at the same time after Ultimate ability fires as the other Arthurian items

Gods

ACHILLES

He’s bold, he’s beautiful, he’s… not doing so hot right now. Achilles has dropped to some of his lowest numbers in both player perception as well as win% lately. This god can become very dominant in the solo lane with small changes, so we are playing it a bit safe here. He is seeing a small cooldown buff to his Shield Bash, which should help him without breaking him. We are also decreasing the amount he is punished for successfully executing an enemy. This effect is a powerful debuff that he should still feel, though.

SHIELD BASH

Decreased cooldown from 15 to 14s.

FATAL STRIKE

Decreased bonus damage taken from 10% to 5%.

BACCHUS

Season 8 is a heck of a party but no one invited the god of wine?! Bacchus has shown some brief signs of strength in Conquest over the years, but he generally struggles there compared to other modes. This set of changes aims to make his competitive impact stronger. Chug will be even easier to maintain, and Belch, his primary lane clear ability, is seeing a damage increase.

CHUG

Decreased Mana cost from 40 to 20 at all ranks
Decreased Cooldown from 10s from 8s
Fixed Protections description to clarify the ability provides 0 protections at rank 0

BELCH OF THE GODS

Increase Base Damage from 25/40/55/70/85 to 30/45/60/75/90 per tick

JORMUNGANDR

The World Serpent is a fantastically unique god in SMITE, and after a powerful launch he was brought down by his rival gods in both the story and the game balance. We have been looking to bring Jorm back up since the start of Season 8, and we are still working toward that goal. These changes bolster his laning phase as well as his team fights. Consuming Bellow will let him basic attack in lane at full speed for longer after bellowing and Submerge will be on a lower cooldown helping him to engage or escape more often.

CONSUMING BELLOW

Increased duration of Empowered Attack Speed buff from 1s to 1.5s per stack

SUBMERGE

Reduced cooldown from 16s to 16/15/14/13/12s

MERLIN

The time has come for Merlin buffs. This god has dropped off heavily over the years while getting a variety of nerfs. Recently we have been focusing on bringing up his fire stance, often regarded as the weakest one. The protection shred has been pivoted to only work on gods now, but its generally very hard to stack, which heavily limits its impact. This is going to be much stronger on the first tick now, leveling out to about the same amount when hitting all ticks in the late game. Fire stance should now be more attractive to switch into, especially when trying to focus down and enemy tank.

DRAGONFIRE

Increased Protections Reduced per stack from .5/1/1.5/2/2.5% per tick to 4% at all ranks
Decreased max stacks from 6 to 4
- Results in the change of – increased God-only protections reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 16% at max stacks

NEITH

The Weaver of Fate saw some impactful buffs last year, and we have been watching closely since then. Even with those changes, Neith has struggled in the current meta. Her abilities are powerful, but tend to be on much longer cooldowns than other hunters. To even the playing field we are decreasing the cooldown on her top priority ability.

SPIRIT ARROW

Decreased Cooldown from from 15s to 15/14.5/14/13.5/13s

OLORUN

New season, new map, new olympus, but Olorun feels like he was left behind in Season 7. Recently Sol and Chronos received buffs which made a solid impact on their stats, and now it’s Olorun’s turn. He will be getting two buffs that affect his basic attack damage, helping him match up better against other ADCs.

GENERAL

Increased Base Power from 38 to 40

TOUCH OF FATE

Increased the Critical Strike Damage from 50% to 55%

SERQET

The premier single target Assassin has been struggling to get kills lately. Serqet was seeing more play as a support, which was addressed through some previous changes. The final result seems to be that she’s being played less in both positions, we are applying two buffs to her both to push her back toward an aggressive jungler. The first change protects her passive from being wasted against effects like the Aegis Relic or block stacks, and the second adds a good bit of Physical Power scaling to her Ultimate. Serqet is a very all-in goddess, and those risky plays should pay off more frequently with these changes.

CATALYST (PASSIVE)

Stacks will only be consumed and extra damage dealt if Serqet successfully damages the god (as opposed to just “hit”)

LAST BREATH

Increased Power Scaling from 55% to 70%

SYLVANUS

This Guardian is certainly undervalued right now. Sylvanus brings a lot of control and Utility to the team, while also having some of the best lane clear because of his unique basic attacks. His passive is often a topic of discussion, and that is something we are working toward on a future update. For now, he is getting a few small damage buffs to help him lane more effectively. This should compliment his CC and healing well, resulting in a support that any ADC would be happy to have by their side.

GENERAL

Increase Basic Attack Damage from 35 to 38

VERDANT GROWTH

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 35% to 50%

TIAMAT

The Mother of Monsters has created quite an interesting start to the season. This goddess clearly has a learning curve, as we have seen her win% steadily grow since launch day. The kit is complex and provides many decisions to the player, a few of which are now showing themselves to be clearly the strongest option. Building Tiamat as a tank has created some frustrating interactions with her passive mitigations, so these will now require Magical Power to scale. Also, her serpents are showing themselves to be the best choice for her Ultimate. We are nerfing their split push potential in both damage and health, while also buffing the Storm to make this a more meaningful decision.

DEATH BEGETS LIFE

Decreased the Damage Mitigation from 60% to 30% + 5% of Tiamat’s Magical Power, Capping at a total 60% Mitigation at 600 Magical Power

SUMMON SERPENTS

Decrease number of hits it takes for minions to damage a serpent health pip from 3 to 2
Decreased Power Scaling from 8% to 5% of Tiamat’s Magical Power

SUMMON STORM

Adjusted description text to clarify that the initial damage is on first hit of each target, not on the deploy of the ability
Increased Initial Hit damage Scaling from 30% of your Magical Power to 40%
Increased tick damage Scaling from 10% of your Magical Power to 12% per tick

Fixed an issue with Arthurian Items not triggering at the intended times with Tiamat’s Ultimates

ZHONG KUI

Season 8 dev testing made it feel like Zhong Kui was back! His favorite old item, Vampiric Shroud, and some other meta changes made it look like he would be a major factor. That has not been the case. We are giving Zhong Kui a significant power scaling buff to his primary ranged damage and lane clear ability. This should give him a fighting chance against other mages in the meta.

EXPOSE EVIL

Increased Magical Power Scaling per tick from 15% to 20% (from 75% to 100% total)

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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.