On Wednesday, a new SMITE patch will be released. There will be a crawling god and plenty of new skins, as well as some balancing changes.
Khepri the Dawnbringer
The Battleground of the Gods is expanding: Khepri the Dawnbringer will make his gaming debut starting August 5 with the patch “Rising Dawn”. In Egyptian mythology, he is an important part of daily life, as he is the one who guides the sun god Ra across the sky. Just as scarabs shape perfect balls from dung and earth to cradle their young, Khepri is also a god of rebirth: With the dawn of morning, he rolls Ra across the sky and through the underworld at night – until the sun rises again the next day.
In SMITE, Khepri is a guardian, but he differs greatly from his colleagues. Instead of fighting on the front lines, he maintains some distance with these abilities:
- Through Fortitude (Passive), Khepri grants all allies around him a shield equal to 3% of their maximum health. The shield regenerates every 5 seconds (every 10 seconds in combat) and stacks up to a maximum of 15%.
- With Abduct, the beetle god charges forward – if he touches an enemy god during this time, he slowly drags them back to his starting position, while the target is considered crippled for the duration of the pull.
- Rising Dawn allows him to hurl a projectile in a straight line forward. Hit enemies take low damage for 3 seconds and lose a portion of their physical protection for the duration. Hit allies take 30-50% less damage for 3 seconds, depending on the skill level.
- Solar Flare is a circular area spell that can be cast at long range. Hit enemies take damage and are briefly rooted.
- His ultimate ability Scarab’s Blessing blesses an allied god. It removes all control effects, makes him immune to slow effects for a short time, increases his movement speed, and grants him additional power. If the allied god dies during the blessing period, he will instead be reborn at Khepri’s position with a portion of his health points.
The mechanic of rebirth definitely sounds exciting and offers new possibilities for how to play a guardian. Whether the concept works, everyone should try for themselves.
New Premium Skins: Cyber-Awilix and Musketeer-Freya
The Mayan goddess Awilix is receiving her first premium skin. Fans of the lively (and somewhat naive) goddess will soon be able to hop around the arena on a cyber panther. The look of Renegade Awilix seems to be inspired by worlds like Shadowrun.
With All For One!-Freya, the Nordic melee mage gets a somewhat medieval look in the style of the Three Musketeers. The crown of the Valkyries’ queen is replaced with a stylish feather hat and the icy blade is swapped for a rapier.
Cabrakan has probably stayed too close to a nuclear reactor, as his Gamma Slam skin makes him look more like Hulk rather than a mighty mountain. At most, a mountain of flesh.
All three of the above-mentioned skins come with their own voice pack, which will likely raise their price a bit.
Anubis will soon shine in the grandeur of his first Tier 2 skin, especially his headpiece has been upgraded with Afterlife Anubis. Khepri will receive his first recolor Imperator at launch and Medusa finally has the Gold/Legend/Diamond Skins completed.
Buffs and Nerfs: Ravana is happy; Bellona, Ratatoskr, and Ah Puch are not
This time, the balance screws are being adjusted again to achieve a more balanced gameplay experience.
The big winner of these adjustments is Ravana: His Overhead Kick has a 2-second shorter cooldown at all ranks and deals 15 base damage more than before. The 10-Hand-Shadow-Fist now grants 5 more healing at each rank and has increased base damage by nearly 10%.
- Ah Puch will once again feel the nerf hammer: His Ultimate Empty the Crypts will be further weakened. Hit enemies will no longer be slowed.
- The Roman war goddess Bellona also has to swallow hard: The cooldown of Eagle’s Rally will be raised to 75 seconds at all ranks and the slow from Shield Bash will be significantly reduced at the lower ranks.
- The squirrel of discord Ratatoskr has lost some of his mobility: Dart can now only be triggered a maximum of 3 times in a row and Through the Cosmos has a delay of 1.5 seconds (instead of the previous 1.0).
In addition to the discussed changes to the gods, there are also some item adjustments and minor bug fixes scattered throughout the game.
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