On time every two weeks we expect a new patch for SMITE and this time there are, besides the usual balance changes, also a new goddess who will certainly give some players a headache. Without further ado, here are the most important changes of the patch “The One Who Nox”.
Nox, the Goddess of Night
The elegantly dressed beauty in black joins the Roman pantheon and takes on the role of a mage in Smite. Or more precisely: the role of a mage-hunter-mage. Her abilities are designed to make life hell for other mages. She has a silence spell, an AOE spell with a very short cooldown, and her ultimate forces an enemy to take damage whenever they cast a spell. Especially gods who rely on casting many spells in quick succession, like Hel or He Bo, will likely struggle with this new addition. If you want, you can try out Nox this weekend on the test server before she is made available to all players next week.
Buffs and Nerfs
As usual, the balance is being adjusted, and especially my favorite Hel is happy about a buff, as she can now activate the next spell significantly faster after switching stance: The global cooldown has been reduced from 1.0 seconds to 0.2 seconds. Ah Muzen Cab (commonly known as “The Bee Man”) receives an improvement to his ultimate, which can now be activated twice as quickly (0.3 seconds) and scales with 110% of his physical power, instead of the previous 100%. Tyr is thrilled about a significant increase in his healing power against single targets, and Sun Wukong is now much more effective against minions.
The losers of this patch are Geb and Ra, the two Egyptian gods have been deemed too strong and consequently feel the nerf hammer. Geb’s “Stone Shield” no longer protects against knockbacks and makes him more vulnerable to gods like Bacchus and He Bo. Ra loses part of his movement speed, and his passive “Speed of Light” is reduced from 8% to 6% per stack. Furthermore, his “Divine Light” is also weakened, now ticking every 0.5 seconds (instead of every 0.3) and scaling only with 30% of his magical power (previously 40%).
New Skins and Voicepacks
As part of the Odyssey, Rama receives a new skin, namely the “Orbital Strike”, which resembles the game “Destiny” just a little bit. Those who have secured all items from the Odyssey so far will also be rewarded with the new Agni skin “Infernal”. The two mentioned skins will naturally each come with their own voicepack, from which we can expect some funny lines.
Furthermore, Cabrakan receives his golden, legendary, and diamond skins, and Nox will, of course, also get her recolor “Crimson Eclipse”.
New Rewards and Little Things
Starting next week, a new reward system will come into play; for each day you log into the game, there is a small thank you – the longer you enter the game on consecutive days, the greater the yield. However, what exactly this will entail is still unclear, but it could be a favor bonus or even a small amount of gems or emotes.
Speaking of emotes – there will also be a whole bunch added again, especially the list of “Wave” and “Clap” additions is long – almost every god should now have some expressions.
The patch is expected to be tested until Monday, and if everything goes according to plan, you can experience the changes from Tuesday onwards and take down all mages with Nox – or, like me, just cause a little chaos with Hel.
