With a nearly two-month break since SMITE’s last god release, patch 5.3 is finally here with Achilles, a new Warrior. 5.3 also brings the next Ratatoskr skin for those collecting the set through the Da Ji and the Legend of the Foxes Adventure, more exclusive Nu Wa skins (a Reddit favorite!), and balance changes.
Achilles has built-in damage and protections, a self-heal, a dodge that can be used multiple times, and an execute (because why not), so there’s a lot to work with here. Players on the PTS have already called him OP, but we’ll see how things pan out as Achilles gets settled into the live client.
Achilles’ abilities
Passive: Gift of the Gods
Achilles adapts to the tide of Battle. Achilles can choose to wear armor, granting him bonus Health and Protections, or forgo it, granting him bonus Movement Speed and Physical Power Armored Bonus: Achilles gains an addition 35 +10 Health per lvl and 5 +1 Protection per lvl. Unarmored Bonus: Achilles gains an addition Movement Speed 3% +.25% per level and 10 +2 Physical Power per level.
Shield of Achilles
Achilles punches forward with the edge of his Shield, inflicting massive damage and stunning enemy targets hit by the impact. The force of his punch continues to radiate past his initial target area, dealing 80% damage to targets farther away.
- Damage : 100/160/220/280/340 + 90% of your Physical Power
- Stun Duration : 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s
- Cooldown : 15s
- Cost : 60/65/70/75/80
Radiant Glory
Achilles is blessed by the gods, giving him bonus Physical Power, Protections, and Crowd Control Reduction for 6 seconds. While this blessing is active, Achilles will heal himself upon successfully damaging enemies with abilities.
- Heal : 23/26/29/32/35 + 10% of your Physical Power
- Max Heals per Ability : 2/2/3/3/4
- Bonus Physical Power : 15%
- Bonus Protections : 15%
- Bonus Crowd Control Reduction : 20%
- Cooldown : 10s
- Cost : 40/45/50/55/60
Combat Dodge
Achilles dodges his enemies’ attacks before striking them in swift response. If Achilles successfully hits an enemy god with this strike, Achilles can use this ability once more before it goes on Cooldown.
- Damage : 65/105/145/185/225 + 50% of your Physical Power
- Cooldown : 10s
- Cost : 24/28/32/36/40
Fatal Strike
Achilles winds up a large attack and dashes forward. While dashing, Achilles will pass through minions, stop and hit the first enemy god he encounters, dealing damage to all he hits. If the god is below 30% Health they are Executed. If Achilles successfully Executes a god with this ability, he can use it again, up to 5 times.
As Achilles successfully Executes his enemies, he becomes more reckless in combat and leaves his heel exposed. Achilles will become more susceptible to damage, stacking up to 5 times.
- Damage : 180/270/360/450/540 + 100% of your Physical Power
- Execute Threshold : 30%
- Damage Taken increase : 10%
- Cooldown : 90s
- Cost : 80/85/90/95/100
Skins
Of course, the default skin for Achilles has been added, along with his recolor, Myrmidon Achilles.
Kage Ratatoskr is here, which is the second skin of four Ratatoskr skins related to the anime Adventure, Da Ji and the Legend of the Foxes. The skins must be rolled in the Fox Chest, which is earned through playing the Adventure mode.
Apparently, abyssal skins are going to be a theme because Abyssal Warrior Sun Wukong has been added. Right now, the exclusive skin can be rolled in the Horrific Chest for 200 gems per roll. Countess Chang’e has gone into the same chest.
There is also Pot O’ Gold Fafnir, a leprechaun skin for Fafnir. It’s in the Spring Holiday Chest — along with its twin, last year’s leprechaun Loki skin, Pot O’ Gold Loki — at 400 gems per roll.
Lastly, the exclusive skin Playful Bunny Nu Wa is also in the Spring Holiday Chest at 400 gems per roll.
Console VGS
Hi-Rez has made the announcement that when patch 5.3 goes live on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, players will now have access to all VGS commands. Formerly, the selection was limited, and console players have been calling for more VGS for a long time.
Conquest jungle camp adjustments
Oracles have been nerfed due to their raid boss status, and a few of the jungle camps will no longer hit as hard.
- Oracles Health adjusted.
- Base health decreased from 760 to 680.
- Scaling health per level increased from 100 to 110.
- Decreased Base Power of Big Centaur, Big Manticore, Big Chimera, and Big Satyr from 24 to 18.
Bug fixes
There are also quite a few bug fixes.
- Fixed an issue where god selection icons would take a long time to load when first entering a match lobby.
- Fixed an issue where Ah Muzen Cab’s Passive Ability was described as a “Pet” Ability.
- Fixed an issue where Poseidon’s Whirlpool had an incorrect “Tide” number.
- Fixed an issue where The Morrigan’s icon would be revealed on the minimap even when stealthed.
- Fixed an issue where Discordia’s Passive Ability Buff FX could become invisible.
- Fixed an issue where Cu Chulainn would be healed for an incorrect amount from Meditation Cloak.
- Fixed an issue in Da Ji’s Adventure where a Summoner could spawn out of reach of most player attacks.
- Fixed an issue where DJ Ohm’s VXG isn’t audible to enemy team.
- Fixed an issue with Hades ultimate playing Ragnarok voice lines on other skins.
- Fixed an issue when Nike ults on Ullr, her laurel shows up around his neck.
- Fixed an issue where Gods page ability icons disappear after you highlight them.
- Fixed an issue with Arachne’s third attack having a cleave.
- Fixed an issue where if Isis ulted on top of the Fire Giant, the ult automatically exploded.
- Fixed an issue with Evolved Assassin’s Blessing returning 25 mana instead of 20.
- Fixed an issue with Shader Quality automatically being set to ‘low’ in video options.
- Fixed an issue where closing the client or getting pulled into a queue with 3-choice chest open and unpicked leaves you in state that crashes client on relog.
- Fixed an issue with missing textures on Apollo’s Winner’s Circle Car.
- Fixed an issue with Pyromancer death global audio not being global.
- Fixed an issue where resolution scale is automatically set to 0% upon opening the options menu.
Balance
Finally, we come to the balance changes. As far as gods go, some of the gods who have been dominating the early Season 5 meta are seeing changes. Whether or not the Ullr buffs are enough remains to be seen, but early predictions say no.
God balance changes
Arachne Buff
Web
- Reduced Cooldown from 18s to 16s
- Can now have 3 webs at once, up from 2.
Cerberus Buff
Ghastly Breath
- Increase Damage per Tick from 15/25/35/45/55 to 20/30/40/50/60
- Increases range from 40 to 50
- Decrease Post-Fire from 1.4 to 0.1
- Cerberus is now Crippled for 1.2s after firing this ability. He also is Knockback and Knockup Immune for 1.2s.
- This ability now Auto-Activates all three heads.
Freya Nerf
- Changed Magical Lifesteal from 15% to 5% + .5% per level (ending at 15%.)
Irradiate
- Decreased Damage from 40/55/70/85/100 to 35/50/65/80/95
- Decreased Magical Power Scaling from 25% to 20% per shot
Khepri Buff
Abduct
- Decreased Cooldown from 15s to 14s
- Decreased Cooldown from 18s to 16s
Scylla Buff
- Increased Power per Stack from 20 to 25
- Increased Magical Power Scaling from 75% to 80%
- Increased Cooldown from 10s from 13s
- Decreased Physical Protection Reduction from 15% to 10%
Ullr Nerf
Bladed Arrow
- Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 80% to 70%
- Decreased Physical Power Scaling from 120% to 110%
Vamana Buff
Colossal Fury
- Increased Protections Gained from 5/10/15/20/25 to 15/20/25/30/35
- Added a targeter to indicate the hit area for Vamana’s Basic Attacks while Colossal Fury is active.
Item changes
Meta-dominant items, especially with regard to core mage items, will also be seeing decreases in power. Warlock’s Staff and Book of the Dead especially have become core on every mage, and Hi-Rez is trying out something new for Soul Gem’s passive.
Soul Gem Change
- NEW PASSIVE – On successful hit of an Ability you gain 1 stack. At 4 Stacks your next Ability that damages an enemy God will deal bonus damage equal to 40% of your Magical power, and will heal yourself and allies within 20 units for 40% of your Magical Power and will consume the 4 stacks.
Doom Orb Visibility Change
- Updated Self Buff FX for when Doom Orb’s Passive buff is active.
- Decreased Magical Lifesteal from 15% to 10%
- Decreased Passive Healing bonus from lifesteal from 50% to 40%
Warlock’s Staff Nerf
- Decrease Power from 75 to 65
- Decrease Power per stack from .6 to .5
- Warlock’s Staff now provides 115 Magical Power when fully evolved, down from 135.
Book of the Dead Nerf
- Decrease 25% to 15% Mana used to form shield.
Malice Change (More-so a nerf)
- Decreased Physical Power from 50 to 40.
- Increased Critical Strike Chance from 20% to 25%.
- NEW PASSIVE – Every Critical Strike against an enemy God gives one stack. At 3 stacks, your next ability that damages an enemy God will consume the stacks and deal bonus damage over time to the first God hit for 120% of your physical power. Damage is dealt in 3 ticks over 2s.
Rage Change
- Increased cost from 2400 to 2500.
- Decreased Physical Power from 30 to 20.
- Increased Critical Strike Chance per stack from 1% to 2%.
- Rage now provide 40% total Critical Strike chance when fully evolved, up from 35%.
Soul Eater Buff
- Decreased Stacks needed from 100 to 75
- Increased Bonus Physical Power on Evolved from 10 to 20.
- Soul Eater now provides 60 Physical power when fully evolved, up from 50.
Warrior’s Blessing Buff
- Increased Evolved Bonus Protections from 10/10 to 15/15
- Decreased the stacks gained from gods from 5 to 3
Hunter’s Blessing Fix
Adjusted how the item provides Basic Attack Damage.
- This fixes a few issues where this item interacted with various abilities and systems in the game. This item now better interacts with hit chain progression, abilities that scale with Basic Attack damage, and a few edge case scenarios. In some case this is a buff for characters (anyone with a slower hit chain) and in others this is a nerf for characters (The Morrigan’s Passive).
The patch will arrive on Tuesday, February 27 for PC. Xbox and PS4 will follow at a later date (usually one week later).
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