Item, Relic, Glyph and Masks Balance Changes and Updates in SMITE Patch 9.7

Hi-Rez Studios has introduced quite a lot of changes with Patch 9.7. In this article here on Prima Games, we dig into the Item and Relic changes that have been put in place to balance things out a bit. If you need more information about other tweaks that this Patch has brought onto us, check out our main Patch 9.7 article.

Item Balance Changes in SMITE Patch 9.7

Many interesting takes can be seen in the patch notes below. We agree with most of them, but some really made us think “why?”. Read on and see for yourself:

Brawler’s Beatstick, Divine Ruin, and Toxic Blade

All three anti-heal items have their anti-heal debuff duration reduced from six to five seconds.

BUMBA’S HAMMER

• OLD STATS/Passive
  • + 300 Health
  • + 200 Mana
  • + 20% Cooldown Reduction
  • Passive:
    • After casting an ability your next Basic Attack deals an additional 80 True Damage. After hitting a Basic Attack empowered by Bumba’s Hammer, your active cooldowns are reduced by 1s and you are healed for 5% of your Maximum Health.
• NEW STATS/Passive
  • +50 Physical Power
  • +70 Magical Power
  • +150 Health
  • +10% Cooldown Reduction
  • Passive:
    • After casting an ability your next Basic Attack deals an additional 80 True Damage. After hitting a Basic Attack empowered by Bumba’s Hammer, your active non-ultimate cooldowns are reduced by 1s and you are healed for 120 Health.

AMULET OF THE STRONGHOLD

Increased conversion rate of passive from 10% to 15%

AMULET OF SILENCE

Reduced internal cooldown of silence from 45s to 30s

SUPPORT STARTER ITEMS

• The following can now be upgraded at level 15
  • Sentinel’s Embrace*
  • Sentinel’s Boon*
  • Compassion*
  • Animosity*
  • Spartan Flag*
  • War Banner*
  • Lono’s Mask

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Hi-Rez has patched some of the listed items for additional balance tweaks, but in order to be fully informative, we have reported on both changes as to not confuse players who have already seen the original changes:

Support Starter Items have had their upgrade level reverted from level 15 back to level 17:

•  Compassion
•  Animosity
•  Sentinel’s Boon
•  Sentinel’s Embrace
•  War Banner
•  Spartan Flag

SENTINEL’S GIFT

• Increased Bonus Gold per trigger from 7 to 8

SENTINEL’S EMBRACE

• Added 6 Gold per 5s

RELIC DAGGER

• Increased relic cooldown reduction from 30s to 40s

TYRANNICAL PLATE HELM

• Increased Minion Buff from 20% Health and Attack Speed to 25% Health and Attack Speed

MAIL OF RENEWAL

• Increased Physical Protection from 20 to 30
• Increased Magical Protection from 20 to 30

THE SLEDGE

• Increased CCR from 20% to 30%

SHIELD OF REGROWTH

• Passive now adds +15 Physical Power and +30 Magical Power for the 4s buff duration

PYTHAGOREM’S PIECE

• Removed 10% Magical Penetration
• Added 10% Cooldown Reduction
• Increased Health from 200 to 250

STAFF OF MYRDDIN

• Old passive removed
• New Passive – When your ultimate ability has finished casting you gain Myrddin’s Rage which provides 25% Increased Damage Dealt, decaying to 2.5% Increased Damage Dealt over 8s. At the end of the 8s you lose Myrddin’s Rage. This can only occur once every 45s.

CELESTIAL LEGION HELM

• Added 4% Crit Damage reduction per stack (20% max)

In addition to these changes, Hi-Rez decided to address a few more items in the small Patch that came quickly after the 9.7:

STONE CUTTING SWORD

• Decreased max stacks from 3 to 2 on both the enemy protections decreased and owners protections increased
  • (21 max prot reduction decreased to 14 max, 15 max prots gains decreased to 10)

GOLDEN BLADE

• Decreased Movement Speed from 10% to 7%

(UPGRADE) BUMBA’S HAMMER

• Decreased Passive True Damage from 80 to 70
• Decreased Passive Heal from 120 to 100 
• Decreased Passive Cooldown Reduction from 1s to 0.5s

That’s it for the items, let’s move on to the Relics!

Relic Balance Changes in SMITE 9.7

Luckily, there are not as many changes to go through, and these are mostly buffs.

BRACER OF ILLUMINATION

• Buff duration increased from 8s to 12s

DROWNED ANKH

• Increased miasma damage from 2% current HP to 4% current HP

CLOAK OF THE AVATAR

• Increased knockback strength by 33%

CHAOTIC BEADS

• Changed passive from 7% current health as magical damage to 5% current health as true damage

EMBLEM OF TREMBLING TERROR

• Decreased Health threshold for Tremble to occur from 30% Max HP to 15% Max HP

SUNDERING BLAST

• Fixed bug where incorrect Sunder icon was being used to represent cooldown.
• Increased target’s damage taken increase from 5% to 7.5%

THORNS OF OVERGROWTH

• Increased radius of passive from 55 units to 70 units

The New Masks in SMITE Patch 9.7

• All Masks in their current iteration are removed!
• The new Masks will now be Starter Items.

PROTECTOR’S MASK (STARTER ITEM)

• Only purchasable by Mages, Assassins, and Hunters
• STATS
  • +125 Health
  • +100 Mana
• PASSIVE
  • Decrease damage dealt by 6% + 0.25% per your god’s level
  • Decrease damage taken by 6% + 0.25% per your god’s level
  • Getting the assist for an enemy minion or jungle monster dying will provide 8 bonus gold and restore 15 health and 15 mana. If you are not within 30 units of an allied god for 20 seconds this passive is disabled until you are near an allied god again. Can be upgraded at level 15.

Related: Best Mage Gods in SMITE (2022)

LONO’S MASK (UPGRADED FROM PROTECTOR’S MASK)

• Only purchasable by Mages, Assassins, and Hunters
• STATS
  • +300 Health
  • +200 Mana
  • +10% CCR
• PASSIVE
  • Gain 5 stacks of Cowardice. Each stack reduces your damage dealt and healing output by 10%. For every 60 protections from items, remove a stack of Cowardice. When you remove a stack of Cowardice, gain a stack of Bravery. For each stack of Bravery, gain +3% damage mitigation and provide 7 Physical and Magical Protections to all allied gods within 55 units.

FIGHTER’S MASK (STARTER ITEM)

• Only purchasable by Warriors and Guardians
• STATS – 650g
  • + 10 Physical Power
  • + 15 Magical Power
  • + 10 HP5
  • + 10% CDR
• PASSIVE
  • Increase damage dealt by 6% + 0.25% per your god’s level
  • Increase damage taken by 6% + 0.25% per your god’s level
  • This item grants 2 MP5 per 10% of your missing Mana. Your abilities deal +10 Bonus Ability True Damage to minions.

Related: Best Guardian Gods in SMITE (2022)

RANGDA’S MASK (UPGRADE FROM FIGHTER’S MASK)

• Only Purchasable by Warriors and Guardians
• STATS
  • + 60 Physical Power
  • + 80 Magical Power
  • + 20 HP5
  • + 10% CDR
• PASSIVE
  • Gain 5 stacks of Weakness. Each stack increases your damage taken by 10%. For each 65 Physical Power or 90 Magical Power from items, remove a stack of Weakness. When you remove a stack of Weakness gain a stack of Strength. For each stack of Strength gain +3% damage dealt and 2% movement speed.

New Glyphs in SMITE Patch 9.7

JOTUNN’S CUNNING

• Every time you damage an enemy god with an ability you gain a stack of Wit. At 2 stacks, your next non-ultimate ability that damages an enemy god gets 25% of its cooldown instantly refunded.

Ability-based Assassins are gonna loooove this!

Related: Best Assassin Gods in SMITE (2022)

PERFECTED ROD OF TAHUTI

• Successfully damaging an enemy god with an ability applies a mark for 3s. Damaging them a second time with another ability consumes the mark and provides you 10% movement speed for 2s and reduces your non-ultimate abilities by 1.5s. Only one mark can be active at a time and cannot be applied for 10s after consuming a mark.

We’ll see how this plays out. No comment yet.

NIMBLE BANCROFT’S TALON

• Inheriting Nimble Rod of Tahuti
• For every 40 Magical Power you have, you gain 2% Attack Speed.

Why hello there, Freya, Chronos, Ao Kuang,…

BANCROFT’S CLAW

• Every 15s gain a stack of Hunger(max 3). Abilities cast within 30 units of enemy gods consume a stack, dealing bonus damage equal to 0.5% of their max HP for each 75 Magical Power you have. Each god damaged by Hunger provides you with a shield of 1% of your Max HP for each 75 Magical Power you have. This cannot exceed 35% of your Max HP.

As if Bancroft wasn’t broken enough. Gooby pls.

Related: Best Mage Gods in SMITE (2022)

THE FEROCIOUS EXECUTIONER

• Inheriting Jotunn’s Ferocity
• Your next basic attack marks an enemy god. If you hit the marked enemy or the marked enemy hits you with a basic attack or ability, gain 1 stack. Each stack provides 2% increased damage towards the marked enemy, stacking up to 10 times. This effect can only occur every 30s.

THE HEAVY EXECUTIONER

• PASSIVE – Basic Attacks against an enemy reduce your target’s Physical Protection by 17.5% for 3 seconds (max. 2 Stacks).
• Attack Speed is capped at 1.75. 
  • NOTE: Silverbranch will still only provide power from passive once you have exceeded 2.5 attack speed. Silverbranch passive text has been updated to reflect this.

Drats! If it weren’t for that NOTE: above, my evil plans would have worked!

MAGI’S SHELTER

• Whenever your passive is consumed, the nearest allied god within 25 units gains protection from a single hard Crowd Control effect for 5s. If this passive is consumed before time runs out, they gain 1s of Crowd Control immunity.

This looks like a great support item for team fights, let’s see how this pans out.

MAGI’S REVENGE

• The first enemy god to hit you with hard Crowd Control while you are protected becomes Marked for Revenge for 5s. Gods Marked for Revenge cause enemy gods within 40 units to move 20% faster towards them, and take 10% increased damage.

Make sure to press TAB from time to time to see if any enemies have bought this. Trust us.