SMITE’s 5.8 patch notes have been released. The patch notes are small, although there are some exciting additions. Notably, the Slavic pantheon has made its debut with the first Slavic god, Chernobog, whom Hi-Rez had introduced earlier. The Slavic pantheon‘s entrance is being celebrated with a new Divine Uprising event that will end with a Tier 5 Bellona skin. Without further ado, here are the notes.

Chernobog’s default card art can be seen above with his Diabol Chernobog recolor. Hi-Rez had previously talked about Chernobog’s design, his Into Darkness ability and revealed Doug Cockle, voice of Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher series, as the voice actor.

Chernobog’s kit

Passive: Heart of Cold

Every successful Basic Attack impales the enemy with a brittle crystal. Upon reaching 3 stacks of Heart of Cold, the enemy explodes for extra damage in an area around them.

Damage : 15% + (1% * your level) of your Total Basic Attack Power

Crystallized Curses

Chernobog conjures a large crystal of curses and hurls it at the target location dealing damage on landing. After several seconds the crystalline curses explode dealing damage again and rooting any enemy in the area. The crystal can be detonated early by firing at it with Vicious Barrage.

Damage (Initial) : 50/80/110/140/170 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Damage (Explosion) : 50/80/110/140/170 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Root Duration : 1s
Mana Cost : 60/65/70/75/80
Cooldown : 15/14/13/12/11s

Vicious Barrage

Active: Chernobog fires an enlarged crystal shard that can pierce enemies and deals damage like a basic attack. This applies a single stack of Heart of Cold to all enemies it passes through and instantly detonates Crystallized Curses. Chernobog gains increased Attack Speed for several seconds after using this ability.

Damage : 100% of your Basic Attack Damage
Attack Speed Increase : 30/40/50/60/70%
Duration : 3/3.5/4/4.5/5s
Mana Cost : 80/85/90/95/100
Cooldown : 12s

Into Darkness

Dash forward with your wings in a shadowy form, dealing damage to enemies on the way and slowing them. If you collide with any wall, you connect with it becoming a shadow on the wall for a few seconds. You are unable to be hit or targeted during this time. You gain a second dash to leave the wall or can cancel the ability to leave early.

Damage : 60/75/90/105/120 (+45% of your Physical Power)
Slow : 25%
Slow Duration : 2s
Mana Cost : 70
Cooldown : 18/17/16/15/14s

Ultimate – Living Nightmare

During a brief channeling period, Chernobog summons shadows at the location of all enemies that apply a stacking Slow and last for 8s. Chernobog can select any of his shadow clones to fly towards. Once he reaches the location he takes the place of his shadow, refreshing his cooldowns, as well as temporarily obtaining damage mitigations, extra movement speed and every attack triggers Heart of Cold.

Damage Mitigation : 20/25/30/35/40%
Movement Speed : 30%
Bonus Stat Duration : 6s
Mana Cost : 80/90/100/110/120
Cooldown : 110s

Divine Uprising event

Divine Uprising is dedicated to “unveil [Hi-Rez’s] upcoming plans to release 3 new pantheons into the game.” Of course, SMITE players already knew about the Slavic and Voodoo pantheons, which were announced a the 2018 Hi-Rez Expo in January. The third pantheon has been data mined as the Polynesian pantheon, but that has not been confirmed by Hi-Rez yet.

The event deals with pantheon chests. Items will be added to the new Slavic chest. In patch 5.8, Fat Loki Cabrakan and Northern Ranger Hachiman will be added to the Slavic Chest. Those who unlock all items in the Slavic Chest will receive the Galactic Void Chernobog skin. Players who unlock all items in all pantheon chests during the Divine Uprising event will receive the Tier 5 Divine Dragon Bellona skin.

New skins

For skins, 2018 SMITE world champs eUnited finally have their competitive skin based on solo laner Benji’s Cu Chulainn. Chompy Chibi Fenrir is continuing the trend of SMITE Chibi skins. As briefly mentioned above, Fat Loki Cabrakan and Northern Ranger Hachiman will be in the new Slavic Chest as part of the Divine Uprising event. Of course, new god Chernobog will have his recolor added at the same time he is, called Diabol Chernobog, and he has his mastery skins available with patch 5.8 (which is unusual as mastery skins usually get added the patch after a new god is added).

Other new cosmetics

• Slavic Fountain Skin
• Slaivc Loading Frame
• Merica! Global Emote

New free gods

New free gods will be available to all players with the patch 5.8. The gods will be in addition to the five free gods new SMITE players already have access to.

• Kukulkan
• Nemesis
• Bellona
• Ares
• Artemis

Tutorial update

There has been a small tutorial update.

• The Intro map, Basic Tutorial and Arena Tutorial have been combined into a single tutorial level.

Awesome Chest additions

Playmaker Ne Zha and two skins from the Ragnarok event, Oblivion Hound Cerberus and Oblivion Queen Discordia, will be added to the Awesome Chest with patch 5.8.

Fantasy Points Store rotation

• La Roca Hercules
• Star Tamer Bastet
• PrivaTyr Tyr

Of course, the launch of a new patch means the skins currently in the store will be leaving, so buy them before 5.8 drops if you want them.

Balance changes

Of course, a SMITE patch wouldn’t be a SMITE patch without balance changes.

Item balance changes

Evolved Warrior’s Blessing Nerf

• Decreased protections gained from evolving this item from 15/15 to 10/10

Soul Reaver Nerf

• Increased cost from 2650 to 2750

Stone of Fal Buff and New Passive

• Decreased Cost from 2500 to 2300
• NEW PASSIVE
  • Anytime you would be dealt more than 20% of your Max Health by a single Magical ability, that damage is instead reduced by 10%. This effect has no cooldown.

Oni Hunter’s Garb New Passive

• For each enemy god within 55 units of you, you gain a stack of 2% damage mitigation. This caps at 3 stacks.

God balance changes

Achilles Nerf

Shield of Achilles

• Decreased the damage to targets in the outer cone from 80% to 70%

Combat Dodge

• Decreased Damage from 65/105/145/185/225 to 55/95/135/175/215

Aphrodite Buff

Kiss

• Decreased Cooldown of this ability if you hit an ally from 3s to 1s

Guan Yu Buff

Basic Attack Hit Chain

• The third hit of Guan Yu’s hit chain now cleaves.
• The last hit of Guan Yu’s hit chain range has been increased from 12 to 16.
• The first two hits of Guan Yu’s hit chain have remain unchanged.

Painless

• Stacks now only reset when out of combat, rather than being consumed by a single ability

Khepri Buff

Solar Flare

• Increased Root duration from 1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6/1.7s to 1.5/1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9s
• Increased Damage from 50/100/150/200/250 to 60/115/170/225/280

Kuzenbo Buff/Nerf

Water Bowl

• Increased Damage reduction per stack from 1% to 1.5%
• As a result, Maximum Damage Reduction increased from 10% to 15%

Shell Spikes

• Decreased Damage Reflected from 20/25/30/35/40% to 10/15/20/25/30%
• Decreased Mana cost from 50/55/60/65/70 to 50 at all ranks
• This ability now decreases the cooldown of Sumo Slam as well as NeNe Kappa by the same amount

Nemesis Nerf

Slice and Dice

• Decreased Damage from 50/80/110/140/170 to 40/70/100/130/160

Terra Nerf

Monolith

• Decreased amount of hits it takes to destroy Monolith from 5 to 3

Earthen Fury

• Decreased Damage Mitigation from 10% to 5%
• Decreased Damage Amplification from 10% to 5%

Thor Buff

Mjolnir’s Attunement

• Increased the amount of damage the return hammer deals to minions from 50% to 80%

Vamana Buff

Clear the Path

• Decreased Mana cost from 70/75/80/85/90 to 70 at all ranks

Armored Umbrella

• Decreased Mana cost from 60/70/80/90/100 to 60/65/70/75/80

Umbrellarang

• Decreased Mana cost from 60/70/80/90/100 to 60/65/70/75/80

Xbalanque Buff

Dead of Night

• This ability now stacks off of player damage dealt instead of kills. Every 1000 damage dealt by Xbalanque will provide him with 1 stack.

Rising Jaguar

• Decreased Mana Cost from 60/70/80/90/100 to 60/65/70/75/80

Patch 5.8 release date

According to HiRezStew’s Reddit post about improving SMITE patch quality, patch 5.8 will not release on the Tuesday following the patch notes show as usual (which would be March 8). Instead, patch 5.8 will be delayed “at least a week” with consoles to follow.

Follow @SMITEScrub