Smite's Huge Season 3 Update Gets Patch Notes as It Goes Into Testing

Following the announcement of major changes coming to Smite for Season 3, Hi-Rez Studios has released the patch notes for the big update coming to its public test servers.

The notes are incredibly lengthy. Not only are there the big new features like the Chinese-themed Joust map, daily quests, and conversion of active items into relics, but also a ton of item balance changes.

New items have been introduced, and many of the existing items--particularly defensive ones--have been changed. Most notably, there is now more of a distinction between items meant to offer more health and health regeneration, and those that provide protection against damage. It's also now harder to max out cooldown reduction, while there should be fewer items deemed mandatory purchases.

A number of characters changes come in this patch as well. Ao Kuang now scales better in the late game, Bakasura's Eat Minion ability is now more effective and costs less mana, Hades has been reclassified as a Mage, several characters move faster (including Vamana, Odin, and Odin), and one moves slower (Serqet). Bellona, one of the stronger characters in the game, now does a bit less bonus damage with Bludgeon, while Scourge's disarm doesn't last as long.

Other items of note include the removal of the attack speed buff from Conquest, tweaks to lifesteal (you can't steal more health than an enemy has remaining), new character-specific achievements, and new skins (including the fantastic Sir Pentsworth IV, Esq. Kukulkan pictured above). You can see everything on its way to PTS on Smite's website.