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A new Chinese god joins the cast of SMITE!

by: Nathan -
More On: SMITE
The latest update for SMITE went live and brought a brand new Chinese god and a complete reworking of a Chinese god already in the game. 

First, the brand new Chinese god Zhong Kui is now available to buy. Zhong Kui is a mage that specializes in exorcising the demons on the battlefield. 

So what does Zhong Kui bring to the battlefield of the gods? Let's find out

Demon Bag (PASSIVE) 
  • The demons that Zhong Kui captures from Exorcism are stored in his demon bag, giving him additional protections for each demon captured. When Recall Demons is activated, Zhong Kui gains double the protections from his Demon Bag, but eventually losing all stacks when the bag is empty.

Exorcism
  • Zhong Kui drives out the demons of his enemies, dealing damage as they leave the body. Demons marked by Expose Evil are captured by Zhong Kui, healing him per demon captured (up to 3), and have the card removed

Expose Evil
  • Zhong Kui pastes a card on all enemies in front of him, marking them as a demon, slowing and damaging them each second while they are marked. If the card is removed, 50% of the remaining damage is done instantly

Book of Demons
  • When fired, the Book of Demons deals damage and stuns nearby enemies, with marked enemies getting stunned for 2x the duration and removing the card. When this ability is not on cooldown, the Book of Demons flies nearby Zhong Kui, firing for 50% of Zhong Kui’s basic damage.

Recall Demons (ULTIMATE)
  • When Zhong Kui activates this ability, demons pulse out from his bag at nearby players every second for 5s. They chase and accelerate over time, doing damage to enemies and healing to allies as they enter the body. Zhong Kui is immunte to crowd control for the duration.

Also in the update is the significantly updated Guan Yu. Guan Yu has been given an all new 3D model, FX, animations and 2D art. His damage has also been changed from magical to Physical and several of his abilities have changed. His Passive ability now gains force of will as he takes damage. Each instance of damage he receives charges up his Conviction ability increasing it's healing up to 2X after 20 hits. His Ultimate is now called Cavalry Charge. He mounts his warhorse for 4 seconds. While mounted he can steer and click to attack and is immune to crowd control.

Kali, Fenrir and Freya have risen to the golden ranks with new golden skins available for each of them. Guan Yu, Zhong Kui and Zeus now have their own custom voice packs you can buy as well. 

Finally the new, free god rotation is Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Bakasura and Chronos. 

Be sure to check below for the full patch notes. 
 
Demon Bag (PASSIVE)

The demons that Zhong Kui captures from Exorcism are stored in his demon bag, giving him additional protections for each demon captured. When Recall Demons is activated, Zhong Kui gains double the protections from his Demon Bag, but eventually losing all stacks when the bag is empty.

Expose Evil

Zhong Kui pastes a card on all enemies in front of him, marking them as a demon, slowing and damaging them each second while they are marked. If the card is removed, 50% of the remaining damage is done instantly. Damage Per Tick: 20/30/40/50/60 (+15% of your magical power). Slow: 20%. Card Lifetime: 6s. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80. Cooldown: 10s.

Exorcism

Zhong Kui drives out the demons of his enemies, dealing damage as they leave the body. Demons marked by Expose Evil are captured by Zhong Kui, healing him per demon captured (up to 3), and have the card removed. Damage: 75/125/175/225/275 (+50% of your magical power). Heal: 30/45/60/75/90 (+20% of your magical power). Cost: 20/40/60/80/100. Cooldown: 13s.

Book of Demons

When fired, the Book of Demons deals damage and stuns nearby enemies, with marked enemies getting stunned for 2x the duration and removing the card. When this ability is not on cooldown, the Book of Demons flies nearby Zhong Kui, firing for 50% of Zhong Kui’s basic damage. Damage: 60/115/170/225/280 (+70% of your magical power). Stun: .5/.6/.8/.9s (2x for marked targets). Cost: 75/80/85/90/85. Cooldown: 10s.

Recall Demons

When Zhong Kui activates this ability, demons pulse out from his bag at nearby players every second for 5s. They chase and accelerate over time, doing damage to enemies and healing to allies as they enter the body. Zhong Kui is immunte to crowd control for the duration. Damage: 80/95/110/125/140 (+20% of your magical power). Healing: 25/40/55/70/85 (+20% of your magical power). Cost: 100. Cooldown: 90s.

Significantly Updated God: Guan YuGuan Yu has been given an all new 3D Model, FX, Animations and 2D Art. His damaged has switched from Magical to Physical, and several abilities have changed (most especially his Passive and Ultimate). As preparation for this change, Master Guan Fu also spent time in the gym and has grown some muscles and size. 

Painless (PASSIVE)

Guan Yu gains force of will as he takes damage. Each instance of damage he receives charges up his Conviction ability, increasing its healing by up to 2x after 20 hits. Guan Yu’s basic attacks also utilize a four-swing chain with escalating damage and swing time, hitting in a longer narrow line in front of him on the final blow.  Max Heal Multiplier: 2x. Num Hits to Full Charge: 20x. Melee ProgressionL: 1/1/1.3/1.75x damage and swing time.

Conviction

Guan Yu’s courageous leadership is infectious and, when focused, heals himself and his allies and increases physical protections for 3s. Healing friendly gods reduces all cooldowns by 2s. Healing: 50/80/110/140/170. Physical Protection: 10/15/20/25/30. Cost: 60/70/80/90/100. Cooldown: 14s.

Warrior’s WIll

Guan Yu charges forward, his Green Dragon Crescent Blad extended in front of him. All enemies in his path take damage and are slowed. Hitting enemy gods lowers all of Guan Yu’s cooldowns by 2s. Damage: 80/135/190/245/300 (+50% of your physical power). Slow: 20%. Slow Duration: 2s. Cost: 60/70/80/90/100. Cooldown: 14s.

Taolu Assault

Guan Yu spins his blade in a controlled but furious display, slicing enemies for damage every .3s for 3s. Each hit debuffs the enemies’ protections while buffing Guan Yu the same amount. Guan Yu is immune to knockback for the duration. Damage per Hit: 15/25/35/45/55 (+20% of your physical power). Protection Buff/Debuff: 10. Buff/Debuff Max Stacks: 3. Buff/Debuff Duration: 3s. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80. Cooldown: 15s.

Cavalry Charge

Guan Yu mounts his warhorse and charges for 4s. While mounted, he can steer and click to attack and is immune to crowd control. Enemies hit take damage and are slowed. Each hit increases damage from consecutive hits against that target by 20%. Enemies hit on the dismount are stunned. Damage: 75/100/125/150/175 (+30% of your physical power). Damage escalation: 20% per hit. Slow: 25% for 2s. Stun: 1.5s. Cost: 80/90/100/110/120. Cooldown: 90s.

Other Significant Visual Updates to Gods

Ground targeters have been customized for several gods:

Agni, Anubis, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Bacchus, Chang’e, Cupid, Fenrir, Guan Yu, Ne Zha, Neith, Odin, Poseidon, Thor, Xbalanque, Ymir, Zeus

Cupid

Some updates to 3D Model, FX, and Animations.  

Note that the Lil’ Devil skin will not be updated until a future patch.

Anhur

Some updates to 3D Model and FX.

Sobek

Loading Screen card art updated.

New Skins:

Kali Golden

Fenrir Golden

Freya Golden

Zhong Kui King of Ghosts

Voicepacks:

Zeus

Guan Yu

Zhong Kui

General:

The Arena map has undergone some visual changes. Further changes are planned for future releases.

The End of Match Lobby has undergone some changes. Further changes are planned for future releases.

Fixed a bug that could cause the Top 200 Ranked Players listing to be incorrect.

The Loading Screen underwent some visual changes.

Fire Giant lava range, in Conquest, has increased.

Visual changes have been made to the fog of war treatment in the jungle (Conquest and Joust).

A variety of visual cleanups and memory optimizations have been made to the Conquest map.

Fixed issue with active items that are upgraded moving slot positions.

Fixed issue with Joust Challenge that did not allow 4v4 or 5v5.

An option has been added under the UI tab on the SETTINGS menu to control whether or not a nameplate and health/mana bar appear above your own character’s head.

An option has been added under the UI tab on the SETTINGS menu to toggle context pinging (ping markers from VGS menu) on and off.

Improved flood protection for VGS and pings.

Be Careful, Enemy, Incoming, and Retreat context pings are now yellow pings on the minimap.

We switched the position of the Healing and Mana Potions again to keep you on your toes.  This should be the last time that the items change location that are similarly priced as the issue has been fixed.

The new god rotation is Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Bakasura, Chronos.

Spectator:

The sorted column is now highlighted.

Item view is now auto-sorted by Net Worth.

Other miscellaneous cleanups and improvements.

New Items:

Bloodforge

Price - 2725g

+40 Physical Power

+20% Physical Lifesteal

PASSIVE - Each successful hit on an enemy grants you +5 Physical Power and +2% Physical Lifesteal for 4 seconds (max 5 stacks)

Items:

Fatalis

The additional movement and attack speed on a successful basic attack has been increased from 3% to 5%.

The maximum stacks have been reduced from 4 to 3.

Gauntlet of Thebes

The passive has changed from +5 Health to +8 Health per minion kill.

The max stacks has changed from 100 to 50.

Transcendence

The passive has changed from +10 Mana to +20 Mana per minion kill.

The max stacks has changed from 50 to 25.

Winged Wand

The mana has been removed from this item and 4/7/10% cooldown reduction has been added.

The passive has changed from 10% to 20% movement speed when hit by a slow and the duration has changed from 2s to 4s.

Witch Stone

The physical power has been removed from this item.

This item now provides 5/10/15% movement speed.

Gods:

Artemis

Calydonian Boar

The boar is now immune until it stuns its first target.

Chang’e

Crescent Moon Dance

The cooldown on this ability has been increased from 4s to 5s.

Moonlit Waltz

The amount of time that this ability fires, and that she evades, has been reduced from 1.4s to 1s.

Chronos

Rewind

You can no longer cancel this ability during its build up time.

Tyr

Fearless

This ability will no longer knock someone up that is immune to crowd control.

Fearless (Guard Stance)

This ability will now knock back half the distance.  

Power Cleave

This ability will now knock back half the distance.