Smite 2’s 24/7 closed alpha continues and players are gearing up for a major update, introducing new items, new Gods, and plenty of bug fixes. We’ve got all the details you need in our guide.
The first big update in the Smite 2 closed alpha is expected to go live on Sept. 17, and we’ve broken down all the major points from the notes here.
Smite 2 closed alpha patch notes (Sept. 17)
New Gods
The most eye-catching part of the patch notes is the addition of two additional Gods to Smite 2 in the form of Amaterasu and Nu Wa, increasing the number of available Gods in Smite 2 to 23.
Amaterasu is from the Japanese Pantheon and is a Warrior, utilizing melee attacks to inflict physical damage. Changes in Smite 2 include Divine Presence applying additional duration-based buffs to Amaterasu and nearby Gods, while Dazzling Offensive’s third attack is now a full-circle sweep.
Meanwhile, Nu Wa is from the Chinese Pantheon and is a Mage with ranged attacks and magical damage. For Smite 2, changes include Strength of Wood Rooting enemies hit every 15 seconds while Nu Wa and allies gain Strength of Water when entering her Mysterious Fog and retain the Movement Speed bonus for five seconds when exiting the area.
New Items
Four new or reworked items are being introduced to Smite 2 in this patch, with Sun Beam Bow (2,650 Gold), Eye of the Storm (2,550 Gold), Lifebinder (2,400 Gold), and Avenging Blade (2,300 Gold) joining the arsenal.
Balances to Relics include buffs for Purification Beads, Aegis of Acceleration, and Phantom Shell, while Sundering Arc receives a small nerf. Other changes include decreasing Critical Strike Damage from 1.75x to 1.65x overall and nerfs to stacking items like Devourer’s Gauntlet, Transcendence, Book of Thoth, and Gauntlet of Thebes.
God Buffs & Nerfs
The Smite 2 update includes a variety of balance changes to existing Gods in the game which, frankly, are too long to list. Instead, we’ve made a handy indication of which Gods have received buffs and which have received nerfs. You can see the full changes here.
Buffs
- Anhur
- Athena
- Bellona
- Cernunnos
- Hades
- Neith
- Sol
Nerfs
- Ares
- Bacchus
- Jing Wei
- Mordred
- Susano
- The Morrigan
- Ymir
Role Preference System
One of the biggest additions to Smite 2 in the update is the addition of a Role Preference System when queuing for Conquest matches. Using this, players order their preferred roles from one to five, with one being the most preferred and five being the least preferred.
Roles for each team will be assigned based on these preferences. If a player does not receive one of their two top roles, they are granted priority on role assignment in the next match—which varies based on what role they played in the last game and how they ranked that role.
The list below shows how priority is earned in Smite 2, based on highest to lowest priority:
- Playing their fifth-ranked role.
- Playing their fourth-ranked role.
- Playing their third-ranked role or playing a match with “Fill” selected.
Ranked and Matchmaking
Changes have been made to Ranked Matchmaking in Smite 2, with the ability to queue in a party side of one, two, or five. Solo and Duo queues are placed into the same matchmaking pool, while those in a full party will only play against another full party.
The option to play ranked in a Trio queue will return in the future, but “key systems” will need to be developed first. If playing ranked in a full party, wait times for matches should be expected to be more variable.
In addition to all this, the time to select a God has been reduced from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.
Bug fixes
Smite 2’s September update includes many bug fixes, including issues where Arena would not grant the correct number of worshipers and where Mastery level nine required more worshipers to obtain than Mastery level 10.
Dashes, Leaps, and other movement abilities have also been tweaked, collision systems have been reworked, and God Mastery progress is capped at level four for Co-Op queues to match the first Smite game.
Further Bug Fixes have been made for various Gods, the UI, in-game experiences, and items, with a substantial list. If you want to see them all, you can do so here.
