New SMITE patch brings a new god, ward skins and nerfs, a whole lot of nerfs

SMITE is getting a new patch next week and with it bring Janus, the god of gates and doors, to the game. 

Janus is probably one of the most unique gods that Hi-Rez has brought into SMITE as his kit involves portals, a mechanic new to the game. His first ability allows him to place a turret portal on a wall that allows him to pass through. He can also place the portal on the ground and have enemies fall through them to take damage. He can also pass through a portal on the ground himself and use it as a quick way to escape damage. His Ultimate ability however is where things get crazy. Janus can create portals globally and allow him pretty much to pass through the entire map rather quickly. The ultimate also does damage so if you are an insane shot, you can kill someone halfway across the map with this ability from the base. 

Also introduced in this patch is the new Team Solomid Skin for Apollo. The skin will cost 600 gems and a portion of each skin bought will be added to a tournament prize pool which will be held towards the end of summer. 

Ward skins were also introduced in this patch and can be bought with gems. The ward skins are a way to customize wards you place on the map. Ward skins will also have custom ways to react when they are seen by players. There are about five ward skins available now and more will be added over time. 

Now, this is where the patch gets interesting. The nerf hammer was brought down so hard in this latest patch and will essentially change the game. Warriors are getting a massive overhaul. The problem with Warriors in the past is that they essentially replaced tanks because they can build protections and do damage as well. You can build protections on them and act like a tank, but they also did ridiculous damage when you combined it with damage items. Now you will either have to focus on building damage, or building tank. There is no in between anymore. 

Here is an explanation straight from Hi-Rez. 

In this patch the Warrior class is being re-positioned. For those of you that were beta testers, you will recall Gods were tagged not classed. The “warrior tag” indicated a guardian nature with physical damage. With this change, Warriors are intended to be a “jack of all trade master of none” in lieu of “guardians that just do more damage”. The expectation is that Warriors will have to itemize to be tanks or deal damage. For example, greedy pen boots/midas + watchers will feel significantly less tanky in lane and single damage item builds (Heartseeker rush into protection stacking) will be less effective. In-Hand Power and Attack Speed scaling per level has been reduced across all Warriors, so as to fit better between the values of Assassins and Guardians:

With this change, a lot of the Warriors have also had their base attack speed and damage reduced as well as a change to their abilities. For instance, Sun Wukong's "Masters Will" ability, where he swung his gudgle and knocked up enemies, will no longer cause knock ups. Other changes include Nemesis now being classified as an Assassin with her base health, and physical protection being reduced to fit Assassin roles. 

Finally, the new free god rotation is Kumbahkarna, Ao Kuang, Vamana, Cupid and Fenrir. 

There are so many changes in this patch that it will be impossible for me to list them all here but you get the idea. Be sure to check out the full list of patch notes on Hi-Rez's official website because they are pretty game changing. 

Also remember that this weekend is the special double favor weekend. Every game you play will earn you double favor and each first win of the day bonus will earn you 10 gems!