Halfway through Season 3 of the Smite Pro League comes Patch 3.12, commonly called the Midseason patch or Season 3.5. But with so many changes, from gods to items to even new relics, how can you keep easy track of what changed and what’s good or not? This is Patch 3.12: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

Patch 3.12 saw changes to a good number of gods, most of which were desperately needed. The biggest changes go to Guan Yu who saw a passive rework. His previous passive stacked up to 20 times, receiving a stack every time he took damage or damaged a god. These stacks increased his heal from Conviction by 5%, at full stacks doubling the power of the heal. His new passive saw an increase to be fully stacked from 20 to 30, but it now stacks on all damage dealt (includes creeps and damage from Bluestone Pendant) and damage received, and instead of boosting his Conviction, at full stacks each of his abilities gains a boosted effect. Conviction still gets a double heal, but requires all 30 stacks to boost healing otherwise doing the base heal. Warrior’s Will goes from a 30% slow to a 60% slow, Taolu Assault's protection steal goes from 2/4/6/8/10 to 3/6/9/12/15 dependent on ability rank, and his ultimate Cavalry Charge goes from a 20% slow per hit and 1 second stun to a 40% slow per hit and 2 second stun. This gives Guan Yu many more options for play style than just a healer, letting him steal more protections so his team can deal more damage or making escape neigh impossible with a massive 60% slow. A very welcome to change to a warrior who was previously underwhelming.

Vulcan also saw a passive change. Instead of having a slow on his next basic attack after using an ability, now whenever Vulcan hits an enemy god with an ability he gains 15% move speed and 15 MP5 for 5 seconds. This helps the mana hungry mage with his mana regen and increases his survivability at the same time.

The 3.12 Patch also saw 2 incredibly potent items introduced to the gods’ arsenal; Ritual Dagger and Emperor’s Armor. For just 1850 gold, Ritual Dagger gives you 10% move speed and Cooldown Reduction, 20% attack speed, 200 health and a passive the increases a relics duration by 50%. Purification goes from 2 seconds of Crowd Control immunity to 3, Sprint goes from 5 seconds to 7.5, etc. Because of its cheap stats and incredible passive, this item is most assuredly a pickup in the support role.

Emperor’s Armor, in comparison, has rather unremarkable stats at just 30 physical protection and 250 health, but its passive is where this item really shines. When in the attack range of an enemy structure, its decreases the attack speed of it by 30%. When in range of a friendly structure, it increases its attack speed by 30%. This passive makes it a great pickup for support players who enjoy playing aggressive and making the enemy not feel safe even under their own towers. The only downside to this item is that it will need to be sold for a more effective item later in the game.

The Bad

The biggest blow from this patch goes to the Hunters. With Golden Bow and Throwing Dagger both removed, a good portion will fade into relative obscurity again with the rise of Transcendence once again rewarding those with big damage line clear such as Neith or Anhur while punishing those who can’t match that kind of pressure such as Xbalanque or Artemis. Mercury will also undoubtedly drop from the meta because his clear WAS Golden Bow, having been a staple on the god since his release. Duo lane has effectively been reducing to Farmville once again.

The old active Shield of the Underworld makes its return once again under another name, Thorns. Perhaps the most loved and hated at the same time active in Season 2, it was removed at the start of Season 3, but reintroduced in 3.12. The only saving grace that makes this “new” relic bearable is that, unlike Shield of the Underworld, you can lifesteal off the wearer while active and it has a doubled Cooldown, from 60 to 120.

Erlang Shen, SMITE’s newest god, also joins the ranks of the bad. An underwhelming kit offering little control, and a massively delayed heal in his ultimate, he can be thought of as a worse Osiris. Both are auto attacked based with abilities to help them stay close to their enemy. The primary difference is that Osiris does more damage with his abilities and has a better time keeping up with his opponents because of his drastically lower Cooldowns. While Erlang Shen is alright Warrior in his own right, he’s generally outclassed by the rest of them. He is probably a better jungler than he is in solo lane right now.

The Ugly

Just the worst of the worst changes made in 3.12. They include healers, Curse, Teleport, and Wrath.

Curse, ever supports favorite relic when the enemy has a Ra or Aphrodite, has seen a massive nerf to its effectiveness with its healing reduction dropping off a cliff from 65% to 50%. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but when you also consider that a few patches ago, Rod of Asclepius received a buff, increasing healing by 25% in the auras radius, and the fact most healers just heal massive amounts already, it makes fighting into healers that much harder.

To make the kick in the teeth to Curse even worse, 3 healers saw buffs this patch as well. Hel’s passive, Stance Attunement, saw a change in how long it takes for his to fully “attune” to her current stance, down from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. At full dark attunement, she deals more damage, and at full light attunement, she heals more. Combined this with her increase in scaling of Inspire, her light side 3 that heals, from 30% to 40% as well as giving it a flat 25% move speed buff to all allies hit by the ability, she’s going to be much harder to kill.

Aphrodite’s new passive sees her gaining 4 protections for any god within 70 units of her, stacking up to 9 times. As if you didn’t think she was hard enough to kill already with her stupid Love Birds and Undying Love, now she gains 36 protections just for being in a team fight.

Chang’e also got a slight buff on her heal, Moonflower Dance, increased scaling from 30% to 40%. Nothing too major, but anything that gives more health is a pretty good buff when combined with the Curse nerf.

Teleport got a huge nerf this patch as well. A staple for every solo lane player for its existence, the time to channel was increased from 3 seconds to 4. Again, may not seem like a big deal, but in SMITE, a single second can mean the difference between holding your own in a teamfight and getting completely crushed. It can also be the difference between saving a tower and losing it.

Finally, the last remarkable change in the 3.12 patch is Wrath, the active on known as Hand of the Gods, which got gutted before Season 3. When the original patch notes were released, Wrath saw a massive buff of gaining a 1 second stun against enemy gods in the radius and increased damage to jungle bosses (Gold Fury and Fire Giant) from 1000 to 1250, at a cost of a 30 second Cooldown. Had it been left that way, it probably would’ve been included into the Good changes, but following and addendum to the patch, the Cooldown was increased by another 30 seconds for a Cooldown of 120 seconds. Because of this change, it is once again a relic to avoid because of the slot it will waste.

And so there it is, all the important changes that come with patch 3.12 and what or whom to use and what to avoid like the plague in a much quicker, concise form as well as some explanations on why this items are in the categories they’re in.

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