With recent patches shaking up items, it seemed a good time to go over the most impactful item additions and changes so far in Season 6 of Smite.

Warrior’s Blessing

Warrior’s Blessing was buffed slightly, but it was just enough to bring it back into the meta. At the end of Season 5, this item fell out of favor and Guardian’s Blessing was the dominant starter item in the solo lane. This season, the health and mana restored per trigger was raised from 30 to 40. The protections once evolved were also buffed from 10 physical and magical protections to 15 physical and magical protections. This allows for more sustain and tankiness in lane which is ultimately what you want as a solo laner. You can never go wrong by picking this up as your starter item in solo.

Stone of Binding

Stone of Binding is commonly used as a bridge item for crowd control heavy supports. Its passive was changed, and it got some adjustments to its stats. First, its magical power was increased from 20 to 30. This is especially nice for high pressure supports like Bacchus and Artio, allowing them to put out heavy damage early after you get your boots. Its passive will require better target selection now but is ultimately stronger on gods with AOE crowd control. When crowd controlling an enemy god, a debuff is placed on them that reduces their magical and physical protections by 15. So, if your support has this item, make sure you are hitting the gods they are CCing because you will be doing more damage to that enemy! Stone of Binding is a great item to pick up early and will ultimately help your whole team dish out more damage.

Book Of Thoth

Book of Thoth also saw some changes at the beginning of Season 6. First, its cost was reduced from 2800 to 2650. This means that rushing Book of Thoth is easier and you can usually start stacking on your first back if you conserve mana and farm efficiently. The rest of the changes were to its passive. It now only converts mana from items into power, rather than from your total mana. It also got an increase to the percent of mana converted to power. Before it is stacked, it converts 6% of mana to magical power, and after it is stacked it converts 9%. This is up from 3% and 5% respectively. This means that if you are going for a Book of Thoth build, items like Soul Reaver and Book of The Dead (which also works well with high mana!) will help you get the most out of the adjusted passive. It is still a mainstay in mage builds and is even better on one of my personal favorites Kukulkan now!

Doom Orb

Doom Orb is a mage item that got drastically changed in Season 6. Doom Orb has always had trouble finding its place, wavering from a must-buy to a never-buy item. This is usually the nature of cheap bridge items in builds, and the reason why Asi and Ichaival were also changed, which we’ll go over later. Doom Orb is now a full-fledged Tier 3 item. At a whopping 3200 gold, it is the most expensive item in the game. It now has 135 magical power, 200 mana, 25 MP5, and 6% movement speed. Its passive gives you 1% movement speed and 6 magical power for every enemy minion you kill or assist with. This stacks up to 5 times, so at full stacks you get 11% movements speed and 165 magical power overall. This is a difficult item to fit into builds. The Tier 2 of the item has the passive of the full item, so that can be utilized on mages that you’d like more movement speed on or possibly a mage jungle pick. Then, later in the game, you can fully finish the item to get more power. Other than that niche situation, there are just more efficient items that you can buy other than Doom Orb. The price is just too high to warrant consistent purchasing of it, but if you find yourself extremely ahead with 3200 gold to waste, pick up Doom Orb because it is a very fun item to use.

Ichaival

Ichaival is another Tier 2 item that has been changed to a Tier 3 item. As of now it is 2450 gold but, in the Sand and Skies update, it is being increased to 2600 gold. It also has 30 physical power and 30% attack speed. Its passive is on every successful basic attack, your physical power is increased by 15 and you reduce the enemy’s attack speed by 10%. This caps at 3 stacks. New Ichaival is an insane item for boxing. Being able to increase your power by a whopping 45 while decreasing their attack speed by up to 30% is an extremely powerful effect. Ichaival is a flexible item that can be picked up throughout the game and can fit into most ADC and some jungle builds.

Asi

The last Tier 2 item that was changed into a Tier 3 is Asi, and it’s my personal favorite out of the three that were changed. It is now 2550 gold, has 20 power, 20% lifesteal, 25% attack speed, and 15 penetration. The passive is when you go below 35% health, you gain 30% physical lifesteal for 5 seconds. This effect has a cooldown of 15 seconds. This is the swiss army knife of physical items because it has every meaningful stat that a DPS character would want. It can be the sole lifesteal item in a build, or it can be used effectively in tandem with items like Devourer’s Gauntlet. A build that has been working well for me has been Transcendence into Boots into Asi. Whichever build you choose, Asi is an incredible item for boxing and for its plain stats.

Odysseus’ Bow

Odysseus’ Bow was given a slight but very strong buff at the beginning of the season. The basic attack power scaling from the passive was increased from 50% to 60%. This seems slight, but over the course of a teamfight, all the bouncing from the passive deals a ton of damage. This item can fit in almost any ADC build in the last slot and should be picked up often. In short, Odysseus’ Bow is strong right now so you should buy it on your auto attack-based gods.

Blackthorn Hammer

Blackthorn Hammer is an item that has taken the solo lane, and sometimes other roles, by storm. With a whopping 450 health, which will be nerfed to 350 in the Sands and Skies patch, and 35 physical power for only 2000 gold, it's clear why it is such a valued item. Its passive is nothing to scoff at either, while over 25% mana you gain 10% cooldown reduction and while below 25% mana you gain 50 MP5. This is a solo laner’s dream item. It helps you stay in lane if you are low on mana, makes you extremely tanky with the immense health, and gives you a decent amount of power and some cooldown to fight your lane opponent. Just as I said with Odysseus’ Bow, Blackthorn is a good item and you should buy it frequently in the solo lane.

Runeforged Hammer

Blackthorn wasn’t the only handheld tool in Smite that has seen changes, Runeforged Hammer also got some adjustments that led to it being used in the Jungle and in the ADC role. It has 55 physical power but will be nerfed to 50 in the Sands and Skies patch, and it has 200 health as well. Its passive is very strong, enemies take 15% more damage from you if they are affected by crowd control. This passive plus the massive 55 power leads to a deadly item. The most effective character that I have personally used Runeforged on is Cernnunos. With his Winter Stance activated on his first ability, he is able to consistently apply this passive while auto attacking. The health that this item brings also gives survivability on top of the crazy damage output. Any character with frequent and easily confirmable crowd control can utilize this item well.

Elixir of Speed

The last item is a consumable! The Elixir of Speed was added to Smite and it can replace your boots late game. It costs 1500 gold and gives you 18% movements speed. This is the same amount of movement speed that your boots would give you, but it won’t stack with them. The effect lasts for 9999 seconds, so you won’t have to worry about it running out. This new Elixir opens up a whole new world of possibilities for builds. Being able to replace your boots with a more impactful item can be game-changing. The struggle with this item is deciding whether you want to buy an Elixir of Power or Elixir of Defense or to wait for enough gold to sell your boots and buy the Elixir of Speed and another item. This usually comes down to whether you think you will win within the time frame of that power or defense potion. If you believe the game will go longer, then farming some more and purchasing the Elixir of Speed and a 6th item is usually more advantageous.

With these changes in mind, you can go into your next game with full confidence in your builds and ready to gain some MMR!

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