Smite Houses at War - 9.9 Update Released

Smite, the free-to-play third-person multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios, received a new update titled Houses at War, also classified as 9.9. The update focuses on new additions such as God Skins, Bonus Balance Skins, hero balancing, and other core elements.

The update became online just now, and it includes a lot of quality of life improvements and fixes of bugs and issues. Last but not least, this update also focuses on hero balancing. Without further ado, below you can find the complete patch notes.

Smite Houses at War Patch Notes

UPDATE RELEASE SCHEDULE

September 20 – Houses at War Update

Houses at War Battle Pass
New Odyssey: Soaring Isles Skins
SMITE Nights!
SCC Avatars

October 4 – 9.9 Bonus Update

New Odyssey Skins
Taco Time Chest
More to come!

9.9 SMITE NIGHTS

SMITE NIGHT
- Week 1 – Joust the Two of Us
- Week 2 – Classic Conquest
- Week 3 – Corrupted Arena
- Week 4 – All Out Slash
- Rewards:
  - Week 1:
    - Bubble Party Fountain Skin
    - SMITE NIGHT Avatar Chest
  - Week 2:
    - SMITE NIGHT Voice Pack Chest
    - Pick Your Own God Chest
  - Week 3:
    - SMITE NIGHT Emote Chest
    - SMITE NIGHT Cosmetic Chest
  - Week 4:
    - SMITE NIGHT Skins Chest
    - 3 day Account Booster
  - Milestone:
    - Forge of Power Recall
    - SMITE NIGHT Skins Chest

HOUSES AT WAR BATTLE PASS

Battle Pass: Houses at War (600 Gems)
Battle Pass: Houses at War Plus (1200)
Paid Track Items:
- House Dragon Yu Huang
- House Phoenix Amaterasu
- House Unicorn Chang’e
- House of the Unicorn Avatar
- Houses at War Loading Frame
- House of the Unicorn Loading Screen
- House of the Phoenix Loading Screen
- House Phoenix Announcer Pack
- House of the Unicorn Recall Skin
- House of the Phoenix Ward
- House at War Jump Stamp
- House of the Dragon Level Up Skin
- House of the Unicorn Global Emote
Free Track Items
- House Jackal Anubis
- House Phoenix Avatar
- House Dragon Avatar
- Enemy Felled Death Stamp
- Victorious Player Title
- Ballad of War Music Theme

QUALITY OF LIFE

SMITE Roadmap Update
- As we finalize plans and resources for Year 10 we’ve had to shift some of our roadmap for the end of the year.
- Specifically, this means that the God originally planned for the end of the year will not be launching as originally scheduled. This God will be shifted further into the future or potentially pivoted to be an entirely different God. It will not be one of the first gods of the next year.
- The major features for the upcoming updates are:
- September Update
  - 9.9 Volcanic Chaos Conquest (this current update)
- October Update
  - 9.10 New God
  - A highly requested character from an underpopulated pantheon will be arriving as SMITE’s newest Guardian, completing the cycle of a Season 9 god in every Class.
- November Update
  - 9.11 Runescape Crossover Event
  - Our first crossover with another game brings one-of-a-kind cosmetics and Runescape inspired progression systems for those cosmetics.
- December Update
  - 9.12 New PvP Adventure Mode
  - We visit the realms of the Norse pantheon for this unique take on SMITE PvP combat.
- January Update
  - 10.1 SMITE’s 10th Year Celebration Gameplay Update + New God
  - Jan 13th-15th: In Person SWC
  - Jan 15th: The SMITE Year 10 Keynote revealing all the new content for SMITE’s 10th year
  - The launch of a new year is upon us and it’s the big 1-0. This update will bring many exciting things that we can’t reveal yet, but we do want players to know that a new God will be launching here.
- February Update
  - 10.2 New God
  - Another new God launch will quickly follow the first of next year. This will be a unique occurrence and the following gods will be more spaced out.
- All of these Updates will have a variety of additional features and content not mentioned here, but this should give everyone a good idea of the upcoming God schedule and the main features launching in between each God. Thank you for your understanding and support. We are all very excited for the return of in-person SWC and the launch of SMITE’s Ten Year Anniversary!
General
- Added 80 additional Exclusive skins to the Awesome Chest
God Avatars
- Unlock these Avatars by playing as the god, allied with the god, or against the god a total of 3 times
- Avatars available this update:
  - Artio
  - Cernunnos
  - Cu Chulainn
  - Da Ji
  - Discordia
  - Ganesha
  - Hachiman
  - Kuzenbo
  - The Morrigan
SCC Avatars
- Cosmetic Avatars for all of the SCC teams will be added for direct purchase. To celebrate their arrival these items will be discounted for this Update only!
  - Eldritch Hounds
  - Athenian Sages
  - Kaolin Wardens
  - Xibalba Storm
  - Yomi Tanuki
  - Anansi Weavers
  - Highland Ravens
  - Gilded Gladiators
  - Hex Mambo
  - Niflheim Wargs
  - Styx Ferrymen
  - Aaru Scorpions

BUG FIXES

UI
- Fixed an issue with the choose your own roll Favor purchase option for the Voice Pack chest. This chest will be returning in 9.9
- Fixed an issue with the Earn Free Rewards not playing automatically after watching an Ad
- Fixed an issue with the EOML screen displaying Battle Pass icons on the Progress tab
- Fixed an issue with the in game God icons showing Undefined tooltip boxes
Odyssey
- Fixed an issue where Consoles couldn’t navigate to and start the Egyptian Barge voyage Quest on Sobek Isle
- Fixed an issue with the Odyssey Start Voyage button text being blank
Custom Games
- Fixed an issue where players couldn’t increase the Team Size on the Jade Corruption Joust Map due to the map being changed for Duel
Localization
- Fixed some item tooltip issues for Relic Dagger, Eye of the Jungle, Spiked Gauntlet, Berserker’s Shield, and Transcendence for Localized clients
- Updated the name of Bun Hatz for Localized clients
- Updated the Support role text for Conquest on the Spanish client
General Gameplay
- Fixed an issue with the Season 9 Caster Announcer Pack being too quiet
Gods
- Shiva
  - Fixed an issue where he could sometimes become invisible to enemies and allies
- Ishtar
  - Adjusted the ability text of her 1st Ability to clearly show the effects that it gains from ranking the ability up
  - Fixed an issue where after getting knocked up as she landed from Jolt, her bow would disappear
- Lancelot
  - Fixed an issue where he could be grabbed by Fenrir’s ultimate ability while mounted
- Discordia
  - Fixed an issue with a missing texture on her Bad Apple skin
- Skadi
  - Fixed an issue where her Husky Handler skin was appearing as the Default skin
- Nu Wa
  - Fixed an issue with the VGS voice line of Enemies Incoming on her Fairy Dust skin
- Hades
  - Fixed an issue with the VGS voice line of Defend Middle Lane on his Crow of Torment skin
- Amaterasu
  - Fixed an issue where she wasn’t entering into the correct posture after activating her Heavenly Reflection ability
- Atlas
  - Fixed an issue where Nike’s passive Laurel was on his cheek instead of above his head
- Ganesha
  - Fixed an issue where his ultimate ability would continue to slow players even after they cleansed the effect and left the area
Items
- Lono’s Mask, Rangda’s Mask
  - These items and the lower tiered items now have the proper UI art to indicate they are starter items and upgrades. This is shown through a special border that all starter items have.

BALANCE LIVE WITH THE 9.9 UPDATE – SEPTEMBER 20

Game Modes

Ranked Modes

Players in Masters and Grandmasterswill reset to Diamond 1 and 2750 MMR
This will apply to Ranked Conquest, Ranked Joust, and Ranked Duel
No changes made to god leaderboards
No other changes will be made to players at lower ranks

Conquest

As Season 9 rolls on, we have another new iteration of the Conquest map! The Volcanic Chaos update will bring new Polynesian environment art to the map, as well as some balance and gameplay mechanics. Indra’s Scepter returns to this map as a reward to a new contestable camp in the Duo Lane, located directly behind the Gold Fury. This means that players can now earn the benefits of the Scepter as well as the Trebuchets, as the Obelisk gameplay flow is unchanged. In addition to this new objective, we are also changing the Gold Fury’s reward. This specific type of Fury will now continue to spawn throughout the entire match, and will have a unique reward: Erinyes’ Vengeance – which will give players an additional defensive buff to the Towers they defend. Finally, we have adjusted a variety of Jungle Camp stats to make them more difficult to kill. The only exception being the red buff, who’s special “Berserk” ability will be nerfed noticeably.

Environment
- The Fire Giant’s area has been reworked into a Polynesian themed Volcano.
- Players in the duo lane will also notice a new tropical beachy scene on the outside of the map, just north or south of the Knight’s Keep, behind their Tier 1 towers.
Obelisks
- Obelisks have been re-themed in Polynesian style, and Lost Knights in the Jungle have been replaced with weary monsters that hold the Offerings, and the Chalices have been replaced with Bubbles with a jungle crab happily floating inside.

Gold Fury
- Added Gold Fury into the pool of Furies that can spawn past 20 minutes
- Awards Erinyes’ Vengeance when slain (previously, Draugr’s Boon)
  - Standing under an allied Tower or Phoenix will boost its Physical Power and reduce its damage taken by 7%. Stacks up to 3 times.
Duo XP Camps
- Merged into one contestable Naga Camp
- The Naga now drops Indra’s Scepter for the team that scores the last hit
- Naga
  - Increased base Health from 500 to 850
  - Increase base Physical Power from 28 to 34
  - Increased base Gold Reward from 24 to 33
  - Increased base XP Reward from 40 to 60
- Indra’s Scepter
  - Lifetime reduced from 4 to 3 minutes
  - Maximum targets reduced from 5 to 3
  - Damage dealt to Gods now deals 2% of current Health instead of maximum Health
  - Damage dealt to Minions reduced from 100 to 20/40/60 (Scales every 3 minutes)
  - Reduced HP5 aura from 25 to 10
Solo XP Camps
- The Nagas in each camp have been replaced with Lesser Scorpions
  - Increased base Gold Reward from 24 to 30
  - Increased base XP Reward from 40 to 45
Damage Camp
- Damage Buff Holder
  - Increased Physical Power from 18 to 24
  - Increased Physical Power scaling from 4 to 6
  - Decreased Manticore Berserk Physical Power scaling from 75% to 55%
  - Reduced Berserk activation threshold from 45% to 30% Max Health
  - Reduced Berserk maximum duration from 10 to 5 seconds
- Damage Buff Guards (Minis)
  - Increased Physical Power from 10 to 12
Mana Camp
- Mana Buff Holder
  - Increased base Physical Power from 18 to 24
Speed Camp
- Speed Buff Holder
  - Increased Max Health from 675 to 700
  - Increased Physical Power from 18 to 24
  - Decreased Physical Protection from 6 to 4
  - Increased Magical Protection from 4 to 6
- Speed Buff Guards (Minis)
  - Increased Physical Power from 10 to 12
  - Decreased Physical Protection from 5 to 2
  - Increased Magical Protection from 2 to 5
Void Camp
- Void Buff Holder
  - Decreased Max Health from 775 to 700
  - Increased Physical Power from 18 to 24
Support Camp
- Support Buff Holder
  - Decreased Max Health from 480 to 440
  - Increased Physical Power from 12 to 14
- Support Buff Guards (Minis)
  - Increased Physical Power from 6 to 8
Harpy XP Camps
- Elder Mid Harpy
  - Increased Max Health from 580 to 600
  - Increased Physical Power from 18 to 20
- Elder Duo Harpy
  - Increased Max Health from 580 to 620
  - Increased Physical Power from 18 to 22
- Duo Harpy
  - Increased Max Health from 210 to 225
  - Increased Physical Power from 12 to 14
- Elder Back Harpy
  - Increased Physical Power from 14 to 18
- Back Harpy
  - Increased Physical Power from 8 to 10

Items

DIVINE RUIN

Mages have been a bit behind the curve lately, especially in the early game. We knew 9.5 would bring some big shifts, and we wanted to make sure players fully explored the depth of those changes before making too many adjustments that could be lead to more early game burst damage. After a few months we can see that flat Magic Pen is still underperforming, so we are increasing it. This is still going to be a long way from the amount of burst players experienced before 9.5, and it has the potentially to balance Mages in a positive way against Tanks and Hunters who are running the show currently.

Increased Magical Penetration from 12 to 15

SPEAR OF THE MAGUS

Increased Magical Penetration from 12 to 15

SPEAR OF DESOLATION

Increased Magical Penetration from 12 to 15

SPHINX’S BAUBLE

There are a few items from the Mid Season update that are still looking to find their footing. Sphinx’s Bauble’s change in direction is looking much healthier, so we are going to slowly buff it up. The penalty for owning it will now be less harsh, making this even more alluring for Supports.

Decreased Protection Debuff from 15% to 10%

MAGI’S SHELTER

Of the two Magi’s, this one has fallen quite behind. However, this one clearly has a lot of potential to protect allies from CC. We are increasing the radius and the duration of the friendly buff to increase its chances of making a difference in a fight.

Increased the range that this item’s passive can buff an ally from 25 to 40
Increased Duration of the ally buff effect from 5s to 8s

THE HEAVY EXECUTIONER

This item is just a bit too heavy. Similarly to the other Mid Season items, we are decreasing the potency of the negative effects of this item. The range of gods who can pick this up will increase with this change, and we might see some new build paths open up entirely.

Increased your God’s Attack Speed Cap from 1.75 to 1.9 while using this item

SOVEREIGNTY

This next nerf is an interesting one, and it brings many ripple effects with it. Sovereignty has become a go-to solo lane item because of its stat effectiveness, which we want to discourage, and thus the nerf. However, we do not want this to affect Supports negatively, so we are buffing the HP regen sources from their starter items as a way to compensate for this nerf. We are also making a few more changes to Solo Lane items which will be explained below.

Decreased Passive Effect Aura’s HP5 from 35 to 25

SENTINEL’S GIFT

Increased Healing per assist from 12 to 15

BENEVOLENCE

Increased HP5 from 7 to 10

WAR FLAG

Increased Health and Mana restored per passive trigger from 15 to 18

SOUL EATER

We are looking to create some more shifts in the Solo Lane, so Soul Eater is being nerfed along with Sovereignty. Both of these items bring high Health Sustain, which can be dangerous in large amounts. We also want to introduce some new options to Solo lane, so Blackthorn Hammer, Warrior’s Axe, and Breastplate of Vigilance (Glyph) and being buffed to see if we can diversify the builds within this role a little more.

Increased the Stacks it takes to evolve this item from 75 to 100
Decreased Passive Ability Lifesteal from 25% to 20%

BLACKTHORN HAMMER

Increased Physical Power from 25 to 30

WARRIOR’S AXE

Increased Passive God Damage and Self Heal from 20 to 30

BREASTPLATE OF VIGILANCE

Increase Basic Attack Damage Reduction Aura Range from 40 to 60
- The FX for this Aura will not reflect this change, but the Aura will be 60 Units in-game

Gods

MULAN

First up this month, its the Warriors! Mulan has fallen behind in the recent months, but we want to be careful in bringing back her lane pressure, as her early game damage can still be quite potent. Instead she will be getting some later game buffs to her mobility. She will also be getting an increase in the 3rd strike of her Ultimate, which players often consider cancelling out of entirely. We want to incentivize people to use the full ability, or make a more heavy tradeoff if they choose not to.

GRAPPLE

Decreased Cooldown from 16/15.5/15/14.5/14s to 14s

DIVINE MASTERY

Increased Base Damage on the Arrow shot from 150/200/250/300/350 to 175/225/275/325/375

NIKE

We have seen this goddess move closer and closer to victory, but she isn’t quite there yet. Nike has a unique potential to shut down hunters, especially in the late game. We are decreasing the cooldown of Barrier Formation to help her play to this strength even more.

BARRIER FORMATION

Decreased Cooldown from 15 to 15/14.5/14/13.5/13s

AO KUANG

We have a few Jungler buffs up next! The dragon king has slumbered for long enough! We are bringing back Ao Kuang in a big way with some heavy changes to his basic attack chain. He will now do noticeably more damage with those attacks without sacrificing any animation time. We are also increasing the Power Scaling on Wild Storm to improve his ability damage along with his basic attack damage.

GENERAL

Increased Magical Power Scaling on the the 2nd and 3rd hits of the hit chain from 50% to 70%
Written as: 1/.7/.7/1x damage and 1/.5/.5/1x swing time

WILD STORM

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 40% to 50%

AWILIX

Next up is Awilix. Her passive provides some interesting gameplay constraints and a powerful effect, but the current duration is quite strict. We are increasing that duration to ensure she gets to use the effect. Her signature ability is her Ultimate, which hard counters leap abilities. We are decreasing the cooldown of this ability at all ranked to make her an even stronger counter pick into the right comp.

INITIATIVE

Increased the duration of the physical power buff from 2.5s to 4s

GRAVITY SURGE

Decreased Cooldown from 90/85/80/75/70 to 80/75/70/65/60

NE ZHA

Ne Zha tends to be an all or nothing Jungler. For this update we want to give him more opportunities to follow up his strong engage potential. We are decreasing the cooldown of Armillary Sash, which is his primary lockdown and mobility, but thats not all. We are also making a significant adjustment to how his Ultimate works, to make sure that Ne Zha receives the Protections buff from this ability while traveling, and still gets it even if he misses his target.

ARMILLARY SASH

Increased Base Damage from 70/120/170/220/270 to 90/140/190/240/290
Decreased Cooldown from 14s to 12s

WIND FIRE WHEELS

Increased the protections after landing from 20/25/30/35/40 to 30/35/40/45/50
This ability now provides 30/35/40/45/50 Protections for 4s on fire, even if missed or cleansed.
Updated Tooltip to include that the target and enemies in the landing zone are knocked up upon landing

SUSANO

Watch out Aphro mains, your boy Susano is getting some changes. We are using the new Non-Conquest tech to shift Susano. He generally seems to be behind the curve in Conquest, and we are giving him some damage scaling, as well as increased potency of his ultimate to help him in this mode. However, Susano often performs much better in non-conquest modes and has become a frustration risk, so he will be getting a nerfs in those modes across his damage and cooldowns.

WIND SIPHON

Increased Physical Power Scaling from 60% to 75%

TYPHOON

Increased Initial Base Damage when refiring Typhoon Immediately from 175/225/275/325/375 to 195/245/295/345/395
- (Increased Base Damage on fully charged Typhoon from 215/280/345/410/475 to 235/300/365/430/495)
Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s

NON-CONQUEST BALANCE

+5% longer non-Ultimate cooldowns
+5% longer Ultimate cooldown
-5% God Damage

KUKULKAN

As we move on to Mages, we have a few tweaks to make. Mage Itemization is going to play a big role in this Update’s changes, so we are being careful with most of these gods. We are in a stacking meta yet Kukulkan is still lower than usual, so we are bringing up the base damage on Zephyr. This ability can be hard to confirm and accounts for a lot less of his total damage, and we want to properly reward players for mastering its use.

ZEPHYR

Increased Base Damage from 60/105/150/195/240 to 85/130/185/220/265

The 9.5 changes have had some interesting effects on Ra. As a healer he had potentially to climb up in the ranks but that is not what happened. Ra does have some utility but he actually heavily relies on his damage output. Now we all know that Ra ult is one of the most satisfying abilities in the game, and we want to help Ra better scale into the late game and make big plays by increasing its damage scaling.

SEARING PAIN

Increased Magical Power Scaling from 100% to 115%

VULCAN

Now this is one spicy meatball. Vulcan has received a few buffs over the years but continues to struggle, so we are making a pretty impactful functionality change. Vulcan’s Backfire ability will no longer be affected by Cripples. Over time, we have introduced more abilities in the game with “incidental movement” that are not treated as dashes, and thus not crippled. It feels only natural that Backfire should be included in this sub-category.

BACKFIRE

No longer counts as a movement ability (can be fired when crippled)

INFERNO CANNON

Decreased Cooldown from 15s to 13s
Decreased Mana Cost from 65/70/75/80/85 mana to 50/55/60/65/70

SCYLLA

Another mage who thrives in burst metas is Scylla. She has experienced a noticeable downturn since 9.5, but we still want to be careful in buffing her, so we are focusing on a change that helps her kit flow better. Scylla’s Crush provides a debuff, but the way this was previously handled made it harder to use effectively with the rest of her kit. We are extending the duration slightly to make this play more possible.

CRUSH

The Slow that applies for 1s after hit will now also apply the Max Rank Debuff of 15% Magical Protection Reduced

AH PUCH

And last but not least we have Ah Puch. Historically known for his ability to excel in non-Conquest modes, who better than him for this new tech?! Ah Puch is seeing a damage buff to his Fleeting Breath to help his consistent poke and lane clear, and also getting a duration buff on his most-zoning-of-all-Ultimates. However, in Non-Conquest he is going to get an even longer cooldown on that Ultimate.

FLEETING BREATH

Increased Damage per Tick from 30/35/40/45/50 to 30/40/50/60/70

EMPTY THE CRYPTS (REVERT)

Increased Duration from 5s to 6s

NON-CONQUEST BALANCE

Increase Ultimate Cooldown Penalty from 10% to 15%

KUZENBO

Last update we focused a lot of changes toward Supports and Guardians, but we do have one fella who missed the boat. Kuzenbo swam his way into this update and is getting some buffs to reward the effort. For this pass on him we are focusing on the Ultimate, giving him some mitigation to ensure he doesnt put his life at too much risk, and also increasing the damage.

WATER BOWL

Update Description to specify how this interacts with the new “True Hard CC” category and to include the cooldown on losing stacks

WATERY GRAVE

Increased Damage after the first spin from 50% to 60% (decreased the decrease from 50% to 40%)
Kuzenbo now gains 10% damage mitigation while this ability is channel

RAMA

And finally we get to Hunters. This class has in general been performing quite well, but we have still noticed a few Hunters falling behind. Rama is getting some improvements to his lane clear and early game mana management, and also getting some damage back on that iconic Ultimate.

ASTRAL STRIKE

Increased damage done to targets beyond the first from 75% to 80%
Decreased Mana Cost from 20 per shot to 15 per shot

ASTRAL BARRAGE (REVERT)

Increased Base Damage from 180/270/360/450/540 to 190/280/370/460/550

CERNUNNOS

This god has been right on the edge of viability for a while but hasnt found the opening to make his charge. He has a unique passive that we want to bring more attention to, so that is seeing a noticeable buff. His poke and lane clear can be a little clunky, as he has to hit some very specific angles. We are increasing the damage on Bramble Blast to help that ability feel more effective in lane.