Relics and Rituals: What Active Item Changes in SMITE Season 4 Mean For You

With season 3 drawing to a close and after all of the amazing performances at SMITE World Championships it’s time to look forward at what season 4 has in store for us. According to SMITE‘s lead designer, A.J. Walker, “We wanted to push the limits of what we can do in the game even further… we look forward to our fan’s feedback as they get their hands on season 4 in the public test servers.”

So what kind of changes can we expect to see in season 4? Well, the biggest change we can expect to see is in the adjustments to Relics, powerful items that could tip the scale in the early-to-mid game, and the addition of rituals, powerful consumable items designed for use in the late-game.

Relics

Relics provide special powers available to all Gods. Your first Relic is free at level 1 and your second Relic is unlocked once you reach level 12.

Relics are big-deal items that generally confer a large buff or powerful ability with an equally large cooldown timer. With the season 4 patch, we’re seeing 2 Relics — Frenzy and Scout — being removed from the list and re-designed as consumable items.

Additionally, players will now have the ability to upgrade their Relics at any time for 500 gold. Upgrading the Relics reduces the cooldown timer and for certain Relics, it increases the buff percentage and buff duration. Some other changes include:

Sanctuary is now Aegis Amulet

• Upgrading reduces cooldown from 160s to 130s

Blink is now Blink Rune

• Upgrading reduces cooldown from 120s to 90s

 Curse is now Cursed Ankh

• Healing reduction increased from 5s to 10s
• No longer has a slow effect
• Upgrading increases heal reduction from 50% to 65%
• Duration increased from 10s to 15s

I think that the removal of the slow effect is really going to make the use of the Cursed Ankh a more tactical one and, where some people might see this as a potential nerf to the Relic, I see it as a balanced buff. You’re getting double the duration of healing reduction right off the bat. Additionally, if you decide to upgrade it you’re looking at putting a serious hurting on the enemy team’s healer with 65% reduction of their role responsibility.

 Wrath is now Hand of the Gods

• Deals 300+10 per level to a single enemy minion or jungle monster
• Targets based off of max HP
• Cooldown gets reduced by 30s if you kill the mob with it
• No longer deals damage to jungle bosses
• When upgraded it will also stun enemy Gods within range

This is a huge change to Wrath and how it used to work. It was designed originally as a tool to help clear jungle camps but if you were taking on a boss like the Gold Fury or the Fire Giant, Wrath would deal 1250 damage to this boss units. I still think that HotG will be a viable jungle clear tool but taking on bigger objectives is very much going to be a team effort requiring good communication as well as map awareness.

 Sprint is now Heavenly Wings

• Slow only cleanses on activation now
• Upgrading gives allies basic attack slow penalty immunity

 Shell is now Magic Shell

• Base protection reduced from 45 to 30
• Damage mitigation reduced from 15% to 5%
• Upgrading increases protection from 30 to 45 also, increases damage mitigation from 5% to 10%

 Meditation is now Meditation Cloak

• If upgraded buffs allies with 45% mana and 15% health increase for 30s

 Phantom is now Phantom Veil

• New visuals and audio
• Removed basic attack slow immunity
• 40% CC reduction and immunity to knock ups
• Upgrading it increases duration from 5s to 10s

 Purification is now Purification Beads

• Upgrade reduces cooldown from 160s to 130s

 Thorns is now Shield of Thorns

• Damage reflection increased from 40% to 50%
• Upgrading increases duration from 5s to 8s and reduces cooldown from 120s to 100s

 Sunder is now Sundering Spear

• New audio
• removed the protection and attack speed debuffs
• increases damage taken by the target by 30% for 5s
• Upgrading increases damage from 40+14 per level to 60+20 per level and reduces cooldown from 120s to 100s

Sundering spear is still a great option for getting around a heavily armored foe with some great true damage. If upgraded, you’re looking at doing 460 true damage in addition to dropping their defenses by 30% for 5 seconds. While this might not be enough to drop a hearty tank like Geb, this would most certainly be enough to crush a careless mage/hunter/jungler that overextends.

 Teleport is now Teleport Glyph

• Increased cooldown from 180s to 200s
• Upgrading reduces the cooldown from 200s to 160s

New Relics

 Horrific Emblem

• Slows enemy Gods within 55 units by 40%
• Reduces their attack speed by 25% for 5s
• Upgrading reduces the cooldown from 150s to 120s

 Bracer of Undoing

• Abilities on cooldown have their cooldown reduced by 3s
• Restores 50% health and mana lost within the last 3s
• Upgrading increases the damage timer from 3s to 5s
• 120s cooldown

Alright, BoU is going to be one of those high-risk/high-reward Relics. In the right hands, this is going to be a powerful initiation tool as well as survivability tool. I could see this working very well on a character with an escape ability, like Neith, who could get into the fight, deal a lot of damage, and then backflip away restoring half of the damage taken during the exchange.

This could also be a great tool for the team tanks, allowing them to hold the line for longer because they can negate 50% of the punishment with the press of a button. The only thing that keeps this Relic from being overpowered is the fact that it is susceptible to healing reduction — like that of the Cursed Ankh Relic mentioned above.

Rituals

A new type of item comes to SMITE as a Consumable! The powerful Ritual Items are designed to enhance the late game experience of SMITE. When your build was finished, there were very few options for players to help end the game. Rituals will now provide way more options, but at a very high cost, especially since you only get one use per purchase. These items will allow skilled players to make truly amazing plays in the late game.

There are currently 4 rituals coming with the season 4.1 patch which can be purchased for 750 gold each. In order to buy them, you must be at level 10+ but at the cost point, it wouldn’t likely be a viable purchase until you were in the late game or had the core items of your character build at a minimum. The Rituals are as follows:

Flickering Ritual

• When activated, it teleports you to a ground target location up to 55 units away. Can be used in combat.

Unlike the Blink Rune, Flickering ritual can be used in combat, while BR requires you to be out of combat for at least 3s in order for you to use it. This could be the difference between life or death in a heavy engagement.

 Frenzied Ritual

• When activated, it buffs all allies within 55 units of the caster, increasing their damage by 25% and attack speed by 20% for 10s.

This Ritual would be perfect for rapid sieging of a phoenix or a jungle boss like the Fire Giant. It could also be used to tip the scales in a team fight, especially if used in tandem with something like the upgraded Hand of the Gods Relic since it stuns all enemy Gods in range.

 Rallying Ritual

• When activated, it teleports you to the allied God of your choice after a 4 second channel time. Can be interrupted by Hard CC and the Ritual will be lost

This is a very powerful global ability that could be used in so many ways. The biggest problem with it is the fact that it can be CC’d and that means a potential 750 gold blown. I see this being really useful in blitzkrieg use for rapidly bolstering number during lane splits or for turning a 1v1 into a 2v1. I’m looking forward to seeing this Ritual in competitive play.

 Revealing Ritual

• When activated, it provides your entire team with vision of the entire enemy team, revealing their locations on the map, and also their placed wards within 70 units of the user for 5s.

This is another very powerful, late game Ritual. Knowing where your enemies are is a powerful tactical advantage and being able to see, and destroy their vision wards is as helpful as it is satisfying. The ability to deny camp vision on big jungle targets like the Gold Fury and the Fire Giant could be the key to victory.

It will be interesting to see how players adapt to the changes and additions to Relics and Rituals once season 4 makes its way to the main SMITE servers.

What Relic changes and Rituals are you most looking forward to in season 4? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!