SMITE Shakes Up Gameplay With Massive Catalog of Season 4 Changes

Nothing is unchanging, not even the gods. Hi-Rez Studios is changing a lot about SMITE for Season 4, which went live today and makes massive alterations to maps, items, gods, and ranked play.

The main Season 4 page has links to all the subsets of changes:

Maps. There's a new Egypt-themed clash map, with a larger center area, new jungle camps, and a chaos serpent to test players' prowess. A big change to all maps is the reduction of initial minion spawn from 90 to 60 seconds, with jungle camps coming 30 seconds later.

Items. There are 70 new and updated items, as well as rituals, new single-use items with relic-like effects and chalices, multi-use versions of consumables like potions and wards.

Gods. The gods themselves have changed, with nearly a third receiving adjustments of one type or another. AoE healing powers get nerfed a bit while the Monkey King's buffed ultimate rewards aggressive play.

Ranked play. Acknowledging the grind, Hi-Rez is splitting ranked seasons into three seasons, with faster progression. "Promotion games stink," the patch notes also say, so now you'll instantly earn a promotion when you get to 100 points in your division.

There's even more that Hi-Rez plans to add to SMITE as a part of Season 4, but it's not all quite ready yet. Regardless, the current changes are a lot to soak up and should provide players with a lot to chew on -- and agree with 100%, we're sure -- as the season unfolds.