Patch 5.18, "Change & Choices" - Bran's Thoughts

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Link to the official patch notes is here: https://www.smitegame.com/news/change-choices-5-18-update-notes

This is a relatively tame patch. Didn't get this up earlier because I'm on vacation in Mammoth Lakes.

Item changes:

Berserker's Shield (nerf): Attack speed decreased from 15% to 10%. Been overperforming, consequently gets an adjustment. This is a reasonable one.
Bumba's Mask (nerf): CDR reduced from 20% to 10%. So it's been getting some situational use, but that CDR IS honestly very high. This seems reasonable.
Heartseeker (QoL buff): if the passive procs on multiple enemies, it targets the lowest health enemy. This will help the owner get a better kill. Good adjustment.
Mage's Blessing (shift): Decreased bonus ability damage from 25 to 10, but now provides 20 magical power or 10 physical power. This is actually very nice. 15 less ability damage isn't much, and for most mages that get this, their scaling will make up for the loss. If their scaling is higher than 75%, it will exceed it. In addition, basic attacks will be a bit stronger. Technically this is a buff in most cases.

God changes:

Baron Samedi (nerf): Wrap It Up gets increased CD, from 12 to 14 seconds. Good. Nerf this guy to the ground. He's stupid as a Support. XD
Chernobog (nerf): Living Nightmare no longer triggers his passive on every basic attack. This is fine.
Erlang Shen (nerf): Howling Celestial Dog no longer triggers item passives or a portion of ES's damage. Instead, each time the dog hits a target the target will take 2% of their max HP as physical damage. This is now like a built-in, weaker version of Qin's Sais (2% instead of 3-5%). Obviously this is a pretty big nerf compared to when he does get Qin's, because before if he built Qin's Sais, he'd get 2 procs. But having it built in at the start seems pretty nice, so maybe it'll be decent early. They obviously needed to fix that interaction with Berserker's Shield without killing Berserker's with a huge nerf.
Ganesha (buff): Dharmic Pillars sees a nice boost on first hit (60% increased damage), with a very, very minor 5 damage per tick drop on subsequent hits. Pretty darn nice.
Nemesis (buff): Retribution gets an early-game buff to the healing she gets from her shield. It seems nice for her early boxing, but I'm not sure how much better she'll be overall from this.
Pele (nerfs / shift): Pyroclast CD increased from 13 to 14 seconds. Eruption's inner and outer damage decreased at all ranks. Volcanic Lightning gets a function adjustment...ability damage procs off of basic attacks. Seems like a lot of damage reduction in eruption... But understanding the change to her ult, sounds like a pretty big buff there. So overall maybe this is a cumulative shift rather than nerf. I still haven't played her though, so I have no clue.
Sobek (nerf): Tail Whip CD increased from 12 to 14 seconds. Long CD. Was this really needed?
Thor (buff): Tectonic Rift gets increased stun duration at early ranks. This is pretty minor, but nice.

Alright. Fairly boring patch, though there are definitely some significant changes, especially to Erlang.

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Mythical (400)
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Items were Ok. Baron and Chernobog nerfs were very good too I hate both. buff was very good, will make his ultimate more useful and less dependent of stun the target on the pillar's line.
nerf was doubt, they just do it because he was performing very well as solo laner in championships and Finally another strong god were nerfed, .

The change is the most interesting. I guess this change will make a good difference but I don't know if it will be good or bad.

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Distinguished (72)
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Patch 5.18, "Change & Choices" - Bran's Thoughts

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