The Season of Souls | 10.6 Update Notes

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By: TitanDandy | 2023/6/8

Source (10.6 Main Patch): https://www.smitegame.com/news/the-season-of-souls-10-6-update-notes/
Main Patch scheduled to go live: June 13

*NOTE* For full patch notes, please visit the source. Only a summary of 10.6 changes will be listed here.

*Bran's Note: This patch is enormous, with a multitude of changes and adjustments. Instead of transcribing all item and god adjustments, I will instead offer something the official patch notes don't: a bullet point list of the new features so you can get a high level view for quick reference.*

SUMMARY OF THE 10.6 UPDATE - JUNE 13

QUALITY OF LIFE

Runescape Capes and Dyes can now be browsed, previewed, and equipped from the Gods -> Skins section of the game client
SMITE will now run on Linux systems – Special thanks to the SMITE community for helping with this. A group of players in the r/smite discord made a big impact on this change

ALL GAME MODES

"A brand new season brings with it a whole new mechanic, Soul Surges! These large areas are created on player death, creating dynamic fields that can alter the pace of a teamfight. We wanted to ensure that the new zone effects were not overwhelmingly strong creating a situation that only favors the team that earned that first kill. Regardless if the fight stays in the Surge or meanders away, there will still be a reward, and an obstacle, in the minions that spawn periodically from the center of the Surge."

Soul Surges – General
- When a God dies, a Soul Surge will spawn at the point of their demise.
- Soul Surges are circular areas of effect that grant movement speed to all gods in the area, and a buff to damage dealt to gods with low health in the area.
- While a Soul Surge is active, Spirit Minions will spawn from the center, attacking any nearby gods, and providing XP and Gold when slain.
- Any additional God deaths anywhere on the map cause the area to expand in size and extend in duration.
- After the time expires, there is a global Soul Surge cooldown for all players.

Soul Surge Area Rules
- Initial Duration 30s
- Additional Deaths
--- Increase in size by 10 radius
--- Increase Duration of the area by 15s
--- Caps at 4 deaths after the first
- Respawn time 2m (shown on all players debuff bar)
--- Any deaths during this 2m window will not spawn a new Soul Surge

Soul Surge Area Buff Effect
- All players in the area gain:
--- 15% Increased Movement Speed
--- While Below 50% HP, all basic attacks and abilities you hit enemy gods with will apply a burn that deals 2% of the current HP every 0.5s for 2s (4 ticks)
--- Dying inside the Soul Surge reduces your respawn timer by 50% – this effect applies to all modes except Conquest

Soul Surge Spirit
- This is a ranged neutral aggressive minion that has a 15s lifetime, and can pass through players and player-made walls
- A new Spirit will spawn every 10s while a Surge is active
- Provides: 30xp, 12 gold (1.5g, 9xp per level)
- Also Provides: 265HP, 25 magical power (6 power, 2prots, 100hp increase per level)

Shutdown Nerfs
- Decreased Shutdown Reward from 200 XP and 50 Gold to 150 XP and 35 Gold

Ranked Reset 10.6 Year 10 Season 3
- Ranked Players at all MMR values will have some sort of reset applied to them in Ranked Conquest, - - - Ranked Joust, and Ranked Duel.
- Capped MMR 3500 players will be reset to 3000, and this effect gets proportionally weaker down the MMR Scale. Players close to 1500 will notice only a very slight reset.
- Masters and GM Will be reset to Diamond 1
- All other Ranks will retain their current rank, and it will update after the first match depending on their new MMR after a win or loss + the reset.

Assault
- Remove Cthulhu from Tier 3 Healers, will no longer be counted as a healer
- Remove Shiva from Tier 3 Healers, will no longer be counted as a healer
- Increase Ix Chel from Tier 3 to Tier 2 Healers

CONQUEST

"Year 10 Season 3 Conquest has a large focus on making sure the games are action-packed and interesting. Between the two new Conquest objectives and the game-wide Soul Surges, we expect each game to feel fresh and exciting while still preserving the competitive nature of the mode. The Stygian Beacons create new moments of intrigue, centered around the Mid Lane. While it can be important to gain the stacking rewards, sometimes choosing to avoid a fight and farm can be the better choice. The Unleashed Titans are a mechanic we definitely wanted to present to players but also at a level of strength that shouldn’t feel too frustrating."

Art update – Conquest in the Underworld!
- The Conquest Map has sunken to the Underworld! This map-wide art update brings a unique tone shift to the map with a variety of brand new death-themed assets. The Duo Lane is now the bank of the River Styx, and massive skeletons adorn the arches of the lanes and jungle.

Geometry changes
- The Mid Lane is now noticeably wider, shifted closer to solo lane, and has all new pathing on the entrance to it from the Gold Fury side.
- Blue and Red camp pathing has been adjusted for quicker rotations between the camp and the nearby lanes.

Stygian Beacon Capture Point
- This is a NEW Capture Point style objective located just outside the middle of the Mid Lane.
- Stand in the area in greater numbers than your opponents to capture it.
- The Stygian Beacon will always activate exactly 3 times each match of Conquest.
- The team that successfully captures the Beacon will gain a permanent stacking buff that increases their damage dealt to enemy Towers, Phoenixes, and the Titan, as well as team-wide Gold and XP.
- Beacon Rewards:
--- The permanent buff grants 5% additional damage to structures and Unleashed Titans, and 1% additional move speed per stack
----- 4 Gold per minute of match time
----- 5 XP per minute of match time
----- Gold and XP are awarded to all 5 players equally, regardless of their proximity to the capture point
----- Roughly 48 Gold and 60 XP to all 5 players on the capturing team of the first Beacon
- Beacon Capture Rules
--- This first capture point opens up at the 12 minute mark.
--- The following capture points will open up 6m after the previous capture.
--- Whoever has more players on the Beacon will earn progress toward a capture
--- Having more players on the Beacon will capture it faster
--- Each additional player contributes 1/5th of the original capture speed
--- After the Stygian Beacon has been captured 3 times in a match, the Titans will unleash and the Beacon will deactivate for the remainder of the match

Unleash The Titans
- After the 3rd and final Stygian Beacon – The Titans will break from the Binds of Tartarus and become UNLEASHED.
- The lane with the most total structure health will be highlighted, and after a slight delay, the Titans will march down it.
- The Titans will meet in the middle of that lane, and face off with their melee attacks as well as with 2 new abilities.
- Deplete an Unleashed Titan’s Health bar to repel it, teleport it back to base, and then continue to push to victory with the surviving Titan!
- Unleashed Titans are symmetrical, and use a separate health pool from their health they have while bound in base. Slay a Titan in the base before or after this encounter to end the match and win the game.
- While the Unleashed Titans are out, there will not be a Titan back at base to hit.

CONQUEST BALANCE

"Over the course of Season 2 we have had a lot of feedback that games might be starting to get a little bit too long, and we agree. Some of the reasons why were the efforts we made to make sure snowball was kept in check and games felt fair but this Season we wanted to rebalance those scales and get us closer to a healthier outcome. Several of the changes made here will be focusing on making safe farm less rewarding and contestable farm more-so. We don’t want to over-correct and plan to keep an eye on how these changes feel, especially with the new mechanics."

Multiple changes to respawn, base health / power / protections, scaling, and XP/gold rewards for most major camps and objectives on the map.

NEW GLYPHS

There will be 3 items with 2 new Glyph upgrades each: Relic Dagger, Runeforged Hammer, and Pridwen.

ITEM BALANCE - GAME-WIDE ITEM STAT REDUCTIONS

"Year 10 we really wanted to focus on seasonal changes that were centered around broad issues the players have been having. Last year’s TTK changes were designed and implemented based on feedback that burst was starting to get too high, especially in the early game where a few gods can create killing opportunities with a single round of abilities/attacks. There were scaling changes that were expected to help alleviate similar issues in the late game and the intention was always to make sure we ended up at a healthier spot. Lately we have noticed the sentiment has once again revolved around how the burst damage is too high, specifically in the late game due to itemization. As always we take community feedback very seriously and have come up with the following changes for this season. As usual there will be many areas that will need to be addressed and readdressed due to the collateral nature of sweeping changes but we will continue to listen out for your feedback and evaluate how the new season’s games progress."

ALL Tier 3 items will receive the following changes:
- Decreased Physical Power and Magical Power base stats from items by 30%
- Decreased Health, Physical Protection and Magical Protection base stats from items by 15% (Rounded to increments of 5)
- Decreased Item Passives that Provide Power, Health, or Protections by a similar amount as the item’s base stats
The only Unchanged items are:
- Odysseus’ Bow
- Toxic Blade
Goals
- Change the feel of the power curve, especially in the mid to late game.
- Make Power and Prot caps harder to reach and more meaningful to reach.
- Decrease burstiness of DPS vs DPS combat.
- Empower tanks and tanky builds by nerfing HP and Protections less than Power.

ITEM BALANCE - % PENETRATION CHANGES REVERTED

"First and foremost the team wanted to clarify that this revert was not done lightly. The Item changes listed above were intentionally designed to make sure that Tank items were hit less from their Health and Protection nerfs than DPS items overall. This led to a balance state where the goals were generally pretty well achieved with damage being brought down for DPS vs DPS combat significantly and DPS vs Tank damage felt more fair. However this changed dramatically as the games continued on and Tanks started to get full builds and max leveled. When running the numbers and playtesting through different situations we came to the conclusion that unless we started nerfing base/scaling stats for tankier characters, which would devalue a lot of the goals we were trying to achieve, lowering Protections and Health even more on items would not fix this situation. The cleanest and simplest way to address only the late game problem of DPS vs Tanks was to revert the Penetration changes. We plan on paying close attention to the community, pro and casual sentiment and will make changes quickly and accordingly if necessary."

All of these items had their Magical or Physical power reduced but are going to be getting buffs to their % penetration amounts.
Increased the % Penetration cap from 32% to 40%
Increased % Penetration from 16% to 20%
- Titans Bane
- Obsidian Shard
- Charon’s Coin
- Typhon’s Fang
- Dominance
--- Increased % Penetration on the passive from 16% to 20%
Increased % Penetration from 8% to 10%
- The Crusher
- Hydra’s Lament
- Heartseeker
- Silverbranch Bow
- Serrated Edge
- Fail-Not
- Demon Blade
- Spear of the Magus
- Warlock’s Staff (and Evolved)
- Rod of Tahuti (and Glyphs)
- Staff of Myrddin
- Doom Orb
- Diamond Arrow
- Bumba’s Spear
- Elixir of Power
Increased % Penetration from 4% to 5%
- Warriors Bane (t2)
- Spell Focus (t2)
Executioner (and Glyphs)
- Increased Protection Debuff per stack from 6% to 7% (max 4 stacks)
Heavy Executioner
- Increased Protection Debuff per stack from 15% to 17.5% (max 2 stacks)
Demonic Grip
- Increased Protection Debuff per stack from 9% to 10% (max 3 stacks)