With Hi-Rez Expo 2018 slowly coming to an end, it is safe to say that they wowed their fans yet again. SMITE, their third-person MOBA, has seen a complete overhaul to the conquest map, a new God reveal, and the addition of two new Pantheons to be released later this year! Of course, PC gamers will see the updates first, with PS4 and XBox One players seeing them soon after.
The long awaited announcement of the new God Cerberus came in the form of an amazing reveal trailer. The quick notes on our new furry friend is that he will be a guardian class who has abilities to buff fellow team members similar to Ares, Sobek, and Bacchus. He also has a strong passive, allowing him to reduce the healing of enemy God’s around him and healing a bit off that as well. Cerberus is set to be released on January 9th with patch 4.25.
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Along with a new God, SMITE also released a small bit of information regarding two new Pantheons being released over the next year. SMITE will soon be seeing Gods from the Voodoo and Slavic Pantheon. While little information was revealed including what Gods would be released with the these Pantheons, Hi-Rez employee Ajax took to Twitter to clarify that the Voodoo Gods would be based on Haitian Vodou Loa first.
More clarification:
The Voodoo pantheon will focus on the Haitian Vodou Loa first.— TitanAjax (@HiRezAjax) January 5, 2018
The announcement of the new Conquest Map was hinted at for months prior to the Hi-Rez Expo with screenshots shared on the SMITE Reddit page. Their biggest motivation was to bring a more balanced map to Conquest. Previously the lanes were very uneven, giving an advantage to one side over the other in timing and placement. Along with making the map completely symmetrical, they also widen it as well, making moving to a different lane more of a well-thought-out task rather than a simple hop, skip, and jump. Aside from changes on the gameplay front, the map was given an aesthetic update as well.
The map truly looks amazing with new models from the Titans all the way down to the minions. Honestly when I first started playing SMITE I felt that, aesthetically, the Conquest Map was quite underwhelming as a battleground for Gods. Now it really fits the whole appeal of playing a God and crushing your foes. The new map is set to launch with Season 5 which has yet to be given a release date. However, if you cannot wait for it to launch, Season 5 will be released on the PTR (Public Test Realm) starting January 19th.
While it might not seem like a lot, SMITE, in my opinion, is finally getting some much needed love. Along with the newly announced Conquest Map, they have made comments about overhauling their other game modes as well. While 2017 brought us an amazing storyline and new Gods, 2018 is really shaping up to be an amazing year in the SMITE community.
Conquest Map Gallery
Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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