New Smite Xbox One Patch Adds Welcome Pack, Weakens Recent Characters

The latest Smite patch has arrived on Xbox One. Rather than introducing a new character, this one tones down two of the most recent characters to be added on console, Sol and Khepri.

As in the last couple updates, Khepri is again being weakened. His Rising Dawn ability now costs more mana and has a longer cooldown, while his Ultimate will now revive allies with less health.

Sol, meanwhile, is hit with even more extensive nerfs; Unstable Manifestation and Radiance both now do less damage, and Disapparate can no longer be used to get out of roots. On the other hand, her Ultimate, Supernova, now hits more rapidly and each explosion affects a wider area.

One change that's been made affects all characters, and it involves the game's field of view. As explained in the overview video above, the FOV has been increased from about 60 to 75, a bump of 25 percent. That'll allow you to see more around you and, according to Hi-Rez, it both "make[s] the game feel faster" and "makes it easier to hit your abilities." The video also notes that Hi-Rez is planning to allow players to freely look up into the sky in a future patch (whereas now you're restricted to looking directly forward).

Along with some new skins--including the excellent King Ar-Tyr one for Tyr, Nutcracker for Ah Puch, and Bass Drop for Janus--a new Welcome Pack DLC has been introduced. This $4 pack includes Anubis, his Stargazer skin, his voice pack, and 400 gems. 400 gems would ordinarily cost $8 on their own, making this a particularly good deal--though, as a result, it can only be purchased by an account once.

Being the Holiday patch, there had to be some kind of holiday-related content, and that comes in the form of the 2015 Holiday chest. This 300-gem chest contains past Christmas skins, as well as two new ones (including the aforementioned Ah Puch and Child's Play Scylla). $1 from every sale is donated to the Child's Play charity.

You can check out the full patch notes on Smite's website. For an idea of what's likely to come in the next update, check out our look at the latest patch for the PC version.