Update: Some big changes have been announced for Season 4 of Smite, the Hi-Rez MOBA that now boasts almost 25 million players worldwide.
Season 4 promises to offer new content for veterans and beginners alike. “Smite has progressed a great deal over the years and we’ve been able to get more creative with gods, abilities, and special events,” said A.J. Walker, Smite’s lead designer.
Check our list of the best MOBAs for more like Smite.
“With Season 4, we wanted to push the limits of what we can do in the game even further. As always, we believe in iterating continuously based on player feedback, so we look forward to our fan’s feedback as they get their hands on Season 4 in the public test servers.”
For the first part of 2017, Season 4 content will roll out incrementally over several patches.
First up, there’s a Celtic event kicking off, with Morrigan, the first goddess revealed in the new pantheon, shown off in the trailer embedded below:
There are also a bunch of Celtic skins and in-game items, each unlocked by fulfilling certain in-game requirements.
Additionally, there’s a new Egyptian Clash map, featuring the pyramids, with structures, statues and more all themed around the Egyptian pantheon. The Fire Giant and Gold Fury have been removed and the map has new walls, funneling players towards the center where they face a new threat: Apophis.
This fresh boss battle is exclusive to the new map, and the tough battle will reward the winning side with the god’s favour.
Gameplay changes also come with the addition of Rituals, a new, expensive type of consumable that gives players more late game options.
Season 4 will also feature Ranked improvements, with competitive play adapting a Spring/Summer/Fall Split format similar to the Smite Pro League. Season 4 will begin fresh, with all players’ divisions and hidden MMR reset. The end of each Split will see players rewarded and the ladder will be soft reset.
There’s also integrated voice chat coming to the MOBA for the first time, and a bunch of other quality of life tweaks.
In Smite spin-off news, Smite Tactics has just entered closed beta. Here’s a video about just that.
There’s news for Paladins fans, too, as Season 1 will officially kick off this year, though the game is officially still in open beta. Season 1 will see the introduction of new champions and content such as a castle-themed map.
Outside of the new map and champions, Hi-Rez plan to continue pushing the deep customisation the FPS boasts. “We really want to make sure the player has the opportunity to customize their characters. This is a level of personalisation that sets us apart in the genre,” said Thomas Holt, Paladins art director.
Original: The Hi-Rez Expo has kicked off, and the Smite developers say to expect some cool announcements during the show.
Being Hi-Rez, there’s also going to be a bunch of eSports events. Headlining the event, 22 teams from across the world are converging in Atlanta to fight for the title of Smite World Champion. The show will also determine the winner of the Paladins $150,000 HRX Invitational.
If cosplay’s your thing, there’s also going to be $15,000 handed out in prizes for some of the best efforts in a cosplay comp, with judging taking place on Saturday, January 7.
We’re also promised “special game reveals”, with a “ton of announcements” apparently for Smite, Paladins, Smite Tactics and “other things coming from Hi-Rez Studios”.
Head to the Hi-Rez Twitch channel to follow the event over the next few days and you can even pick up some rewards for linking your Hi-Rez and Twitch accounts. There are also some prizes promised for Twitch Prime subscribers. Here’s the livestream: