Major Changes to Joust Arriving in Upcoming Update for SMITE

Are you a fan of the Joust game mode in SMITE? If so, you'd want to read on because significant changes are coming to Joust in Update 10.5.

For those who don't know, Joust is a fast-paced 3v3 game mode in SMITE perfectly suited for those who want a short match. The main objective is to eliminate the opposing team's Titan, but there's only one short lane protected by a tower and a phoenix. You can find jungle camps on the sides of the map to gain much-needed resources to buy items. It also features a mechanic exclusive to this game mode where defeating the Demon King grants a special buff to your team for a short time. During the buff's duration, the first structure of the enemy team is disabled.

So, what are the changes inUpdate 10.5? One of the most notable is that starter items are completely removed from Joust, including the Warrior's Axe, Bumba's Dagger, and Vampiric Shroud, among many others. According to the developers, starter items in SMITE were specifically designed for Conquest mode. While they may work in non-conquest game modes, the unique pacing and combat of Joust lead them to cause more problems than they solve.

Another major change is that the XP Camp situated opposite the Bull Demon is replaced with the new Purple Buff (Void), which grants an insane 15% increased attack speed. It also empowers your basic attacks to reduce the target God's Protections by 2% plus 2%/1% of your Physical Magical Power from items for three seconds (this effect stacks up to three times). The Purple Buff is great for Hunters and other gods that dishes out massive damage with basic attacks.

You can find more of the tweaks for Joust below:

• Joust returns to the Chinese Sky Joust map!
• Starter items have been removed from this mode
• Decreased XP Sharing Bonus from 0.75 to 0.55
• Contestable XP Camp replaced with Purple Void Buff Camp
• Buffs
  • Blue Buff: Mana
    • Grants +15 MP5 to you and nearby Allies within 55 units
    • Hitting an enemy God with an ability restores 4% of your missing Mana
      • This can only occur once per ability cast
  • Red Buff: Damage
    • Grants +5 Physical +10 Magical Power
    • Increases Physical and Magical Power by 20%
• Towers and Phoenixes
  • Tower and Phoenix shots apply a Protections Shred debuff to Gods that lasts 3 seconds
    • Stacks up to 3 times
    • -8% Physical Protection
    • -6% Magical Protection
  • T1 Tower
    • Increased Physical Power from 170 to 235
• Lane Minions
  • Increased base Health, Power, and Protections stats to achieve parity with Conquest's Lane Minions
  • Increased Damage multiplier vs Gods from 0.6 to 0.8
  • Swordsman
    • Increased base Gold Reward from 17 to 19
  • Archer
    • Increased base Gold Reward from 12 to 14
  • Brute
    • Increased base XP Reward from 60 to 70
    • Increased base Gold Reward from 17 to 21
• Buff Camps
  • Buff Holder
    • Decreased XP Reward from 185 to 90
    • Decreased Gold Reward from 65 to 35
  • Buff Guard
    • Increased XP Reward from 22 to 30
    • Decreased Gold Reward from 13 to 12

So, what can you say about these changes in Update 10.5?

SMITE is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.