All Smite Season 8 conquest map changes

Smite Season 8 arrives in February, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it when it goes live. You’ll be able to test it out on the PTS server starting on January 8, alongside the Smite World Champion games, where six teams pit themselves up against one another to be crowned the best in the league. But you won’t be returning to the same Smite conquest map you’ve commonly played through Season 7. Multiple changes are coming to Season 8, and the conquest map will provide plenty of new meta changes for players, especially those who play the jungle role.

Here’s a look at the season 8 map, and let’s kick it off by discussing what’s been removed before diving into the new.

What’s been removed

Not too much has been removed from the map, so you shouldn’t expect to be missing out on too much in Season 8. The jungle shrine, where there was a golden chalice to give your team a boost of gold, has been removed. You won’t be returning to this area of the map to hit it and get that gold, so you’ll have to find other methods to supply gold to your team.

New jungle routes

There are new jungle routes throughout the conquest map. The big ones are featured right at the entrance, leading to the phoenixes, and over by the gold buff and starting XP harpies.

The gold buff and XP harpy at the start of the jungle have shifted a bit to sit right in the middle of the jungle, rather than hugging the walls. There are also additional open areas, making battles these areas a bit more tricky, as gods escaping back to their side of the map can potentially take advantage of a line of sight advantage. The regions between the phoenixes can only be accessed from the inside, and if you’re the enemy team attempting to leave that inner area, the doors will be slow to open.

Both teams will have to learn how to battle in this new area, changing altering their tactics based on how enemies siege them.

New XP Harpies

There are two new XP harpies on the jungle and solo lane buff sections of the map. Rather than there being only the one closer to the middle lane, there’s a second added not too far away from it where jungle players can expect to grab some experience points. It’s good to see they added a new way for jungle players to gain additional XP and gold, but it also encourages them to visit that portion of the map, potentially assisting the solo lane a bit more often.

Lane Scorpions

Lane objectives have also been added to make the right and left lanes even more exciting. For the long lane, for the duo team, there are lane scorpions on both sides.

If you take out a scorpion and stand in the circle surrounding it, you and your allies receive a healing aura. It’ll be a good way to push against your enemies, take an objective, and find a reason to remain aggressive while you play. For the solo lane, this scorpion camp is right in the middle, opposite of the tiki. If you’re ambitious and winning enough, you’ll be able to them both to gain a great advantage against your opponent, especially if you can keep it.

A lane scorpion was not added to the middle lane.

Gold Fury and Fire Giant scorpions

The Gold Fury and Fire Spawn locations will be working a bit differently in Season 8. Normally, the Gold Fury spawns at five minutes, and then the Fire Giant and Pyromancer appear at 10. However, before they show up, there will be large scorpions standing over these spawn points. You have to take them out for the bigger, more rewarding objective to appear. However, these scorpions are not here to make these objectives take longer. They also provide the team which takes them out an additional buff. When you take these scorpions out, they buff your team’s quadrant of the jungle, increasing the buffs on your side, and they appear at a new location on your side of the jungle.

When your jungle buffs next respawn on the same side of the map you take out these scorpions, they now receive an advanced effect. The next time the scorpions spawn into the game, they will appear on your side of the map, pointed at below. They will appear at the mid-way points at the question marks alongside the middle lane objective. The Gold Fury scorpion is a bit deeper in the jungle, whereas the Fire Giant scorpions offer a bit more of a chance for a team fight to break out, making it a bit more difficult to secure for your team.

With the official Season 8 patch notes now live and available for everyone to read, not only do we have an idea of what the conquest map will be, but we know have a better idea about what to expect for player’s builds. The addition of new starter items and giving them advanced versions make it a far more interesting game for Smite competitive players. The new battle pass, Most Wanted, and the season kicks off on January 26.