Is the Bruiser Meta Dead in Smite?

The Bruiser Meta is a tank meta where a character can still do large sums of damage while trading more effectively due to a large amount of tankiness. The current jungle has been in a Bruiser Meta since early summer due to the large amount of hybrid items in the current meta. A hybrid item is an item that gives multiple stat increases to different aspects of a character, as seen in the item Void Shield which gives both physical defense and protection reduction, which makes it incredibly important in the current jungle meta.

How Did the Bruiser Meta Come to Be?

The Bruiser Meta for junglers began after buffs to hybrid items such as Void Shield and Shifter's Shield. These defensive hybrid items allowed junglers to build more defensively and still allowed a character to deal a considerable amount of damage when combined with penetration items such as Jotunn’s Wrath. The changes to these tank items allowed for the resurgence of the Bruiser jungle meta.

The Bruiser Meta also developed alongside several changes to tank utility items as well. The changes to the Ancient Blade tree and the recent buffs to tank boots also contributed heavily to the current Bruiser jungle. The added passive on the Reinforced Greaves and Shoes allowed for anyone to get a large amount of effective protections alongside crowd control reduction for only 1400g. which is especially important in early game teamfights. The boots combined with the defensive hybrid items made patch 3.17 the peak of the Bruiser Meta for junglers, although it was short-lived.

The changes to the Ancient Blade tree of items started to affect the new Bruiser Meta once Ritual Dagger was introduced in patch 3.12. Ritual Dagger took the cooldown reduction from Winged Blade and replaced the stat with crowd control reduction. This change meant that the already amazing utility item that is Winged Blade with its health and slow immunity now also had a large reduction to the amount a character could be crowd controlled. The last change to the Ancient Blade tree were the numerous buffs to Witchblade, the anti-attack speed utility item. Witchblade's most recent buff gave the item sixty protections, which alongside all of the other tank items junglers were already picking up, made them nearly unkillable while also reducing the effectiveness of the enemy ADC.

What's Happened to the Bruiser Meta?

Once patch 3.18 went live, several items that junglers began to rely on saw substantial nerfs. These nerfs included a nerf to all of the defensive aspects of Reinforced Greaves and Shoes, a nerf to Void Shield’s protections and cost, and also slight nerf to Witchblade's protections. The Reinforced Greaves nerf allows for much more counterplay potential in teamfights rather than punishing players for focusing a high priority target. The nerf not only weakened the current Bruiser Meta, but also prevented a full Tank meta to begin in most roles.

The major change for the Bruiser Meta though was the nerf to Void Shield. Void Shield as an item singlehandedly allows Junglers to forego most offensive items due to the nature of the items passive, which reduces the enemy's physical protections. The recent nerf to Void Shield makes the item less of a priority early on for junglers. The change included a one-hundred gold increase and reduced the effectiveness of the item's early game potential by reducing the physical protections from fifty to forty. This ultimately means that Void Shield, if it stays a core item for junglers, ideally will be picked up later in a build so that the junglers can get more benefit out of cheaper items in the early game, such as Jotunn’s Wrath.

Will The Bruiser Meta Still Exist?

The Bruiser Meta has taken one direct nerf thus far and while it hit the core item for the junglers, the nerf didn’t hit Void Shield hard enough to reduce the effectiveness of the item, so the changes just mean that junglers can’t act like a pseudo tank as well as they could before. There are also items such as Winged Blade, Spirit Robe and Breastplate of Valor that are still major items in the current meta, so the Bruiser jungle should still be in play for at least a few more patches. Hope you finally end up killing the junglers that seem to take no damage. Happy hunting!

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