Support Starter Builds - A Smite Guide

It is believed that the support is probably the most underrated and unappreciated role in the entire game. You don’t get the kills and don’t get the glory in a teamfight, and because it’s very hard for you as a tank to 1v1 someone, no matter the role he/she has.

Don’t worry. You are the soul of the brain of the team. You are chosen to protect your teammates and give call-outs for all the plays and objectives to lead your team to victory.

But this is way too far into the game. Let’s keep it simple and start from the top, from the very beginning of the game. In the early stage (Level 1 to approximately 10) your main objective is simple: keep your ADC alive, help him/her farm and get to the level where he’ll destroy the enemy team.

Item selection is crucial at the early stages of the game, because if you go “YOLO!” and build whatever, you won’t have a major impact at the latest stages of the game and you won’t help you ADC get better, which will probably end up in a lost lane. One of the perks of this role is that you need to be a master of the items in the game, you need to know what everything does, what can help you, how can you counter an enemy, and basically how can you improve your team's strength while weakening your enemies.

First of all, we know that we only have 1500 gold when we start, so we need to invest it in the best way possible. This is crucial because every 1gp that you spend on something is 1gp that you could have spent in any other item. So make up your mind from the beginning.

We’ll start with the most important thing you can buy at at early stage of a game: A Blessing. There are 8 blessings in the game: Assassin's, Attacker’s, Defender’s, Guardian’s, Hunter’s, Mage’s, Specialist’s and Warrior’s Blessings. All of them cost 700 gp, you can only buy one, and each one has a particular quest you need to complete to get the evolved version. This version gives your god extra stats and can significantly impact your early to mid-game.

The first one is the Guardian’s Blessing, which is probably the one that you are going to use the most, mainly because it’s specially made for your role. This Blessing gives you 100 HP, with 5 physical and magical protections, 5 MP5 and with a very particular ability: Each minion assist will give you a small amount of HP, Mana and Gold. Once you complete the quest (50 minions assists) it will evolve and also give you +4 Gold Per 5 Sec. It’s a great starter blessing, because as a support you want to be more resistant than your ADC, so the protections and HP can really help you. Also (and most importantly) you don’t want to steal the farm, so the HP, Mana and Gold that you receive for just assisting in a minion kill can greatly help you sustain in lane and don’t miss out in a lot of farm or experience.

This is probably the "safest" buy, because you get very good results, stats and benefits from the start, although you won’t have an actual advantage against the other lane, you will just have a normal start. It will work perfectly with all types of supports, no matter if it’s a Guardian, Warrior or Mage.

The second one that you will most likely use is Mage’s Blessing. It gives you extra damage, a little extra magical and physical power, and also a good amount of MP5, added with the small quest that at 75 minion assists or kills (or you can have 5 stacks per god), will give you an extra 10% cooldown. This is for a very specific type of support, one that can use the extra damage to help clear, but that can also heal. This is because it helps you get more mana as you use it, and with the added CDR it will help you spam your abilities faster, so it’s perfect for characters like Sylvanus, Terra, Hel, Aphrodite, etc.

Tied with this specific type of Blessing, we have our third option: Warrior’s Blessing. This not widely used in this role, because even though it gives you a little bit of health and a constant damage reduction, it doesn’t give you big sustain. The only way that this can help you last longer in lane is if you do a lot of damage to any of the two opponents, because when you damage an enemy god you receive 30 health and mana, but this has a 10 sec cooldown, so it won’t give you a particular advantage regarding sustain.

There is one in particular, Hunter’s Blessing, that you can use with Sylvanus, Bellona (take in mind that this is a very special case), or with a support that has an advantage with basic attacks. Because of your extra basic attack damage (so when you use it you can see that you will clear very, very fast), and when you complete the quest, which won’t take that long, you will have more attack speed.

In a very special occasion, you can use the Specialist’s or the Defender’s Blessing, but this is going to be very rare. It’s more up to you and how confident you are regarding the god you picked.

Now that we've gone through the Blessings, we can talk a little more about the other parts of your build. Take in mind that you only have 800 which can be spent in Consumables, Relics, Boots, or the first tier of a specific item, such a Gauntlet of Thebes or a Mystical Mail. This choice depends totally on the build that you want to have in the latest stages of the game.

When I talk about the Relics, it is because you can use 500 gp to buy the second tier of a specific one, such as Sprint II, that gives your ADC an attack speed boost without the movement penalty. Be careful with what you buy and talk it with your lane partner, because one bad purchase can affect negatively your early game, making the laning phase harder. You can also skip the tier two, and just get the regular relic (such as Meditation or Shell) and spend the rest of the money in an item for you to start off your build.

There are many MANY tier one items, but personally, I believe that Gauntlet of Thebes is a great item for teamfights that gives you protections and health and gives your allies a small amount of defense. Sometimes you want to be a bit more aggressive, so rushing Mystical Mail can also be a great option to deal constant damage to your opponents. Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet are also great go-to items, because you will never make a bad purchase with them. You can even start with the first tier of the Cloak tree, as the Cloak can evolve into an Urchin’s or an early Mantle of Discord.

The key is to think and always be one step ahead of your enemies, and also try to finish the items that need stacks (Thebes, Urchin, etc) first, so that you can enjoy this bonus during a large part of the match.

What I normally do is get a Blessing (especially Guardian’s), get the first tier of Thebes (Glowing Emerald), and finally spend the rest on potions. You can usually buy health plus multi potions. It’s usually better to have sustain and receive a little mana, but this is totally up to your playstyle. For instance, if you want to play passive, you don’t need both of them, you will want a little more mana.

I always receive comments about the wards, and even though I mentioned the importance of them in a previous article, when you just start the chances of a gank are minimal for the Duo lane. When I return to base around the third time or almost at the 5-minute mark, I will start buying them, and I believe that it’s crucial to buy the Chalice of the Oracle, because unlimited wards are great in a Conquest match.

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