Is the Guardian Meta More Interesting Than Ever?

With the recent release of Terra into the “Battleground of the Gods”, it seems that guardians are all the rage these days in the Smite scene. Terra marks the second new guardian being added into the game in as many months. Both she and Fafnir have some of the more useful and overall interesting kits to play in the game. And when I say useful, I really mean powerful. This goes especially for Fafnir who has quickly rose up the ranks in the support role becoming the predominantly preferred pick by the pros. However, he is far from the only support who been seeing lots of game time in the competitive scene. In fact, many gods have popped up recently in the support role. Looking at the recent Fall Pro League Relegations, we saw about ten different gods be selected in the role.

Now that may not sound all that big of a deal, but I cannot recall seeing that much god variety in quite a while. This is making support very interesting to watch now because of the new combinations we are seeing in the duo lane and around the map in general. Let’s take a look back at the World Championship back in January. That event was dominated by the likes of Xing Tian, Khepri, Athena, and Geb in the support role being the only gods who had over a fifty percent pick/ban rate. Xing Tian was one of only two gods to have a one hundred percent pick/ban rate, the other being Bellona. Looking at where these gods are now at in the current support meta, Xing Tian has fallen off the radar, Geb has also severely dropped off due to his lack of impact late game, and while Khepri and Athena are still popular, they are not near that level now as they were in the beginning of the year. It does need to be stressed that was a lifetime ago in the terms of Smite or any other competitive game. Obviously there will be drastic shifts in what is popular and what is not.

Analyzing a more recent event, Dreamhack in June, though still shows similar stats with only three guardians (Bacchus, Sobek, and Cabrakan) owning a fifty percent BPR. The point I am making is that at the moment, while there are only a handful of gods considered top tier, there are many really strong options that are allowing for more variety than ever in both casual and competitive play.

Breakdown

As previously mentioned Fafnir is the top of the line as far as supports go at the moment. His kit has everything one could ask for, healing, damage buff, stun, a large AOE ultimate, bonus gold, extra protections, and so on. You hit the jackpot any time play as or with “The Lord of Glittering Gold". Besides him, you can look at Bacchus as another first choice support. His passive and “Chug” ability make him one of the tankiest gods in the game. Combine that with the stun, slow, and healing debuff from his “Belly Flop” and “Belch”, and one of the highest damage support ultimates and you have yourself one top notch guardian. Just a step below them you have gods like Kumbhakarna, the king of crowd control and frustrating passives, Athena and Khepri.

In my opinion, they are very good options with well-rounded kits that are great for saving teammates in dire situations and being very difficult to take down. Both Athena and Khepri have seen drop offs, the latter more so, but their ults can make all the difference in any fight. Whether it’s just two vs two in the duo lane or five vs five at the Fire Giant, they are great for having your back in case things turn ugly. However, the good guardian choices don’t even stop there, we have Sobek, Cabrakan, Ymir, and Sylvanus. I would consider all these gods good yet situational and with drawbacks.

Sobek requires good precision with his throwback and if you can master that, you will have plenty of success with him. As for the others just mentioned, their biggest drawback to me is simply their lack of escape and just how slow they are. While that holds them back, they can still produce strong results. I also can’t talk support without mentioning Guan Yu. The best non-guardian support in the game with his recent buff, he will continue to see a lot of game time in the duo lane thanks to his damage and excellent healing. As for the rest of the guardians, I feel as if they are all ok with none of them being particularly bad. They are just out-classed by the other gods in the role. It wouldn’t be insane to see an Ares, Geb, or Xing Tian get picked, but I really feel they are at the back of the line currently.

As for the newest addition Terra, while I feel she will another very good support selection adding even farther depth to the guardian class, it still may be a bit too early to make a final judgement on her. That being said her strong healing, roots, and global buff ultimate really make her a strong selection on paper and in practice. With the Epsilon Invitational coming up this weekend, I am really looking forward to seeing who some of the top support players in the world will play as. This event will set the bar for what we see in the competitive scene in the near future.

If I had to predict, I would say we are going to see plenty of variety in the support role and some very entertaining games as always.

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