Breaking Down Elevate’s Winning Composition

Disclaimer; this article represents the opinion of the writer and not necessarily that of Team Dignitas.

In Week 5 of the Smite Pro League, Elevate won a game against the previously undefeated Obey Alliance. A large part of their victory was a unique composition that caught their opponents off guard. Today we will look at Elevate’s composition and break down how it works and won.

The composition Elevate ran was Xing Tian solo, Athena jungle, Hou Yi mid, Nox support, and Ah Muzen Cab in the Hunter role. This composition has two Hunters backed up by a lot of crowd control. There is also a well-balanced damage profile and a good amount of frontline. The composition is nicely crafted and very effective.

Xing Tian was the solo laner in this comp. Xing is highly prioritized in Europe. He is not the best pressure solo laner, but can hold his own and stall the lane. Like most Guardians, Xing Tian excels in team fights with his ability to dive the backline and sow chaos. His ultimate, Whirlwind of Rage and Steel, forces Purification Beads and displaces enemies unfortunate enough to be caught. Xing Tian adds to the massive amount of CC in the composition and provides magical damage to allow for double Hunters. Xing Tian is a good solo laner and amplifies the strengths of this composition.

Athena was played in the jungle. Tank junglers are popular in the meta, but they are mostly Warriors; Athena is one of the few Guardians being played in the role. She provides a second frontline character with peel and initiation. A single Guardian may not provide enough magic damage to worry about, but the damage from two Guardians can add up. Athena’s taunt is an amazing crowd control and beads burner ability. It can be used to start a fight, burn beads, and have Xing Tian ult the target(s) or Athena can taunt a beadless enemy, allowing her team to kill the CCed victim. Athena’s ultimate, Defender of Olympus, can be used to assist any of her allies on the map. Athena jungle is a critical component of this composition.

Hou Yi is a Hunter often played in the mid lane, A Hunter could be played in mid because the double Guardians provide magical damage in places a normal composition will not. Like other Hunters played in the mid lane, Hou Yi has good wave clear and bullies the opposing Mage while abilities are on cooldown. While some Hunter mid compositions lack objective-securing ultimates, Hou Yi does not and can call down the suns for big damage in an area. Hou Yi also has the potential of cheeky Ricochet bounces that can win him the game. Hou Yi is a good pick and excels in this composition.

Nox was the support. This is the most unconventional part of the composition. Nox is a squishy Mage, but the composition has 2 Guardians to make up for the lack of tankiness from the support role. Nox provides a good amount of damage even built with high cooldown reduction and utility. The Nox support also provides even more crowd control and beads burners. Nox is great early with good clear and ranged auto attacks for harass. Nox has great utility, able to peel or set up her teammates while disrupting the enemy team with all of her abilities. Nox can also catch a ride on Athena’s ultimate and teleport across the map. Nox support is a unique pickup that slots perfectly into the rest of this composition.

Ah Muzen Cab was played in the Hunter role. AMC has seen a massive surge of play recently due to shifts in the meta. AMC has always had great clear and early pressure, but was seen as unpickable because he was very vulnerable. Now that Hunters get funneled large amounts of farm and have very cheap builds, AMC can defend himself pretty well when he gets a few items before other roles get online. In addition, teams have decided to generally let the Hunters free farm and refuse to gank, which negates AMC’s weakness. AMC is a monster in duels and team fights, so as long as he can get online, he is great selection for the Hunter role.

This composition is great at burning Purification Beads and repeatedly crowd controlling targets.

A team composition’s damage profile is the relative amounts of physical and magical damage on the squad. A comp with too much of one damage type can be shut down with a single type of protection, while a well-balanced profile is harder to itemize against. Elevate’s composition has an interesting damage profile. Usually a team with two Hunters and two Guardians will be heavy on the physical damage, but the Nox support provides a lot of magical damage to balance out the damage profile.

The composition can struggle in the early laning phase, but is built to excel in the mid to late game. With the Hunter left alone, the other four members can fight and skirmish with their high CC and base damages. They also want to pull attention away from Ah Muzen Cab and let him free farm.

Ah Muzen Cab is a great Hunter in the early game and can obliterate minion waves as early as level two. Because of his ability to generate pressure and outduel other Hunters, AMC can build up an individual lead and shut down the opponent Hunter. AMC can rotate around the map with a huge lead and have a big impact in fights or force multiple members of the opponent team to answer him, giving his team an advantage on the other side of the map.

With two Hunters, this composition can easily burn down objectives such as towers and the Fire Giant. There are also the Hou Yi suns and a good amount of burst to ensure an objective goes their way.

Elevate’s composition has all the tools for a great team fight, just shuffled around the roles. The double Guardians provide enough frontline to protect the sustained damage from the dual Hunters. The Nox support falls in the middle, controlling enemies and peeling for allies.

This composition has a few weaknesses. Several of the selections are off meta picks, meaning that players may not be comfortable on the picks if they just want to try them out. The solo side of the map is very weak early with two Guardians.  There is potential for the enemy jungle and solo to invade the jungle and kill the Guardians. Solo and jungle Guardians from behind are hard to play because you are squisher than you think and can't deal that much damage. Ah Muzen Cab is vulnerable to being camped and the solo side of the map can't capitalize from advantages in gold or levels like assassins or warriors could in the mid game.

This composition capitalizes on Hunters receiving insane amounts of farm

In the last week of the SPL, Elevate pulled out a unique composition. They used two Hunters, two Guardians, and a Nox support. This comp allowed for a well-balanced damage profile and required a different play style than a normal Smite team composition. With Smite teams being more innovative in their picks, we are sure to see more unique compositions heading into Super Regionals and the Smite World Championship.

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