Top 3 Underrated Items in Smite

Though Smite may be relatively new to the fast growing MOBA scene, that hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the most diverse and unique moba’s out there. With a major patch every 2-3 weeks the game is providing not only more gods for players to choose from, but more items as well.

With the new releases of support and physical damage items such as Bloodforge, a very popular choice on all carries and assassins, Pestilence, an item growing in popularity with tanks and bruisers alike and others like Mail of Renewal or Rod of Asclepius, more and more players are broadening their role choices in game. 

With the new additions and the pro player picks, some items have become forgotten, ignored and otherwise completely detested. Though some items like Gauntlet of Thebes have to be reworked or buffed at some point, others have simply had a curse associated with them for a long period of time simply because a pro didn’t pick it up or at first glance the effect isn’t worth the price or the stats just aren’t worth it.

Nowadays in Smite, pro players are increasing their field of view for which items they prefer, which could be very beneficial. This has also allowed casual and new players to be influenced to open up what they can and should buy in game depending on their god choice. If you’re looking for some items to add to your build or some things to keep in mind during bad situations, this is the article for you!

Ethereal Staff
This is one of my personal favourites. This item has been in the game for a while now, way before all the newcomers and even before the start of the dual tier and short lived tri-tier items. The stats for this item are as follows:

Cost: 950/1850/2850
{200/400/600} Health
{100/200/300} Mana
(10/20/30} Magical Power

PASSIVE - 2% of your maximum health is converted into magical power.

Since the Apollo patch way back when, the hp5 and mp5 that used to be here were removed but the price was reduced and the 2% of health conversion was increased from 1.5%.

This item is absolutely amazing on magical tanks. Gods like Hades, Ymir, Athena and even Bacchus and Sobek can benefit from it. The extra health allows for some great sustain and the magical power adds a little extra punch to your facepunch Ymir bruiser style.

Even on squishy gods 600 health plus magical power and mana is great for when you're up against a health melting mage like Agni or Ao Kuang. It gives you extra protection and along with a Void Stone the enemy mid will be outlasted easily and die watching your life bar laugh at his petty tornadoes. Now you too will be able to gloriously tower dive and throw down your Expose Evil and taunt as the Poseidon wonders in slowly ticking pain why his tower couldn’t kill you. And as he looks to your item build his will to fight shatters as he starts his Doom Orb. His magnificent early game lead will diminish to only a few gold as now you can’t be killed by gods nor archers, all thanks to Ethereal Staff.

If you are squishy and you need Ethereal remember that it shouldn’t be a replacement for any stacking item. In fact, the stacking items work best with ethereal staff. Ao Kuang for example gets 101 mp with full Warlock's Sash stacks and Ethereal Staff.

This is usually a late game pick up. Commonly taken last by Ymir and Hades. After building up a lot of protections against the pesky mages and fast hitting carries, a little extra health never hurts and after getting all that health from other tank items, 2% converts into a lot magical damage. If you are a squishy mage, getting this fourth isn’t a bad idea if you are being outlasted.

Winged Wand
The next item that hangs on by a thread of popularity, used only by Ymir and Athena players who took the time to find out why none of their mystical marks or sovereignties could prevent their death from Isis’ never-ending slow. And then they saw it, the hidden beauty, the sweet combination of cooldown reduction, movement speed and health. For only a measly 1850 gold they could stand and taunt the mage rage Gem of Isolation troll team as all of their precious slows disappear without a trace.

This underrated item’s stats are as follows:

Cost: 625/1100/1850
{125/250/375} Health
{4/7/10}% Cooldown Reduction
{4/7/10}% Movement Speed

PASSIVE - When hit by a slow, you are immune to slows and your movement speed is increased by 20% for 4s. Only occurs once every 30 seconds.

Every 30 seconds you have 4 seconds of heavenly immunity to all the annoying late game slows. Now you too can run like Usain Bolt all the way to base without Fatalis.

As a tank gold is always a problem. With having to prioritize your carry’s stacks, minion last hits are hard to get. Sure Hand of God lets you get some archers every now and again. And Midas Boots help, but you need to sacrifice the tankiness of Greaves. By getting some low cost items you can stay up with the enemy mages and carries. Along with Winged Wand a great starting pick is Watcher’s Gift. It’ll help you keep up with gold and you won’t need to take any stacks from your carry, leaving everyone happy!

Tanking is a tricky business. You need to know when to jump and when to run. When the time comes to run you don’t want to be slowed down by two Gems of Isolation and one Gem of Binding Chronos.

Speed is key if you want to bodyblock your carry early game and late game. If he/she is out running you when going to the safety of your tower, both of you run the risk of dying because your big bulky feet won’t move fast enough. With Winged Wand all of that can change!

I usually get this item around mid-late game, this is when most mages have gotten their Gems finished which is a real problem to everybody on your team. Most carries can dash away but Ymir is someone who can’t do that, which is why Winged Wand is almost always a must buy.

 

Witch Stone
This item is perhaps one of the most underrated items in the game. It’s hard to emphasize how many Odin and Vamana players skip this item because it’s not what most people buy. Although the introduction of the popular tab in the item shop brought this item popularity, it’s time to dispel the common thought that it isn’t good because it’s too cheap to have any real benefit.

Cost: 670/1250/2200
{15/30/45} Physical Protection
{5/10/15}% Movement Speed
{5/10/15}% Attack Speed

AURA - All enemies within 55 feet have their attack speed reduced by 15% and their Physical Power reduced by 25.

A while back the movement speed you see here used to be physical power, except the physical power was really low. This made the item directed towards carries and bruisers but it failed to compete against others like Voidblade. Since the movement speed change Witch Stone is more directed towards tanks, but not many players have bothered to look at the item again because of its bad stats pre-patch.

This item is very, very cheap. It’s best on physical tanks but due to the fact that physical tanks like Vamana and Odin are built most commonly like bruisers, it’s great on bruisers too. As stated above, the item gives physical power reduction to enemies near enough to hit you. This means that 25 physical power=bye bye. Unlike magical power, physical power is on a much smaller scale. Meaning 25 physical power is a fairly substantial amount.

Along with power reduction you can turn their trigger-happy personalities down a notch with a 15% attack speed reduction. If the power reduction just isn’t good enough you can always slow them down. And with the attack speed increase this item gives you, you can totally annihilate them in terms of damage dealt. While they’re struggling to crit, you’ll be melting their health with umbrella hit after umbrella hit as Vamana.

If you need to outrun them because the stubborn fire giant Xbalanque just won’t give his power up that easily, you can with a 15% movement speed buff. You’ll go from tower to base in only a few seconds as you literally run umbrella circles around the angry jaguar man.

This item is great early-mid-late game. I usually like to pick it up early-mid game for the laughs. The enemy Artemis will scratch her head thinking why her basics do only a fraction of what they should be doing. With the cheap price you can get it anytime you want, but I suggest that you get it fourth or fifth. If you feel you need it, third is passable but early game is when you want to build up your core items.

If more players decide to experiment on their own with theory builds instead of following whatever is popular at the moment, it can increase win rates exponentially and most importantly help players learn how to assess situations and respond accordingly. Reactive item builds as I like to call them, are an integral part of any player’s knowledge arsenal.