Get Excited for Smite

With the official Smite launch underway, a number of new players will likely be joining the thousands of us that have already found this unique take on the MOBA genre. Fans of shooters and MMOs alike will find  the over-the-shoulder view easier to adapt to than a standard isometric MOBA.

However many new players will be unsure of the meta as a whole. In this guide I will go over key aspects of the game that are not readily explained in the new user tutorial. This guide is specific to Conquest but by no means encompasses the entirety of the meta and many aspects can be applied to other game modes.

Role

There are five roles to be fill within the Conquest meta, Hi-Rez has classified the roles as follows: Assassins, Guardians, Hunters, Mages, and Warriors. Each role fulfills a certain niche on a standard conquest team but many gods can be played in multiple roles.

Each new account has access to 5 permanently free gods, one for each role.

Assassins: Melee Physical
Burst-damage specialist, Assassins tend to have high scaling on their abilities and excel at picking off single targets during an engagement. A downside to Assassins is their lack of AoE damage; their burst damage in almost exclusively single target. Assassins also have some of the lowest health pools in the game and low defensive gains. In addition Assassins tend to have little to no cc outside of their ultimates. However Assassins have some of the best mobility in the game with the highest base movement speed and a number of jumps and dashes to aid them in the jungle. Assassins are primarily found in the jungle to supplement their damage through the element of surpise. 

Guardians: Melee Magical
Guardian are the traditional support gods with high peel potential, the ability to chain cc multiple targets, and ultimates perfectly suited for zoning out enemies. Guardians have excellent defense and high health gains but a low base movement speed. Guardians also tend to fall behind their allies in farm and require key items to ensure they have enough gold going into the endgame. Early on Guardians will remain close to their allied Hunter but will start roaming once the hunter feels safe enough to farm alone. Guardians are also key in securing objectives which can propel your team to victory. Guardians are typcially the first in a fight and the last to leave; dying to save a teammate is one of the noblest things to do as a Guardian. 

Hunters: Ranged Physical
Hunters are long ranged damage dealers specializing in basic attacks. Most builds incorporate secondary stats such as lifesteal and penetration but Hunters are primarily reliant on pure physical power and lategame critical strikes. Hunters rely on steroid abilities that boost their overall dps and soft cc to secure kills. They're are primarily built to damage structures and other objectives but are excellent duelists. Hunters are heavily reliant on farm as many items that are essential to their survival and damage are considerably more expensive than average. 

Mages: Ranged Magical
Mages are some of the most diverse gods in game: pushers such as Ao Kaung and Ra excel at controlling the laning phase, sustain mages like Chang'e or Hel can provide lifesaving heals during teamfights, and burst-oriented gods like He Bo or Anubis will tear through enemy units. Mages provide much needed AoE damage for the teams and excel at harassing. They'll will often stay behind your frontline units but require careful positioning to avoid getting caught out. Mages can turn a teamfight but any focus will likely result in their death.

Warriors: Melee Physical
Everything in moderation is the name of the game for warriors. Warriors excel at sustained engagement, providing good damage output, moderate amounts of cc, and great survivability. Warriors are great frontline units that get to chose whether to peel for an ally or simply kill their attacker. The longer a fight continues, the more warriors start to shine. Warriors are also some of the most versatile of gods, able to fulfill multiple roles in the current meta.

 

Map
Smite's map is fairly standard for a MOBA, featuring 3 lanes and a wide expanse of jungle. The lanes are labeled as solo, duo, and mid. Lane minions will spawn every 30 seconds. Minion waves consist of 3 melee and 3 ranged minions, and last hitting a minion provides a gold bonus but is not necessary.

Notice the right and left  towers differ in placement. Towers are  placed closer together for the solo lane. Look at your map at the start of the game is determine which lane is for solo and duo.

Between the lanes lies the jungle. The jungle contains neutral camps, called furies and cyclopes, providing gold and experience to any players within the kill radius. The cyclops camps feature buff-wielding creeps that enhance your god's stats by a percentage and lasts for 2 minutes or until death. Note that you can only have one jungle buff at a time. The jungle also contains two larger camps known as the Gold Fury and Fire Giant, but more on them later.

Knowing the timers of the jungle camps is a great way to improve your play. The smaller side furies spawn every 1 minute, providing 71 gold and 184 experience, buff camps are every 4 minutes and provide 91 gold and 229 experience, and finally the mid furies spawn every 2 minutes and provide 90 gold and 280 experience. The mid furies are highly valued in higher level games and are often a point of contention.

 

Objectives
Objectives are divided into 2 categories: structures and neutral monsters. Structures are present in the lanes and the monsters lie in the center of the jungle, mirrored across the midlane. Structures consist of enemy towers, Phoenixes and the Titan. Structures do physical damage and can only be damaged by basic attacks. Subsequent structures can only be damaged if the preceding structures have been destroyed. Tower aggro is pulled to enemy minions with range but will switch to gods if the last minion is killed or an allied god is attacked. Lastly structures will also do increasing damage with each shot, using linear scaling.

Phoenixes differ from towers as they will re -spawn after being destroyed, but at reduced health and damage. Destroying a Phoenix will spawn Fire Minions in the respective lane; Fire Minions have additional health and damage and will gradually push the lane if left unattended. Lastly the Titan: the Titan is the final objective in the game and destroying the Titan ensures victory for your team.

The Titan can be damaged by abilities unlike other structures and can move freely within a wide range but are still governed by the same rules as towers. Titans are immune to damage as long as the 3 Phoenixes are alive but have reduced armor as additional structures fall. It is recommended to destroy as many structures as possible before attacking the Titan, but as long as a single lane is clear victory is achievable.

The Titan is your last line of defense. Protect it at all costs.

The neutral monsters are the aforementioned Gold Fury and Fire Giant. The Gold Fury spawns at the start of the game but is risky early on whereas the Fire Giant will not spawn until after the 10 minute mark. Gold Fury provides additional team gold and experience and will respawn after 5 minutes. Fire Giant is a team objective that will gives a massive magical/physical power buff as well as enhanced regeneration and structure damage.

The buff will be granted to all living allies, and will last for 4 minutes or until death. Like the Gold Fury, the Fire Giant will respawn after 5 minutes. Both objectives will change to a yellow health bar when they reach 25% health or below; during this time Wrath of the Gods, an Active Item, will automatically secure the kill.

 

Actives Items
Each game allows 2 active items of your choosing. Several actives are team buffs such as Heavenly Agility and Girdle of Support, others are enemy debuffs like Weakening Curse and Spiked Shell. Others increase you chances of surviving an engagement by removing cc (Purification Beads), increased movement speed (Sprint), and even invulnerability (Aegis Amulet). Learning when certain actives are valued are an important part of improving you gameplay. Gods like Nemesis are easily countered by Sprint but you may want an Aegis Amulet to survive Ao Kaung's 'Spirit's Tempest' .

Wards
Wards are a 50 gold consumable that illuminate an area for 3 mintues or until they're destroyed. A more expensive ward, called a Sentry Ward, will reveal enemy wards. It is the responsibility of everyone to ward with the exception of the Hunter in the duo lane. Common wards spots are the three-way junctions in the jungle, objectives such as Fire Giant, and mid camps. Each player is allowed up to 2 normal wards and 1 sentry ward at a time.

The 2 types of wards. 

This guide is a great way to getting started with Smite and establish good habits early. Of course like many games the technical knowledge can only carry you so far. Knowing how to counterbuild, when to push or when to turtle, recognizing good engagement based on positioning are all mechanical skills that will come with time.

If you are new to Smite and looking for quality streams to understand the game better by sure to check out http://www.twitch.tv/smitegame and http://www.twitch.tv/smitepro.

Download the game for free at http://www2.hirezstudios.com/smite/nav/game-info/download-game