Know Your Role: Hunter

The hunter has one responsibility and one only: carry hard. And carry they do: almost all hunters have an insanely strong late game, able to 100-0 somebody with two or three in-hands. But to get there, they have to endure some of the weakest early games in SMITE.

To make up for this weak early game, the first 3-5 levels are spent in company of the support. Most hunters have a wave clear ability, which should be used for that purpose as well as for poke in between waves. Knowing your early game strength and that of your enemy is all important, as an early kill can permanently affect the lane when every tick of gold is important. While bullying your opponent out of lane is a huge benefit, don't let it make you miss out on gold. Your top priority must be getting your first item before the enemy hunter, and then your second item, and so on.

 

What's Best for You Is Best for the Team

Throughout the match, you should farm as much as you can, even when your support starts to roam. If all goes well, you may not have to leave your lane (besides backing) until Gold Fury and Fire Giant attempts. In a perfect scenario, the best thing for you to do is get bloated on gold from minions, blue buffs and enemy kills.

It's all about that gold.

... But Not Always

If your team is behind, or simply if the other hunter is leaving lane often to push early team fights 5v4, helping your team is necessary so that they can survive long enough to get you kills at the end of the game. Be aware of your team's needs, because if they are crushed, you likely will be too, no matter how farmed up you are. This is because most AD carries, despite some of the highest sustained damage in the game, do mainly single target damage. They need their allies to set up kills by CC'ing, engaging, peeling and weakening. So don't use your need for gold as an excuse to never help, and definitely not as an excuse to accuse allies of stealing kills.

Once the late game comes, it is time for you, the hunter, to shine. With the brilliance of the sun you will metaphorically roast the enemy team alive. Now your damage output should start to exceed your teammates' (if not, no problem, that probably means your allies are carrying hard too!). But what do you do with the immense power of your left mouse button? There are five targets on the enemy team, so who do you shoot?

Rule #1: Shoot squishies, not tanks. This ought to be obvious, but every day I see misinformed hunters going to town on a Geb. Squishies, in case you are unfamiliar with the terminology, are gods without significant protections or health. They rely on the tanks to defend for them, rather than items. Typically, squishies do the most damage, and even if they don’t, you can still knock them out of the fight quicker than tankier enemies, which alone justifies killing them first. It can save you a ton of headaches and whichever team’s squishy carries die last usually wins the fight.

Rule #2: Be Mindful of Positioning. This ought to be rule 1.5, because while it’s not your central responsibility overall, it still trumps the first. Typically, squishies, including the hunter, are situated in the back of the fight. While you want to get to them and kill them fast, that does not mean running through their tank and into their team alone. One of two things needs to happen before you begin Number One-ing all over their team (the rule, not the excrement). 1: Your support or other tank needs to engage and split up their team; you shouldn’t be fighting when they are in the position they want to be in. Rather, wait for them to be tossed into chaos and then take advantage of that. 2: Wait for an opening or an enemy stepping out of position; sometimes these openings are small, nothing more than room to shoot an in-hand past their tank. But remember that at this point, a single crit can do ⅓ to ½ of a squishy’s health, and that alone can change a fight. While waiting for this, go ahead and poke the tanks. With all the pen you’ve got, you should be doing considerable damage.

Rule #3: Too Many Squishies; Who Do I Focus? Once rule 2 is satisfied and your enemy squishies are served up to you like a Thanksgiving turkey, what do you go for first? The hunter, the mage, the assassin? There are too many choices and only single-target damage. When making this all-important decision, consider three things: 1. Which of them have an escape? If there is an Ah Muzen Cab, a Loki, and an Agni, both Agni and Loki can get away quite easily after getting hit. AMC, on the other hand, is stuck more or less where he is, and nothing is stopping you. Except maybe.. 2: Are any of them gonna make it harder to kill others? Typically, this means crowd control or heals. Say instead of Agni, it’s Ra. With that heal, AMC will be harder to kill, and might be able to kill you first. Instead of Ra, now, it was Janus the whole time, and right when you think you got a kill you fall into a portal and get two-shot. If either of these are the case, consider focusing them so they won’t be able to heal or CC after they die. Then there’s 3: Can they kill you first? Turns out, the whole thing is a moot point because Loki ulted you and now you’re dead. Shoot, maybe you should have forced his escape so that you had time to kill the others before he killed you.

He's coming for your butt.

In conclusion, there is no surefire way to decide who to focus: it takes experience, good judgement, and a lot of times, you won’t even have a choice. This whole thing is happening in the chaos of battle, and it’s rarely gonna be perfect for you; that turkey may just explode in your face as soon as you go in for a bite. But the Hunter is all about making split second decisions on who to prioritize, and if you get good at thinking through rule 3 in an instant and executing it despite the tanks and other threats, you will be a great hunter.

As an aside, coordinate with your teammates. If one of the enemies is stunned by your friend, you can quite safely focus him. If an ally is getting chased by an angry spider, focus her so she doesn’t kill your buddy. Your team can make the decision making process a lot easier.

Rule #4: Know When to Disengage. It seems like for every aggressive rule, there’s another telling you to stop fighting, and that’s sort of the case. Hunter’s should never all-or-nothing; their continuous damage output makes them too valuable to waste at the beginning of the fight. So if rule number 3 is a little too tricky and you aren’t able to safely get a kill, back up, and wait for another opening or engagement. With lifesteal, you might be able to heal to full with just a couple shots on a tank or minion. As long as you are alive, you are a threat, so don’t let yourself get killed, even if it means letting a potential kill go.

Build: Builds are fairly standard for hunters, but can vary from god to god. In general, you want lifesteal. You want Pen Boots. You want two crit items. You want more pen. It often rolls out in that order. But aside from your Death’s Toll start, you can rush a variety of items. Currently, stacking items are a great first item on hunters because they are cheap, provide a lot of stats, and the hunter early-mid game is perfect for getting those stacks. Devourer’s Gauntlets are the typical go-to because you want that early lifesteal, but some mana-hungry hunters like Xbalanque might consider Transcendence to make your lane bearable.

 

Who makes a good Hunter?

Wallpaper Credit: http://hoihoisan.deviantart.com/art/Smite-Hunters-453453971

Because it’s reliant on in-hand attacks, anyone with physical damage can fulfill the hunter role, but Ranged ADs are the best because their kit complements the role. Apollo and Rama, for example, have strong in-lane clear for that early game. They have a good escape to disengage or run from ganks in lane. Super common among hunters’ kits is an attack speed stim because it greatly increases damage output and allows you to buy other stats. Aside from ranked ADs, Freya and Mercury are fairly common, because they are both late-game carries that rely on in-hands, even though Freya is magical and Merc is melee. But as a rule of thumb, ranked ADs are so common as hunters that the words have become synonymous.

The hunter role is one I don’t play often, and most of this knowledge comes from supporting, but I feel that the complexity of the hunter is underappreciated. There is a long, hard road to the massive damage output, and even then, raw single-target damage is next to nothing without being used properly and on the right targets. Hope this helped some of you folks, happy hunting!