Strong Wave Push - How it Affects the Meta

Currently in Smite, the meta and a God's viability is quite heavily dependent on a God's ability to clear waves in just about every lane and role. In the ADC role, we have Gods like Chiron and Sol taking the top spots in the tier list, with most of the top ADCs having good wave clear, while currently hunters like Xbalanque and Artemis are rarely seen. In support, we see Khepri and Athena taking two of the top places, Khepri having exceptional clear, and Athena having quite good clear.

To start, we have to take a look at why lane clear is so strong in the game currently. Strong wave clear dictates the whole early game. The first team to clear the first wave in mid also gives themselves the mid camps. If one was taken at the beginning or the game, this can be quite a big advantage. Not only this, it also opens the enemy jungle up to invades and rotations to other lanes while the other team is stuck clearing their waves. In the duo lane, the side with the strongest push can apply heavy poke if not get kills, and they earn more gold by zoning them off the wave or allowing the tower to hit creeps if the enemy is forced to play back. Again, it also opens up the jungle to invasion. The same also happens in the solo lane, except there is even more farm and advantages to be taken there with boars and the fire elementals not generally being taken at the beginning of the game.

The jungler, surprisingly or not requires possibly the highest clear of all members of the team (however jungle clear rather than lane clear). If your jungler has weak camp clear, or a weak early game, you should be invaded in every game you play in high level play. Having no buff clear leaves you wide open to this, and can really set a team behind, even causing a loss from the pressure an invade can give. 

How to combat heavy push:

Currently, it's pretty tough to fight heavy push. The best way is to just give up the jungle. If you have a weak early game jungler, start at the back camps, ward up properly, and if there's no sign of invasion, do the blue buff. Just starting at the blue buff can cause huge problems if they were hanging back just behind your wards. You either have to leash it, or fight for the secure, both of which are unfortunate. If you leash it, you get no xp or gold, that you could have gotten from the back camps, and if you don't, it all comes down to who has abilities for securing buffs.

Trying to contest mid camps is a different situation. If neither team took a mid camp at the beginning of the game, this pretty much just forces a split. Despite the team with less push clearing the wave slightly later, those few seconds aren't enough for the enemy to take one set of mid camps and rotate to the others before you take them. 

The best way to deal with the enemy properly abusing their clear advantage, and invading everything in sight is honestly to wait. Just wait until they make a mistake. If they over aggress, they try to take a buff while you have the number advantage, seize the opportunity. Group up on them, take the kills, and from that, the objectives.

You can also wait until you hit late game. If the enemy doesn't play quite correctly, there will be a point in the game where you clear will be a non-factor, and instead will be an advantage. Most gods with low clear are incredibly powerful late game, and if the enemy makes the mistake of being too slow, your late game carries should power you through to victory.

How to bring low clear Gods back into the meta:

This is a tough one. In the solo lane and jungle, low clear Gods have been pushed out of their roles from changes to items, specifically Hand of the Gods. This item has been nerfed repeatedly into obscurity. Gone are the days when either you had 3 Hand of the Gods' on your team, or you would lose. Now it pales in comparison to just about every other relic, under its new name "Wrath". Giving Wrath the ability to kill lane minions may help bring it back into occasional use, but not the massive use it had because of the execute on Gold Fury and Fire Giant. This would give low clear solo laners an iteam to use to help keep their lane in check, and possibly help prevent invades at the beginning of the game.

In the Hunter role, it is a lot simpler. We've had changes to Hunter clear in the past. After season 1, Hunter clear was nerfed across the board, and in Hi-Rez's attempt to create Hunters that are powerful enough to be in the meta, Hunter clear has slowly risen to what it was before. Xbalanque is no longer as popular as he was early season 2, as all of the newer Hunters (Chiron, Skadi) all have the ability to just about instantly clear a wave, leaving Gods like Xbalanque with their inability to clear a wave behind in the dust. Doing what Hi-Rez did once before, changing the Hunters' clear abilities so that they can't instantly clear a wave should allow the Hunters with weaker clear to rise in the meta once more.

The mid lane I believe does not need any changes to their clear. Most mages' clear is relatively even, save for some such as Isis having better clear, and some like Scylla having worse. But these are the advantages/disadvantages the Gods have. Isis can clear a wave, giving lane pressure, but falls off a bit later in the game, while Scylla has an incredibly weak early game but late game, is an absolute monster. I think however some mages could use tweaks in other areas, to tone them down or up, but that's a topic for another time.

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