Before we start I want to say that I am greatful for the feedback, help and support provided by YOU guys so far - thank you very much!
Today I want to address how to play from behind. You probably know the feeling when your team just shreds through enemy lines and objectives - it feels good, I know. But what if that is not the case. Maybe you fall behind due to a bad team comp (hello casual games) or the enemy team just has the stronger early game.
If you are able to notice when this is happening you are already a step ahead of the vast majority of SMITE players - congratulations. Now what can we do?
We do have to adapt to the new situation by shifting our game style and priorities. Finding a pick on a player becomes far less relevant when you have a phoenix down and fire minions are pouring in on one of your lanes. Main priority should be to defend that lane and "keep it clean" as far as possible. Guess what, your phoenix respawns after three minutes. Sure it comes back with a reduced healthpool and low health (that will be regenerated over time), but if your team is able to defend the lane and keep the enemies away from your titan or other phoenixes until then its a huge win.
At the same time, when falling behind it is extremley important to get any possible, safe, farm available (buff camps and minions) to stay relevant and not fall behind further. This can be quite challenging while also defending a lane. Depending on the game mode you might even need to be aware of other objectives on the map (Gold Fury, Fire Giant and Portal demon in conquest, Bull Demon in joust and Apophis in clash). When behind you should only look to defend these objectives when having a good opportunity and enough players available. While trying to steal it away is indeed a hero move, it will leave your team short-handed when it fails which should be avoided at all costs.
Being able to defend well and shut down everys other attempt of the enemy team to gain more advantage also has a psychological side to it that should not be neglected! It can bring down their moral and may even lead to bad vibes in their com/chat - and you know that having someone raging on your team is far from being helpful.
This leads us to one very important point: NEVER give up, NEVER surrender! I, personally, only surrender when having serious trouble with team mates due to trolling or other real discomfort that makes me not enjoying the game. Lucky enough that is rarely the case.
Just recently, during my SMITE A-Z gameplay series, I was able to turn around several games (of clash I must add since it is far more difficult to do in conquest) where our team was trailing behind. Every time we could benefit from a single victorius team fight and take objectives after or even end the game directly.
Well, I guess in theory we all know what we have to do. But let's not forget that SMITE is relying on teamplay so your effort might be only worth so much if the rest of your team has different plans. With that being said never forget that killing the vibe in a game due to spamming VGS or negativity in chat neither is helpful nor does it make anyone play better.
With that being said: share the love and be nice!
I hope you enjoyed the read and feel free to share your opinion about it in the comments.
If you are curious who this "Bensky" is, make sure to check out my YouTube channel, Twitter, or other social media and get in touch!
Until the next time
Bensky
I think for these posts to be as useful to readers as possible, it's important to highlight the specific things that you need to focus on when playing from behind. It's perhaps inferred (the emphasis on the word SAFE), but one thing you don't really mention is not feeding any further...the only point this is mentioned here is when trying to steal an objective. Playing from behind can essentially start as soon as you lose a single fight in Conquest (or visibly in other modes, there's a level discrepancy or significant gold differential).
Creating bullet points or headlining specific topics are a nice way to organize a post and clearly target very specific topics. Examples (used a bit of your wording as well):
Playing From Behind - Recognition
You probably know the feeling when your team just shreds through enemy lines and objectives - it feels good, I know. But what if that is not the case? Maybe you fall behind due to a bad team comp (hello casual games), or the enemy team just has the stronger early game. If you are able to notice when this is happening you are already a step ahead of the vast majority of SMITE players - congratulations.
First, let's discuss the realization of playing from behind. HOW do you fall behind, and how can you recognize it? In Conquest, it can technically start as soon as you lose your first fight in a lane matchup. Either you die, giving a chunk of gold and XP to the enemy god(s), or you have to back, losing out on precious farm. In either case, the enemy is going to have a leg up. They might be able to complete items before you, or, especially in the early stage of a match, be a level higher, giving them 1) access to additional abilities or stronger versions of their abilities, and 2) higher base stats (health, mana, protections, attack speed, etc.).
In other modes, it's often more of a team concept. It may take a few deaths to really start to see an effect, but you can get an idea by looking at 2 things...total team gold and differences in levels.
- Gold: 1,000 gold difference between two teams isn't all that much...on average, that's 200 gold per player. However, if you start to see 2,000 or higher gold differential, it's starting to have a more significant effect.
- Player levels: Take a look at your team's levels in comparison to the enemy team's. If the average is 1 level difference, not all that bad...but if you see the enemy team is generally 2+ levels ahead, you're starting look at some major problems.
Now you've got some tools to help you realize you're playing from behind. So what can we do?Farm Up
In order to prevent falling behind further, the key action is to continue to get as much farm as possible. This means, where possible (and when safe), continue clearing minion waves and jungle camps.
Don't Feed
A common mistake players make when they die/fall behind is the feeling they need to MAKE UP for lost ground by taking extra risks. You need to understand that you're the one at a disadvantage. Unless your god/skill level is superior to the enemy, this is generally a risky proposition. Whereas on an even footing you might have won a fight, from behind a level or an item, it can easily mean your death.
So, realize that dying is often going to be more detrimental than the benefit you realize from getting a kill...you need to stay alive as much as possible to prevent losing farm. If you're going to fight, try to make sure YOU have the advantage...with those
Be Patient
This ties into the previous 2 topics...concentrating on not dying and farming up isn't the most exciting thing, and your heart may be telling you that you can make a BIG PLAY and single-handedly turn the game around for your entire team. Don't do it. Playing a patient, controlled game is important, and provides you with consistency and a different level of awareness.
The end goal, of course, is to wait for the enemy team to make a wrong move, a poor decision...maybe they think they can sneak the Fire Giant (but your opportunistic
Etc. etc. Thoughts?
While these posts of course should provide information there is another aspect to these weekly blog posts - getting the community, YOU guys, to add and share ideas and discuss - mission accomplished I would say :)))
Also Bensky I don't remember if you already made a post over it. However I'm interested to see a post about powerspikes (with examples). And mostly the non lvl reliant powerspikes.