Since I've been making enough threads recently and am still left with plenty of small things I'd like to talk about / address, I figured I'd write a blog and talk a little bit about my early experiences playing this game after only having played League of Legends for over 4 years. Hopefully, some of you will find this interesting/fun to read about, otherwise this is going to be a waste of a good 30 minutes :D --> Edit: while I was initially referring to the time it took me to write this, it's now probably closer to how long it'll take you to read :^) So yeah, enjoy.
As a heads up, the topics I'll be talking about aren't exactly related so I'll just be randomly jumping from one to the other. Just so you know. k, cool.
Learning all God abilities
This has been and still is the biggest obstacle I'm facing (since there's a lot more to learn here than for items/actives, which I feel like I've mostly picked up on by now). I might have to study some of the God kits in between games to speed up the process for this one, but I fear that may get tedious very fast. On the other hand, there are also a decent amount of Gods I've never even seen once so far (
Kumbhakarna, 
Ne Zha, 
Odin, 
Osiris, 
Rama, 
Ravana, 
Sobek, 
Vamana, 
Zeus and 
Zhong Kui), so studying kits might be the only way to get to know those for now.Luckily, knowing what my own God does and how I'm supposed to combo my abilities seems to be enough to do well in lane once I'm playing, but in teamfights I'm still not always sure what the biggest threat is that I should be looking out for. This doesn't exactly get any easier when taking into account the next point (hey, what do you know, this isn't a random transition at all):
Getting used to Smite's camera angle
Obviously, I knew this was going to be a little different from League, and it's what separates this game from other MOBAs. I'm not complaining, I find it a refreshing change, but I'd lie if I said I've never been hit by a skillshot I never saw because I had my back towards it. Now, while in some cases this isn't a huge problem, I've also died to it a few times while trying to escape from a fight (to abilities such as
Ra's 
Searing Pain or 
Kukulkan's 
Spirit of the Nine Winds). I'm guessing that's just part of the deal though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Establishing a roster of Gods to work on
Naturally, I want to make sure I'm ready to play any role if forced to once I enter ranked (provided I keep playing this game long enough to reach that point), so I've tried out some different roles to find Gods that I liked in every one of them.
Here's my "roster" so far (still need work on some of them), in order of roles I've had the most success on (top) to ones I've struggled with the most (bottom):
Solo:
Bellona, 
Sun WukongMid:
Eset, 
JanusJungle:
Hun Batz (looking into 
Thor)Support:
Khepri (looking into 
Sylvanus)ADC: None (looking into
Artemis, 
Medusa)To illustrate:
| Best/Worst God Performance | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Games | Wins | Losses | Win Rate | Avg. K | Avg. D | Avg. A |
|
16
|
13
|
3
|
81%
|
9.5
|
4.6
|
12.6
| |
|
7
|
2
|
5
|
28%
|
4
|
7.1
|
7
| |
Now, in League of Legends, I am a solo top main, so it's no surprise that the solo lane games have worked out well for me in Smite as well. However, whereas the order for other roles in League looks something like this: ADC > Support > Mid > Jungle, the "bot lane" roles just aren't working out for me in Smite.
As far as ADCs are concerned, it might just be
Anhur (the only Hunter I've played several times so far), because Artemis (who I played a couple of times last night) felt a bit better. Still, there are a couple of things I'm not good at / unsure about when it comes to playing the role:- Use of actives: I know which ones to buy, my concern is simply that I'm not good enough at activating beads fast enough. I feel like part of this issue is that my fingers are always on/between the keys to move and use or level up abilities, and moving my thumb or index finger from there to F just isn't as fast as it should be (let's not even get into G, that one's even worse). Should I change the keybinding to attach it to one of my mouse sidebuttons, maybe?
- Farming: Farming is one of the things I feel I'm very good at in League (if I may so myself), but it's so weird in Smite. Hell, I'm not even sure it's a thing. Is it a thing? Are ADCs supposed to be able to tell which minion is getting focused and adjust their positioning in a way that allows them to hit that one? Or does everyone just rely on the gold/xp you get for being in range when a minion dies? Also, how do tower shots interact with minions, how many can each type of minion take before dying? I don't feel like these issues are relevant in the solo lanes since I usually waveclear with AoE abilities quite well, but for Hunters it seems a bit more of a problem, especially when also trying to keep an eye on your lane opponents / your support initiating a fight.
- Positioning in teamfights: this one's a bit more straightforward and is mostly related to not knowing which abilities all Gods have yet. Being out of position is a bit more punishing as a squishy Hunter (or mid) than when playing some of the tankier warriors, so it's no real surprise I don't always get that right atm. Should improve over time.
Experience
Wait, didn't you say both bot lane roles weren't working out well for you? Yes, yes, hang on, I'm getting there. The reason I'm making a new section to talk about my struggles as a support is because it's tied heavily to this subject: experience.
I'm not sure whether this should even out once I stop playing with/against players who are new to this game, but holy moly the difference in experience is so huge in most games it's unreal. How is it even possible for one player to be level 20 when another is level 12? o_o
For me, this usually means I'm:
- ahead of the average when solo laning ("top" or mid)
- on the average when jungling or playing ADC
- behind when playing support, especially when my team's not doing well
I guess my main question here is: what are my main responsibilities as a support and how do I make sure to execute those without falling behind? Right now, I tend to lose the most experience when walking around the map warding or when trying to set up a gank in another lane (which I feel
Khepri is quite decent at) without managing to do so in the end. I suppose it's normal for that last scenario to set me behind, but it's the ridiculous amount I fall behind which bothers me. Is this normal? Do I counter by staying in lane for a bit, or is it more important to keep up the vision for my team?Speaking of vision, where exactly am I supposed to place wards? On this image (which is supposed to represent how ward placement changes over the course of a game), the left map shows exactly where I place my wards now (+ GF & FG once they become relevant). Is that correct?
Game modes
Before I forget, I should probably ask whether it's a good idea to play other game modes than Conquest (which is all I've been playing so far). For the record, I'm not asking whether the other game modes are fun (I'm sure I'll try to them see if they are at some point anyway), but more whether there are specific skills you can train in those modes which aren't as easy to work on in "standard" Conquest games.
Top 5 Gods
This final section is one I added just for fun. I know I'm not exactly in a position to judge yet considering there are plenty of Gods I haven't even seen (more than once) yet, but it might get some discussion going.
In no particular order, I'd say the top 5 Gods are
Athena, 
Serqet, Sun Wukong, 
Xing Tian and Janus. Do you agree?Alright eeh, I think that's enough for now :P
It's really difficult to go through the laning phase, even with the bluestone pendant. I guess I should have started with the red pot, because the clear is terrible until you're level 10...
However, you really bring something to the table in the late game.
Mid i dont really know and adc they all have the same builds anyway (except for my AoE AMC)
I feel like I've improved quite well recently due to starting to adapt to some of the differences between League and Smite and getting a better grasp of God abilities, though I'd still like to find a way to speed up the learning process.
While I figure out how to do that, would one of you be so kind to tell me whether or not I'm correct in saying that this is how the Gods are spread across the five available roles (obviously some will be able to play multiple roles, but I tried picking the strongest one)?
Solo:
Jungle:
Mid:
ADC:
Support:
Thanks in advance :)
When I'm the support (or carry, if my support is rotating), I'll ward near the purple buff (in most cases) to see if there is someone rotating. BUT, if the jungler is
When I'm the mid, I'll probably ward near the mid-camps on my side of the map...unless their jungler never goes by this way. For example,
When I'm the solo laner, I'll ward near their blue buff and near in the middle of the lane, because that is where they'll come from 90% of the time. Except if it's
When I'm the jungler, then I will ward only for counter jungling on really specific spots that I know the other jungler is using. I LOVE to steal their speed buff, so I'll probably ward between their speed buff and back harpies. EXCEPT if my mid-laner sucks at warding... then I'll ward like I'm a mid-laner.
I myself have my actives on f and g still however I use my index finger for it (meaning that walking left isn't possible for some time.
I don't know for which side the chart is made because for me it looks like it's more made for red. or if you are warding more aggressively in mid (I normally ward my side of the mid camps because then you can see them coming if they walk around the rock (instead of walking past mid harpies). the aggressive mid wards are actually more for jungles to place IMO (however jungles have the most freedom to ward because of counter jungling)
Also MM can be pretty weird. but it depends on your hidden Elo and on parties too (would a lvl 30 party up with a lvl 2 they can easily hit around lvl 15-20 players). the differences in lvl can be big but it's a good way to place Smurfing people in a higher bracket
(Dota can place a Smurf that is normally in very high skill bracket into the high skill bracket after ~5 games and I think Smite tried to do that too)
Use of actives:
That's really up to you to play around and see what feels the most comfortable. I have all my bindings as default except for my consumables - They're E and R. I think the actives are in a weird spot tbh, I might switch E and R to F and G so that my actives are more readily available.
Farming:
Yeah, you're supposed to be able to tell which minion your wave is attacking. If you're having trouble doing that I suggest you just watch two waves go at each other and try from there. Not many people worry about last hits even when reaching level 30. It does make a difference and even though it's a small one, small things add up. Don't sacrifice your positioning for last hitting though. The better ADC players tend to last hit and wait that second or half second. You need to know how much damage your auto attack will do and how much damage your minions are doing per attack to be able to last hit consistently. It takes some practice and game knowledge to last hit effectively enough for it to make a difference. Last hitting gives you 50% more gold than you normally would.
Minions:
"All minions are subject to a percentage mitigation formula as the game progresses. At the start of a match, minions will mitigate 10% of damage dealt, increasing by 1% every minute up until 40, at which point they have 50% damage mitigation. This does not apply to damage from NPCs such as Towers and other minions, although damage from player pets will still be reduced."
All minions have 10% (+1% per minute until 40:00) damage mitigations. Tier 1 towers' first shot will deal 170 physical damage. Tier 2's will deal 230, and phoenixes will deal 300. Every shot after the first will deal an additional 20% of the first shot. Melee minions will generally take 2-3 tower shots. Archers will generally take 1-2 tower shots. Brutes will take anywhere from 4+. Everything else depends on what tier tower and how long you are into the match.
Experience:
For the most part, supports will be behind everyone in experience unless both you and your team knows how to farm properly. Then you should really be similar to your jungler or mid or even adc depending on how much time you spent in lane. Solo lane generally has the most experience because the jungler barely spends any time splitting waves with the solo laner, mainly the mid.
Being a couple levels behind as a support is fairly common as guardians can be played from behind. Guardian's kits are CC heavy which are good even from behind. Although we're not talking about gold here, but, support items are made pretty cheap -
The way to keep up in experience and gold as a support is to share, share, and share! Don't be afraid to solo back harpies whenever they're open though. If your jungler's nearby and wants to split the camp, do et (Players you queue with generally won't look to share camps just from lack of game knowledge pre-level 30). Anyways, the way experience is split when sharing is uneven. Say you get 30 XP from a small harpy. If you share with two people, each person gets a little under 75% of the experience so something like 22 per person. That's 44 total xp which is actually more than the benefit of killing the camp by yourself! The way it works is if 2 or 3 people share an amount of xp, the total amount of xp becomes about 65% more. (split evenly between each person) The total xp from 2/3 people is always the same. But 4 or 5 people sharing will make the xp share inefficient and less than the original amount of xp. So share camps and waves whenever you can!
The way supports used to fall behind was wayyy worse. Supports would be 5-6 levels behind even in pro games that have been farming near perfect. Now, you can at least farm smartly with your team to stay even with your team. Gold isn't as much as a problem anymore because of
There are different types of support which have different roles. The generic support is supposed to be able to frontline, setup for team mates, and get your hunter to late game. This support requires more farm since you'll often be giving kill secures to team mates and not deal too much damage. There's something called a kill lane where the support is some sort of assassin or warrior that can build tanky. Common kill lane supports include Fenrir, Ne Zha, Odin, Awilix, etc. These don't need that much farm because it's common for them to be carrying and the kills alone is enough to keep you ahead.
Game Modes:
Conquest is good but you should try out other game modes when conquest is giving you a tough time. Arena and assault help you position and fight in team fights because it's all team fights and positioning the whole match. Joust and Siege are a little different. Joust focuses on team comps and strategy. Siege is just a 2 lane conquest with little jungle. It's more about the initial lane phase than team fights. It's the opposite side of the spectrum, really. I'd try all of them and play 1 or 2 different game modes when you're tired of conquest.
Top 5 is very vagueee. Top gods don't really matter until high ranked and competitive. Even then, there are weird picks. It's really how well you can express your knowledge through that god's kit. Learn all of them and master the gods you're best at.
Hope I helped! And yes that's a pretty good reason ;).
The other point is that Conquest is more following a meta than other modes. Which means some gods will be seen more often than others. Even if you are playing casuals in low level, I don't think you will see
If you want to see other gods in action, try Assault. You will have more chance to see lower tier gods. You can even end playing a god you didn't suspect to like.
Also, it can create some weird team composition, forcing you to adapt on your enemy build, which is never bad.
However, make sure to play more Conquest than other modes.
Conquest is way more tactical than any of the other modes, and you want to learn all the tricks of Conquest during your levelling process.
Finally, for your "roster", all of them are good picks.
However, if you are still new and don't know all gods yet, I would not recommend
She is very strong, no doubt of it, but since she has no escape and she is squishy, this god does not forgive you any mistake.
If you can't tell, by memory, what you need to watch against the god in your face, you're playing it really risky with
I would recommend
I can answer some of them : Arena and Assault will help you training your team fight skills (synchro with other ppl abilities, when to use actives, what's the best timing to use your ultimate, which item work best in close combat, etc...)
Yes, it's normal for the support to be behind, but maybe not 8 level behind, tho it can happen if your all team is behind.
The support is responsible for making the lane phase easier to his ADC, by protecting him (by warding, bodyblocking attacks, CCing, ...) and allowing him to stack easily by not taking the kills (on minions AND gods) and by rotating to other lanes during mid-game. The support is also supposed to be the front line during team fights because he's tanky, and possibly to help secure the objectives.
While we are speaking of ADC. They don't all work the same. Some are really good early game (for instance
The toughest part is to find synergy in your duo lane.
Those duo works great for instance :
Regarding your top 5, I guess it's kinda right currently. Though some gods like