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What is “Meta”?

In every RPG you will find various ways to complete your objective. Most RPG’s have a wide variety of weapons, playable characters, skill trees, and itemization. Hi-Rez Studios has done an amazing job at giving us a variety of all of these options. But just as every game, SMITE has preferred characters, items, and abilities that get picked above all others. Highly skilled and pro SMITE players alike drop dozens of hours into working on finding the best builds, most preferred gods, and strategies to make their chances of winning a game more in their favor. This is what becomes the “meta”.

The meta, to put it simply, is what is popular right now. We see the meta change from week to week, patch to patch. God and item balance adjustments change the meta to an extreme. Some weeks you will see a god banned out constantly. The next week a patch will come out that will change that god slightly and then you may not see them picked for a long time.

Currently we see that , , , , , and all have first pick or ban status. This means in ranked that you either ban them out so neither team can get them, or you make sure that you are able to pick them up as soon as possible. Sometimes these gods can be the flavor of the patch, meaning they’ve only had minor tweaks to them which made them more viable in ranked and competitive play. Other times gods can be over performing because they are not balanced after release and they will be picked because of this. People find them to be “OP” or over-powered. Either way, there is a reason for all of the top picks or bans and it is in your best interest to keep up with this knowledge. Most of the meta is based off of pro players so paying attention to it is wise.

The meta doesn’t only consist of the god picks and bans though. It has a lot to do with the map as well. Right now the meta is to have the Mid, Hunter, and Support all start at the red attack power buff and then have Mid go to lane. After helping with the red buff for Mid the Hunter and Support go to the purple attack speed buff and drop it for the Hunter to pick up, then they go to their lane (unless you have support, if you do, he should pick it up as your lane clear will be much better for the first laning phase). Meanwhile on the other side of the map, the Jungle and the Solo gods are starting at the yellow speed buff. This will be dropped for the Jungle and once picked up, they make their way over to kill the blue mana camp and get the buff for the Solo laner while after going to lane. That is how season two of SMITE has been since the beginning as it has been the most efficient way to get the buffs and get to lane as fast as possible.

We also see items builds as part of the meta. Hunters are a good example of this because they all usually end up building the same. We see them starting with , , and one health potion. This is because this is the most efficient way to have enough mana, health, and get to start stacking Devourers Gauntlet as soon as possible. Meanwhile the mid lane god may start out with ampiric Shroud, , and one health and one mana potion. This will get them to start building stacks for hopefully on their first back to base.

Last but not least, we have ability leveling to think about. is a great example because he can go into many different roles, but has similar leveling. I will focus on solo which has been in the meta for a while now. Loki starts with his Decoy to start help clear the jungle camps and keeps leveling that as much as possible till it is level four. He will have to get his other abilities as well but prioritizing the Decoy on him for lane clear is the most efficient way to play him. This is why taking gods into the jungle practice mode can be helpful as you get to see the power spikes of your god clearly depending on itemization and ability leveling.

Remember, the meta is nothing more than what is popular right now. If you follow the meta you will be more likely to win more games than you lose. However, the meta is not an “end-all be-all” to the game of SMITE. Sometimes the meta is not correct by the numbers and picks are just a fad. Make sure you think for yourself as to what gods you are good at, what items work best in the situation, and have a reason behind your methods. You may just shape the new meta.

Written by Tanner Schelle

This article, along with a cacophony of others, appeared in this issue of The Official SMITE Magazine. Be sure to check it out!

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