This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
Vote received! Would you like to let the author know their guide helped you and leave them a message?
SO, I have played a lot of joust, and I still fall on people who do not know what they are doing. So, I want to try and paint a clear picture to newcomers of how to play joust properly. To do so, I need to talk about compositions and which ones are the most effective. Now note I am not extremely knowledgeable about this game mode, but I do try my best. I invite any other people to add onto the various composition choices we discuss.
This is a classic composition which is hard to beat once it has a lead. In this comp, you sacrifice the dps you could have from a hunter for more control over team fights and consistent poke. In addition, with two tanks to go through, it makes the mage be comfortably set in the back line, where he/she can cast his abilities using the setup from the two tanks.
Example of Comp:
Warrior - Cu Chulainn (Bruiser Tank)
Guardian - Bacchus (Support Tank)
Mage - Aphrodite (Healer Mage)
This composition offers sustain, diving potential, high crowd control, high defense, and continuous poke from far. The key to make this composition work is to always be grouped up as a unit and lock down one enemy god at a time. With the CC from the guardian, the burst damage from the mage (and in this case heals), and the consistent damage from the bruiser, this comp is devastating. The secret to this comp is that the warrior (bruiser) is secretly the carry, because once the warrior is fed 3-4 kills early on, he can then use that lead to snowball extremely easily. If that is the comp you are aiming for, and you want to play a bruiser warrior, I recommend you pick from these:
- Osiris
- Cu Chulainn
- Achilles
- Bellona
These gods benefit a lot from early gold and xp, as they easily snowball. If you are looking to play more of a supportive role, you can play as a guardian and act as the tank for the team with a few recommended following picks:
- Bacchus
- Cerberus
- Sobek
- Artio
These gods do not require the xp and gold. All of the gold and xp should go to the bruiser, as he can deal more damage; however, it may not be a bad idea to have a second fed tank, especially since most of these tanks perform even better when fed. If you are looking to play more of a safe role in the back line which requires fast reflexes, intelligent decision making, and map awareness, then you can pick the among the following:
- Baron Samedi
- Aphrodite
- He Bo
- Vulcan
- Poseidon
- Nox
- Zeus
*Note* There are more mages that could obviously be included in this list, but I just chose what is really hot at the moment in Patch 5.21.
SMITEFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new god, or fine tune your favorite SMITE gods’s build and strategy.
Copyright © 2019 SMITEFire | All Rights Reserved
I'm assuming you're going to have more chapters covering other potential compositions?
Your Support Tank, Bruiser Tank, and Mage combo is one with decent potential. However, based on your listing of gods, I have differing opinions on how things are defined, and feel that there is a comp that is superior to this one.
I will say that I think the best balance is 2 magical, 1 physical, with the physical being a god with good damage potential. Having only 1 phys makes it tougher to counter-build, as 2 magical can often force people to build more magical defense. With the minions, tower, phoenix, Bull Demon King, and Titan all dealing physical damage, this can be indirectly beneficial to your team.
Anyway, to your presented ideas:
- To me, the term "Support tank" is a god with strong D first in their mind. These would be gods like
Khepri, 
Geb, 
Sylvanus, 
Athena, and maybe 
Ganesha at the border there.
- Bruiser tank, or maybe aggressive tank, would be those with higher base damage potential, and who do well when played more aggressively. Prime examples would be
Bacchus, 
Sobek, 
Ares, etc. Of course, 
Athena and some of the other Guardians can also be considered in this category, especially if they do well when initiating.
- With your comp having 2 gods that are at least partially tanky, I honestly don't like your mention of
Aphrodite. Sure, she brings a huge element of sustain, but her damage output just doesn't feel bursty enough to offset the relative lack of damage from her teammates. Keep in mind, she's only got 2 damaging abilities.
- You talk about your first example having good continuous poke from range. I don't really agree here. You've got 2 melee gods and one mage (again, don't like Aphro in this comp), and that mage has almost no good poke (her longest ranged damage,
Love Birds, is slooooow.
So...my preferred top comp...it's a Guardian of any type, Mage, and either Hunter or Assassin. The comp will depend on what each person picks...they all need to balance each other well. My preference would be to start with tank choice, then choose an appropriate mage, finished with an appropriate physical god.Key requirements for optimal comp:
- Guardian (Support or Bruiser): Things can work with 3 damaging gods, but having a tank that can soak damage is essential. Within this, I like the tank to be a Guardian, so we get that 2 magical, 1 phys balance.
Bacchus, then the mage can have less burst and more CC or bruiser qualities...gods like 
Nox (the CC obviously), 
Baron Samedi, 
Zhong Kui, etc.
- Mage (Burst, Bruiser, or DPS): As stated above...with a Support tank, I want my mage to have high damage potential. This can be either burst or DPS. Otherwise, with a more aggressive tank, they can be bruiser.
- Physical damage dealer (Burst or DPS): I want my physical damage dealer to balance out the offense from the mage. If the mage chooses burst damage or a bruiser, objective damage (e.g. towers) will be a priority for the physical god, and I'll probably prefer a hunter or DPS assassin.
Chronos or 
Sol, who can take down objectives very well, then I'd probably like the physical god player to choose a more bursty, ability-based Assassin.
Does this make sense? Anyway, that's my preferred team comp. Thoughts?If you choose a Supporty tank, then I want my mage to have higher damage potential. If you choose an aggressive tank like
If the mage chooses DPS, like
Khep can work, especially if he gets those ults off...if the timing is great and the enemy blows all of their abilities (especially ults) it can be a huge shift in fight advantage. He also has good control and can force beads, and if your team has good burst and holds their abilities until he connects, his pull can guarantee a kill. His location in a fight also allows for nice item aura effects.
But yeah...
In any case, I prefer a physical ADC, due to power increases having a 1:1 effect on basic attack damage, while with magical gods, it's 1:5 (20% of power is converted to basic attack damage). Sol is a bit of an exception at full heat because she'll gain 20% damage, which sort of balances things out.
This then allows you to get a mage with more burst potential. Just my pref.
Meaning...aggressive warrior, aggressive guardian, bruiser mage. All at least partially tanky, all with some damage potential.