King Arthur (Beginner guide by a beginner)

Hello everybody !
I'm Khaleb, a newcomer in Smite, I'm playing only since November 2021. I'm even more a beginner with King Arthur because I'm playing him only since 14/08/2022 (we are the 19/08/2022 when I write this guide).

I write this guide because it was a bit difficult for me to build this God. There is plenty of gamestyle for the King and each one has strength and weaknesses. What I want to do here is to propose a beginner guide for beginner King Arthur in order to present how to play him and what can be difficult when we first handle him.

Finally, I'm French and english is not my native language. Hopefully there isn't any fault but please, be gentle !

Hope you'll enjoy.

When it comes the time to play King Arthur, there are some subtleties we have to talk about.
First, King Arthur is an ability base God. That means that you have to play with your abilities but also build around your abilities. We'll talk about abilities later in this guide, but keep in mind that King Arthur is unique and cannot be played as the other Gods.

Secondly, King Arthur hasn't any attack speed. It doesn't mean that you don't have any basic attack, it means that you can't modify the speed. This is the point I want to insist on because it can reduce your choices.

Finally, attack speed is not useless on King Arthur. King Arthur has got a unique feature, you have to charge your sword, to charge Excalibur, to be able to use your Ultimate. Attack Speed determinate how fast your Sword is charging. The more Attack Speed you have, the more your abilities will charge your Sword.


With these characteristics, we can think about King Arthur in different ways.
King Arthur is a warrior so it can be :
- a tank : high health, high protections and high sustain
- a bruiser : protections and damage for you to be useful in each role
- fast charging : high attack speed with lower protections and lower health (sqwishy)
- vampire build : kind of bruiser with a soul eater to profit from your abilities

Something very useful with Arthur is that almost all his abilities make him move. You can dodge, chase or retreat by using abilities. His kit makes him one of the better God when it comes the time to dodge and be untouchable. Use your moveset and be unpredictive.

King Arthur is an ability base God. He has got 8 abilities, 4 more than other normal Gods.

King Arthur has 2 stances with each 4 abilities. There is the blue stance and the red stance. Each time you use an ability your stance is swap directly. If you're a Tyr player, playing with King Arthur is as if you were using your 3 after each ability. With King Arthur there is no need for you to control your stance, it's swapped automatically.

The ability mode of King Arthur is instant, or very fast. It means that you can't press 1 just to see the range of your ability. If you press 1, you will see the range but the ability will be launched directly.

Blue stance :
1 : your best damage when you are in melee range. Also your only range ability. It hits in a long line but it hits harder when your opponent is in melee range. Try to use it at melee range. Best tool for creeping.
2 : the last ability you want yo up. It deals damage in a circle zone and it slows every opponent in the zone. You can use it to retreat.
3 : a whirlwind attack (Link's Style) which pass through anybody. It lower protections of the opponent Gods hit by the attack. One of the best movement ability of King Arthur. Use it to attack or to retreat. Nice tool for creeping.
Ultimate : you make a little dash and you hit in a line, you stun any opponent you hit.

Red stance :
1 : hit in wide area in front of King Arthur. It cripples your opponents and prevents them from jumping or dashing. Nice tool for creeping.
2 : you dash in front of you and knock up the opponent. It does not affect non God ennemies. It is your best combo starter.
3 : The true Link's Style whirlwind. It hits 5 times if you hit with everything. You can retreat with this ability. Nice tool for creeping.
Ultimate : you dash in front of you and banish your opponent (in the air). You destroy his stupid face before to make him comeback on earth. It can be your combo starter or your finisher.


/!\ The color of the ultimate does not depend of the stance but of the sword's charge. If it's not charge, no Ultimate available. Charge a little bit, the Ultimate is Blue

With all his abilities, King Arthur must rely on combo in order to inflict good damages.

Here some combos you can try to destroy the opponent. In this section "B" stands for Blue Stance and "R" for Red Stance.

Your easiest Combo is :
R2 --> B1
This combo knock up a single ennemy and allow you to follow up with your best tool at melee range. You will deal a lot of damage with only two skills. You can follow up with what you want or need.

B3 --> R2 --> B1
This one add just the little whirlwind for you to lower the protection. This one can be tough because your B3 will often make you go throughout the opponent. So you will have to make a 180° in order to touch with your R2.

B Ult --> R1 --> B2 --> R2 --> B1 --> B Ult
This one, if the first Ultimate hit, is pretty easy to enter. Your R1 cripple so prevent your ennemy to retreat. If he's still too fast for you can slow him with your B2, then the follow up is very easy.
If you hit enough, you can even use your B Ult again and hit with what you still have.

R Ult --> R1 --> B2 --> R2 --> B1 --> R3 --> B3 --> Ult
This one use it all. If you can hit with your B3 before to R Ult it's even better. You can follow up with anything but normally the guy is dead.

King Arthur is an ability base God but he can auto attack too. His auto attack are always precede by a short dash. This short dash is very important in the gameplay because it allow to overextend the range of your abilities.
This is a kind of cancelling. You can cancel the animation of your auto attack with an ability. With this, you can manage to have a bigger range on your R2 or your B Ult, even your R Ult.

Auto attack are always precede by a short dash. It's true but only when you press forward. If you press backward this short dash will disappear. It can be a good tool for you to hit at range melee without put yourself in danger.

King Arthur's auto attack are wide and hit multiple ennemies at the same time. Use it to creep.

If you want to build with Soul Eater, keep in mind that the lifesteal of AoE ability is reduce by 66%.

Because King Arthur is an ability base God, his damage consist in a big big burst. Do not attend to have a high DPS with this God. Also, because of this kind of damage, you can play King Arthur in Jungle. He can destroy monster camp very easily with his B3 --> R3 --> B2 --> R1 --> B1

King Arthur is very fun to play because you have to handle well your abilities to destroy your opponent. Howewer, he is not so difficult to play, there is some Gods way harder to deal with.
To sum up really quickly we can say that King Arthur has got :

A bad early game because he is a very short range God. He can't rely on his auto attack to damage the opponent and has to manage his Mana for the combo. Because his abilities are wide, very wide, each time he will hit creep, he will hit the opponent God as well. This will lead to be target by all the creep.
If you struggle during the early game, try to build a Sovereignty first. You can go bruiser or damage later. The most important is to not lose the lane or give free kill to the ennemy team.

During the Midgame you are ready to rumble. You normally have sustain, health and some good protections. You can go to beat anybody on the field.

The lategame is where you reach your final form. Nobody scares you, and you scare everybody (but Ganesh and Nox, really pay attention to them).


Thanks for reading. I'm still a beginner so if there are some mistakes please tell me.
Enjoy !