[S4 Build - Arena] Geb - The Master Baiter

Hi. My name is Vandalyzed. I've played Smite since Season 1, but it wasn't until Season 2 that I found my comfortable zone playing Support/Guardian. This is my first guide, so I hope you find it helpful.

My play style is a bit team-oriented. I've never been able to get high kills. I stressed out trying to do so. It wasn't until I entered the support role that I realized my entire thought process is built around supporting a team and having them follow me and get me out safely.

Geb, to me, is a baiter. His entire kit is centered around setting up kills for the team. His roll is both an escape and an initiator and with it's low cool down, I often use it as both in the same engagement. You make yourself an annoyance, get the enemy team focused on you, and your team cleans up. I've been able to lead my clan mates to several deicides (entire team kill) using baiting techniques with Geb.

• High Defense
• CCR Capped
• Damage Mitigation
• 50% of the Cooldown Cap (20/40)
• Great Support Oriented Passives (Penetration, Attack Speed, and Power Reduction auras)

• Approximately 300 less Health than Classic Build
• Does not apply protections to team as Classic Build does. Applies other types of auras

Your personal preference on Geb skills order still applies.

I personally start with 2>1>3>2>4. Then I build the 2 first, going into the 3. Since we're only using the Roll as initiator and escape, leaving it as level 1 until last skill works just fine.

Spoiler: Click to view

For example, having a Loki on your team is great, but if he goes 1 for 1.. that doesn't help much. So, you initiate, do whatever damage you can (Ult > 2), then Loki should be popping out with an ult somewhere. Most teams will focus on the Loki, especially if he gets a kill. That's where your shield comes in. It clears him of any CC and gives him time to get out.

This doesn't just apply to having a Loki on your team. I use that example because our team assassin prefers Loki above others. But the concept is the same whether it's your assassin or ADC that's cleaning up the kills.

And, of course, you always keep an eye on your back-line. While you're up front engaging, an assassin or warrior is looking to reach your mages and archers. Geb's roll closes distance quickly, where ever you need to be.

I've seen many people play Geb badly. They roll around the arena, trying to get to top speed, just so they can hit someone and send them flying. Then, they hop away back to their teammates to get petting on a job well done.

If you play Geb like this. Stop. Now. Why? Read on:

Spoiler: Click to view

Geb isn't a dog that simply does tricks for amusement. He's deadly, and his roll is deceiving in it's strength. You can choose which direction to send an enemy flying simply by hitting them straight on, or just a glancing blow off your side as you pass them and keep rolling. The best part about Arena is the pillars and walls.

You still get the effect of sending them flying, but when you send them into a wall or pillar, they don't go very far and are still in range of your 2, Ult, and Basic Attacks. As well, they are in range of your team mates instead of closer to their base because you were stupid.

I know, you like to have fun. Me too. Which is why I titled this guide "Geb - The Master Baiter".

Geb is annoying as all hell when he rolls into every engagement. And, enemy teams will focus him. Why? I don't know! It's Geb! They shouldn't be that dumb, but they are. So.. you will always hit your ult. You will always hit your 2. And you will always get to hop up and down in front of them at melee distance, enraging them to the point of not realizing your team is killing them. <-- This is hilarious. See? Fun.

But, there is a serious side to Geb too. Have all the fun you want, but when you knock someone out of a killing blow from a team mate one too many times, you will hear about it. When you don't land a Geb shield to save your team mate, you will hear about it.

• Always choose a primary and secondary target before going into your roll. As much as possible let your team know who the targets are. (Voice Chat helps here)
  
• Always use VVVR (Ultimate is Ready) to prepare your initiation with Roll/Ult. I use it twice. Once as an announcement and if there is no response form the team, I use it again. I then use VVA ("OK") to announce my initiation and go into my role. It is a good thing here to be aware of where your team mates are. Making sure that there are people ready to follow you in.
  
• Rolling straight in at the enemy can be imposing, however CC can take you out of your roll before you reach your target. Good players will not run, but instead take you out of your roll. One tip is to start your roll against a pillar to get to CC Immune level, then shift over and roll to target(s). What I like to do sometimes is roll straight in and if they CC me out of my roll, I continue walking towards my targets. Next initiation, I will roll straight in again, knowing what will happen. (This is a setup). After that, I will roll way out to the side, and come back in to my targets. They will mistakenly throw CC where they expected me to be and I'm clear to roll in on them.
  
• Many times, you don't need to initiate. The enemy will initiate on their own. You counter-initiate with your ult and 2 as they come in.
  
• Geb is a beefy brute. You don't have to run away after you initiate and dump your ult and 2. If your health is fine and your team backed you up properly. Stay and slap someone around a bit. Trust me, it's going to either be intimidating to the enemy, or enrage them into focusing on you. The latter is exactly what you want, and what this build was made for. And, if things get a bit dicey, you can s shield yourself and roll out. Chances are they already used their CC and can't stop you unless someone body blocks. (But in my experience, the body block happens like 1 out of 10 times)
  
• Being aware of your team mates throughout the match also means being able to pick out which ones constantly get in trouble. (Assassins, Mages being caught out, etc). Identify these people early on in the match and you will know who to look for to give a shield to in high pressure situations.
  
• Stupid Story #1 -
  Spoiler: Click to view

  So, with my clan mates, we pretty much know what roles we're all going to play when we game together. My mage had chosen Ah Puch (as he often does) in this particular game. Ah Puch, as you know, doesn't have any escapes.
  
  This guy is also one of my primary targets for shielding as once his kill count starts to rise, he gets happy and out of control, running into the front line to take on the world. At one point in the match, we had just entered a heated engagement and came out on top. The enemy were either in base or scattered. Ah Puch and I were in the middle section of the arena, but on opposite sides, so I was not within range to body block or assist.
  
  He was approaching the enemy side of the map and I saw a Hades coming from the left jungle. I knew that the Hades didn't have ult at the time, but as he was heading towards his fountain, he stopped and turned towards Ah Puch. So, I threw a shield on him. My Ah Puch was near full health and didn't really need the shield. I was being preemptive. The Hades saw this and turned back towards his base.
  
  My Ah Puch (who was on voice chat with myself and the rest of the team), says "Why did you shield me? I didn't need a shield, use it on someone else!"
  
  I told him "It's a Geb shield, you don't complain when a Geb shields you!!! Shut up or you won't get the shield when you actually need it."
  
  We all started laughing about it and Ah Puch kept going, he couldn't understand why I shielded him. Our other team mates jumped in trying to get him to stop questioning why he was shielded for seemingly no reason. We all thought it was funny that someone (even our own guy) was complaining about being shielded by Geb. Who does that?
  
  Anyway, as the enemy started to come out again, I just explained to him. Hades was taking a look at you. I shielded you and he thought better of it. As it turns out, my boy didn't even see the Hades. So, we all laughed at him again for that too.
  
  The moral of the story here is... One, no one should ever complain about being shielded by Geb. Secondly, being aware of what is going on around you and being preemptive when needed can deter the enemy. Even when your team mate has no clue what you just did for him.
  
  
• Stupid Story #2 -
  Spoiler: Click to view

  This particular match was probably the most fun I've had in Smite in while. I spent the entire game laughing.
  
  Currently, I'm taking Geb on a run for Diamond Mastery. I am closing in on Rank 8 and I started at Rank 2. I've been running him hard in Arena mode, which is where I like to master my Gods. However, I had been getting bored, mostly because of the lengthy run to diamond. So, I hadn't been having a lot of fun, even when we won.
  
  This particular match, the level of Bait that I was conjuring had me laughing so hard I could barely use my mouse properly.
  

  

  
  We picked our usual Gods, it's a team comp that was working well for us. We were missing one person, so we had a Rando on our team, but he fit in really well and actually was a carry. He picked up quickly on our strategies. Understood my initiation and followed suit. (Very hard to find randoms that get with the program so easily. If you ever read this dude, Kudos. You rocked). The Rando was Chiron, btw.
  
  Anyway, so, as soon as the God Locks happened and we saw the Ares/Poseidon, we easily guessed the devastating ult combo. My team was legit concerned due to the addition of Nox and Cupid on the enemy team.
  
  I told them not to worry and to trust in their Geb. I instructed them to follow me tightly when I announced my Ult Initiation, but on my non-ult roll initiations to back me up in whatever manner they chose.
  
  On my first initiation, I rolled straight into Poseidon, hopped up and down a couple times in his face, and hit him with my 2. Then I shielded myself, turned around, and rolled away. The rest of my team had engaged with the enemy, causing me to separate Poseidon from the group. As I rolled away, my Loki popped out of invis and ulted him.
  
  The next time I rolled in (it was an Ult initiation), I rolled straight in again, hit top speed and hit Ares, sending him flying. He hit the wall of his fountain and I ulted on Poseidon. Again my Loki popped out and killed him.
  
  So, I had set the stage. The bait was laid out on the table. I'd love to go through this story step by step, but it would take too long. But, basically, for the rest of the game, Ares and Poseidon stayed next to each other and every time I rolled in, they would run away, separating.
  
  Poseidon got Hastened Fatalis as his second item. We never laughed so hard as when I rolled up to him, hit him with my two, rolled away soon as I was on cooldown and Poseidon's HF kept him riding my butt the entire roll. He was literally doing no damage to me, but I had tilted him and he was completely out of the game. Every time he used his Hastened Fatalis to ride me as I rolled away, my Loki would ult on him. There was never an Ares-Poseidon Combo that entire game. In fact, I do believe that every ult Poseidon threw was on me, and my health and defense smacked the Kraken in the nose and sent it away.
  
  My team was safe. Without that devastating combo, they cleaned up the field and we sent the enemy packing time after time.
  
  The hilariousness of this game rejuvenated me in my quest for a Diamond Geb. But, the point here is that being a support is not always about what skills you can throw. It's how you handle the situation. My team was concerned about a combo situation and I took control to make sure it never happened.
  
  I took a bit of damage that game. It's not as if there was just Ares and Poseidon to worry about. Their Nox tried to stop me with her tether, but soon gave up when she realized my team mates were targeting her while I was focusing Poseidon. Between this build, my Loki, and the Rando Chiron, I never sweated anything for a second and spent most of the game hopping in people's faces to keep them tilted and laughing on voice with my team.

So, I hope you liked this guide and my extra offerings of PNDG's Stupid Stories. If you disagree with something in the build, comment. Let's talk about it. Theory Crafting and build discussion are some of my favorite things to do with other Smite players.

If you're interested in seeing what kind of fun we have in Pandorum Gaming, hit me up ingame. Maybe you can be our next Rando ;-)

Let me know if this guide helped you at all. Cya!