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(S8) Smite Support Guide you will never swap it anymore!

44 4 47,487
9.8
by Ozanoku updated March 10, 2021

Smite God:

Build Guide Discussion 5 More Guides
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What is a Support ? Basics

Support role is the most underrated but one of the most important roles in the game. People frequently ask for a swap when they have Support role but once you learn what you are doing, you will never want to swap it anymore! Supports are supposed to absorb incoming damage in order to defend their allies. They are generally on the frontline keeping their teammates safe. Supports also distract enemy damage dealers so they won't be able to do damage.

Where to start?



Supports begin at the pointed area and they start clearing the jungle camps as the game starts you can either wait for your ADC (ADC players start at red camps in s8)or you can clear the camps before your ADC arrives. If you clear the camp before your ADC arrives you reach level 2 faster so you can play more aggressively against enemies. If you wait for your ADC it is safer but takes you more time to reach level 2.

Warding and Rotating



Warding
Warding is important for every role not only for Supports! But as your name says you want to guard your teammates and make a favour. You should simply ward next to purple camps. It is better to use Sentry ward on your side since you don't want enemy wards to see you. As you start to rotate you may want to secure your mid laner and ward enemy red jungle camp with a sentry ward. In late game when enemies are around level 16-20 start warding Fire giant preferably with a Sentry ward.

Rotating

Rotating is so important because the more you stay in your ADC's lane the less gold and exp they get. Once your ADC has their stacking item (either mana or hp sustain) which will bring them sustainability to stay in their lane on their own, You can start to rotate. As you start to rotate look for fights around the mid lane or solo lane and try to interrupt as much as possible. It is important to keep farming as you need to keep up with enemy team too!

Tips for rotating:
1.Prioritize the lane that is having a hard time. For example if your solo laner constantly gets ganked or cannot fight against enemy solo laner, there is no point to stay in mid lane or ADC lane.
2.Follow the enemy support, always check where they are ,in case they cause some trouble.
3.Try to assist minion waves while rotating. It is not a shame to share exp. They are also yours!
4.If the enemy support stays in ADC lane forever that's a good thing for you since they get less exp from minion waves but... Always check if your ADC is safe. In this situation, you may want to rotate between mid lane and ADC lane in order to keep your ADC alive.
5.Do not rotate too much! Yes, you may fall behind while trying to help every lane. Just rotate when they need you there.
6.If you have won a fight and there are not many people alive in the enemy team you have a great advantage to kill objectives. As a support you are able to take the incoming damage and get the objective easily. So, call your team (press VAG, VAF) and kill it before the enemy team respawns. note : If you have a sentry ward don't forget to put a sentry ward so they won't be able to steal it.

click here to see gameplay tips

Starting to build

Possible Support Starter Items



Sentinel's Gift : the most used support starter. It is just a better version of the old support starter. It will provide you gold for each minion you assist also will give you mana and hp which keeps you on the lane longer.

War Flag : This is only recommended if you want to play aggressive. Not as good as Sentinel's Gift but still viable.

Benevolence : Instead of getting more gold on each minion or jungle camp kill you get exp and gold per second. Also on god kills and minion kills you will only get %90 of the exp from kills and you give %10 of that exp to an ally near you. It depends on your playstyle whether this item is good. This is a very tactical item and requires careful gameplay.

Upgraded Support Starter Items
Animosity

Sentinel's Boon : At this phase of the game gold isn't crucial for you. Also most of the items you buy as a support have sustain. Therefore, you won't need %3 mana and health regeneration in a team fight. Enemy team can also counter this by antiheal items and auras. This isn't a great option compared to Sentinel's Embrace.

Sentinel's Embrace : Almost op, as a support, auras are so important. Yet, Sentinel's Embrace is the only item that gives 20-50 magical and physical protection aura (depending on how many teammates are near you). If you have and you can give 65 physical and 70 magical protections to one of your allies which makes them pretty tanky.

Spartan Flag : Not as great as Sentinel's Embrace, you damage an enemy god and you call a spartan flag at your location. It has 70 units range. Enemies can just decide to leave that location. It also lasts for 10 seconds.

War Banner : Simply a regeneration item, it won't help much in team fights unless you fight near minions. Still counterable with anti heal items and auras.

Compassion : I don't want to say anything certain but I can say that Sentinel's Embrace is still better than this. It works like a sponge you receive a portion of the incoming damage from enemies.

Animosity : It will probably be nerfed soon and no longer deal damage to structures. It may work better on the solo lane, as support you won't need to deal damage to enemies. I think it's just a fun item. Works better on ranged supports

Support Starts
Aggressive start
Simple Start
Early Stacking Start

Builds and Strategies


It would be a big mistake to build the same items over and over again since Support builds highly depend on the enemy team's gods and their builds. In this section, I will show you how you decide what to build.

1.: Preferred starter item and relics



Recommended Starting Relics
(This is a relic that can win you team fights) (a very aggressive relic but works really well on specific gods)

Second Relic Recommendation:
(really good counter to healers also its upgraded version has %20 damage increase on enemies who are healed by their abilities this is really strong in team fights.) (it is better to buy this as a second relic because when you unlock the second relic you will be pretty tanky to dive in enemies) (really good relic to secure kills and counter enemy ADC) (works really well on objectives and in team fights as well) (This relic increases your movement speed for 5 seconds It can be used in many situations. For example, when you want to retreat faster or you want to help your teammate by making them faster you can use Heavenly wings. If enemies try to get an objective time becomes even more important you use heavenly wings to reach objective location to either protect or steal the objective)

2.: After your starter item, it is always better to get shoes because movement speed is crucial in season 8.

If you want to play aggressively, in the beginning, get or If you want to play safe get or
= Perfect cheap cooldown reduction but a little bit risky with no defence
= High early damage output but risky with no defence
= Perfect for immobile gods and pretty good if you want to rotate a lot.
= Pretty defensive and a safer option (recommended)

3.: Gauntlet of Thebes , This item gives you health and hp5 and provides you with both magical and physical protections as it stacks up. It is one of the best items for the support role. It also provides protection for your allies which is really important when it comes to competitive gameplay. It is better to get this as your third item since you need to stack it up. If you have the aggressive starter with Druid Stone you can upgrade it to . (if you buy Stone of binding buy Thebes for the 4th item never skip it)


4.: For the 4th item, I highly recommend you buy or (Heartward Amulet is only when you play against a magical ADC or when you are under pressure by magical enemies.) If you want more early Cooldown reduction you can go with Why you should get these items? They are cheap and really impactful, Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet are the only items that provide protection aura without stacking. You should consider getting them, ALSO Sovereignty gives you and your allies +35 hp every 5 seconds which gives you enough sustain. Heartward Amulet also gives you +30 mana every 5 seconds. You can get for the 4th item as well. However, it is only good when you play aggressive but it provides no aura for your teammates.

5.: This can be a counter item, If your enemies have too much lifesteal, crits, high attack speed or they are too tanky, In this phase of the game you will definitely need a counter item. I will show you what to build in detail below. click Situational items


6.: For the last item you can either get an item with protections or something a little more aggressive that has magical power and debuffs. Some support gods are good at applying them while some aren't good with magical power items.

Offensive options :
(really good on )
(Rod of Asclepius works best on healer supports)

Defensive options :


7.: This is for shoes replacement. After you upgrade your starter item, considering you have excessive gold and getting the sixth item by selling shoes, this should be a higher price item such as


Items that work really well with some specific gods
1. Lotus Crown Lotus Crown : This item provides physical and magical protections for your teammates when they interact with your healing abilities.

This item is a magical protection item. Therefore it would be better to buy it as 4th or 5th item unless you have a magical ADC opponent.

2. Relic Dagger + Blink Rune : This combo is highly recommended for gods with no mobility
such as . It still is a great item combo especially for gods with crowd control ultimates like

Note: + This stands for boots replacement. You can buy to get rid of your boots when you have enough golds.

Situational Items

There are some situations that you should be aware of. For example:

High auto attack based enemy team


For a team like this you should build items that reduces their attack speed. For example:
+
High healing based enemy team


For a team like this you should build antiheal items earlier in order to reduce their sustainability . For example:
+
High critical damage based enemy team


For a team like this you should build anti-crit items in order to counter them. For example:

Note: Geb's passive reduces taken critical damage by 75%. In ranked gameplay grab him if you have the chance when you have this kind of enemies.

+
Tanky team


For a team like this you should build protection reduction items in order to counter them. For example:

+

Viable Support Gods & Tier List and why you should play these Gods in Season 8!

(These are just my thoughts do not send hate If you don't agree with me pls)

S tier
These are gods that are clearly better compared to other support gods. They should be banned in ranked gameplay.



Cthulhu: Cthulhu has always been so strong and has one of the highest ban rate among guardians. In season 8 jungles are almost like the Amazon Rainforest. Now that we have wider jungles Cthulhu's ultimate is even better at team fights. He is also easy to play grab him if you have the chance!

Yemoja : Yemoja provides high sustainability with her passive and healing ability. This keeps you on the lane which means more exp and gold. She is great at team fights and has a very strong ultimate very mobile with her 3. She has almost everything you need! She requires practice and a little hard to play.



A tier
These are gods that are slightly better compared to other guardian gods.



Geb: Geb has great mobility and it is one of the most valuable things in season 8. The bigger map has made it harder to rotate for every role. Now it is really important to have decent mobility. His passive is something that everybody sleeps on it reduces crit damage you receive so you can peel enemy ADC easily if they have a crit dependent build. His rolling ability puts him in a better place on this list. He also has a great ability to defend allies providing them with a shield .

Sobek: In season 8 we have more space to fight! Now that we have more space in the conquest map Sobek's pulling up is more effective both offensive and defensive. In season 7 jungle areas weren't that wide that enemy ADC would probably toss a wall and stick to their Support so they would stay safe. Now you can throw them miles away so enemy Support won't be able to protect the ADC or you can pull the threats back so ally ADC stays safe.

Athena: Athena has one of the best mobility among guardians and she is great at peeling.

Ganesha:Protection buff and Damage buff to allies, silence, dash, stun, an ultimate that does more damage than a mage does what do you want more from a guardian? His passive allows your ADC or allies to get the killing blow even when you get the kill so they will have the lead over enemies.

Khepri:Great ultimate! I am living for it. Literally!

Kuzenbo:He is a nightmare for ADC players with his thorns. Great at peeling and his ultimate cleanses all crowd control effects on him.



B tier
These are gods that are viable and playable.


Artio: She recently received a buff that decreases her mana consumption. She can be played aggressively on the early game by spamming abilities.

Bacchus: Knock-up , stun and lots of crowd control but he has too much mana consumption.

Terra: Healing , enough crowd control and a damage buff on her ultimate.

Fafnir: Average support, his ultimate is good in teamfights

Xing Tian: Safe to play not great as others




C tier
These are gods that struggle in some situations but still playable.


Jormungandr: He has not enough cc and bad at peeling he is more viable on the solo lane. Only pick him in solo if you need magical power in your team!

Cerberus: His only cc ability (except his ult) is his first ability and it is really hard to hit even for a pro player in some situations it's impossible to hit it. He is an offensive guardian and it's better to play him on solo. Again, physical solo laners are so powerful now in Smite season 8. Only play them if you need magical power in your team.

Kumbhakarna : His first ability is useless, the second ability takes years to land, the third you need to get really close to enemies there are just better options. Not viable on solo.

Cabrakan: He is not as effective as other Supports in team fights and lanes. He is viable in the jungle. He is not so good in solo with the new starter items that buff physical solo laners.

Sylvanus,Ares,Ymir: No mobility

Guan yu, Horus, Fenrir: These are viable physical Supports but two physical gods in the same lane may be a struggle as your opponents can build physical protection against you. If you have a magical ADC these gods could be really good picks!



D tier
Not a reliable support. Do not touch these if you want to win.


THE REST: Some new players think healing teammates is enough for being a Support, but a true Support should be tanky enough to get hits in order to protect their allies. They also need to have crowd control abilities. Plus, Mages have weaker stats compared to guardian gods so you should be aware of this.

Gameplay tips and Glossary

Tips:

Early Game Tips:
1. In the beginning phase of the game If you clear the wave faster than the enemy team you have a great advantage to take the lead and it is easier to get the first kill.
2.If you get to level 2 quicker than the enemy team you have a great advantage to get the early kill. Which will send them to base while you reach level 3. It will continue like a snowball effect.
3. Do not dive before you are tanky enough. Your gameplays should be in the middle of the ADC lane. If you dive too much and get closer to their tower in early game you are most likely to be ganked.
4. Do not ask for a gank when it is not necessary. If your jungler tries to gank unnecessarily and fail this will lose you exp and gold from minion waves.
5. Always check your map, If the enemy mid laner is not on the lane you have the risk to be ganked and killed. When they are missing, get closer to your tower to secure yourself in early gameplay.
6. Stay in the jungle side of the ADC lane for potential ganks. If your ADC keeps staying there just message them. It's cruicial and very useful, you can just bodyblock an enemy ganker in order to keep your ADC safe.

Mid game, Late game tips:
1. Always be where you need to be and keep your peeling abilities for a potential threat that can kill your ADC, mage or jungler.
2. Mages do the highest burst damage. So when you are doing an objective such as Fire giant, Gold Fury try to peel enemy mage since they can easily steal the objective.
3. When you are grouped up and your team can potentially destroy a tower or a phoenix always take the lead and get hit by the tower or a phoenix so your teammates can destroy it easily.
4. There are more than one situation in team fights. In a team fight, you should disrupt enemy ADC and mage in order to win it. At the same time, you should keep your eyes on your ADC and other teammates if they are safe.
5. Never focus on tanky enemies when there are damage dealers alive.

General tips:
1. As a support you won't need gold as much as your teammates do. So, try to avoid killing minions. You can still assist but do not completely kill them.
2. Lets say you are on solo lane with the solo laner and the solo laner goes to mid lane for a potential gank & kill . Never stay in solo lane! Follow your solo laner as it's obvious they are going to be fighting.
3. Do not clean jungle camps alone. This will waste your time plus will cause your teammates to fall behind.




Glossary:
To peel: to prevent enemies from attacking their targets, It is one of the most important aspects of a Team fight. Many gods have Crowd Control abilities to do this. Anything that prevents enemies from attacking including body blocking is peeling

To gank: To attack an enemy by surprise. Anybody in game can gank not only junglers

ADC: Attack Damage Carry. Generally used to speak about Hunters, gold and item dependent gods that can be quite dangerous at later stages of the game.

HP5: Health regenerated per every 5 seconds

MP5: Mana regenerated per every 5 seconds

Conclusion

I hope this helps you! I would be happy to see your feedback and comments.
I will keep this guide updated as I gather more info.
Do not forget to give me thumbs up :3

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Collapse All Comments

1
Trippinballz | April 19, 2021 11:39pm
This is great. Thanks
1
Devampi (105) | February 3, 2021 2:15am
At this point in time I fear I don't think this guide is at the point the title says it is, therefore I withhold from voting at this point.

The biggest reason for this is your gameplay section. I am mostly seeing early game things and 1 late-game/teamfighting stage thing. This will need quite some big improvements. Some stuff beginners to the role usually struggle with is the big question of when to rotate and when to stay in the duo lane. While you do say something about it at the start it does not answer the question.

Now from top to bottom:

The role is actually called support in the selection screen. I would recommend changing the title to that as you also include warriors in the tier list and only cover the support role, while some guardians are also seen in the solo lane.

For the warding map, I recommend better visibility of the map. The circles' colours are a bit hard to see.

For the rotating part it's such an amount of surface lvl information that for beginners it's not going to help that much. either causing no rotations or weak rotations. Causing them to fall behind.

For the starter section Benevolence also provides a 10% of minion exp and gold towards the ally. works on minion assist too.
In your boots start is impossible as hands of the gods consumes a consumable slot so you miss out on one type of potion.
Also, I expect after the testing of the upgrades to also see a bit more of when to grab starter X as that is kinda lacking. you slightly did this for war banner but there is more to it than your plan to play aggressive. enemy duo and your adc impact it a lot.

on the relic suggestions. Start relics are fine the 2 most common ones. your second relic choice is a bit limited. no Cursed Ankh, Heavenly Agility, Blink Rune or Magic Shell. You do mention shield of torns which is a really uncommon pickup in the support role compared to the other teamfight relics.

On the part of the boots, nicely explained although I would change traveller's shoes description towards if you plan to rotate a lot. The 4% higher movement speed isn't that noticeable the 20% out of combat MS is.

for the other items, I am missing Stone of Binding heavily especially as you have a start towards it. likely some other items too.
would change the grab Gauntlet of Thebes to after boots as people can consider item slots without including the starter. Also sometimes other items might be better before thebes pushing it a slot back.
On a support I would not recommend Genji's Guard as CDR option it;s too selfish compared to Shogun's Kusari. BoV is more accepted as there is not really a substitute on the physical side. I am missing the mention of Pridwen, which is one of the most commonly seen support CDR items with some exception.
Not happy with the late recommended Sovereignty it's a lot stronger early. Mystical Mail is a really rare pickup on supports. Honestly, for my taste, you're recommended items show a really selfish focussed support build. This requires someone to be extremely good at body blocking and using their abilities to peel, a skill beginner supports often lack. I would recommend you to check smiteguru for the popularity per slot stats and the "outdated" top player builds (they are from last season for some reason) to see what I mean with some of the above.

All in all for the item section while most item picks are good it isn't really clear what thoughts someone should think when getting certain items for a certain slot. This is partly caused by the huge amount of recommendations.

I am also missing some more aggressive item options which are grabbed on supports like Ethereal Staff or Spear of the Magus.

Not really gonna discuss your tier list. the only note I have to make is that Baron Samedi is one of the only 'healing' mages that can decently support as his heal is mostly missing % of hp based instead of power, therefore he does not suffer the problem of needing power and can commit to tank builds.

already said it but the gameplay tips section is a bit shallow.
1
Ozanoku (1) | February 3, 2021 8:06am
Thank you for your feedback I will edit those points you have mentioned and keep updating it :>
1
Big Damage (37) | February 2, 2021 1:37pm
https://smite.gamepedia.com/Conquest

On that page is a higher quality image of the Conquest map if you wish to use it to make your warding image much clearer and better quality.
1
Ozanoku (1) | February 3, 2021 12:44am
I will replace them with better quality images thank you!:>
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