Solo Lane Guide , Basic Outlining of Solo lane , what it is and how to approach towards it.

Hi guys . I'am finally back after 6 months.

I started a Build Series of Solo lane , which concluded of mostly Warriors, which featured Bellona and Sun Wukong . Then Season 3 came out , and i had exam season. Finally summer is back and i can start on these again.

Ill Update my Guides for season 3 or just make new ones as it flows.

But in this case my main focus is in the basics. Again i'am planning to reach Gold by end of this season , So i'am still stuck on Silver 2 for the moment.

I see many people call solo ( since they are top elo and lock gods like Erlang Shenwithout knowing what the outcome shall be .

So in this guide ill look into the basics, the advance and the Major Solo lane tips which i can guarantee , you will solo almost every person you face.

I have played solo lane for over a year now ( You can check my IGN : Wilstorms414 )
and ill love to share my knowledge to get a better Smite MM and Games.

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1) Over-Confidence.

Confidence is a term where you have the mentality that you can overcome whats ahead of you. In solo lane confidence is crucial , but not over taking that confidence, and try to use the mechanic "think before you act".

Lets take a scenario : we have YOU against PLAYER A. You have 3 Kills over your lane partner and you almost feel PLAYER A is done for the rest of the game . Suddenly you are loosing team fights , just because you kept on ignoring PLAYER A thinking he wont bring any harm to you , instead , his team fight presence out-ways that of yours.

I have my personal saying , " Kills don't matter Skills matter " . Its simple as that.

Yes you maybe Ravana who has 3 kills on PLAYER A who may be is Odin and you kept on having that thought ' He is worthless currently because i'am Lvl 18 while he is Lvl 15' . Remember there are 4 other team members in the game . What if your mid lanner is also Lvl 15 and gets camped by the Odin and you kept on ignoring him for the team to destroy your back-line and you get destroyed after.

Always think what the enemy partner can do , even tho he is behind of you doesn't mean the match is won . You don't define the victory as being ahead . Team defined the victory.

having this mentality on what my partner "can" do and what they "can't" do will always place you in a position to counter and win. Its simple as that.

Trying to minimize your confidence over your Team, will always be beneficial. Don't carry just play your part :).

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2) Counter Picking

I would not consider this under advanced, because for you to be a solo lane player you need to know what counters your lane partner. Its the most basic mechanic / knowledge , and i see many people fail to do this.

i) Knowing on how to counter your enemy GOD.

Mostly in the solo lane people go warriors . According to me , these are the top 5 warriors for s3 post 3.15 patch.

1) Erlang Shen : Single target burst, lane bully, great team fight abilities. (Top Pick)

2) Ravana : Single target burst and breakdown , Lane bully , Quick Poke ( Top Pick)

3) Amaterasu : Great team fight presence , Insane heal , Great go in get out mechanics (Top Pick)

4) Bellona : Lane Bully , Insane Burst and Moderate Heal . Moderate Team Fight Presence. ( picked Situational)

5) Sun Wukong : King of Poke , Great Bully in terms of Disrupting , Master of Making people rage quit . ( picked Situational)

Now . As a solo lanner you need to know how to counter all warriors and what they can bring in a team fight. Here is my list on how to counter the above warriors which are mostly picked. ( Ill make another guide focusing on 1 warrior and showing how to counter that).

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1) Erlang Shen

Main counters to Erlang Shen are : Ravana , Odin , Sun Wukong.

Breakdown

a) Ravana : Ravana has the potential to bully Erlang Shen due to the immunity from Overhead Kick to immune Pin or 9 Turns Blessing. Ravana also has the potential to insanely burst Erlang Shen after he uses his ult , which can easily kill him in 4secs , if times all of his abilities right.

b) Odin : Yes he can coutner Erlang Shen like a boss. Ring of Spears is a really great tool agaisnt 9 Turns Blessing . It Lasts 6 secs, which is good enough to counter the Heal from 9 Turns Blessing. Secondly , The slow from Gungnir's Might is really good for Erlang Shen as he has no form of slow immunity unlike Sun Wukong 72 Transformations . Which can make Odin stick to him and possibly set a kill for the jungler.

c) Sun Wukong. In the lore its said Erlang Shen beat Sun Wukong However in smite, Sun Wukong out-ways the options Erlang Shen brings. Sun Wukong has all the abilites to counter Erlang Shen abilities. Here is how .

1) Spot Weakness : Theres no way Erlang Shen can catch up with Sun Wukong to have the effect of this ability. Sun Wukong has the ability to safe poke both the minions and Erlang Shen and sit under tower all day without being damaged by this ability.

2) Pin : The damage is too minimal , but the main part of the ability is the cripple and root which allows Erlang Shen to catch up and blow the enemy god with basic attacks however, Sun Wukong Ox form from 72 Transformations is good enough to disrupt and it provides immunity to roots .

3) 72 Transformations ES : Lets start with the cat form , Sun Wukong cat form beats Erlang Shen Mink, just because Sun Wukong Cat form provides a stun , where by Mink provides attack speed buff which is worthless since theres no catching Sun Wukong . The Turtle Form, The shield provided is good but just The Magic Cudgle and Master's Will damage is good enough to eliminate the shield, and this abilities also hit the minions together with the god. So win-win situation.

4) 9 Turns Blessing : The only good thing about this ability is the taunt, after the recent nerf on the heal , the ability is just used for the taunt for a set up. Sun Wukong can just bait the ult and heal up with Somersault Cloud and bash punishment again.

The Counter Build against Erlang Shen .

Core : ,

If Ability Based : , ,

If Auto Attack Based ( AA ) : , , or , .

General Final Build :

If Ability based: , , , , , . Late game , sell Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord.

If AA Based : , , , , , . Mostly Winged Blade is situation for AA Based and you can swap it for Qin's Sais.

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2) Ravana

The god of bully. He has the ability to insanly burst you at the same time VET all day. He has the ability to poke and also sustain any incoming poke .

Main counters to Ravana are : Osiris , Bellona , Amaterasu.

Breakdown

i) Osiris : He is the only god in my opinion that can out-way Ravana and iam talking on a professional level and not casuals / Bronze Ranked gameplay where people fail to realise the potential of Osiris. Osiris passive , Fragmented , is one of the best passives for a WARRIOR in this game. The ability to reduce damage by 16% early game is a lot . And by late game you have other defense items from your kit and Build to become an indestructible stone if played correctly ( i shall make a guide on this later). Ravana main way of winning lanes is the burst damage. Which Osiris can mitigate insanely. Let me break down the Damage Reduction.

Fragmented : Provides 16% Reduction.
Judgement Tether : Lets say you have just 1 point onto this ability 10% plus 5% per second , and as usual the Overhead Kick ability will be used to immune the Stun at the end, so lets forget about the stun. So 5% per sec for 4 secs thats 20%.

In total at lvl 5 , Osiris can mitigate 46% Physical Damage. Archers which deal most damage early deal 25 per hit , with this if you take minion aggro you take 14 per hit. Which also Death's Toll can help you heal up easily ( 2 Basics ) .

In terms of Ravana Burst. Usually he shall have 2 points in Prana Onslaught which shall deal , 135 damage without protections. So that damage is reduced to 62 concidering Osiris Mitigation.

TL:DR Osiris can handle all the pressure Ravana brings to the table making him an excellent Counter agaisnt him.

ii) Bellona : Bellona has the potential to outclear Ravana which always places her in a better spot . Clearing the lane faster allows minion aggro on the god, which leads to extra 100 or 200 damage from minions ontop of your own burst. And if they wish not to clear, they shall loose the gold and hence fall behind gradually. Bellona passive also gives her protections to handle the burst from Prana Onslaught . Scourge allows safe poke as well as Bludgeon allows insane pressure.

iii) Amaterasu : The whole reason shes a counter , is because of her Burst ability , Heavenly Reflection plus her heal over time from Divine Presence. Her burst charges up so quickly against Ravana since the main combo of a Ravana is, Basic Attack , Prana Onslaught , Basic attack , 10-Hand Shadow Fist, Basic Attack . Overhead Kick. In the mean time before you Release the Damage from the burst, bait the Overhead Kick and then release the burst. It usually takes 3 seconds to do this combo and the charge time takes 5secs. Concidering the combo is done if not, charge , quickly burst if you assume you'll deal more damage.

If more punishment is deal, Amaterasu can easily heal up all the damage and get back onto the fight .

Counter Building :
The Counter Build against Ravana .

Core : ,

If Ability Based : , ,

If Auto Attack Based ( AA ) : , , or , .

General Final Build :

If Ability based: , , , , , . Late game , sell Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord.

If AA Based : , , , , , . Mostly Winged Blade is situation for AA Based and you can swap it for Qin's Sais.

You generally want to counter the slow and the basic attacks hence Winged Blade is the best overall option here , which also works hand in hand with Hide of the Nemean Lion

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iii) Amaterasu .

Main counters to Amaterasu are : Erlang Shen , Vamana , Ravana

1) Erlang Shen : Is there more to say to this god . Root , Insane Burst Heal , Quick Slash damage, Knock up , Self buff and Disrupt . He has got it all to sustain the damage Amaterasu brings to the game. The main reason Amaterasu is top pick is for the team presence which Erlang Shen brings also. The main thing to do as Erlang Shen is to disrupt the back-line and not "DIVE" the back-line.

2) Vamana : Finally big baby boy is seen. Vamana has the ability to bully any gods that need the priotise clearing wave over poking the god, Vamana does both , he can poke at the same time clearing the wave. Amaterasu needs to go in use her Heavenly Reflection clear the wave and then can poke , [{Vamana]] can disrupt this ability with his Clear The Path , since Heavenly Reflection is a point to hit skill shot , he can disrupt the point where she wishes to hit this ability and enabling less wave clear, then further poking , then disrupt then poke and then rage quit F6!.

Counter Building againt Amaterasu :

Amaterasu is a Damage utility based god, over a Basic attack god. People fail to see this fact. So going damage disruption items such as Breastplate of Valor and Void Shield can help you counter her Heavenly Reflection so easily . For the heal going Pestilence as well as Curse can help you reduce this since its a heal over time and not a burst heal.

General Build :

Ability based : , , , , , .Late game Sell Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord

AA Based : , , , , , . Late game Sell Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord

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3) Warding Areas.

Wards win games. This is the most common saying in conquest. If you have eyes on the enemy movement you have eyes on the victory screen. Simply because you can eliminate your enemy strategy by counter acting on what they are about to do.

Below are the points of warding , which shall enable efficient enemy visibility.

Orange indicates the warding areas from Chaos side , and Blue indicates warding areas from Order side.

Diamond indicates Ward
Star indicates Sentry Ward

Explanations :

Warding at the enemy blue buff - This encourages your invade potential as well as knowing when the enemy jungler is around. This ensures a good vision on the enemy , as well as a good call on the gold fury.

Warding on the Upper Mid Camp - This enabled sight on the jungler as well as mid movement. Since from 0.45 seconds to 9.30 secs theres a brawl at the fire imps , this gives good idea for a potential suprise gank ( if you are ahead ) .

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The most crucial part of every role. When and Why to rotate.

If you are planning to rotate , you have to ask yourself . What will i benefit from it. Is the kill i'm going to get worth the exp and gold i'm gonna miss and , what if they invade your buffs , what if the rotation gank fails , what if you die instead of the person being ganked.

All of this are meant to be considered .

WHEN TO ROTATE AS A SOLO LANER :

1) Only rotate when you are ahead of the enemy solo lanner. You don't wanna rotate if your enemy solo lanner is 3 levels ahead of you . If you do so, you'll miss the free farm you are getting , since the enemy solo lanner might rotate to your mid or duo , just farm that exp push the tower, apply that pressure and try and get the lead back. Never start fights which are assured to loose.

2) Proxy farming the wave . You might say the same for the enemy solo lanner, when he is behind, he shall stay in lane and push, while you are trying to complete a gank which may or may not be successful. However, this can be minimized when proxy farming the wave , before rotating. Proxy farming means, getting the wave before the minions meet each other in lane. If you have pushed the minions into the enemy tower, The enemy minion wave will be at the tier 2 tower ( this is almost every time , since waves spawn every 30 sec. ) To know this , see your mini map , and see where your newly spawned wave is , That is where the enemy wave is also. So after proxing the wave, the enemy lanner wont have another option other than clearing the wave pressuring the tower and the newly spawned wave, allowing a 2-2.30 min free rotation.

3) After Getting the Tier 1 Tower . This is the most efficient way to rotate. Getting the enemy tier 1 faster than your enemy lanner takes yours, always puts you in a position to rotate. Your TP will always be used to come back to tier 1, but after you take your enemy tier 1 , NEVER , and i mean never TP to tier 1. Its quite worthless at the point since you already gained the benefit of the lane. Use the TP to engage in taemfights since it shall be a 5v4 benefit for your team and potential Gold Fury call.

4) When you see an opening . Lets say your enemy TP'ed back to lane, and you pressure him enough that he has to back. Knowing when your enemy TP'ed , allows you to have a free rotation , as it taked 30-60 seconds to get back to lane on feet. This allows you to pressure camps, or maybe a potential gank in mid lane.

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BUILDS FOR WARRIORS .

As a warrior , you are supposed to be the shield of the Team. Therefore your main stats to maximize are Def,CDR and CCR . Damage is not an option unless you are very ahead.

Below is my general Build for warriors .

BUILDS FOR ABILITY BASED GODS ( Tyr, Chaac , Hercules , Vamana , Odin , Guan Yu and Sun Wukong )

Against 3 Physicals .

, , , , , . Late game sell Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord.

Against 3 Magicals .

, , , , , .

BUILDS FOR AA-Auto Attack BASED GODS ( Amaterasu , Bellona , Erlang Shen , Ravana , Osiris )

Against 3 Physicals .

, , , , , . Late game sell Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord.

Against 3 Magicals . (Reason for Hide of the Nemean Lion is that youll be diving the backline , where the only physical is that is the Hunters.)

, , , , , .

Incase you feel you need more attack speed over Defence, Swap Hide of the Nemean Lion for Winged Blade .

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COUNTER BUILDING YOUR LANE PARTNER .

If your lane partner is AA based ; Main items you should get are Hide of the Nemean Lion , Witchblade or Frostbound Hammer. This shuts down their burst potential. The 90 physical protection from Hide of the Nemean Lion also helps for tower dives as well as reducing any ability damage from someone like Ravana , Bellona or Erlang Shen.

If you lane partner is Ability based : Your main objective is to shut their Damage output, therefor main items should be Void Shield , Hide of the Nemean Lion , Breastplate of Valor. Your solo purpose is to outpoke them , and if they try to do the same, they shall fail due to the flat pen from Void Shield allowing minions to do more damage.

If lanning against a Healer : Just get Pestilence as early as possible. Lets say if they are Guan Yu , get Warrior Tabi, Breastplate of Valor and then Pestilence to shut their healing. Or you could forget teleport and get Curse as your first relic, if you are confident enough to shut them down early.

Your main relics should be :

1) Teleport : This relic is so important to solo lanners, due to the fact that the Towers are closely placed, therefore minions can reach to them quicker and your tower can go down by the 3 min clock time . Risking this item for another relic in the start is not efficient, unless you are sure to win the star phase. Getting first blooded will put you behind of the solo lane , unless the enemy solo lanner is not smart enough to snowball, you are pretty much out of the game.

2) Meditation : You are the team fighter and shield, as a solo lanner getting Meditation gives your team a second chance, however get meditation only if your Support hasnt gotten it. Having 2 Medititation in on team is not worth , rather get other relics to support the team. Always use Meditation when the enemy team has used their anti-heal on the team. Curse, Divine Ruine , Brawler's Beat Stick all reduce the effect of this relic. Getting this relic on guardians is better than on warriors as warriors get Defence items and not HEALTH items. But its always a good team fight option.

3) Curse : If your guardian has taken meditation your option is to take Curse as it shuts down the enemy healing as well as escapes really good. However you need to time the effect on this. Pop curse when you are sure the enemy team has used up the Sprint . They are most likely to pop Sprint instantly the moment you use Curse.

4) Shell : In my opinion , Shell is more of a Warrior item rather than a Guardian Item , just due to the fact that, Guardians are supposed to provide the CC to set up kills and Warriors are supposed to provide the Disruption and constant poke to dismantle the enemy strategy. So as a warrior jumping in 3 people in the backline, its efficient to use Shell to the team , allowing the team to survive any incoming onslaught as well as you can dive backline , allowing a Win-Win situation on your side. so pop Shell, leave your team to damage , as they shall take reduced damage, Dive backline to disrupt get the victory in team fights.

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I tried my best to gather all my ingame knowledge and come up with this guide.

Again iam not a pro , just a person stuck in Silver 2 who has experience in solo lane and wanted to share it out.

All comments are appreciated , further corrections or even further ideas are appreciated.

Ill come up with my Warrior guides soon , Starting with Top 5 warriors , i.e Erlang Shen , Ravana , Amaterasu , Bellona , Sun Wukong and so on.

vvgl vvgf and as awlays VVGG! <3