Overview
Some small gameplay Mechanics You may not have known about or Noticed
Diminishing Returns
So one thing that Smite has is the fact that nearly all of the stats have diminishing returns, or basically that the more of one stat you build the less that stat will do for you. One of the Simplest examples would be Protections, The equation for protections
(unmitigated damage X 100)/(100 + protections) = damage taken
Makes it so if you have 100 protections you take half damage, if you have 200 damage you take a third of the damage, and if you have 300 protections you take a quarter of the damage. The amount of damage the protections protect you from get lower and lower. Then there is another catch, you can only have up to 325 of any type of protection.
Certain types of CC like slows are also affected by diminishing returns. Basically if you hit someone with 30% slow and then a 20% slow they will not be slowed by 50%. Really any amount of slows that goes over 40% will start to be reduced.
Diminishing Returns also affect things like Movement Speed and certain debuffs
Stat Caps
As stated in the previous section Protections are capped at 325. So what exactly does this mean? Well if you build to 250 protections you’ll have 250 protections, but if you build to say 700 protections the game will only say you have 325 protections and you effectively will only have 325 protections.
So what other stats are affected by caps?
Technically Basic Attack Damage has a cap of 10,000… and if you can get over this cap then you are a cheater. Usually the highest this will get to the 300-400s and will never get anywhere close to 1000.
Physical power and Magical power have something I like to call a Soft Cap. the physical power cap is at 400 and and the magical power cap is at 900 and these numbers are based on the maximum amount of power you can get from passive items alone. however with power buff, fire giant buff, power potions, and passives you can go over these caps and the game will register the extra damage undiminished.
Attack speed is capped at 2.5. Small tip when building hunters/auto attack gods. Take into consideration any auto attack steroids they have and plan accordingly so you don’t overcap that badly
Lifesteal is capped at 65. Basically only a few gods can ever hit this cap so you usually don’t have to worry about this cap
Penetration is capped at 50. That said this cap only effects flat penetration and not percentage penetration so items like obsidian shard and titan’s bane are unaffected
Critical hit chance is capped at 100… basically that means every auto attack will crit… I don’t think anything past 100% chance of something happening is even possible…
Health is capped at 5500 hp. Generally you don’t have to worry about overcapping this as unless you were playing with the broken version of gauntlet of thebes (no longer in the game) you will generally reach 4000 health at max if you are building health items.
HP5 and MP5 are capped at 100. This basically means at any time you will at max be able to regenerate 20 hp or mp every seconds.
Movement speed has a cap of 1000, but thanks to the fact that it is affected by diminishing returns you generally will generally get maybe over 510 with a few gods.
Cooldown reduction is capped at 40%. meaning you shave off 4 seconds off a 10 second ability.
Mana is capped at 4000. Even Kukulkan who builds a lot of mana items generally will not reach this cap
How Towers/Phoenixes/Titans work
Towers are immobile structures that blast things that come into it’s range (indicated by runes on the ground). If a tower hits a minion then that minion no longer drops any gold, but will still drop xp. Tower damage is physical so if you build physical protections you can soak up several shots. If you get hit by successive tower shots then each shot will do more damage than the last. If the tower shoots you and you leave it’s range the shot will still hit you. Even if you dash/leap away the shot will follow you to the ends of the world. Also you cannot harm Towers with most abilities, although if you summon minions they can damage the tower for you.
Phoenixes are similar to Towers however once killed they will respawn after 4 minutes. However when they respawn they will deal 50% less damage, 50% less maximum health, and they will only have 25% of that health bar filled (it regenerates though).
Titans are the most different considering you can harm them with most abilities (No you cannot use a Janus ult from your base to 1 shot the enemy titan). Titans use Towers and Phoenixes to determine it’s max health and protections, so if you just rush down a single lane but have 4 towers and 2 phoenixes left then the enemy titan will be very hard to kill. While the Titan will only be able to be harmed when you have taken down a phoenix, if you keep the Titan in combat then even if all the phoenixes ressurect you can still harm the Titan. Leashing the enemy Titan will regenerate it’s health, and killing an enemy god will restore some of your own titan’s health. The Titan cannot regenerate it’s health from any other means until all 3 phoenixes are ressurected.
Gold Fury and Fire Giant
Gold Fury does physical damage, and reduces lifesteal by 50%.
Fire Giant also reduces lifesteal by 50%, but he can do both physical and magical damage.
Move effects that you may not have known part 1
Small disclaimer in making this part of the guide I’m using one big assumption and a slightly smaller assumption. The first assumption is that you understand what the general purpose of a move is, for instance the general purpose for Agni’s ult is to do damage. The second assumption is that if a move is a steroid you understand what it does.
Also a thanks to the Smite Reddit community for helping me make this little addition to my subtle gameplay mechanic guide. They helped add or remove information that was or wasn’t important or factually accurate (still may be a few things wrongs in some terminology, but it should be good for the most part)
So here is the list of god’s and moves that have parts that may be a little subtle if you didn’t read the ability’s text well enough in alphabetical order.
Agni: His ult costs no mana
Apollo: His 2 gives him physical protections, and his 3 gives him and allies he dashes through movement speed. The 3 also slows enemies he dashes through and he gains a stack of audacity for every enemy he dashes through.
Arachne: While you may know that her 3’s web makes her move faster you may not know it makes her slow immune
Ares: His 1 increases his movement speed, his 2 grants him more protections depending on how many people he has chained.
Artemis: If you summon tusky and there is no god nearby, but some minions are nearby tusky will go attack the minions (and if tusky gets in range of a god doing this he’ll still charge)
Athena: If the person your ulting dies you’ll still do damage wherever you land
Bacchus: His passive gives magic power and damage reduction, his 1 gives protections not just feed his drunk-o-meter, his 2 can slow, his 3 can give a healing debuff along with a stun, and his ult can grant him additional magic power.
Bakasura: His 1 reduces physical protections, his 2 also increases his own protections, and his 3 gives him passive power along with that true damage
Bastet: After she pounces she moves faster for 5 seconds or until she jumps back
Bellona: Her different weapons have different auto attack chains. Her normal sword has 1/.5/1.5, her shield has 1/.5/1, her hammer has 1.5/1/1.5 and hits in a area, her scourge has 1/1.25/1 and has a slightly longer range.
Cabrakan: He actually has a passive which gives nearby allies 5% damage reduction. Jokes aside his 3 doesn’t actually slow, and his 2 gives him protections depending on how many stacks he has, his 1 also makes you immune to roots/slows
Chaac: His 2 doesn’t just do damage and make him move to his axe, it also increases his protections for every enemy hit (up to 5). if you ult with the axe nearby then the ult will do more damage and also knock up enemies (very slightly)
Change: Whenever she uses a skill she gains additional movement speed and suffers no backpedal penalty. Her 2 regenerates mana depending on how many ticks of damage she dodged, and her 3 reduces healing
Chronos: His 2 removes auto attack penalties, and his 4 resets the cooldown on all his abilities
Cupid: His 3 increases his auto attack speed
Fenrir: with all runes his ult will grant him protections. If you kill an God with Fenrir then you get all your runes immediately
Freya: her 2 slows (unless you use it with her 1)
Geb: His 1 does more damage the farther you’ve moved, and his 2 does more damage the closer you are to your target.
Guan Yu: His 1 and 2 reduces his cooldowns, and His 3 steals protections (Enemy protections are reduced, and he gains those protections)
Hades: His ult grants him protections, and blighted enemies have their protections reduces. If he 1’s blighted enemies the enemies are slowed, and if he 3’s blighted enemies not only will they explode for additional damage but will also explode health for you and your allies in range.
Hel: You can use her ult even if you don’t have a point in it, also her 2 reduces magic protections. Her ult gives magic power or MP5 to those around her as well. Her 3 also increases the movement speed of her allies
Hou Yi: His 2 makes the marked enemy visible to him no matter where at rank 3, and he gains 25% penetration against his marked target. His 1 also does more damage depending on how many times it has ricocheted
Hun Batz: His 1 slows enemies
Isis: Her 2 does more damage with distance, and her 3 steals magic protections from affected enemies and gives them to all nearby allies (not spread out, but outright gives everyone 100%). Also her ult reduces damage
Kali: her 1 heals her depending on her enemies missing health, her 2 gives her lifesteal against enemies who are bleeding, her 3 increases physical power
Khepri: his 2 reduces enemies physical protections, or reduces damage done to allies. His ult also increases the power and movement speed of his marked allies. His ult doesn’t save people from executes.
Kukulkan; His 2 grants 1 second of slow immunity
Khumba: his 1 does more damage with a flying minion than just slamming into a god, and his 3 slows enemies and reduces auto attack speed if the mez is broken. Also he can use his 3 when he’s in his passive, and mystic mail breaks his 3’s mez.
Loki: His 1 gives him a slow immunity, movement speed, and makes him take 25% reduced damage. His 2 is technically a pet, but doesn’t remove backdoor protections from tower. His 3 also slows his enemy.
medusa: Her 3 reduces healing, and her ult will slow enemies who aren’t looking at her
Mercury: his 2 passively increases his movement speed, his movement ability charges his passive, and he gains power depending on how much movement speed he has. Also his 1 can crit and proc auto attack effects
Ne Zha: His 1 slows and reduces the protections on his enemies, and grants him additional movement speed. Also his 3 can crit
Neith: her 2 can reduce auto attack speed, and her 3 can actually slow and damage enemies. Also if you charge up her ult the ult will do more damage
Nemesis: Her ult steals protections from her target. her 2 wont slow people who are hit outside the middle part.
Nox: Her ult will reduce enemy damage
Nu Wa: her soldiers reduce protections on people they charge, and gods channeling abilities in this mist (like Ares or Medusa ultimates) will stay invisible.
Odin: His ult reduces auto attack speed, and negates all healing to enemies
Osiris: his 2 increases the slow if his enemy is affected by his 1, and grants him a movement speed buff, his 3 reduces the damage tethered enemies damage to him, and his passive reduces damage done to him depending on how many stacks he has.
Poseidon: auto attacking with his 2 proc’s ability affects (like gem of isolation), and his 3 doesn’t slow
Rama: his 3 increases the damage of his next auto attack instead of just crippling
Ratatoskr: Buying acorns outside of base will root him. His dash can only reset 3 times
Ravana: His ult makes reduces his damage taken by all sources except for the god his ulted
Scylla: her 2 has a really minor slow, her 3 gives passive mp5 regeneration
Serqet: her 1 reduces protections
Sobek: His 3 reduces healing, and his ult regenerates his mana, slows enemies during the charge up, and he gains 30% protections during the charge up
Sol: Her 3 makes her immune to all movement speed penalties, including backpedal, auto attack, and slows. After the speed boost she turns into a fireball which can move through player made walls as well as become immune to basically everything.
Sun wukong: His 1 does more damage to minions and jungle camps, and his 2 has a slow
Sylvanus: his 2 gives protections along with the heal, and his 1 reduce protections if someone hits the deployed plant
Thanatos: His 1 slows, his 2 grants him penetration and makes him slow immune, and if he kills a god all his cooldowns are reduced
Thor: his 1 deals more damage coming back if it hits a god twice, but will deal less damage coming back if it hits a minion twice
Tyr: enemies hit by his ult are slowed
Move effects that you may not have known part 2
Ullr: ulting gets rid of the disarm cc. Also ulting removes the buff from his 2
Vamana: his 3 also reduces auto attack speed
Vulcan: His ult does more damage the further it’s launched
Xbalanque: his 3 does more damage against people affected by his 2, his 2 also slows enemies, and his ult actually extends the range of his auto attacks
Xing Tian: His 1 reduces auto attack damage, and his 3 gives him protections
Ymir: his 2 slows
Zeus: auto attacking his shield to hurt enemies may yield less damage than simply auto attacking them directly, but the shield auto attacks will proc ability effects (like gem of isolation)
Zhong Qui: If you use your 3 on people marked by your card then they are stunned for twice as long. When you activate his ult the protections from his demon bag are doubled.
How movement works
So I suppose we understand in Smite we have a speed stat which mostly determines how fast we move, but what if I told you that there is a lot more that determines how fast you are actually moving.
Buffs/CC: probably one of the more obvious things that manipulate how fast your moving. If you get a speed buff then you’ll move faster, and if you get slowed you’ll move slower. Probably one of the most obvious things there is.
Moving Forward: This basically the fastest way you’ll move normally is by walking forward. No penalty for just moving forward so… go ahead and walk forward if you need to get somewhere.
Moving Backward: You may see people looking backward while retreating, but unless you need to know how far your opponents are from you then do not walk backwards when retreating. When you move backwards you are hit with a significant movement penalty which can allow you enemies to catch up faster.
Strafing: While the movement penalty for strafing isn’t as bad as the penalty for moving backwards it still exists. So if your trying to dodge a shot and nothing else then it may be a good idea to move your mouse instead of pressing the A or D key.
Auto Attacking: So when you auto attack you move slower. This exists mostly so you can run away from auto attackers easier. That also said if you are trying to run away auto attacking your opponnent will only succede in getting them closer to you… As well as you potentially killing them if your a late game hunter, but if your running you probably aren’t gonna kill your enemy. Most auto attackers tend to counteract this debuff with Hastened Fatalis which gets rid of this penalty or Frostbound Hammer which slows down you opponnent so you both move slower.
Jumping: This has no effect on your movement speed, you will move normally while jumping for the most part. Although if you are mercury and are jumping then your passive wont charge up so… technically you are not traveling when your jumping…