Overview
There’s over a hundred guides out there telling you how to win at this god or how to unlock that skin-but where’s one that actually tells you how to play? Right here. This is it. Welcome to the guide for Smite beginners.
What the heck did I just download?
Let me just start out by answering probably one of the worst decisions in your life. But don’t let that discourage you-like many other things in life, Smite will become something that hurts so much it’s good.
Smite is a MOBA, a Massive Online Battle Arena, game. Teams of 1-5 players control characters that fight against each other within different arenas with different objectives. Smite’s special shtick is #1 the unique Third-person fixed camera behind the player character, as opposed to the top down battlefield view that other MOBAs such as a DOTA and LoL feature; #2 the characters you play are gods and goddesses from the various religious pantheons of history. Greek, Roman, Mayan, Norse, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu. You might recognize gods like Zeus or Thor easily, but some losers like Ah Puch and Xing Tian might leave you staring. The devs did an excellent job of researching, retooling, and retelling lore within the game to design the characters you play as, and the end result is very fun.
Less than fun is the fairly toxic and saddeningly unhelpful fanbase. When I started playing this game back in Beta, I found that no one had any interest in teaching me how to play the games, the objectives, builds-ANYTHING. Recently, I learned from a friend that this was astounding-other MOBA fanbases appear to be more invested in the teaching of their fanbase. We need to fix this.
Hopefully this guide will help that. Here I will attempt to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know, from game modes to god building basics. So grab a drink (preferably something hard) and sit back.
Oh my gods
Let’s talk about the first thing you’ll most likely be looking at in the game: The gods. They are the characters you will be playing in the game, and what you’ll spend your time working to get gud with.
You can see the gods you have available to play in game modes by clicking the gods tab in the top left, and you will get a screen like this.
Gods that are available for you to use will be in full color, instead of greyed out. Ones that have “Rotation” at the bottom of their icons are available only to play for the current ‘rotation’ and will be unavailable in a few weeks. Gods that you have permanently unlocked or have rented will also show here, and if you have rented them, hovering your cursor over their icon will show you how long they are still rented for. There will always be one of each role in rotation. (Roles explained below)
How do I unlock or rent gods?
To rent, you use only favor. To unlock, you can use favor OR Gems. Favor being the best deal. Newly released gods will cost 11000 favor, newER ones will cost 9500, and older ones will cost 5500 favor. Some of the original beta gods are even cheaper, at 2500 favor. You can also unlock Gods for rent or permanently via level-up rewards from the game itself, and also some promotional offers unlock a god and a special skin for them-check other guides, there are tons.
Additionally, you can buy an All Gods Pack with cash from the store, which unlocks all the gods, plus all future ones, for one flat price. Not a bad deal.
Using gems to unlock gods is usually a bad deal, since gods also have skins, voice packs, and emotes that can only be purchased using gems, so it’s wiser to save your gems for these expensive and exclusive things.
How do I get gems and favor?
Gems can be acquired on the 6th and 7th days of daily login, you can get 50 a week. Or you can buy bundles of them from the in-game store for cash. Hirez also occasionally throws out special little events that award gems, so stay up to date on news.
Favor is acquired from days 1-5 on the daily logins, from playing matches, from completing Quests, and as referral rewards if you have referred or have been referred.
Quests are available for new accounts, as well as for all accounts in the form of 1-2 weekly missions, with a bonus for completing two. Second weekly quests are not unlocked until you reach a certain level.
There are currently eight pantheons-Egyptian, Norse, Mayan, Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, and Roman.
There are five roles in the game, with each one serving distinct purposes, and having distinct traits. We’ll have a look at those next.
Let’s role out!
Roles are an important part of any MOBA, and Smite is no different. Learning what each role does and how they function in an arena is integral, and until you learn, you’re probably not going to have fun, and will most likely get yelled at by your teammates. So let’s go.
Before we start however, since all the roles will be using terms and stats that vary, it would be helpful to define some of these.
In Smite, your character has a series of stats:
Health – Abbreviated as HP
Mana – Lets you use your skills
Movement Speed – How fast your god moves
Attack Speed – How fast your Basic attacks (mouse one) are fired
Physical Power/Magical Power – Base damage your god does
Physical Defense/Magical Defense – Damage mitigation from respective damage types
Physical Penetration/Magical Penetration – Allows your skills to penetrate enemy Defense and do more damage
Critical Strike Chance – Chance to deal critical strikes
Cooldown Reduction(CDR) – Lets you use your skills sooner
HP5/MP5 – Health and Mana regeneration rate
Lifesteal – steals life from targets on hit
Crowd Control Reduction – Reduces the duration of enemy Crowd Control (CC) on you.
Hunters are the primary ranged class in the game, and function by dealing long-range DPS. Their role primarily focus is on damage, and staying back out of harm’s way while they deal it.
Hunters are affectionaly referred to as “ADC”-meaning Attack Damage Carry. They focus on building attack speed, power, penetration, and critical strike chance. Which ones you focus on specifically depends heavily on god choice; this is where knowing your god helps with building. Artemis has a passive that chains specifically with her ability to deal Critical Strikes-so you always want to build criticals with her, for example.
The name pretty much describes what this class is-Ass. They’re the scum, the lowest, the bottom feeders that stick around and finish off kills. Seriously. Think of them as a melee Hunter with higher movement speed and damage potential. They specialize in sneaking around, darting in and finishing off enemies, and fleeing. Play them as such.
The stats to build on an Assassin are pretty much identical to Hunter-power, attack speed, penetration, critical strike chance. Lifesteal and Movement speed are also helpful.
The glassiest of cannons, Mages serve as the second ranged damage dealing role in Smite, and many of them serve awesome secondary functions with their skills, such as Hel’s healing abilities, or Janus’s wall-defying portals. Due to their magery, Mages tend to need a bit more Mana and MP5 from their items than other classes. They also deal Magical power and penetration as opposed to Physical. So power, penetration, mana, and MP5 are good on mages, but again, very dependent on your mage-some mages need health, CDR, attack speed, movement speed instead or in addition. Know your god.
The tanks of Smite, Guardians are designed to take all the abuse, and none of the credit, but are probably the most important of the roles in a well-composed team. Guardians tend to have high health pools defense, and have skills that protect allies and crowd control enemies. They should be built with Physical defense, Magical defense, health, and mana. CDR is decent as well. Defensive builds should be built very situationally, and paying attention to the enemy team is very important. Build to combat. If you are building defense and your opponents are stacking penetration, you won’t be doing much. Health might be better. (See Build tricks and tips)
Additionally, Guardians, who deal magical damage, can be alternately played with damaging intent, referred to as “Bruiser” builds. These builds focus on CDR, damage, and often even penetration, at the expense of defense, but still retain a tankier capacity than most mages. Some Guardians do this well, some cannot even begin to do this.
Somewhere between the tankiness of Guardians and the damage of Assasins lies the Warrior class. They deal physical damage, and benefit from Health, Physical and Magical defense, physical power, physical penetration, and occasionally attack and movement speed. Keep in mind they do deal more damage than tankier guardians, but have less health and defense generally.
Mode-ality.
Now that you know what the roles do, it’s time to see how they operate within the game modes. This is where things get complicated.
Smite constantly modifies and adds their arenas, so there are plenty of modes to choose from, and plenty of time to learn bow to play them. I’ll do my best to explain each here. But of course, terms first.
Minions – Every game mode has these guys, these are NPCs of various sizes and HP that spawn and move through the arenas on set paths and function as the primary source of experience to level up, and gold to buy items to build your god. There are different ones in each game mode, and they will be described in function in each game mode’s section. Attacking enemy gods while Minions are nearby will cause them to focus you instead of enemy minions or objectives. They do deal damage to you.
Structure – These are fixed items on the map-usually within lanes-that must be demolished to win a game mode. The three that currently exist are:
- Tower – Stationary objective that sits in a lane and fires on enemies within its radius. It primarily targets enemy minions, and if no minions are present, enemy gods. Both can deal damage to it. Damaging an enemy god while within an enemy tower’s radius will cause it to focus fire on you. Towers are destroyed permanently.
- Phoenix – Functions the same as a Tower, except it respawns 4 minutes after being killed, (3 in Assault game mode) with 25% health and slowly regains back up to 25%. While a Phoenix is down in a lane, allied minions are upgraded to Fire Minions with bonus HP and damage, to help tip scales in your favor.
- Titan -The final objective on lane maps, this high-HP, high-damage target functions just like the tower and phoenix, except it can move to attack enemies within its radius. It does regenerate health over time. When your Titan is killed, your team is defeated.
Mana buff – provides 5 mana per second and 10% cooldown reduction for 2 minutes.
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Attack Buff – provides increased Physical and Magical damage by 20%, +10 Magical Power and +5 Physical Power for 2 minutes.
Attack Speed Buff -increases Attack Speed by 15%, Magical Basic Attack Damage by 15 and Physical Basic Attack Damage by 12 for 2 minutes.
-Movement Speed buff – increases movement speed by 20% for 2 minutes.
Bull Demon King’s Might buff – grants 4% HP5 and 2% MP5 for 90 seconds to team members of killing team alive during kill, also stuns the enemy team’s current active Structure for the same buff duration, excluding the Titan.
– Fire Giant’s Might buff – grants +70 Magical Power, +50 Physical Power, 4% HP5 and 2% MP5, and also increases damage versus Towers and Phoenixes by 20% for 4 minutes. Granted to all team members alive during kill.
There are also camps that merely grant experience when you clear them, and a Gold Fury camp that grants the entire team bonus gold when killed.
Assassins generally have the job of “jungling” in game modes, attacking the camps and dropping the buffs for their teammates. In Conquest, this is their primary job. Which we shall now get into. Modes!
The original, staple game mode of Smite, and of many MOBAs is Conquest. This mode is also the longest, and potentially most stressful for both teams. Gold and experience acquisition are slow, and every move you make is risky. The distance and scale of the map is huge, and your positioning on the map may be all you or the enemy needs to make a push for victory.
The number of players on each team is five, and each of them fills a specific role that does a specific job-generally one of each role. There are three lanes: Long, which can be left or right, and has the towers further apart-the ADC and a Support-usually a Guardian-take this lane; Mid, which is solo’d by a Mage, and Solo, which is shorter of the left or right lanes, with the towers closest. This lane is occupied by the Solo, usually a warrior. The last class is the Jungler, which is usually an Assassin role, who clears camps on their side, and pops in to help lanes.
The style of play, referred to as the Meta, often changes each season as the map also is changed. But general method is thus:
-ADC, and support grab buffs on their side, then head to lane
-Simultaneously, Mid, Jungle, and Solo grab Mid their buff, then mid heads to mid lane, while Jungle helps solo grab their buff, then helps them farm lane a bit before heading off into the jungle.
-Each team then proceeds to push their lanes to the enemy tower as carefully and tactically as they can, staying within their lanes. Jungle pops out of jungle to help within lanes, often serving as the most important tool of momentum-Assassin’s jungle role pretty much calls the shots in a Conquest match.
Whichever team ends up picking up momentum eventually wins.
This map has all buff camps except Bull Demon King present, and should be tactically used.
I do NOT recommend this as a starting game mode.
Probably the simplest and easiest game mode to get into, Arena is 5 v 5 fighting in an open arena with no objectives that need destroyed. Minions spawn and are escorted across the Arena to the enemy team’s portal-if they make it into the portal, the enemy team loses tickets. When minions are killed, the allied team loses tickets. Killing an enemy good loses their team’s tickets. The first team to lose all 500 tickets loses. Simple. Clean. Bloodshed. The map features Mana, Attack Speed, and Attack Damage buff camps along each side. Each team has a base that cannot be entered for more than a few second by enemy gods, which refills their health and mana while they stand in it. Roles don’t matter much in the mode.
A fairly new game mode, Clash is a sort of watered-down, fast-paced version of Conquest, with the same 5v5 scenario but only featuring two lanes with two objectives each before the final Titan, and less buff camps. There is a single Attack Damage camp in the middle, and the match usually begins with both teams having a pissing match over it. Enjoy. Roles don’t matter greatly in this mode, but having a well-balanced team may lead to easier victory.
Mode-ality (cont’d)
This 3v3 quick match mode features a single central lane with a Tower, Phoenix, and Titan objectives, as well as a small side jungle with an Attack Damage camp, and a large side jungle with Mana camps for each team and to the far rear a Bull Demon King camp that delivers a decent buff as well as stuns the current active enemy team Structure, allowing for a nice push. Brave teams will head for the Attack camp at the beginning of the match, while safe teams will go for their blue buff.
Team composition in this mode is not set, but still is important. Generally, a tank and two damage is well, although swapping healer for tank works, and there’s three damage to choose from-just avoid having too many of your damages be the same type, otherwise enemies can simply build defense to that damage type.
One of the more annoying and difficult game modes, Assault can take a while, and tests your skill rather heavily. In this 5v5 game mode, there is a single long lane, two towers, phoenix, and Titan. No buff camps present. You cannot return to your base to purchase items or fill health and mana-you can only regenerate or die and respawn. Constant push, with zero jungling. In addition, your god is chosen for you randomly, unlike other game modes. This has a lot of potential to not be fun.
This quirky little 4v4 map has a special and amusing setup that may keep you coming back There are two side lanes and one large jungle, with four camps for each side, two Mana, one Attack Damage, one Attack Speed. At the start of the game, two people pick a side, then head for the middle camps, get them, then the side mana camps. After each team member is buffed, they head to their respective lanes and attack/defend. However, the push is provided by Siege Monsters, which can be summoned by either gainining tickets via defeating enemy minions and gods, or by attacking the Wild Monster in the central map camp, when defeated it becomes a siege weapon. These tanky minions then trundle down the lane, stopping at enemy minions and objectives and soaking up damage , allowing you to push the lane. You can also teleport to a siege weapon from your base via a portal, for quick access. Team composition for this mode can vary, just keep damage types and role abilities varied and synced.
MOTD
This game mode changes daily, and has all sorts of wierd stuff. I’m just letting you know it exists, there’s little I can say about it.
Refining your play-Voice your concerns!
Now that you know WHAT to do-let’s focus on ways you can improve your play, starting with communication.
This is a team game, communication is key. You can type, obviously, but the game has a built in system known as VGS, as well as a map pinging system, in place for you to quickly alert teammates.
You can hold alt and click your minimap to ping, or press your bound button and move your on-screen cursor to an area to ping it for allies (Don’t overping, you’ll get a cooldown!)
As for VGS, it’s as simple as pressing the V button on your keyboard. Doing so opens a commands menu that you can then cascade through via other key presses to say certain messages. And as a fun part, if you purchase a god’s voice pack, they voicelines will be delivered by their voice instead of the default voice.
I’ll post a picture here because gonna be honest, typing all this out is WAY too much work. You’ll have to work to memorize, but I can post a few more used ones, and their uses.
VVVE = On my way!
VVVR = My Ultimate is Ready!
VVVD = My Ultimate is down! (displays time left on cooldown)
VVVF = Follow Me!
VVVG = Group Up – Good for group heals and buffs!
VA+(1 = left lane, 2 = middle lane, 3 = right lane, A = Attack!) = Attack!
VF(1 = left lane, 2 = middle lane, 3 = right lane, F= Missing!) VERY IMPORTANT!! – Enemy missing! – Use this to alert teammates that the person that should be attacking your lane is missing, or simply that your lane is clear-this means that someone is either in the jungle about the ambush!
VB(1 = left lane, 2 = middle lane, 3 = right lane, J=Jungle B=Enemy!) = Enemy in lane-Use this to inform allies of enemy position!
VC(1 = left lane, 2 = middle lane, 3 = right lane, J=Jungle, C=Careful!) = Be careful (area)
VS = Self VGS- very important!
- VSTT = I have returned!
- VST(1=left, 2=middle, 3=right) I’m returning (left, middle, right) lane!
- VSS = I’m building stacks! (For items)
- VSO = I’m on it!
Randoms:
VVM = Out of Mana!
VVB = Be right back!
VVGB = Bye!
VVGH = Hi!
VVGQ = Quiet!
VVGG = Good game!
VVGN – Nice Job!
VVGO = Oops!
And of course, social emotes, use sparingly please….(Or not)
VEL = Laugh
VET = Taunt
VEA = Awesome
VEJ – Joke
VEG = I’m the greatest (You probably aren’t)
And special emotes (You have to unlock these)
VXE = Global emote
VXS = Special emote
VXD = Dance
VXF = Furious
VXW = Wave
VXC = Clap
Refining your play – Built to perfection!
So in this section, I am not going to tell you how to build per se, so much as teaching you basics and counters. So here we go.
Every god has 10 slots on their bar-six regular items, two relics, two consumables. The regular items can be bought and sold during a match, Relics are free but you get one at the beginning of a match, then another at level 12. Consumables can be gotten at any time.
Relics are your saving graces-they’ll allow you to escape death (And piss people off simultaenously), nail kills, or help allies. There are a few relics that I’ll recommend here for certain classes.
For ANY class, if the enemy team has gods that use a lot of Crowd control, Purification. It cleanses you of CC, and gives you a few seconds of immunity, so you can escape. Take that pesky ults!
Sanctuary is the (pansy) item that blocks all damage for a few seconds, and lets you escape death, very decent. Use this when learning new gods or if you just suck/want to be an ass in general.
For ADC, Mage, and Assasin, basically your damage classes, if you want to secure kills on fleeing enemies, not to mention be a massive ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, get this little friend of mine called Curse. It slows nearby enemies harshly for a few seconds, leaving them helpless. VVGG.
Its flipside is Sprint, which buffs you and nearby allies against slowing CC;s and makes you move faster for a few seconds-good for chases and escapes.
For tanks and healers, having Meditation is helpful, it refills the HP and Mana of nearby allies when you use it. Very good for making your teammates like you even if you totally suck. With it goes Shell, which protects nearby allies with Physical and Magical protections for a short duration, good for when an enemy ults.
Consumables are mostly known as potions, Mana, Healing, and Multi. Multi fills less health and mana than the other two potions alone, but costs the same, while filling both. So use with discretion. Also consumables are wards and sentry wards. Sentry wards have a larger range and allow you to see placed enemy wards. Wards basically alert you if an enemy walks in their radius-so you can’t be ambushed easily. Be strategic in use and placement! Also keep in mind there is a Teleport relic that allows you to teleport to a placed ward, or your tower!
Now when it comes to main build items, I am not going to tell you what to build on who exactly-there are individual god guides for that (Some of which I have written), but I will toss up some important items you want to pay attention to!
Hunter
Transcendence – This doohickey is very staple on a few ADC’s because of their tendency to chew through mana with their skills-it grants bonus Mana from stacks granted by killing minions and gods, and converts mana to Physical Power. Make use of it.
Hastened Fatalis – This wicked blade allows you to keep moving at out-of-combat speed WHILE STILL ATTACKING as long as you are landing your basic attacks-a very sick effect that allows you to strafe easily and pursue fast opponents that are fleeing. Not good for EVERY build, but decent.
Jotunn’s Wrath – This sex-toy-looking thing is a great staple for all three physical damage classes, because while lacking a passive, it buffs four stats at once-Mana, CDR, Power, and Penetration. As a fairly cheap and versatile item, it makes a decent early 1st-3rd item for again, Hunter, Assassin, and Warrior.
Assassin
Same two items as for Hunter, in fact, the same effects can help greatly.
Hydra’s Lament – This awesome thing has a sick effect that gives your next Basic attack after casting a skill bonus damage-which applies to a LOT of Assassins-Bastet, Serqet, Loki-and the passive MP5 effect just makes it even better. Make use of this.
Mage
Book of Thoth – This is essentially Transcendence for Mages, stacks mana and converts a percentage of mana to power. Great for mages that chew through a lot of Mana.
Chronos Pendant – A staple little cooldown and mana regen item good for pretty much any mage, although Thoth is superior, but Thoth requires stacking, and Chronos does not.
Guardian
Hide of the Urchin – Great starter item and honestly the one item that tells if you are doing a good job as a Guardian-this item provides defense stats across the board and stacks more protections based on assists, which you should be getting as a good Guardian. So get this, and get gud. Also works on Warriors!
Pestilence – This sick little charm works..well, like a charm, against enemy healers. You’re going to need to be building a magical protection item, might as well be this one if the enemy team has a healer. Works wonders.
Warrior
Hide of the Urchin, as mentioned above, but a staple warrior item is
Frostbound Hammer – Provides a health and power boost, while also providing a cool passive effect of making your Basic strikes slow enemies. Great starter item for a warrior.
More items will be added later as I think of them.
Go forth, and conquer!
This should cover most of the basics of what you need to know to hopefully have more fun in this game. Leave feedbacks in the comments on what you would like explained that I didn’t, or about things that need clarification. Don’t be toxic, and please, share what you know to create a better community.
