Gods in SMITE

[Paragon Fury]

So I'm fairly new to SMITE and I'm liking it so far. I'm definitely digging the action-MOBA angle here, though I'll have to reserve final judgement until after I start playing people instead of just Bots. But for now, I'm wondering what Gods to get; since I'm not sure I want to buy the Ultimate God Pack for BOTH PC and Xbox One if I were to keep playing (really sucks that you can't get it once and have it count for both systems, but alas money has to be made somehow).

I already have the 5 basic Gods they give you + Zeus (Xbox Promotion), Nu Wa (Youtube Promo) and Apollo (Curse Promotion).

I guess to help make the comparison, from the other MOBAs I've played my favorite characters were;

League - Shyvana, Sona, Irelia, Fiora (pre and post rework), Jarvan IV
DotA 2 - Crystal Maiden, Legion Commander, Juggernaut, Axe, Disruptor

CAPTCHA: No Stinking Badges

Hey, they're the main form of reward for the Escapist Captcha!

 

[Glongpre]

You won't know until you try them.

I immediately liked Ra, and Ymir. I tried out some other Gods that I thought I would like, but they just didn't click with me. They throw up modes sometimes where you can be any God so just wait around for those or a new rotation.

Ymir is a tanky/dps kinda guy if you like them.
Thor has the Jugg spin, but not the other skills.

There is overlap, but you just have to try out the Gods and figure it out yourself.

Why in such a hurry?

 

[Benpasko]

Try Odin. He has a Jarvan ulti that gives armor and AD to all allies in the ring, a big jump, and his passive is having increased vision range. He's somewhere in between Jarvan and a support tank.

Edit: Never mind, it seems he was murdered brutally.

 

[Tayh]

Try Odin. He has a Jarvan ulti that gives armor and AD to all allies in the ring, a big jump, and his passive is having increased vision range. He's somewhere in between Jarvan and a support tank.

Odin (my former favourite God) is trash. His initiate and only real form of damage is extremely predictable, avoidable and easy to diminish. His skills no longer gives passive stat buffs. He still has no form of self-healing.
His ult no longer gives any buffs to himself or others, instead enemies suffer -100% heal debuff(which can be mitigated by getting any sort of +X% heal buff) and -X% attack speed.

As I haven't played either dota or lol, and you didn't list what in particular you liked, I can't offer any suggestions as to which gods to unlock next.

 

[The Wykydtron]

OP, I think trying Bellona might be your thing since you play Shyvana and J4, she initiates fights by dunking into the enemy team although she might be more of a secondary initiator because her jump animation takes about a year to complete if you jump at max range. Probably best to have another solid initiator on the team too.

She can 1v1 any AD Carry in the game too, it's kind of her deal. HiRez recognised the problem of how ranged ADs are really freaking strong so they just introduced Bellona into the game. Every single part of her kit is based around dealing with autoattackers and if you build Smite's equivalent to Frozen Mallet on her there is no kiting allowed. Release Bellona was so, so broken it was hilarious.

She is weak to burst mages though, something like a Ra or Hel can make her life miserable. Hel in solo lane vs any melee is bullshit really. I mean yeah Hel is squishy but with that obscene base damage, low cooldowns, good scaling with AP and tank items and stupid healing and kiting potential, there's a massive asterisk above "squishy"

Also it breaks my heart how Odin got fucking destroyed. He was the first God I got decent mastery levels on...

 

[Zhukov]

I already have the 5 basic Gods they give you...

Incidentally, which ones are the starting five these days?

(It's changed several times from when I started playing in order to better accommodate new players.

I guess to help make the comparison, from the other MOBAs I've played my favorite characters were;

League - Shyvana, Sona, Irelia, Fiora (pre and post rework), Jarvan IV

If you like Sona then Chang'e (pronounced Chung-uh) is very similar. However, be aware that the Smite meta doesn't really do duo supports like LoL does. In Smite all supports are tanky initiators, period. Think Leona, Alistar, Braum etc. Anything else will get the shit bullied out of them in the duo lane if your opponents know what they're doing. Healing/defensive mages like Aphrodite, Chang'e and Hel instead go to the solo lane, farm up and transition into their healing/support role in the mid game.

As others have said, Odin is like Jarvin IV, but he's not much good. He starts as an insanely bursty brawler who can build even more burst or go tanky, but falls off extremely hard as the game goes on.

The closest match to Fiora I can think of is Kali. Except the heal-upon-killing is in her passive instead, which is like Kindred's but random, and she gets a Tryndamere ult. If that sounds fucking awesome it's because it is. Sadly I hesitate to recommend her though since, awesome though she is, she really isn't good for beginners. She's weak as all hell early on, but gradually scales into an nigh-unkillable team-destroying menace in the late game.

A god I will recommend is Bellona. She's not exactly Shyvana, but if you like autoattack-based, dunk-happy characters then she's it. She has a very versatile kit with some burst, some durability, decent crowd control and a pinch of sustain, but specializes in utterly ruining the day of other autoattackers. She can jungle, solo and kinda-sorta support.

...although she might be more of a secondary initiator because her jump animation takes about a year to complete if you jump at max range. Probably best to have another solid initiator on the team too.

Y'know, it's funny. I can consistently hit Bellona ults, but when I played Osiris I was whiffing his ult left and right, despite it basically being the same. Figures.

She is weak to burst mages though, something like a Ra or Hel can make her life miserable.

Ever gone Bellona against an Aphro? One of the most frustrating lanes I've ever played.

I try to hammer her - she interrupts with a kiss or a knockback, gives me the birds and floats away.

I poke her constantly - she heals it while clearing waves at the same time.

I try to get within melee range - she kisses me and floats away.

I bait out the kiss and the knockback then go all in - she ults and floats away.

 

[Paragon Fury]

EDIT: Upon going in game to check, the 5 Starter Gods they gave me were Ra, Neith, Yimir, Thor and Guan Yu. Combined with my bonuses that means I own;

Ra
Neith
Yimir
Guan Yu
Thor
Zeus
Nu Wa
Artemis
Apollo

 

[The Wykydtron]

I already have the 5 basic Gods they give you...

Incidentally, which ones are the starting five these days?

(It's changed several times from when I started playing in order to better accommodate new players.

I guess to help make the comparison, from the other MOBAs I've played my favorite characters were;

League - Shyvana, Sona, Irelia, Fiora (pre and post rework), Jarvan IV

...although she might be more of a secondary initiator because her jump animation takes about a year to complete if you jump at max range. Probably best to have another solid initiator on the team too.

Y'know, it's funny. I can consistently hit Bellona ults, but when I played Osiris I was whiffing his ult left and right, despite it basically being the same. Figures.

She is weak to burst mages though, something like a Ra or Hel can make her life miserable.

Ever gone Bellona against an Aphro? One of the most frustrating lanes I've ever played.

I try to hammer her - she interrupts with a kiss or a knockback, gives me the birds and floats away.

I poke her constantly - she heals it while clearing waves at the same time.

I try to get within melee range - she kisses me and floats away.

I bait out the kiss and the knockback then go all in - she ults and floats away.

Yeah I must get extremely lucky with my matchups because i've not had to deal with the most nightmarish solo lane Bellona matchups. I tend to pick Hel now whenever I need to go into the solo lane because I hate the very concept of the enemy laner having fun. Although I found out that Nox is fuckin' bullshit there. Not as anti-mage as she was but she's up there.

Though I have to say i've recently discovered support Guan Yu. Holy shit, he melts your average support like Ymir or Khepri at early levels with his spin 2 win and you can legit just slam the 4 key the very second you hit level 5 for free kills, especially if the enemy ADC is one with no dashes so you can just ride into his face. You know how most supports have an ult that does one instance of damage? Guan Yu gets around 4 attacks of escalating damage (which also slows) plus a fifth attack which is an AOE stun while being CC immune. Cavalry Charge. Best ult in the GAME! OP if you see this, play Guan Yu. Forget everything else I just said. Just buy Guan Yu and main him to Mastery X.

One thing i've noticed about HiRez is that they add a lot of little things to their characters, like stat buffs and debuffs. I point to the fact that Guan Yu's spin 2 win steals protections from enemy Gods as the reason I find so much success with such an off meta pick in Support Guan Yu (which could be bad but i'm just getting away with it because low ELO scrub.) It's a cool design choice.

RIP old Odin too, his ult stat bonuses would actually bring him to the Physical Protection cap if you were far enough into your build...

Spoiler: T_T

 

[soufiria]

Sona and Chang'e aren't just very similar, they're practically the same with maybe one or two things different, all the way down to both characters being mute(No, seriously, Chang'e doesn't even speak in game, her little rabbit does for her. Reminds me of the one little LOL comic where one of Maokai's saplings sits on Sona's head and begins talking for her....). They both focus on AoE Buffs/Heals to their team, a single damage ability which pokes, and an ult that stuns all enemies hit in a line(although Chang'e's ult has a bit more of a risk/reward where the more enemies hit, the longer the stun). The two differences are the passive(No power chord poke for Chang'e). Instead she gets a bunny which acts like a courier from Dota to go get items for her from the shop(Although only one item at a time), which is pretty nifty, and then as stated earlier the risk/reward for Chang'e's ult as opposed to Sona's flat 2 second stun ult.

 

[Zhukov]

Though I have to say i've recently discovered support Guan Yu. Holy shit, he melts your average support like Ymir or Khepri at early levels with his spin 2 win and you can legit just slam the 4 key the very second you hit level 5 for free kills, especially if the enemy ADC is one with no dashes so you can just ride into his face. You know how most supports have an ult that does one instance of damage? Guan Yu gets around 4 attacks of escalating damage (which also slows) plus a fifth attack which is an AOE stun while being CC immune. Cavalry Charge. Best ult in the GAME! OP if you see this, play Guan Yu. Forget everything else I just said. Just buy Guan Yu and main him to Mastery X.

One thing i've noticed about HiRez is that they add a lot of little things to their characters, like stat buffs and debuffs. I point to the fact that Guan Yu's spin 2 win steals protections from enemy Gods as the reason I find so much success with such an off meta pick in Support Guan Yu (which could be bad but i'm just getting away with it because low ELO scrub.) It's a cool design choice.

I've never really felt the warrior supports.

They're fine if you're ahead since you're always on the offensive, but if you're playing from behind then the lack of peel will hurt. Enemies will just run past you and lay into your squishies.

My problem with Guan in particular, beyond the lack of crowd control, is that his main damage source other than his ult is a long channel ability. One stun and you've been rendered nigh irrelevant for the next 12 seconds or so.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Though I have to say i've recently discovered support Guan Yu. Holy shit, he melts your average support like Ymir or Khepri at early levels with his spin 2 win and you can legit just slam the 4 key the very second you hit level 5 for free kills, especially if the enemy ADC is one with no dashes so you can just ride into his face. You know how most supports have an ult that does one instance of damage? Guan Yu gets around 4 attacks of escalating damage (which also slows) plus a fifth attack which is an AOE stun while being CC immune. Cavalry Charge. Best ult in the GAME! OP if you see this, play Guan Yu. Forget everything else I just said. Just buy Guan Yu and main him to Mastery X.

One thing i've noticed about HiRez is that they add a lot of little things to their characters, like stat buffs and debuffs. I point to the fact that Guan Yu's spin 2 win steals protections from enemy Gods as the reason I find so much success with such an off meta pick in Support Guan Yu (which could be bad but i'm just getting away with it because low ELO scrub.) It's a cool design choice.

I've never really felt the warrior supports.

They're fine if you're ahead since you're always on the offensive, but if you're playing from behind then the lack of peel will hurt. Enemies will just run past you and lay into your squishies.

My problem with Guan in particular, beyond the lack of crowd control, is that his main damage source other than his ult is a long channel ability. One stun and you've been rendered nigh irrelevant for the next 12 seconds or so.

Yeah a lot of other Warriors are lucklustre as a support but Guan Yu is probably the best Warrior type God you could have in the duo lane, take that how you want to. I tried Sun Wukong a few times but he never worked out. I mean he won't die once he gets his ult but he's not super useful in a 2v2 early on, you'd have to get lucky crits with your passive and the poke on his cudgel falls off quickly plus his hard CC is unreliable. He probably won't die but your ADC won't thank you for leaving him to die.

The way I see it is that if Guan Yu gets stunned then he's tanked the stun for his ADC, assuming it's not like a Blink > Frost Breath multi stun nightmare from Ymir or something. Besides, I see most Guan Yus (if I see them at all, he's super underplayed) do their combo then ult. Just ult. Just lvl hit 5 with all your cooldowns up and ride into them 2v2, don't walk up, wait for your spin to complete then ult cuz you'll have lost half of your HP from there. In a perfect world, the enemies will hold onto their CC until he dismounts sure but in a lot of cases, at least some CC will be used for damage or in a panic so it's down when he starts the spin. I'll stick to the statement that you cannot ignore Guan Yu and just dive onto the ADC in a 2v2 if you play it well, especially if you have an ADC like Medusa or Artemis who have some self peel themselves.

Also you can hit maximum damage by knowing the secret of how to stick on people despite the wonky horse controls. Hold S. Get to them then hold S, it slows you down to their now slower movement speed because the horse gives you a huge speed buff in the first place and you can only move it forward, so holding S doesn't make you backpedal it only makes you move forwards slower. It's the trick passed down to new Guan Yu players from the Guan Yu professionals. It stops you having to ride circles around them because you're overtaking them with that massive movement speed. You can ride circles in a 5v5 though just to cause chaos, channel your inner Pyro and W+M1 into the entire enemy team. Trust me, i'm a professional.

Straight Guan Yu ults surprises a lot of people, it's not like Ares where the duo lane buys tier 1 Beads at the start of the game because they know that Ares is going to hit 5 then immediately Blink ult the two of you the moment they see Ares on the loading screen.

Finally, the heal. I know it's underrated, it's not the greatest heal in the world but it can make the difference in a close 2v2. I max it second too, the dash is good but eh, i'm a guy who sits on his mobility spells until he's on 100HP and has to leave sharpish so the extra damage and cooldown on it won't matter.