Bronze league players, yes, it gets better!!! But....

...it really depends more on your attitude than anything else.  Let me explain why.

So you've been pwning face in Arena and Conquest and Assault and figure that this game is just too easy.  I'm going to hop in and try league, how hard can it be?  You then proceed to feed your lane and lose 8 of the 10 qualifying matches and find yourself in Bronze IV.  You rage at your jungle for not ganking, you rage at your support for not saving you, you rage at everyone for being bad, all in bold face type (because you aren't in Curse Voice).  If you've ever seen a soccer game of 7 year olds running after the ball in a big clump, well, that's you.  Ask any of those kids how well they played and they will tell you that they are going to grow up to be professional soccer players.  All they know is that they can kick the ball well, and that they feel that is all that is necessary to be an amazing soccer player.  By the time those kids hit 9 years old they start to realize that they need a whole lot more than just to kick the ball, there is positioning and teamwork and strategy.

I'm not saying you are 7 years old, just that the effect is the same.  There is actually a name for it, the Dunning-Kruger effect.  Its actually a psychological trick that gives us a whole lot of undeserved over-confidence when we first start learning something new.  If you've ever been in a game where you've been blamed for the loss, it may not have been you, it may just have been the others looking for a scapegoat because in their mind it sure wasn't them that lost the game.

When moving from casual to league many people have this confidence in their ability to play the game that is a bit inflated, due to the fact that casual play is generally more about landing abilities and hitting buttons and very little about teamwork and strategy.  To be successful in ranked it takes a lot of teamwork and strategy as well as hitting abilities.  The ability to get into Curse and work with 4 strangers that you have probably never worked with before is a skill in itself that often needs a whole lot of work at first.

So how do you make things easier on yourself and increase your chances when you first start?  Realize that ranked is a whole new ball game.  Realize that you will have a lot to learn and that there may be other players that aren't as good as you and many that are better than you.  Find the good ones and follow their lead.  Find the less experienced ones and instruct them politely instead of berating them.

Once you make it out of Bronze league you will start to see more people in curse, more people in the right place at the right time, and a whole lot less dc's and rage quits.  For every game that goes badly, focus on your own performance and what you could have done better.  Focusing on what other people could have done better, beyond a friendly reminder here and there, will not help you achieve your own goals of climbing the ranked ladder.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Remember you can sign up for notification of new post at the top of the page, and feel free to link this or any other post on your favorite forum!

How have some of the new or refreshed gods changed the meta?

Since I made my first post about the current meta we've had a lot of new or refreshed gods enter the mix.  Let's take a look at each one, how they changed the casual scene, the ranked scene and then how they impacted the competitive scene and what adjustments have been made since their release. Its important to not that a when a god is released, whether it is a new god or a new kit for an old god, they are not available in ranked or competitive play, usually for about two weeks.  Hi-Rez is willing to let new gods and abilities affect the meta, but they don't want them to be mandatory or game breaking.

Nu Wa - August 5th, 2014

Nu Wa was always a split push specialist.  She was popular in ranked but never saw the light of day in the competitive scene.  The rework gave her a fairly reliable stun/cc/damage combo as well as the coveted global ultimate, joining other global ultimate gods like athena, apollo, and janus in the first pick first ban list.  She can be seen in all three conquest types (casual, ranked, competetive) very regularly as both a mid and solo.  She is not among the easier gods to play however as her combo relies on understanding minion AI and her ultimate can be wasted easily if used at the wrong time. Even with this being said, she remains popular in casual as she is a very fun god to play.

Cabrakan - August 19th, 2014

Released with much fanfare as having a very unique kit, Cabra was quickly relegated to the back seat in conquest. His kit isn't really a counter to any other god.  As a support he doesn't have the CC to compare to any of the other top guardians, and as a solo he doesn't really have the damage nor sustain.  He does see a fair amount of play in Seige and Arena, but without some sort of retooling he probably won't see play in conquest any time soon.  Oh, and this is after two rounds of buffs to his damage, animations and cooldowns.

Arachne - September 10th, 2014

This little spider launched strong, was toned down a little but still maintains the respect of many as a strong jungler.  She falls into the category of a Loki or Thor that are amazing if they are snowballing, but are tough to play from behind.  She does have more sustain than any of them and often is compared to Bakasura in how you want to jungle with her.

Odin - September 10th, 2014

Originally thought to be very strong this god saw a lot of play early on and still does in casual and somewhat as a counter-pick in competitive.  His new kit is now exciting and fun, but the leap is telegraphed enough that it is completely avoidable by any competent player.  He's fun to play and okay as a solo, jungle or support, but there are far better choices for each role.

Sylvanus - October 1st, 2014

Sylvanus is considered extremely strong even after some severe nerfs after the PTS testing and the initial testing in casual.  He is not an easy god to play however and hasn't really seen his full potential as this writing.  The guardian most played order goes Athena, Ymir, Geb, Sylvanus, Ares, then Bacchus. Sylvanus will likely find his footing soon though, once the supports start learning how to make full use of his heal.  Also, with the regional qualifiers coming up in competitive, I think more than a few teams are counting on Sylvanus as being their ace in the hole.

Nox - October 29th, 2014

Unfortunately, for how cool this god looks, she is currently considered very weak in general with not much going for her outside of as a debuff monkey, which in all honesty, He Bo could do better.

So there you have all the new gods.  The success stories can be seen in Nu Wa, Arachne, and Sylvanus, while Nox and Cabraken are pretty abysmal failures leaving only Odin as the fun but not good enough god.  Nu Wa is really the only one to make it to the first pick, first ban tier though.

Thanks for reading, have fun and remember to sign up for email alerts at the top of the page as well as to check out any of my other posts.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing a support role in Smite?

I often hear folks say that they don't want to play support in league because it is so much harder to carry a team to a win.  Don't believe it!  Any position can help carry a team to a win. There is a reason we track KDA and not just KD ratios.  The players that complain about not being able to carry a team as a support are the ones that play a guardian as if it were a carry and expect that it will work out to get them a high KDA and therefore a win.  Playing support is not just being a tank!  You obviously want to build as tanky as you can but you also want to play to keep your dps alive.

Here are some of the symptoms of a damage minded player trying to support:

1. Chases fleeing players because he thinks one in hand attack will get the kill when in reality his low damage would require at least 3 hits that he will not get before the enemy team collapses on him.
2. Lunges into a group of players and then engages the enemy tank while all of the dps players walk around him and kill the back line mages and hunters.
3. Never seems to have any wards in inventory and there are none on his side of the map, nor on the Gold Fury or Fire Giant.
4. He rotates to mids and then tries to gank and then failing that sticks around to leach a wave of minions instead of taking down the harpies and going back to duo lane for farming.
5. He buys CDR boots instead of Midas Boots because "Damage!"
6. 20 minutes into the game and he still doesn't have HoG 3, but he does have Blink 3.
7. He seems to think picking a warrior is viable in league.

This player might be an amazing mid, adc, jungle and/or solo, but really needs to read up on what he should be doing as a support.  Support is unlike any of the other roles, and playing it like any of the other roles will not only not allow you to carry but it will get you the loss.

So let's form a priority list of what a support needs to do during the game.

1. Rotate to mid harpies every 3 minutes
• Uncontested mid harpies will allow the enemy team to snowball quickly, it is not just your team losing the xp/gold but their team gaining the xp/gold.
2. Sentry ward on Gold Fury at the 6 minute mark and ongoing.
3. Sentry ward on the Fire Giant at the 15 minute mark and ongoing
4. Be sure to not use your HoG 3 if there is even a chance that someone will call for GF/FG
5. Call for GF/FG at appropriate times:
• Opponent's Support and any HoG 3 players are dead
• Support is seen backing when 3 or more of your allies are around GF
• You Sentry GF/FG and see that it is unwarded and all players are out of line of sight of the enemy.
• More that 3 of the enemy team are dead.
6. In group/team fights, prioritize your CC to set up your team for big damage or to save a teammate's life, do not use CC to set up for your own weak damaging abilities.
7. If all of your abilities are on CD, body block!  If one of your squishy dps is getting hit the best thing you can do is try to stand in between them and the opponent.

Build tips:

1. If you have a mage/assassin in solo lane and your team seems to be doing well in the damage department:
• Watcher's Gift, Midas Boots, HoG 3, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Hide of the Urchin, either Voidstone or Witchblade and then the other.
2. If you have a player building tanky in solo lane, usually a warrior like Chaac or Vamana, you can go a little more damaging/CC:
• Watcher's Gift, Midas Boots, HoG 3, Breastplate of Valor, Voidstone, Hide of the Urchin, Witchblade and then either Soul Reaper or Bancroft's Talon.

Alright, so now to the task at hand, carrying a mediocre/bad team to a win.  First off, your team's ELO is going to be close to your own, generally, so no matter how bad they seem, they have earned the right to be in this game with you; and even if they haven't, it will do your blood pressure good to just assume they have.  That being said, you may end up with a person who mostly jungles playing adc or a player that only plays solo attempting mid.  The best thing you can do as a support is to figure out the weakest link and protect them, while ensuring that the best player is getting fed.

Let's take a look at the advantages of playing a support over any other role:

1. You aren't expected to land auto-attacks
2. Support favors intelligence over reflexes (though good reflexes don't hurt)
3. Support favors teamwork over individual skill
4. Building tanky will give you a larger margin for error

The disadvantage are:

1. You won't do much damage, so if everyone else dies, you are pretty useless unless you have blink and HoG3 and they are pushing GF/FG
2. You don't have your "own" farm, so you will always be leaching off of the adc/mid/jungle.
3. Even though you are expected to roam, your ability to gank is heavily reliant on dps following up on your initiation.

So that's the jist of it.  Don't assume players are bad.  Let your dps get the last hit on everything.  On the rare occasion you do go to gank, be sneaky: hide behind walls, avoid walking through common ward locations, use sentries at common ward locations.  And lastly, check out streamers like Incontinentia, Eonic, and ShadowQ for support tips and tricks.  I don't think any of them are particularly great casters, but they are clearly great supports, and you can learn a ton from just watching a game or two.

Have fun!

How to move up and out of Bronze league....

This is for all the folks out there that feel that they are stuck in Bronze league and that it is everyone else's fault that they can't get promoted out of Bronze league.  Guess what?  You are probably wrong, and it is probably, at least in part, your fault that you are stuck in Bronze league.  There are many things that you can do that affect the outcome of a match that have absolutely nothing to do with pushing buttons at the right time.

So let's start with the first list of Do's and Don't's.  This list is things you need to do before going into league.

Do:

1. Pick two roles that you enjoy and have a 3rd ready just in case, one of these 3 should be support, someone will always get "stuck" as support and have no idea how to do it.
2. Pick two gods for each role and practice them in casual until you get them to at least mastery III.  If you aren't sure which gods are your best you can look up your win rate per god in casual or league here:  http://smite.guru/
3. Understand each of your chosen six gods abilities and passives.  Passives are extremely important and will affect how you play the god!
4. Have a build ready for each of your six chosen gods complete with optional items for situational use.
5. Have an understanding of your roles responsibilities, mid needs to rotate, adc/solo need to farm lane, support needs to ward, jungle needs to drop buffs then gank, etc.
6. Install curse, set up keybinding for push to talk, test with friends to make sure you aren't too quiet or loud.
7. Make sure your computer is clean of viruses using free tools like AVG Antivirus and Malwarebytes.  If your internet cuts out on you regularly reset your modem/router before beginning a play session.  Make sure that no one on the network is running torrents or if they are they have the max connections/upload speed set appropriately.

Don't:

1. Join league queue when you know your internet/computer is unstable.
2. Join league queue without Curse, a microphone is not necessary, but it is helpful.
3. Join league queue if you know you will be interrupted by real world concerns or you don't have an hour to devote to a game.
4. Assume you will always get to play your favorite role.
5. Join league queue if you don't work well with others. ;)

Here's a list of Do's and Don'ts for the Lobby:

Do:

1. Say hi to your new teammates.
2. Declare your two favorite roles and god preferences, "Mid/Supp pref, Janus/Ymir"
3. Be willing to work with others that may only have one role they can play.  Putting someone in a position to fail will not increase your win rate.
4. Realize that the further towards the top of the pick order you are, gives you more choice, the closer to the bottom you are the more you have to work with others to figure out roles.
5. Realize that there will be trolls, practice patience.

Don't:

1. Rage/troll/bm when you don't get your favorite role.
2. Confuse people by trolling.  This can be amusing but can also lead to double adc's or double supports by accident.
3. Insult people.
4. Rage at people you recognize from previous losses.  Each game is different and sometimes a bad start in a game will just snowball and make someone seem much worse of a player than they actually are.

List of in-game Do's and Don't's:

Do:  

1. Call missing over VGS or Curse.
2. Do call movements, especially if you see a jungle or support in your lane.
3. Call for help if you are being focused.
4. Call when you are invading buffs so that your team can back you up.
5. Share XP with support and jungle at every opportunity.
6. Get wards and use them.  No role is immune to getting wards, you should never leave base without at least 1 ward in your inventory.
7. Be willing to cover for other people.
8. Call for retreat if you feel your teammates are overextended.
9. Call for Gold Fury/Fire Giant/Tower Rush if you feel you have a numbers advantage.
10. Pay attention the the map, and the health/mana bars of your teammates.

Don't;

1. Feed the other team.
2. Rage at your team.
3. Tell people how to play their characters in the heat of the moment.  You can certainly offer advise or discuss during farming phases.
4. Surrender.  This is league, grow a pair.
5. Wander looking for fights, this is league, players are just obstacles in the way of objectives, not targets.  If they aren't in your way, you shouldn't be chasing.
6. Hate.  You can certainly dislike someone, but try to keep it to yourselves, letting them know you don't like them will not increase your win rate, at all, ever.
7. Rage back at ragers.  It just gets ugly, and you'll just have to wash the spit off your monitor later.

You may have read all of this and been, "This has almost nothing to do with playing the game."  Very true, a lot of it is just tricks to working with others, optimizing your computer/attitude for success, focusing your talents on a small god pool, and mitigating the damage bad players will do.  The more people that you can work with, the more stable your computer, the more less experienced players that you can help, the more wins you will get and the faster you will be out of Bronze league.

Good luck and don't feed!

General Build Guide for a Mage in Mid Lane

So you want to be a wizard...

So in order of build diversity from most standard to least standard you have:  Adc, Support, Jungle, Mage, and then finally Solo.  Solo is the most diverse because you can play it as a warrior, assassin, and mage.  So if you had to pick a build for mid, not knowing which mage you would be playing and not knowing either team's comp, what would it be?  You need a little bit of survivability and whole lot of magic power with a little pen on your 2nd to last or last item.  Hence:

• Vampiric Shroud, Bancroft's Talon (1st tier to start then skip upgrading until later) CDR Boots, Warlock Sash, Book of Thoth, Bancroft's Talon (Finish), Obsidian Shard, Rod of Tahuti

This is a high damage build for just about any mage.  Warlock Sash gives you some health, and you will do a ton of damage.  If you are new to league and need a little more "wiggle room" you can go with Hide of the Urchin or Magi's Blessing instead of Book of Thoth.  This will however greatly reduce your damage during midgame and slightly reduce it at the end, but has the added advantage of you not feeding the enemy team.  Some times playing mid is just not dying and saving your jungler/solo from your opponent's mid's rotations.

Before I get into alternate builds or items for situations, let's take a look at the viable mid mages.  We have, in no particular order:  Kukulkan, Poseidon, Janus, Chronos, Scylla, Isis, He Bo, Agne, Ra, and Nu Wa.  These gods in particular, as opposed to other mages, all have one thing in common, some manner of speed boost, teleport, or lunge.  Mobility is key in mid as you need to rotate around to the mid harpies and to help the jungle with back harpies as well as potentially helping with speed and damage buffs, not to mention rotating to either duo or solo lanes occasionally.  The mobility also helps when the jungle and or support suddenly crash your lane to gank every 3 minutes when the harpies come up.  The other advantage many of these gods have are the area denial abilities.  These are persistent fields that can be put down that essentially box the enemy into an area.  Kukulkan has the tornado, Poseidon the whirlpool, Janus the speed bump, Scylla the red glowy circle, He Bo the wet paper, Agne the oil slick/bombs/dash fire, and Nu Wa the fog.  Many of these gods also have roots or slows, which can then be countered by Isis's wing gusts and Chronos speed booster.

So which ogds will you get yelled at for picking in mid and why?  Anubis, Aphrodite, Chang'e, Freya, Hel, Vulcan, Zeus, and Zhong Kui are all poor mid's because they have no or next to no mobility abilities.  Anubis, Vulcan, and Zeus are somewhat viable due to still having zoning abilities.  Aphro, Hel, Chang'e,Ahong Kui and Freya are all decent solo's duo to their sustain but their lack of mobility and zoning make them poor mid's.  I want to point out that Vulcan has made a resurgence of late, people still don't like seeing him, but he does have a very high win percentage with a decent play rate.  He defies the general mid strategy of mobility but you can't really argue with his burst.  One of his main drawbacks was that his ult was hard to hit, but the resurgence of Ymir, the new Nu Wa, and the bug fixed Serqet, the combo potential has really made the ult much easier to hit.

Let's take a look at items, as this is a build guide, that are commonly found in the mid lane:  Vampiric Shroud, Bancroft's Talon, Chronos Pendent, Warlock Sash, Book of Thoth, Obsidian Shard, Rod of Tahuti and either the Pen or CDR boots.  Then you have items that are situational to certain gods or certain situations.  Demonic Grip on more in hand based gods like Chronos.  Spear of the Magus on gods with high ability uptime like Isis, He Bo, and Poseidon.  Polynomicon and Soul Reaver on burst mages like Scylla, Janus, Agne and Poseidon.  Some situational items are Breastplate of Valor which would replace a Chronos Pendant and is good if you keep getting ganked by a Loki or Serqet and is best when teamed with a Book of Thoth.  Magi's blessing if you have a high amount of cc coming at you like Khumba, Ymir, Artemis.

So a CDR rush build looks like:

Vampiric Shroud, Lost Artifact (Chronos Pendant 1), CDR boots, Chronos Pendant (Finish) Warlock Sash, Obsidian Shard, Rod of Tahuti, Polynomicon.

A more defensive CDR rush will leave Lost Artifact until its time to build Rod of Tahuti and instead get Breastplate of Valor before Warlock Sash.  This delays stacking the Sash for a bit but well worth it if you have a Loki jumping down your throat.  Also you can start with Tiny trinket instead of Lost Artifact for a 5 magical power increase in initial laning phase and just leave it at rank 1 until its time to build Poly.  Poly works well with CDR for obvious reasons.

You never want to go too tanky in mid as your team will absolutely need your damage the longer the game goes on.  The most you would want to do, if you are really getting hurt in mid is to get Sash, Breastplate and either Magi's Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.  If you try to build any more defense than that then you become pretty much useless to your team.

Alright lets talk about actives.  Its pretty straightforward here as most of the time you will want beads and aegis.  If you are on Ra you can swap one for heavenly agility.  If you are on Nu Wa you can swap one for Girdle of Inner Strenth and combine with damage buff to do a lot of damage during Ult.  Pretty simple really.  For consumables, some mana pots early and then just get wards and sentries.  Its ok if that sentry just stays in your inventory all game, its better to have it, and never need it, than to need it, and no one has one.

So, as I've said before there is a lot of options for mid lane mages and these are only two very general builds.  There are a lot of custom build guides created around specific gods and as you find the 2 or 3 gods you want to specialize in, it is worthwhile to look at those guides  Also, it is really dependent on how much cc the other team has, how much spike damage the other team has, how mobile is the other team, which god are you laning against, which god are you using, and finally are you going to need to function as a hyper carry in end game given your team comp.  I've outlined some of the major things to think about when you are buiding, so good luck!

Changes to the Meta, popular gods.

So for the last week, I've been keeping an eye on a little site called SmiteRepo.com.  It doesn't seem to be maintained any longer, however, it doesn't really need to be.  All it does is pull data directly from HiRez's API and parse it into neat charts.  One of these charts shows the data for the last 1000 matches of the top 500 players in league, which comes out to about the last 12 hours.  You can even sort by most wins, by god, and click right on the gods to see the builds that are popular.

Using that I've modified my first meta list with the following update based on this site and the win ratio of the most played gods:

First pick supports: Geb, Athena

First pick junglers:  Loki, Arachne
First pick adcs:  Apollo, Rama
First pick mids:  Janus, Nu Wa, Vulcan, Ra
First pick solos:  Nu Wa, Zhong Kui, Ra

First pick Multi Role: Freya (Jungle, Solo, ADC)

Second pick supports:  Odin, Ares
Second pick junglers:  Thor, Mercury, Nemesis, Thanatos
Second pick adcs:  Ullr, Neith, An hur, Loki
Second pick mids:  Poseidon, Scylla, Kukulkan
Second pick solos:  Hercules, Vamana, He Bo, Chaac, Guan Yu

So let's take a look at the changes from our last list and why each god seems to be becoming meta. With the nerf to mercury, Loki is being played more in the adc and solo land as well as jungle.  He is the king of burst and retreat and his kit really says it all.  You build him full glass and never engage in the middle of a team fight.  Patience is key with this god.

Arachne has come back strong after her re-kit.  I actually haven't seen her much in league as she has been banned out consistently.  The few times I have seen her, her ultimate was really scary.  She's the new hotness and people don't know the counter picks and plays yet so she will be strong probably through to the next patch.

Rama.  Rama has great lane clear, and great boxing potential with the slow, and he can kill secure with his ultimate.  Nothing not to love here.  Works well against Apollo which is by far the winningest god.

Vulcan.  I must confess to being confused as to why this god has such a high win rate.  He's usually found in mid and of all the mid laners, he's the least mobile.  My thought is here that he combos well off of Ymir, Ares, Thor, and Thanatos.  It could also be that he's been out of the meta so long that people aren't that familiar with the counter picks and plays.  That and the mini raid-boss turret.

Odin has been found to be strong after his rebuild.  Most of the downsides to his ring ultimate were removed and generally is being used in the support role, and he just barely edges out Ymir in plays and win percentage.

Ares is seeing a resurgence as he and his chains are strong against Apollo, Rama and Athena, all top picks.  An Ares pick also forces beads as the second item for your opponents.  He also is the top damage guardian besides Hades, which is usually found in the solo lane building for damage.

Thanatos has also made it to the list with the heavy hammer build.  With the nerf to heavy hammer, people are still playing Thanatos as he can be dominating in the beginning, but it is important to understand that his damage does fall off in late game.

An hur is strong versus Apollo as his knockback negates the aggressive dash, and Apollo is see a high amount of play.

He Bo is seeing a resurgence due to a lot of play in the SPL, but his win ratio really doesn't support him being used.  I think his win ratio is only bad because some are trying to use him in mid and he's really a solo god.

Guan Yu is seeing more play with his buffs and some good showings in SPL but he also belongs in solo lane, not the support role.  Again I believe this is bringing down his win ratio.

So, to finish up.  This is my interpretation of the data from SmiteRepo which I've been watching intently since the patch.  I would love to see some longer periods or a little more granular control on the periods that you want to look at, but already I've found a few things that were really surprising, A few things are the really high win ratio of Freya and Ares and the cementing of Apollo as the first pick hunter by a large margin.

Thanks for reading, I'm still working on the mid mage guide, but I keep getting distracted.

Remember, don't feed!

What is this ELO hell you speak of?

What is this ELO hell? Or alternatively, "Help, I'm stuck in Bronze league and I can't get out!"

So if you are new to Ranked play, there are a few things that are good to know.  First, let's explain what matchmaking is.  Coming from casuals you may assume that all of your matches were against completely random players.  Well they weren't.  As you win or lose, your stats and the stats of your opponents are weighed in a big algorithm, so that on your next queue the average matchmaking rating of your team is equal to that of your opponents team.  Also, if you queue as a party you are much more likely to run into other parties.  This is done so that either team has a chance to win and minimizes the chances of a blowout, close games are generally more fun than curbstomps.  You still run into player incompatibilities though.  Even with average matchmaking being the same, at the most basic level, you could run into 5 very aggressive individuals versus a team of half aggressive/half defensive.  The split team will often lose as the aggressive individuals will run in and the defensive minded folks won't go in to back them up.  There are other ways that players just won't get along and its next to impossible to try to develop an algorithm that can model and adjust for player's play style.

In casuals, your matchmaking rating is completely hidden.  It is not a number you can see or that has ever been available to see.  In Ranked however, this number is called ELO.  ELO is a system that was developed originally for Chess to determine, you guessed it, matchmaking.  Hi-Rez has kept their modifications to their ELO ratings quiet, and for good reason, as the system could be "gamed" if the specifics were made public.  ELO did need to be modified both in Smite and in other games, however, as it was originally designed for 1 on 1 matches not random groups of 5 on 5.  Many casters allow you to check your ELO on twitch with the !elo command.  Your rating is determined by your win and losses in Ranked only, and adjusted by the strength of your opponents ELOs.  This number is then compared against other players in queue to attempt to make the average ELO of both team roughly equal.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, we can finally get to the topic at hand.  The player coined term "ELO hell" is the state that you find yourself in when first entering league.  In bronze league, you will often find yourself teamed up with players with bad connections, that don't speak english, that don't use curse voice, and that generally don't understand how to play the game.  This will happen because your initial ELO is low enough that you are matched with other players with hardly any Ranked experience.  This situation can lead to unlucky streaks of large numbers of losses, leaving you to struggle in Bronze league until you get frustrated with your lack of upward movement and quit.


Now, here is the big question, is ELO hell a real thing?  Simple answer? No.  Technically, it could be if the algorithms are bad, but they are not.  If you play enough and continue to improve your game and communicate with your team you will rise out of Bronze league.  The trick here is to not get discouraged because one of your teammates is disconnected or just horrible.  The odds are that on average over many game, the other team will have just as many of these lagging, non-english speaking noobs as your team does.  The trick is to make the best plays possible and be where you are needed during the course of the match.  Know your role and be aware of what is happening across the map.

If you are on solo island, and your mid is losing lane and your jungle isn't ganking, you need to find a way to make a play for a kill in your lane so that you can rotate.  Also, if you see that others aren't rotating to mid harpies than you can clear your wave and head there and back before your next wave hits your tower.  Share as much xp with your jungler at jungle camps as you can.  One of the best ways to turn a losing game is to outfarm the other team.  Share as much farm with your jungler and support as possible as it will be a net gain of xp and gold every time.

If you are in mid, be sure to announce mid harpy timers, ask for your red buff from your jungler, share small harpy camps when ever you can.  If your opponent in mid is missing or rotating, call it and rotate after him or her.  These are called "high ELO plays," basically doing anything that increases your chance of winning.

If you have teammates that are failing, help them, don't berate them.  Don't assume your idea/plan is the best one.  If your teammates aren't communicating, try to figure out what they are doing and help them.  It is a far better strategy in ELO hell to simply help your teammates do whatever it is they think they should be doing, than to push in another direction.

The other thing you can do is to specialize.  Figure out which role/god wins you the most games.  Pick two gods for twos role and try to get them every time in the picking phase.  Get to know those gods like the back of your hand, and once you've successfully made it out of Bronze league you can start branching out.  You can even go take a look at your win percentages using Hi-Rez's tool, you may be surprised to find out that your favorite god to play only at a 30% win rate whereas the god you've only played 15 times is at 85%.

Remember to think, its not all pushing buttons at the right time, though, of course, that helps.

Have fun and don't feed the enemy!

Why are some of the top gods right now at the top?

Update2 11/11/2014:  I made another meta post but never really made a full updated version to this one, so I'll just update the list here.

First pick supports: Geb, Athena
First pick junglers:  Mercury, Serqet, Freya
First pick adcs:  Apollo, Rama
First pick mids:  Janus, Nu Wa, Agni
First pick solos:  Chaac, Nu Wa, Hercules, Ra, Loki

Second pick supports:  Ymir, Bacchus, Sylvanus
Second pick junglers:  Thor, Loki, Nemesis, Arachne
Second pick adcs:  Artemis, Ullr, Neith
Second pick mids:  Poseidon, Scylla, Vulcan, Ra
Second pick solos:  Aphrodite, Chang'e, Zhong Kui, Vamana

There are plenty of other viable gods or counter-pick gods, but these are the gods seeing the most play and/or most success right now.  Have fun!

Update1 10/2/2014:  I was going to simply change the list and make adjustments to the descriptions, but I realized I had some new thoughts on how to present the list and some more extrapolations, so I wanted to do a new post which should be up shortly.

I was re-reading some of my earlier posts and realized that I really didn't explain why some gods are better than others.  I'm in the process of making the mage mid lane general build guide and really got distracted by this idea.  So first off we need to figure out how many and which are first pick, and which are second pick.  In league, you have the option to ban, so that's why you have first picks and second picks.  Just by the math of having 5 players per team, 5 roles, and 6 bans total, that leaves us with 2 first picks for each role, and potentially 3-4 second picks.  Potentially the two banners could ban out all six of the top gods for a given role but it is highly unlikely.

First pick supports: Geb, Athena
First pick junglers:  Mercury, Hun Batz
First pick adcs:  Apollo, Artemis
First pick mids:  Janus, Nu Wa, Agni, Ra
First pick solos:  Chaac, Nu Wa, Zhong Kui, Ra

Second pick supports:  Ymir, Bacchus, Khumbakarna
Second pick junglers:  Thor, Loki, Nemesis, Serqet
Second pick adcs:  Rama, Ullr, Neith
Second pick mids:  Poseidon, Scylla, Kukulkan, Nu Wa
Second pick solos:  Aphrodite, Chang'e, Hercules, Vamana, Osiris

There is are also a few gods that are viable and even preferable as counter picks.  If you know that your mid opponent is Poseidon, Scylla or Kukulkan, Isis becomes very viable because her first ability negates any root or slow.  Counter picks can be amazing if you know what they are and when to pick them.  Smitecamp has fairly up to date counter picks in their gods section but it doesn't appear that the site is actively maintained since July, but that's not to say that the counter pick section isn't highly useful.  Also you have situational gods like Freya that can work in multiple roles against certain team compositions.

So lets look at each of the first picks in turn to see what sets them apart.  I'd like to point out that none of these picks are auto-win, if you don't understand why they are the top pick in each of their roles, it will not help you to pick them over a god that is merely viable but that you know very well.

Athena:  Her passive is one of the strongest, after hitting three minions with her charge she becomes immune to the next 3 hits from an enemy god.  Any god with a high power initiate or attack power stimulant is nearly negated against her.  Her taunt is amazing with any high power ultimate to ensure that the ultimate hits, coordinating with your team when you are going to taunt will secure kills.  And lastly, her ability to move quickly from lane to lane every 90 seconds allows her to support the whole team in early and mid game, and then to recall home and come back to a fight with full health almost immediately in late game to ensure Gold Fury and Fire Giant kills.  Using Athena effectively requires excellent map awareness.  If you have poor map awareness, pick Geb.

Geb:  What's not to like here?  First and foremost, his shield is one of the best abilities in the game.  You could literally roam around the map with just this ability and be as effective as just about any other support in the game.  It is important to realize that the ability isn't just about mitigating damage, it also removes crowd control effects.  Using the shield at the right time, to mitigate the maximum amount of damage and to release an ally from CC is an art form.  Shockwave is weak, unless your team has high cc and then the other team all got magi's blessing.  The knock-up pops the bubble so that your team can be effective again.  Rollout gives much needed mobility as well as a great CC itself when maneuvered effectively to knock enemies into a wall.  And finally, Cataclysm, combine with blink for the best initiation in the game.

Mercury: Mercury plus high crit equals dead enemies.  His ultimate can CC large groups of people and get you into the fight from across the map.  He is not an easy god to learn or get used to using.  Just because this guy is almost always banned does not mean you should pre-pick him for your group until you know that someone can and wants to play him.  This god takes finesse and some people just don't got it.  He's a decent jungler, adc, or solo god in mid and early game, but where he shines is late game with full build.  Combine his stim and Made you Look, and it can crit for 800+ in late game, not many gods can take too many of those, and its an AoE.  Playing this god is all about catching people away from their group, punch punch, made you look, cc, punch, run away.  Rinse and repeat in 15 seconds.

Hun Batz:  Hun has good clear early, but he is all about getting max cdr and using ultimate to maximum effect.  With max cdr, you can gank every 54 seconds for a nearly guaranteed kill, and then late game you can turn the team fight almost every time.  It is important to note:  beads tier 3 is 90 seconds, your ultimate with max cdr is 54 seconds.  Make sure you are in position for a kill as soon as its up if they beadsed out the first time (yes, beadsed is a word!) Playing Batz you will want deathbringer right after max cdr and be sure to intersperse your auto-attacks in between your abilities to take advantage of your passive.

Apollo:  Its the ultimate, baby!  Apollo's claim to fame is his ability to finish a team fight, that and he's the best split pusher in the game due to being able to get out of deep enemy territory quickly.  His early and mid game are on par with the other hunters though he will get pushed back by Ullr and Artemis.  His ability to escape with his ultimate, or his dash, or his mez is what makes him strong.  You will need to be careful not to get baited into using your abilities offensively and leaving yourself defenseless, as this is a common tactic to use against fresh Apollo players.

Artemis:  Trap is too stronk!  Artemis ability to early poke with her volley and the ability to out box just about any other hunter due to boar into trap into fire faster (all officially sanctioned ability names) and teaming up with any other of your teams cc to get a trap on target for an easy kill.  If you discount trap as an amazing ability you are doing it wrong.  Like Geb's shield, you could roam with just this ability coupled with your auto-attacks (can you say "built-in crit" passive) and be more viable than half the gods in smite.

Janus:  Mobility, mobility, mobility.  (Fyi, fear the Bakasura ult and Poseidon whirlpool, portals will not work)  After going through a portal or over a breach your 2nd ability hits like a truck.  Early game, mid game, late game, it always hits hard.  Getting good at landing it without standing on top of your target, is the tough part.  Knowing where you can portal effectively both for escapes and for chasing down a target is key.  If you have the experience and knowledge, Janus is the best mid, but the conquest map is large and knowing all the portal lanes and judging your ultimate's range takes time and perseverance.  Roaming around inside the conquest practice map is highly, highly suggested.

Agni:  Its tough to say what makes Agni first pick, he's not flashy (though fiery,) but he has an all around good general kit.  The combo's with oil slick allow for short, long-ranged stuns, the dash is an effective escape, damage is average for a mage.  The only trick really is to not use your dash aggressively as it is your only escape.  Also, the ultimate doesn't use mana and is up pretty often.  This god requires particularly nimble fingers as you will want to target and hit 4 into 1 into 4 twice very quickly to get your full burst and stun off.  Landing this combo is really unique compared to other gods in the game and takes some getting used to.

Nu Wa:  The re-kit worked well!  Minion AI sucks though, well, its working as intended and prioritizing minions over gods but well it still sucks.  Nu Wa's claim to fame right now is in coupling red buff with girdle of might and her ultimate for pretty massive damage across all lanes.  The fog still has good clear, and the stun from minions with the explosive metal shard (when the minions behave) is painful.  All of that and she is just fun to play.  I liked the old Nu Wa, but I love the new Nu Wa.

Chaac:  Good sustain, and good clear for a melee god.  The axe combos, done well, are extremely effective and often very deceptive.  If you need to get away you can throw your ax in one direction and run in the other, if only being chased by one god you will get away one way or the other.  If chased by two, you will eliminate one or even both if they aren't smart.  Using axe into heal can slow enemies pre-gank if you play it right.  Always try to throw your ax before ulting though, for maximum damage.  All around good kit and great team fight.

Zhong Kui:  Good sustain, and good clear for early and mid.  Really shines in team fight in late games, I wish I could say more but this isn't a god I have a lot of experience playing myself.  He's been big in the SPL and tournament play though, and he will turn team fights around single handedly if built and played well.

Ra:  When I first posted this, Ra was conspicuously absent from the list (thanks to mrvlrdr101 for pointing this out).  Amazing lane clear, and long range snipes and late game sustain make him a great 2nd pick.  Nothing particularly special but an all around safe choice.

So those are all of the first picks, I'll follow up later with the gods you will actually get to play, as they won't be banned out.  These are the gods that you should absolutely have in your arsenal walking into league.  Not necessarily so that you will play them, but so that, on the off chance that you are top elo, and you have the first pick, and someone else asks you to grab them Mercury or Nu Wa, you can do that and swap them for your chosen character.  Any of these first pick gods can carry games in the right hands, make sure you have them ready.

Thanks for reading!  Remember, don't feed the enemy!

Come say hi on twitch.tv/jaesunv and i'll be happy to answer any questions!

Also, jungle Ymir carried in TSM invitational?  WTF!  I like Ymir, but....carried....in jungle...the whole reason he's not a first pick in support is because he has no mobility...and yet Frostiak (sp?) jungled with him effectively?  What is this?!  I don't even....

How to build an Assassin for the Jungle

(*This is pre-Odin/Arachne Patch, I'll update once we start seeing ranked play with these re-worked gods.*)

Alright, so my first two guides were the low hanging fruit. The builds for both ADC and even Support don’t change a whole lot from god to god, they only change in respect to what your team composition is and the opponent team’s composition and behavior. Now that we are looking at Assassins for the Jungle role, all of that uniformity goes right out the window. On one hand, it is great that you have so much choice in what items are going to best suit your playstyle. On the other hand, it is very daunting to try to figure out what your play style is while not inadvertently nerfing yourself by bad item selection. So let’s start with a list of League viable assassins that get played in the jungle, in order of most to least played: Mercury, Hun Batz, Thor, Serqet, Loki, Nemesis and Bakasura. Ne Zha, Thanatos, Bastet, Fenrir, Kali, and Arachne (pre re-kit) are also assassins that fill the role but are all currently relegated to 2nd tier in the current meta. You would not want to play a 2nd tier god in league unless you are exceptionally good with them.

Alright, so we have a short list of 7 gods. We can put these gods into two categories, ones with escapes that you can go full glass cannon (Loki, Nemesis, Bakasura), ones that need a little defense (Thor, Serqet) and ones that need to rush Critical Damage (Mercury, Hun Batz). Our glass build will look like:

• Bumba’s, CDR Boots, Heartseeker, Rage, Deathbringer, Bloodforge, Titan’s Bane

Our slightly defensive build:

• Bumba’s, CDR Boots, Jotunn’s Wrath, Shifter’s Shield, Rage, Deathbringer, Titan’s Bane

Our crit damage rush build:

• Bumba’s, Pen Boots, Heartseeker, Deathbringer, Rage, Titan’s Bane, Bloodforge

Strong arguments can be made for Hydra's Lament instead of Rage or Heartseeker and getting Malice instead of Rage.  Lesser arguments can be made for Qin’s Sais, Devo Gloves, Transcendence, Golden Bow, Executioner, Magi's Blessing and Hastened Fatalis, but these are mostly situational and really should only be used once you are comfortable in the jungle in ranked. It is also important to note that each of these situational items will vastly change things like: when you can safely gank, when you can invade their jungle, when you can split push, and at what point in a fight you need to disengage.

Actives are fairly easy. Fist of the Gods and Beads/Aegis.  I prefer fist over HoG 3 as it has saved me/gotten the kill too many times, and if your solo is ranged they should be backing up the support with HoG 3.  On Loki and Hun Batz, Girdle of Inner Power will allow you to burst down (often called “one shot” even though its 3 or 4 hits in the span of about 2 seconds) in late game anyone but a tank. Consumables are health pots early, wards for mid harpies and possibly sentries for gold fury/fire giant and finally damage pots. The wards should be used sparingly and only if your team just doesn’t seem to ward well. Warding generally shouldn’t need to be done by jungle or adc as your team should want your hyper-carries devoting their gold entirely to their damage/build.

This post is a little shorter than the others so I’ll go a little bit into Jungle strategy. I also want to go into it because it seems to be the least understood, at least in the lower level leagues like Bronze and Silver. Your job is to farm and drop buffs for your team. Speed is your buff, Red is for Mid and Blue is for ADC and Solo. You need to be aware and ready for Mid harpies as soon as they come up. The timer on Mid Harpies is 3 minutes and you have ~48 seconds to get there when the circle timer is at the 9 o’clock position. For reference it takes about 30 seconds to get from the Well to mid harpies with with no leap/boots, and it can get down to 15 seconds with 18% + leaps. Support or Mid should be there to help, but if not, it is their XP loss. Those are your primary responsibilities. If you can secure all of your camps and both mid harpies each time they are up, you will get to end game well fed. So that sounds pretty easy right? And it is, if your teammates are winning each of their respective lanes, or at least not feeding their lanes. Once you’ve gotten all of your farm, meaning you’ve done mid harpies, all the buffs and maybe even back harpies, you have a choice. You can gank or you can invade your opponents buffs, putting their jungle behind. You really only want to gank if your teammates have been pushed back to their tower. If they are all fighting at mid map or at the enemy’s towers, it is probably best to simply steal buffs from the opponents territory, just be sure to have an escape ready and it is best that you have hog available to make it quick.

Jungle is very much about map awareness and timing. Too often you see junglers fall behind in farm because they get caught up ganking or just end up staying in a failing lane at which point they are sucking up xp that that laner needs to get ahead. As the jungler you need to realize when there is a ganking opportunity and when you are leaching unnecessarily.


That’s all for now, happy jungling!!

How to build out a Guardian for Support Role in Duo Lane

Update1 11/11/2014:  Since posting this, Cabraken and Sylvanus have been added to the guardian pool.  Cabraken does not have tools that many of the other guardians do to support well, but if you use him Gem of Isolation after Sovereignty works well.  Sylvanus is very strong even after 3 rounds of nerfs, but you'll want to look at Rod of Ascelepus after Sov and your magic protection item. /update1

So you want to play support? Good luck!

That being said, let’s delve deep into the heart of the items you’ll need. The most common mistake in ranked play is for a support to forgo Watcher’s Gift and Midas Boots. These items are necessary in any competitive play. If you play in casual, you can certainly opt for tankier items or higher damage items. Watcher’s Gift and Midas Boots will always be better in mid to late game play by a support however. When using Watcher’s Gift, it is vitally important that you let your adc or other teammates get the final hit on all minions. When getting Midas Boots it is important to realise that you are not particularly tanky yet. Early support play is more about juking and threatening your opponents with CC until they provide you the opening to attack. I’ll go more into support strategy in another post, but some mention of it here was necessary to point out why you want Watcher’s Gift and Midas Boots.

I want to note, that as support, your damage isn’t really important, your ability to CC, zone, bodyblock and bodyshield are what make for a good support. That being said your leveling and items are far less important than supporting your team. One of the easiest way to support is to ward. You should start the game with two wards, always. Some supports like to go put out the two wards initially to cover their lane and immediately port home to grab two more or go back and grab health and mana pots. I am more in favor of grabbing the two wards and 4 multi potions and starting the game with one ward at the enemy’s blue camp in your lane so that you can watch for a possible offensive invade. Take every advantage you can, if you can prevent them getting their initial blue, you will have a huge early game advantage. After your initial pots run out grab two wards and a sentry on every back. Sentry Gold Fury, Sentry Fire Giant (after enemy team is around level 12) and ward duo and mid lane every chance you get (if mid and jungle aren’t.)

Two paragraphs in and we’ve barely made it to item 3, who knew supporting was so difficult! Third item will be a physical protection item, as you're laning against an ADC doing damage to you, and minions and towers do physical damage. Most often this is Sovereignty or Breastplate of Valor. Fourth item could be Breastplate or a magical protection item or a CC reduction item. Here it is really dependent on how much CC the enemy team has, whether or not there is already a lot of team fighting going on, and whether you are being focused my some magic damage gods. Stone of Gaia is the default for magic protection, but Bulwark of Hope is good if you’ve fallen massively behind in levels, and pestilence is okay if the enemy team has some sustain gods.

Here’s a couple of example builds leaving off the last two items. The first is the “I don’t want to think about it” build:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Magis Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.

This is a build that gets you cdr for your CC early:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Breastplate of Valor, Stone of Gaia, Magis Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.

This is for a sustain heavy opponent:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Sovereignty, Pestilence, Magis Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.

So let’s talk about those last two items. These are the ones that are situational depending on your enemy’s composition and where your team might be weak. Pestilence can go here if you haven’t gotten it already, Witchblade, Voidstone, Mystical Mail, Midgardian Mail, Ethereal Staff, Gem of Isolation, Divine Ruin, Soul Reaver, Bancroft’s Talon, Polynomicon, Pythagorem’s Piece.

What are these situations that make some of these items better than others? Your team doesn’t seem to be putting out a lot of damage, you aren’t being focused even in team fights, and the enemy team doesn’t have much for sustain:

• Polynomicon, Soul Reaver
• Witchblade, Soul Reaver
• Bancroft’s Talon, Polynomicon

Enemy team has two assassins and a hunter:

• Witchblade, Gem of Isolation (if you are always defending your squishies)
• Witchblade, Midgardian Mail (if they are dumb enough to focus on you)

Enemy team has high sustain:

• Pestilence, Divine Ruin
• Pestilence, Mystical Mail

If the enemy team seems to be really good at focusing targets or you’ve been focused down a few times:

• Bulwark of Hope, Gem of Isolation
• Bulwark of Hope, Midgardian Mail

Ok, so support has a lot of options. If you are new, and you just want an all around build that won’t get you laughed at:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Breastplate of Valor, Magis Blessing/Hide of the Urchin (depending on enemy CC), Bulwark of Hope and finally replace Midas Boots with Reinforced Greaves or CDR boots.

This is about as tanky as you get, you will be nigh indestructable; you also will do next to no damage. This is fine as long as you use your cc at the right time (not just on cooldown) and keep wards up at all the right places.

Actives! Hand of the Gods 3! (AKA Wrath of the Gods) No choice! Get it next after Midas Boots! No Choice! No arguments! Period! End of discussion! That being said you do get to choose your second item. Ymir, Ares, and Khumba usually get Blink 3, with some folks liking Combat Blink. The low cooldown on Blink 3 makes this a no brainer for initiating a fight, but it won’t get you out of trouble most of the time, hence some folks like combat blink. Most of the rest of the Guardians will get Enfeebling/Weakening Curse or Spiked Shell/Shell of Absorbion with a very few getting Girdle of Support. Your mileage may vary on any of these, and it really comes down to team comp and personal play style.

Consumable are easy. Multi-pots, then wards, then wards again, then sentries and wards, then more sentries and wards, etc.

Now why did I start this little guide/blog with “Good Luck!” Well, when you play the support role you have to rely on your team more than in any other role. You will have teams that are just thirsty and neglect their farm. You will have teams that feed their opponents whenever you are not there. You will have adc’s yelling at you for leaving lane when you are legitimately helping with mid harpies. You will have adc’s that don’t help you get their blue buff so it takes you a minute to kill the camp and then you have to back because your health is so low. Not doing damage means you need to be where the damage dealers are. You aren’t a jungler, you don’t roam the map solo. Your job is to support the damage dealers. Any time you are doing a camp or harpies by yourself you are in the wrong place and taking someone else’s farm. All that being said if you can learn how your teammates play early and support them in what they want to do, you will have a better time of it. Also, you need to gain the trust of your teammates. They need to know that if you initiate it is safe for them to follow up. They need to know that you will have their back when the enemy turns on them.

As I said before, “Good luck,” and don’t feed!

How to build out for an ADC (Attack Damage Carry) hunter in Duo (long) lane.

This guide is meant to be an all around guide for advanced or novice hunters. I’ll discuss the builds the pro’s are currently using and then move on to builds that have some more defense for those that might be starting out and need a little more time to react.

So where do we start, well, let’s start with your first 1500 gold. Pick up Death's Toll and either 1st tier Devourer’s Gauntlet or 1st tier Heartseeker. That last 50 gold can be used for a green pot (common), a blue pot (common on Ullr) or a ward (if you see that your support hasn't picked any up). “Choices so soon?” you say, “Just tell me what to build!” you say. If you are new, just go Devo Gloves 1 and a green pot. Devo gloves will give you better sustain due to the lifesteal and it won’t put a target on your back. Heartseeker will give you 8% extra movement speed when it is finished but stacks will reset on death, so it tends to put a target on your back, and you will get to know your enemy jungler pretty well.

So a beginner build with no defensive items looks like:

• Death's Toll, Devo Gloves, Boots (Pen or cdr, depending on which hunter) Executioner, Rage, Deathbringer (DB before Rage on Artemis), Titan’s Bane (replacing Death's Toll)

A more veteran build will look like:

• Death's Toll, Devo Gloves, Boots (Penetration) Heartseeker, Rage, Deathbringer, Titan’s Bane (again replacing Death's Toll)

A living on the edge build will be along the lines of:

• Death's Toll, Heartseeker, Boots (Pen or cdr, depending on which hunter) Executioner, Rage, Deathbringer, Titan’s Bane (again replacing Death's Toll) If you make is this far and end up with enough gold or simply end up losing most of your stacks you can swap in Bloodforge for Heartseeker.

So those are the primary builds you will see most of the pros playing, the first is pretty universal, the 2nd is popular in EU and the last one is an NA build that used to be popular until the cost of Devo Gloves was reduced a few patches ago. I want to point out that just because these are the builds that the pros build does not mean that they are the best for you if you are just playing casual or beginning league. Sometimes just having a little more time to react can greatly improve your chances when you are still new to the game or new to the god you are playing. When you are playing for practice and experience, more survivablity can be a god’s send. Along that vein lets look at some viable defensive items.

There are a couple items that you can replace your third item with if you find yourself dying often (feeding! omg noob! quit smite! blah blah blah...) Those items are Shifter’s Shield (common), Magi’s Blessing (against high CC teams), Spirit Robe (against moderate CC with at least 3 magical gods), Hide of the Urchin (less common), Hide of the Nemean Lion (against teams with high autoattack damage ie hunters, assassins, chronos) Midgardian Mail (against a double assassin team or assassin/bruiser team.)

The important thing to remember when you pick up a defensive item is that you will still need some amount of penetration once the enemy gets to level 20. Whether that is executioner or Titan’s Bane is up to you. Even Brawler’s Beat Stick is good, if you are facing a Hel, Aphro, or Chang’e . So the question is, if you opt for a defensive item, which item should it replace? In build 1 and 3 above get your defensive item instead of executioner. You will be weak offensively in the mid-game, but if the alternative is feeding…. In build 2, you’ll want to get your def item instead of heartseeker. If you’ve already gotten either executioner or heartseeker and then find you want defense just go back and replace them when you’ve run out of slots. You never want to replace either crit items, boots or devo gloves.

So, let’s talk about consumables. Health pots are a waste of slot and gold once you reach about level 7. Your health scales up with level but the health pots regen the same amount of health. Blue pots are good up until about level 18 because sometime you just need enough mana for one more ability to get the kill. Wards are good. Many of the pros will just run around with a single ward as a “just in case I need vision” ward, but i find grabbing two wards on every back and placing them in good locations will win games, and is the enemy jungle’s worst nightmare. Enemy rotations are completely useless if you see them coming. All that being said about wards, if others are faithfully warding, its not hurting you having wards in your inventory.

Actives! The trick with actives is to wait as long as you can to get them, so you can pump out the most damage possible with items. At 900 gold for a tier 3 active you are delaying an item by 2-3 minutes. That being said Boots 3 and Aegis/Beads are pretty standard. You do Aegis 3 when the other team has some major burst potential (never moving Aegis) and beads if they have a lot of CC. Boots 3 is too versatile to not get. Boots will get you out of a jam if you overextend or allow you to take the other adc in a “boxing” match.

So that’s the current “meta” builds. Beyond that, juke often and don’t feed. May the gods be with you!