Should You Play Jungle?

Disclaimer I am still learning how to jungle so this guide is a work in progress but I think I know enough to give advice on how to play the role.   

Credit to Getsukeii on Deviantart

Should You Play Jungle? 

  If you want to play Jungler in SMITE, you need to know how each lane works, how to get in,get a kill and get out, when jungle camps are up, how to rotate around the jungle quickly, and how to be aware of the map and everything going on in it.


  If you answered yes, keep reading. If you don’t know what position you want to play or if you want to try Jungle anyway keep reading. If not try another Role Guide or keep reading for fun, I would.

What is a Jungler ?

  In the jungle you usually see assassins and a few exceptions here and there like Bellona, Xing Tien, Amaterasu etc. When you are the jungler you want to make sure all of your teammates have their buffs, your back camps are down, gank any enemies that are out of position, and take away the enemy team's jungle if you can/if you feel safe.


What do Jungler's Build?
  
  Jungler's Build very differently depending on the god that you're playing. For this guide I'm going to go over a build for Thor since he is a very good jungler for beginners and he's a free god so everyone can try him out. This build makes Thor a bruiser who can take a hit, hit hard, and hit through protections.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image

  If you are going to be in the jungle, you need to have Bumba's Mask AKA the jungler item. It gives you +10 MP5 which is always nice but it's passive makes your basics do 10 True Damage (ignores defenses etc.), your abilities do +10% damage to jungle camps, when you kill a jungle creep you get +10% of the camp's maximum health and if you share the camp with an ally you still receive the gold like if you cleared it by yourself.

AKA if you play jungle, you get it. Then you need to buy Warrior's Tabi to hit harder and move around the map faster. Then you get Jotunn's wrath to get much needed mana, cooldowns, pen and power. After that you should get Mail of Renewal to max cooldowns, get some physical protection, and it's passive gives you 15% of you max health and mana over 5s after every kill or assist on an enemy god or objective.    

  Then build Brawler's Beat Stick to increase your power and pen even more and its passive reduces enemy healing and regen by 40% for 8s when you hit them with a basic attack. Even if the enemy team doesn't have a healer this is still a good item because of the power and pen. Buying Hide of the Urchin next gives more protections and lets you stay in fights longer to make use of your power and pen since it gives both physical and magical protection, health and mana and its passive that gives you +2 protections per god assist/kill (up to 10).

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image

  For the final item of this build, sell Bumba's Mask, and replace it with Titan's Bane to give you you even more power and pen plus an additional 33% penetration to what you already have. This bruiser build allows you to stay in a fight, use abilities often, hit hard, hit through protection and to just hurt the enemy team in the face.



What Do as the Jungler?

Credit to SMITE Academy for the Basic Map at smiteacademy.wordpress.com 

Early:

  
  To start buy Bumba's Mask, Rank Boots, 2 health and 2 mana potions. Then go get your speed buff with your solo laner, then clear the mana buff for your solo laner. After rotate to mid xp camps and clear them with your mid laner.Take the right camps first and then the left. Ping your map to let your mid laner to know when you are headed to the camps. After that you want to head to the your back camps both left and right. Then help out wherever you are needed.


Mid Game: 

If you catch an enemy low on health or mana and they are below the line it is usually a safe gank.

  Once you get to level five you want to make sure your team always has their respective buffs. Power/Red to Mid Laner, Purple/Attack Speed to ADC, Speed/Yellow to Jungler...that's you, and Mana/Blue to Solo Laner. If an enemy is low, and/or pushed up call  "Gank _____ Lane" (VG 1 for left,2 for mid and 3 for right) to tell your team to go in for the kill. When going for a gank don't let the enemy see you before you go for the kill, use the element of surprise. If you have an ult where you go into the sky like Thor or Thanatos, ult from in the jungle to get the best chance of killing them. In general you want to use your ult to either initiate or finish a kill. Throughout the match if you see one of you lanes getting pushed/a teammate need to back, try to help relieve some of the pressure by helping them clear the lane or backing off the enemy in that lane. Once they back off/your teammate gets back, head back into the jungle.


Late Game:  

  Late Game you want pick off enemies that get low,or stray from their team. Keep in mind it will be easier to kill mages, assassins and hunters because guardians and warriors build tanky and are harder to kill. If your build has pen you should be able to take towers and objectives quickly with your team and possibly take it by yourself. Only take a tower by yourself if you know where the enemy team is, have a lot of health and mana, and have minions.


Warding:

Blue Diamonds are Aggressive Wards
 Green Diamonds are Defensive

  As a jungler you want to ward often but until you get used to the role and know how to farm effectively, I would recommend warding only when the enemy team is out rotating your team or you are ahead and and if you have the core of your build done.  You don't want to ward when you new to jungling because it's very complicated and easy to get behind in farm especially if you ward every other like most people recommend. 

Tips:

• Know when to disengage. AKA you are low on mana/health and the enemy team isn't. RUN AWAY 
• NEVER Stand Still, EVER!! 
• Know you gods combos. 
• Pay attention to where the enemy team's jungler is. 
• Never dive Tower unless it's an insta-kill or you have support from your team. 
• Know that if you are low it's better to back than try to save your team and give the team another kill.
• Counter jungle if you can but be careful(taking the enemy teams buff).

What is Season 3?

Season 3 Joust Map

What is Season 3?

  Basically a season change is when SMITE gets a huge balancing patch where they balance gods, balance items, add new items, change some game mechanics and rework some maps. For Seasons 3 they reworked both the Joust and Conquest map, they changed the way Actives work, and they made balancing changes and made A LOT of other improvements. You can read Hi-Rez quick run down here and the full list here. The full list is really long just to give you a heads up. 

When Does Season 3 Start?

As of 1/24/16 there is not a set date but it is scheduled to start in early to mid February.

Can I play Season 3 Early?

Yes, you can play it early on SMITE's Public Test Server (PTS) by following the instructions  and reading the limitations here. There are alot of links I know but it makes it easier for you to get where you want to go and I don't have to retype a bunch of  articles that are already typed out.

Does This Effect the Current Guides?

New Conquest Map

  Yes, basically once season 3 starts the meta will change and my guides won't be 100% accurate anymore but they won't be wrong either. The basics of the guides should still be right but 
the builds will probably change and  the role guides will need to be tweaked since the Conquest map is changing. The second I know enough about Season 3, I'll start making those adjustments and making my guides the best they can be. If you have any questions before then leave a comment or add me in game and ask. I'm just as funny in real life as in blog form...Ok I think I'm funny but I'm always up to answer questions and help other get better. 

When Are Your Guide Going to Shift Over to Season 3 Meta/Playstyle?

As of 1/24/16 I only have 1 more role guide to finish for Conquest which I should have done before the week is over. Once that's done I should be able to focus on the Season 3 changes once I get some play time on the PTS. Aside from that by the end of the week I will have a post on my first impression of the gameplay and I will post a guide that looks at the Relics and balanced/new items that I think you should know about. So this week you guys should have a lot to look at and I have of work to do. And I should go do that... 

Have fun on the PTS!!!

How Do I Play Solo in SMITE

Should You Play Solo in SMITE?

Credit to Getsukeii on Deviantart

Should You Play Solo?

  If you want to play as a Solo in SMITE, you need to know how to lane without a lot of rotations coming, counter build your opponents, be a bruiser doing damage teamfights and be able to tank when you need to.


  If you answered yes, keep reading. If you don’t know what position you want to play or if you want to try Solo anyway keep reading. If not try another Role Guide or keep reading for fun, I would.

What is a Solo Laner?

  When playing in the solo lane you should expect to face pretty much anything but in general this is where you will find tanky gods and/or gods that can heal themselves. In this lane you want to be farm as much as possible and not lose your tower. Basically in the Solo Lane you gotta Ride SOLO and make sure your towers health doesn't get so low..get it...Ok even I know that was bad... let's just pretend that didn't happen.

What Do Solo Laner's Build?

  Since most gods can be played in Solo your build will vary from game to game and you want to try and counter build the enemy solo laner. For now I'm just going to create a generic Warrior since they perform well in the solo lane are easy to use especially for a beginner.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image 

  I start off by buying blue stone for the passive(enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take additional 30 damage over 2s and can stack twice) to help with clearing and get more mana. Then I move into Warrior's Tabi for power and movement speed to hit harder and move faster. Then I get Jotunn's Wrath which gives more power,pen, along with some much needed mana and cooldown. This is just so you can use your abilities and heal more often plus you hurt enemies a lot more. 

   After that I move into the tanky part of the build buying either Runeforged Hammer or Stone Gaia depending on if the enemy solo laner is a physical or magical god and then you buy the other for my 5th item. Runeforged gives you physical protection, health and a passive that turns 15% of your Physical protection and turns it into Physical Power(yeah it is as useful as it sounds). Stone of Gaia gives magical protections,health MP5, HP5 and a passive Regenerates 2% of your max health every 5 seconds. For my 6th item I then buy Hide of the Urchin because it gives you phyical protection,magical protection, health and mana. This build makes you really tanky but still allows you to do some damage.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image

  Once you finish your main build you sell Blue Stone Pendant and buy a situational item that fits your playstyle and what you need in that specific game. For this build I ended it with Titan's Bane because it gives you power and alot of penetration which can help you take objectives quickly since you might be the one tanking up the damage. Other good items are Mail of Renewal, Mystical Mail, Frostbound Hammer etc. it just depends on what you need and how you play. If you are being aggressive and its working get power or pen, if like playing tanky and it works get some defense. For Actives I usually get and recommend Teleport to get back to lane faster early and get around the map faster late game. Other than that I either Purification Beads if I'm getting hit by alot of CC, Sprint to help my team speed up, or Weaken Curse to slow the enemy team and their healing down.

What do I do as as Solo?

Start:

Credit to SMITE Academy for the Basic Map at smiteacademy.wordpress.com

  When the game starts you want to get Blue Stone Pendant, Shoes Level 1, 2 Health and 2 Mana potions. Then you go with your jungler to the speed buff, clear it so the jungler get his buff, then both of you will go take mana buff for yourself then head to lane and start farming.

Early Game:

Farm, Farm, Farm. You want to try and out fight your opponent by clearing the waves as fast as you can and only poking (hitting them without the intent to fight) them when it is safe to do so. Do Not try To fight if there are enemy minions in the lane because they are annoying and hurt really really bad early game. Clear your wave, hit the enemy god if its safe, and then back off unless you jungler goes for a gank. The first time you back buy teleport so you can get to lane faster and upgrade it as necessary.

Mid Game:

Wards For Solo
Aggressive Wards are Purple
Defensive Wards are Green

  You still want to focus on farming and poking the enemy. As you get your build going you can fight but always be careful for ganks and ward by your blue buff if you are getting pushed under tower or by the enemy enemy blue buff if you are pushing them under tower. When you rotate you want to make sure either the enemy solo laner is rotating at the same time or they're dead. If your team is taking an early objective if you have phyical protection built you can tank it for a little bit and be fine just be very careful when you do it. Keep an Eye on the Minimap and Listen for Ward Pings.


Late Game:This is the time where you are the team's front line with your support, you tank up hits while still being able to hit the enemies in the face. Most warriors have some form of healing or damage mitigation, use this in team fights to either save yourself, your team  or even change the tide of the fight. For example Guan Yu, the free warrior in SMITE, has a heal that get stronger as he deals and takes damage until it is full stacked. This can be used to save himself or his team and definitely can change the tide of a teamfight if the other team isn't careful and works well since he deals and takes a lot of damage as a front liner. With objectives be ready to tank it , hit it hard and then fall back to recover when your team needs you to, your abilities can often debuff enemies so be very aware of that because it could save you or your team and remember that you are tanky but you can still die fast if you get swallowed.

Tips for Solo:

• Keep an eye on the map. 
• Don't fight if your opponent has minions early game. 
• Pay attention to what enemy solo laner is building and adjust if you need to. 
• If you're playing a god with a heal use your heal when you need it but don't waste it. 
• Once you are tanky, you can tank a tower if your support isn't close by.
• You are only as tanky as you build and are only as strong as you build, always keep that in mind when fighting and building
• Call Enemy Missing if the enemy solo is missing. VF1 for Enemy Missing Left or VF3 for Enemy Missing Right.
• Be Careful 
• Have Fun 

Amaterasu Guide

The Shining Light

Overview:
Amaterasu is SMITE's newest goddess and the first in the Japanese pantheon. She has a lot of utility and is very team based. She takes a second to get used to but when you do she can be a huge asset to your team. I recommend going max cooldown and being very tanky with her.
Amaterasu's Passive: Landing 3 basic attacks on the same enemy applies an aura that increases all damage that they take. Affect all enemies in the area.
Amaterasu's 1: is a stance change that gives a small heal. Valor grants bonus power/Benevolence grants bonus movement speed.
Amaterasu's 2: charges her mirror for 5s, reduces damage taken, after the 5s she launches her mirror doing up to double damage. Can be fired early.
Amaterasu's 3: a dash that pierces all minions, stops at the first god hit and silences gods hit.
Amaterasu's Ult: 3 consecutive strikes that do more as you move down the chain. 1st Damage, 2nd +10% damage and slow, 3rd +40% Damage, 1s Stun.


Abilities:
1. Illuminating Strike (Passive)

After landing 3 basics on the same enemy she applies an aura to them showing their weaknesses and causes them to take more damage from everywhere. Enemies within the aura are also affected. VERY Useful on Gold Fury, Fire Giant, and Titans. 

• Ability: Debuff 
• Weakening Aura: 10% Increased Damage Taken 
• Stack/Aura Duration: 5s 
• Radius: 30 
• Max Auras Possible: 3 

2.Divine Presence

Amaterasu heals herself every 1s for 4s and has an aura that buffs near by allies, every time this ability is activated Amaterasu changes stance. Valor Stance gives you bonus power and Benevolence Stance gives you bounce movement speed.

• Ability: Buff 
• Benevolence Aura: 5/10/15/20/25 % Movement Speed 
• Valor Aura: 15/20/25/30/35 Bonus Power 
• Heal Per Tick: 20/30/40/50/60 (5% of your Physical Power) 
• Radius: 30 
• Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 
• Cooldown: 9s

3.Heavenly Reflection

Amaterasu charges her mirror for 5s, during which she takes reduced damage. Activating this ability again at the end of the 5s will fire her mirror straight ahead. The mirror charges up from landing hits on enemies of getting hit and can deal up to 2x the normal damage when it's fully charged.

• Ability: Line 
• Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 
• Cooldown: 14s 
• Self Damage Mitigation:3/6/9/12/15 % 
• Mirror Damage: 50/100/150/200/250 (60% of your Physical Power) 
• Full Charge Damage:50/100/150/200/250 

4.Glorious Charge
Amaterasu silences all enemies in front of her as she dashes forward damaging all enemies in her path, piercing minions but stopping at the first god. This is an incredibly fast dash but can sometimes be hard to aim aggressively but it is a good escape.  If you use it as an escape make sure there are no enemy gods in the way.

• Ability: Dash 
• Dash Damage: 70/130/190/250/310 (60% of your Physical Power)
• Silence Duration: 1s
• Cost: 70/75/80/85/90
• Cooldown: 18s 

5.Dazzling Offensive
 Amaterasu strikes 3 times in a large cone area, the 2nd does 10% more base damage and slows enemies, the 3rd hit does 40% more damage and stuns enemies. You have to hit an enemy to progress through the chain. (Good to clean up or start a team fight) 

• Ability: Cone 
• Cost: 100
• Cooldown: 75s 
• First Strike Damage:75/125/175/225/275 (+50% of your Physical Power)
• Slow Duration: 2s 
• Stun Duration: 2s

How Do I Build Amaterasu?

  After the Season 3 Change I can't find 1 build that works consistently but this is the build that works the best so far.

  When I play Amaterasu, I focus on being a tanky, supportive, utility player which works well with her kit. AKA max cool down, lots of protections, with a little base power and pen so we can still do damage.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image 

  I start this build by buying Death's Toll, and using its passive and health to stay in lane longer and farm up. Then I move into Warrior's Tabi to get movement speed to get around faster and get some power. Next I build Breastplate of Valor so I get some much needed cooldown reduction and mana so I can be more effective and use my abilities more often and physical protection. Next I buy Hide of the Urchin because it gives you protection, health, mand and just makes you hard to kill. This is necessary because personally I think she is very squishy and this helps her survive longer and not get blown up every 4s. 

  Then I build into Bulwark of Hope to get more magical protections, health and an amazing passive that will give you a shield with health equal to 150 +15 per level. This activates when you take damage and are below 30% health but this can only occur once every 60s. This will save you so many time and the shield stays on you even if you heal to max hp. Then I build Frostbound Hammer to give me even more health,power and for its passive that slows enemy movement by 30% and their attack speed by 15% for 2s when they are hit by your basic attacks. Allowing Amaterasu to hit more basics, apply her passive and just hurt the other team more.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image 

  Finally I sell off Deaths Toll and replace it with Jotunn's Wrath to finally get max cooldowns, more power, penetration and mana. This is best way I have found to play her but this might not work for you since she is a very interesting god.  Feel free to mix up the build order depending on what you need change it to your playstyle or ignore it completely. This is just what works for me and can help you get started until you find what works for you.


What Do I Do As Amaterasu?/Tips

• If you are fighting minions use you 1 to switch to you Valor aura for more power, use your 2 and fight minions until it's charged up to clear as fast as possible
• To start a team fight use Benevolence aura to get there faster then switch to Valor when it starts so your team can hit harder. 
• If your team is focusing 1 person dash to silence them, charge your 2, and hit them with your basics to kill them as quick as possible
• Your Ult can be used at the start of a team fight to get the slow and stun to weaken the enemy team or at the end to finish them off.
• You have to hit an enemy to continue your ult chain it can be a minion, jungle creep, enemy god, etc. Just Hit Something to keep it going.
• Your dash is fast and can be hard to aim so keep that in mind 
• Your 1 is a heal and can be used over and over with cooldowns in emergencies but it does take a lot of mana.
• Use Your Stance Change this is one thing that I need to work on but it the bonus power/movement speed is so useful in every situation so make sure you're always taking advantage of it.

Summary:

  Amaterasu can a be fun god to play and very effective you just need to know the parts of her kit and take full advantage of all her effects. Building her tanky with max CDR works the best for me but she is a very unique god but is not easy to play.Main thing is to be in the right stance, hit you basics, charge your 2 all the way and hit something will every swing of your ult. If you find out any good tips for her leave me a comment.

Good Luck and Have Fun Guys Playing as Amaterasu The Shining Light. 

Magical Stack

What is Stacking? Pt.2
Stacking is when you have an item that gives you additional affects as you get more minion and god kills. 

Item:	Book of Thoth	Warlock’s Sash
Picture:
Cost:	$2650	$2650
Power:	+100 Magical Power	+50 Magical Power
Stat 1:	+ 125 Mana	+400 Mana
Stat 2:	+ 15 MP5	+300 Health
Passive:	You permanently gain 10 mana per stack, and receive 5 stacks for a god kill and 1 stack for a minion kill Additionally 3% of your total  mana is converted to magical power.	You permanently gain +3 Health and +.6 Magical Power per stack, and receive 5 stacks for a god kill and 1 stack per minion kill.
Full Stacks	75 Stacks +126 Magical Power +875 Mana +15 MP5	100 Stacks + 700 Health + 110 Magical Power +400 Mana
Passive Simplified	You get 1 stack for a minion kill. 5 for a god kill. For Each Stack you get 10 mana and 3% of your Total mana is converted to Magical Power.	You get 1 stack for a minion kill. 5 for a god kill. For Each Stack you get 3 health and 0.6 Power. Sounds weak but it adds up.

Items

Book of Thoth and Warlock’s Sash are the 2 main stacking items for magical gods that are good items in general and get even better late game once they get full stacked.

Summary:

Both of these are amazing and can be used on any magical user to give them a huge stat boost.

Book of Thoth is for gods that are you want to build for a glass cannon type of build because this gives you crazy power and mana but no survivability.

Warlock's Sash is for gods when you want to be tanky and be able to last longer in fights. This also give you power and mana so it is a all around useful item.

How Do I Build Stacks?

What is Stacking?
Stacking is when an item gets stronger and gives you additional effects.

Items
These are they 2 main stacking items for physical gods. They are decent items early game but once you get to late game they help you hit the enemy team in the face. 

Item:	Devourer’s Gauntlet	Transcendence
Picture:
Cost:	$2050	$2600
Power:	+25 Physical Power	+35 Physical Power
Stat 1:	+10 % LifeSteal	+300 Mana
Stat 2:	N/A	+6 MP5
Passive:	You permanently gain +.4 Physical Power and +.20% Physical Lifesteal per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks per god kill and 1 Stack per minion kill.	You gain 15 mana per stack, and receive 5 stacks for a god kill and 1 stack for a minion kill (max. 50 stacks). In addition, 3% of your maximum mana is converted to physical power.
Passive Simplified:	You get 1 stack for a minion kill. 5 for a god kill. For Each Stack you get 0.4 Physical Power and 0.20% Life Steal.	You get 1 stack for a minion kill. 5 for a god kill. For Each Stack you get 15 mana and 3% of your Total mana is converted to power.
Full Stacks: (Total Stats)	75 Stacks +55 Power +25% life Steal	50 Stacks +66 Power +1050 Mana +6 MP5

Summary:

Devourer’s Gauntlet is used when you are playing and auto attack based ADC like Rama or Apollo.

Transcendence is used if you run out of mana a lot or if you are using a Hunter that relies on using their abilities.

With the current Meta you usually get one or the other on an ADC depending on your god. Personally I like Transcendence more because I play hunters that use a lot of mana. Just try both and see what works for you. VVGL