I just have no clue what I'm doing...

Hello all, thanks for having me here.

Well, this game seems neat but I'm very discouraged by my own cluelessness. I have been playing primarily Joust, and I'm trying to wrap my head around roles and tactics and am just at a loss.

I mostly play Ra, because I *thought* it would be good to help push minions towards the enemy base. But I've now been told that early pushing is bad, for some reason.

I have tried some Medusa as well, but I die so quickly I'm not sure what good hunters are.

To be honest I have no idea why a team should consist of different roles, why in a game of penetrating enemy territory I wouldn't want to do exactly that, when the best time is to get buffs from the jungle, or anything else about what I'm doing.

I've looked everywhere for guides but all I see are "build this, do that" lists, and no explanation as to *why* suggestions are being made. I don't understand the principle, fundamental tactics of this game.

I guess my question is: Where do I even start? What should I learn first, and what should I not worry about for now? I just feel completely lost here.

I suggest you look at this guide for Beginners. At least it is a place to start.

Final Fantasy 9 lover? Wonder where that name came from.

In any case we got you covered. Those are all absolutely solid questions but at the same time very open ended. The answers are definitely more complex but again we can help you get through it.

Pardon any weird grammatical things but I'm doing this via voice recognition right now. But just to get one idea let's take on your comment about infiltrating and attacking enemy territory. Think of it like chess. The idea there is to attack and defeat all of the enemy pieces but you know that the strategy to do so is extremely important. The same idea applies to smite but the reasons behind it can be tricky. So why not push early and whenever you can? Here are a couple reasons... depending on the god you choose, your teammates and the enemy team pushing forward takes you further away from the relative safety of your own Tower. In the early game you have almost no items and especially for a god-like ra he's unlikely to have any protections. On top of that Rod doesn't have any abilities that help him really Escape from a bad situation which means it's easier for the enemy to pick you off. Now this is all highly highly subjective because of their entire team consist of week early gods and your team has God with a lot of crowd control and can protect you with their abilities that idea is potentially moot.

So on the flip side let's look at the other reasons. Pushing early game if your team has significantly better wave clear abilities can make the entire enemy team lose out on resources. Once you clear your wave It's Not only your team against the enemy team but also your opinions against the enemy team and they can do a decent amount of damage in the early game. The effect is lessened to some degree because that Focus can be split between three different gods in joust but the idea still stands.

So although that might give you an understanding of that question it may bring up several other questions. I'll see what else I can tackle later on tonight or whenever I find some time. Maybe others can help as well. In any case welcome to the game remember to try to have fun and this game definitely takes time to learn so don't stress.

Okay Quina, let's tackle some more of your questions.

Look at my Arena or Conquest guide to see which gods are considered best...I have my own tier list for Arena, and I've linked tier lists for professionals etc. in the Conquest one. Of course, they're different because in the different modes, different gods can be better for various reasons.

So, for hunters, one of the easiest ones to learn with is Neith. I also like Medusa, who is great in Arena, can be great in Joust, etc.

You also mentioned that no one "explains" anything regarding the reasoning for doing/choosing things. Check my Medusa guide. I've explained some reasons for the items I've chosen, and explained the process for both Conquest and Arena. I think it covers things you'll find helpful.

Here's a quick summary of item choices for a hunter.

Core items:

• Movement: Usually Warrior Tabi or Ninja Tabi. Movement should be pretty obvious as to why you need it, and need it fairly early in the build. More mobility means you can get to places more quickly, and run if you need to escape. Warrior provides 20 more power, which translates to higher ability damage and higher basic attack damage per hit. Ninja provides 15% attack speed increase, which means you can hit things more quickly...it's a different way to do more damage, and higher attack speed is effective for a god that doesn't rely on abilities as much...and also increases DPS (damage per second) when items like Qin's Sais and crit items (e.g. Wind Demon, Deathbringer) are built.
  
  
• Lifesteal: This is used to help you sustain...meaning, you gain life back as you deal basic attack damage, which can help keep you alive longer. Common items for this are Devourer's Gauntlet, Asi, and Soul Eater.
  
  
• Penetration: items provide protection (armor). Each god also has some inherent protection even when they don't build protection items. Penetration (and its counterpart, protection reduction) help you do more damage by cancelling some of the protection of the enemy. Protection reduction items (most commonly The Executioner) are a debuff to the enemy, meaning other physical gods can do more damage when you've applied the debuff, so it's effective for both you and those teammates. Penetration applies only to your attack, but is the form that also helps destroy objectives (like towers and phoenixes)...common penetration items include Asi and Titan's Bane.
  
  
• Enhanced damage: I guess that's my own term for it, but getting Qin's Sais, whose passive adds to the basic damage you do, and/or crit items (Wind Demon, Malice, Deathbringer, Rage) which do increased damage each time you crit) are essential items to maximize your damage output.
  
  
• Attack speed: Back to items like Ninja Tabi, Asi, Soul Eater, Wind Demon, The Exectuioner, Qin's Sais, and others like Ichaival and Heartseeker. Faster attack speed means higher potential to hit more often. More hits mean more procs of Qin's Sais, increased chance to get more crit attacks, build stacks of items like Soul Eater, Ichaival, The Executioner and Heartseeker, etc.

Altogether, we suggest build orders because there's an optimal way to make yourself as effective as possible as the game carries on. In this, you're just really going to have to read a lot to understand things better. See that beginner guide GameGeek suggested, etc. This is a pretty complex game in many ways, with many different mechanics, so it's going to take time. I wasn't really comfortable with many aspects of the game for over a year +. If you enjoy the game concept, put in the time and be patient, and you'll be rewarded.

just want to say thanks to the OP and person who replied for this thread....extremely helpful!

Welcome, eevil. We're here to help if you have any questions!