Bran's Newbie Adventures in ConquestLand - Episode Four-titude

Another preface.


Just like the previous episode, the previous night's SMITE festivities felt eerily identical to that horrible sequence. Creepy.

Started with a solo Assault match as Osiris (the only tanky god), with the enemy team having Guan Yu and Athena. Ouch. Tried to do my part, went 3/4/7 tanking about double the damage overall compared to any one of my teammates, while doing roughly the same damage as my team's Ra and Janus (WTF?). Tanking a lot didn't help, and I figured as much, based on our comp (I was also the only physical god). Eh, happens.

The rest of the night went as expected for someone with a defeatist attitude. Got a nice group of Zilby, TakeYoPantsOff (Taco), Stuke, and my nephew, for a full team. Decided I would try GameGeekFan's Cricket...but first, I had to unlock him. That done, we went into our first match, and Taco got the first babysitting assignment.

Just have to say for this match and the subsequent one...it's tough when you haven't really played a god before. I mentally prepared by reading the Cricket guide in full first. But damn, was using his ult absolutely NOT intuitive for me. Should have considered it sort of like Geb's shield, but the only time I really considered using the ult was when my teammates were almost dead, and my reaction was too slow to get it off before they died. This happened MULTIPLE times.

Anyway, thought it would be nice to try Travelers Shoes for the extra speed...basing the start off of GGF's Ranked build. Bad move. The stats on Shoes of Focus are way better, at least for someone like me. Not that that would have changed anything. I really like Khepri's long range DoT Rising Dawn, but it really doesn't do much damage, especially early on. Got caught too many times, and went 0/6/0. Okay, got it, about as horrible as it can get. Not even 1 assist. Despite this, Taco was able to go 6/3/5 in a losing effort. I also faintly recall a bunch of pissed off screaming coming from Stuke. Zilby held his own, and my nephew also did solidly as Scylla.

Will start moving through this faster, because that night's sequence isn't the main point of this episode. 2nd Conquest match had me feeling much the same, though my score ended up looking better. 3/6/6, again tried Travelers Shoes, and this time I was Stuke's wingman. Sorry, dude. Only one that did well that match was Zilby (surprise), but even he couldn't stand up to a fed enemy team.

Nephew had to go after that, so the 4 of us switched over to Siege for a round. I don't really play this mode (14 total matches including this one), and didn't really know how the teleport function worked =P That said, I went with an old familiar favorite ( Bacchus), and did okay...7/6/14, and everyone had a positive K/D ratio in our win, though it was somewhat close. Z was showing me how to really play Freya.

That was the end of the night's positives... Freya 2/8/20 in Assault, Bastet 3/8/2 in Joust (by this point Stuke left), Geb 1/7/10 in Joust, Kumbhakarna 1/2/11 in Joust, and Neith 2/7/4 in Joust. Okay, I actually felt okay with Kumbhakarna. He might be a go-to for Joust matches, if I don't go with Bacchus.

And that was it for the night.


First: My god. Ducks is a badass Hou Yi. Ho Lee Hell.

Okay, that said, this night was a whole different story. I know Ducks was a big part of it. Thing is, every time I went aggressive and used Khepri to stun/pull, with no words spoken, Ducks was there every time. I guess some playstyles just really match up well. That said, I think I was also significantly better in choosing the proper times to attack and back off overall.

It was also a group with my nephew and Bullfrog, who feels about as I do...just starting to get into Conquest. That said, he's doing just fine.

Conquest Game #1: Khepri Support

1/1/0. Quick 14 minute win via surrender. I chose Shoes of Focus for all of this night, and I'm not looking back...probably. In any case, although in Duo we were basically tied, Bullfrog was already 3/0/2 with Loki in Solo, my nephew was 2/0/2 with Janus in Mid,and our Jungler was 3/1/4 with Ao Kuang. Solid, quick win. My biggest problem in this one was probably the transition to mid-game. As I started roaming, I found myself unsure where to go, and spent too much time running around in the Jungle.

That said, fighting-wise, this was also a match that helped me gain some confidence. I didn't find myself dying 2+ times in the first 5 minutes, which is a huge thing for me. Carried over into the subsequent games.


Conquest Game #2: Khepri Support

In the 2nd Conquest match of the night, Ducks and I found ourselves against Ymir and Apollo. Didn't know they could do so much damage so quickly. Almost died in the first encounter!

Although I couldn't save Ducks and the solo queuing Mercury early, things slowly but surely started going our way. Ducks' incredible skill was counter-balanced somewhat by our Merc, who went 1/10/15...and I did more damage than he did.

I dropped 7 wards, contributed in fights, and generally just felt confident. This is what makes Conquest satisfying. Went 2/2/18.

And here's a video of the 2nd match. Oh, and although I'm talking sporadically, it's only to my nephew, as we were the only ones in chat. Does anyone else hate listening to themselves?



Conquest Game #3: Khepri Support

FerrumSlash joined us for this one to bring our group to a full 5. Do have to very specifically point out, their Khepri support dropped at the beginning of the game, putting Sol at a huge disadvantage. Even so, I thought she did what she could, and she ALMOST killed me.

Nothing much else to say here. By 14 minutes, although the Khepri had returned, it was too late, and our team was too far ahead in levels.

I was 3/2/4 by that point.


Conquest Game #4: Chaac Solo

Although I had a huge huuuuuge blunder at the end, I held my own pretty well in Solo. Chaac seems like a safe choice, and that's fine for now, but in the end, his damage drops off, and I think learning the ropes with someone that can be a bit more aggressive might be good.

That blunder? I couldn't figure out what I wanted to buy for the last item. So I was sitting in the fountain, while minions were chipping away at the titan, eventually killing it. My nephew was totally telling me, but I was caught up and it took a while to register, LOL.

Leading up to the end, though, I was against Amaterasu, and did quite well as more of the aggressor in-lane. There were a couple of times in the mid game where I didn't know what I was doing, (and thus wasting time wandering the Jungle), but I also participated in teamfights a lot, helped secure the Fire Giant, and laid down 8 wards to help teammates, as I got my lane's tower down fairly quickly.

Ended at 5/5/14. Not too bad.

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This is another of those nights that feels like a bit of a turning point in my gameplay. I just need to not get my hopes up. Having an ADC like Ducks really helps. That said, I'm mostly starting to understand better what I should do. Practice absolutely does help.