Okay, lets start with what I thought about the game BEFORE I started playing it. I was looking at it, and a few things stood out. As a MOBA player, I was SUPER intrigued by how the third person view would affect the gameplay. I saw good things in it, and bad things. I thought maybe the third person would make teamfights EPIC, and I thought the third person would make the minimap weird, and that it would be difficult to maintain the map because you wouldn't be able to see from top down. After I heard it was Gods versus Gods, which is a game design idea I had brewing in my head for years, I was like "OMFG IM DOWNLOADING THIS"
Now, what my reactions were after I started. As far as the tutorial went, I was kinda skeptical about this game. I mean, come on, I want to play the game maturely and the FIRST god is Neith. I'm not arguing with her design, I saw Game Theory, but WHY did she have to be the tutorial character? I am a guy, and I don't approve of the over-sexualization, but it makes sense because of ancient Egypt's apparel. But they didn't have to throw it in your face in the opening of the game, why not Ra, or Zeus? Other than that, the tutorial was very informative, I loved the way the ability hotkeys worked, and how it showed you where the ability was going to land. That absolutely solved any disputes in my mind about whether the third person would work. After doing my mandatory 3v3 Joust, Arena, and Assault to unlock all game modes I noticed that with such vastly different game modes I would likely see people who were only pros at one certain game mode and simply decent at the others. I also realized that I would probably need different builds for each game mode after I went into ranked, but I'm not worried about it now, that's a ways off. My impressions of each game mode? Arena was cool, I always wanted a sort of arena mode in Dota. Joust was freaking awesome, I mean, it was ONE lane. Pushers I could tell would be pretty epic in Joust as long as they have someone else to protect them. Assault was okay, I love randomizing, but I wish there was a version of the game mode that let you choose your God. After I got Conquest mode, I started practicing that IMMEDIATELY, because that's the MOBA gameplay I know and love. I started playing Vulcan, because I saw that his ability pool had a turret and I always loved classes in every game even outside of moba's that built stuff into the battle, not to mention he's one of my favorite Gods in mythology. I saw that there was a God mastery system, which was straight up EPIC, so I immediately played Conquest till I got God mastery 1 with Vulcan, you know, for bragging rights when people see me play, ( which happened too, people were all like "Back up guys, this guy knows what he's doing! He plays this guy!") I learned how to gank with turrets, ( no one seems to know that it works but it does, just place it way behind the person you're ganking in lane, nuke them, attack them, and THEN they run and get killed by your turret.) and in general learned a lot about item choices, like actives.
And through this massive wall of memories, there were no real jerks in the community, everyone was REALLY nice and awesome to everyone, not just me. Save that one type of guy that appears every now and then who picks Arachne AFTER I pick Osiris and immediately types "JUNGLE!"
Just wait the toxic part will sooner or later show itself.
That's how the game works, you choose your god and call your role (not in any particular order). It doesn't matter if someone else chose a god first, all that matters is calling the role. Like, if I chose
Anyway, I hope you have a great time in Smite! :D
You seem relatively new, so this guide may be of some use.