Bad Matchup Help

So I had a match today in which I entered a casual conquest match as a solo laner to a REALLY bad matchup (you can see details in my comment). I did terribly, so I thought I'd make a bad matchup thread for people to post their bad matchups and ask for advice on how to survive them. This of course does not apply to ranked as you can determine your matchup in the picks and bans phase.

Have at yee!

So my bad matchup was Chronos solo vs Fenrir. Initially, since the enemy team had a Kali as their jungler, I thought it would be Kali solo and Fenrir jungle. Because Kali has a poor early game, I grabbed soulstone and Lost Artifact as well as two health pots to start with.

The solo laner wasn't Kali.

I get to lane, step half way to the minion wave before getting pounced on by Fenrir, stunned and then Brutalized with Bluestone Pendant to death in all of 5 seconds. Underestimating how gravely I had ****ed up, I grabbed teleport and went straight back to lane to minimize my losses. I try to clear wave under tower, and am jump stunned and Brutalized to death again, at level 3, from a tower diving Fenrir. At this point I ask Thor to come duo with me so that I can clear the wave safely enough to gain xp since I'm no longer even able to camp tower. I can't afford a physical defense item, so I start building Shoes of Focus so that I can at least return to lane fast. I get to tower, get jump stunned and then ulted by Fenrir for a third death, before I can even reach level 5. I grab beads and head back to lane. I try to sit tower as best I can, Fenrir dives the first time, I ult, and survive with a sixth of my health. Fenrir is still at 3/4 health and is at this point, fed as all hell, and ~level 8. He ults me, I beads. I try to still camp tower, but he comes at me again for a 4th kill. At this point I'm begging Thor to come help. He gets my blue buff *big whoop*. I go back to lane. Fenrir dives, I ult. Next minion wave, I know I can't sit tower, so I begin to run away. Fenrir catches me with his ult mid-way between the two towers and kills me again. Vulcan, our mid laner who is 0-4 dc's because the surrender vote doesn't go through. I go on to die twice more and get one kill on Kali who was invading super deep ending with a solid score of 1-7, probably my worst score in months.

So, all in all, what could have been done to rectify this situation? From what I can see, I could have sold soulstone and grabbed aegis, sold everything for the start of Breastplate of Valor, which isn't particularly great on Chronos, gone even harder and grabbed something like Midgardian Mail, which I wouldn't have been able to complete before Fenrir would have 3 kills, but even with all of that, if Fenrir played more passively and didn't clear the wave, I still wouldn't have had any chance of getting close enough to it to gain xp without dying.

So basically, is there anything I realistically could have done without support from Thor? Or was I simply doomed to fail?

You made a mistaken assumption, gave first blood, and from then on was Fenrir's chew toy, despite him being terrible at laning, because snowballing in this game is ******ed.

There's no "sustain start" or "tanky start" or "early defensive itemization" or "counterbuilding" in Smite. You were doomed.

I guess the problem is that you made an assumption on who was gonna be in your lane.
I did that many times, it never worked out for me. If you're right, maybe you'll have a small advantage, but what if you're wrong?

My advice would be to ALWAYS ward (either you or the jungler) next to their speed buff so you'll know early who is going to jungle and who is going to the solo lane. This way, you can probably afford to wait the 17 seconds mark before leaving base, which should most likely be enough for you to have this information.

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I had a bat matchup as well today, I was Fenrir in the solo lane (:D), but against Loki... which is really bad (I saw that coming). Your lane clear is terrible as Fenrir and his is just too strong at level 7. He just has to throw his decoy from distance and he's done. Then he waits for the kill opportunity and you're doomed. I ended up 0-5-0 after the laning phase, which turned out as a 5-7-7 as soon as I was able to rotate to team fights.

If there is any way to outfarm Loki with Fenrir please let me know! The only other option I see it to give up the lane. Is that even an option? :/

@Sub, once the mistake was made I was probably doomed yeah. Admittedly this wouldn't happen in ranked though :o

@Vithaliy, good advice on the warding, but since I didn't know who was solo or jungle, I'd have to be in lane by the time I knew since they'd clear the buffs together and have already bought my starting items.

Basically my best option seems to be to play it safe and grab Silver Breastplate or Steel Mail, but even then he could still force me back to base by the second wave :/

I think without the assistance of a jungler, a poor early game god like Chronos (or Hel or Freya) would basically be doomed against a strong early game god like Fenrir due to the impact of Bluestone Pendant.

That's the point of the ward. Once they are spotted on the map, just look at their stuff and see who is going with Bumba's Mask. Hopefully, they'll be spotted BEFORE you buy your first item (the 0:17 mark). Most people in casual just go to their buff at the very beginning of the game, so it should work!

Anyway, yes, not much you can do with Chronos early game without support. When it's an hypercarry in the solo lane and I'm jungling, I would usually stay a bit longer in their lane instead of mid-lane until they're lvl 10.

[quote=Zilby]Admittedly this wouldn't happen in ranked though :o[/quote] ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Edit: Dear lord the quote command is broken again.

@Vithaliy, Oh I wasn't thinking about seeing that they have Bumba's Mask with the ward, that's actually smart.

@Sub, I mean you get to choose who you have in the picks and bans. If I see they have a Fenrir I'm not going to go "ah.. what a choice opportunity to pick Chronos," that's just idiotic. Bad matchups in ranked are your fault in the picks and bans phase. (That's not to say you can necessarily avoid ALL bad matchups, but you can avoid any that are catastrophically bad like this).

Until the game where doing that gets you killed.

Since this is a QQ thread, I'm going to rant about how Bluestone Pendant is just the most ******ed item idea to ever exist, ever.

Why do you make a starter item that gives damage? WHY? +30 physical damage alone is the equivalent of +15 physical power for Brutalize. Considering that Brutalize is a multi hit, that's about 150 extra damage (2 seconds + at least 3 seconds of damage = 30 + 60 + 60, very roughly), or +75 physical power for Brutalize' scaling.

You can kinda see how unbalanced the item is once you start comparing it to actual stats. It's pretty dumb. It distorts gods' ability values, too.

Basically, it was a ****ty, overpowered item that was turned into a ****ty, useless item that was turned into a ****ty, overpowered bandaid that is a ****ty replacement for some actual ****ing balancing. Rather than buffing gods like Fenrir, HiRez decided that this item would do instead.

Which is just typical, considering that's just how Smite balancing works now these days. Instead of balancing the god, they just introduce or change an item as a broad general change, shifting the game unpredictably.

Yep, Bluestone Pendant gives a better early game...to god that already had a good early game... xD
Warriors are the new Mages :p


QUOTE : "@Vithaliy, Oh I wasn't thinking about seeing that they have Bumba's Mask with the ward, that's actually smart."

I'm a bit offended that you're surprised that something I say CAN be smart! xD