How did you get started in conquest?

@Bran, since Arena and Assault are so different, you could try easing yourself into it with the other gamemodes. Siege/Clash and even Joust are basically mini conquests to help you get into the mindset (out of the three, Siege is the closest despite HiRez's intentions with Clash).

I might try that...thanks Zilby. I've played a very, very little bit of both Siege/Clash. Would you recommend starter items in those modes, or just skip starters and go straight for full tier 3 items?

Clash I'd recommend starters, Siege you get 2000 so I usually grab items (most commonly either full shoes + beads or a tier 2 item + beads unless they completely lack hard CC).

I've played a couple of Siege, and found that starter items could work, but it's not as useful as in Conquest.
Since you start with 2000g, the gold span is higher, you have a lane AND buffs for your income, you don't struggle on gold very much.
If you intend to build stack, you can often get the tier 2 right from the start and back when you get gold to finish the item.
Unless you are getting outpushed hard, your lane partner should be ok during your way back, and you start stacking at the earliest moment possible.

However, if you play a support (Siege don't necessary have the same roles as Conquest, but a guardian is always useful), you may want to pick Watcher's Gift early game for your gold income and a bit more survivability. If your lane partner has a good clear, it's 267 gold price will worth it.

Otherwise, if your team intend to invade at start, I guess Bluestone Pendant + Potion of Physical Might could work too.

@branmuffin I'd recommend buying starters in joust, clash or siege. In ***ualt just make you start with meditation then start full items from there.

Joust is probably best to ease you into learning how to lane, as you have 2 teammates as a safety net.
After that siege is good for learning a bit about rotations (although the only people that seem to play siege, are people that ONLY play siege, so beware of super pro mlg siege teams if you go on it)

I'd recommend play joust, then once you've got more confidence laning have a go laning in casual conquest. Solo is normally quite laid back compared to the other lanes, so it can be a nice place to learn. And people never seem to blame solo lane when they lose, so if you do bad, just shift the blame to support or jungle to avoid being moaned at. Works every time!

@CakeSlapping, idk where you get the impression of super mlg siege teams from, most people that I see play siege are pretty mediocre. Solo is a good role to start CQ in though (at least from my experience), was my favorite role for a long while.

Hey Z/Bull/Slap, thanks for the feedback.

Joust: I'm fairly comfortable there. Almost like a small Assault with a bit of jungle, allows stacking items, etc., but I tend to only go full items rather than starter, because of the higher gold per second. No major problems with this mode, though I don't play it much.

Clash: Only played once (or twice?), but I feel comfortable there too...it's like a dual lane Arena match, and I get no feel of Conquest-lite from it.

Siege: Okay, now this definitely feels like Conquest-lite to me, and I'm definitely less comfortable in this mode, though I can have fun in it. People are definitely not as serious, but I need to find a god that I'll do well with. This might be the best mode to get me more used to the feel of Conquest.

Slap: if you haven't yet, check out my assault guide. I actually have a section very strongly emphasizing meditation to start. Though it's really long, would love for you to look it over and let me know what you think, if you have any feedback. Also, very funny about blaming support/jungle, lol!

@zilby I play on Xbox, so maybe it's a bit different for me, but almost every time I go into siege I get put against a team of 4 who pretty much ONLY play siege and take things a bit overly seriously (I know this because sometimes I message them after the match, win or loss)

Maybe I'm just lucky/unlucky or maybe it's an Xbox thing, but it's almost every time for me.

@branmuffin I'll give your ***ualt guide a read through when I have time tomorrow. I'm expecting it to be pretty good, as what I've read of your character guides seems pretty great.
Not sure how useful any feedback from me will be though, as I can't take a random selection mode seriously, it's always a bit of mess around fun for me.

@I'llCakeSlapYou...how DARE you insult my original mode of choice? Can't take it seriously? Well as a "competitive" Conquest player, I'm sure if you work hard enough at it, you can find yourself at a skill level as high as mine, raging at the most innocent, new players, to the point of breaking your keyboard and/or mouse! And I'm telling you...that takes a PARTICULAR set of skills.

J/k (obviously), I'm about as laid back of a player as it gets. Maybe that's why I haven't gotten into Conquest. Maybe I'm inherently bad at that kind of mode, and it's not my fault because I was born that way...?

@Cake, that sounds like an xbox thing, could be because of the way the mode was introduced among xbox's original modes rather than added long after modes like Arena and CQ for pc.

@Bran, you can play CQ laid back, I do it all the time! Although perhaps that's why I don't do that much ranked :P