New player intimidated by items..

Hey all, I have been playing for a few weeks and I am having a great time. I feel it is probably time to take "auto buy" off and start buying my items but I am kinda overwhelmed. I watch you tube games and hear people say things like "Well, they have gods X and Y so I think I am going to build item Z" and I have no idea why they are making those decisions.

Is there a noob guide to the items in the game that maybe explains why situationaly some items are better than others for different gods?

Hi welcome to smitefire!

It's a little outdated, but Zilby's item guide is brilliant and will give you a general idea of what to be doing.

Aside from that you can look at some of the up to date God guides on the website, and comment any questions you might and someone will usually try to answer fairly soon.

@jst3p: Welcome! I know how you feel. It's definitely overwhelming to start, and it takes a while to really be familiar with the items and exactly how they're working for you.

As Cake said, Zilby's guide is a great place to start just to get a lowdown on all of the items. Really, though, it's just that you sort of have to get your feet fully wet. There are some basics you can understand, depending on role, so asking more specific questions might help.

I'm assuming you're playing Conquest, and in casual, I'd say as long as you're okay ignoring toxic players, use it as the most direct method to familiarize yourself. You can even use the in-game templates as a general guide while you get used to actually purchasing things yourself manually.

That said, it's just a lot of info to continue to read, but check various guides based on gods you're interested in...the best guides do a lot of explaining.

Your other option is to play other modes. Assault and Arena are probably the best choices there for different reasons. Assault sort of forces you to play different gods, so it can be difficult to keep switching gods and builds, but...if you'd like...you have a guide for that =)

https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/the-overarching-assault-guide-s3-6000

I explain and give options for builds throughout the guide. If you're playing, you can use your phone or tablet or anything else you have at your disposal to reference as you play.

In Arena, at least you have a general choice regarding which god to play. In this kind of mode, I'd suggest choosing 1 or 2 gods to start, and just continue to play them as you learn how to build.

In the end...it's just practice, practice, and more practice, with a lot of reading in-between. And, of course, asking more specific questions here, to which many of us will do our best to help.

Hey, thanks for your replies. Zilby's guide is just the sort of thing I was looking for! That's a great start, thanks.

Bran- Actually I have yet to play a single game of conquest. Long ago I tried LoL and got yelled at too many times for things I didn't understand "Top is supposed to tether first camp for the jungler noob!" (That may not be an exact quote, but something like that). And since I didn't understand the roles, and the subtle things expected of each role I gave up because I felt like I was ultimately hurting my team.

I am really liking smite, but conquest stresses me out. I will watch a vid on youtube and I will think, "OK, those three guys went to that buff camp to start, but how am I supposed to know if I am one of those three?" I know I am supposed to rotate lanes, but don't understand when. Things like that.

I have primarily playing 2 modes:

Arena is fun if I feel like a big long teamfight. I bought the PS4 founders pack so I have been having a good time trying out a lot of gods. In arena I tend to like mages and Bacchus. Funny enough Bacchus is the one I play on weekends if I have a few drinks, he is a VERY forgiving god to play.

I play a lot of Clash. I really enjoy playing assassins, mostly Bastet, and I find in clash it is easier to sneak up on people, for obvious reasons. I am really getting into Agni too, man he can wreck things.


I have tried assault a few times, but the size of the map puts me back into LoL mindframe of "am I doing what I am supposed to be doing?"

Maybe I just need to get over that.

Thanks for the help!

@jst3p: Ahhh, check out the Bacchus guide I have for Arena...I do a lot of explaining on everything there, so that may also help you get more familiar with item choices.

https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/bacchus-a-wine-pairing-arena-guide-s3-10075

Yeah, he's pretty fun =)

I'm the same way with Conquest. I think, if I needed to, I could probably do okay in most roles minus Jungler, but I've played, I think, less than 50 total Conquest matches, spread out over 2 years. I hear you on getting stressed out...and games shouldn't do that to you!

Assault really isn't bad. It's only 1 lane and no jungle. I'd give it more of a shot. Just different things to think about, which I go over in the guide.

Anyway, good luck!

Oh! I was confusing assault with siege. Siege is the one that stresses me. I actually haven't tried assault yet, will give it a shot this weekend!

Ahhh, that makes more sense. Siege is sorta like Conquest-lite. Hahaha!

Ah the standard MOBA problem. A problem that takes some time to learn. And arises when you switch to a different MOBA too (same for what can gods do)

Are already enough guides posted, and I hope you know understand better why people are saying I'm gonna buy Z item etc. (otherwise just ask)

There is a CQ guide coming I believe. However there are some guides that shortly explain the roels in CQ (most of them are still from S2).

I would recommend the BUGS beginner guide or Pentar's ettiquette (this one is from S1 but gives some things that are still relevant however not everything)

I would suggest to try all the modes for at least 10 times.
This will give you an idea of what a "general" game would be.

Because if you tried Conquest and the other team demolished you and you surrendered at 10 minutes, you didn't really experienced what the game should be.
There is a big gap on how fun and how bad a game mode can be.
So, give you more tries before leaving the mode apart.

Next, if you feel the game mode could be fun, only if you were better (know what you are supposed to do), then I would suggest to continue to play that mode.
Because you will get better, especially if you are willing to learn and read tips on sites such as SmiteFire.

Finally, even this seems overwhelming, the best approach is to learn everything at the same time :
- Game mode mechanics (what and when to do)
- Gods abilities (how to play with and against that god)
- Items (determine which enemy will hurt you, which will be hard to kill)
- Relics (Looks for Purification CD, know who has Sanctuary if you have a burst god, etc)

One could think they could focus their learning on 1 point at once, but it's just not optimal.


Here are some guides I would suggest for new players.

Amarey's BUGS - Beginner's Universal Guide to SMITE

Devampi's Basic mistakes you want to avoid

Firraria's Complete Beginner's Guide to SMITE!


There are also guides about general tips about a specific game mode that Branmuffin17 already suggested you :


Arena

Assault

I know they are creating a Conquest guide for Season 3, meanwhile you can read this one, even if a bit outdated :
Conquest


For anything else, just ask, really.

Welcome to Smite, and enjoy !

I would say you should first get to know a bit of mechanics before you start into building (thats why i recommend my friends to only take of auto items when they kinda know a bit how to play (aka till lvl 5 somewhere. hwoever before lvl 10)

Also my basic mistake guide is a mess and I don't have any time to clean it up probably till the vacation.