S5/S6 Ranked: One Way Ticket To Hell

So, been a while since I posted in this thread, and the reason for it is quite simple: I haven't played SMITE nearly enough recently to even consider playing ranked at any point, let alone this season.

Seeing as my schedule should clear up a little over the next few weeks (i.e. during the summer holidays), I guess it's about time I fix that.

The first step is for me to re-evaluate the picks I had in mind earlier this year; I think most of them should still be ok to play, but I know there has been a bit of a shift in picks especially in the solo lane, so I'm also interested in trying out new gods. Guan Yu and Hercules would be examples of gods I've played before who I've heard are pretty good now, while Achilles and Cu Chulainn are two who I haven't tried yet.

As for the other roles, I suppose I'm worried mostly about jungle (is Nemesis still around?) and support (I've heard of so many different picks in this role that I'm not sure which are supposed to be good anymore), so... Any suggestions?

I'd probably maintain the same suggestions I had the last time, overall, with the addition of Guan Yu in solo (or Support). However, if playing ranked, you want to make sure the enemy solo is chosen first, cuz gods like Chang'e can shut him down pretty hard, I think.

Smite Streamers:

https://www.twitch.tv/wlfy7 (Pro Mid player)

https://www.twitch.tv/prettyprime (Pro Mid player)

https://www.twitch.tv/deathwalker79 (Pro Solo player)

https://www.twitch.tv/barraccudda (Pro ADC player)

https://www.twitch.tv/incon (Good Smite player)

https://www.twitch.tv/dmbrandon (Informative Smite player/Solo player)

https://www.twitch.tv/zyrhoes (Pro Mid player)

https://www.twitch.tv/emilzy (Pro Support player)

https://www.twitch.tv/theadapting (Pro Jungler player)

https://www.twitch.tv/fineokay (Pro Solo player)

https://www.twitch.tv/baskinrobin1 (Pro Mid player)

https://www.twitch.tv/captaintwiggy (Pro Jungler player)

https://www.twitch.tv/callmemast (Good Smite player)

https://www.twitch.tv/jeffhindla (Pro Support player)

https://www.twitch.tv/weak3n (Pro Jungle player)

Wlfy, Prime, Fineokay, Barra, Incon, Dmbrandon, Emilzy, Adapting, Fineokay, Mast, Jeffhindla have youtube accounts you can check out as well, some of which have god guides. Also check out Weak3n on youtube.

You throw this out a lot on Reddit, Kriega. I'm curious...of all of the pros, who are your favorites and why?

(also, I doubt Wayne has that much time to watch a bunch of streams...he's barely even able to play the game XD)

My favourite pros are Wlfy, Deathwalker, Fineokay, Emilzy for how informative they are. For watching gameplay strictly I like to also watch Adapting, Barraccudda, Baskin and Zyrhoes (though the last two I like watching their SPL matches as well especially if they're playing gods I like , e.g. Zyrhoes playing Thoth).

Prettyprime I also watch as he was once of the first smite pro streamers I watched and I learnt to play Thoth better through him. He also plays a variety of mid gods (sometimes) as well and answers build questions in stream which also helps.

Those who have youtube accounts I watch some of their videos as well. Especially ones like EmilZy discussing support item choices. (Since occasionally I can end up as support in Ranked).

Also I think Wayne could take note of patch notes before playing ranked matches. Especially ones relating to any major character buffs or nerfs. It does help to watch some streams too for an idea of good current ranked picks and bans.

Alright, apologies in advance for using this as a bit of a personal learning thread, but after putting some more thought into it I decided it'd be a good idea to pick up Cu Chulainn for the solo lane, because he is a god that has been strong for a while now and I believe the versatility of his kit and the fact that he's manaless will keep him relevant for the foreseeable future.

Based on a game I watched on deathwalker's stream as well as some of my own theorycrafting, I've come up with the following "cheatsheet" for him, just wanted to check whether anything needs improving.


Basically, any item which combines Health, Protections and CDR looks good, while having a bit of CCR and Physical Power also doesn't hurt. For reference, I've left out most protection items which provide Mana as one of their main stats (e.g. Breastplate of Valor) because I'm not overly impressed by the 15% Mana to Health conversion on Cu Chulainn's passive.

With all that said, some questions come to mind (some of these are questions about Warriors in the solo lane in general, by the way, not just Cu Chulainn):

• Since Cu Chulainn is often in the middle of the enemy team during fights, would Mystical Mail also be worth considering or is the damage not considered as strong as the utility of other Physical Protection items? Similarly, would Ancile be worth considering over other items with Magical Protection or is the range of the passive too low for it to be useful?
• More generally speaking, are any of the Physical/Magical Protection items considered much stronger than the others in their category, or is the decision of which one to buy (almost) always situational?
• On gods that can utilize Gladiator's Shield, is it common to buy another Physical Protection item after completing it (assuming I'm laning against an opponent who deals physical damage) or do people buy a Magical Protection item first for the rest of the enemy team (again, assuming it's a team that has some magical damage in it, most likely in the mid lane)?
• How viable is a stacking protection item such as Hide of the Urchin? I feel like it's a bit too "slow" compared to other "normal" protection items, but am not sure whether that's a correct assumption.

I'm sure there's more to ask, but that's about all I can think of for now.

You're so fancy!

Kriega can probably give you better information...he keeps up with this stuff.

That said, I'll give my personal feedback because that's what I do.

I don't think Breastplate of Valor is bad, per se, although I agree a lot with the waste of mana conversion to health. The good phys prot and very high CDR are still very beneficial. It's an alternative option to Gladiator's Shield at that early stage, or a late replacement for it.

Rather than "armor" I think it's best to just call it physical prot and magical prot. I know you understand the concept but using the correct SMITE terms is good to get in the practice of doing.

Your start looks fine. If facing physical solo enemies, then Gladiator's Shield is great...and then you could follow up with a variety of things.

If facing magical (like Cerberus or Zhong Kui) you would probably go something more like Pestilence instead of Glad Shield. In those cases, you probably wouldn't follow that up with Glad Shield, but rather get a balanced protection item or a physical one.

You can always consider more utility/counter items like Witchblade and Hide of the Nemean Lion, but overall, your options are solid and there isn't one item in a category that's completely dominant over others.

Ancile is probably not one I'd follow up after Glad Shield, because neither has health. I WOULD consider if you were stomping the enemy though. The passive is a bit wonky, but you can usually keep yourself close to the enemy since you have the short leap, and the dash in beast mode.

Mystical Mail is a good early/mid option for bullying. The damage isn't all that much (it's also magical damage so is subject to mitigations), but it can help you clear minion waves more quickly, and then of course provide continuous damage to nearby enemies. It can combine well with Vent Anger.

If you get Glad Shield after Warrior Tabi, you CAN get another phys prot item. It's very functional if facing a physical solo AND jungle. I'd suggest anything with health in it, since Glad Shield doesn't have any.

Stacking items like Hide of the Urchin are okay, and people do get it. I personally don't like it as much these days, but it got a recent buff that reduces the # of stacks needed.

I have no clue on his skill leveling, but assuming you based it on Deathwalker's leveling? Do you really not level Vent Anger even once until late game? I would think it's important to get by level 4 or something, to help you control and better time your transition to his ult form.

What's the "Colspan" instruction for bb-coding? I'm looking at your coding and I'm like, whaaa? Also the table with the skill leveling, what's the 25% height thing going on? Just because there are 4 rows (25% each)?

Vent Anger gets leveled once at level 4, then doesn't get touched again until Barbed Spear and Salmon's Leap are maxed.

Correct. I figured leveling Vent Anger once early is probably fine too though, will change that.

I'll make a simple example to illustrate:

A B C D E

A B C D E

On the left is a table with one row with a single [td] in it (A), followed by another row with 4 (B,C,D,E). The right table is the exact same, except now the [td] in the first row has "colspan=4" added to it. As you can see, it now actually "spans" the 4 columns of the row below it.

In my previous post, the top row ( Cu Chulainn icon + build options) has two [td]'s with colspan=5 and colspan=16 in it for a combined value of 21, the middle row ("Skill Sequence") has colspan=21 as well and every row below that actually consists of 21 columns.

Hope that clears up any level of whaaa confusion ;)

For the record, the code I used for this skill sequence is copied from an old BBCode testing thread which I made in an admin-only section of the forums not long after I first joined the site, but I think I remember why I added the height back then.

Every [td] in which I actually level an ability has a table with width/height=95% in it. Seeing as 95% is relative (i.e. the height/width has to become 95% of the td which such a table is contained within), not setting a width and height for each td of the original table would result in the editor becoming confused, and the end result would look like it does now if you don't set the "contained" table to 95% height in the first place (left):

1

1

Adding a 25% height to each row (because yes, I had 4 rows in total) fixed that, but nowadays it doesn't seem like setting that 25% height is necessary at all anymore, because I just removed it and everything still looks good :)
(also, seeing as this combined table has more than 4 rows now, you could argue that 25% wouldn't even be the correct value anymore)

...I hope that makes sense.