I'd like a Mentor for tuning

Hello!

I started SMITE a few hours ago, and I must say I love it. I'm not a pro in MOBA, but I'm roughly Gold III/II in league of legends.

I picked up Ra as a first champion to play, he's intuitive and I like this kind of 'burst mage'.

But I just tried Ah Muzen Cab, and wow is he different and harder to play.

I still can do stuff, but I'm not sure about a few things, and I'd like to ask questions to a mentor, mostly concerning optimal key binding, building items, last hitting and general course of objective (buffs when for who, seems a lot different from LoL).

I already found a lot of good data on guides, but since I'm a beginner, I'd liek some one on one talk to understand the game better.

Thanks for the future help!

As someone who also EXTENSIVELY plays LoL, I'd be happy to help. Just asking general questions? I'm relatively profficient in pretty much anything - theorycrafting, general differences between Smite/LoL, what gods fill which roles (Ra is actually more utility than burst. You should see He Bo, Anubis, or Scylla!), etc.

Let me know :)

I sent you a PM (probably two as I thought the first wasn't send)

Sorry for the wall of text :p

Not sure if you mean on smitefire or in-game but my inbox is empty xD

Oh. I meant on Smitefire, I guess the message(s) weren't sent after all :D
I'll try again in a few sec

Ok, for some reason I can't send PM on Smitefire, no matter the browser I use...

I'll copy paste the message here:

'Thanks a lot for offering your help :)

My major questions are:

1) Key Binding. Not a big fan of 1234 as spells, as the movement you have to make to reach these keys from the Movement keys are different (1 and 3 are further than 2), so I tried A2ER instead, and F/G for the active items. Is it a good idea, or should I stick to 1234 and get used to it? Seemed a bit weird at first but maybe it just needs time.

2)Item Build. Now this may sound extremely noobish, but I didn't find the option to sell the starting item when I finished the other 5 items. I'm still using AutoBuy as I don't know the items very well yet, so maybe it's the problem.

3)Build Order. I have absolutely no idea what's the importance of leveling the active items, or buying potions. As a reflex in LoL, I always carry 1 potion, just in case. But when do I upgrade the active, when do I buy wards, and do I need to finish boots first (mobility does seem really important in this game so I guess it's for the best)

4)Good/Bad Items. Are any Active or Build Items like, meta? There are a lot of boots, a lot of items that looks like LoL items, but since it's not the same gameplay, maybe some are not as mandatory to buy as let's say BotRK for an ADC in LoL.
Sorry for all the items questions but it's probably the part that bugs me the most.

5)Last Hitting. Simply put, is it even worth the try? I seem to gain 18G when not last hitting and 25 when last hitting, but it's much harder than in LoL and since you're slowed because you attacked, you're more vulnerable to your opponent. So better try and last hit everything or focus on pressure and dodge? Or both, in which case I need A LOT of practice.

6)Ward. Simple: who buys wards, and where/when to put them?

7)Buffs. Again, what happens at the start of a game? Who gets which buff at start, and who gets priority on buffs later on.


Sorry for asking so many questions, even if I play mostly for fun, I still take these kind of thing seriously (I don't care if I lose, but I really hate to make my teammates lose a game)

For now, I'm trying Joust for testing champions and see how their abilities respond before playing in Conquest. That's why I thought Ra was a Burst Mage, I guess it's his best role in Monolane 3v3 :p

Again, thanks a lot for your help!'

Ohhh right you know what, I can't believe I forgot. Smitefire is having problems creating new PM's. Old ones are fine, but there's a problem with the new PM page.

anyway.

1) Are you on a QWERTY keyboard? If so, as WASD are the keys, it's usually best to have 1234 the buttons, but honestly that's a personal comfortability thing. Make them whatever you can reach easily and quickly - if it feels awkward, change it. You can adapt and get used to whatever, as long as you like it.

2) If you're on autobuy, until you disable it (I think it's a box in the shop), you won't be allowed to alter your build...because it would cause a little bit of a paradox where as soon as you sell it, the game would want to immediately buy it again. It's weird. I would suggest learning to take off autobuy and what items are good, which you learn quickly through practice. Unlike LoL, most of these builds are very standardized, despite having many many options. It's weird. If you are confused about what to build on what god, look at some of the guides here - *most* of the top rated guides are correct.

3) Actives you usually get 1 rank of each early-ish, depending on what you need, and that'll be enough for laning phase. Upgrading things (like Aegis Amulet) is for the teamfight phase when you'll be popping them off CD more or less. For potions, they're very important in laning phase, but since potions dont' scale off health, but are base, they become iffy around level 9+. Still, better safe than sorry - they're only 50g! For wards, as in LoL, just use and buy them at desire. It's a bit more awkward warding in Smite as there's no 'river' to speak of, thus there's two long jungle paths instead of four quadrants. Warding just inside the paths to the lane will be good - smite is a very easy game to escape in if you have time to do so. Boots are *usually* a first item finish, except some ADC's rush Heartseeker or Qin's Sais first. Otherwise...it's pretty standard to finish it first.

4) Purification Beads are pretty damn decent as an active. Meditation is a never buy but it's counterpart, Salvation, I maintain (to the chagrin of some people) can be a good team utility on health-stacking supports. The shield active is pretty garbage too. Otherwise, the rest are decent choices.

There are many many items that are meta. Rod of Tahuti is Rabadons, Deathbringer is Infinity Edge, Qin's Sais is BotRK, but imperative most the time, Polynomicon is the good version of Lich Bane and very standard on a decent amount of people, Malice and Rage are Phantom Dancer type components...you'll pick up quickly, by looking through guides, what items are standard.

5) You should definitely try, but since over half gold is awarded on non-tower kill, it's not as imperative. I personally maintain people who learn to CS will be far ahead of peers. Because smite has tended to casual people so heavily, people don't learn how important it is to CS, and then they don't understand how they're losing lane when they haven't died or had to back. That 7g stacks up QUICKLY. But again...don't shoot yourself if you do badly at csing, you still get a lot, as long as you don't let tower kill it - that's 0 gold. Most of the time you should be HARD pushing to their tower to make sure they lose the minions to tower anyway, ensuring you get the last hits anyway.

6) Wards are...surprisingly little bought. Solo Lane (bruiser + utility picks) and supports (tanks) usually get wards, most other people don't. But absolutely get them if you want to help out/want the vision. There's nothing WRONG with getting wards, just don't expect people who aren't supports (and sometimes, EVEN supports) to ward often. It's, like the cs mentioned, something HiRez has been lenient on forcing people to learn, since everyone and their mother seems to have an escape.

7) Red buff usually goes to junglers, they clear regular other monsters, and the ADC+Support get one of the blue buffs. The Jungler also gives the other blue to the Solo Laner. Mages, oddly, don't get Blue as much. Jungler then gets orange buff later on. In general, Blue is for ADC/Support (one or the other) and the Solo Laner, Red and Orange are juggled among the junglers. Mid Laners are too far away from buffs to get them easily, but they take the Fury camps on the direct side of the lane. At the beginning of the game, the mid laner, and sometimes others, helps the jungler take these furies to start.

In case you don't know, Red = Damage Buff, Orange = Speed and Attack Speed buff, Blue = Mana Regen and CDR buff.

Later on in the game, Blue goes to whoever needs CDR, Red goes to either Assassin or Mage for the burst, and Orange goes to ADC unless they're near the speed cap.


If you have any other questions let me know, no matter how specific or general they are :D

1 I'm using 1QE4 myself and FG for actives and 23 for pots/wards :p

Do whatever feels good for you!

2
I think you have to turn of autobuy (can be done in game if you want to use autobuy in the start of the game) try and move away from it when you feel comfortable with building items yourself.

3
Lol is a lot more focused on pots than Smite (so no 10 pot start hehe).
Actives are good to upgrade when they are off CD and if you need them (so if the enemy team has a lot of CC and you are playing Ra you want beads, but if you just used beads 1 it is pretty useless to upgrade it to rank 3. Then it's better to use the 600g on items and wards etc.) You probably got autobuy med and sprint though I guess, you will get a better understanding of what actives you want when you start building on your own :p
Mid, Jungle and Support almost always finish boots really early. Adc normally want to get the damage from Devos or HS going first. But IMO mobility is the most important stat in Smite. So at least for a beginner I would go boots first (after 800g starter item they are very good compared to starter items in LOL).

4
There are items that are core on all Adc, supports etc. Tiermonster is a good site to look up most used builds for different gods ;)

5
Last hitting is important, but not as important as in LOL. The biggest reason is for getting stacks if you got HS or Devos. But you get 50% more gold from last hitting, so if the enemy last hits every minion and you last hit none you will fall behind.

6
Everyone and everywhere :p
But mostly mid and support, but you should ward even as Adc.

7
adc and solo gets blue, jungle gets red or orange (depending on where solo lane is). Mid game adc and solo gets blue, jungle gets orange and mid gets red (if jungle got orange and mid is doing good).
Late game adc or jungle gets orange (depending on what God is jungling and if the adc is doing good) and solo mid or jungle gets red (also depending on god and how well ppl are doing. If mid is a lvl 10 Ra the lvl 20 Loki jungle gets red). Blue buff just goes to whomever (preferably someone who isn't capped on CDR).

I'm no joust pro so not really sure where the buffs go when playing that :p

Thanks a lot for the answers :)

I didn't know the minions kills by the tower gave no gold, I understand the importance of pushing.

They are pretty mean to give Meditation by default, I kinda got used to it :< glad the 'flash' is not as mandatory as in LoL, I always thought it was stupid if EVERYONE had the exact same spell.


I tried a bit Silla, she's quite fun to play (I missed 90% of my ults but whatever)


If you could tell me if there are some UP Gods I should avoid, or some easy and fun champions to pick up in any role.

I like Ah Muzen Cab and Anhur a lot, but Ah Muzen Cab seems a bit complex for a first ADC

UP, really only arachne, because she doesn't work well late game when people group, and she can still be outdueled 1v1 in many situations.

Scylla's ult is difficult to land, but if you use Sic 'Em directly into ult, it won't miss. If you have any questions about her check my guide ;)

Flash only isn't necessary because 95% of people have an escape in some form, and many who don't take combat blink. It's not bad.

Otherwise, glad to help!