A BIG bunch of questions

Hello SmiteFire. After spending a bunch of months learning and preparing for my exams i'm finally done.I passed ^_^ . I had no time for Smite or any other game in those months but now I can spend my time on it.But there have been many changes like warrior nerf,and i really don't want to get into game and don't know any very important info so i decided to ask some of my questions here.

1. Warrior nerf : Are warriors not efficient now? I really enjoyed playing Sun Wukong Chaac Tyr and Guan Yu but now i can rarely see them while watching streams.

2. Can you guys tell me who are considered top pick supports,solo laners and junglers? I usually play
Support - Ymir Sobek Bacchus
Solo - Chronos Ra
Jungle - Thanatos Loki Bakasura

3. Malice Executioner Devourer's Gloves are those items good now? Should i pick Malice over Rage when playing assasin(AA based)

4. Is Hercules good? I've seen him being banned in qualifiers.

5. I will still take Chaac and some other nerfed gods just because i enjoy playing them but just in case - after warriors being nerfed,are only mages being picked in solo lane?

Any other important things to know? All answers are much appreciated,thank you very much ^_^

Welcome back :)
1. Well, the warrior nerf is generally the reduction of in-hand attack speed scaling and damage. Oh, and Nemesis gets reclassified to assassin. For some of the gods, Chaac's rain no longer debuff attack speed, Guan Yu's 3 no longer steal protection, and Tyr's healing is no longer phys power-based. that doesn't mean they're not effective, though.

2. Dunno about this, haven't played league yet.

3. About Malice and Rage, since they removed the attack speed buff from Rage, i suppose they're interchangeable, although on aa-based gods Rage gives you more crits.

4. About Hercules, people just start playing him more since the remodel.

5.Rarely play conquest, so i can't really answer this one.

well I like malice over rage because of the passive. It's true that you will dish out less crits but the passive of the malice got buffed to 75% of crits for 5 sec and every crit renews it so after a crit (and with a +- 1/2 chance of crit) you won't come under a certain amount

hercules is the only warrior getting buffed

sometimes you will see a warrior in the solo or a hunter but jup mostly mages now

Thanks for answers guys,i will try out builds with rage/malice and warrior in solo lane,but after i fix my comp problems. can't play smite yet :(

1.) All are bad now except Hercules.

2.) Mid: Agni, Poseidon
Solo: not really sure, but I know [[Hercules]
Support: Athena, Hercules, Bacchus, Sobek, Geb, ***bakharna.
ADC: Neith, Apollo, Anhur, Ullr.
Jungle: I really only know Thor.

3.) Rage > Malice usually, but Malice can be good on certain gods. Devourer's Gauntlet trades 15 physical power 10 extra stacks for lifesteal and permanent stacks - some even use both, it's really a matter of opinion. Executioner is still very good, I don't think it ever fell off, honestly...

4.) I think you know this answer by now.

5.) Yeah, just mages and Hercules.

I'll just answer 2:
Mid: Scylla, Poseidon and Eset
Solo: Hercules, Ra I guess, most healers tbh.
Support: Geb, Kumbhakarna, Athena
ADC: Apollo, Artemis, Neith, possibly Ullr
Jungle: Mercury, Loki in diamond (i see it on streams a lot) and Hun Batz

Artemis? What made her jump up from trash tier?

1.)That's some real biased answers you got there. Warriors are more than efficient still. Hercules only got TWO buffs which were CC Immunity on his ultimate and Driving Strike cast time reduction and can still be easily countered. Tyr, Chaac, and Sun Wukong are still great solo laners and warriors in general. Their unkillable attributes just fell off to where they are counterable and do less damage but high damage all the same.

2.) Top picks for junglers seemed to mainly consist of Hun Batz and Bastet for first grabs. Viable ones after those but not first ban worthy are Nemesis, Thanatos, and I've even been seeing Thor and Mercury climbing back up the ranks. To be honest there is no bad jungle in the current meta. Hell, even Ne Zha has been being used pretty often due to the warrior nerfs.

Solo laners usually consist of Ra and Hades unusually. I haven't seen many warriors because it's like people are afraid to use them but when I do see warriors it's usually Hercules, Chaac, and Tyr. Some lower tier gods have been being used as well such as Hel.

Top tier supporters are usually Geb and Kumbhakarna. These are followed by Athena and Ymir and Sobek and Bacchus have also been being used more frequently, though not top tier worthy.

3.) Malice and Devourer's Gauntlet had gotten a recent buff to where they are more primarily picked on hunters, as well as The Executioner, although no buff was added, just fits better with the two items better than say Qin's Sais which is more a situational choice for shredding tanky gods.

On Assassins however, I would hope you don't get Devourer's Gauntlet because its a waste really when you should be getting Bloodforge. Malice, however, depends on what god you've chosen, because you'd much rather get a Rage on gods like Hun Batz and Thanatos but with high attack speed gods like Nemesis and Loki, Malice is extremely deadly due to the viability that the passives work on them (even though I would much rather choose Deathbringer on a Nemesis, Malice works all the same). But really it should be whatever item you find works best.

4.) Eh, I mean some people already knew Hercules' potential. Realistically Hi-Rez just made him easier to use when he was already good in the first place. I'd say the Driving Strike change wasn't necessary, especially if you're going to add CC Immunity to his ultimate which was a big part of his buff, but he is in a very good spot right now (now that people can use his other skills easily along with the damage mitigation with Mitigate Wounds. I'd say its an all-in-one package god).

5.) Basically. As I said, it's like people are afraid to play them even though a majority of them still have excellent teamfight and wave clear. Just give it a while. I'm sure either people will figure out the leftover potential warriors still have or Hi-Rez will give them an unneeded buff. Either way they won't stay this underplayed for long.

I got no idea, but she's banned/picked a lot in tourney and ranked

they both got price reduction and Malice got passive buf ( Rage got attack speed remove and power buff to 30)