I suck at Smite. Help?

Hey all,

So I just got Smite on the XBone and since it's my first moba I've played, I expected to be bad...but not THIS bad. I average 0/9/6 every game with any God (I prefer Agni) and my friends, God bless them, tolerate me even though they both average 10-20 kills a piece. Are there any tips you can give me as to how to play better and get more kills? I legitimately feel useless...

From seeing some threads that are similar to this I'll provide a little background info:
- Level 9 after a week of playing
- I prefer Agni because his AOE Reign of Fire is pretty ranged and super powerful, and I can chain my specials pretty seemlessly
- I know when it's a good idea to fall back and push up b/c I usually try to make strats for my friends (Works for them, just not me)

Some questions

-what do you build on agni & skill order
-which lane do you play him (I suppose your midding but I can be wrong)
-how is your ward usage/how many times do you get ganked (successfully)

Also would I recommend you to try other god types or other gods within the mage type as you are pretty new.

I think it would help if you list your most played gamemodes. If it's Arena, that's bound to happen. Heck, I have freckin 4k eliminations and 6k deaths cuz I've mained support for a long time.
Also another thing : Can you check the damage you do each match ? (To do that, go to your profile->history->click "match details" on one of your matches->go to the "stats" tab ( If the profile is anything like the PC profile, ofc. )
I love that you pretty much define me. Until I took my 1-year-foced-break from SMITE, I would ONLY have negative scores until level 24. The first game I went even my friends were like " Da **** dude ! I think a meteor is about to hit Earth, cuz you just went even!!! " XD
I would say that, if you think that YOU'RE not doing enough damage, or that you use your abilities to help your allies rather than damage the enemy, try to play some guardians. Ymir, Athena, Geb, Sobek are nice picks since they have "some" damage on their kit.

I would say, try other gods out also ! Aphrodite is really underrated, but when you get the hang of her, she's amazing ( I might overrate her a bit, but I got my only penta with her... )

Since you're a new-comer, there are some gods that are easier than other for you to test !
Fenrir, Bastet, Bellona, Chaac, Neith, Apollo, Hel, Vulcan. Ofc more difficult gods = better rewards if mastered, but that's for the future, not for now.

I wish you good luck, and, if you need more advice, just PM me ! I'm avaliable most of the day !

My personal recommendation would be to play gods with good escapes and before learning how to get kills, learn how to survive. I had never played MOBAs before either, but my first god was Chang'e partially because she has an ability that gives her free CC and damage immunity every 15 or so seconds (depending on CDR), a heal and a stun making her very hard to kill. I've never had problems with bad kill-death ratios because I first mastered how to farm and live and then mastered how to grab some kills.

Personally in terms of game mode, I'd recommend Conquest since that gives you the most experience, just try to play a single role for a while with one god so that you get used to one position at a time.

Good luck!

Wow, I didn't expect help! Thanks so much <3

@Devampi - My build on Agni I guess would be more of a modified God of Fire.
- Skill Order: Shoes of Focus, Chronos' Pendant, Book of Thoth, Rod of Tahuti, Obsidian Shard, Hide of the Urchin (My thought is to focus on Speed, then Damage, then mana, THEN defense.)
- I try to Mid Lane with him since his AOE attack can pretty much cover the width of the lane.
- I actually don't use a ward very often.
- I don't normally get ganked because oddly enough I can tell when people are trying to flank. However, I get ganked often by Hades and Loki since I haven't figured out the timing for beads on their ultimate attacks.

@ThePerfectPrism - My friends LOVE to play Joust. So we play that most times. Unfortunately I can't check how much damage I do per game, but when I'm maxed out, my AOE attack can take out half to 3/4 of an opponent's health...or if they're especially squishy then I can kill them.

@Zilby - Very true. I like Agni's escape move because it can be used as a well placed attack if someone's chasing you and I can just throw noxious fumes on top of the flames to slow them down and hurt them to a point. Yeah I think that's my main problem. At first I never grabbed the buffs and I NEVER killed minions. I only went for the Gods. Now I'm killing the minions and grabbing buffs and maybe getting a kill or two a game at the most.

Mage doesn't get defenses...

Anyway, responding to what you've comented especially for me, Joust is rather interesting... Nice amount of damage btw lol...

What I can recommend for you :

Don't do the full initial burst, if you want to get kills, you need to burst after most of your team used their abilities...

I suggest trying out Ah Puch, when you feel like you can escape nasty situations without a dash/jump. He is the king of Joust.

I wish you a good smiting, friend !

So yeah as prism said your items build doesn't need defense. otherwise the only item you will build for defense is Breastplate of Valor instead of Chronos' Pendant as they are both options (at least you god some core items right)

-I would recommend putting in lifesteal like Bancroft's Talon or Polynomicon.
Also because it's Joust your doing I want to know does the adc get a stacking item if you answer yes you can better get something else that gives power but doesn't need stacking as in Joust IMO the best person to farm is the adc. the sooner he gets online the sooner your team will win. So stacking items are in that way less effective (still a mage doesn't need to get them stacked). also would I recommend taking the stacking item as 2nd because the earlier you have it the sooner it's full stacks. (for most mages the building order is boots-stacking item-CDR-Lifesteal-tahuti-pen)

I myself normally go for a double lifesteal on agni:
Shoes of the Magi (the early pen helps a lot and IMO agni doesn't need a lto of CDR as his burst comes from pretty low cd skills (his ult every 20 sec max at 60 sec most gods have 90 sec on it))
Bancroft's Talon (more power and a bit of lifesteal)
Breastplate of Valor/ Chronos' Pendant (gives enough CDR you don't need the full CDR build on him IMO)
Polynomicon (more lifesteal and an extra damage boost on basics)
Rod of Tahuti (core on every mage)
Obsidian Shard (my favorite pen item on msot mages but agni can benefit a little bit from Spear of the Magus too but I still prefer shard)
-you didn't give the skill order (what skill do you prioritize/max first normally it's something like this 4-2-3-1)

-mid lane is where he goes and in conquest I would recommend you to ward in joust it's not that needed. You normally ward around your side of the mid camps when pushing the 1st tower

-well using beads if hades ult you can just dash out. when loki ult's it's like popping beads asap before he hits (still the damage will be dealt I believe)

@Prism - Oooh I will try Ah Puch out! And thanks for the tip! I'll try to use one meteor at a time :) I wish you a fun smiting as well, kind sir!

@Devampi - Ohhhh Sorry I didn't know what you meant by skill order at first. Uhmm to be completely honest I'm not sure how I would go about leveling up specific skills. My best guess would be the amount of times I use them per match.... Although the way it usually happens in game for me would be 2-3-4-1.
- I would rather be hurt than OHK'd by Loki since Agni is squishy as well.
- Thanks for the lifesteal tip :)

Taking aegis and popping it on time can prevent a lot off loki's burst damage (and greater also prevents the stun but then you're stuck in place)

Okay on the skill prioritisation I hope you do lvl your ult when possible (this switches the 4 to the first spot making it the one I gave in my earlier comment) but after that it looks pretty good (fumes is only used to stun so lvling it isn't a big priority over your damage from your 2 or the damage from your escape)

Also do you make use of agni's passive a lot? and I mean for poking or in teamfights (when farming in laning phase you use it really easy). As the damage per tick can make a difference in late game (it's 30 damage +60% of you magic power in total)

I would argue that defense is a very valuable thing to have on everyone that isn't an adc. However Prism is right that a hide of the urchin is probably too much unless your just getting absolutly focused and can't get your burst off. If you playing conquest in the mid lane the warlocks sash is an incredible item as it gives 600 health when max stacked as well as 110 power. That means you don't sacrifice power for survivability. I would recommend Devampi's build except build the warlocks sash second and don't build a polynomicon.