Intermediate player still struggling.

Hi.

I should start off by saying, Im not a new player. Ive played LOL in closed beta and played it off an on since then. I decided I didnt like it for its isometric top down mouse clicking view, and then discovered smite.

I REALLY love smite. I love how it plays and I like the competitive edge though less so than LOL.. it suits me perfectly. I even dig the whole god thing as ive always been interested in mythology.

However

Im starting to wonder if im ever going to be any good at it and this is really putting a downer on playing it. Specially since half the time somebody with a bad attitude will make my day even worse by constantly pointing out that im not doing all too good.

I need help. Ive no idea what ive been doing wrong but its getting so annoying that Ive come here to ask if anybody has any pointers for me.

So what is the problem?
Like Ive said. ive played a while and Im not stupid. I understand the characters abilities and Im familiar with the formula of play (though may be misunderstanding something). I can also get kills but that severely seems to hinge on one thing: The 1st 5 minutes of the game.

My probelems all seem to come down to.... If I die before I get a kill within the 1st 5 mins of minions spawning. If I or my laning partner get a kill and I dont die at all in this time... it mostly appears to go well. Im not amazing but on average I get up to 15 kills in a game if this is the case (dpeending on god). If not, If I die early on, with no kills, it just spirals out of control. and not in a way ive seen it affect anybody else.

If I die I seem to have 2 options:
1) I play more defensively.
2) I keep going at a normal pace and in all liklihood rack up many more deaths and get called a feeder.

The problem I see is that as soon as I play more defensively I stop getting minion last hits. I loose levels and gold. I fall behind severely and am no use to the team at all. Even in later stages (if the game lasts that long) when Ive finally caught up Its hard to be in a position to help turn the game around.

Playing defensively never seems to serve any benefit anyway. I often just take the occasional bit of player damage until the final and eventual tower dive to finish me off. The only way ive found to truely play defensively and succeed at it is to just stay in base away from all danger. Dabbling with humor a bit there but you get the point.

The other problem with playing defensively is Im never opening up to EVER get a kill and as a result I never feel Im really ever improving my game. A lot of players never seem to let this bother them and can quite happily charge down the lane obliterating everything. Playing defensive never seems an option to them and they tend to make this work for them.



I seem to really struggle to find the balance between playing defensively and levelling progresively and getting kills here and there.....and nobody else seems to have trouble with it. Its always either I play well... or an epic fail.

Ive tried jungling a bit as I make my way back to lanes.... Ive tried sticking in a lane on my own when people go off to group up, Ive tried to go with them when they go to group up (and die horribly and quickly).... nothing I know of seems to work. So what am I doing so wrong?

I admittingly prefer to play melee gods. It doesnt help matters but shouldnt impeed me either... it never seems to for nobody else.

Besides waiting for a moba like Smite that doesnt reward for winning while taking a dump on those that arent... I really dont know what to do. Any thoughts or advice from people would be greatfully recived.

Thanks

So your problem is to stay alive while laning, but you keep falling behind while playing defensive? It's pretty simple. Just get map awareness either with wards, or looking at the minimap once every 10-15ish second to see if the enemy gods are still in the other lanes. If one of them isin't, and you're next to that lane, you should start to move closer to your tower. Do not stand within the tower range however, as the tower removes the gold given from the minions it hits. Oh and while you're standing in the middle of the lane (where the minions usually meet up) you should definitely have an escape plan, such as ability or active. Additionally, if your jungler already have a buff, you should definitely ask him if you can take one for yourself as this will help you in one way or another, and it could also disable the enemy jungler.

Appreciate the fast responce.

The problem isnt neccersarily because of ganks. Infact the problem really usually just lies in 2 v 2 laning. Something that wards wont help against. I tend to have fairly decent map awareness,and long ago learned that you cant count on mia calls back in LOL. As a result your advice doesnt really apply.
Still, I can give an example of a game I just played that illustrates my problem really well.

A friend an I were teamed up in a lane against aphrodite and thanatos. I was playing Ares and he playing Ra. Theoretically we both had a decent ammount of sustain. Anyhow, as usual there was a critical moment and thanatos and aphrodite came out on top. It was a downhill spiral from there. They were constantly pushing us back.... doing occasional damage to us that we couldnt seem to heal back fast enough, then thanatos would tower dive us. (granted, he has a unique ability but this manouver of tower diving is not unusual). As the game progressed they got higher and higher in levels... and we would struggle to keep up... by the time thanatos was 20.. I was still only about 12. I had only died 4 times by this point. (but thats usually enough to start people moaning about feeding). Nobody ganked our lane the entire game. Thanatos and Aphrodite did it all on their own.

This is not an isolated example.. this is a prety common encounter for me. Its very frustrating as I really dont see myself as a bad player. Any suggestions?

That is a bad match up to begin with. Thanatos can pretty much insta kill anyone when their low with his Ult and Aphrodite can make almost any god have insane substain.

If your playing a tank, buy watchers gift as your first item if your with someone. It gives you last hit xp on minions even if you don't get the last hit. Also a weak increase to gold. I have never fallen behind in levels as a tank because of it.

Your friend can easily clean lanes as a Ra, so he would constantly get gold and xp. Thus he can get better gear faster. Your gold won't be as substantial but you will be able to set up strong kills with both of your Ults.

Right now, don't give yourself a hard time due to having a bad run in with Thanatos. He's brand new and people have yet figured out how to successfully deal with him.

Thanks for your thoughts. I may try that item so I appreciate the suggestion.

As I said though. This is not an uncommon occurance. I used the example with thanatos because it is a recent one but many gods and teamups seem to be able to do what they did to us.

I use to have a problem with early game laning. It seemed id always get poked down and have to retreat.

I typically go tank, so my job as the tank is to harass and zone enemies. For example, if I am sobek ill mostly stand around the ADC and let him get kills. Ill wack the minions some if I can do so without taking massive damage from enemy heros but I know my attacks will hardly do much damage anyway.

Being sobek, the enemy heros will be worried about my charge flip. So often times, I can just position myself to do the charge without actually doing it. They'll retreat knowing that if they get flipped in they'll be in for a world of hurt.

Another mistake I use to make early game is focusing too much on enemy heros. Level 1-5 is more about minions I think. Obviously take a hero kill if you can and punish their mistakes but mainly focus on the lane clearly. Hand of God is awesome, quickly clearing their wave means they'll be poked by minions as well as gods (and minions hurt early game).

Starter item wise, as a tank, definitely grab the mark of the vanguard if you don't take watchers gift. It's amazing at reducing minion damage. This way those archers don't quite hurt as much.

Thats really useful. As you can imagine ive been doing a lot of research lately. And it does seem I havnt been paying too much attention to minion damage. Instead trying to harass the enemy as much as they try to harass me and wondering why its not working out. Im still not sure why it shouldnt but its something to keep in mind.

About minions and minion damage, make sure you take advantage!
If it's still early game and you're being brutally beaten by an enemy god, run right through a wave of your own minions. You can't walk through enemy minions, and the same applies to them. So not only will your minions impede their movement, they'll also attack the god.
Your minions will also automatically target any gods that attack you, so it might not be a good idea to poke the enemy early game if it means taking damage from minions.

Also, the equipment in your build is extremely important.
Not just equipment, but actives too. For example, if you're up against a god like Hades or Ares (whose ultimate attacks rely on CC), buy Purification Beads. They remove all crowd control effects (stuns, taunts, fears, mesmerizes) when you use them.
If your god doesn't have a nice escape (such as a leap or dash) pick up Combat Blink or Sprint.
If you're dealing with very speedy gods like Chronos, Creeping Curse would help you a lot.
Thanatos' ult got you down? Use an Aegis Shield.
Those are just a few examples, but it works fairly well.

Maybe try to pair up with an ADC not mage? Good ADC can easily poke enemies while being out of their range with just basic attacks. I think pairing up mage tank (like Ares) with another mage (Ra) is bad idea. Ra deals damage mostly by using his abilities. When he uses them to clear waves he has only a little mana to poke enemy. Enemies can also counter item You.Most ADC's can also clear waves well and they can poke enemy from distance with their basic attacks. In that way You dont have to rely on skills and CD to kill enemy.

Do you have any other suggestions how to take advantage?

Was an interesting comment about the activate items. I usually just turn on autoloot at the start of a game and take the same things. While this shoukdnt affect early game I can see how activate items are a little more relevant. I wish there was a way to keep these items and potions separate from the very limited and confined usage of autoloot, but maybe ill start turning it off.