Joust tips

I have never really played 1v1 joust and i am wondering if i could get some tips. Who are some good gods for joust? item builds? general advice from some pro jousters? any input is appreciated

Good gods are any 1v1 champion that needs to follow up or help to land a kill, and can generally push well.

They cannot have low damage or they won't get a kill. They can't only have CC because they have no one to follow up with. And they can't have horrible waveclear or they will never make any progress until the late game with 60 second timers - if they even get there after being outpushed and denied farm.

Examples of good 1v1 gods:
Assassins - They aim to instant-gib their enemy and push forward. They are countered by tanks with sustain as they cannot kill easily
Loki, Fenrir, Ne Zha, Bakasura

Bruisers - they seek to bully mages with high health, beat assassins with protections and health, or pierce through tanks defenses. Their counters, with the exception of instant-dunk thor (unless outplayed) are carries who can kite and do stupid amounts of damage. They all have decent waveclear, and a couple have sustain.
Thor, Vamana, Tyr, Hercules

Mages - they aim to push lanes and look for an opportunity to either burst someone 100-0 with burst mages like He Bo, or push the lane and simply poke and outsustain the enemy Ra. Their counters are usually assassins that can 100-0 them before they can even try to react, or carries with pushing power - namely, only Xbal and Neith
Ra, Anubis, Agni, Ao Kuang, Chronos, Chang'e, Poseidon, Freya

Carries - they are ranged, they can poke, and in general they have an escape (the exception being artemis). There are only 6 carries in the game, and in my opinion, only 4 are viable. Carries do poorly against extremely mobile, bursty physical champions, like Thor and Loki, Chronos due to his stupid mobility and ability to trade auto attacks, and tanks that take simply no damage, yet still trade, like Ares or Vulcan.
Neith, Xbalanque, Apollo, Anhur

Tanks - They aim to simply build a full protection against their laning enemy - full magic against mages, full physical against, well, physical. Once they hit the 325 protections cap, they build slight damage. In this way, they take no damage, and can still do a lot of damage. Very few tanks are viable, however, as most have the simple inability to push. As such, many pushing mages will be able to beat them through sheer pushing power. Additionally, champions with True Damage, such as Bakasura, will beat a tank in many situations.
Vulcan, Odin, Ares, Athena Ymir (if facepunchy-ish), Sobek

Supports, in general, cannot play 1v1 Joust, as they do not do enough damage or have the waveclear. They are made to help a god, and lose many of their abilities to do so. For example, Aphrodite cannot get a soul mate, and loses much of her utility. Chang'e still does very well if built full mage. Hel has trouble with many gods 1v1, and while good, is not a viable pick as it's unreliable who you will be matched against.

I hope I've cleared it up, and sorry if there's something not very clear. I *think* I've touched on who to pick/who not to pick, and overall VERY simple guidelines on how to play.

Hardcore Aphrodite lover incoming.

I've actually had quite the success with Aphrodite in 1v1 Joust; just now I beat an Anubis 9-4 in ~15 minutes. I will be the first to admit it hurts losing a soulmate and all the bonuses provided, but if built correctly she has insane lane-sustain/pushing capabilities in the early-mid game, and in the late-game when built with Polynomicon and max CDR (Preferably with Rod of Tahuti but that costs a ton), she gets VERY good burst damage, as well as great sustain + on-demand invuln that can be stacked with Aegis Amulet to completely deny bursts of all sorts. Her one downside is immense squishiness early-game, so you have to play very carefully and avoid being bursted.

But outside of that, I agree with your assessment of 1v1 Joust and I don't think I can add anything more since you kinda summed it all up in 1 go :P

EDIT: And of course I love to beat people up with a support char in 1v1 cause absolutely no one expects a support to do well, and it kind of adds an element of surprise to the match. And I get to chuckle at someone losing to a support char XD

Heh well of course you CAN do well. Smite is unique in that *anyone* can snowball, and full MP aphro is in no way something to sneeze at! She just isn't viable in general, and can be hardcore killed by assassins, chronos/other mages, bruisers, etc. But glad to see you did well with your favorite god! If the god isn't ideal, just show you, as a player, are! :D

I play Loki with a 19-8 (iirc) 1v1 record so take this for what it's worth.

I feel Loki is really powerful in 1v1. My experience is limited, but so far it seems that Odin and He Bo are the only really hard counters. Chang'e can be really hard aswell but I have beaten at least one. Also I've obviously not even faced all the gods.

Loki has amazing burst and he is just really intimidating for the opponent. If they ever make the mistake of staying in lane with less than 50% health you can pretty much kill them or at least force them to back off. He has really good push with Decoy after you have a few points in it and later in the game you can just drop a decoy for the minions and meanwhile take the tower or phoenix down with your OP Loki damage.

Strategy of course depends on who you're facing but generally what you do is you wait for them to make a move, dodge by going invisible and then pop Aimed Strike (and girdle) and punish them. Use Decoy to keep enemy minions from attacking you. If they drop low, use ult to finish them off, or just put pressure on them with autos and make them escape. If they're playing passive use Decoy and stealth to poke them but don't be greedy. Against melee try to poke with just your Aimed Strike and save stealth for escape.

I usually take my time with the tower, not attacking it until at least lv10 or lv12. Even if you kill the opponent, your time is probably better used clearing camps for buffs and gold. After two or three full items Loki clears camps without HoG really easily and can even start using them for healing with lifesteal.

In general, don't underestimate the worth of potions and jungle buffs. If you start at a jungle buff, you can still make it back to lane to kill most of the first minion wave, which puts you ahead in xp and gold if they didn't do it. Plus you have a buff. This of course requires HoG, which I'm not sure is viable on every god.

After every death, think about why you died and try to adapt with item choices, play style, buff choice. If you died because the enemy is Tyr, just /wrists and wait for nerf.