Question on Items and Stats

First off I apologize if this is a repeat thread, I didn't see it anywhere but I may have missed it, so if it does you can point me towards it and that would be great, but if not...

So I have started recently playing Smite and am getting to the point where I want to be able to assess the situation I am in and purchase items accordingly. I understand (for the most part(at least I think I do) what the stats do) I was wondering if anyone could help me on understanding which gods(or types of gods) should focus on which stats and when? If anyone could help me with this that would be great! Thanks in advanced :)

It's according to the gods. If you are an assassin, mostly physical damage and critical strike will be good as well as lifesteal, but such as Ne Zha, she is good with attack speed as well. Some carry will be good using physical damage and speed. Support is useful with magical or physical damage (according to its type) and mana to keep sustaining. Mage is good with magical damage and mana. Tank is good to start with defense item and then damage after you finish tanky item

Yeah, honestly the best thing you can do is develop a play-style for the gods you play, and build around that play-style. Also, 90% of the time, item builds are situational. You need to see what gods are on the enemy team, and build accordingly. For example, lets say you choose a tank (It's easier to explain for tanks :P). So you get into the match, and see 4 out of 5 on their team are physical damage. (You will have to spend a bit of time looking at each of the gods to see their damage type)So your best bet would be to focus heavily on physical protection early game, and keep magical protection as a secondary priority. Hope this cleared things up a bit, and if not, just throw me a PM and I can get you more in-depth help :P

Well, in my oppinion there are some items that should always be used, despite what you play.

For Magical Power gods you should always have your Rod of Tahuti, when ever you buy it though is not a must. Just remember to get it.

For Physical Power gods, from how I see it, it is very strong to buy at least one lifesteal item, of course the item itself is situational, but the lifesteal should always be picked up.

For Tank gods it's all situational, but while fighting 3 or more physical power gods, a lot of people goes for Hide of the Nemean Lion and while fighting 3 or more magical gods, either go for Void Stone if you are a Magical Power tank, or Stone of Gaia if you are a Physical Power tank.

My only objection is the mandatory physical lifesteal. I disagree, a lot of physical assassins have lifesteal wasted on them, for instance Loki is a very hit-and-run god, he doesnt stay long enough in the fight to benefit from lifesteal. It's great on physical carries, but assassins can just pick up more physical power in favor of lifesteal.

You can have magical assassins. There just aren't any in Smite currently, but trust me, they'll come.

Wouldn't you consider Anubis to be a magical assassin? He is a very burst-y hit and run god.

Arguably, but I consider assassins to be more of a dash in, burst someone down and easily escape. Anubis doesn't really do this.

You know, the only staple items I know of is the boots. Everything else is situational, even the ones that you should get 99% of the time