Smite specific questions from moba experienced player

Hi, got some Questions about Smite (not generally Moba)
Since english is not my mother tongue I hope it's not to bad and u still understand what i mean.

I play/ed Lol (league) like forever and am certainly not bad at it (platinum) but now my interest switches slowly towards Smite.
Finding specific informations on the net is not as easy as I first assumed so I hope some advanced players can save me from hours of reasearch and answer one or two of em.



God Pack: Since I'm not certain if I really continue playing smite I'm not sure what to think about this, for 24 Euro all Gods (and future gods?) seems quiet good but since as far as I know smite is still in open beta (like forever) does this also go on after it's offical release? If I would buy it what else can I do with Favor? (I heard of shrines) and about "Limited time offer" for how long u think this offer will be available, or is this just a method to rush people to buy it?


God Enhancement: Besides the Items you buy ingame is there a way to make them stronger? Something like runes or masterys in league and do worshippers which u get for playing a god have something to do with that?


Team Setup/ Lanes: I informed myself about different roles and stuff but how does a meta setup kinda look like? My current level is pretty low and I got average leaver/afk/ragequit of about 1,5 player per game so it won't rly matter now BUT for general fighting and teamfights it would be good to know which champ fits my team since I will try out most of them (will do research beforehand ofc :) ) Mid: Mage, Jungle: Asassin/Offensive Warrior Duo: ADC, Supp/Tank, Solo: Anything good in 1v1 or tank/warrior if none, would be a setup which I got in mind


Active Items: Which would u recommend a Smite beginner? Are there already meta established/role specific ones? when would be the best time to buy and to upgrade them? (just generally since it always depend on situations and stuff)


Automatic skilling/buying: Yes or No? The skill order sure can depend on situation but is it generally always the same as in league or not? As beginner I find it especially in fight really usefull. Items seems like more depending on the situation for me, as warrior for example, more offensive or tankiness, more magical or physical protection or is the buy order more or less the same on most gods?


physical/magical attacks: Since there are 2 different protection stats I wonder in which way do they seperate? Are all "normal" left klick hits physical? Are abilitys clearly seperated into physical and magical (are they even called that way?^^) and how does the enemy team composition influence how u build defensive stats against them if your not a guardian (which i assume it influences him very much)


Item build orders: Since the system in Smite is different then in other Mobas I may need some help here, finish the item your currently building before buying the next one or dependend on situation? Boots seem pretty important for me since every hit is like a skillshot are they your first to go item? Are the recommendet items for a god any good if u played him more then once or twice?


Specific Items: Are there specific items which are currently not balanced in terms of dont ever buy this one or as role xyz buy that item in 99 out of 100 games



These are the questions which answer I seek most, sorry for the long text and hopefully some1 shows mercy and answers :P

Thank your for reading

Greetings! I'll try not to bore you with formalities, but I think the fact that I am an Editor on this site as well as a MOBA veteran should attest to my qualifications for giving you my responses :)

God Pack: Definitely buy. Probably won't be available post-release, I'd assume it'd end then. Favor can be used to buy Skins as well, although very very unique skins are gems (RP) purchase only.

God Enhancement: No, everyone is on 100% even terms. Items are the only variation.

Actives: Meditiation helps you get used to mana costs, very similar to Clarity. At max rank (each active has 3 ranks that can be purchased for 300, 300, and 300 gold each tier) it gives a heal. Aegis is a zhonya's-like effect, and Purification beads is cleanse. Combat Blink is similar to flash but surprisingly isn't as effective as in LoL.

Meta - similar to league. Solo lane is a bruiser or someone with sustain, jungle is a bruiser or assassin (assassins work MUCH better in smite than in league, and nearly no tanks actually jungle due to dependence on VERY high dps in smite to secure a kill), mage mid-lane, Tank Support + ADC duo lane. Since tanks don't fit in well anywhere else, this is the only place tanks will fit in, and it will most always be a tank. Imagine every lane having a Leona or Taric support, more or less.

Don't auto-buy, because it'll never be optimal. Check out a guide on here or send me a PM if you have a god you have a question for. Takes some getting used to but you'll figure out what items are good in each role.

All physical gods have a 100% scaling physical attack, and all magical gods have a semi-scaling magic attack (not fully effective). All gods are either PURELY physical or PURELY magical - no mixed damage anywhere! There are a VERY few instances of true damage, but it's rare. And yes, items are situational, but every role has their core items. ADC's have Deathbringer and Malice, bruisers have their Voidblade, mages their Rod of Tahuti, etc.

Item Builds: Since every 3rd tier (with the exception of possibly Titan's Bane and Obsidian Shard) have a non-linear progression and scale exponentially that peaks at final, 3rd tier, you should almost always finish an item before moving on. Exceptions are Boots - you can leave it at rank 2, but finish it early, and sustain items - lifesteal/MP5 can get just a quick level 1 for sustain. But in general, always finish items before moving on.

Specific Items:
I can't list bad items, as I don't think around that. But let me list items good in each role. Boots for the role should always be chosen, and each role has their own set of boots.
ADC: Deathbringer, Malice, The Executioner, Lifesteal Item ( Qin's Blades, Bloodforge, etc), and a situational
Mage: Rod of Tahuti, Gem of Isolation, Spear of the Magus // Obsidian Shard, and 2 situationals usually including Chronos' Pendant and some form of magical lifesteal like Polynomicon (lichbane) or Bancroft's Talon
Tank: VERY situational, sorry. But Bulwark of Hope is a solid start, and Sovereignty always helps
Assassin - pretty similar to ADC, honestly. Fatalis has some merit with some auto attack based junglers, and Titan's Bane can shine over Executioner.
Warrior: Voidblade is the core item, with Bulwark of Hope not being a bad move, Ankh of the Golem / Ankh of the Bear not being bad pickups, and Frostbound Hammer being a personal good one. Just mix Damage and Survivability.

If you have any other questions or want me to clarify more adequately, just PM me :)

Sorry I missed one. Worshippers are just a way to show others your 'experience' with that god. You get up to 4 for a loss on average, and around 7-10 for a win. At 50 worshippers you are allowed to pick that god in ranked, and the god reaches mastery rank 1. You must have a minimum amount of gods at rank 1 to play ranked.

At rank 1, you unlock the ability to purchase a gold skin for that god for 15000 favor or gems. At rank 10 (1000 worshippers) the gold skin upgrade to a legendary skin.

God pack is just available in the beta, so I would give the game a few more weeks then buy it before release (which was announced to be on March 25th I think, at least early 2014).

Nothing like runes yet, might come some day but I doubt it. They said that they didn't want it ages ago, maybe they'll change their mind at some point who knows.

Lanes are the 1-1-2-J. In solo you want sustain, escapes and someone who can take a punch normally a bruiser like Hercules but gods like Loki was played a lot before (not so much now though) and I think Kali will be seen quite a lot in the future. In mid you want your mage pusher so like Ao Kuang, Agni etc. (I have no idea why the meta is like that, mid gods should be in the solo lane and solo gods should be in the mid lane IMO. Because at mid lane there is always something going on (due to mid harpies) and ganks are way more frequent in mid than in solo). Duo lane is normally a adc/hunter and a tank/support, support wants some good CC to let the adc deal his damage. The tank rotates a lot in Smite compared to in lol (at least what I've played of lol, had like 500 wins or something when I quit).

DO NOT use meditation it just encourages you to waste mana, for you who knows quite a lot about MOBAs it should be a walk in the park to understand how to use your mana.
Get actives like sprint, Combat Blink, Eye of Providence and of course one of the "Oh ****!" buttons Purification Beads or Aegis Amulet. These actives can save you from bad positioning etc, which will be your biggest challenge coming from lol to Smite.

You can go into a tab in the game client to edit what skills items etc you want (favorite them or something) then you can add that as auto buy/skill. As raven said, don't use auto buy (look at the popular items tab in the vendor or look up a guide either here or on Tiermonster). Auto skilling is really nice, Im still using it on some gods actually (my own version of it ofc, but its so great to get to lvl 5 in the middle of a fight and just be able to wreck someone instantly with an ult instead of having to first lvl it up :P

As raven said no hybrid gods in Smite, so all abilities and in hand damage is either magical or physical (magical in hand attacks deal 35% of your magical power). It is also not physically possible for someone who benefits from magical power to buy items with physical power on. If you are against a team with lets say 3 adcs/hunters and Loki pluss a mage (all the hunters and Loki deal 90% of their damage with auto attacks) then your entire team should pick up hide of the nemian lion. But in normal team comps (one adc, a mage, jungler magical/physical, solo magical/physical and support magical/physical 99% of the time support is magical) it basically just comes down to what the jungler and solo lane is and ofc if someone is feed out of this world.

As you are new to the game I would recommend building boots early on everyone (and a starter item Mark of the Vanguard, Death's Toll or vampyric shroud). When you get used to the game and feel confidant you can start to leave boots at lvl 1 on adc and get Heartseeker and Qin's Sais before finishing them and you can go Heartseeker before boots on junglers. But that is kind of what ever floats your boat :P
Always finish an item before starting a new one, most items don't really do much before rank 3.

All builds are ofc situational but there are items that are just a bit OP as you said:

ADC/Hunter:

The Executioner it gives so much penetration that it just makes me sick (although it's not picked up that much anymore after the Qin's Sais was introduced).
Qin's Sais just stupid on all adc, it gives you all that attack speed you need (that is why The Executioner isn't used that much anymore) all the lifesteal you need and the passive is insane for finishing of low health targets.
Deathbringer a very high cost item, so do not build it early. If you are starting to get ahead this item is just going to make you skyrocket to the moon.

Mage:

Spear of the Magus the same as The Executioner, super strong on all mages that got DOT abilities.
Focused Void Stone probably the best item for mid (if you are up against another mage), tons of protections, penetration and damage.
Polynomicon it just ups your dps so much with the passive.
Breastplate of Valor this badboy is insane on Ao Kuang and other mages to, it gives a insane amount of tankyness so suddenly ganks are out of the question you get cdr and mana.

Junglers/assassins:

Penetration and damage.

Tanks/support:

Bulwark of Hope the best magical protection item in the game.
hide of the nemian lion the best physical protection item in the game (cheap as hell).
Sovereignty more health and magical and physical protection (pluss aura) just makes it super strong.
So build those 3 and you can do whatever you want :)

First of thanks for the fast and accurate responses, it helps alot

Basically all questions got answered very precisely. Will probably buy the God pack then and try out different gods to look which of them suite me (i look at you 2 monkeys). Generally seen what I hear about specific items and gods the balancing could be better but since the game is still pretty young I'm sure this will be balanced in no time, or just mine and noobs imaginations :)

The item recommendations will help alot, if I need more help on that one I will simply look up some specific god guides like I did on mobafire.

Besides that I don't have to worry much, on my current raking with leavers and people completly new to moba I have enough time to just test things out

Thanks again for the fast responses, if I keep on playing see ya in the theorycrafting section in the future :)

Anytime! Glad to see an experience player trying out smite. There's a lot of very good theorycrafters on here, a lot of helpful people, and a lot of people who group together in game, so feel free to grab some IGN's and play in game!