Baba Yaga - [The Fearsome Witch in the Woods] (S7, Patch 7.6)

Hello! I'm Fraeduu, and this is my first guide here on Smitefire. I definitely have some work to do on learning how to improve my guides, and I'd love to hear any feedback I could get.

Baba Yaga is the newest addition to Smite as of this guide, and is a fairly unique character in that her kit features elements of randomness. She isn't a particularly strong mid-laner as of now, and her two best roles are being proven to be solo and support. There are potential conflicts with the idea of a god with no hard CC being used in a supporting role however, so pick her depending on who your ADC is.

Strengths: Excellent zoning abilities Debuff and buff enemies/allies respectively Easy to stack items using passive High sustainability late

Weaknesses: Weaker early game Very mana hungry early Sub-par ultimate damage No hard CC .

Baba Yaga has a weird place right now upon her release, and it's difficult for many people to determine where she belongs. As of now, her best role is easily in the solo lane. Her house (passive) provides her with the sustain and healing she needs to stay in lane.

She is also picked as support fairly often, but this role has some complications with Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga has no hard CC (stuns, roots, etc.) to help either peel for your ADC, or to lock down a kill. This immediately makes her a bit worse as a support. However, if you are playing with an ADC who has a large amount of CC within their own kit, I believe it may be worth considering playing Baba Yaga for your buffs and debuffs in lane.

As her damage is honestly just sub-par, she is best built tanky. I think this is a perfect situation for Lono's Mask whether you are playing in the solo lane, or as a support. Your 3 (cauldron/escape) also provides you with additional damage mitigations.

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Passive - Creeping Cabin Creeping Cabin is an extremely unique passive, which allows Baba Yaga's cabin to creep around the match around her and gather energy. The cabin will passively gain energy when near enemies, or while moving. When Baba Yaga comes near her cabin, this energy will be drained to either heal her, or apply stacks to any applicable items in her inventory. In this case, item stacks will take priority over healing.
1 - Wild Witchcraft Wild Witchcraft is an interesting ability, and is unlike anything we've seen in Smite so far. This is Baba Yaga's primary damaging/clear ability, however it can take on one of 4 random shapes. The shape of the next use of this ability is displayed above the passive icon (house) on the screen, alongside the effect of the ability. These four shape options are "Left Corner (Straight path with a sharp turn to the left at the end)", "Right Corner (A similar path, except with the turn facing rightwards)", "Split (A pattern shaped like a Y)", and "Oval (split paths forming a hollow oval)". The possible effects that these paths may have are an enemy slow, a silence, an ally protections buff, and an ally movement speed buff. It is important to understand these buffs and consider them when casting this ability, and avoid throwing it around without considering the effects.
2 - Baba's Brew Baba's Brew is yet another unique element of Baba Yaga's kit. Baba throws together a few random ingredients into a potion with effects that depend on the ingredients used. When casting this ability, Baba Yaga has the ability to cancel this (using your ability cancel button or by pressing 2 again) and save the potion for later, storing it in one of her consumable slots. Consider this when buying consumables, as it is incredibly helpful to have one slot open for an additional potion at most times. There are 3 possible ingredients that may go into these potions; Eyes of Newt, which increase the damage of the potion by 7.5% per Eye; Dragon Scales, which apply a 12.5% slow to enemies hit by the potion for every Scale for 2.5 seconds; and Wolf Teeth, which apply a stacking 7.5% attack speed slow on enemies hit for 5 seconds. The amount of ingredients included in a potion increases as this ability levels up. I find it best to save potions comprised primarily of Dragon Scales, as having a damaging slow always on the ready is very helpful for both escaping and confirming kills.
3 - Blast Off! Blast Off! is one of the more self explanatory elements of Baba Yaga's kit. Traditionally, this would be used as her escape ability. When using Blast Off!, Baba Yaga crawls inside her mortar and after 1 second, she launches herself forwards in a varying distance depending on player selection. Enemies that are near this explosion in a reasonable area around it are damaged. One of the nicest parts of this ability is that when inside her mortar, Baba Yaga gains up to 35% damage mitigation. This means that she can also use it as a tool to further disrupt teamfights, simply gain protections while she escapes, or even as a helpful tool to block enemy abilities with increased mitigation.
4 - Home Sweet Home Home Sweet Home is arguably one of the weaker ultimates in the game. However, this does not mean that it is without use. Baba Yaga enters her cabin for 8 seconds, knocking enemies away and dealing damage. During this time she gains a protection shield up to 420 health. While in her cabin, she may fire up to 4 "Witchfire Bolts". These bolts create AOE flames on the ground which chase nearby enemies. When in the flame, enemies will take damage every 0.4 seconds. Enemies hit directly with the flame when it lands also take additional damage. Beyond the damage that enemies may take upon the flames hitting the ground, the damage of this ability is not particularly helpful. However, this is a fantastic zoning tool. This means that Baba Yaga may use this to dissuade enemies from taking certain paths during a teamfight, or simply use her "Witchfire Bolts" to disrupt a fight by applying some passive damage and forcing some movement on the enemies to break their formations.

I hope to continue updating this guide and improving upon it however I can. Please let me know what else I can do, what adjustments I can make, and what sections I should add. Thank you!