BUGS - Beginner's Universal Guide to SMITE

• Patch 9.5, "Slipknot." Huge adjustments to starting god health, as well as per-level health and protection increases to increase time-to-kill (TTK). Also increased minion and objective stats, as well as objective damage.
• Patch 9.4, "The Jade Emperor." Yu Huang added. This patch, aka "The Nerfening" saw significant nerfs to a large number of items and gods.
• Patch 9.3, "Heavenly Light." Various adjustments but nothing of special note.
• Patch 9.2, "The Destroyer." Shiva added.
• Patch 9.1, "Season 9." New season! Art style of Conquest map changed, Obelisk objectives added. Crit system reworked. Relics completely reworked with 3 tiers of options. 5 standard items now have a Tier 4 "Glyphs" that add extra functions to the items. New Slash mode replaces both Siege and Clash.

• Conquest Map Art Style: Shiva is affecting the battleground. Winter is over and the lighting is bold daylight, and a temple to Shiva sits side-by-side w/ Mount Olympus on the Order side.
• New Conquest Gameplay Feature - Obelisks: new objective cycle that occasionally spawns Lost Knights, which drop Offerings for the Obelisks. Provides a unique lane-pushing buff (Trebuchet) for the team that completely fills their Obelisk first.
• Season 8 Conquest Map Features Leaving: The big Draugr (Duo-side), Lesser Scorpions and Mist Lanterns are gone.
• New Mode - Slash: This 5v5 mode replaces Siege and Clash, combining elements of both into a fast-paced, objective-based teamfight mode.
• New Items - Relic Reworks & Upgrades: The relic system has been completely overhauled. Tier 1 relics are still free, given at levels 1 and 12. Tier 2 (minor upgrade) is 300 gold. Tier 3 (2 major upgrade choices w/ extra effects) is a total of 800 gold (500 more than the T2).
• New Items - Glyphs: 5 items now have Tier 4 forms (2 choices of upgrades w/ extra effects). These cost 600 gold more than the T3 form of the item. The glyphs build off of the following items: Breastplate of Valor, Deathbringer, Heartward Amulet, Jotunn's Wrath, Rod of Tahuti.

Yu Huang (April 2022) - Chinese Mage. Straightforward mage kit with a unique escape.

Shiva (February 2022) - Hindu Warrior. Mobile and aggressive kit with an ult that can deal damage or heal teammates.

Atlas (December 2021) - Greek Guardian. Large AOE and displacement abilities.

Cliodhna (October 2021) - Celtic Assassin. Unique ability to enter and move through walls, along with the option to attack while within.

Charybdis (August 2021) - Greek Hunter. Unique attack progression providing interesting item synergies.

• Play - Click here to select from multiple versus and coop modes, training modes, custom matches, etc.
  
  
• Gods - Click to see a list of all gods. Click on any god to learn about them and their abilities, set up the god builder (for custom item listings), etc.
  
  God Tab Details

  ABOUT - basic description of a god including their mythological pantheon, melee/ranged type, class and mastery rank.
  ABILITIES - a full description of god's ability kit including % damage scaling.
  SKINS - cosmetic changes to god's look that can be bought with either gems, favors or unlocked in other special way. Infographic of skin tiers and their prices
  STATS - god's base stats. Numbers in the brackets show how many points stats gain per level.
  ACHIEVEMENTS - shows achievements available only for the god you selected.
  LORE - mythological description of the god chosen to fit the game and not break the PEGI 12 rating :P
  EMOTES - cosmetic add-ons that can be bought with favors or gems. Some emotes like Dance and Special ones can be bought only with gems.
  HISTORY - a detailed profile of a specific god. It contains your statistics from all Normal/Ranked matches and shows recent match history.
  VOICE PACK - cosmetic change that can be bought only with gems. It allows you to have your god's voice instead of the default one when using VGS commands. Once you own a voicepack on certain god you can also use other voicepacks on that god that come with specific skins.
  GOD BUILDER - allows you to create a custom set of items for the recommended tab in Item Store and check your stats with it. You can also set in what order your abilities will level up.
  
  
• Store - Click here to purchase skins, gems, and unlockable items with gems or favor.
  
  Store Details

  
  FEATURED - shows newest purchasable features, skins, sales, etc.
  DEALS - shows specific weekly cosmetic skins on sale, as well as bundled unlockables.
  GODS/SKINS - shows all gods and skins you can purchase, depending on tab chosen.
  CHESTS - chests contain various items including exclusive skins like convention skins, skins from past events or new skins that are available only from a chest. Be careful though, as your reward is random. If you really want a specific skin from a chest, but you don't have much money, look for the ones that have fewer items in it from which you want more than just 1 specific skin. That way you might get what you want and still save some gems. Yay!
  GIFTING - if you have a friend you'd like to send a gift to, you can choose from Emotes, Voice Packs, Tier 2 Skins, and Awesome Skins. Note that you cannot choose a specific item; these are random.
  OTHER - it contains avatars, ability to change your name, boosters that increase your match rewards for certain amount of time and a window to redeem promotional codes like the ones I mentioned in the chapter about free stuff. Don't waste your gems on boosters, it's really not worth it unless you have too much money and free time.
  BUY GEMS - purchase Gems with real money. Gems can be spent to unlock Gods, unlock Battle Passes, unlock God skins, etc.
  
  
  
• Battle Pass - Click here to see the current battle pass details, see your progress in the current battle pass, unlock the battle pass with gems, etc.
  
  
• Esports & Live Streams - You'll find a lot of links and info to streams and pro play here. You can also vote on games for a chance to win points, purchase items from the viewer store, etc.
  
  
• Vault - You can purchase Golden Keys with gems, that are used to unlock special packs from the current and previous seasons. These may include unique items such as voice packs, wards, skins, etc.
  
  
• Other Events - Shown above "Slipknot" - these are additional events where you can purchase exclusive/limited items.

• Quests - complete these to get free favor and other unlockables.
  
  
• Reward Center - any chests you unlock or gifts you receive can be opened here.
  
  
• Friends List - Add or view friends and invite people to your party here.
  
  
• Clan - if you're in a clan, you can view clan details here.
  
  
• Learn - watch tutorial videos, look up common terminology, and learn the VGS (voice guided system) here.
  
  
• Profile - contains statistics of your account, match history, achievements etc.
  
  Profile Details

  
  This is a profile summary. It shows as follows:

  Account level - it loosely shows player's skill and knowledge about the game. It will determine with whom you are matched. A lvl 30 player most likely won't play with lvl 5 player and vice versa. It also grants you access to ranked matches once you hit level 30 (max).
  Mastered gods - number of gods that you played on Normal matches to get enough worshippers (reward after the match) for a mastery. After mastering a god you'll be able to buy their special skins (golden, legendary or diamond, depending on the mastery rank) and be able to pick those gods in Ranked (you need at least 18 to queue up for it).
  Achievement points - points gained by completing achievements. Currently they're just a number to show off, but they might unlock some rewards in the future.
  Personal honor - points gained after joining a clan, winning games (they're multiplied if you party with clanmates) and getting masteries on gods. If your clan has at least 3rd level you get access to special Clan Store (under Social category) where you can spend the honor points on chests with a chance to get a specific recolor, 1-day booster or a special Shadow skin. To get access to the next chest you need to buy at least 3 chests of the lower rank.
  Goodwill - grants you a bonus to favors gained from playing. For every Normal match you gain 6% of goodwill up to 100%. The goodwill resets to 0 after getting deserter penalty (for negative actions like leaving the game).
  
  STATS - it contains 4 achievements to show off (which you can choose), your placement in Rankeds, diagrams that show which god/role/mode you play the most, clan details, number of owned gods and items.
  ACCOLADES - in other words badges or medals that you get by destroying objectives, completing a match, going on killstreaks etc. They don't do nothing other than making you feel good. Accolades don't count in Match of the Day.
  ACHIEVEMENTS - various tasks to complete during a match. They're similar to accolades - they don't do anything other than making you feel good. Though few special achievements might reward you with something (f.e. you get Ah Muzen Cab skin for winning 20 Ranked matches in Season 2).
  HISTORY - shows your most recent matches (only Normal/Ranked ones) with all the details available.
  WORSHIPPERS - list showing your masteries and worshippers on each god. Worshippers are a value gained by completing Normal matches.
  
  
  
• Notifications - self explanatory.
  
  
• Settings - contains the typical options for audio, video, UI and controls, but also lets you customize spectator mode and targeting tools.

God Selection

That's the screen that you will see after joining a match. Placement of UI might be a bit different on wider screens, but I used a smaller resolution to fit it in this guide.

The picking phase in all modes (except for Ranked ones) is called Blind Pick. That means you can't see the gods that enemy team is picking. You also can't pick a certain god if someone else in your team already picked it. After you lock in a god you can choose the skin you will use in that match (if you own any). If everyone on both teams has locked in their gods the timer will count to 0 and start the game faster. So try not to be that guy that everyone has to wait for.

Auto-items and Auto-skills are features made for new players. They will level up your abilities and buy items automatically for you. I will describe it a bit more in the next chapter.

Don't instalock! - instalocking is picking and locking in a god right after getting to God Selection screen without discussing it with the team. Though it's not really a problem in Co-op matches or lowlevel Normals, it will be considered rude and selfish later on. I usually wait few seconds, pick my god if others can't decide and wait until all roles are filled before I lock it in.

To know more about gods and their roles read the further chapters.

IN-GAME HUD

Ultimate icon in different states:

Player icon in different states:

Ability icon in different states:


You can change the placement of the whole HUD as you fit. All you have to do is start a match, press Esc while you're ingame and click HUD Editor.

You can also change/turn on various features that will help you aim, for example a distance line showing your max range. The options are placed in Settings -> Targeting. Check out everything to see what fits you the best. I'll explain Cast Modes in next section.

PC DEFAULT CONTROLS

Keep in mind you can modify keybindings to suit your preferences. Below are the default settings should you choose to keep them.

I'll describe some of those a bit more:

LMB (Left Mouse Button) - Fires ability or basic attack.
RMB (Right Mouse Button) - Cancels/deselects ability.

F5 - Start a pause vote (Ranked only).
F6 - Starts a surrender vote. Can be used after 10 minutes. 4 out of 5 players need to agree to forfeit the game.
F7 - Don't Surrender. Votes for "No" if someone else starts a surrender vote.
Tab - shows the scoreboard. You need to hold it.
T - opens stats window that shows players with top damage/gold/kills in each it and a log of last damage you dealt and received.
Y - opens a Death Recap window, which shows who killed you and with what damage.
V - opens VGS commands (Voice Guided System), I will get to it in Communication section.
B - recall to base. It's an ability that every god has. It has a casting time so can be interrupted by enemies.
Alt - releases the mouse. Now instead of aiming you can move the cursor around the screen to either display some info about buffs/debuff/abilities etc. or ping the map. I will explain pinging in Communication section.
Space - lets you jump. It's just an aesthetic feature, it doesn't affect the gameplay and won't help you escape.

Chat commands:

/help - shows list of commands.
/dnd - toggles Do-Not-Disturb mode in which you can't receive whispers or party invites.
/reconnect - reconnects to the game. Helps when you get disconnected and can't wait for automatic kick, but sometimes it takes longer than relaunching the game manually.
/shot - takes a screenshot. The default folder in Windows is under Documents/My Games/Smite/Battlegame/Screenshots (not sure if that's the same for Steam version).
/w playername message - sends a whisper to a player.
/r message - responds to a whisper from another player.
/c message - sends a message to your clan.
/spectate playername - lets you spectate a player if he/she is currently in a match. If not, you will be queued up to spectate his/hers next match.
/replay matchID - lets you spectate a match if it's available.
/pause - pauses the game. Available only in Custom matches.
/quit - causes Smite to exit.

ABILITIES

Abilities can be read in the lobby -> Gods -> *select a god* -> Abilities. Or ingame under the K button.

GOD'S KIT CONTAINS:

• Basic Attack - an attack performed with LMB. It doesn't cost any mana. It's either melee or ranged depending on your god and is always a skillshot, therefore I don't like calling it an autoattack.
  
  
• Progression Chain - not every god has it. Some gods have certain combos when using basic attacks and perform different animation for each hit. Every hit in the combo usually has different damage multiplier. Sometimes the chains also end with an AoE hit (for example on Ne Zha and Eset).
  
  
• Passive - it's 5th ability that can't be clicked. It's usually an utility skill that makes you or your other abilities stronger under certain circumstances.
  
  
• 1st, 2nd and 3rd ability - those are regular active abilities. Their cooldown is between 5 to 20 seconds and using them costs mana (usually between 30 to 100 MP).
  
  
• 4th ability (Ultimate) - this ability is usually way more powerful than the 3 others. It has a cooldown of over a minute so use it wisely. It can be unlocked at level 5.
  
  
• Damage Scaling - outside of base damage abilities and basic attacks also gain power from your stats (buffs, base stats, items). This damage is shown in the brackets next to ability's base damage. Physical basic attack always has 100% scaling while magical has only 20%, because magical power comes in higher numbers than physical, because most mages are supposed to be ability-based and they would just be too strong with higher scaling. Scaling on abilities is different on each ability and god, so you gotta study it on your own.

LEVELING UP ABILITIES

I recommend keeping auto-level option (Auto Skill in God Selection screen) turned on for a while, so you can focus on learning how to play and what the kit does. Auto-level has some disadvantages that a lowlevel player won't even notice and the transision from auto to manual might be hard, as some players forget to level up their abilities. Once you feel comfortable with some god you can turn the auto-level off and choose which ability to max out first as you fit. Usually you will want to max those abilities that you use the most and they deal damage, while escapes such as dashes and leaps still do their job well at rank 1.

CAST MODES

You can change the way your abilities are cast. You can either change all abilities in Settings -> Targeting -> Cast Mode (which I don't recommend) or change each ability you want manually in the ability window (K button). There are 3 types of casting :

• Normal Casting - you click ability with 1, 2, 3 or 4 button, its range shows up for you to aim and you fire the ability by clicking LMB. This is set as default casting.
  
  
• Quick Casting - you HOLD 1, 2, 3 or 4 button, the range shows up and ability is fired as you release the button. You can cancel it while holding by clicking RMB.
  
  
• Instant Casting - the ability is used right after you click 1, 2, 3 or 4 button. I don't recommend using it on the whole kit, but there are some escape abilities that don't require aiming and this casting will give you a faster reaction that can help you survive, for example Chang'e's Moonlit Waltz or Nu Wa's Fire Shards.

ITEMS

Personally I don't like the auto-buy option (Auto Items in God Selection screen). Buying items is deeper than leveling abilities. I suggest to turn off the auto-buy and follow recommended items for the start. You can also search for guides and builds for certain gods on this website and try those items out. You can also prepare your own custom build for the Recommended window by going in lobby -> Gods -> *select a god* -> God Builder. I will only mention few basic and useful things.

Usually first thing people buy is either a starter item, boots or item with stacks.
Starter items - are items that cost 800 gold, don't have an item tree and are made to help you sustain the early game. They're usually sold later on to make place for 6th stronger item. They're mostly used in Conquest (I'll talk about them more in chapter about this game mode).
Boots/shoes - are essential part of any god's build. They inscrease your movement speed and add few other stats. You can buy only 1 type.
Items with stacks - for example Transcendence or Devourer's Gauntlet. Stacks are bonus stats unlocked progressively by killing minions or gods, so buying such items earlier means you will get those stacks faster.

Note: When you purchase an item and leave the fountain, you can sell it for only 66% of its original price.
If you bought a wrong item and didn't leave the fountain yet, you can click the Undo button to get your gold back.

For an in-depth guide of items read
An In-Depth Discussion On Item Choices) by Branmuffin17

RELICS

Relics are Season 3 versions of old active items. They can be purchased for free and used as an extra ability with F and G buttons. You can buy the first one at level 1 when the game starts, the second slot gets unlocked when you hit level 12. With Season 4 update relics are also upgradable to a stronger version for 500 gold.
Note: When you purchase a relic and leave the fountain, you won't be able to sell it.

Since now relics are free and hopefully will be used more frequently by new players I will explain the purpose of every single one of them. Hover the cursor over their names to see what they do:

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Heavenly Wings - used by basic attack based gods to stick to their target, it can help them kite around it to avoid taking damage as well. It's also a counter item to slows and can be used as an escape tool, especially on gods who lack mobility.

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Cursed Ankh - a counter item against gods that can heal.

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Aegis Amulet - best used against predictable damage that you know you can't escape otherwise, like huge AoE nukes (f.e. Poseidon's Release The Kraken!, Scylla's I'm a Monster), autoaimed abilities (f.e. Neith's World Weaver, Nu Wa's Fire Shards) or damage over time already applied to you (f.e. Bastet's Razor Whip, Serqet's Last Breath). As for now it also seems to break Root CC.
Note: You can still get CCed while using it.

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Hand of the Gods - used mostly in Conquest by junglers (sometimes on sololaners too) to help them clear the camps. When upgraded it stuns enemy gods near you, so it can also be used to gank enemies if your god lacks a hard CC or defensively when you are ganked.

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Blink Rune - used mostly by frontliners who lack mobility to initiate fights (f.e. Ymir, Ares), but also by some gods with mobility who may still need a sudden move to set up the fight properly(f.e. Odin, Hun Batz, Xing Tian, Tyr). Sometimes it can be also seen on assassins who try to save their mobile ability to escape after a gank (f.e. Serqet, Ao Kuang).

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Purification Beads - removes all kinds of CCs so can be helpful on any god, especially the squishy ones that can be killed in seconds (mages, hunters, assasins). Probably the most popular relic in the game.
Note: It doesn't work well against knock ups. Once you're in the air and you click Purification it won't break the knock up. However if you get Banished by Freya or Janus you will land immediately avoiding all damage from portal.

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Teleport Glyph - used mostly by sololaners to quickly rotate on the map to help others or to come back to sololane faster from the fountain to get as much gold and exp as they can. Since it allows you to teleport to wards, people will try to backdoor enemy base with it or teleport behind the enemy back to catch them off guard.

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Meditation Cloak - an essential item on Assault since you can't go back to base there to heal up, but outside of that mode you will most likely be called noob for taking it, unless you're a support or a healer that needs lots of mana.

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Magic Shell - used mostly by supports to provide protections to their teammates during teamfights.

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Sundering Spear - it's aggressive relic that deals damage and makes the enemy take 30% more damage for 5s, so it's recommended to use it at the start of a fight rather than for securing the kill.
Note: It's a skillshot that can be missed.

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Shield of Thorns - good against squishy gods with burst damage. It's better to take or more tanky character since it doesn't grant any defense (the damage you take may still kill you) and the reflected damage is the same no matter how much protection you have.

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Phantom Veil - situational defensive relic that lets you escape player-made walls, bodyblocks and knock ups. A hard counter to Odin's Ring of Spears and gods that heavyly rely on knock ups like Awilix or Bacchus.

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Bracer of Undoing - New in Season 4. Can be used defensively to restore health after getting bursted down or offensively to restore mana and cooldown that just have been used and continue attacking.

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Horrific Emblem - New in Season 4. Slows movement and attack speed. Great against basic-attack based gods and immobile gods.

COMMUNICATION

1. VGS (Voice Guided System)
It's probably one of the coolest Smite features to people that come here from other MOBAs. VGS is a set of around hundred voiced commands that can be used with few button clicks starting with V. It's much faster than writing on chat and contains almost all necessary things making voice communicators like Curse needed only in high-level games. It will take a lot of practice to remember all keybinds, you can train your memory here.

2 Pinging.
It's a method common in other MOBAs. You click part of the map with certain keybinds to highlight it on minimap for others. It also makes an annoying "ping" noise to get your attention. It's used to warn/inform you about something in that area. There's 2 ways to use it in Smite :
1. Hold Alt button and click LMB somewhere on the minimap.
2. Open VGS (V) and click LMB in front of your god. There are 4 types of pings in this method - default white ping (V + LMB), red attack ping (VA + LMB), blue defend ping (VD + LMB) and orange careful ping (VC + LMB).

• Warding! - Some players say that vision wins games. Ward is a consumable item that can be placed on the map to grant vision in that area. It's very useful in modes with a jungle, mostly used in Conquest, sometimes Siege (only Sentry Wards) and Joust. Since Season 4 there's also Chalice of the Oracle - consumable that holds 2 wards and can be refilled in the fountain. Place it on crossroads to get the best vision, on entrances to your lane to notice enemies coming to gank you and near important neutral objects in the jungle.
  
  
• Call missing enemies - when enemies leave your lane remember to warn your teammates about it by using VGS commands under VF keybinds.
  
  
• Respect your manabar - it's one of main issues with new players, it's also why Meditation Cloak is considered a noob item. Don't spam all your abilities, use them only when they're needed. Going back to base too often might cost you experience and gold.
  
  
• Know when to back off - I see some players fighting jungle monsters 1v1 and failing. If an enemy clearly deals more damage to you than you do to him you should give up and back off.
  
  
• Beware of minions early game - though minions might don't look like a threat, they do a lot of damage at first levels.
  
  
• Beware of objective aggro - If you go in enemy tower's/phoenix'/minion's range and there's no friendly minions to take the aggro, you will be the target. If you start attacking enemy player in the aggro range despite your minions being there the enemy objective will change the target to you.
  
  
• Kill structures in order - you need to destroy structures in order. You can't damage a phoenix if towers in that lane are still standing and you can't damage Titan if all phoenixes are alive.
  
  
• Research info outside of the game - read more guides/builds, watch some pro players on Youtube and Twitch and be part of the community. That way you will learn some things faster. If you just play the game you might get stuck at a certain level of knowledge.

League of Legends is my mostly played MOBA right after Smite, so I can point out some major differences. Players coming from other MOBAs might also find some tips useful.

• There's no runes and masteries - yup, you don't have to worry about different builds for different matches. In Smite every player is equal in terms of god stats no matter what is their account level.
  
  
• There's no summoner's spells - instead we have active items (Relics) that can be bought for free during the match and have 2 separate slots in the inventory. This allows people to addapt to certain situation, especially in modes with Blind Pick.
  
  
• There's no lane-swapping - I noticed that as a big thing in higher level games and LCS. It doesn't exist in Smite, mostly because of the placement of buff camps.
  
  
• Please, don't call lanes "top" and "bot" - there is no top and bottom in Smite, the view is not isometric and map can flip depending on which side you start. "Top" is called sololane (lava side), "bot" is called duolane (beach side).
  
  
• Last-hitting is not necessary - since basic attacks are skillshots and can be bodyblocked, last-hitting minions is not required to get gold. Though if you do last-hit them you'll get a bit more gold. Noone will call you a noob if you miss a minion here... well, unless you're in pro-level ranked match where people count every gold coin.
  
  
• All gods use manabar - I know that in LoL there are lots of champions that use a different secondary bar or their abilities don't cost anything allowing them to stay in lane for days. In Smite every god uses mana and casting ability "for free" is very rare.
  
  
• Jungle buffs are dropped on the ground - kind of like the Herald buff. Thanks to that we can kill the camps faster, worry less about who last-hits it and don't waste jungler's time. Just try to not stand too close to it if someone else is supposed to take it.
  
  
• Don't waste gems on new gods - gems are equivalent of RP, you can get 50 per week if you do daily quests regularly. Buy gods mostly with favors (IP). From what I noticed favor/minute gain is much faster than IP/minute in LoL, we also have more first wins of the day and various other rewards. If you really want to spend money on gods you should go straight for the 30$ godpack (all gods unlocked, all future ones + favor refund for the ones you already bought).
  
  
• There's no AP/AD - though the term "ADC" is still commonly used, gods are categorized into 2 groups (physical and magical) and scale only from 1 type of power on both their basic attacks and abilities.

Anhur

Rod of Tahuti

Freya

Deathbringer

• Guardians (magical) - they have more crowd controls, more base health and protections while dealing less damage. They're usually tanky supports. Their main role is to be in the frontline, protect their teammates, initiate fights, CC enemies, assist the kills and take aggro of the objectives to tank it. Some can be built to deal a lot of damage like a close-range mage(for example Ymir or Bacchus).
  
  
• Mages (magical) - they're meant to deal tons of damage with their abilities while being fairly squishy. They usually stand behind attacking from a safe distance. Some of them have good healing abilities ( Ra, Hel, Chang'e, Aphrodite) so they might choose more supportive role and focus on healing their team rather than dealing the damage.
  
  
• Hunters (physical) - or ADCs, Marksmen. They're meant to deal a lot of damage with their ranged basic attacks. They are usually responsible of taking down structures fast and "carrying" late game.
  
  
• Assassins (physical) - they're all melee gods. Depending on the god they're either mostly ability-based (f.e. Bastet) or focus on basic attacks ( Bakasura). They're the most mobile out of all classes, but rather squishy. As they're good in 1v1s, but can die really quickly in teamfights, their role involves waiting patiently for a good moment to strike and picking off weaker gods with a sudden attack. That's why they're usually played in the jungle.
  
  
• Warriors (physical) - or Bruisers, Fighters. They're all melee gods. It's a mix of guardian's tankyness and assassin's damage. Sometimes called "Jacks of all trades, masters of none". They have good sustain and can work well both as a support and a damage dealer.

TIERLISTS: Which god is good?

I think all the free gods are pretty easy to learn and good to pick at lower levels ( Ra, Neith, Ymir, Guan Yu, Thor, Ares, Bellona, Kukulkan, Nemesis, Artemis).

I don't want to give my opinion on the rest, cause it might change depending on future patches and the game mode you are playing. I will give you few links to tierlists of all gods:

2020/5/18: Adapting's Jungle Tier List (Assassins Only)

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2020/5/19: El Leon's Top 5 Smite Mages

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2020/5/3: fineokay's Most Informative Tier List (w/ PandaCat)

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2020/5/14: PandaCat's ADC Tierlist

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2020/6/17: Weak3n's 7.6 Tier List

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2020/7/1: Wlfy's 7.7 Mid-Season Mid Lane Tier List

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Team Synergy

Pick gods that have good synergy. There are some gods that can make really overpowered combos when they play together and people will usually abuse that fact to create really ridiculous team comps.

Examples of great synergy picks:

• Athena + Medusa - when Athena uses Confound enemies are forced to face her and are unable to look away from Medusa's Petrify ultimate.
  
  
• Awilix + gods with knock up - Awilix' Gravity Surge ult can pull knocked up enemies to her. The more knock ups your team has - the easier it is for Awilix to make plays.
  
  
• Anhur + Ymir - they both have AoE slows that can be stacked and will basically make the enemies walk instead of running. Anhur can use Ymir's Ice Wall for his Impale.
  
  
• Ares + gods with a nuke - Ares will often try to grab as many enemies as he can with his No Escape ultimate which will pull all of them (if they don't use CC immunity) into one position making them an easy target for an AoE ability with tons of damage (f.e Poseidon's Release The Kraken! or Scylla I'm a Monster). That's probably the easiest way to get a pentakill on lowlevel Arena.
  
  
• Odin + big AoE damage - After Odin's locks enemies in his Ring of Spears his team usually "stacks" that area with their big AoE circles that can't be avoided (f.e Hou Yi's Sunbreaker, Zeus' Lightning Storm)

God Mastery

God mastery shows how much you played with certain god. It also unlocks some cosmetic content. At mastery I you get the ability to pick that god in a Ranked match and can buy golden skin. At mastery V you can buy legendary skin and at mastery X - a diamond skin.

Since Season 4 when you have several mastery X gods you will unlock special recall effects. When you buy a mastery skin you also unlock a special loading frame for that god that shows your kills, wins and assists done on him/her. To rank up your mastery you have to play matches against other players (Normals, Rankeds). At the end of a match you will be rewarded with worshippers (usually around 3 to 20 depending on lenght and outcome of the match), 50 are required to get to mastery I.

forums.smitegame.com - Smite's official forum
reddit.com/r/smite - Smite's official subreddit
smite.gamepedia.com - Smite Wiki, contains a lot of in-depth informations about the game. Big part of this guide.
twitch.tv/HiRezTV - Smite's official Twitch stream. You can find there SPL matches, hosting pro players, live patch notes etc.
smite.guru - contains a lot of statistics, builds, tier lists and rankings.
smitedatamining.com - contains info about possible future patches based on files digged in the game client.

(19 May 2022)
Updated by Branmuffin17 for Season 9.

(14 July 2020)
Updated by Branmuffin17 for Season 7.

Archives

(14 February 2017)
Updated for 4.2 patch ( Kuzenbo's release)

(1 February 2017)
Updated for 4.1 patch (Season 4) - not final.

(10 January 2017)
Updated for 3.25 patch ( The Morrigan)

(4 January 2017)
Guide updates after half year long break.

(4 July 2016)
Preparing for mid season 3.12 patch ( Erlang Shen)

(8 May 2016)
Preparing for 3.8 patch (Perfect Storm - Susano)

(23 April 2016)
Updated some streamers and "What's new in Smite" chapter.

(9 April 2016)
Added new chapter "What's new in Smite" for returning players.

(14 March 2016)
Patch 3.4 - Winter's Bite ( Skadi's release)

(1 March 2016)
Small updates for patch 3.3 (Victory Lap).

(8 February 2016)
Updated some tips for few gamemodes.

(3 February 2016)
Updated images of Conquest map, added separate section about Relics.

(2 February 2016)
Updated almost every chapter for Season 3.

(12 December 2015)
Added link to Weak3n's video about warding in Conquest chapter. Added link to updated winrate tierlists by YarMcYarrr.

(1 December 2015)
Mentioned Clash, added info about clan rewards, updated my top tier picks a bit, mentioned new bot difficulty, updated streamers' info since they don't use smitegame channel anymore.

(9 October 2015)
Added "League (Ranked)" chapter and "Team synergy" section in "Gods/Roles" chapter.

(7 October 2015)
Added limits to stats' description.

(6 October 2015)
Added some minor details and improved all chapters.

(5 October 2015)
Added "Lobby / User Interface" chapter.

(4 October 2015)
Fixed some spelling errors, added few terms to dictionary.