Season 5 has seen hunter players favour critical strike items over penetration focused builds. Quicker lane clear combined with more gold per minion. Further changes to how penetration works against objectives allow for higher damage per second builds. Burst is back for the main damage classes in smite. Hunters which make use of critical strike chance are heavily favoured at the moment. Critical strike based builds are viable until players work out the counters.

Hunters who love critical strike chance are the following.

• Anhur – Passive
• Artemis – Passive
• Hachiman – Steriod
• Izanami – Steriod
• Jing Wei – Steriod
• Rama – Steriod
• Ullr – Steriod

Generic builds have just enough attack speed to provide great damage per second. High penetration builds are better against defensively focused builds. Until players start building against it best to go full burst. I use these builds as a reference, builds are situational.

Generic build – Triple critical

Ninja Tabi	Devourer gauntlet	Deathbringer	Asi	Poison star	Wind demon
Attack speed	Sustain	Little bit of everything	Penetration, sustain	Passive	More critical chance

Triple critical strike build provides massives amounts of burst. Hunters lack viable items which give flat penetration and targets normally don’t have enough protections to make it viable. Aura items during team fights can be a problem most of the time it won’t be.

Generic build – Double critical

Ninja Tabi	Devourer gauntlet	The executioner	Deathbringer	Asi	Poison star
Attack speed	Sustain	Penetration	Critical strike chance	Penetration, sustain	Passive

Higher penetration compared to the first build at the cost of damage.

Generic build – Triple critical

Ninja Tabi	Transcendence	Asi	Deathbringer	Poison star	Wind Demon
Attack speed	Power	Penetration, sustain	Critical strike chance	Passive	Attack speed

Lacking the same level of sustain compared to Devourer gauntlet.

Smite new season is coming, expect big changes to conquest. Meta at higher and lower end is likely to shift. Early pressure with high kill potential is likely to thrive. Once players start to learn what works things should tone down. Every new season becomes about kills and quick burst. Duo lane is likely to be high pressure and kill lane focused gods. Early kill potential is likely to be king with burst being queen. Middle lane could see various new mages becoming more viable. High burst or early kill potential jungle picks countering the new mages. Solo could see various warriors appearing again and guardians. Certain jungle picks could still spell trouble for certain solo lane gods.

The last couple of months have seen even lower level casual players copy high-level players. Blindly following the ‘meta’ because somebody else did it. High-level players complaining nobody understands the ‘meta’ unwilling to try new things. Failing to explain why certain starts were done.

Season 5 should see players experiencing massive unique starts and strategies.

Classic 2 Duo – 1 Middle – 2 Solo

Carry starts with the support of a duo lane.  Expect to see high early pressure gods or kill potential gods do this start. Split farm with the ADC until a kill happens to help to secure the jungle farm.  Jungle farm is mainly for the support, carry focuses on the lane minions. Avoid sharing waves or farm unless it results in a kill. The solo side of the map has a similar story. Jungler starts at speed goes straight to blue in solo. Kills get the jungle bigger and solo gets lane to farm. Middle lane gets visits from the jungle or support once a kill opens up.

A strategy has shifted focus more on lane farm over jungle farm. Heavy invades are now not worth it once you gain pressure small invades are worth it. Enough farm on the map hard to force teams out of games.  In theory, the designers have solved the snowballing problem we wait and see.  Expect to see the majority of players doing this start.

Side lanes focus 1 Duo – 3 Middle – 1 Solo

The main goal of this strategy put the highest burst gods ahead. Pressure on the side lanes with rotations towards the middle.  Support focuses on duo jungle, jungle focuses on solo lane jungle. Both side lanes buffs are invaded by two players to keep pressure.  Expect to see high early pressure gods with super carries using this start.

Ranked players who can thrive off early kill potential or high burst should ride up the ladder quickly.