Smite – Season 8, Ranked meta snapshot

Here my meta snapshot, note this for the average ranked player. Applying majority of the playerbase, anything below diamond. Majority of players find themselves around gold for reference.

Here some brief thoughts on season 8 so far. Starter item upgrades shake up the build paths. Been enjoying the new season outside of the server issues. Ranked is still the same old shit show at times. Full of trolls, DCing players and rough start as always. To be fair I had less people DCing so far than last season.

I found my own games are around 30 minutes. Sometimes you don’t get to finish builds, any starters need to be good enough. Result is racing to level 20 for upgraded starters. Pressure leads to more efficient farming, most players sink when playing from behind. Name of the game is pressure, risk management vs opportunity.  Starter items have good base stats with excellent upgrades, good bases with weaker upgrades.  Weird small group of heavily niche or lacking identify starts too. Huge amount of build diversity created from starter items alone.  Quick overview options for each role.

Solo – Start speed with jungle, go do one or both XP camps before heading to blue. Laning phase starts at level 2.  Want to be careful with death toll or bluestone early ganks can happen. A lot of solo laners are ignoring that jungle can gank. Can abuse that get cheeky early kill after clearing blue. Just need some patience waiting for the other solo to step up. Not too common at the moment.

Bluestone pendant – Base item has good aggressive stats but comes with raw health. Only want to consider corrupted over brooch. Aggressive option of brooch is weaker compared to defensive corrupted. Lowering attack speed is far more helpful over extra damage. Can skip the upgrade path build something else.

Death toll – Designed for hunters, skip the upgrades. Aggressive item for AA warriors. Similar to bluestone making you an easier gank target.

Warrior’s axe – Both upgrades are worth considering. Sundering axe is more aggressive, Hero’s axe is more defensive. Jack of all trades just good enough defensive stats.

Jungle – Pressure is king, want keep track of timer. Don’t always need an kill some poke can open up the map. Even forcing people to back gives you control of the jungle. Invading is weaker this season but still strong.  Rushing boots is an option if you want an early gank heavy start. Start speed go to solo xp camps before heading to blue. Choice is clear can gank the solo early or go to mid xp. Early solo gank opens up an duo gank after you buy boots.

Bumba’s Dagger – Just good base stats, hammer is easier to use and better. Spear however does offer some very niche objective killing potential. Hammer as an upgrade is mix of just great stats with hybrid bruiser items.

Eye of the jungle – Good base stats terrible passive early on, lacks the sustain of dagger. Protector offers the best upgrade, designed for AA junglers.

Manikin scepter – Super aggressive early game choice, flex pick into solo with some gods. Mace has an attack speed slow, hidden blade passive is difficult to control. Build path mace allows is rather good.

Mid – Start red with carry, before heading straight to mid wave. Depending what jungle does farm whatever is around.

Conduit gem – Bonus power makes clearing easier, saves you health and mana. Upgrades archmage’s even more bonus burst. Gem of focus is difficult to use without of certain caster mages.

Sands of time – Mana sustain option that just lacking an identity of mana sustain. Pendulum of ages main draw is mana sustain not that helpful. Alternated timeline not very good within the current scope of things. Not worth considering at the moment.

Vampire shroud – The sustain option for lifesteal focused mages or healers. Problem is blood soaked looks to be an healer item. Sacrificial on the other hand is rather good.  Weird upgrades and build paths for mages in general here.

Support – Start purple pull it, wait for the carry to finish red.

Watchers gift – Gold standard in support items, boon is extra gold you don’t need. Embrace shares protections with your team. Obvious just good upgrade path for most supports.

War flag – An aggressive version of watchers, banner and flag both look useful on physical gods.

Carry – Same start as mid just go to duo after red.

Death toll – PSA do not build this on Izanami, her basic attacks function differently to other hunters. Trade off she has better clear, leather cowl or gilded arrow are better choices. Even eye of the jungler is an option.  Build path is clear sustain base upgrades. Want to craft lifesteal focused builds.

Leather cowl – Bonus attack speed or movement speed rather nice passive. Hunters cowl is an obvious this just very useful and good upgrade. Leaders cowl is just very difficult to control unless you stand near your team. I don’t think the bonus power is worth it.

Gilded arrow – Changes how you play carry, extra gold for last hitting the selected minion. Diamond arrow is going to make snowballing so much stronger. Magical carries likely to favour it the most. Physical carries can still pick it up for an insane power spike. Ornate is just weird, need gold to make use of it. Both arrows are interesting buff upgrades.

Still learning to become an better player. Ranked is not the be all end all. Journey takes ages must be willing to learn from past experiences and think outside the box. At the moment I been climbing using the classic jungle. I do enjoy support with an party. Slowly started to notice that I enjoy shot calling in smite. Part of me would to scrim just finding groups of players. Trying to find console smite players who are EU is difficult. I be honest not done much searching. Not even sure how to find the groups. Now to enjoy some late night ranked. Time to win I hope.