Three core playstyles exist within any video game. Various terms have been used to describe each one, dozens of hybrids styles that combine elements from each. Most of the terms come from card games.
Aggressive – Overwhelm opponents early on, ending games quickly.
Neutral – Don’t get overwhelmed going big and keeping the game under control
Defensive – Slow the game down, begin a war of attrition.
Aggressive (Aggro) is the most popular style of play. Most players hate playing against super aggro, things like invading or snowballs. Home of the cheese, pub stomper. Easy to play but hard to master, turning leads into enough tempo to end the game.
Neutral (Mid range) plays a reactive game against aggro and a more proactive game against defensive styles. Managing risk vs opportunity presented by both styles. The most common style of play, a natural style most do.
Defensive (Control) this style all about control. Answer threat without much cost or risk. Answering multiple threats or a single threat for an advantage. Play to be proactive reducing the usefulness of gods. Disrupting synergies even if you don’t deal with that threat. Dragging the game out, so your late game can be more efficient.
You won’t notice it but you often borrow elements from each style during any game. Some players naturally prefer certain styles over others. You start to get an idea of what wins games and how to play against each one.
Fundamental pillars
The fundamental pillars of any game, mechanics, decisions and knowledge. All of these have low skill floor but high ceiling when comes to smite. Being better than an average mechanical player only gets you so far. Need to combined everything together to get better. Decisions matter based on the knowledge you have. More experienced players learn how to counter certain strategies.
Mechanics is all about accuracy, ability usage, dodging and relics. How you move is important here, loads of player underestimated the power of dodging.
Decisions are all about risk management vs opportunity. Worth taking this risk for the opportunity.
Knowledge from items to what each god does to where people are.
The above is rarely talked about yet so important. Can often be difficult to pin down what going wrong. Most of the time decisions and knowledge are at fault. Most players run at the other team without thinking just want to press buttons. Even after hundreds of hours, still learning the game. How abilities interact with the general rule set runs the game.
Farming simulator
Most of your time is spent farming, getting good at farming is key. One of the key decisions players screw up is around farming. Failing to understand the value, being widely inefficient. Always want to be doing something never leaving anything. This gives you time to do other things, make a snack or objectives.
Against bad players, anything is viable against better players things get a bit harder to pull off. Things are easy to do but hard to master. Speaking of which should at basic level understand each role.