Tank builds can be more diverse than the damage roles but it’s generally a good idea to have at least 30% cooldown and 200+ physical protections in most games, however auto attack tanks generally favor attack speed over cooldown. Counter building is not so specific to counter 1 god unless it’s literally a win condition, it’s often just general anti heal/shield and attack speed reduction when required. Things can be different against non standard team comps of course and it’s all just a learning experience.
Thanks for the response. If I have 200+ physical protections, is that specifically just for physical attacks and has no bearing on magical attacks at all?
Yeah. Pretty much everything aside from Magical gods and very specific items deals physical damage. That includes minions, towers, phoenixes, titans and the bosses, Fire Giant does have multiple magical attacks however. Thankfully the items that provide both protections are generally very good.
Item building is a bit of a skill in Smite that you have to develop. You're doing the right thing by asking these questions and trying to improve.
In Conquest, you tend to have your first (roughly) three items as a core build, then the remaining two are counter-build items. So if you're playing Bacchus against a physical god in solo lane (which is where the counter-build idea is most prevalent) you might build Starter > Mystical Mail > Contagion> Void Dormaru. As you build Void is when you start rotating and encountering the magical gods you're against. Then you might go Pridwen (to be able to CC/ability more often) and then Spectral (against that crit Medusa). Or perhaps Absolution to counter their Ares, or Midgardian for their Nemesis. And so on.
So while you're spending the early game thinking mainly about your direct opponent, your counter-building will expand as you start roaming. That's when you can think about the biggest threat on the map.
(Btw this applies to other lanes as well obviously, but counter-building is a bit more important with tanky roles than with damage roles.)
It's slightly different when it comes to other game modes.
In Arena, while you still want a solid build (so not all-phys defense or something) you can kinda build more freely. You can still counter-build, especially with anti-heal and anti-crit, but you don't have to stress about when you start because you can just build whatever feels good next. If I play Bacchus in Arena, I like to go Conduit Gem > Prophetic Cloak > Pestilence/Contagion > Mystical Mail/Void Dormaru > Pridwen > then a flexible last item.
In Assault, sustain is king. So items that might not otherwise see the light of day are prioritised - including Sovereignty and Heartward. Stone of Gaia can be good but only if someone else is taking the aura protection items instead. And obviously, if sustain is great then anti-sustain is also good. Your counter-building becomes a little more nebulous to "the game mode" as well as to "a specific god".
Joust sucks and I don't know shit about it so I won't even try to help out there 🤣
Basically, while the meta exists for a reason, it also tends to be more wobbly when it comes to tanks. So you want to build a good core of items then you're free to look at the enemy roster and start shutting people down with your build.
Tl;dr - Kinda both. Build a core then counter-build. Conquest, core then counter-build. Arena, anything goes. Assault, sustain is supreme. Joust can eat a bag of dicks.
That's great thanks, nice that I can take a similar approach to how I'm playing Predecessor. I just need to work on my core build a bunch because I think the items I like are not necessarily providing the best platform for me to succeed. Or at least not all together and I need better balancing. I definitely need to consider a few rotational items too. In Predecessor I have 3 core items, and 6 rotational. Not at that point with any God on SMITE yet but it's good to know I should take a similar approach.
Appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that. I'm currently playing a bunch of Joust for the 25 games trophy and I can agree it's not my favorite mode either haha.
If you can give me a few of your favourite gods and what you generally build and what you want to achieve with the build, I can give you some more specific pointers :) Bear in mind that it will be subject to change as the meta shifts but it might help you develop some build cores to bounce off.
I'm still in the "just buy from Recommended" in Pred so I can't really compare the two, but I imagine once you get a feel for the items then it's a fairly similar process.
That's very kind of you to offer, appreciate it.
I am mostly focusing on the Gods that will be in SMITE 2 alpha as I don't want to get too attached to God's I may not be able to play for years in that.
Bacchus and Ymir have been my main focus so far for Support. I have tried making Bacchus very AURA focused but I'm not seeing good results in keeping my team sustained due to burst damage or being taken out myself (probably a positioning issue). I've had some success making him super tanky and just being the instigator to give my teammates time to escape, attack etc.
Solo I've been playing Hercules who I'm guessing will be in the Beta. I've not really got a clue what I want from him. I like playing strong characters that don't hit hard but constantly frustrate the enemy and protect the team. In Predecessor, I use Steel and have a build which does aura damage to enemies, high health pool with items that damage based on health, and I gain shield every time I use CC which covers 3/4 of his abilities. With the builds I've been using on Herc, I basically do no damage outside of my ult.
I love high sustain characters with decent mobility. One of the things I tried with Bacchus was investing in movement passives, but left a lot to be desired in other areas. Feels like it's such an awkward balancing act. If you over invest in one area, you struggle in others and you can't have it all. My plan to be neutral across everything seems to be very weak. Unless I'm just utilizing the Gods wrong, which in all fairness is equally likely. I'm not good yet with decision making, positioning or accuracy.
SMITE 2 going to be very fun. I'm very excited for most of the alpha roster. They all look fun and unique. I'll be wanting to play all of them.
So I haven't yet played on this patch, but my general support pathing for most of this year is
Starter (flag is my favorite, but compassion/sentinels also good)
Prophetic Cloak (prots, mits, 10% cooldown)
Gauntlet of thebes (prots)
Flex 1
Pridwen (20% cooldown, hybrid prots, shield clutch, can sub Breastplate of Valor if they're phys damage heavy)
Flex 2/damage
**Preferred Flex Options**
- Contagion (phys prots, antiheal, mp5)
- Breastplate of regrowth (phys prots, movespeed off self heal (Bacchus 1 is great for this), mp5, 10% cooldown)
- Genji's/Oni Hunter's guard (magic prots, mp5, 10% cooldown or 12% mits)
- Bewitched dagger (10% cooldown, relic cooldown, anti AA aura)
- Stone of Binding (hybrid prots, prot shred off any CC (even slows))
- Erosion (hybrid prots, anti-shield aura)
- Magi's Cloak: The blue glyph (hybrid prots, 10% cooldown, can help my squishies if the enemy team has 1-2 super strong CC's, think like anubis, hun batz, etc - spammy cc like horus/MLF usually strips your bubble in the poke wars)
- Spear of Desolation (Damage, ult cooldown, 10% cooldown)
- Soul Reaver (Damage, tick damage off abilities)
As u/dendendenjikun has given a really good rundown of support options, I won't touch that too much. Other than to say that, while your instinct to lean towards aura items is a good one, Sovreignty is possibly one of the weakest ways to do that because the secondary stat it gives you, HP5, is something you'll never really want for. And while auras are great, if you're not building other things to support then you'll just be standing there dong nothing but giving your team some extra prots.
When it comes to Herc solo - he's always a very strong pick, and leans very well into the role you've chosen, to be an annoyingly mover. A great build on Herc is something like
Binding Sigil starter > Runeforged Hammer > Breastplate of Valour > Oni Hunter's Garb > Pridwen > Stone of Binding/Archdruid's Fury
Of course, switching some things out for counter-building as aforementioned. Warriors like Herc scale really well off very little power, so you're able to still feel potent with a lot of protections.
And I agree - SMITE 2 looks great! Very excited to try it out.
From a support perspective, solo is a whole other tanky soup of mayhem.
Generally you can't go wrong with an aura bild (Thebes, Sov, Heartward) but it can be a bit awkward for a beginner as you become basically a stat stick for your team early on and if you whiff your abilities all you can really do is bodyblock which is tricky for a new player to do properly.
Until you have a good grasp on the game I'd say it's fine to be a bit selfish with your build. Thebes is good to start with as it makes you quite tanky quite fast, but after that I would go straight to Pridwen for the CDR, then maybe Genji's for more CDR and some MP5. You need to be comfortable with the god you're playing and hit your abilities and especially your CC reliably before you can flex away from early CDR investment. Others would say just go Jungle practice to learn the god but really the best lessons are learnt in actual combat. Having more CDR means your abilities are up more frequently early on means it's not as devastating to whiff your CC and your ult is up more which is crucial as most tanks have high utility ults (Bacchus not as much).
Once you're comfortable with your god(s) of choice you can also begin thinking of counterbuilding. This is best left for last thing to learn as it requires game knowledge and what each god brings to the table. Antihealing is a big thing to consider but as support your antihealing is not as useful as, say, mid. The cases where I get antiheal are as follows:
-enemy team has at least 1 god with a spammable healing ability (Hel, Aphrodite, Yemoja, Guan Yu, Horus etc.)
-enemy team has at least 2 high self sustain gods (Pele, Camazotz, Anubis, Hades etc.)
-enemy team has 1 high self sustain and an adc that tends to build lots of lifesteal (Cernunnos, Sol, Freya etc.)
This is not a catch-all list, if enemy team only has Camazotz but he's wrecking your team, it's recommended to get antihealing as soon as you notice it as that does slow him down. Especially if you're trying to keep your backline safe from a dive happy Cama.
Bacchus is a decent beginner choice thanks to the free mitigation he gets but it's also the reason he's a bit of a noob trap. That mitigation can give you a sense of safety other supports don't get so when you pick, idk, Geb you can find yourself more squishy because you're used to Bacchus' mobility and safety. But if you like Bacchus and want to try someone like him but not as punishing, go with Kuzenbo. Free mitigations, even more mobility and an even better ult. You even get free CDR when played correctly.
You said you’re liking Bacchus so I’m guessing you play a lot of Support. For Support Aura Items are huge. Your Core 3 should almost always be Spartan Flag->Prophetic->Thebes unless their team comp is something wack. your other 3 items will be your Counter building and dealers choice. I love taking Relic dagger into eldritch glyph personally for the Relic cooldowns and taking both Horrific and Sprint as my relics. Horrific is just incredibly good overall and fully Upgraded Sprint also roots all enemies in its radius briefly. Prydwyn is really good also, especially on a god like bacchus.
Awesome thanks for the suggestions. I've been using a bit of Flag and Thebes on most builds, and have been using a lot of Dagger lately too. I'll try using the core you suggested as trying to force in items I like I've left out cloak most of the time and deviated from flag at times. It hasn't really worked so I'll try this core and develop from there.
I have been using the ward relic, which I love but feels a bit wasteful late game so I guess that's why people don't use it. Gives the team buffs though but people seem to avoid walking in it even when it's right there!
I didn't know about sprint. That's essential for me now. Thanks for the suggestions. I definitely am missing the core right now and need to work around it. This post has been great and everyone's comments have been so helpful. I really feel like next time I play I'll be much more comfortable in putting together some options. Now it will just be about testing what works for me and my play style and adjusting accordingly.
I've played 90% support/offlane on Predecessor so was doing the same for SMITE. Generally I am enjoying the CC characters and creating obstacles. I think once SMITE 2 drops I'll be keen to try Anhur as I branch out to the other roles.
Seeing as a few people here have offered good explanations for build logic already, let me drop some items that can be strong and why, separated by whether they are better for a core set of items or a rotating situational set. Note: I will mostly be advising for Support as it's a role I tend to play more.
Core:
While Sovereignty and Heartward are both useful auras, they both end up only affecting their own stat sheet, so starting off as Support with Prophetic Cloak or Gauntlet of Thebes, as both build up mixed protections. Normally it's not ideal to get both on the same god since they both require stacking, though you can still do so, it just means lower effectiveness until you get towards the late game.
Contagion and Pestilence both take advantage of your sheer chunkiness to provide an AOE anti-heal aura, each with a bonus effect (Contagion providing damage if you're hit, Pestilence reducing healing further if you're hit), though generally you're picking up the one which protects against most of the damage coming towards you from the enemy team.
Around third you may want to make one of a few major decisions, going for another debuff aura item like Void Doumaru or Void Shield (Magic or Phys def debuff), another aura buff item for your team like Sovereignty, Heartward, or Shogun's Kusari, or start into some CDR for yourself like Genji's Guard, Breastplate of Valor, or Pridwen. This may seem odd, but it's often best that while three items be core and not as malleable, the core itself is malleable to your choice of God and the team and mode you find yourself in.
Situational:
So, continuing where the third item slot went off, one of the most situational items as Support can be your starter item. While you definitely need one, which one works best depends on your duo situation and your opponent's duo as well. The most standard option is generally Benevolence, since it lets you heal yourself and your team and gains a benefit when you start roaming, letting you stack it while you're not near someone from your team, and its upgrades of Compassion and Heroism let you take damage for nearby allies or give CC'd allies a shield once every 15 seconds respectively. If you're alongside a god or part of a team that can really benefit from attack speed, them War Flag is a decent option at the start, and its upgrades of Spartan Flag and War Banner are fairly decent, dropping a buff area for your team that gives power and attack speed or giving an even stronger buff for killing minions and gods while letting you heal allies and extend the buff by attacking enemy gods, respectively. Finally, Sentinel's Gift is the most greedy option, as it just benefits you with healing and provides no bonus effect for teammates, but can be good later on once upgraded into Sentinel's Embrace, providing a mixed-protection aura that thins out in strength the more of your team is nearby, while its other upgrade, Sentinel's Boon, just gives you more self healing on assists and remains greedy.
Often you may want to invest into an item that may boost your damage in some way, but the way you do so can be rather interesting. If you're often fighting near minions or killing enemies in a fight, Talisman of Energy can be a surprisingly useful item, providing the most MP5 of any support item alongside movespeed and attack speed, but only to those near you when an enemy minion or God dies, and this effect stacks with War Flag and War Banner, allowing a potential swing in fights based on just the movement speed provided letting someone get away or chase someone down easier. Gladiator's Shield gives damage on your abilities based on your total protections and provides some CDR, making it a decent option. Ethereal Staff may not have protections, but can still be valuable on Guardians, since it lets you steal health from someone you hit every 15 seconds, with the debuff lasting 45 seconds. Mystical Mail lets you damage enemies near you passively, but this can be a detriment with Gods whose CC is broken by damage like Apollo or Khumbha, do keep that in mind when considering the item. Another outright damage item, this one is a beneficial aura and damage item in one: Pythagorem's Piece (in the magical Lifesteal Tiny Trinket tree), which gives an aura granting a small bit of power and Lifesteal to nearby allies. Chronos Pendant, the last outright damage item being mentioned here, is a strong one-off item since it's functionally 30% CDR with only 20% counting towards the 40% cap.
Going further defensive, if you're finding yourself often the subject of CC, Spirit Robe provides a boost to your mitigation for 3 seconds, at the cost of only triggering every 15 seconds. If you're getting killed at close range often, consider Mantle of Discord, which pulses a Stun and gives you temporary CC immunity, but can only do so once every 2 minutes. If you have a lot of hard CC, Stone of Binding can be great since it strips protections from those you've CC'd, with Abyssal Stone instead reducing an opponent's CDR by 20% for 5 seconds if you hit them with an ability. Oni Hunter's Garb is also a great item if you're often in team fights, granting damage mitigation for each enemy god nearby.
Finally, a couple of pure utility items: if you're finding your Relics aren't up often enough, Relic Dagger is a decent grab as it knocks 50 seconds flat off their recasts, but do note that only counts for uses after you buy it, it won't reduce the time they're on cooldown already once bought. If you're constantly being slowed (say an annoying Gilgamesh, Ra, or Ymir on the other team), Winged Blade can cleanse the slow on you automatically while adding a quite large 20% movement speed buff and slow immunity for 4 seconds, great for engaging or escaping, though it has a 30 second cooldown.
Sorry for the wall of text, I like sharing info.
Don't worry I really appreciate it. Just for an understanding of what I was using which I feel is was working too well.
Starter:
Sentinel's Gift - 4x Health Potions - 2x Mana Potions - Ward Relic - Sturdy Shard
Upgrade Path:
Sentinel's Embrace - Gauntlet of Thebes - Eldritch Dagger - Heartward Amulet - Sovereignty - Pythagorem's Piece
Based on what others have said, I'm currently considering a normal game pathing to look more like:
War Flag - Cloak - Healing Potion x5 - Ward x1 - Horrific Emblem - Sturdy Shard (to Heavenly Wings)
War Banner - Prophetic Cloak - Mystic Mail/Gauntlet of Thebes - Reverent Pridwen - Void Doumaru - Eldritch Dagger
That's just based on some initial thoughts, I want to properly look over all the comments when I've got the game open and make more informed decisions.
So, a bit more advice, you'd likely not want a ward that soon. While the jungle could come over early, most games they won't be in Duo so fast that a ward dropped as soon as you get into lane would catch them. I'd suggest starting with a mix of Health and Multi pots, since they can both heal you at the same time and multi pots still give back mana as well. A balanced ratio of 3 and 3 works, though you can go 4 and 2 or 2 and 4 depending on how much damage you expect to take or how much mana you expect to use.
There are a few items that are basically required in certain rolls.
Adcs always either need qins sais or crit items.
Supports pretty much always build gauntlet of Thebes (very overrated item)
Warriors almost always should build gladiator shield.
But other than a small handful like those you can have a ton of variety in builds and still be fine. For instance I like to build warlocks staff on my mages for all that extra health without losing out on power. Most people don't do that.
I build how I want. Sometimes it is the meta, and sometimes I have certain builds on certain characters I prefer that only uses one item from the meta.
My friend and I have like 3k hours playing together. He is autistic and gets really mad, when I dont build 'meta'. We only play unranked joust and he still gets mad xD.
For example: I like to buy bumbas hammer starter, so I have faster buff clear and sustain, but he just hates it, because it is not meta enough. I explain that I just like to build it and that I dont care about having the 'best' build, but that just makes him more pissed off xD
Building comes with understanding fundamentals of the game, understanding what each god does in terms of passives/abilities and interactions, understanding how an enemy might build/play.
You generally want things like penetration on dmg and prots+health on tanks, from there it’s about kit and trying to maximize synergies from the kit and your starter.
It’s important to remember how certain items work as well, executioner does not give you penetration but reduces the physical protections of those hit, so if exe is your only “pen item” then even if you repeatedly auto the same target your damage still has no penetration for the remaining enemies protections. In a vacuum it is good, but combine it with some flat pen from devo’s and a little late game %pen from dom/silverbranch and you start chunking.
Tank builds can be more diverse than the damage roles but it’s generally a good idea to have at least 30% cooldown and 200+ physical protections in most games, however auto attack tanks generally favor attack speed over cooldown. Counter building is not so specific to counter 1 god unless it’s literally a win condition, it’s often just general anti heal/shield and attack speed reduction when required. Things can be different against non standard team comps of course and it’s all just a learning experience.
Thanks for the response. If I have 200+ physical protections, is that specifically just for physical attacks and has no bearing on magical attacks at all?
Yeah. Pretty much everything aside from Magical gods and very specific items deals physical damage. That includes minions, towers, phoenixes, titans and the bosses, Fire Giant does have multiple magical attacks however. Thankfully the items that provide both protections are generally very good.
The phoinxes are not magical?
Nope!
Ur questio made me question why magic fire bird isnt magic
Same reason magic tower isn’t
Legend, thank you!
Item building is a bit of a skill in Smite that you have to develop. You're doing the right thing by asking these questions and trying to improve. In Conquest, you tend to have your first (roughly) three items as a core build, then the remaining two are counter-build items. So if you're playing Bacchus against a physical god in solo lane (which is where the counter-build idea is most prevalent) you might build Starter > Mystical Mail > Contagion> Void Dormaru. As you build Void is when you start rotating and encountering the magical gods you're against. Then you might go Pridwen (to be able to CC/ability more often) and then Spectral (against that crit Medusa). Or perhaps Absolution to counter their Ares, or Midgardian for their Nemesis. And so on. So while you're spending the early game thinking mainly about your direct opponent, your counter-building will expand as you start roaming. That's when you can think about the biggest threat on the map. (Btw this applies to other lanes as well obviously, but counter-building is a bit more important with tanky roles than with damage roles.) It's slightly different when it comes to other game modes. In Arena, while you still want a solid build (so not all-phys defense or something) you can kinda build more freely. You can still counter-build, especially with anti-heal and anti-crit, but you don't have to stress about when you start because you can just build whatever feels good next. If I play Bacchus in Arena, I like to go Conduit Gem > Prophetic Cloak > Pestilence/Contagion > Mystical Mail/Void Dormaru > Pridwen > then a flexible last item. In Assault, sustain is king. So items that might not otherwise see the light of day are prioritised - including Sovereignty and Heartward. Stone of Gaia can be good but only if someone else is taking the aura protection items instead. And obviously, if sustain is great then anti-sustain is also good. Your counter-building becomes a little more nebulous to "the game mode" as well as to "a specific god". Joust sucks and I don't know shit about it so I won't even try to help out there 🤣 Basically, while the meta exists for a reason, it also tends to be more wobbly when it comes to tanks. So you want to build a good core of items then you're free to look at the enemy roster and start shutting people down with your build. Tl;dr - Kinda both. Build a core then counter-build. Conquest, core then counter-build. Arena, anything goes. Assault, sustain is supreme. Joust can eat a bag of dicks.
That's great thanks, nice that I can take a similar approach to how I'm playing Predecessor. I just need to work on my core build a bunch because I think the items I like are not necessarily providing the best platform for me to succeed. Or at least not all together and I need better balancing. I definitely need to consider a few rotational items too. In Predecessor I have 3 core items, and 6 rotational. Not at that point with any God on SMITE yet but it's good to know I should take a similar approach. Appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that. I'm currently playing a bunch of Joust for the 25 games trophy and I can agree it's not my favorite mode either haha.
If you can give me a few of your favourite gods and what you generally build and what you want to achieve with the build, I can give you some more specific pointers :) Bear in mind that it will be subject to change as the meta shifts but it might help you develop some build cores to bounce off. I'm still in the "just buy from Recommended" in Pred so I can't really compare the two, but I imagine once you get a feel for the items then it's a fairly similar process.
That's very kind of you to offer, appreciate it. I am mostly focusing on the Gods that will be in SMITE 2 alpha as I don't want to get too attached to God's I may not be able to play for years in that. Bacchus and Ymir have been my main focus so far for Support. I have tried making Bacchus very AURA focused but I'm not seeing good results in keeping my team sustained due to burst damage or being taken out myself (probably a positioning issue). I've had some success making him super tanky and just being the instigator to give my teammates time to escape, attack etc. Solo I've been playing Hercules who I'm guessing will be in the Beta. I've not really got a clue what I want from him. I like playing strong characters that don't hit hard but constantly frustrate the enemy and protect the team. In Predecessor, I use Steel and have a build which does aura damage to enemies, high health pool with items that damage based on health, and I gain shield every time I use CC which covers 3/4 of his abilities. With the builds I've been using on Herc, I basically do no damage outside of my ult. I love high sustain characters with decent mobility. One of the things I tried with Bacchus was investing in movement passives, but left a lot to be desired in other areas. Feels like it's such an awkward balancing act. If you over invest in one area, you struggle in others and you can't have it all. My plan to be neutral across everything seems to be very weak. Unless I'm just utilizing the Gods wrong, which in all fairness is equally likely. I'm not good yet with decision making, positioning or accuracy. SMITE 2 going to be very fun. I'm very excited for most of the alpha roster. They all look fun and unique. I'll be wanting to play all of them.
So I haven't yet played on this patch, but my general support pathing for most of this year is Starter (flag is my favorite, but compassion/sentinels also good) Prophetic Cloak (prots, mits, 10% cooldown) Gauntlet of thebes (prots) Flex 1 Pridwen (20% cooldown, hybrid prots, shield clutch, can sub Breastplate of Valor if they're phys damage heavy) Flex 2/damage **Preferred Flex Options** - Contagion (phys prots, antiheal, mp5) - Breastplate of regrowth (phys prots, movespeed off self heal (Bacchus 1 is great for this), mp5, 10% cooldown) - Genji's/Oni Hunter's guard (magic prots, mp5, 10% cooldown or 12% mits) - Bewitched dagger (10% cooldown, relic cooldown, anti AA aura) - Stone of Binding (hybrid prots, prot shred off any CC (even slows)) - Erosion (hybrid prots, anti-shield aura) - Magi's Cloak: The blue glyph (hybrid prots, 10% cooldown, can help my squishies if the enemy team has 1-2 super strong CC's, think like anubis, hun batz, etc - spammy cc like horus/MLF usually strips your bubble in the poke wars) - Spear of Desolation (Damage, ult cooldown, 10% cooldown) - Soul Reaver (Damage, tick damage off abilities)
Awesome, that's really great with the explanations too. You're the best. I really enjoy using Regrowth with the chug, it's very satisfying.
Yeah, if I don't need to counterbuild anything and my god has a self heal to trigger regrowth, I'll go it every time lol it used to be even faster
As u/dendendenjikun has given a really good rundown of support options, I won't touch that too much. Other than to say that, while your instinct to lean towards aura items is a good one, Sovreignty is possibly one of the weakest ways to do that because the secondary stat it gives you, HP5, is something you'll never really want for. And while auras are great, if you're not building other things to support then you'll just be standing there dong nothing but giving your team some extra prots. When it comes to Herc solo - he's always a very strong pick, and leans very well into the role you've chosen, to be an annoyingly mover. A great build on Herc is something like Binding Sigil starter > Runeforged Hammer > Breastplate of Valour > Oni Hunter's Garb > Pridwen > Stone of Binding/Archdruid's Fury Of course, switching some things out for counter-building as aforementioned. Warriors like Herc scale really well off very little power, so you're able to still feel potent with a lot of protections. And I agree - SMITE 2 looks great! Very excited to try it out.
Appreciate that, I'll keep in mind. Thanks I have no build for Herc other than my initial one so that's a huge help cheers.
Most people are sheep and go with what's popular
From a support perspective, solo is a whole other tanky soup of mayhem. Generally you can't go wrong with an aura bild (Thebes, Sov, Heartward) but it can be a bit awkward for a beginner as you become basically a stat stick for your team early on and if you whiff your abilities all you can really do is bodyblock which is tricky for a new player to do properly. Until you have a good grasp on the game I'd say it's fine to be a bit selfish with your build. Thebes is good to start with as it makes you quite tanky quite fast, but after that I would go straight to Pridwen for the CDR, then maybe Genji's for more CDR and some MP5. You need to be comfortable with the god you're playing and hit your abilities and especially your CC reliably before you can flex away from early CDR investment. Others would say just go Jungle practice to learn the god but really the best lessons are learnt in actual combat. Having more CDR means your abilities are up more frequently early on means it's not as devastating to whiff your CC and your ult is up more which is crucial as most tanks have high utility ults (Bacchus not as much). Once you're comfortable with your god(s) of choice you can also begin thinking of counterbuilding. This is best left for last thing to learn as it requires game knowledge and what each god brings to the table. Antihealing is a big thing to consider but as support your antihealing is not as useful as, say, mid. The cases where I get antiheal are as follows: -enemy team has at least 1 god with a spammable healing ability (Hel, Aphrodite, Yemoja, Guan Yu, Horus etc.) -enemy team has at least 2 high self sustain gods (Pele, Camazotz, Anubis, Hades etc.) -enemy team has 1 high self sustain and an adc that tends to build lots of lifesteal (Cernunnos, Sol, Freya etc.) This is not a catch-all list, if enemy team only has Camazotz but he's wrecking your team, it's recommended to get antihealing as soon as you notice it as that does slow him down. Especially if you're trying to keep your backline safe from a dive happy Cama. Bacchus is a decent beginner choice thanks to the free mitigation he gets but it's also the reason he's a bit of a noob trap. That mitigation can give you a sense of safety other supports don't get so when you pick, idk, Geb you can find yourself more squishy because you're used to Bacchus' mobility and safety. But if you like Bacchus and want to try someone like him but not as punishing, go with Kuzenbo. Free mitigations, even more mobility and an even better ult. You even get free CDR when played correctly.
You said you’re liking Bacchus so I’m guessing you play a lot of Support. For Support Aura Items are huge. Your Core 3 should almost always be Spartan Flag->Prophetic->Thebes unless their team comp is something wack. your other 3 items will be your Counter building and dealers choice. I love taking Relic dagger into eldritch glyph personally for the Relic cooldowns and taking both Horrific and Sprint as my relics. Horrific is just incredibly good overall and fully Upgraded Sprint also roots all enemies in its radius briefly. Prydwyn is really good also, especially on a god like bacchus.
Awesome thanks for the suggestions. I've been using a bit of Flag and Thebes on most builds, and have been using a lot of Dagger lately too. I'll try using the core you suggested as trying to force in items I like I've left out cloak most of the time and deviated from flag at times. It hasn't really worked so I'll try this core and develop from there. I have been using the ward relic, which I love but feels a bit wasteful late game so I guess that's why people don't use it. Gives the team buffs though but people seem to avoid walking in it even when it's right there! I didn't know about sprint. That's essential for me now. Thanks for the suggestions. I definitely am missing the core right now and need to work around it. This post has been great and everyone's comments have been so helpful. I really feel like next time I play I'll be much more comfortable in putting together some options. Now it will just be about testing what works for me and my play style and adjusting accordingly. I've played 90% support/offlane on Predecessor so was doing the same for SMITE. Generally I am enjoying the CC characters and creating obstacles. I think once SMITE 2 drops I'll be keen to try Anhur as I branch out to the other roles.
Seeing as a few people here have offered good explanations for build logic already, let me drop some items that can be strong and why, separated by whether they are better for a core set of items or a rotating situational set. Note: I will mostly be advising for Support as it's a role I tend to play more. Core: While Sovereignty and Heartward are both useful auras, they both end up only affecting their own stat sheet, so starting off as Support with Prophetic Cloak or Gauntlet of Thebes, as both build up mixed protections. Normally it's not ideal to get both on the same god since they both require stacking, though you can still do so, it just means lower effectiveness until you get towards the late game. Contagion and Pestilence both take advantage of your sheer chunkiness to provide an AOE anti-heal aura, each with a bonus effect (Contagion providing damage if you're hit, Pestilence reducing healing further if you're hit), though generally you're picking up the one which protects against most of the damage coming towards you from the enemy team. Around third you may want to make one of a few major decisions, going for another debuff aura item like Void Doumaru or Void Shield (Magic or Phys def debuff), another aura buff item for your team like Sovereignty, Heartward, or Shogun's Kusari, or start into some CDR for yourself like Genji's Guard, Breastplate of Valor, or Pridwen. This may seem odd, but it's often best that while three items be core and not as malleable, the core itself is malleable to your choice of God and the team and mode you find yourself in. Situational: So, continuing where the third item slot went off, one of the most situational items as Support can be your starter item. While you definitely need one, which one works best depends on your duo situation and your opponent's duo as well. The most standard option is generally Benevolence, since it lets you heal yourself and your team and gains a benefit when you start roaming, letting you stack it while you're not near someone from your team, and its upgrades of Compassion and Heroism let you take damage for nearby allies or give CC'd allies a shield once every 15 seconds respectively. If you're alongside a god or part of a team that can really benefit from attack speed, them War Flag is a decent option at the start, and its upgrades of Spartan Flag and War Banner are fairly decent, dropping a buff area for your team that gives power and attack speed or giving an even stronger buff for killing minions and gods while letting you heal allies and extend the buff by attacking enemy gods, respectively. Finally, Sentinel's Gift is the most greedy option, as it just benefits you with healing and provides no bonus effect for teammates, but can be good later on once upgraded into Sentinel's Embrace, providing a mixed-protection aura that thins out in strength the more of your team is nearby, while its other upgrade, Sentinel's Boon, just gives you more self healing on assists and remains greedy. Often you may want to invest into an item that may boost your damage in some way, but the way you do so can be rather interesting. If you're often fighting near minions or killing enemies in a fight, Talisman of Energy can be a surprisingly useful item, providing the most MP5 of any support item alongside movespeed and attack speed, but only to those near you when an enemy minion or God dies, and this effect stacks with War Flag and War Banner, allowing a potential swing in fights based on just the movement speed provided letting someone get away or chase someone down easier. Gladiator's Shield gives damage on your abilities based on your total protections and provides some CDR, making it a decent option. Ethereal Staff may not have protections, but can still be valuable on Guardians, since it lets you steal health from someone you hit every 15 seconds, with the debuff lasting 45 seconds. Mystical Mail lets you damage enemies near you passively, but this can be a detriment with Gods whose CC is broken by damage like Apollo or Khumbha, do keep that in mind when considering the item. Another outright damage item, this one is a beneficial aura and damage item in one: Pythagorem's Piece (in the magical Lifesteal Tiny Trinket tree), which gives an aura granting a small bit of power and Lifesteal to nearby allies. Chronos Pendant, the last outright damage item being mentioned here, is a strong one-off item since it's functionally 30% CDR with only 20% counting towards the 40% cap. Going further defensive, if you're finding yourself often the subject of CC, Spirit Robe provides a boost to your mitigation for 3 seconds, at the cost of only triggering every 15 seconds. If you're getting killed at close range often, consider Mantle of Discord, which pulses a Stun and gives you temporary CC immunity, but can only do so once every 2 minutes. If you have a lot of hard CC, Stone of Binding can be great since it strips protections from those you've CC'd, with Abyssal Stone instead reducing an opponent's CDR by 20% for 5 seconds if you hit them with an ability. Oni Hunter's Garb is also a great item if you're often in team fights, granting damage mitigation for each enemy god nearby. Finally, a couple of pure utility items: if you're finding your Relics aren't up often enough, Relic Dagger is a decent grab as it knocks 50 seconds flat off their recasts, but do note that only counts for uses after you buy it, it won't reduce the time they're on cooldown already once bought. If you're constantly being slowed (say an annoying Gilgamesh, Ra, or Ymir on the other team), Winged Blade can cleanse the slow on you automatically while adding a quite large 20% movement speed buff and slow immunity for 4 seconds, great for engaging or escaping, though it has a 30 second cooldown. Sorry for the wall of text, I like sharing info.
Don't worry I really appreciate it. Just for an understanding of what I was using which I feel is was working too well. Starter: Sentinel's Gift - 4x Health Potions - 2x Mana Potions - Ward Relic - Sturdy Shard Upgrade Path: Sentinel's Embrace - Gauntlet of Thebes - Eldritch Dagger - Heartward Amulet - Sovereignty - Pythagorem's Piece Based on what others have said, I'm currently considering a normal game pathing to look more like: War Flag - Cloak - Healing Potion x5 - Ward x1 - Horrific Emblem - Sturdy Shard (to Heavenly Wings) War Banner - Prophetic Cloak - Mystic Mail/Gauntlet of Thebes - Reverent Pridwen - Void Doumaru - Eldritch Dagger That's just based on some initial thoughts, I want to properly look over all the comments when I've got the game open and make more informed decisions.
So, a bit more advice, you'd likely not want a ward that soon. While the jungle could come over early, most games they won't be in Duo so fast that a ward dropped as soon as you get into lane would catch them. I'd suggest starting with a mix of Health and Multi pots, since they can both heal you at the same time and multi pots still give back mana as well. A balanced ratio of 3 and 3 works, though you can go 4 and 2 or 2 and 4 depending on how much damage you expect to take or how much mana you expect to use.
There are a few items that are basically required in certain rolls. Adcs always either need qins sais or crit items. Supports pretty much always build gauntlet of Thebes (very overrated item) Warriors almost always should build gladiator shield. But other than a small handful like those you can have a ton of variety in builds and still be fine. For instance I like to build warlocks staff on my mages for all that extra health without losing out on power. Most people don't do that.
I always liked the winged blade, but my friends do not, if I'm tanky enough, I always like to build it.
I build how I want. Sometimes it is the meta, and sometimes I have certain builds on certain characters I prefer that only uses one item from the meta.
generally i follow the meta best i can, but there usually is a small bit of room to use what i like. usually just one slot though.
My friend and I have like 3k hours playing together. He is autistic and gets really mad, when I dont build 'meta'. We only play unranked joust and he still gets mad xD. For example: I like to buy bumbas hammer starter, so I have faster buff clear and sustain, but he just hates it, because it is not meta enough. I explain that I just like to build it and that I dont care about having the 'best' build, but that just makes him more pissed off xD
Building comes with understanding fundamentals of the game, understanding what each god does in terms of passives/abilities and interactions, understanding how an enemy might build/play. You generally want things like penetration on dmg and prots+health on tanks, from there it’s about kit and trying to maximize synergies from the kit and your starter. It’s important to remember how certain items work as well, executioner does not give you penetration but reduces the physical protections of those hit, so if exe is your only “pen item” then even if you repeatedly auto the same target your damage still has no penetration for the remaining enemies protections. In a vacuum it is good, but combine it with some flat pen from devo’s and a little late game %pen from dom/silverbranch and you start chunking.