Welcome back students! This time around, we will be looking at how to play the Hunter role, often referred to as ADC.

If you missed the first introduction to the map itself, you can find that here. Also bear in mind that this guide is relevant to the 2.20 Patch, so up to the end of season two. When season three details are brought about, updated guides will be linked here.

Now, for the role itself. Your goal as Hunter is to farm lots of experience and gold so that you can build as many damaging items as possible, with the ultimate aim of doing as much damage as possible late-game and being a ‘carry’ for your team. The ADC will find themselves in the Long Lane (or the lane with the longest distance between the tier one towers) with a Support player.

God Choices

The starter God for the Hunter role is Neith – and she is an excellent pick while you are just getting started. Going through all of her uses and abilities would be too much for one guide unfortunately, so get used to her in Arena or in practice modes. None of the hunters themselves are hugely challenging, so be sure to try any you like – but be aware all of them behave differently and require different styles of play, so having a good understanding of a God’s kit before going into Conquest is absolutely the way to go. I would also warn you away from Ullr while learning the role, as there are many nuances in his kit and tough skill shots that should really only be learnt when you are comfortable with the role. There are plenty of tier lists available out there if you want to know the best hunters, but beware as it can often depend on player preference.

Item builds vary from hunter to hunter, and the best and most up to date builds can be found at smitejunkies.com if you are inclined to learn. Hunter builds are very unique in SMITE compared to other roles, as the highest damaging builds can, and have been, calculated - so all the hunters stick to the same template. The auto-buy builds are fine and do the job decently enough, but I would recommend sticking to what the math-guys come up with.

Starting the Game

Now that you have your God selected, it is important you find yourself starting in the right place. Getting a good start is vital to maximise the gold and experience gained for everyone, as well as reducing time to get to lane. Remember, the faster you clear the camps, the faster you get to lane. If you delay, the minions will start to die while you are out of range of gaining experience and gold. One or two minions are only minor, but maximising your farm is vital to being a successful hunter.

You, your lane buddy, and the mid laner will start together at the damage camp. Drop this as quickly as possible, and make your way over to the attack speed camp with the support. Speed is essential, so use your chosen ability to clear the camps. You then pick up the buff, and make your way into lane. The only possible variation here is whether your support is Sylvanus. If it is, let him take the first purple buff as his early clear with it is really strong. If not, pick it up, and follow the blue line into lane.

Wave Clear and push

Different support and hunter combinations have different abilities to clear minion waves. Whether you have Gods with good push or not, as you make your way into lane, you should be aiming to clear the wave first. If you clear the wave first, your enemies will be pushed back by the lane minions, and will take poke if they do not retreat from the wave fast enough. Minions at the early levels can really do some serious damage, so if you can put your lane opponents in this compromising position you should. Fighting at this stage is dangerous, and fighting into minions is definitely not a good idea – patience is key here. If a kill can happen, go for it, but be mindful of going too deep at this early stage. Equally, if there aren’t any minions to kill or there is a lack of things to do, unless you are confident in winning a 1v1 it is normally best to just be patient, safe, and wait for the next wave to arrive. Be mindful of when your purple buff respawns, and be sure to get it promptly. This is normally the point where the support will leave lane and roam the map more, and you’ll find yourself alone with the enemy hunter.

Whoever has lane pressure should be established fairly early on. If you are pushed high up to their tower, feel free to get chunks of damage into the tower, but be careful of possible ganks and rotations. If you can’t see where the enemy jungler and mid laner are on the map, pushing high up to the enemy tower is dangerous, as the walk back to the safety of your own tower is surprisingly long. To counter act this, your teammates should be giving missing calls, and be aware of these and react accordingly. Also, both you and your support are equally responsible for warding the lane. A separate guide for warding is coming up soon, and when it is uploaded it will be linked here.

Fighting Gold Fury and Rotating

There will come a point in the game where you will need to leave the relative safety of your tower and ‘rotate’ (move) to fights. With Gods such as Neith and Apollo, they can provide support for team fights with their ultimates, and you should utilise this if you are one of the above, but making sure you are at fights is essential for winning the game.

There is no set time at which you should be rotating, it comes down to feel. If you can make it to a fight and help your team win it, this can allow for your team to take objectives. Of course, if you don’t rotate and your opposing hunter does, it is a good opportunity to take towers and gain push in the long lane. Staying in lane is advisable if your team is winning fights comfortably, if you can keep your lane opponent in lane while their team dies then that is fine. Be mindful though, if you don’t rotate, your team is missing another source of damage that can turn the tide of fights. If you find that your team is losing fights, a lot of deciding to rotate comes down to specific scenarios. If you are behind, or feel like you cannot impact fights positively, it is often worth staying in lane and gaining pressure in lane. Again, it comes down to how you feel.

As the Gold Fury is on your side of the map, a lot of the responsibility of vision around the GF revolves around you. If your team is winning fights and can clear Gold early, it is always worth taking. If your team is elsewhere and you do not have ward vision of Gold, it is recommended to check Gold pretty regularly to see if the enemy team is trying to sneak it away.

Late Game

It will come to the point where you are farmed, have lots of items online, and you are hitting the point where you are out-damaging everyone on the map. By the 25 minute mark, you should be sticking together as a team, largely. You are the highest source of damage for your team, and your presence at fights is absolutely necessary. You can shred objectives quickest, and (depending on how good you are at hitting abilities and auto attacks) you can kill enemy squishies very quickly.

If you are unsure about what to be doing late, it depends on the state of the game and changes almost every time. Rely on your team, if they want to fight over Fire Giant – be receptive and help them. Emphasis on staying in lane is minimal at this point, so look to be helping your team. Late game can be very topsy-turvy, and the main way you will improve is just through practice. The more scenarios you have been in, the better you will react each time.

If there is anything else about the role you would like to know about, be sure to let me know and I’ll clarify as much as I can for you. The best way to improve is to practice, and enjoy. Watch streamers, see how they behave, and try and incorporate that into your own game.

Next up will be a guide on what actives to buy in what roles and for what Gods, and the rest of the role guides will follow shortly after. So go out there and do some left-clicking!

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!