When loading up a game of Conquest, it’s tempting to let the laning phase play itself; clear minion waves mindlessly, sit under tower, throw out some halfhearted harassment and taunt spam at your laning opponent. It’s much easier and less concentration-intensive to play this way, but it’s also a detriment to your team, and to your own chances of winning. Even if you’re not playing a laning-focused god, an awareness of the state of your lane will make you a better player and bring you out of the laning phase in a better position.

Clearing a Minion Wave

The vast majority of gods in Smite have some ability that’s designed to help them kill or clear minion waves: Bellona’s Bludgeon, Isis’ Wing Gust, Apollo’s So Beautiful, to name a few. While these abilities can also function as easy-to-confirm damage on an enemy god, their primary purpose early in the game is to kill enemy minions as fast and as efficiently as possible. Maximizing your use of these abilities, and understanding their quirks, is key to success as a Mid, ADC, or Solo laner in Smite.

As an example, take the mid-lane matchup of Janus versus Scylla. Scylla’s primary clear tool will be her 2, Crush. The simplest way to clear wave would be to throw it down and immediately detonate it, then finish off the minion waves with basic attacks. It’s also worth considering, however, that to clear most efficiently with Unstable Portal, Janus needs to position himself within his own minion wave. In some cases, it might be worth holding the detonation of Crush to push Janus farther back or to force him to take extra damage from Crush while he attempts to clear. This scenario is hardly an absolute, but it illustrates its point effectively: Never fall into the mental pattern of “just clearing the wave”. Even if a simple wave clear and disengage is what you end up deciding on, always look for a way to get the most out of your wave clear abilities.

Free Waves

The simple act of killing minions is of course necessary for Gold and XP, and to keep your opponent from freely damaging your tower. There are additional reasons, however, why the speed of those minion kills matters. If you concentrate your attacks on the enemy god or have weaker clear than your lane opponent, that player will end up with a group of one to six minions moving down the lane towards you, unopposed by any of your own minions. This is what I’ll refer to as a “free wave”, and it’s significant for several reasons. If you attack an enemy god, you will be targeted by (or draw aggro from) their minions. If you have a wave of your own nearby, when the opponent strikes back they will, in turn, be targeted by your wave. If they have a free wave, however, they’re getting a damage boost that you have no equivalent to. This extra damage from melee and archer minions can easily swing a fight, especially in the early game when protections are low and minion damage is relatively high.

In addition, even if you avoid engaging with your opponent when your opponent has a free wave, you must then put yourself in an awkward position to clear that wave, if you want to avoid taking tower damage and losing gold. Consider Guan Yu; his clear requires either standing in melee range of a wave with Taolu Assault, or actually dashing through it with Warrior’s Will. This positioning allows the opposing laner to hit basic attacks or abilities with ease, and potentially go for a kill. This means that most of the time, clearing enemy waves quickly (and protecting your own wave, if possible) is usually the correct move, to avoid having to back more frequently or even dying.

Poke

So far, we’ve been mostly focusing on the importance of clearing minion waves quickly, especially if you’re a character that struggles with this aspect of the game, and the consequences that go along with clearing slowly or not at all. It’s just as likely, however, that you’ll be in the opposite situation, where your clear is better than your opponent’s. In this case, it’s up to you to make the most of your advantage.

One of the best ways is to deal incremental damage to your opponent from a safe position. This kind of damage is known as poke; it’s not intended to kill, and is relatively safe for the poker, but can gradually whittle down an opponent’s health bar and put them in kill range. When you have a free wave on your side, take the opportunity to harass your opponent and poke them as much as possible. A perfect example can be found in a solo laner like Chaac: Chaac can clear wave quickly with his 1, and then use his 3 to stick to an opponent and whittle them down, all while regenerating his own health. In addition, his 1 is on a short enough cooldown that it can be used to damage an opponent hiding inside tower range in between waves. This ability to clear wave and poke means that even though Chaac doesn’t have significant burst damage, he is often able to secure kills in the laning phase by grinding down his opponents and then diving under tower with Storm Call to take down an injured foe.

Cleared waves also allow you to rotate more often and more quickly than others. To use our previous example, instead of poking down his opponent, Chaac could instead move off into the jungle to help his team secure mid camps or fire elementals, or even rotate to midlane and set up a kill. The intricacies of rotation are a little bit too complicated to go into detail here, but when you have a lane advantage, consider the entire map as you make your decisions.

Recap

So, to recap, clearing the wave should usually be your primary focus during the laning phase, as well as maximizing the efficiency of that clear to gain pressure and an upper hand. If the advantage is yours, increase the pressure on your opponent by engaging them along with your free wave or poking them while they attempt to clear, or rotating if you have the time. If you are at a disadvantage, clear as quickly as possible, don’t engage and keep an eye on your opponent and any attempts they might make to attack you or rotate. Happy Smiting!

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