In Smite, Hunters are traditionally played in the long lane with a burst or control Mage in the middle lane. However, Hunters can also be played in the mid lane. This has been a strategy since 2012, but occurrences of a Hunter in mid were few and far between. Lately, in the competitive scene especially, there has been a large spike in a mid lane Hunters. This article will show the types of compositions Hunter mids excel in, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of running a Hunter in the mid lane.

Why put a Hunter in the mid lane?

A very important consideration when building a team composition is the damage profile. You do not want your damage to be entirely physical or magical, but instead a mixture. In general, a team that has 3 of one damage type and 2 of the other is preferred, but there are situations where a 4/1 mixture is acceptable. Having too much of one damage type means your opponent can build defensive items for just that school and be nearly unkillable. A team’s damage profile has to be looked at when putting a Hunter in the mid lane.

When a Hunter is played in the carry position, they spend a portion of the game laning with a support. In the mid position, Hunters have the jungler to babysit them, as the jungler typically starts hanging around the mid lane very early into the game. Other times, a Hunter like Neith can be lane dominant enough that they don’t need to be handheld.

Hunters have some advantages when placed in the mid lane. Many have lane clear on par with, if not just better than, most Mages and have much greater basic attack damage, and so will out box a Mage in a 1v1. Hunters scale very well into the late game and, as a class, have the strongest late game. Lastly, Hunters are the best class in the game at destroying towers and phoenixes.

There are reasons that you do not want to run a Hunter middle in every game. The first goes back to damage profile. You have to be careful not to overload your team with physical damage. Also, the mid position splits more waves than the side lanes and so will be lower level heading into the late game. In addition, compositions that run mid lane Hunters can struggle with objective secure because they lack big Mage ultimates like Spirit of the Nine Winds and Circle of Protection that can execute a Gold Fury or Fire Giant.

Magical Carries

In the time since Golden Bow was removed from the game, in-hand based Mages stormed back to the duo lane. They include the likes of Sol, Chronos, and Freya. Sol and Chronos can flex between mid and carry, but Freya is almost exclusively played in the hunter role. Freya is a very strong magical threat, so a team might have too much magical damage with a Freya in the duo lane and a mid lane Mage. In that case, a Hunter could be played in mid to diversify the damage of the team.

Magical carries are rather poor at clearing objectives. Mages cannot solo a Gold Fury, so a team that runs a Hunter mid has the ability to sneak a Gold Fury that a double Mage composition could not kill. Freya is also really bad at killing towers, so a double Mage lineup with her has very little tower pressure and will have a harder time diving structures than one with a Hunter in the mid lane.

Double Hunters

Sometimes you want to run two Hunters in a team composition. You have one in the duo lane and one in the mid lane. In order to have a balanced damage profile, your magic threat from the mid lane has to move to the jungle or solo position.

Ao Kuang is currently one of the strongest junglers in Smite. In addition to his strong personal performance, running Ao Kuang unlocks a double Hunter composition for his team. Ao is rather weak early, so is best paired with a strong early Hunter such as Neith to get into the mid game in a good state. Double Hunter can also be run with a magical solo laner. Having a Guardian solo allows you to play a Hunter in both the duo and mid lanes while also provided crowd control to lock down targets for the Hunters.

There are advantages to having two Hunters on a team. A single Hunter provides a lot of tower pressure and a second Hunter provides just as much. Structures just melt when confronted with physical basic attacks. Also, either Hunter could dip into the jungle and solo Gold Fury, so the other team was to be more watchful. In the late game, Hunters have incredible single-target damage so two can destroy a single tank or tear through a team’s squishy targets.

Hunter Options

Anhur is a strong Hunter to play in the mid lane. He has amazing early clear and very high kill potential. Anhur is designed to win boxing matches with other Hunters and just wins versus Mages while his Pillar and Impale abilities facilitate jungle ganks.

Chiron mid is a favorite of NRG midlaner Yammyn. He has built-in sustain, good clear, and a deadly level 2 power spike. In addition, Mages have low health, so Chiron can more easily proc a revive from killing his lane opposition during his ultimate.

Medusa is another Hunter that Yammyn likes to bring to the mid lane. She has strong clear and enough burst to kill a Mage with a rotation of spells. Her ultimate, Petrify, sets up for, and capitalizes off of, her jungler’s interference in the lane.

Neith has been a staple mid selection since the Summer of 2015. She is yet another Hunter with amazing early clear. Her global ultimate allows Neith to assist a jungler ganking either of the side lanes. Neith mid is often paired with Ao Kuang in the jungle because she can lower the kill threshold on enemies anywhere on the map for Ao to execute.

Rama is unique in this list in that he does not have a strong early game. Rama can full clear a wave at level 1 with his Astral Arrows, but puts himself in danger doing so. He is best paired with an early game jungler or the jungle-mid duo will fall behind. Rama’s weak early game is made up for by a very strong late game, where he can combine with a duo lane Freya to wreak havoc on the enemy team.

Ullr is another classic mid pick. He has strong clear and very high burst damage. Ullr’s opponents have to play carefully or else they will die to a couple combos. He is a very skill intensive god, but is very deadly when played well.

The Hunter class has been taking the mid lane by storm in Smite. They are very strong and will generally win lane against a Mage, but you have to adjust the team composition and damage profile to fit one in mid. Hunters are best paired with either a magical carry in the duo lane or a magical jungler. Hunters being played in mid have been shown to have great success and do not appear to be slowing down.

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