With the Smite World Championship around the corner, there are going to be players looking to elevate their performance. This is a guide focused around improving the god selection phase in Smite. Casual games can consist of 10 players just selecting a god they like, but sometimes players or groups want to improve and knowing how to create a good team composition is a step in the right direction.

Thor is a versatile god that can fit into most team comps.

Look at the Meta

This does not mean blindly follow the meta, but instead think about why the pros pick the gods and compositions that they do. Sometimes characters are selected because they are just overpowered and worth picking almost every time. More commonly though, thought goes into picking the gods.

Most of the gods that see frequent play in the SPL and other professional play are solid picks and can be picked up at any time. Thor is a great example because he is well-rounded and can succeed in most team compositions, allowing for flexibility in the rest of the draft. Other gods may only be selected into certain matchups or to take away from a specific player. This is not possible in casuals due to its blind-pick nature, so use some caution when selecting such a character. One example is Ares. Ares can be a powerful god, but if he gets behind, he becomes nearly useless and enemy gods can take advantage of him, killing the Ares before his ultimate goes off. You can pick a god that isn’t at the top of the meta, but realize why they are they are considered a poor pick and use the rest of the draft to shore up weaknesses created by the pick.

Plan Around Pocket Picks

Often a player will have a god that they are really good at but that is not considered meta. They can still pick the god, but the rest of the team has to adjust the team comp around the pocket pick. An example is a squishy support such as Aphrodite. With an Aphrodite support, often the jungler should pick a tanky character such as a Guardian or Warrior to provide the frontline, beef, and crowd control missing from the support role. Any faults created by a sharp deviation from the meta should be made up for somewhere else in the composition. This rule also hold true if a person just wants to play a janky pick, the rest of the team should slightly adjust to compensate. Occasionally, a weird pick will fit into its role and team dynamic, allowing the rest of the team to stay on course.

Damage Profile

The damage profile of a team composition is the relative amount of physical and magical damage it contains. A good damage profile consists of two or three sources of each type of damage. When playing a team with one of each class, each in their “natural role,” this is not a problem. However, the damage profile should be checked when creating a composition that bends this class dynamic. The damage profile is important because having too much of one damage type and not enough of the other allows the enemy to itemize against your primary damage type and not have to worry about the neglected form.

Generally, having a magical god in a typically physical role, such as a Mage in the hunter position, is not a problem, because it leaves the damage profile as a 3-2, just favoring magic damage instead of physical. However, the reverse is not also true. Playing a Hunter in the mid role without further adjustments leads to a 4-1 damage profile, with just the support providing magic damage. This can be corrected by putting a magical damage source in a different position, such as a magical jungler or solo laner. Gods of either damage type can be played in any role, but compositions with a balanced damage profile tend to be superior.

There are reasons to play a 4-1 damage profile. Playing a four physical composition can put your Mage in the hard carry position, as the enemy team is less likely to build defense against them, focusing on the four sources of physical damage. Also, compositions with high defense reduction can be run in a 4-1 configuration. Combining Guan Yu and Ratatoskr, for example, can shred enough defense for your comp to be useful.

Ao Kuang is a magical jungler and can be played to adjust the damage profile of a team

Early and Late Game

In addition to a balanced damage profile, a team composition should have a balance between the early and late game. Where the balance point is depends on the goal of the team creating the composition. In general, a lineup can be early game focused, late game focused, or balanced.

Some game plans revolve around winning the game early, killing the titan or snowballing heavily enough before the other team’s characters come online. An all-in early game lineup will have all three lanes pushing and be invading the enemy jungle at every opportunity. The goal is to out pressure your opponent and starve them of resources so even if the game goes a bit late, you will win the fights off of the early lead you built up. If an early game comp gets behind, they will probably just lose. Gods such as Fenrir, Ravana, and Ares fit this type of composition.

A late game focused team composition, on the other hand, is okay with sacrificing some early pressure because it contains gods that excel in late game scenarios because they have high scaling abilities and kits suited for team fights. As long as these comps can weather the storm and come into the mid game not at a massive deficit, they should be able to roll over enemies in fights. The danger of running a late game team is getting far behind or just losing before your characters become strong. Gods like Nemesis, Freya, and Geb work well in a late game setup.

In most situations, a composition balanced between the late and early game is preferred. You can run early game characters to get a lead or stall for the late game gods to come online. Having elements of both extremes as well as mid game characters and gods that work at every point of the game allows a team the ability to go even or win at any stage of the game.

Athena is a god that is great at any stage of the game.

When trying to build a team composition to theorycraft or even just to fill one out in a casual game, there are factors to consider. You should think about the meta and why the gods are played. You can include pocket or off-meta picks as long as the team is balanced around it. The most important factors are balancing the physical and magical damage of the team and figuring out how early or late you want to focus the draft. Once you know these rules, you can use them to create a better team composition and increase your chances of winning a game in Smite.

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