With Season 5 drawing to a close, we can look back at the Smite World Championship for ideas and inspirations to bring to our own games. One lesson learned from Worlds is the strength of aggressive Warriors and Assassins in the support role. Gods such as Odin, Erlang Shen, and Fenrir were highly valued supports that dominated the tournament meta. These gods could be played because they fit into compositions and opened up new strategies. In this article, we will examine the role and play styles of the aggressive supports from Worlds.

At the Smite World Championship, physical supports became all the rage. Aggressive supports are picked because they can get early kills and start to snowball a game. Physical supports can deal high damage as early as level one, so they are great to play in a meta that favors pressure in the duo lane. The following supports all have pressure in lane and strong brawling potential in the first couple levels of the game. They possess crowd control or movement abilities to engage fights. In addition, they transition well into the late game and are all around great selections in the support role.

Odin is the first physical support we will discuss. Odin’s play rate shot up in the middle of the Fall Split once it became apparent how strong he was. The bird bomb combo has always done insane damage early, but his damage falls off in the late game. The cage is what makes Odin really shine. Ring of Spears shuts down the strongest meta junglers including Mercury, Erlang Shen, and Pele. In addition, it traps healers and most Mages.

Odin’s ultimate seems to be countered by the Phantom Veil Relic, but Ring of Spears has a much lower cooldown and a good Odin will find time to use their ultimate while Phantom Veil is still on cooldown. Odin can also feign aggression by dropping the ring on a prime target just to force a Phantom and then engage a real fight shortly after. Odin becomes an ult bot late game but limiting the enemy’s movement options is a great way to secure follow up and rack up kills. While a seemingly simple god, Odin can flatten enemies early game and transitions into an trapper and enabler as the game goes late.

Ring of Spears is a great ability throughout the game.

Erlang Shen is another great Warrior support. When the placement round of worlds started, Erlang Shen was often played as a support, but he had transitioned primarily into a jungler by the time the tournament progressed to the Hi-Rez Expo stage. This character was so oppressive at Worlds and in normal games that he has been nerfed a few times since, but remains powerful in three roles, including support.

In the support role, Erlang Shen provides insane lane pressure with his cleave autos and his kill potential on enemy gods. In the jungle, Erlang Shen commonly kills the mid laner at level two, even under their tower. In the duo lane, he can do much the same. Using his mink transformation, Erlang Shen gains the haste effect and can just hold W to kill someone. Erlang Shen has kill potential as early as level one and gets stronger when he has his full suite of abilities. If Erlang Shen can find the opportunity to run down a target, he has several ways to lock someone down and kill them. In the support role, Erlang is a great candidate for a more selfish and brusiery build because he can just take over a game.

Erlang Shen brings more utility than most warriors, so he can transition to the late game and team fight just fine. His turtle knock up, Pin, and taunt can be used to isolate a single player or control the entire enemy team. Erlang Shen and Bobo retain relatively high damage even when built as a tank in the late game, so The Illustrious Sage doesn't fall off as hard as other physical supports.

Although primarily a jungler, Erlang Shen is still a strong support.

Fenrir was the surprise pick of Worlds. He was discovered in the scrim meta before the placement rounds and became a popular pick while achieving a 70% win rate at that stage of the tournament. At worlds, Fenrir was mostly played as a support and is the best Assassin to run in the support role. Fenrir received a major buff before Worlds. In addition to his personal kills granting a full passive, assists grant Fenrir three Unbound Runes. This means that Fenrir finds an easier time chaining beefed up skills in teamfights. Even in the support role, Fenrir can run over an enemy in the early game and transitions into a tank that seeks picks. Unchained and Ragnarok are spells that give Fenrir great power in the support role.

Unchained is the ability Fenrir starts the game leveling. This jump is one of Fenrir’s ways of initiating and does good damage. When used with full runes, Unchained will stun all targets hit. Hitting an enemy god will half the cooldown of this ability, making it easy to get multiple stuns off in a fight. Ranged stuns are powerful tools and Fenrir can use his to disable a target and get in the middle of the enemy team.

Ragnarok is Fenrir’s ultimate ability. It allows him to pick up a single target and drag them to another location. If a Fenrir lane successfully has pressure, Fenrir should hit level five first and be able to ult the enemy support before they have their own ultimate. This should result in a kill and a lane that is snowballing even harder. Fenrir can also use Ragnarok to force Purification Beads so his team can control and kill that target later. Fenrir support becomes a bit of a ult bot in the late game, but he can be tanky enough to jump into the enemy team and pick up either the support or a god whose Beads are down and bring them into his team’s damage. This should result in a kill every time if coordinated correctly.

Fenrir support was a premier pick at worlds.

Other Assassins and Warriors are viable in the support role. Ne Zha saw occasional use at Worlds. He brings high pressure and kill potential in the early game and great single-target pick potential into the mid game. His ultimate banishes himself in addition to his target, so he may not have the teamfight impact as other supports, especially when he is under leveled and built tanky. Assassins and Warriors have seen sporadic play in the support role throughout the years, but they usually aren’t as meta as they were during Worlds.

Guardians and Mages are popular picks in the solo lane. This allows physical gods to fit into the support role without the team’s damage profile being unbalanced. Team compositions with four physical gods can work, and were popular in North America last year, but rely on high levels of planning and execution to work.

Guardians such as Terra being popular in the solo lane allows physical supports to shine.

Physical supports provide a lot of pressure in lane. These gods are often played in the jungle due to their high damage and clear speed. They bring these attributes to the support role with the intention of outclearing the enemy and either killing them or stripping their jungle. Most physical supports can outbox a Hunter in the first couple levels of the game, playing similarly to a jungler when they dive in. If played correctly, Warrior and Assassin supports bring enough pressure to run down the enemy within the first couple minion waves.

In the mid to late game, physical supports can adopt a pick-oriented play style. They can gank a lane or roam the jungle with their team to catch out an unsuspecting player. Gods like Fenrir and Ne Zha have kits designed to punish a single player for being out of position. Erlang and Odin can use their abilities to focus an individual and then pressure the rest of the map.

In general, Warriors and Assassins are better at picks and skirmishes than full blown teamfights. Fenrir is a good example of this, as he can only grab one opponent with Ragnarok and his Unchained is usually targeted at an individual. However, Odin and Erlang Shen can utilize their kits to control multiple enemies in an engagement. Sometimes, using an ultimate to get a pick leads directly to a 5v4 team fight where the numbers advantaged team wins even without the best teamfighting support.

In the support role, Warriors can build similarly to Guardians and achieve similar bulk. Defensive items whose passive auras or effects provide additional mitigations are the core of support builds. Physical supports lose access to hybrid items such as Stone of Binding and Void Stone but get their own bruiser options with items like Void Shield and Ancile.

Assassins are naturally squishier than Warriors, but have access to Lono’s Mask, an item that allows them to trade 20% of the damage they do for 20% damage reduction and a bunch of protections. Even though Assassin supports such as Fenrir have high damage in the early game, their damage falls off, so they buy Lono’s Mask to become tankier and use their abilities to support their team.

Lono’s Masks allows Assassins to be very durable.

Horrific Emblem was a popular starting Relic on supports at Worlds. On activation, Horrific Emblem slows nearby enemies and reduces their attack speed. Once upgraded, enemies afflicted by the relic will deal 20% less damage. Horrific Emblem can be used aggressively in the first couple waves of the duo lane. Supports can pop Horrific and then dive onto their target of choice. Using the Relic means the enemies have less opportunity to counterattack. A kill is, of course, the best outcome, but forcing Relic usages or backs as early as level one can greatly snowball a lane.

Horrific Emblem can also be used defensively. When the support or duo lane gets engaged on, a great Horrific Emblem can slow down the initiating team enough to escape or even turn the fight around. When both supports have Horrific Emblem, one can use it to scare the opponent into using their Relic. This means that the first team does not have to fear the Relic being used against them. The upgraded Horrific Emblem is very strong in teamfights. It can be used aggressively or defensively to greatly reduce the damage the enemies can output.

Horrific Emblem is one of the best support Relics.

Physical supports dominated the Season 5 Smite World Championship. Supports such as Odin, Erlang Shen, and Fenrir are aggressive gods that possess high early damage and can snowball a lane. Each character has a way to control enemies and secure picks for their team. Magical solo laners allow the support position to have physical gods without disrupting a team’s damage composition. Lono’s Mask allows Assassins to be just as tanky as the Warriors and Horrific Emblem gives supports teamfighting power throughout the game. Physical supports have been played throughout Smite history, but the most recent Smite World Championship saw a drastic increase in their play rate, demonstrating just how strong these characters can be.

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