In SMITE, many characters excel at “boxing,” a term given to 1-on-1 battles, often to the death. Boxing is one of the most thrilling experiences in the game, but also one of the most mechanically and mentally challenging. For the most part, hunters and assassins are usually the classes which will box frequently, but it’s not impossible for warriors and mages to do it as well. Without any further ado, here are several tricks to learn how to box more effectively.

AIM SHOTS CAREFULLY

Hunters and assassins typically have very fast attack speed, and this leads many players to mash the auto-attack button in order to get the most shots out as possible. However, as any pro player, including Team Dignitas’s own Aiman “YOUNGBAE” Azmir, can tell you, it is often more effective to aim each shot individually (although obviously doing so as fast as possible is preferable). By doing so, you are more likely to hit more autos, and therefore do more damage; no amount of misses are as good as one successful hit. When the enemy successfully jukes you, they will be one step ahead of your autos until you stop and take a moment to predict or reposition. Especially if they are hitting back, pausing just long enough for your movement penalty to wear off can give you an edge against an enemy firing randomly, and when boxing, it often comes down to one hit to determine the victor.

This is also true for melee characters, if not more so. Without some source of penalty reduction (e.g. Greater Sprint, Hastened Fatalis) or slow (e.g. Frostbound Hammer, abilities), every time you attack, your opponent has the opportunity to pull further away from you. If they have a range advantage on you, they can simply refrain from attacking and step away before trying to fight back. This is much harder to do, however, if you pause between attacks to ensure that each connects. As soon as one hit misses because the enemy steps out of range, stop attacking and catch up however possible.

The active Greater Sprint temporarily gives you great boxing potential.

It sounds simple enough, but it is very mechanically challenging to do it at full speed. Only with practice can you individually aim every shot while still pumping out as many in-hands as possible with your attack speed. With practice, your accuracy will improve, and knowing when to pause and re-align will become natural.

USE YOUR SURROUNDINGS

This seems like common sense, but is used by surprisingly few people outside of high level play. Just because a fight is 1v1 doesn’t mean you shouldn't actively look for other sources of damage to pile onto your enemy. Assuming you are in lane, one of the benefits of clearing the enemy’s minions quickly is that you can then use your own minions to your advantage in a fight. In addition to doing significant damage in the first several minutes of the game, minions will block shots for you if you position correctly. Proper use of minions can keep you alive for several seconds, even when you are a hit away from death.

Even when you aren’t in lane, there are plenty of neutral monsters that will attack whichever side triggers them. Many high-level players will run into a jungle camp, such as the purple buff, and stand behind the creeps. Here the enemy won’t be able to hit you directly, and any AOE will draw aggro from the jungle monsters. As long as you don’t hit the monsters yourself, you’ve just gained some valuable allies.

Who would've guessed these guys might just save your life?

Turrets are massive sources of damage throughout the mid-game, and thus drawing an enemy into range is one of the best ways to turn the tides in your favor, especially if you are able to use the turret itself to block shots for you. What’s more, unless you have agreed to gentlemanly combat, delaying your enemy and baiting them towards your own allies will often be fruitful. Many fights that look as if they are going in the enemy’s favor quickly turn the other way when they round a bend and find themselves up against a new challenger.

Keep in mind that most of these tactics work best when you are very low on health. If you try to hide behind jungle minions or flee to a tower while healthy, your enemy will probably give up and leave. When you do this while in the red, though, there is a significant chance- at all levels of play- that your opponent will get greedy. Turning your enemy’s greed against them by leading them into traps of any sort is one of the most reliable ways to come-back from a major health deficit. On the other hand, keep an eye out for adversaries trying these tricks on you, and don’t be afraid to know when to quit the chase.

When you do have to run away from a fight, make sure you are juking from side to side rather than running in a straight path, especially against ranged enemies. Whenever you turn a corner, you temporarily are not juking; to keep this vulnerable period as brief as possible, hug the wall tightly so that your enemy can’t establish a line of sight until they too round the corner. Little things make all the difference.

MANAGE YOUR ABILITIES WISELY

There aren’t too many abilities in the game that can be used with impunity. Even aside from mana cost, most abilities have cooldowns greater than five seconds, and those five seconds might be your last. As such, while boxing- and in general- you should ration your abilities carefully. That sounds straightforward enough, but there is more to it than that.

For one, hold on to your crowd control. If you have a CC ability, you need to guarantee both that you can hit it and that you can capitalize off of it. Stunning at the beginning of the fight is all well and good, but it is more efficient to save it for the end, either to stop your enemy from fleeing, to give yourself a chance to escape, or to make certain that you hit that last auto-attack. Similarly, mobility should be saved for the end of fights. Why jump into a fight when you can walk up just as easily? Jumps should be saved for when one of the two fighters wants to back out.

This is even more true if the enemy has a steroid or a channeled attack. Most steroids last a limited duration rather than a set number of attacks, so stunning, displacing, or leaping, right after they use that ability can minimize its impact. Consider a character like Artemis; while her Vengeful Assault (2) lasts five seconds at max rank, it is more likely to be only rank 1 or 2 during the early and mid game when most boxing matches take place. Assuming rank 2, the steroid lasts 3.5 seconds, and so if you stun for just one second she will lose almost a third of her attacks, and that’s assuming you don’t reposition to a range where her shots are harder to hit. A couple other examples of gods with powerful boxing steroids are Bakasura and Freya, among many others.

The necessity of stunning enemies out of their abilities is even more important for enemies with a channeled ability. The prime example is Thor. He is a dominant early game fighter in large part because his Berserker Barrage’s (3) can do 100/200/300/400/500 (+225% of his physical power) damage. Although it won’t usually be maxed first, even rank 1 and 2 do enough do enough to out-damage most enemies. However, the damage is split up into ticks, so if you manage to stun and/or leap (note: he is immune to knockback during the channel) away after the first tick, the damage will be split into fifths. Since stunning cancels channels for good, unlike steroids, you don’t even have to worry about when the stun ends. Other gods with channeled abilities include Guan Yu, Anubis, Cabrakan, and more.

In general, use your CC (including slows) to set up other damaging abilities. For example, Ullr’s damage output is very much reliant on his spell accuracy, so if he can land his Thrown Axe (Axe 1) he can almost guarantee his Bow 1 and 3. As I said in the first section, boxing matches are often incredibly close, where a single in-hand attack could kill either fighter. In these situations, every hit counts, and making certain your spells all hit and your enemy’s don’t is a surefire way to win.

As a side note, some skillshot abilities are able to go through walls. The list is quite long, so try it out in a practice match or just fire through a wall towards a jungle camp and see if damage numbers pop up. Anyway, whenever possible use these abilities to your advantage; if you have one and your enemy does not, you can spend a second out of the line of fire while your enemy is still vulnerable, and as I’ve said again and again, even the tiniest advantages are important in 1v1s.

Rama's Astral Arrow (1) allows him to get up to five shots from around a corner.

Lastly, make sure you turn on "Show Mana Usage" in the UI settings. Having mana costs displayed clearly can make certain you won't accidentally use too much mana and not have enough available for an escape or a finishing blow- so long as you actually watch your pool.

Make sure the box is checked!

CONCLUSION

Boxing matches are incredibly unpredictable. Often the outcome isn’t clear until one god is lying dead. There are a million things to consider while boxing, not all of which are outlined here, and reading is no substitute for practice. By reading these tips and practicing, they will eventually become second nature and you will be a veritable master of 1v1s. Don’t be discouraged if you lose every now and then, and above all remember to try whatever you think might work! The accepted strategies aren’t sovereign; they are just ideas players found to be reliable, and there is no reason to believe you won’t be the next revolutionary boxer. Good luck, and have fun!