Disclaimer: this article represents the opinion of the writer and not necessarily that of Team Dignitas.

The solo lane can be a scary place. Completely isolated from the rest of your team, often ignored by the jungler, the solo lane is truly a one-on-one situation. Very often you will only participate with your team once or twice before full on late game hits. This makes it imperative that you come out of laning phase in a better state than the enemy solo laner. This is common knowledge and the pure skill side of this has been commonly explored. However, in this piece, I would like to explore the mental aspects of the solo lane, and how to win the lane with your mind alone. While obviously not a guide for pros and high level ranked players, lower ranked players should be able to benefit from this information.

Picks and Bans

The mental boxing starts in picks and bans. Sometimes, lanes can be completely won based on your picks. Let's take a regular ranked solo lane matchup for season 3 - Tyr versus Bellona. Just for informative sakes, this is considered a lane that Tyr should win, with his great clear that Bellona can't really stop. So, obviously, if the enemy solo laner picks Bellona and you pick Tyr, you are already winning the mind games. But matchups don't always go your way. What if you are the one who gets Tyr picked into Bellona?

Well, first you have to keep in mind the ground rule of all sport - you have to believe you are the best. You cannot let the odds stacked against you bring you down, as this is a gateway to becoming tilted very easily. You have to believe you are going to play your best. With this mindset, even if you lose lane, you will mentally be ready for late game teamfights. Conversely, if you pick Bellona into Tyr, you are already planting the idea in your opponent's idea that you are a force to be reckoned with, if you are willing to pick a “losing” lane. This will weigh on their minds, and if you beat them in lane, the potential for them to tilt is great.

The two solo laners in our example, Bellona and Tyr

Now fellow Smite veterans might scoff and say that comparing Tyr to Bellona is rather pointless as meta wise they are both considered great gods. What if, for instance, you want to pick a god that isn't meta into someone who is? How can that ever be winning the mental war? Let’s think about it logically. If you pick a non meta character into a meta character, it has to be because you are better on that god and you believe you can work around their weakness in the current meta. This will affect your opponent. While initially they might see it as an easy lane at first, the seed of doubt is planted into their mind. Why would they pick Ratatoskr into Amaterasu? Am I missing something? This seed of doubt will carry on to the lane later on.

A further point on the non-meta gods. We've all been in this situation - your team wants you to take one god, but you want to take another. It's a difficult situation to be in. However, as long as you know and believe that you can do everything and more with your god that the other god can, you should always take your personal choice. Simply put, you will be more comfortable on what you want and what you know. Picking a god that your team wants and you don’t leads to you being less happy in your role and feeling burdened with responsibility, all of which contribute to a worse performance in lane.

The Laning Phase.

Well, your picks are done and you're in lane. What now? Well there isn't a one size fits all set of tips for this, so I’m going to split it into matchups:

1. Meta Vs Meta
Currently in the Season 3 solo lane, a "full meta" lane is two warriors facing off against each other. When it comes to warriors, especially early on, the mental game is played through one thing mainly - positioning. In a lane all about farming and getting big, the most mentally draining thing you can do to your opponent is zone. If you've established dominance through poke or superior clear you can then begin to zone your opponent out of farm. As humans, the most frustrating thing is a feeling of helplessness. Zoning your opponent out of farm makes them feel like they're being prohibited from playing the game itself. This frustration can build and can force them to make rash decisions, which you can capitalise on.

The reason why this is so important in the solo is that very often there will be no one to relieve the pressure. In Season 3 the jungler spends a lot of his time with the mid and duo, with solo lane ganks being rare. All this means that a good zoning job can leave your opponent frustrated and even tilted. This effect is increased even more if you manage to get a solo kill on them sometime during laning phase. This shows your opponent that you are better than them, and it makes them scared to face you later on in team fights.

As a general note, stealing blue buff/boar is one of the most effective things you can do to establish a mental grip on the lane. We’ve all experienced going to do our blue and getting there just to see an empty camp. It's depressing and it wastes time, all of which contributes to the mentality that you are better than them in every way.

2. Meta vs Non Meta
Now the mind games are quite different in a meta vs non meta lane. This lane opens up even more opportunities for winning the mental war but at a higher risk. Let's talk about the obvious advantage to non meta picks - the uncomfortability. The opponent solo laner may have only been in this matchup once or twice or possibly never, meaning they devote more of their mental capacity to learning how to fight the matchup rather than fighting it at their full ability. While this is true for all non meta picks, there are certain picks you can take to make lanes which can be a nightmare for the enemy solo laner to deal with. I will focus on the two most common ones here.

The Kill Lane

While this phrase is most commonly used for an unorthodox duo lane with an assassin as the support, kill lanes exist in the solo too. These are lanes in which the point is to get ahead of your opponent by killing them repeatedly instead of having superior farming. These lanes have an extremely large risk/reward ratio, so should only be attempted when you are sure of your skill on the god. Potential candidates for a kill lane are Ne Zha, Cabrakan, Mercury and Ao Kuang just to name a few. These lanes, if executed properly, can have a devastating mental effect on your opponent. Faced with a lane in which they are spending more time dead than alive, they will become angry and frustrated, making rash decisions which allow you to kill them even more. This is a lane where it can be incredibly easy to become tilted. A good assassin solo laner will make you wish you had taken the relative safety of the mid lane.

Two great kill lane solo laners, Ne Zha and Ao Kuang

In our clan, we have a player who has been playing a Ne Zha solo for more than a year and has extensive knowledge of the character. He very often picks up his first kill as the enemy enters the lane. This causes a huge amount of tilt, as not only do you usually expect to at least be able to get to your lane but your blue buff and time clearing jungle camps is wasted. A kill like this early on guarantees a frustrated opponent and a bloody solo lane. This is just one example of how mentally potent a kill lane can be.

Now this is all fine and dandy, but what if YOU are on the receiving end of a kill lane? While this can be scary after taking into account what I’ve said above, there are ways to counter it. Kill lanes need kills to be more relevant than a late game warrior, and denying them kills can cause them to become desperate and frustrated. Playing from the tower and building defensively all contribute to the atmosphere that you won’t be swayed by their antics. Furthermore, avoiding fights altogether will make you annoying and impossible to beat in lane, as in team fights, a tanky warrior will have more impact than an unfed assassin or mage.

A Farm Lane

A farm lane is where you take a god reliant on farm to be functional and use the abundant farm available in the solo lane to get big quick and have an impactful late game. While less risky than a kill lane, most of the gods you will take here will be squishy, so you still have to be careful and comfortable with the god. Potential candidates for a farm lane are Loki, Bastet and Apollo just to name a few. On the surface this lane seems simple. Take a late game carry of some sort and put them in a farm rich lane at the risk of getting bodied by the enemy solo laner. However, if played correctly, this can be one of the most frustrating lanes to be in. The key to winning the mental war here is this – avoid fights at all costs, even just trading damage. This may seem counterproductive but the effect cannot be imagined unless experienced. The amount of frustration that builds from being in a lane where you both end up doing less than 1000 player damage is insane. It can drive the enemy crazy, making them chase you around desperately trying to kill you while you slip away.

The most obvious master of this lane is Loki. A good Loki will drop Decoy to clear the wave and will use Vanish to simply walk back to tower if threatened. This will mean that he will get a ridiculous amount of farm, enabling him to split push and obliterate squishies late game, completely out of control. The frustration carries over to late game, as the enemy solo laner is so desperate to get his damage out there that he will make rash and stupid decisions.

One of the most hated gods in the game, Loki makes a great farm lane solo laner. The abundant farm can make him a disgustingly good split pusher late game - and a common reason for frustration and tilt

But what if you are on the receiving side? So how can you avoid this nightmare situation? Well the obvious answer is jungle ganks. These will bring an unexpected attack that can be harder to avoid. While this is the best solution, sometimes you don’t have the luxury. If the farm lane is picked before you pick your god, pick another good farming god. It will help you keep up with them in lane. If you have already picked and are now forced into a farm lane, there are still some things you can do. Take up the mindset that this lane will not be very exciting. This will help you to not get tilted by the bloodless lane. Rotating earlier than normal will make your opponent become conflicted about what they need to do to help their team. Furthermore, if you rotate earlier and pick up some kills, the mental control now belongs to you, as you have already made your impact on the game.

A word on Builds

No matter what the lane is, your build can have a mental impact on your enemy. Try to build items that can counter what your opponent wants to do. Laning against an Osiris or another basic attacker? Build an item like Runic Shield which decreases attack speed. Laning against a bursty guardian? Build a Bulwark of Hope for the large amount of health and the damage shield. While this may seem obvious to good players as just good build practice, it should be noted that there is the additional mental effect of making the enemy feel like you are directly targeting them, stopping them from doing what they want to do.

Items like Runic shield will directly hinder what your enemy is trying to do, making them frustrated and less effective

Tilt

Tilt is the great boogeyman of any MOBA player, and in Smite it's easiest to get tilted in the solo lane. It is a fact that you cannot win every time, and accepting this is the first step to avoiding tilt. Furthermore, when you get behind in lane you need to make sure you make your scope of view smaller. What this means is focus on smaller victories: Managing to keep a wave out of the tower, securing your buff camps and escaping a gank attempt. If you try to worry about your overall impact on the game while behind it is a surefire way to become tilted. A way that I personally deal with tilt is by repeating this mantra - "Wait until late game." Late game is the great equaliser, where the fact that you were behind in lane no longer matters. However, the only way to get to late game is to focus yourself on your own performance as mentioned above.

So there we have it. A short but comprehensive guide to the Mental Games present in a Smite solo lane. I hope these tips have helped you develop and improve your solo lane skillset and I wish you luck in the battleground of the gods!