If you are familiar with MOBAs then the tactic of zoning should be familiar to you. Zoning is when a player pressures their opposition away from creep waves in order to gain an experience and gold advantage. In games like DOTA and LOL, it's very common to see one player attempting to zone another from their creep waves. However, in Smite, zoning is much less utilized.

What makes zoning in Smite more complicated?

Smite is more unique than other MOBAs in regards to how vision is handled. One of the major selling points of Smite is the 3rd person perspective rather than the traditional top-down RTS style other MOBAs use. This affects how zoning works by limiting a player's vision to what is in front of them without the minimap. In other MOBAs, as a player you can see what's around you in a 360-degree field around the character so as a player you can afford to be more aggressive with your playstyle compared to the limited vision of Smite.

Another major factor in zoning in Smite is the abundance of “wave-clearing” abilities. Most characters in Smite can clear a wave of creeps with two abilities and some mages can even clear waves with only one ability. This makes zoning fairly difficult for players since if the enemy can get to the wave at any point during an attempt to zone, then the time zoning will have been wasted by the player.

The final factor that leads to the lack of zoning is the jungle. In Smite, the jungler often shares camps and waves with their other teammates and even has an item called Bumba’s Mask that promotes sharing camps. A team that doesn’t split camps together often falls behind in farm to their opposition. This makes zoning less prosperous for the laners who need to get the farm from the jungle and their own lanes in order to keep up with their opposition.

These three factors make zoning much more inconsistent and risky than clearing the wave. However, this doesn’t mean that players shouldn’t zone. Quite the contrary in fact. Due to the negative aspects of zoning the tactic is underutilized in Smite, which gives players who can effectively zone a large advantage over their opponents.

How do you zone in Smite?

There are two forms of zoning which can force a player to fall behind in farm: there is last hitting and then there is proxy farming. Last hitting itself is the tactic I mentioned before, where a player is forced away from wave and lose experience as the creeps kill each other. Proxy farming is a more advanced tactic that requires players to kill waves from behind their enemy's towers.

There are different ways to exert pressure on your opponents to force them to stay away from the waves. One way is to have another player in the vicinity to cause a scenario where the enemy is threatened if they come towards the wave. The other tactic is to scare a player. It may seem strange, but mind games are what cause the most mistakes out of players. Having vision in the enemy's jungle and having players rotate through that side of the map causes the enemy to back off due to their fear of dying without having any actual pressure on the wave.

Proxy farming, on the other hand, is a risky strategy in which a player kills a minion wave before the two waves meet, which requires the enemy to either kill the wave while taking damage, or forcing them to lose farm underneath their tower. What makes the strategy risky is the potential for the strategy to backfire. Proxy farming a wave requires the player to go behind the enemy's tower and take the damage from the wave themselves, so the potential to get caught and killed makes the strategy risky for inexperienced players.

Who can zone?

Due to the many factors of zoning, it is difficult to tell when to zone and when to farm. Mid laners in most cases are forced to focus on farm due to the wave clear out of meta mid laners and the amount of farm the mid has to split with the jungler and the support. The only case where a mid laner can zone is when the enemy team has a weaker early game composition and the mid-jungle combo can easily die. This is easier to do the earlier in the game it is attempted. However, even if zoning is possible in mid lane, the enemy's jungle could be invaded or the team could farm their own jungle, so zoning isn’t efficient in mid lane unless every jungle camp is already down and the enemy team has very poor wave clear.

Raijin is a mage that can zone easily because of his damage potential.

The duo lane has many more opportunities to zone than mid. When the duo lane zones, they usually last hit instead of proxy farm due to supports being tanks and the large number of potions they buy early on. Most hunters cannot effectively clear in the early game so they need to rely on their supports to help them clear. The team that has a better early game is usually the one that is able to exert pressure on the lane and force the enemies to lose farm. However last hitting in the duo lane is much harder than it seems, even if the team has more pressure on the lane. Last hitting requires the enemy team to be scared of the pressure the duo lane has. A Ymir and Anhur lane has a better chance of zoning than a Bacchus and Xbalanque lane due to their early game damage and potential to kill the enemies.

Anhur's Pillar and Impale forces enemies to be careful.

Outside of kill potential, hunters can also zone waves through the lack of presence of their opponent. If an enemy backs in lane or shows up in other lanes, the hunter can sit in the waves and last hit rather than pushing waves underneath the tower. That may seem counterproductive since a hunter wants to get rid of the enemy's tower to create more pressure on the map. However, if an ADC has gone back to base after clearing the wave, the other ADC doesn’t have enough time to clear the wave and have all their minions die to the tower. So last hitting a wave in this instance is more efficient than getting one or two tower hits.

The solo lane is the most common place for zoning in Smite due to the lack of presence from the rest of the players. If one player gains an advantage on the lane, it's much easier to snowball the lane than any other place on the map. For instance, an early game Ravana has so much pressure on the lane they can usually gain an advantage of 400g easily. That may not seem like much but that 400g lead can be the difference between Warrior Tabi and tier two boots or their defensive item which can cause the boxing fight in solo to get out of hand quickly.

Erlang Shen's Pin forces his enemies to stay away.

Since solo lane is usually left alone in the early and mid game, a jungler that applies pressure to the lane often causes the lane to snowball much quicker since the enemy solo laner always has to fear a rotation if the jungler isn’t on the map. Junglers like Nemesis and Ao Kuang have recently come into meta so the tankiness from Solo laners can be negated if a solo laner begins to snowball and zone the lane.

Vamana's mobility makes him a great proxy farmer.

Solo lane is also where proxy farming is the most prominent. Solo laners, due to their tankiness and level advantage over the rest of the team, can go behind the enemy's tower and clear waves without being pressured too much if they get ahead. However, whether a Solo laner can proxy farm is heavily influenced by their character and the enemy team’s jungler. Amaterasu and Vamana have CC immune ults and movement abilities, so they can get out of otherwise fatal scenarios and can afford to take the risk and proxy waves. However, if a player is a Xing Tian, they usually cannot proxy farm due to the lack of clear the god has. The solo laner also has to be careful of proxy farming if the enemy jungler has high mobility and burst potential. Thor and Ratatoskr are amazing junglers to counter proxy farming due to their ability to quickly collapse on the solo lane from around the map. I hope this guide help you understand zoning and I wish you happy hunting!

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