Starting Out: A Guide to Starter Items in Smite
Is it worth buying a Starter Item, or should you start your build without one?
In Smite, Starter Items are items that cost 800 gold that are designed to give you an early advantage over your opponents. There are a range of different items designed to help in each role. Naturally, my suggestions of what Starter Items each role can use are a guideline and based on personal opinion.
General Advantages and Disadvantages
As the name suggests, Starter Items give you a bonus for the start of the game. They will give you an early advantage over your opponents, but their effectiveness drops off the further into the game you get. Most Starter Items give you high sustain in your lane or role early game, from mana, health, protections and more. Yet, for what they do, these items can be fairly expensive, especially when you only start with 1500 gold in Conquest. Purchasing a Starter Item uses over half of your starting money, which is money that could be used towards other items, like towards a stacking item which will also give you an early advantage once you start stacking. Another disadvantage is that, once purchased, Starter Items cannot be upgraded, whereas other items can. This means that at some point, you will have to sell your Starter Item for a better item to complete your build. Selling a Starter Item will only give you 533 gold, losing you 267 gold. Arguably, it is worth this 267 gold loss for the bonuses and advantage you will receive in the early game.
Starter Items
Item Image Cost Statistics Passive Effect Bluestone Pendant 800
+15 Physical Power
+100 Mana
Enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take an additional 30 Physical Damage over 2s (max 2 Stacks) Bumba's Mask 800 +10 MP5 Your Basic Attacks deal +10 True Damage and your abilities +10% Damage versus Jungle Camps. You are healed for 10% of a Jungle Camp's maximum health, and if you have an ally nearby, you get the normal gold reward as if you were solo Death's Toll 800
+15 Physical Power
+90 Health
Hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack restores 6 Health and 2 Mana Mark of the Vanguard 800
+150 Health
+10 Physical Protection
All damage taken is reduced by 5 Soul Stone 800
+20 Magical Power
+100 Mana
Hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack tears out and stores a portion of their soul, granting +4 MP5. At 5 souls, your next damaging ability will consume all the souls and deal damage with +60 Magical Power Vampiric Shroud 800
+20 Magical Power
+100 Health
+5 MP5
Killing an enemy restores 10 Health and 10 Mana Watcher's Gift 800 +100 Health
+5 MP5
+5 HP5 Being within assist range of a minion or jungle camp monster death without dealing the killing blow awards +4 bonus gold, and also restores +7 Health and +7 Mana
Death's Toll
In general, Death's Toll will fit well on any Hunter due to their general auto-attack based play style. Every time you hit an enemy, be it a God or a minion, you restore 6 health and 2 mana. This works very well for Hunters in the ADC role, as you use a mixture of abilities and auto-attacks to clear waves and poke the enemy. You also might take a fair bit of damage depending on how aggressive your enemy is, and how aggressive you are. Therefore, this item is excellent for keeping your health and mana levels up in the early stages of the game. Other auto-attack based physical Gods also heavily benefit from this item, such as Osiris with some AOE auto-attacks.
Bluestone Pendant
Frequently picked up in the Solo role, Bluestone Pendant has seen many changes before settling into the Starter Item that we see today. The base statistics of the item make it useful for Solo lane, as it provides Physical Power in addition to more mana. In a lane where you need to at least go toe-to-toe with your opponent, more power and mana is extremely helpful to give you an edge against your opponent. An increase in power will help you clear minions quickly and deal a little extra damage to your opponent, and more mana means that you will be able to cast abilities more often. Not only this, but the passive of the item gives your abilities a damage over time (DOT) effect, dealing an additional 30 Physical Damage over 2 seconds. So, not only can you last longer in lane with more mana and power, but you will also be dealing more damage to your opponent with the DOT.
Bluestone Pendant can also be used on Hunters in the ADC role. It is more useful on ability based Hunters such as Neith, as the DOT only procs off abilities.
Vampiric Shroud
Most mages will benefit from picking up Vampiric Shroud in any lane or role. The passive rewards you with +10 HP and +10 mana per kill, including kills on minions. This gives you more sustain in lane, and will hopefully give you an advantage over your opponent. Higher sustain means that you can remain in lane for longer than your opponent, gaining more experience and gold, and ultimately beating them in lane. You also gain +100 health, +20 magical power, and +5 MP5, helping you to deal a little more damage and take a little bit more in return.
Soul Stone
Not all mages benefit entirely from Vampiric Shroud due to their play style. Soul Stone is a great pick up for any auto-attack heavy mage, such as Freya or Chronos. This item can even be useful on less heavily auto-attack based mages, such as Nu Wa or Kukulkan, depending on your playstyle in the early game. The item grants you more mana, and extra damage when you reach full stacks (5) on the item, allowing you to bully your enemy a little more in lane. Similarly to Vampiric Shroud, you also gain +100 mana and +20 magical power, and gain +4 MP5 when hitting an enemy with a basic attack. Soul Stone is essentially a variation of Vampiric Shroud, tailored more towards auto-attack based mages and providing a little less sustain.
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Bumbha's Mask
This starter item is essential for any Jungler and is only useful in this role. Hopefully, most players reading this guide will know this already, but I have encountered some players who have tried to use this starter item in other roles. If you pick up this item as any other role than jungle, you will not gain the full bonuses that it can provide and may be at a disadvantage to your opponent. Bumbha's Mask provides you with additional damage against jungle camps, and healing upon completion of the camp. Not only this, but it also promotes teamwork when clearing camps, as the Jungler will still gain the full bonuses from completing the camp with a teammate as they would have gained if they completed it alone. In early game, this encourages the Jungler to tank buff camps, as they gain healing upon completion of the camps.
Mark of the Vanguard
Mostly popular in the Support role, Mark of the Vanguard gives protection, health and reduces the damage you take. This is useful for Supports, as they often take damage to protect their ADC, and need to be able to take a lot of damage in order to be effective in their role. This item is also occasionally used in Solo lane, where a lot of damage will be taken. The protections and passive of the item give an advantage, reducing damage taken, and you will also gain more health.
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Watcher's Gift
Watcher's Gift is my favourite starter item to use when playing Support. I feel like this item gives me a little more sustain when in lane. Not only is your God given more health, MP5 and HP5, but you also gain bonus gold and health and mana for minion kills if in the assist area. This is useful for both you and your ADC. As a Guardian, you will generally find it hard to keep up with your team in terms of builds and levels - Watcher's Gift helps with this! The extra Gold will help you complete your build quicker, and the extra health and mana will allow you to stay in lane for longer and get more gold and experience. Watcher's Gift also promotes helping your ADC, as they will be getting more gold and experience by getting the last hits on the wave. If they are stacking, this will ensure that they finish stacking their item as soon as possible.
For some Guardians, namely Fafnir, Watcher's Gift is a core part of your build. Fafnir's passive gives him 2 bonus gold per minions, structures, kills and assists (capping at 1000 gold). He also gains bonus protections up to 30 Magical and Physical Protections. By picking up Watcher's Gift in addition, you will gain +4 bonus gold on top of this if in the assist range of minion kills, meaning that you are gaining up to +6 bonus gold in total! This will help you benefit even more in the laning phase, and could in turn put you and your partner in lane further ahead than your enemies.
I Don't Want a Starter Item
Starter Items are by no means essential to your build. As mentioned above, you might prefer to start your build with Charged Morningstar or Spiked Gauntlet and some potions so that you can start stacking for power or lifesteal as soon as possible. As a Mage, you might prefer Tiny Trinket or Lost Artifact for some power early game. Why not start working on your Boots earlier, to gain better movement speed allowing you to get to and from lane quicker? Starter Items are some of many possible items you can use to start your build and get ahead of the enemy.
Summary:
ADC – Bluestone Pendant (for ability based hunters), Death's Toll, Soul Stone (for magical auto-attack based ADC)
Jungle – Bumbha's Mask
Mid – Vampiric Shroud, Soul Stone
Support – Watcher's Gift, Mark of the Vanguard
Solo – Bluestone Pendant (for ability based), Death's Toll (for auto-attack based physical), Mark of the Vanguard, Soul Stone (for magical auto-attack based), Vampiric Shroud (for magical based)
Purchasing a Starter Item is essentially down to your own personal preference and play style. If you are more aggressive, then a Starter Item's passive is likely to benefit you and might earn you a kill. Yet if you are a little more passive, some Starter Items might not work for you. The best way to see what does and does not work is through trial and error!
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