In my previous series, Know Your Role, I helped those new to Smite learn about roles, but offered only a little information about gods in those roles, and that information was subject to the current meta. In order to help new players now and forever learn more about the different gods and goddesses, I want to take a meta-free approach to describing the pros and cons of different gods. To begin with, we’ll look at the hunter class. Keep in mind that hunters are typically late game, single-target carries.

AH MUZEN CAB

The Mayan God of Bees has a rather unique kit that is very well suited for boxing. Proper usage of his hives gives him a major increase to movement speed and attack speed, which allows him to dodge very effectively even while attacking. Similarly, laying down honey slows the enemy, making it harder for them to dodge your auto attacks, your Swarm, and your Stinger. Remember that the Stinger cripples, so using it towards the end of fights will ensure that they can’t easily escape or chase.

On the other hand, Ah Muzen Cab has no dashes himself, and therefore relies very heavily on careful positioning during teamfights, and needs to play more carefully than most gods during the laning phase. Because of your lack of area damage, try to isolate targets in fights, where you can feasibly defeat them. Also, AMC’s attack speed steroid is reliant on hives, which can be broken with a single auto-attack. If you do not position your hives safely, you can go from doing very well to not well at all in an instant.

If you are a safe-minded player who revels in juking enemy attacks while dealing considerable damage over time, consider picking Ah Muzen Cab.

ANHUR

The Egyptian Slayer of Enemies has a seemingly straightforward kit that can be absolutely deadly to enemy tanks, as well as squishy targets. His passive naturally shreds the enemy’s physical protection, and enemies standing within the sand from his Shifting Sands take increased damage. Furthermore, he has not only a jump to reposition, but the ability to knock an enemy back, possibly stunning them into a wall or his Obelisk. In addition to being immune to crowd control during his ult, this makes him very skilled at keeping himself at max range where he can quickly whittle enemies down.

However, Anhur has a couple potent weaknesses. His wave clear ability, Impale, can be body-blocked by enemy gods, and although it damages the enemy it can slow down his pushing immensely, which can deny him a lot of gold in the early game. Furthermore, he is one of the few hunters with no attack speed boost, and while that can be made up for with his powerful ultimate and the damage buff from Shifting Sands, if your ultimate is on cooldown and/or they escape your 1 you may be at a disadvantage in terms of damage output.

Anhur is a great pick for those who like to shred helpless enemies from a distance, effortlessly pushing them away when they approach.

APOLLO

The Greek God of Music has, as his passive implies, a very audacious kit. Despite his range, he can perform very well in close quarters. His passive gives him the highest attack speed bonus in the game (100%) which, coupled with the protection bonus and crowd control from landing a successful Serenade, makes him a skilled boxer. Furthermore, along with his ultimate, he can split-push more safely than perhaps any other god. With a single ward and mana, he can push as far as he likes and ult Across the Sky to safety. Similarly, he can join fights from across the map very quickly. Having 3 hard crowd control abilities is very potent, as he can engage with his ult or dash in with The Moves and Serenade as many people as possible, giving his allies time to follow you in. Similarly, he can Serenade and dash away to very easily escape ganks, even when his ultimate is unavailable.

Both his incredible upsides have a downside however. Apollo is very mana hungry, especially with his ultimate, so if you use too much mana to push, your ult might not take you far. Similarly, if you join a fight from too far away, you will enter the battle with low mana, which can make you vulnerable. The fact that his attack speed stim is on his passive means that it is not available on command, and while it doesn’t take too much time to stack when you have an attack speed item or two, a few seconds can make a lot of difference in the enemy’s favor. It also requires successful hits to stack, so if the enemy dodges your attacks you’re in even more trouble. Furthermore, his speed boost is for 5 attacks only, even if they miss, so be very careful to hit them or else your bonus will be wasted.

If you prefer being in the middle of the fight and boldly wrecking your enemies, or even split-pushing from afar and making a grand entrance when needed, consider trying out Apollo.

ARTEMIS

The Greek Goddess of the Hunt is a rather ability-centric character with very high burst potential. Her passive gives her crit chance, a rare stat early on, meaning that until the enemy buys a crit item, she has the potential to, if lucky, have twice their damage output on auto-attacks. Coupled with her Vengeful Assault which gives her a huge attack speed boost and movement speed, and her 3 that slows the enemy, she is a very potent boxer. While her 1 can protect her from ganks in lane, with skill it can be used in the middle of a fight to trap enemies, or it can simply be placed underneath an enemy stunned by your Boar. This crowd control combo can lock an enemy in place for up to 4.5 seconds, which, if they have nothing to body block, guarantees you enough hits to kill almost any target. Her ultimate is very powerful in teamfights, potentially stunning the entire enemy team one by one if they don’t spread out.

Artemis does have weaknesses, however. Much of her early game damage is based on lucky critical hits, which may not ever happen, or happen only rarely. Furthermore, her crowd control, while significant, is on a delay, so a skilled enemy can avoid her 1 with ease, and even run or dash out of her ultimate, wasting it if the Boar has no other targets to dash to. She, however, has no dash of her own, relying on her slows, traps, her speed boost, or even her ult to escape ganks. Careful position in team fights is crucial. After she uses her boar, the enemies can split up to drastically reduce the CC and damage output, and while the temporary disengage may be a good thing, you are now vulnerable until your ult is off cooldown.

If you enjoy setting your enemy up into a scenario where you can burst them down quickly, Artemis is an excellent pick for you.

CUPID

The Roman God of Love is an unusually team oriented hunter, providing bonuses to his team in addition to dealing high damage. His ultimate is unique among hunters in that it is an AOE crowd control ability. The cripple and slow followed by mesmerize (or a stun, if his passive is up) is incredibly valuable in team fights, greatly reducing the entire team’s ability to reposition, dodge, or escape for several seconds and allowing your allies to follow up with devastating AOE of their own. He can also grant his allies a speed boost and healing, which, while unusual for a hunter, is nonetheless helpful.

Cupid is not free from faults, however. His ultimate can be countered heavily by Purification Beads or Aegis, after which his team fighting is rather lackluster. Aside from his ultimate, his crowd control and therefore a lot of his damage relies on hitting a passive-empowered Heart Bomb. If the enemy is aware that his passive meter is full, they can focus on dodging his 1, rendering him CC-free until his passive is stacked again.

If you prefer helping the teams via utility rather than straight up damage (which is still considerable, mind you), Cupid is likely the hunter for you.

NEITH

The Egyptian Weaver of Fate has a utility-stocked kit that forces enemies to play carefully. Her global ultimate is incredibly useful for sniping low health enemies and helping allies secure kills or escape from anywhere on the map. Having a heal is powerful on a hunter, and coupled with the attack speed debuff can turn the tides of a one-on-one fight instantly. Her Broken Weaves are especially useful, giving her an AOE effect on her 1 and 4, and if necessary giving her a stronger heal. Since weaves appear after an enemy dies, she can be a major threat later on in teamfights when they litter the ground. Enemies have to avoid an entire area around them if they want to avoid being stunned. She can also create weaves with her backflip, turning the area near her into a minefield for the enemy gods.

As you can see, however, much of her kit is Weave reliant, so if there are none nearby, she may have to use up her escape to create one, leaving her vulnerable to ganks. Using a dash to dodge her 2 will leave her without a heal (unless she hits minions) and the enemy will not be debuffed. Since she has no attack speed boost of her own, unlike most hunters, she can be at a big disadvantage if she misses Unravel.

If you like to ruin your opponents’ day by restricting their movement and attack speed, and surprising them from across the map, boy have I got good news for you: Neith’s got just what you asked for.

RAMA

The Hindu 7th Avatar of Vishnu is a force to be reckoned with. He specializes in buffing his own in-hand attacks to deal increased damage. His stacking slow and cripple is a major problem for enemies wishing to relocate, and his attack speed boost is nothing to scoff at. His additional resource, his arrows, makes him significantly less mana hungry than other hunters. He can also escape danger and aid in fights from a distance with his ultimate, which can do a massive amount of damage if all three shots connect.

Rama does have a few downsides. Primarily, at early stages of the game when he can’t stack Astral Arrows quickly, his wave clear is rather slow, meaning that if he doesn’t have a good support he can be easily zoned. His ult leaves him vulnerable upon landing as well, so if you don’t kill or damage your target enough, or your teammates get killed or forced away, you are a sitting duck.

If you like doing high DPS with auto-attacks, plain and simple, Rama is a good pick for you.

ULLR

The Norse Glorious One has more abilities than any other hunter, thanks to his two stances, and therefore has an incredibly high damage output and utility if you can manage all your skills. He’s got the whole package: a line skillshot, a ground target skill, a stun, a leap, a movespeed boost, a power buff, and semi-permanent boosts to either lifesteal or attack speed, depending on your stance.

His greatest benefit is also his weakness. Having more abilities, especially with the cooldown reduction from his passive, means he requires much more mana in order to reach his high damage output. And even though his stance change is free and has a very short cooldown, not having access to all your spells simultaneously can be confusing to even skilled players and can leave you open to brief, but nonetheless dangerous weaknesses. For example, while in arrow form, he has faster speed, more range, and more damage, but less utility, and vice versa. Changing stances also removes the buff from your 2, so Ullr loses some power if forced to switch, furthering the struggle of lacking all abilities at once.

In a word, Ullr requires very good management of mana and abilities, but has a high payoff. If this sounds like your cup of tea, give Ullr a shot.

XBALANQUE

The Mayan Hidden Jaguar Sun has arguably the strongest late game of any hunter, which is saying something. His passive gives him permanent power buffs when he gets a kill, which lets him snowball effectively. His 1 gives him a small damage buff, but more importantly it makes his attacks branch, allowing him to hit enemies from further away than normal if a tank is in the way, albeit with reduced damage. Even more, his ultimate gives him increased range, allowing him to do incredible damage from a greater range than any other character. His ult also allows you to help your team secure kills globally, as well as help you chase, although the stun is unreliable.

His greatest downside is an abysmal early game. He has two option for waveclear: he can use his 1 to hit multiple minions, but this requires more mana than even a blue buff can provide, making him immensely mana hungry. He can also use his 2-3 combo to clear waves well, but this is also uses a lot of mana (though less) and requires him to use his escape, making him very susceptible to ganks. Since a lot of his damage comes from his passive, he can be shut down early relatively easily.

If you are willing to risk a difficult early game for an incredibly rewarding late game, Xbalanque is the god for you.

Those are all the hunters in the game as of 1/1/2015. Keep in mind that some non-hunter champions can be played in the ‘hunter’ role, and hunters can occasionally play other roles, such as solo lane. If you love a hunter, but don’t like the duo lane, look up whether or not they are viable elsewhere, or even go all in and try it yourself. Same goes if you like a mage or assassin but prefer the duo lane.