One of the most volatile roles in the game, the jungle meta shifts depending on the strength of the jungle camps, items, and also the relative strength of the other roles. The best gods in the jungle change very often and new pocket picks become top tier all the time. In an effort to provide a relevant top 3, we teamed up with our star jungler Anders "QvoFred" Korsbo and asked him for his picks and opinions.

Serqet

Strengths

QvoFred: "She also fits my playstyle perfectly due to her strong early clear, fast rotations around the map, and consistent one-shot potential throughout a game as well as her ability to win just about every 1v1 matchup throughout the early-mid game due to her strong crowd control and burst damage"

Serqet has always been one of the most powerful "assassin" style junglers due to her mobility and massive amounts of damage that allows her to destroy any squishy enemy gods throughout most phases of the game. However, in the past, she has struggled with the late game, where she still had massive damage but the teamfight setting meant that getting to the enemy squishies was more difficult. Recently, Serqet players have started to build a hybrid/tank build that allows them to not only survive longer in the late game but also push through the enemy team to get their damage off on the players that count.

Serqet is exceptional against teams that rely on vulnerable and weak "glass cannon" gods to do their damage, as she can often explode them in most phases of the game and abuse the fact that these gods often have no/weak escape abilities

Weaknesses

QvoFred: "Although she does have some counters, such as crippling abilities or gods with cleanses, the ability to be able to build her as a hybrid tank with items such as Magi's Cloak, Mantle of Discord, and Masamune, carry her well into the late game, where she will struggle most to execute her combo in a crowded team fight"

Due to the nature of Serqet's abilities, focusing a single enemy in a crowded teamfight can be difficult, which is why the hybrid tank build mentioned above is recommended so you don't get exploded yourself by the enemy's high damage gods.

A definite downside to Serqet is when you burn her beads and lose the protection of the Magi's Cloak, she is one of the easiest gods in the game to lock down with CC. Her jump has a long windup time and if she has to use her 1, that's a lot of her damage wasted right there. She is also incredibly vulnerable while ulting as she is forced to stand still, which means if there are any other enemies around they can turn around and pour abilities into you.

While being an incredibly powerful item, your enemy can see when your Magi's Cloak passive is active, which means they can easily proc it with a long-range stun/konockup/silence, leaving you defenseless when you decide to engage on them.

Ravana

Strengths

QvoFred: "Similar to Serqet he has a lot of jungle presence and one-shot potential in the mid game. One strength he does have in comparison to most other junglers is the lack of difficulty he has diving into late game team fights due to the CC immunity on both his second ability (Overhead Kick) and his ultimate (Mystic Rush). This makes him a major threat to both Hunters and Mages such as Artemis or Thoth, who rely on their CC for self-peel and to trade damage".

Ravana is a god pretty much built for diving due to having CC immunity during Overhead Kick and a unique effect on his ultimate that allows him to take less damage from every other source apart from the person he's diving on. All this allows him to avoid the enemy peelers and frontliners and go straight for the enemy's damage sources in ways which Serqet can't. QvoFred was one of the first players to really prove Ravana's aptness in this role and his Ravana has always been something to fear.

QvoFred: "You can go two ways when building Ravana. Just like Serqet, you can build him hybrid with items such as Mantle of Discord or Masamune, although I prefer to build him with as much damage and penetration from the Mace item tree as I am able to get away with, just to maintain my one-shot potential on carries in the late game".

Ravana's ability to build full damage and still have decent survivability due to his unique abilities allows him to be an almost unstoppable force when he's pushing an enemy damage dealer and makes him almost impossible to take down when he's ahead.

Weaknesses

QvoFred: "Ravana has a fairly average early game, specifically due to his weakness in the jungle clear department"

Getting ahead is Ravana's main issue. His early game is fairly weak, as his abilities really do not suit efficient farming or jungle clearing. This means that any lead that Ravana gains have to be through pressure and kills, which means his performance can be inconsistent and entirely based on the composition and skill level on the enemy team.

Season 5's jungle camps are stronger and take longer to kill, which puts even more of an emphasis on Ravana getting a lead through kills and map pressure.

Nemesis

Strengths

QvoFred: "Nemesis was a very favourable pick at the start of Season 5 due to her quick jungle clear early and her insane ability to one-shot carries late game with her ultimate (Divine Judgement)"

Nemesis is one of Smite's most volatile and niche gods, as she has wavered between being overpowered and essentially useless many times throughout the game's history. Right now, Nemesis is in a bit of a middle zone. Not a top pick but also a definitely strong god, she remains in meta because no other god in the game can do what Nemesis does.

QvoFred: "Once you reach the late game, she does not have a bad 1v1 matchup due to the insane strength in her ultimate, as well as her ability to use it as both a frontline and backline killer depending on the team compositions in the game"

Nemesis' ultimate is entirely unique as it allows her to completely mitigate any defensive advantages enemy gods may have. This ultimate is the reason she's always pickable, as no one else fills her niche. However, it does mean that Nemesis does not slot into any team composition, so the choice to pick her has to be premeditated to fit your team and specifically counter the enemy team.

While items like Heartseeker and Ichaival can make Nemesis exceptionally strong, her ultimate is what will always keep her relevant. Flat percentage damage and Protection reduction means that no matter her build, Nemesis can always make a consistent impact with her ultimate.

Weaknesses

QvoFred: "Nemesis is a god that can be countered fairly easy due to having no CC immunity in her kit as well as a damage shield in her third ability (Retribution) that is also countered by CC"

Nemesis' dash is powerful and similar to Susano's, but not only is it slower than Susano's but it also has a smaller range. This means that she gets locked down very easily, especially since her shield, as mentioned above, gets cancelled by the application of any crowd control. Furthermore, her ultimate often relies on communication with your team to be used effectively, so good team cohesion is required to play Nemesis to her fullest potential.

QvoFred: "She has fallen out of the meta slightly due to both nerfs to her kit and the two items that allowed her to thrive the most when their passives are applied to her ultimate (The Crusher and Heartseeker)"

Nemesis, like any god with low base damage and high scaling, is at the mercy of item balance. Certain items that make her viable/strong need to be in meta for her to be at her best. Currently, these items are fairly mediocre, so while Nemesis is good and strong in certain situations, she isn't a powerful god in every situation.

Thank you for reading and thank you to QvoFred for his input. You can find him on his Twitter and Twitch!