In Smite almost everything is a skillshot except for AoE abilities centered around your god. Your basic attacks? They're not guaranteed. I'll first go over some of the nuances of basic attacks and abilities in regards to movement prediction.

Basic Attacks:

1. All non empowered basic attacks slow you down.

2. They have travel times (time it takes a basic attack or ability to travel a certain distance).

3. In most situations you'll have to aim for where the enemy god WILL be, not where they ARE.

Abilities:

1. No movement penalty for casting most spells, except those with innate cast times during which you're immobile, or that say slow you down in the tooltip.

2. Some spells have travel times (Ra's Celestial Beam, or Arachne's Cocoon for example).

Now that we've got the basic stuff out of the way, we can move on to a much more interesting topic.

Understanding your opponent

Prediction has less to do with what you know how to do. It has more to do with what you know your enemy does in any given situation. Will my lane opponent try and juke side to side? Turn sharp corners? Head straight to the nearest tower without sidestepping? The more scenarios you can answer as if you were your enemy, the more likely you are to hit them.

The most important part of any matchup, in regards to movement prediction, is the first trade (aka fight) you have with your enemy. You must learn as much as possible about how they move from the time they approach the lane minions. Do they favor staying near to the walls of the lane, or the middle? Do they always engage the lane minions head on? When they have finished waveclearing, what paths do they take back to a place of safety?

What's your goal?

I cannot stress how important it is to pick up as much information as possible as quickly as possible. It will allow you to pressure your opponent, as you'll be landing more basic attacks, and likely more abilities as well. The main objective you should be aiming for is: If a wall were to pop up in front of me right now (imagine Ymir's wall), could I predict exactly where the enemy would be when the wall goes down 2 seconds later (and what path they took to get there)?

If you can correctly answer that question, congratulations! You're now inside the head of the enemy. It will put you at a significant advantage, if you figure the enemy out before they figure you out.

Gotta hit those Ra Ultimates

There's more?

However, that's still not the greatest part about movement prediction. The best part is knowing how to abuse it. When you know you're enemy's moves in a given situation, you can FORCE them to go where you want them to go. This can either be towards your jungler (or any other teammate really), away from their tower, and even into your tower.

How? What you'll need to do is make them think that the way you want them to go is the best possible path. For instance, if you want your lane opponent to go into the jungle, you position yourself to line up with the jungle exit from the lane. Why would they think that the jungle is the best path? Well, you want to make them think that going back under their tower would cause them to take a lot of damage from your basic attacks and abilities (clear path, not obstructed by lane minions = highest chance for you to hit them).

I'll be unstoppable, right?

It's not a guaranteed result, as some people will just run back to their tower regardless of a damage threat. Don't ever get too caught up in making your enemy move where you want them to move. Sometimes they'll pick the option you know is worst for them (like getting caught out of position early game and running through a wave of minions attacking them). This is always your best case scenario, it's just that most sensible enemies would be able to figure out their own worst case scenario and avoid it.

Always be ready for your opponent making a mistake. Even great pros get desperate or make bad decisions in unfavorable situations. You never want to miss the easy kill.

Let's go over an example

You're a jungle Ne Zha and are ganking midlane. Your team's midlaner, Poseidon, is trading with the enemy Zeus. In the ~2 seconds it takes you to get into range for your Armillary Sash, you should be focusing on how Zeus is moving. Did he notice you, or is he tunnel-visioning (completely focused on killing his target) Poseidon? Is he stationary or constantly moving around? Factors such as these influence how you should go about using your Armillary Sash. Let's say he doesn't notice you when you get into range for Armillary Sash. You have 2 options:

1. You're confident in your ability to hit the stun-jump as soon as possible.

2. You think he's in a position to outmanoeuvre you and you wait 1-2 seconds to study his movement patterns.

Which option you choose should directly relate to the information you received in the initial 2 seconds of information you got from Poseidon's movements.

- You chose the first approach? That's based on impatience and confidence.

- You chose the second approach? That's based in caution and calculation.



Setting up

Zeus is backpedaling, so you aim slightly behind him. Direct hit!

Both methods work in different situations. You can be impatient with the use of your abilities on someone who puts no extraordinary effort into dodging your attacks or abilities. You should, however, be cautious with the use of your abilities when you're dealing with an opponent who knows that once they dodge your ability, they are guaranteed a much higher chance of surviving.

Conclusion

The most important thing you should internalize is: really focus on getting in the head of your enemy. Their mindset. Their fears. Times when they'll be confident. When they move in zig zags, circles, or any other shape they think gives them the advantage. Know your enemies next step before they do. You'll be surprised how often you're able to correctly predict their movements. And the ones who still seem to dodge everything you throw at them? Well, you should try and learn as much as possible from them and incorporate what you learned into your own playstyle.

Thanks for reading! Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments down below.