As the Smite god pool grows, the game can seem overwhelming for someone who is just starting out. In this guide we will cover playing Smite conquest as a support player for beginners. Conquest is the featured game mode in Smite and is the mode used for competitive play. Support typically played by a Guardian is a great role to learn how the game works while giving you a little leeway to make a mistake or two during the learning process. We will cover Athena and Ymir for our god selection, for new players both of these gods have a short learning curve and are generally a good choice for the role in most situations.

Ymir

Ymir is a great first choice since he is free on all newly formed accounts so you can use him from day one. What Ymir lacks in escapes he makes up for by bringing a lot of crowd control to the fight and a good amount of damage for a Guardian. Ymir’s first ability Ice Wall summons a wall of ice from the ground. At max level this wall will remain in place for 6s and cannot be destroyed by anyone. This can be very useful in stopping an opponent trying to escape a fight with low health or mana. This could also be used to save a friendly god running from a bad situation. His second ability, Glacial Strike damages and slows enemy gods and minions. When at max level it will deal 370 damage (plus 70% of your magical power) and slow enemies 35% for four seconds. For his third ability “Frost Breath” Ymir uses his breath to freeze enemies where they stand. This move is Ymir’s key ability in team fights allowing for high damage output on frozen enemies. When maxed out in level it will deal 370 magical damage (plus 70% of your magical power) and freeze minions and gods for 2.25 seconds. Ymir’s ultimate ability “Shards of Ice” slows opponent’s 30% and outputs 1100 damage + 150% of your magic power. Frostbite which is Ymir’s passive is a damage buff of 100%. When enemies are hit by Ymir’s damaging abilities (everything but Ice Wall) it applies a debuff called Frostbite for a duration causing Ymir’s basic abilities to do 100% more damage on that enemy god. Below is a good general model of how to prioritize his abilities as the game progresses. You want focus Frost Breath and upgrade Shards of Ice when possible (level 9, 13, 17, and 20) followed by Glacial Strike and Ice Wall last.

Athena

To play Athena early you will either need to buy a god pack to unlock all the gods, or save enough in-game currency (favor) to unlock her. You may also rent her and other gods for a small amount of favor to see if you enjoy her play style. Athena is one of the more popular Guardians picked in higher level play and also a great pick for new players that have her unlocked. With her first ability Preemptive Strike Athena charges up her dash and when executed will charge through minions and stop at the first enemy god. It is a damage and slow dealing ability that at max level will output 280 damage (plus 50% of your magic power) and slows your opponent 25% for 2.25 seconds. This move is also good as an escape for Athena if things go bad in the fight.

Athena’s second ability Confound is similar to Ymir’s Frost Breath but instead of freezing opponents it taunts them causing them to attack or chase her. The taunt will last 2 seconds when at max rank. Her third ability Shield Wall is a damage dealing ability. Shield wall at max level will deal 200 damage (plus 50% of your magical power). After two seconds the Shield wall collapses inward dealing an additional 360 damage (plus 50% of your magical power). Athena has one of if not the best ultimate of all the Guardians. A global ability called Defender of Olympus Athena picks a single friendly target anywhere on the map and launches herself up into the air landing next to that god 4.2 seconds later. The allied god receives a 20% damage mitigation throughout the duration of the ability and at max level her ultimate will deal 740 damage (+ 90% of your magic power). This ability is what makes Athena so popular in higher level play, being able to be anywhere she is needed in under 5 seconds.

Athena's passive is called Reach, after using any ability, her next basic attack is a ranged attack, hitting all enemies it passes through, and dealing an additional 25% of her magical power as damage. With her abilities you want to focus Confound and like Ymir level her ulitimate Defender of Olympus when possible. Once confound is max level finish Shield Wall and finish Preemptive Strike last.

Starter Items and Early Ward Placement

As you get higher in account level you will learn that most builds are situational and depend on the needs for that specific match. With that being said I will go over a good general Guardian build that fits well for both Athena and Ymir feel free to make adjusments where you think it is necessary. In Conquest as the Guardian you want to first buy Mark of the Vanguard, Hand of the Gods, a couple Wards, and two Multi Potions. Mark of the Vanguard is very useful in the beginning giving you +5 physical and magical protections and also +150 health. Mark has a passive reducing all damage taken by 5, giving you a total of +10 protections for both physical and magical. Wards early are best placed at the buff camps where the three jungle paths meet. Placing one at your buff and your opponents buff will help you avoid being ganked by the enemy jungle or mid laner. Learning good warding techniques early will only help you more as you progress through the Smite account levels.

*wards are represented as blue stars on this map

Early/Mid Game

The first item you want to focus after getting your starter items is Shoes of Focus. These boots once finished will grant 30 magic power 15% cool down reduction and 18% movement speed. The key factor for this being the cool down reduction provided to keep your crowd control abilities up as often as possible. After building Shoes of Focus, Sovereignty or Heartward Amulet will be the next two items you want to get. The order will depend on your match. If you have one or more physical damaging characters doing most the damage on the opposite team you will want pick up Sovereignty first and opt for Heartward Amulet if mages are your biggest threat. You also want to remember to keep refreshing your wards on the map to keep good vision. As towers fall you can place wards further in their jungle to keep an eye on your enemies when they retreat. At around the 10 minute mark you want to start considering warding the Gold Fury and Fire Giant areas. In higher level play you want to know when the enemy team is attempting to take one of those down to possibly try and prevent or steal the objective. Lower levels tend to forget about secondary objectives so it isn’t as big of deal if you don’t ward these consistently, but getting into the habit early is always good of course.

Mid/Late game

Most Smite matches will generally end before you have a full build due to the faster pace of gameplay compared to other MOBAs out there. If you do make it past Heartward Amulet and Sovereignty you will want to look at Magi’s Blessing and Winged Blade. Magi’s Blessing will give 15 protections to both the Physical and Magical side and grants 350 health once fully built. Its passive gives you a protective shield that will absorb one hard crowd control (cc) or root, it will also grant one second of cc immunity when the shield is absorbed. Winged Blade will grant you 300 health and a 10% increase in cool down reduction, attack speed, and movement speed. The passive absorbs one slow and increases your movement speed by 20% for 4s. These two items are mainly picked up for their passives. These two passives are meant to keep you in the fight longer and keep you fighting by absorbing hard cc’s, roots and slows. You can also sell your starter item in late game to open up a slot for a more useful item such as Void Stone, or Mail of Renewal.

**consider warding furthur up the opponents side or closer to your base depending on how the game is progressing

As a new player you won’t see much of the standard meta until you get higher in level and start playing against people with more conquest experience. So if you are coming over from another MOBA you will have to have patience with your teammates, things that come natural to you may not be so obvious to someone new to the genre. For everyone wheather new to MOBA's or salty vet the main thing to focus on at this point is learning the basics. Learning about the gods, their abilities, as well the in store items and what they give for stats, passives, or auras will help you out a lot with building and counter building. The sooner you can effectively counter build against your opponents the easier it will get for you. Keeping an eye on your mini-map can teach you a lot as well. The more conquest matches you play the more you will notice trends such as popular gank locations as well as hot spots where team fights tend to break out a lot.

Paying attention to jungle timers and warding are a crucial part of the game. Most new players tend to ignore the warding aspect of the game and leave their lane open for an easy gank. As the support player in the current meta it is common to start roaming the map at about the three minute mark when the mid gold camps spawn. If your team can control the mid camps then this will give you a huge advantage in level and gold and give a better chance of victory. Keep an eye on the enemy support if he doesn’t rotate when you do be sure to help out the hunter when needed. If your hunter is doing alright on their own allow them to gain level on the enemies who are splitting the experience. When team fights start to break out be sure to try and focus your abilities on the enemy damage dealers and not their support players.

Taking out the hunter, assassin, or mage early gives you a huge advantage in the rest of the team fight. If you are on the other end of a fight where one of your teammates goes down early use your abilities to get your other carries out of danger. It is better for you to die than a hunter or assassin. Try to focus towers and phoenixes when possible to keep pressuring the enemy team. Another big mistake of new players is forgetting to focus the objectives and want to focus on kills. The longer you take to finish the game the more time you give the enemy to gain level and gold back and maybe take the victory from underneath your feet. So when the time is right group as a team and take down the Titan!