In Smite, boxing is a major part of the hunter role. Fighting the other Hunter one-on-one is a careful art, and there are many things you can do to improve your ability. This article will be about how you can become better at boxing, and getting those coveted solo kills.

Keep an eye on the minions.

There are many levels to this. If their minions are alive and you aggress, you will take a lot of damage. This creates an immediate disadvantage in the fight for you, as the minions actually pack quite a punch.

However if their minions are dead and yours are alive, this is a great time to aggress. If they focus on you, they take damage from minions. If they focus on the minions, they take damage from you. This is a win-win situation, as in both situations they should take quite a lot of poke. If they don't go for either of these options and back off, they should lose gold due to your minions being forced into the tower.

Minions are also fantastic for body blocking. When at low health, if the enemy tries to aggress on you, stick within the minions, as it becomes nearly impossible for them to hit you with auto attacks, and can completely turn the fight around.

Remember when your enemy uses abilities.

This is a key point, as if they aggress on you with their abilities just before a wave arrives, that can great a great opportunity to quickly clear the minions, then turn the aggression on them, as they have nothing to clear with. On top of this, making sure you know when their abilities are up prevents getting into unfortunate situations due to unexpected crowd control or burst.

Knowing whether your opponent's ultimate is up also helps a lot, as ultimates can change the course of a fight drastically. Some ultimates make them untargetable, and if a fight is close, they can win it just from being untargetable while they do damage, for example Rama or Freya. Others become CC immune, and others just deal a large amount of damage. Whatever the case, a Hunter's ultimate has the power to completely throw a close fight out of balance.

The best way to do this, but also the most difficult way is to memorise the length of each Hunter's cooldowns. This however can take a lot of time and effort. The guideline for each Hunter's clear ability cooldown is between 10 to 16 seconds, while for escape abilities, they are either 15 or 16 seconds. (Save for Rama's dash, which scales from 12 to 8 seconds, and Cupid's, who scales from 19 to 15 seconds.)

Make sure your lane is warded any time you decide to aggress.

Nothing is worse mid-box than a sudden 3 man rotation by the enemy team while you're at their tower. Make sure you have wards around the entrances to the lane, and near the Gold Fury to prevent surprise ganks.

Check your opponent's items regularly.

Items create a huge disparity in boxing ability. If your enemy has certain items completed (Soul Eater, Ichaival, The Executioner) while you have not finished them, only fight them if it would be a very favourable fight. Most items can make it very hard to fight the enemy, and the only way you will beat them is by completely outplaying them, which is not always the best thing to rely on.

Make sure to look at the number of potions your enemy has, so you can force them to use their potion before you box them, as those potions give a deceptively large amount of regeneration.

Buy Ichaival.

Ichaival is the single best item for boxing in the game. After hitting your enemy with 3 auto attacks, you gain 30 physical power, while your opponent loses 30. This creates a 60 power difference between you, which is more physical power than any item in the game gives you, except for Transcendence. If that isn't enough, it also gives you a nice 10 penetration, and a huge 30% attack speed bonus.

Recognise each God's power at each part of the game.

Before you get into a fight with the enemy Hunter, make sure you aren't giving yourself an immediate disadvantage from your God being weaker at the current point of the game. Remember which Gods are stronger early, mid, and late, and make sure to capitalize on when you have the advantage.

Attempt to continually poke the enemy while clearing wave.

While clearing the wave, make sure to take every opportunity to get a little bit of damage in. This just means throwing out an auto attack every time your opponent gets too close to you. Your main focus is still to clear the wave, but there is no harm in throwing out an auto attack or two every time they get too close. This makes them back off, giving you lane pressure, and makes them poked out so you can all in them much more easily. All you have to sure of is that you're careful of them throwing auto attacks back at you.

To make sure they can't hit you back, you can stand inside your minions, but only if your opponent has already used their wave clear.

Try to keep your movement pattern unpredictable.

Some Hunters fall into a predictable pattern of side-to-side movement while boxing. While the side-to-side movement is necessary, the timing is what makes it predictable. While it's not always intentional, it does make you easier to hit. While boxing, try to focus on your movement. Throw in some random movement timing, throw in a little bit of forwards and backwards movement, make them confused, and have to focus on their aim. After some practice, it should become second nature, and should help you against other Hunters.

Save your ultimate for necessary occasions.

Try not to start the fight with your ultimate. Keep in mind whether your opponent's ultimate has any CC, and if yours has CC immunity, and vice versa. Some ultimates directly counter others, such as Anhur's Desert Fury and Artemis' Calydonian Boar. As soon as Artemis uses her ultimate, if Anhur uses his, the stun does not go off, and he can't be trapped, completely countering the point of her ultimate, being the CC with his CC immunity.

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!