Mages are a diverse class in Smite. Every role in Smite has at least a few Mages that can do the job. Throughout the later parts of Season 6, it was not uncommon to see compositions featuring a Mage in both the mid and long lanes. Double Hunter compositions are a mainstay in Smite, but metas with two Mages per team are much less common. These compositions focus on magical damage with a physical frontline. In this article, we will cover how double mage compositions became popular in Season 6, as well as the reasons to play a composition with multiple magical threats.

Mages can be played in every role in Smite, but we are focused on the two carry positions, Mid and Hunter (or long lane). The mid lane is the historical role for Mages, but the Mid-Season Invitational turned the mid meta into one all about pressure and Hunters provide amazing lane pressure, especially against Mages. This means that teams shoved Mages into the long lane to clear the lane and farm up for teamfights and the late game.

Some Mages were already popular in the long lane, such as Chronos and Olorun, but traditionally mid lane Mages started invading the lane. Mages such Thoth, Isis, and even Anubis made the side lane their own. In the past, Mages that needed to power farm to be relevant, such as Hel, were played in the carry position, but that was more on a per-god basis, but with Hunters taking over mid, most Mages could be at least tried out in newly vacant side lane. The long lane is often a duo lane, but supports have been roaming early and invading buffs, so the duo lane has transformed into more a second solo lane, at least at the higher levels of play. Mages are used to solo clearing waves in the mid lane, so the old Hunter role was not too difficult a transition for the class to make.

After some itemization discoveries, Mages were able to be played in the mid lane again. However, this did not mean that they all left the side lane. Around the time of the world championship, the long lane had turned into a place to put a carry of any class in to funnel farm into. All sorts of characters were played in the long lane, including Hunters and Mages.

Mages have been popular in the long lane since the Mid-Season Invitational.

The long lane carry role is given a lot of gold and experience. While not boasting the sustained DPS or tank shredding of Hunters, Mages are scary when they get a lead. Abilities like Whirlwind and Crush do a lot of damage when even and are just brutal from ahead. Mages are typically easy to dive and lose a lot of damage between ability cooldowns, but they make up for it with large AoEs and high damage when they get to cast their spells. Mages are played in the long lane in order to be nukes in the mid game. A composition with two Mages means that you can cover large parts of a teamfight in void zones and your team can have two Mage ultimates that need to be answered by the opponents. Late game Mages are great to play in the long lane because they will be online earlier than if they were played in the mid lane. Gods like Scylla and Thoth can quietly farm in a side lane and then come swinging to a teamfight, obliterating enemies with their item and level leads.

Some Mages are strong in the early 1v1 and are comfortable in the long lane, especially when facing another Mage or low-clearing Hunter. Gods like Isis, Anubis, and Merlin are able easily clear the wave and harass their opponents. These gods can position aggressively and kill opponents under their tower or force them back and deny farm. Most Mages just fall apart in front of Assassins, so this forward playstyle is vulnerable to ganks. However, with smart movement from your whole team, a Mage can push a giant lead while being ahead of the curve due to accumulating solo farm and limiting their opponent’s power at the same time.

Magical Hunters are not out of the game and bring consistent magical DPS while bringing other benefits to a team composition. Most mages can’t knock towers down quickly without a Polynomicon. Other than Freya, the magical Hunters can use their high attack speed and power to destroy towers and enemy front liners. Traditional Hunter players are also more likely to perform well on a Mage that relies on their basic attacks and has the power curve of a Hunter than ones with wholly new play patterns and cooldowns. Magical Hunters are great to include in double Mage compositions when you really want a Hunter, but already have a very physically-leaning damage profile.

Both early game and scaling Mages can find a home in the long lane.

Assassin and Warrior supports are popular in the higher levels of Smite. Common starts include having the support attack the enemy jungler while he’s trying to clear buffs and even try to secure the buff under him. Assassins and Warriors are great supports for this job because they have high base damage and bully potential at level one. The support will waste the time of opposing jungler and give up their own experience in order to set the jungler behind. This is worth it for the support because junglers are a carry position and want to be ahead to gank lanes while supports are used to being a few levels under the curve.

With less Guardians in the support role, a team may want to run a second magical character. Team compositions with four physical gods are used all the time in professional play, but a more balanced damage profile is easier to play around. A team with too much of a single damage type can be itemized against. Usually the way to balance a damage profile is to just run a magical god in a traditionally physical role. Gods such as Jormungandr and Ao Kuang can be played in the solo and jungle roles, respectively. These gods are played to pull the damage profile more magical in a double Hunter composition. Similarly, you can balance out a team’s damage profile when they have a physical support, jungler, and solo laner by having Mages in the two other roles.

Even with only two magical characters, a double Mage composition can fall very heavily on the magical side of the damage profile. To remedy this, you can draft physical gods that bring high damage. Gods like Bastet, Susano, and Thor are scary to fight and can easily kill their opponents while not always being the best overall pick. Alternatively, your jungler or solo laner can build more damage-focused items. A great example is building an Erlang Shen jungle with The Executioner and Qin’s Sais. This allows Erlang Shen to supplement his natural bulk and crowd control with high DPS and makes the enemy worry about physical damage. Having strong physical damage in a double Mage composition is great because it means that the opponent has to worry about both damage types and they can’t funnel resources into just magical protections.

Serqet and other physical supports can encourage a team to run two Mages in carry positions.

After half a split relegated to the long lane, a breakthrough in Mage itemization brought the class back to the mid lane. Mages can start the game with boots 2, Lost Artifact, and a potion. After accumulating 1700 gold, this build turns into Shoes of Focus and Cursed Orb. For the cost of a pair of boots, Mages can get an insane 1.5 item power spike. This discovery brought Mages back into the mid lane. Now they do not automatically lose pressure and no longer become unable to ever contest a Hunter in the laning phase.

In the duo lane, Pythagorem’s Piece is still a strong second item. This item is great for trading because it comes with health, lifesteal, and cooldown reduction. Pythagorem’s Piece also provides an aura increasing the lifesteal and power of nearby allies. The Doom Orb start is powerful, but Tiny Trinket into Pythagorem’s Piece allows for a safer laning phase. Phythagorm’s Piece acts like a Hunter’s Devourer’s Gauntlets while the Doom Orb rush is more akin to building a Transcendence. When facing a Hunter or other physical lane opponent, Mages can start with an Imperial Helmet for a bit of protections. The Helmet then builds into a Dynasty Plate Helm, or sometimes a Lotus Crown if you are playing a healer.

Another itemization trick with double Mage compositions is the ability to stack Demonic Grip and Spear of the Magus. Both items reduce the magical defense of their target. Demonic Grip procs on basic attacks while Spear of the Magus shreds on ability hits. Demonic Grip is used on gods such as Sol, Chronos, Freya, Olorun, and sometimes Poseidon. Spear of the Magus is best on gods with damage over time spells or combos that use multiple abilities or ticks, such as Anubis, Kukulkan and Poseidon. Having both items allows a team to remove 50 + 36% of an opponent’s magical protections. If your composition allows the use of both items, tanky front liners will evaporate in the presence of both Mages. Not every double Mage composition can run both protection reducing items, some can’t make use of either, so it can get hairy trying to kill a Warrior focusing on magical protections. Obsidian Shard and flat penetration items help but be on the lookout for a composition that can make use of the items that can boost the DPS of both carries.

Items that reduce your opponent's magical protections are great in double Mage compositions.

Double Mage compositions are not perfect and have weaknesses. Teams using a more ability-focused Mage in the long lane will lack tower pressure while sieging. Sol, Chronos, and Olorun are able to destroy towers from range due to their high attack speed and basic attack damage, but other Mages take towers slower and their physical teammates need to be in melee range to break objectives. Mages usually are great at securing neutral objectives but lack the raw DPS that Hunters can bring to get the objective low enough to secure it. In addition, Mage are less capable of sneaking and soloing a fury than Hunters.

In team fights, especially in the late game, most of your damage is going to come from the two Mages, so opponents can build heavy magical defense to mitigate this damage. Usually this means that the frontline can end up doing more damage in fights, but it feels really bad having a Warrior run over your Mages while being nearly unkillable, especially while abilities are on cooldown. Hunters can continue to fight between cooldowns, but most Mages are very weak when they wait for their abilities to come back up. It is possible to build a jungler or solo laner to be more damage focused to pull focus and defenses away from your Mages, but a composition with poor physical DPS that also lacks the ability to use Demonic Grip and Spear of the Magus will struggle to kill tanks or even squishies that buy a bit of protections.

Double Mage compositions can struggle killing structures and tanks if put together thoughtlessly.

In the later weeks of Season Six, competitive teams were sometimes running Mages in both the mid and long lanes. After the carry role opened up, it wasn’t that rare to see a team composition without a physical Hunter or an attack speed Mage. Assassin and Warrior supports are very strong, so magical carries can balance out a team’s damage profile. At the same time, Mage itemization has gone through a discovery period and compositions utilizing Demonic Grip with Spear of the Magus can shred through their opposition. Teams with two damaging Mages are weak at sieging objectives but are great at teamfighting. With the Smite World Championship over and Season Seven fast approaching, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Mages in the long lane and compositions that utilize multiple Mages to dominate their opposition.

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