When you load into a game of Smite, you make the first decisions about your build. Players usually begin the game with starting items called Blessings. Blessings cost 700 gold and only one can be bought per game. The Blessings are named after each of the classes in Smite, but are not locked to that class. Instead, they give stats and passives that fit into the Conquest role that class typically plays in. Blessings also evolve and gain additional effects when criteria are met.In this article, we will examine the Blessings and the best starting items for each role.

Before we get into how the roles utilize Blessings, we will take a look at the items themselves.

Assassin’s Blessing provides 35% bonus damage to jungle monsters, as well as 7% health and 20 mana restored on killing a jungler monster. Assassin’s Blessing evolves with Role Quest: Jungle. This quest evolves at 50 stacks and causes the Blessing to gain 10 penetration. Each jungle monster kill or assist is worth 1 stack while enemy gods are worth 5 stacks.

Guardian’s Blessing comes with 100 health, 5 MP5 (mana per 5 seconds,) and 5 physical and magical protections. When getting an assist on a jungle or lane minion, Guardian’s Blessing grants 7 health, 7 mana, and 3 gold. Role Quest: Support stacks with minion assists. At 50 stacks, Guardian’s Blessing evolves, granting 4 bonus gold per 5 seconds to the user.

Hunter’s Blessing increases the basic attack damage stat of the user by 15 and gives 10 MP5. It evolves with Role Quest: Carry. Killing or assisting a lane minion grants 1 stack and enemy god takedowns are worth 5 stacks. Upon reaching 75 stacks, Hunter’s Blessing evolves, gaining 15% attack speed and another 15 points of basic attack damage.

Mage’s Blessing grants 10 bonus damage per ability, 10 physical power, 20 magical power, and 2 MP5 per 10% missing mana. Role Quest: Mid is similar to Role Quest: Carry. Lane minion kills or assists grant 1 stack and enemy gods will give 5 stacks when they die. At 75 stacks, Mage’s Blessing evolves and gains 10% cooldown reduction.

Warrior’s Blessing gives the user 75 health and reduces every instance of damage taken by 3. Upon damaging an enemy god, Warrior’s Blessing restores 30 health and mana. This effect has a 10 second cooldown. Warrior’s Blessing evolves differently from the other starter items. Role Quest: Solo stacks by proccing the heal effect from damaging enemy gods. Getting a kill or assist on enemy gods provides 3 stacks. Warrior’s Blessing evolves at 15 stacks and gains 10 physical and magical protection.

The Blessings all evolve based on role quests, which are named for the roles each Blessing is designed to be used in. Similarly to the naming conventions, some Blessings can work in other roles and positions. When buying a Blessing, there is enough starting gold to buy a tier 1 item and some potions. What item you buy alongside the Blessing can vary. Next, we will go look at the roles in Smite and examine which Blessings and starts are the best.

Jungle

Junglers should always pick Assassin’s Blessing. Assassin’s Blessing not only makes jungle clearing a breeze, but also keeps the jungler healthy while clearing the map. Once evolved, Assassin’s Blessing gains penetration, which is a useful damage stat against enemy gods, especially in the earlier stages of the game. The sustain from Assassin’s Blessing is unmatched and the penetration is good damage until the Blessing is sold off for a sixth item. Assassin’s Blessing is the start for junglers. Along with Assassin’s Blessing, junglers buy a basic Mace or Katana with physical power to help with clearing the early jungle. This item later gets upgraded into a penetration or attack speed item, respectively. Magical junglers can start with a Magic Focus or other tier 1 damage item. A jungler's starting build revolves around farming the map in the early game.



Assassin's Blessing increases a jungler's uptime while farming.

Support

The best starting item for the support role is Guardian’s Blessing. Guardian’s Blessing allows supports to have some early game tankiness and sustain. Supports are encouraged to stay in lane and help clear minions. Minion assists help the support stay healthy and advance the Blessing’s quest. The support playstyle involves sacrificing gold to your teammates and Guardian’s Blessing helps mitigate how fall behind a support gets. Both the 3 gold per assist and bonus gold over time help a support build up an inventory and remain relevant. Other starts have been experimented on supports this season, but unless the game snowballs unreasonably hard, the support falls too far behind.

At the start of the game, Supports have some options of how they want to spend their gold after purchasing Guardian’s Blessing. The easiest start is to buy Boots or Shoes for movement speed. Other options are buying a Chalice of Healing and more potions for recovery if you are going for early dives and aggressive plays or upgrading your team fight relic if you think it will get value in the first few waves.



Guardian’s Blessing helps supports stay up in gold.

Carry

The duo lane carry role in Smite is often called the Hunter role because Hunters and Hunter-like gods populate the position. The majority of Hunters and other gods that revolve around basic attacks love Hunter’s Blessing. Hunter’s Blessing increases a god’s basic attack damage. This stat is visible in-game and is the damage value that your basic attacks will hit for before damage calculations such as protections. The damage increase is built into the basic attack, so it scales with stats like attack speed and crit. The 15-damage increase on every auto attack helps to clear the first few minion waves extra quickly. The attack speed gained from the evolution of Hunter’s Blessing is also a highly valued stat for Hunters, increasing their DPS by a good amount.

Some Hunters will instead opt for a Mage’s Blessing start. This is usually done on Hunters that hit with multiple abilities, like Ullr and Ah Muzen Cab. The early power on Mage’s Blessing also helps out Hunters that rely on a lot of abilities to do damage. Each proc of Mage’s Blessing is a separate damage source and not built into the damage of the ability itself. Mage’s Blessing can proc once per ability per target, so the damage can add up across a wave or teamfight.

Hunters usually buy the first tier of their stacking item with their Blessing. This item is sometimes finished first or is completed after boots are online. Magical carries like Freya can start with Spellbook or other basic magical items along with their choice of Blessing.



Hunter’s Blessing boosts the damage of basic attacks.

Mid Lane

The Mid lane is where Mage’s Blessing is most common. Mages often throw out a lot of abilities to clear the wave or to fight, giving Mage’s Blessing a lot of value. The cooldown gained from evolving Mage’s Blessing is a great stat and helps these characters keep pumping out damage in fights. Mage’s Blessing also provides a lot of MP5 when the user is low mana, further encouraging spell slinging. The more damaging spells the god has access to, the better Mage's Blessing is.

Basic attack Mages that are played in the mid lane can start Hunter’s Blessing for the same reasons they would in the duo lane. With this start, they are great boxers to start fights in the time between minion waves.

Mages have a variety of accompanying items to buy with their Blessing. Spell Focus, Lost Artifact, and Spellbook can all be bought. Which item to buy depends on which powerful item you want to finish first.

Another popular start in the mid lane is skipping a Blessing for a tier 2 power item. Often this is a Book of Souls intended to be upgraded into a Book of Thoth. Hunters in the mid lane can start with Charged Morningstar, which turns into Transcendence. Mage’s Blessing may not always provide enough of an oomph and the tier 2 item has enough power to tide the character over until they complete the item and start stacking it for even more power.



Mage’s Blessing and Book of Souls are both good starts in the mid lane

Solo Lane

The solo lane is more open to playing around with starting builds than the other roles. Warrior’s Blessing is the default starting item in the position. The solo lane is often a place where gods fight each other and Warrior’s Blessing rewards this playstyle by healing the user and stacking towards bonus protections. The flat 3 damage reduction is very useful against minion attacks. If you aggro the minion wave by hitting the opposing god, the minions will attack you and do significantly less damage with this Blessing. Warrior’s Blessing is best on aggressive Warriors who are looking to snowball the lane. Sometimes however, these Warriors would rather get tankiness and gold from Guardian’s Blessing.

Guardian’s Blessing is also the pickup for the majority of magical solo laners. Lately the meta has favored solo lane Guardians and the late game value Guardian’s Blessing can generate. Guardian’s Blessing stacks up by getting assists on minions. In the solo lane, this means intentionally not last hitting minions or even giving up waves to your tower. You can weaken the enemy minions to let your minions get the last hit to stack up Guardian’s Blessing. In lanes where both gods have Guardian’s Blessing, manipulating the wave just right to gain stacks and deny the opponent can bring massive rewards. While it may seem that stacking up Guardian’s Blessing puts you behind in gold, the extra 3 gold per assist helps out and only really stings losing minions to towers. Once Guardian’s Blessing is fully stacked, the extra 4 gold per 5 helps make up the gold lost from stacking the item and then generates additional resources above what you would be making otherwise.

Alongside their Blessing of choice, solo laners usually buy a Chalice of Healing to keep healthy. Solo laners like to fight and the Chalice can keep them topped between engagements. Solo laners also load up on Health Potions for the same reason. There is also the option to forgo potions and pick up Boots with the Blessing and Chalice. The Chalice is being used enough and will refill when the solo laner backs.

Some solo laners opt out of Blessings entirely and just start building other items. Hyper-aggressive Assassins and Warriors such as Thanatos and Achilles can start the game with Combat Boots and basic attack-oriented Warriors can start with Round Shield to rush Berserker’s Shield. These strategies are often left to more advanced players, as messing up and getting behind can be punished extra hard without a Blessing to back you up.



The solo lane has a diverse array of starting builds

Blessings are the starter items of Smite. They are named after the classes in Smite but cater instead to the roles of the Conquest map. Assassin’s Blessing is used by junglers while Supports take Guardian’s Blessing. Mid Mages will often have a Mage’s Blessing and basic attack characters in the carry role usually grab a Hunter’s Blessing. Solo laners have the most diverse selection and will usually decide between Warrior’s and Guardian’s Blessings. Sometimes Blessings are skipped over for early power spike items. Blessings were confirmed as surviving through the transition to Season 6 and will continue to play a big role in Smite.

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