There are a lot of changes that have happened since the beginning of season 4. There are new pro teams, new items and much more. There is a lot to take in, and it can be frustrating at times. It can feel like your play has taken a step back, and to a degree it has. Instead of looking at that as a detriment, it is possible to look at it as an opportunity. This is your chance to build up from the ground and start playing your best smite ever. This is how to do it.

Grind Productively

It is hard to grind, and it can take a toll on you. This, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term is to just play the game a ton. Increasing volume is the best way to learn the game. Getting in as much play time is the best way, but that isn’t enough. In order to improve faster while doing this you need to try new things. Try the new build items and try some new gods, find a combination that you can work well with and use it as much as you can. If you feel good on Hel mid, then play all of the Hel mid you can. Don’t be afraid of criticism if you have found success before. The community will be toxic, which can make grinding nearly unbearable. That being said, eventually you will improve, just as you would with any other activity. Gaming takes practice, and you won’t magically just become good. People work very hard to become as adept as they are at SMITE, and there is a time commitment required for improvement. Pay attention to how you may falter at certain times. While frequent repetition of errors may become demoralizing, they are where you have the most to learn. Every fault is an opportunity where an improvement can be made, as cliché as that sounds.

Learn the Role

This seems like a given, but can be more complex than it seems. It is more important to learn the role than the gods in the role. Picking one god that you are confident on and grinding that god in your preferred role is the best way to learn a role. The reason that pro players are as good as they are and get away with running off-meta picks in their streams is because they know their role better than anyone else. That is not to discount their mechanical skill on each god, which is extreme, but their knowledge of the role is the biggest aspect of their success. Knowing when to push a lane, when to stay under tower, where and when to ward, when a rotation could be worth it, what pathing to take, the intricacies of the role, are all things that the pros are masters at. Picking one god and grinding the role rather than the god is much more conducive to becoming a better player than trying to expand your god pool from the start. Learn your role first, and once you have learned the role, expand your god pool. There will be different ways to play gods that affects how you play the role, but for the most part you will be prepared for whatever the role has. For example, if you decided to grind Ra to learn the role of middle lane, and after having gained competency in the role decide to try out Janus, you can get away with more rotations with a proper use of your portal than you could with Ra who is only able to walk through the jungle. This makes it easier for rotations to pay off, which is useful, but if you know how to play the role of mid you can get away with not making all of the rotations until you get more confidence on the Janus.

Watch Pros

This one may seem obvious too, but it can easily shift from being entertainment to educational. Watch pro players play both on their streams and in the SPL, and pay attention to their decision making. Why did they rotate there? Where did they position when a teamfight broke out? When do they return to base? How did they build? When did they burn abilities? When did they retreat from the fight? Things like this that may require thought for the average player are instinctive for the pro players, even in a more casual setting. A pro player not playing seriously is most likely still better than the average player, and because of that they still can be used as a learning resource.

Watching the SPL productively is harder. The limited camera view is highly restrictive, but paying attention to the minimap and the various stats on the screen can be extremely useful. Pay attention to things from pathing through the jungle to what they buy when they return to base. Things like this are also intricacies of the role that can prove to be learning opportunities. Did they back when they could finish a certain item or because they were out of mana? Is their build highly standard or are there deviations? Why would those deviations be there? What is the trade-off for building a more unusual item? These questions are things that can be answered by watching pro league games. In addition to this, the SPL is the place where the best players in the world go and play their best. The SPL is the highest level of SMITE that is played, and it is free to view every week. This is a great resource for learning how to play the game at a higher level.

Conclusion

There are many ways to improve your game. Not everyone is capable of being a pro player, but everyone is capable of improving themselves. Thorough practice is required to improve and this is a time consuming endeavor. Play through the rough games, don’t immediately surrender the moment the game starts to tip into one team’s direction, learn from being behind, join a twitch community, and, most importantly, have fun! It is fun to win, and learning and getting better is the best way to win more!

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