Welcome to the big leagues. Though SMITE may attract a wide audience with its more light hearted and accessible game modes like Arena, Clash, and Assault, Conquest is, and always will be, its premiere game mode. Conquest is the classic three lane and a jungle MOBA map setup and is the axis around which the entire game is balanced. The designers create every god with this mode in mind and they balance both items and god kits around it. It is also the game mode that all professional league play takes place in. It is a mode that requires a large amount of skill, understanding of the meta, and team coordination in order to excel. 

    Although we have previously ranked the top gods for every class in SMITE if you truly want to shoot your way up the Conquest ladder there are a handful of gods that stand noticeably above the rest. The following five gods are so strong and effective in the Conquest mode that if played with a moderate level of competence you can give your team a significant advantage. In Ranked play these gods are very likely to be banned but you should be aware of them in the event they somehow slip through available.

5. KING ARTHUR: HAIL TO THE KING

King Arthur Reveal Trailer

    King Arthur is perhaps the most well known legendary figure in human history. Whether he was a real figure, a national myth, or something in between what is undisputed is his dominance in SMITE. Paired as a release with Merlin to ring in SMITE’s 100th god release Arthur lives up to the hype and ceremony by delivering a god who brings a non-stop onslaught of damage and disruption. Due to the design of King Arthur’s kit he essentially has double the amount of abilities of most gods in the game and expert use of these abilities can overwhelm an entire team. You do not want to be on the receiving end of Excalibur.

    Why King Arthur is great for Conquest:

• Overwhelming damage. As mentioned above due to his passive, Steadfast, all of Arthur’s abilities have two forms and are designed to be combo’d together in order to feel different than any other god in the game. As a result he has EIGHT damaging abilities (two forms for his 1, 2, 3, and ult). As a secondary result of this he can also draw heavy benefits from items that proc on damage causing abilities (anti-heal items, bonus damage items, items that heal upon dealing damage).
• Overwhelming CC. Among his eight unique abilities he has a cripple, a slow, a protection shred, a stun, and a move that launches an enemy into the sky and holds them there for several seconds. This large amount of CC allows him to utterly shred through a single target or even a full team’s CC immune abilities and beads and allows him to control or affect enemies in a wide area for a long period of time.
• Overwhelming survivability. Due to the design of his kit Arthur is constantly in motion and is therefore inherently hard to target, even his auto-attacks pull him in swings of movement unlike all others in the game. The onslaught of CC also allows him to lock down foes and further evade damage. 

4. APHRODITE: THE KISS OF DEATH

Aphrodite Reveal Trailer

   The Goddess of Love is perhaps one of the most underrated and unassuming gods in all of SMITE, and has been for much of her long career. At first glance most people assume she is simply meant to augment another player since much of her kit can benefit whatever ally she is linked with and dismiss her as a power in her own right. But a savvy player should look past the surface level design of her kit and the gigantic breasts that some lonely artist slapped onto her to see the incredible potential within..

Why Aphrodite is great for Conquest:

• Her damage is massive, and unexpected. Her 2, Back Off, is a PBAoE that originates from both her and any linked teammate and can deal up to 320 base damage +80% of her magical power. Her 3, Love Birds, is perhaps the most unexpectedly painful ability in the game. Disguised under the guise of pink flapping doves this ability has a very long range, a wide, easy-to-hit targetter bar and deals massive DoT totaling for 385 base damage plus 105% of her magical power. Read that again. 105%. Keep in mind that it is not DoT that enemies can dodge some part of, if they get hit they receive all 7 ticks.
• She’s very hard to kill. For a mage without an escape you might assume her to be one of the squishies characters in the game, and you would be mistaken. Aphrodite’s 1, Kiss, aside from being the way she links with allies is a long range, wide targetter, stun that can be shot through walls. Her 2 is a PBAoE that knocks any enemy away which can bat away pesky jungler’s or warriors. Her 3, aside from dealing massive damage, also heals her. And her ult, Undying Love, is a CC cleanse and grants a brief window of immunity from all damage. This means that all four of her abilities can be used to keep her alive and they are all on relatively quick cooldown.
• She is a massive force multiplier. Everything mentioned above can be coupled with another god making both Aphrodite and her ally incredibly hard to kill forces of destruction. When Aphrodite links to a teammate with her 1 she can then knock enemies off of them and damage them with her 2, heal them with her 3, and make them invulnerable with her ult. An Aphrodite paired with a competent ADC can reliably 2v5 an entire team if not countered correctly.

3. HEIMDALLR: ALL-SEEING, ALL-KILLING

Heimdallr Reveal Trailer

    Heimdallr is the most dominant Hunters ever introduced to SMITE. Even after almost 10 rounds of developer nerfs his kit he still sits head and shoulders above all other hunters. His answer to any situation or threat is damage, damage, damage, and more damage in true ADC fashion. And, due to the design of his kit incorporating a lot of vision, he avoids one of the greatest weaknesses of Hunters: vulnerability since, if played right, he can detect enemies well before they can cause him harm.

    Why Heimdallr is great for Conquest:

He has significant built in vision. One of the greatest weaknesses of Hunters/ADCs is their susceptibility to being ganked by enemy junglers and rotations. One great counter to this is buying wards and placing them in the jungle to allow warning of incoming ganks but Heimdallr has significant warding built right in. Due to his passive, the Vigilant, he continues to see enemy gods on the map for 4s after they would normally pass out of sight, whether that be moving behind a barrier, stepping out of a warded area, or stealthing. His 1, Piercing Sight, allows him to throw his sword in the air and reveal a large area underneath where it is cast. This allows a wary player to throw the sword over his nearby jungle during each casting and potentially detect incoming enemies. Lastly his 3, the Bifrost, allows him to place two Bifrost beacons which, although they can also allow travel between, are more tactically put to use as a signal tripwire. Any enemies that pass across the line between his two beacons are revealed to Heimdallr. A savvy ADC player will place these across avenues in his nearby jungle.

• Damage. That’s it. 
  • Heimdallr’s auto attacks are slow but very damaging, hitting for 1.25/1.25/1.5x damage of a standard auto attack with the first two dealing AoE damage when they strike. This allows for quick lane clear and punishing boxing matches so long as you hit the slowly-timed shots.
  • His 1 allows him to launch the revealing sword to a target location up to a very long range and although slow to hit can cause devastating damage (310+85% of your physical power)
  • His 2, the Gjallarhorn, is a long range cone ability that ticks 5x and ends with a knockback blast. If you hit everything on this ability it can deal insane damage (370+180% of your physical power). It is also key to note that while enemies that are hit are slowed, Heimdallr is not and it has a range just longer than the standard auto-attack range in SMITE. This means against an enemy ADC you can apply much of this damage from outside their range.
  • His ult, Through the Realms, is one of the most damaging abilities in the game. Heimdallr dashes forward and smacks an enemy into a portal to the Norse realms. As long as you hit the dash the ability deals ludicrous damage (830+145% of your physical power). It also reveals where the enemy will land upon returning allowing you to prepare any of your previously mentioned high damage abilities for a vulnerable enemy, if they are still alive (which most of the time they won’t be). The ult can also be used to dash to safety or, for the quick fingered, can be flicked to place the return location backwards towards your teammates or your own towerline.

2. PERSEPHONE: ALL HAIL THE QUEEN

Persephone Reveal Trailer

    Persephone has, without a doubt, the most bloated kit in SMITE. What I mean by “bloat” is that her kit does wayyy too many things. Because of this, I personally believe she is ripe for a nerf, however; even if some of her functions are stripped away she still has plenty of capability and will likely always remain a relevant force in Conquest. She is most likely the most difficult goddesses in the game to master as she requires excellent map and cooldown awareness and intimate knowledge of the functionality of the many facets of her kit. But, in the hands of someone who truly understands how to utilize her kit she can almost guarantee a victory for any team she is on.

    Why Persephone is great for Conquest:

• She brings death from beyond the grave. Her passive, Pomegranate Seeds, allows her to pick up seeds from her other abilities and when she has enough seeds accumulated if she is killed she remains on the battlefield for an extra 5 seconds. This is particularly powerful as even if she is focused and bursted down in a team fight, which she should be due to how dangerous she is, she can then remain in the fight for another 5s and continue to drop all kinds of damage on the enemy team.
• Her 1, Bone Rush, does high damage, has a long range, and can be shot through walls. Although it has a narrow targeter Bone Rush rewards a skilled shooter with having high confirmable damage, great wave clear, and in placing a skull on the map. Which leads me to my next point…
• Her 2, Harvest, is one of the most overwhelming and devastating abilities in the game. Persephone can plant skulls on the map with this ability (or through her 1) that she can then activate through her auto attacks or her jump. The skulls do the following things:
  • At beginning level they heal her when activated
  • At their second level they explode dealing significant AoE damage
  • At their third level they turn into unkillable stalking plants that run to the nearest god and chomp them for even greater damage
• Her 3, Flourish, not only allows her to jump forward or away from danger but it activates and levels up any skulls planted nearby. A well seeded garden of skulls can turn into a murderfield for an enemy team if Persephone jumps and activates them.
• Her ult, Grasp of Death, allows her to shoot a tangle of vines that will travel until it hits an enemy god or a wall and then will explode vines outward damaging and ensnaring all nearby enemies. This has a massive AoE and can serve to lock down entire teams, either forcing beads or CC-immune ults or causing a teamwipe.

1. YEMOJA: A RIVER RUNS THROUGH YOU

Yemoja Reveal Trailer

    Yemoja is currently the most broken goddess in SMITE. By broken I do not just mean overpowered but actually in the sense that she breaks the commons norms and playstyles of the game. Her abilities are very powerful in creating CC, healing allies, moving players about the map, and in dealing damage and she essentially has no cooldowns. If you want to assure victory for your team mastering and playing this god is almost a free ride, though that is why she is banned in nearly every competitive or ranked match.

    Why Yemoja is great for Conquest:

• She has devastating crowd control. The second form of Yemoja’s 1, Moonstrike, is a moderate range, easy-to-hit, stun. Because its targeter is a moderately sized circle it can stun multiple enemy gods and halt them in their tracks. Her ult, River’s Rebuke creates two massive, impassable walls of water that can trap enemies in tight quarters and prevent escape or chase. If aimed correctly this ability can funnel entire teams and lock them out of defending objectives or escaping to safety while Yemoja and her allies can pass freely into and out of it.
• She is great at keeping allies alive. Yemoja’s auto-attacks if shot at an ally provide healing which means while sitting in lane or between fights she can constantly be trickling health back to her allies with absolutely no mana cost. Her 2, Mending Waters, also is a ranged shot that will heal and provide a shield to any allies his. This essentially allows her to have a Shell ability in her back pocket with a much shorter cooldown.
• Few other gods can match her ability to move players. Yemoja’s 3, Riptide, while it may appear unassuming can be highly impactful over the course of a match. It can be spammed to rapidly move herself and allies about the map and even, if placed perfectly at max range, launch enemy players toward Yemoja and her teammates for an ambush.
• Omi. Yemoja’s omi system takes what is already a very potent kit for a support role and utterly breaks the game. Instead of consuming mana like every other god in the game, Yemoja consumes omi when she casts an ability (aside from her ult). She has up to 10 omi that are consumed when casting abilities but otherwise this is the only limit on her abilities. Her abilities have no cooldown (again aside from her ult) and can be cast instantly as many times as she likes as long as she has omi to spare. That means she can cast multiple stuns, heals, or team movement abilities in extraordinarily short order. Due to this she is impossible to counter and very hard to plan against as you cannot rely on any of her abilities being on cooldown. 

    Because SMITE is a game that requires both excellent team coordination and excellent understanding of the roles in the game, learning all roles and mastering a handful of gods in each role is highly recommended. If you ever intend to play at a high level you must understand how each role operates, even if you do not main that role, and be able to competently play it. If you take the time to study the above listed gods and master them within their roles you will become a highly effective SMITE player and see your win percentage (and ranked placement) grow to reflect that.

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