LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 22: Ryan Oh "Aquarius" Neill of the Spacestation Gaming esport team gets ready to play in a "Smite" video game competition during the grand opening of Esports Arena Las Vegas, the first dedicated esports arena on the Las Vegas Strip at Luxor Hotel and Casino on March 22, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Esports Arena Las Vegas)
SMITE Meta: This is not my solo meta
The Masters LAN saw a lot of changes to the Smite solo meta. New gods like Aphrodite have risen to prominence, and it’s not fun to deal with.
SMITE is constantly changing their metagame. During season four of SMITE, the solo lane was filled with aggressive warriors so you could win lane and “snowball,” or get ahead. Many changes were taken to the season five map to fight the snowball effect.
The first meta that season five went through was the ultra-aggressive or super-defensive. The ultra-aggressive was spearheaded by gods like Camazotz and other assassins or warriors like Cu Chulainn. The super-defensive is still quite prominent with Sobek and other guardians meant for the late game. The aggressive meta had a small shift into using more warriors, like Hercules, with control instead of the assassins.
The Masters LAN brought the prominence of another solo meta. Even though he didn’t make it into LAN, it was started by Obey Alliance solo, Xaliea. The god that he brought to the lane was Aphrodite for the first time in a long time.
This Aphrodite solo has created a door for other gods like Zhong Kui into the solo lane. These utility mages have some survivability and sustain in the lane. These gods rely on their healing aspects to stay in lane and keep fighting.
The positives of this sort of metagame come from the extra damage out of the solo lane, as it can allow for more selection variety. The other benefit (mostly for Aphrodite) is that it can provide a lot of healing and defense in the solo lane and can still help the team.
This meta, however, has more downsides than up. Oddly, the damage that was a benefit for the team hurts the support position. Opening up the god pool for solo pigeonholes the support into a defensive pick that plays the peel role more than anything.
The other disadvantage is the fact that it is incredibly easy to counter. Using those from Masters, Aphrodite and Zhong Kui, they both have some sort of healing in their abilities. Most solos want to build defense anyway, and Pestilence is still a great item for them to pick up, as it has decent magical protections and anti-healing in the passive.
Other gods can just be picked as a counter to this meta. Sobek is still extremely good along with Cu Chulainn. Both of these gods are just examples of gods that have anti-heal built into their kit. The list of gods who can counter this meta is long.
The solo meta seems to be the best and most entertaining when it is just aggressive warriors and guardians are put into solo just to fight it out. This is a rare time that I prefer the North American meta in solo. Gods such as Hercules have the self-healing aspect, but they do not depend on it.
The views expressed in this article explicitly belong to the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of, nor should be attributed to, App Trigger or FanSided as an organization.
