SMITE Ranked Picking and Banning Guide

SMITE Ranked Picking and Banning Guide by DeamonMachine

I want to make the ultimate “New to Ranked” or “I’m returning to ranked” guide so players are easily able to make informed and smart decisions without having to learn on the fly or get yelled at by their team. I also want this to be a community driven post because I know I am not THE definitive guide to ranked, but I think that we as a community can build a guide that will be great.

Ideal requirements for ranked:

ALL mastered gods

Comfortable in most positions, well versed in support.

Reasonable requirements for ranked:

HAVE CURSE VOICE FOR THE LOVE OF GODS even if you can only listen (no mic) It makes team synergy so much higher.

~25+ mastered gods, all the gods on the pick/ban list

A few high value gods from each position to pick for others.

First off we’re going to start with ranked etiquette. Who gets what position is determined by the top to bottom pick order. If you’re bottom pick don’t throw a hissy fit because you don’t get mid, this will end poorly in team performance. A good ranked player can fill several roles at a high skill level.

Rules to live by:

Call your position preference as soon as you get into picking, this makes life easier for everyone up and down so they can easily work out what positions need to be filled. If you play multiple positions, fill them out in best to worst fashion, eg. ADC/Mid/Solo. This lets the team know that you can fill any of these positions easily and play at a reasonable level.

Picking Order

Legend Order = Blue side, Castle | Chaos = Red, Invader Wood fortress

Pick / Ban Order

Bans: Order, Chaos, Order, Chaos

• Order
• Chaos
• Chaos
• Order
• Order
• Chaos

2nd Ban Phase Chaos, Order

• Chaos
• Order
• Order
• Chaos

This is the order that the bans happen, if you are first pick you look at the banning phase in a whole different light than if you are 2nd pick. 1st pick allows you to “bait bans” and control the tempo of the entire god selection if played correctly.

Tier List of Bannable gods (This is also the gods you NEED MASTERED in case of their availability to pick. Especially if it’s not for yourself).

This is the high value gods that you must take great care when choosing to ban or more importantly NOT ban.

Nu Wa (Global Damage, and initiation, high burst potential and really really annoying)

Mercury (Hyper carry late game, Insane damage late game. Will kill you in 2 – 3 shots @20 minutes)

Serqet (Very mobile, great damage. Extremely difficult to lock down)

Loki (Very powerful solo laner due to his decoy and vanish, can be very hard to keep track of in lane, high burst)

Athena (Global Rotations with ultimate that will quickly change an engagement)

Geb (The shield, the shield, the shield, oh and don’t forget, the shield)

Janus (High damage, extremely mobile and fast rotations)

Rama (Out pushes any other hunter early game, mobile and long distance ult for clean-up)

Arachne (mobile and has very high chase potential, spiders are annoying as ****)

Now I will try to explain how to use this guide to your advantage.

When you are 1st pick: (Example) This is the opportunity you have to take a very high value god that will hopefully carry you through the game. Not specifically banning Nu Wa or Mercury will force the other team to ban them because they do not want YOU to have that god. This is where you make them choose. Here is an example when your solo says he really wants Loki due to his skill and competence with the god:

You Ban 1st: Arachne

They Ban: Mercury

You ban: Geb/Athena (Now you have forced them to make a choice, Ban Nu Wa or Loki.

They ban: Nu Wa

You pick: Loki and give it to your solo laner.

When you pick your god, trying to get a high value + ambiguous position god is part of the strategy. If they can’t determine where this god is going, it makes it harder for them to counter-pick. Picking someone like Freya would be an example. She could go ADC, Jungle or Solo.

When you are 2nd pick (Example)

They ban: Mercury

You ban: Nu Wa

They ban: Athena

You ban: Geb

They may have been trying to grab geb for 1st pick, take that option out of their hands and force them to pick a high value god and show some of their plans, this can be very good for counter play.

Remember: RANKED =/= Smite Pro League. Just cause the god has been top tier in SPL doesn’t mean that it’s performance will mirror in ranked. Be mindful of YOUR OWN skill level as well as your likely team mates. This determines a LOT in the picking / banning phase.

I’ll wrap it up here and start to gather community feedback and edit the post as necessary to help make it as informative as possible. I’d like to get it down to making a top picks / bans tier list anytime there is a patch to keep it current. I will also modify it as necessary for developing metas. Please leave comments and correct me where I am wrong.

Ranked is a fun game mode for excitement, competitive environment, communication and team work. Please do not ruin it by being too stubborn to play other positions and raging at people for their current performance. Everyone has bad games, or bad match-ups. If your team mate is getting camped by the solo and jungle in solo lane, you either HELP or MAKE PLAYS ELSEWHERE. If you do NOT do either, then you have failed more than the person who’s getting camped.

Alright, I’m done rambling. Hope you find this post helpful and informative. Don’t hesitate to as questions, the smite community is very nice and helpful, someone will have an answer even if it isn’t me.