Smite: How to play hunters in Joust

Introduction to hunters

In Smite, there are different gamemodes to play in: Conquest, Joust, Arena, Siege, Assault, and Clash. While playing these different gamemodes you can choose from multiple classes to use which are Hunter, Assassin, Guardian, Warrior, and Mage. These classes are all unique and are used differently when fighting.

Hunters, the class we will be focusing on, are mainly basic-attack based gods. Their main characteristics are that they are physical and ranged.

Because of these characteristics, you will most likely be using items to add damage to the Hunter’s strength, their basic attacks. Some of the items you usually be using are: Qin sais, Odysseus’s bow, Rage, Deathbringer, Wind Demon, Executioner, and Ichaival to name just a few.

How to Enhance Your Auto Attack Damage

How do you fight? You will choose which items to use in those based on how you fight:

Do you have trouble hitting your basics? Then go for attack speed. It will give you more chances to hit them.

Do you have trouble sustaining? Use lifesteal items.

Do you hit your basics but want more power? Try using critical hit chance items.

Real life example:

I find that I am good at hitting my auto’s, but have trouble staying in the fight without losing to much health and being forced to retreat, so I build lifesteal at first in my build, and then crit.

Tip: If you build crit, get Rage first, then Deathbringer, another crit item, then switch out Rage for something else.

Strategies for Buying Items

The gods you play affect what items you should buy: Artemis and Jing Wei both have abilities that allow them to crit. You should build items that enhance your critical hit damage early on to maximize their earlygame damage.

Tip: Don’t get Rage first crit item on Artemis or Jing Wei, get Deathbringer or Malice because Rage is good for those who want critical hit chance and don’t have already have critical hit chance because of an ability or passive.

Tip: Deathbringer and Malice are both good as first crit items for gods who have a chance to crit already because of their abilities, such as Jing Wei and Artemis.

Building critical can work amazing if you play it right. You want to get your basic attack pattern to be unpredictable so you hit them more, so do not hold the left mouse button because it has a predictable pattern. Find your enemy juking pattern and shoot where they will be.

You don’t have to build lifesteal on Ullr because of his axe’s inherent lifesteal from his ultimate.  I like to build crit on Ullr. Even though some hunters don’t have a built in critical strike chance, like Ullr, you can built crit on those hunters.

 

Formation

I already explained how you build your god, but what about the formation?

One formation that I find useful when you have a tank, is to push up onto the enemy while you and the mage are behind the tank so you and the mage can take the least amount of damage while dealing the most amount of damage. You want the hunter to be on the side facing the jungle and the mage to be on the side facing the damage camp, you want the mage to face the least threat due to their squishy nature. After your team has dealt a little more than half the enemy tanks health you move past their tank and attack the enemy’s long range gods while your tank keeps their meter ones busy. Prioritize taking out the enemies with high crowd control in their kit first, then the highest damage, then highest mobility. After you killed the enemy damage dealers, you attack their guardian from behind. If you kill all of them and get a diecide, it leaves you with an opening to get items at base, steal their buff camp, and you could deal some tower damage, or you could get a quick push and kill the enemy titan and win the game.

But what if you are behind, you say? But what if your phoenix is down but their tower is up? If you are behind then you should rely more on your teammates coordination and play to win.

You shouldn’t fight needless battles if you are behind. Only fight when you outnumber them. Put more lifesteal in your build for more sustain.

If you use these tips, you should perform better. You may even be the carry and get a few friend requests.