Beginning SMITE – Starting to Understand the Conquest Map
SMITE Meta…as Far as I Know it
It’s been a little time since I started playing SMITE and I’ve been really enjoying it. I’ve played both the PC and PlayStation versions and they seem to be pretty comparable. Sure, I’m a bit better using the mouse and keyboard than controller, but I can play passably on the console. The main thing, I think, that will help me become a better player on both platforms would be to learn the meta of the game better.
The meta basically lays out the overall strategy of the game. In League of Legends, you’ve got a Top Laner, a Mid Laner, a Jungler, an ADC and a Support.
When you get into the game’s meta, you learn what type of champs go ‘best’ in each role. And you learn what typical champions excel at each role. For example Lucian is a good ADC while Ahri is a good Mid Laner. You could play Ahri in the bottom lane as APC, but she doesn’t really have the Attack Damage that is the cornerstone of an ADC. She focuses on Ability Power instead…but that’s League – I’m playing SMITE now.
Since I’m totally new to SMITE, I need to start my education somewhere and I figure the map is a good place. And apparently, SMITE actually has ranked gameplay for multiple modes. So many complications…
I’m gonna start with Conquest mode…and the basics…the lanes.
SMITE Conquest Lanes
There are 3 lanes on the Conquest map. Left, Middle, and Right and all lanes extend from your Titan which sits at the base of your map. The goal of Conquest is to protect your Titan while taking down the enemy team’s Titan. But to get there, you gotta get through a bunch of defenders.
Each lane has a Phoenix, 2 towers, and minions that spawn periodically to charge towards the enemy Titan. The minions usually end up running into each other and killing themselves but if a god gets in the way, they can advance one way or the other to a tower. These have attacks that when approached by enemies, they unleash. They’ll attack either minions or gods, but they target the minions first.
It’s all pretty standard MOBA stuff.
The towers that are furthest from the Titan are called the Tier One towers. In SMITE, there is a difference from what I’ve seen in League in that the turrets are not spaced equally in both the side lanes. The lane with tier one towers further apart is considered the ‘Long’ lane, while the one where the turrets are close to each other is the ‘Short’ lane. And these can show up on either side of the map.
Sometimes the ‘Short’ Lane is on the Right and other times, the Left. It kinda adds a little diversity and flavor to alternate things like this, but it can be a bit confusing when you’re starting out.
I’ll explain more in my next post, but the bottom line is that different gods tend to be found focusing on the Short, Mid, and Long lanes while still others tend to perform well in the jungle. I still haven’t figured it all out yet, but as I do, I’m writing it here to help others if I can.
Key Takeaways
- The Conquest map is divided into 3 lanes and a Jungle.
- Each Lane has 2 towers and a Phoenix that defend them.
- The furthest tower from the Titan is the tier one tower.
- The Mid Lane is of course in the middle of the map.
- The Short Lane has tier one towers that are closer together.
- The Long Lane has tier one towers that are further apart.