Season 8 of the third-person MOBA, Smite, is almost here, and it looks like the developer, Hi-Rez, is looking to make some pretty major changes to the game that gives players a lot more control over their play style.
A new range of starter items is one of the ways that this new level of control will be added. Starter items are purchased at the beginning of the match, and offer buffs specific to a role. Previously there were only one, maybe two choices of starter items for each role, but in season 8, each role will have three choices, with vastly different buffs to suit different play styles. This list contains 10 of them, but there are 16 in total, plus their different upgrade paths.
10 Tainted Steel
This starter is the only item listed under “Neutral Starters” - meaning it is not specific to any role, but rather it can be used by anyone if they need to deal with enemies who are relying on healing. Tainted steal offers a small buff and protection for both physical and magical gods, but its main draw is it’s passive which reduces the healing of enemy gods when they take damage from you.
Once you reach level 20, Tainted Steel can be upgraded to Tainted Breastplate, offering even more protection and further reducing healing, or you can opt for the powerful Tainted Amulet which adds the effect of healing you for the full amount of healing that you’ve negated from the enemy. Basically, you steal their healing!
9 Leather Cowl
Intended for the carry role, and specifically, those who like a flexible build, Leather Cowl offers the utility of increased attack speed while you’re alone, allowing you to get back to your team quicker, and, once you’re within range of your teammates, that buff will switch to increase your attack speed instead, allowing you to help your team by dealing more damage.
At level 20, you can choose two paths for Leather Cowl; Hunters Cowl, which is much the same as Leather Cowl, with increased buffs and an aura effect to share those buffs with your team, or the Leaders Cowl, which grants your team increased attack power when you outnumber the enemy (perfect for late-game ganking!)
8 Death’s Toll
For carries who like to outlast their opponent, depriving them of early-game farm, Death’s Toll offers great early sustain. Each basic attack restores a small amount of health and mana with each hit, which in the early stages of a match means you’re able to stay out longer and gain an early lead in gold and XP - a popular tactic in the competitive scene.
Death’s Embrace and Death’s Temper are your two level 20 upgrade options. Death’s Embrace increases the health and mana gained per hit and offers an increase to base physical and magical attack power. Alternatively, Death’s Temper offers an attack power buff that rewards aggression, granting stacks of attack power for each kill.
7 Warrior’s Axe
Over in the solo lane, Warrior’s Axe rewards early-game boxing, offering some life-steal every 10 seconds when they land a hit. On top of this passive. you’ll gain some early game protections, a little extra health, and a small amount of damage reduction.
If you choose to upgrade to Sundering Axe at level 20, your life-steal effect will be increased and trigger every 7 seconds, and you will gain a substantial amount of base health. Hero’s Axe, however, rewards team play by granting a shield to nearby allies hit with crowd-control abilities. This shield is equal to 10% of your maximum health, which pairs well with the base health increase that this item also provides.
6 Warding Sigil
The solo lane can be a tough place where players will often mix up their class in an attempt to outwit their opponent. If you find yourself matched against a mage, Warding Sigil offers some magic protection and gains stacks that reduce incoming damage whenever you’re hit by an ability.
Depending on how the game plays out, you may want to increase this effect at level 20, by upgrading to Sigil Of The Old Guard. For a more aggressive style, you may opt for Infused Sigil, which still gains a stack when you’re hit with an ability, but at 5 stacks it explodes, dealing a devastating amount of magical damage to enemies within range.
5 Sands Of Time
Some mid-lane mages thrive off cooldown reduction (CDR), which is exactly what this starter item offers. Although Sands Of Time is a returning item, its upgrades offer brand new play-style options. In its starter form, Sands Of Time offers early CDR, and increased mana sustain to support more ability casts.
Upgrading to Pendulum Of Ages at level 20 will add a further buff to mana sustain, and additional magical power, which scales with your mana pool. The Alternate Timeline upgrade offers a chance to be resurrected at 25% health and mana if you’re killed. This can only trigger once every 10 minutes, but it could be the difference between winning and losing a team fight in the late game.
4 Conduit Gem
Another mid-lane starter, Conduit Gem rewards patience with high damage. Every second you don’t use an ability, conduit gem stores stacks of energy which give you a damage boost and remove all stacks on your next ability. Basically, wait for your stacks to build, then unleash one devastating attack on your opponent, or use it clear a minion wave in no time.
The level 20 upgrade changes this ability slightly with Archmages Gem scaling the stacks of damage off of your magical power, rather than a base amount of damage per stack. Gem Of Focus becomes slightly more aggressive with stacks being awarded for each ability cast, and buffing movement speed and damage, whilst simultaneously reducing incoming damage.
3 Eye Of The Jungle
Jungling is an extremely important part of Smite, and a jungler can make or break the team. Eye Of The Jungle is a powerful new starter that both buffs damage to jungle monsters, and leaves a ward on the corpse of large jungle monsters for 30 seconds, giving your team a leg-up on early gank attempts.
While Seer Of The Jungle at level 20 allows you to see enemy wards, so you can avoid them when you plan your flanking route, it’s alternative, Protector Of The Jungle will give you an advantage if you get flanked yourself, providing you with a buff to both power and protection while in the jungle.
2 Manikin Scepter
Playing the jungle role often means surprising your enemies from behind while they’re busy fighting your teammates - often forcing them to retreat. With Manikin Scepter, you will apply stacks of burn with each basic attack that reduce their attack speed (and therefore their damage output) and apply a damage over time effect - so even if they escape, they may still be in danger of perishing!
Manikin Mace will increase this burn effect once it’s upgraded at level 20, while Manikin Hidden Blade is the perfect flanking item, applying 15% of an enemy’s current health as physical damage and slowing them for 5 seconds. So big burst damage, which will leave them weakened in a weakened state, and slowing their retreat while you finish them off!
1 War Flag
Support players are often the unsung heroes of any MOBA, keeping enemies off your team, while your backline deals the damage. War Flag rewards this playstyle by giving allies a small health, mana, speed, and attack boost whenever the support doesn’t deal the final blow to minions or jungle camps. So support is there to take the damage, while your teammates deal damage and are rewarded with buffs.
When upgrading to War Banner at level 17, these buffs are increased, on the condition that you assist in kills, rather than purely tanking the damage. The level 17 Spartan Flag upgrade, however, rewards a little more aggression by providing allies with a larger 10% power buff whenever you deal damage to enemies (can only be triggered once every 10 seconds).
