High Rez Studios' unique mythological inspired MOBA, Smite, has been captivating console gamers since 2014 (largely due to its great cross-play capacity). The battleground is still attracting new players every day. The core conquest mode pits teams of five players against each other on a traditional three-lane map, using a unique third-person perspective, with an end goal of defeating the opponents' Titan to come out victorious.
There’s a lot to learn when first diving into the free-to-play game, and with 117 playable gods and creatures to choose from, Smite is bound to be overwhelming at first. Thankfully, as with any good MOBA, there’s a handful of beginner-friendly characters to ease you into the various roles. Whether you're working as a laner to push forward or defend, or roaming the map obtaining buffs in the all-important Jungle role, these are the essential Gods that will guide beginners to those coveted early wins.
Updated February 15, 2022 by Jerrad Wyche: Smite is a rather successful MOBA that has been running for years, and despite not having the popularity or reach of something like League of Legends, it continues to thrive. It not only provides interesting licensed battle pass cosmetics but the developers at new playable characters at regular intervals. Smite is always evolving, but there are always a handful of characters that make the onboarding of new players much more forgiving and welcome them onto the battlefield.
15 Chaac: A Self-Sustaining Warrior With A Presence
As a new player, you're often focused on what's happening in your small circle of attention. Winning individual fights against another player can help build confidence and a Warrior class god like Chaac may be a perfect choice. The Mayan God of Rain can heal himself, which allows you to stay in the fight. His other abilities allow him to both slow the enemy and also silence their use of their own abilities thanks to his ultimate. Every five successful melee strikes he lands allow him the use of one ability without the drainage of mana. This passive ability is easy to understand and implement for new players learning the game of Smite.
14 Geb: Life-Saving And Fight-Changing Guardian
When anyone starts a new multiplayer game it's a hard ask to have them be interested in support characters. That being said, saving a teammate can feel just as satisfying as getting a kill and the Guardian class god known as Geb proves that. In addition to his crowd control abilities, he can apply a shield to anyone on his team, including himself.
Pairing Geb with the Blink relic item will allow his ultimate to become the best fight engagement move for the entire team as he can surprise the enemy and lock them into place.
This can mean the difference between your team winning a team fight by eliminating enemy gods, or coming up short. Shielding others is easily understandable and learning when the right time to do it is can offer you a real sense of progression when it comes to feeling like you're getting better at the game.
13 Ymir: A Guardian Who Can Protect And Control
Ymir is a great learning moment for new players who think that the Guardian class is only full of support gods. Sure, with his freeze and wall abilities Ymir can provide plenty of protection for his teammates, but with the right build, he can unleash serious damage. Using Ymir will teach new players how to work cohesively with their teammates, but at the same time provide an easily digestible set of combo moves that can really create chaos in the middle of bigger engagements with the enemy team.
12 Vulcan: Unassuming Mage With Real Damage Potential
The Mage class of gods is full of several characters who are newcomer-friendly, but Vulcan may be the most surprising. He has naturally limited movement, but his abilities can dish out exceptional damage when successfully used in combination. His ultimate is also really fun for new players as they can shoot a long-range missile in hopes of landing a lucky shot on unsuspecting enemies. Once you get the hang of popping players in the air with his 'meatball' and following that up with his line attack it will become clear how much damage one can dish out with proper practice and improvement.
11 Artemis: The Trappings Of A Reliable Hunter
Artemis, among the Hunter class, is pretty straightforward in terms of abilities, but can also be the riskiest choice for new players. She has poor movement, meaning that map awareness and positioning are crucial. Her traps offer passive irritation to enemies and pairing that with her ultimate that unleashes a giant boar that damages and stuns gods in close proximity, she can become rather annoying. It's imperative that if you choose her you're playing alongside a supporting character you trust, as that relationship will mean the difference between a high kill count with low deaths and a match where you're simply trying to survive an enemy onslaught.
10 Sun Wukong: A Straightforward, Tanky Warrior
Hailing from Chinese legend, the monkey king Sun Wukong was crowned a hero after his journey to the West. He's been deemed many things, but more than anything else, he's an excellent Warrior. As the solo laners of Smite, Warriors are the most beginner-friendly class, due to their tanky nature and flexible build possibilities.
With a basic kit, Wukong's a safe bet for beginners. His ultimate, Somersault Cloud, is a great evasive ability, momentarily pulling him away from the fight while regenerating his health. Therefore, players can jump headfirst into the action with the reassurance of an easy escape route if needed.
9 Thor: A Formidable, Versatile Assassin
A member of the Assassin class, the formidable Norse God of thunder is an ideal choice for getting to grips with the jungler role. With a high damage output and strong mobility, his hammer-clad abilities are perfect for getting the job done swiftly. His second ability, Tectonic Rift, creates some breathing room in the form of a crowd control stun and block, while his third, Berserker Barrage, deals five bursts of damage in quick succession.
Missing Thor's ultimate can feel pretty bad, but remember that throwing your hammer and activating the ability once more can teleport you out of danger.
Overall, Thor is a versatile all rounder with combo potential, and an enticing high skill ceiling. Great for beginners to sink their time into.
8 Hun Batz: A Perfect Assassin For New Junglers
Another beginner-friendly jungler is the howler monkey god, Hun Batz. Arguably more straightforward than Thor, Hun Batz has a simple kit and can implement a lot of high single-target damage, thanks to his strong melee abilities. His Infused Strike passive increases his basic damage by 15% every time an ability is used, potentially making him a monster to face in the late game.
His Sacred Monkey is a great ranged tool for team-assisted kills, while his ultimate, Fear No Evil, is one of the easiest to execute: he'll simply summon a totem to ward off and damage the enemy team, and your teammates can take it from there. This intriguing character is based on a god from the mythology of the Mayans.
7 Sobek: A Powerful Crowd-Controlling Guardian
Crocodile god Sobek is a menacing Guardian who fills the support role on the battlefield. An aggressive god with some of the best crowd control in the game, he's a destructive force to be reckoned with. As well as defending their hunter teammates, it's crucial for Guardians to learn when to initiate fights. Sobek's ability Charge Prey can swiftly pull an enemy out of position, and if utilized well, is a perfect opportunity to bring the fight to a key foe.
This learning curve alone makes Sobek a brilliant option for beginners looking to wet their feet in the Guardian role.
6 Achilles: A True Jack-Of-All-Trades
A Warrior at heart, the invincible Achilles can lend himself to multiple roles, including solo, support, and jungle. Very short cooldowns, paired with auto-cancels and a passive (Gift of the God) that has the potential to supply bonus power and movement speed, can make the greek warrior a very hard hitter. His best trait, however, is the amount of versatility he has. Essentially, Achilles has the potential to be whatever the player wants and can be molded to suit any play style.
Whether you want to take an aggressive, damage-dealing approach or head in using a tanky, defensive build, you'll be able to try a bit of everything with this jack of all trades. This makes him incredibly valuable to learn with.
5 Neith: The Weaver Of Fate Is A Easy-To-Pick-Up Hunter
Neith is the first god introduced to players when booting up Smite's in game tutorial and is a great option to stay familiar with. Hunter is the carry class of Smite, dealing heavy damage, and the weaver of fate is universally known as one of the easiest gods to pick up as an introduction to ADC.
With built-in healing, good CC skills, and an ultimate that can impact the fight from any position on the map, players can easily maintain a safe strategy while dealing a hefty amount of damage to rack up those much needed kills.
4 Ra: The God Of The Sun Scorches From Safety
Typically a mid lane Mage, the god of the sun can be a scorching choice for beginners. As most of his damage abilities are line targets, they allow for some precision practice before being executed to their full potential. This gives players the chance to develop their aiming chops. Although not a healer by definition, Ra does have healing properties and is a relatively safe play (taking into account the additional movement speed granted by his Speed of Light passive).
While he's not the easiest god to learn and the early game can be a slog, capitalizing on Ra's potential will often reward players with a successful mid game. He's overall one of the most satisfying beginner gods to learn. Ra also happens to boast some great in-game skins, if you want to dive into the world of Smite cosmetics too.
3 Agni: A Powerhouse With A User-Friendly And Deadly Ultimate
The god of fire, Agni, is a powerful Mage equipped with high damage ranged abilities. His Rain Fire ultimate is certainly his biggest selling point, unique in the fact that players can hold a generous three charges in contrast to the typical one. In 18 second bursts, Agni launches three burning boulders that deal staggering area damage, and with a very low cooldown landing, all three hits aren't essential to make an impact.
With a very handy dash ability, Agni's also fairly safe for a Mage, although as the squishiest class it's still advised not to fall out of position too often.
2 Guan Yu: A Monstrous Melee Machine From The Get-Go
A saint of war and guardian of justice, Guan Yu is a perfect Warrior for beginners to choose, with a fairly simple kit to grasp and a healing first that reduces cooldowns. Guan Yu also has excellent mobility, thanks to Warrior's Will (which gives him a frantic burst of speed to either evade oncoming assaults or chase down the opposing team).
To top it all off, he boasts a destructive ultimate that keeps him immune to CC damage. Not to mention a Painless passive that, once fully stacked, boosts all of his abilities. Put simply, Guan Yu can be a melee machine for newbies.
1 Kukulkan: Perhaps Smite's Best Newcomer Pick
One of the most enticing things about Smite's roster is the split between Godly beings and mythical creatures. Creatures don't get much more intimidating than the majestic Mayan serpent, Kukulkan.
Kukulkan's movement can become a compromise, so make sure to position yourself accordingly.
Kukulkan is essentially a unanimous beginner recommendation from the Smite community. The serpent of the wind has a large AOE, swift movement speed, and decent safety. Its ranged abilities can effectively tackle minion waves, slowing enemies with fiery first Zephyr and dealing solid CC with third Whirlwind. Much like Thor, Kukulkan is easy to learn but hard to master, and is a blast to play.