Smite Items Guide

Learning all the items takes time, if you study them by memory you might remember a few here and there. But if you take the time to understand how the different items work and their properties, then that endeavor will be made much easier.

But where do we begin with our examination? Well, with the basics. The item categories and their stats.W

What are the Item Categories in Smite?

Smite has 4 item cateogires. General items, Offensive items, Defensive items, and Utility items.

A handy tool that is available in-game is Smite's god builder. We've written previously on how to use Smite's god builder, go check it out to learn its ins and outs. Not only does it help you sort through items, but it also gives you the item's description. That way you can gauge if it would fit into your play style or not.

As you can see in the image above, the categories have their own sub-categories within them. Though the general principles remain the same. General items are items that have a general purpose and use. Things like potions, wards, glyphs, etc. In essence, consumables.

Offensive items add on to the stats that we use for dealing damage. Power, attack speed, lifesteal, penetration, and crit chance fall under this category.

Defensive items on the other hand are the items that increase our lifespan and survivability. Physical protections and magical protection items fall under here. Items that give us health and health regen. And most importantly, items that help against crowd control effects.

Utility items are the final category of items. These items serve a more general purpose and make our lives easier. Items with different auras are here. Items that give us movement speed increases are also here. Items that reduce the cooldown of our spells can also be found here. And finally, the items that give us more mana and mana regen can also be found here.

General Items in Smite

As we mentioned earlier, general items are the items that serve a general purpose. Though most of the category is just consumable items.

Consumables are as the name implies, items that we consume to give us certain effects. Health potions, mana potions, elixirs to give us buffs, sentry wards to help us see the enemy, items that deal damage to minions and creeps. That sort of stuff

Relics are quite cool. You can have up to two relics at a time. They're not necessary, but they're too good to pass up. Relics are usually castable items that give you useful extra abilities or unique passive effects. On top of that, they can be upgraded for 500 gold and become even stronger versions of themselves. In the words of don Corleone "...an offer he can't refuse." Don't pass them up on the provided bonuses from their evolved variant.

Starter items are as the name implies, items that you take at the start. There's a bunch of them, but the general principle behind all of them is that they boost the capabilities of the class you are playing. It's generally a smart idea to take one of these items at the start and sell it later. You don't have to, but it's heavily advised.

And finally, glyphs. Now, glyphs are rather new. Glyph items provide extra effects to certain Tier 3 items in Smite. This is handy if you want an extra effect on your item that you'd otherwise have to build items for -Saving you time and money. Quite situational in regards to most items, but still handy.

Offensive Items in Smite

As we mentioned previously. Offensive items are the items we use to deal damage to the enemy. This includes the physical damage dealers, as well as magical ability damage increases.

These items are further split into multiple sub-categories. But here's the general principle behind them.

Power is what you use to deal damage. Here the math is quite simple more power = more damage. The bigger your number is, the smaller the enemy's health will be. Most of the items in the offensive category give you some sort of power. And often, they help improve one or more statistics.

Carefully read the descriptions of their effects, as sometimes they can come with specific effects like anti heal. The enemy team will hate you for that one.

Attack speed is self-explanatory. It increases your attack speed. We discussed the importance of attack speed when we looked at how to build Assassin gods in Smite. The basic philosophy is, the more attacks you can make, the more damage the enemy will end up taking.

Lifesteal is also self-explanatory. Certain items give you the ability to steal the life from an enemy proportionate to the % of the damage you do to them. This is really helpful if you want to survive in the long run. This can be physical as well as magical lifesteal.

Penetration is your attack's ability to penetrate through the enemy's defense and deal damage. Physical and Magical defense items both lower your ability to penetrate through and deal full damage, having items that give you penetration will help you to this end.

Crit chance items are items that increase your chance to make a critical hit when you strike the enemy. Usually, these items are best paired with attack speed items as the more attacks you make, the higher the chance that one of those will be a critical hit.

Defensive Items in Smite

Defensive items are as the name implies, items that help you defend from certain effects, and or give you certain bonuses.

Defensive items have the following sub-categories. Firstly, you have the Physical and Magical defense sub-categories. These items have the same principle. They defend against that specific type of damage. Physical defense items defend from physical attacks, while Magic defense items defend from magical attacks.

Health items are the items that increase your health. These are essential if you're building a tank. We discuss this in our how to build Guardians in Smite guide. Being a solo lane isn't easy, you have to survive every punch thrown at you.

HP5 items are items that give you health regen. A lot of the items from the health sub-category also give health regen, so don't stress too much about this one.

And finally, it's the CCR sub-category. This one is the most important one for all classes. CCR means "Crowd Control Reduction." These are the items that reduce or mitigate the effects of crowd control abilities.

Utility Items in Smite

And finally, we have Utility items. These items serve to give us general utility in our games and to make life easier.

In the aura sub-category are items that give a certain aura to allies or enemies near the person who has them. 

The movement category are items that give you movement speed. This used to be the "shoe store" section before boots were removed, but now, movement speed is a stat that has been added to a lot of the items from the other categories.

The cooldown reduction section is for items that reduce the cooldown of your spells. This is essential if you're playing a Mage god, we talked about this in our how to build Mages in Smite guide. If you're playing the middle lane, you want every advantage possible over the enemy team.

And finally, the Mana and MP5 section is for items that give you mana and mana regeneration. Many items that come with one usually have the other as well, as these stats usually go hand in hand. 

Are Starter Items Worth it?

Many players debate if grabbing a starter item is work it in the first place, as the trade off is that you have less gold to work with for building core items. But don't be fooled. Having items that provide bonuses in the early stages of the game is essential - no matter the build path you plan on taking. 

What's more. A passive item in the early game helps a decent amount in those early team fights in the laning phase. Paired with activatable items like relics and the boons become apparent. I mean, it makes sense right? Hi Rez Studios made Smite a game based on different stats and how they interact and counter each other. If you have better stats than your opponent - the balance is shifted in your favor. 

What Items Should I Buy in Smite?

This is a question that we take a look at in our class build guides. An example of that is the how to build mages in Smite. With time, it will become second nature in knowing which items to buy at the appropriate moment. For starters, take time in learning the items and which item tree they fall under. 

Assess the situation that you are in, look at the specific stats you need and build appropriately.