SMITE's Awkward Learning Curve

[@squaretodare7428]

That learning curve is when you first play Conquest after a shit tonne of arena

[@bireland2012]

I think games like smite, the only real way of effectively learning to play the game other than getting your ass kicked over and over again is to have to a friend explain the game to you and a lot of people don't really want to go through that to just learn how to play.

[@bhellzeboss7541]

Wilson Stunfisk so true. to bad im the one thet do the explain in my group....

[@ReformedThe]

Bhelze Boss i know right. and sometimes i feel like the asshole. like when i was in ranked. first two god the enemy choose was anti heal god plus and ah puch. told my buddies not play healing. They choose hel and selvanus...... had to explain to them why thats not a good idea and i just felt like a dick. lol like dude ah puch will destroy us. Especailly if you decide to heal while his 3 is on you..... they didnt understand until the end of the match. Gamemode was joust. but still. didnt feel like i was teaching him. more like critizing them.

[@Subarashii_Nem]

I get that, I started on console and moved to PC and on console I made 2 friends who taught me the basics of what God's do what and what items to deal with that and all that nice stuff. These guys were real nice but they felt bad for calling me out on my dumbass choices and I felt bad for dragging them down in matches and frustrating them when we lost. They weren't mad at me at all, always said we all start off somewhere but I felt terrible making them carry me so much at the beginning. This games training is bad. It teaches you the bare bones basics that would take you 5minutes to figure out on your own without your hand being held.

[@squook]

I completely agree. I was taught how to do conquest by a friend and that was my main mode for the longest time when I started. I mainly do Arena/Assualt now but that's more because I don't want to deal with the toxicity that conquest has and usually I just want to play a quick, 20 or so minuet game and then leave. However... I do think that Hi-Rez should be, somehow, forcing new players to start with conquest and then let them figure out the other game modes.

[@FidelCattto]

It's super hard to really have a training system for a game like this and you suggest teaching conquest but I personally never had a problem with the bots and since they are so weak and don't coordinate or necessarily pick a good god for the role it could just screw someone up even worse.

[@DarkClaymore555]

The last stage of the tutorial should just be a link to Duke's channel.

[@summermouse4014]

you mean that i can't kill the titan with 2 items at 6 minutes at level 9 thats boooooring

[@dragontyron]

I _really, really_ wish they would update their tutorials and bot games. I totally understand not being able to keep up with meta shifts. That's totally fine, it would take a lot of effort to keep an updated full tutorial. However, as you pointed out, the Conquest tutorial isn't even in their beginner map, and they expect new players to go find it themselves before level 5, which many players simply don't do. There's also huge issues within the tutorial that they should fix: in addition to the "why would you take Titan at level 9??" it makes _exactly zero_ effort to encourage player rotations. It conveys to new players, "just push your lane and win eventually." This is mirrored in the AI practice games, where the bots mindlessly push the lane (and do it the wrong way- they aggress on players without clearing wave if there's a player there) and even treat Solo like a second duo lane. That's the second thing I'd love to see them work on. Their AI practice games. Personally, I prefer to have extensive practice against bots when I start a new game, so I get a good understanding of the game's mechanics and hopefully prevent getting plastered to the floor when I fight real players. However, Smite's AI practice modes are _awful_ and teach terrible habits. Unless you have a full team of other players with you, you can't even take buff camps right away and are forced into lane right away, where you then deal with an over-aggressive bot or two, inevitably roflstomp them, and continue to snowball because they don't even try to farm. The only time bots _ever_ rotate is when you're pushing against a Phoenix, and one of them sees you on its way back to their lane. New players would benefit so much from improved tutorials and practice modes, if HiRez at least made the effort to keep them useful beyond "I want to test this build/god for the luls."

[@midnightproductions3442]

dragontyron at the very least they should update it this s4. as well as maybe remake the tutorials quarterly

[@dragontyron]

Ironically, with the way meta is shaping up in PTS, the "go straight to lane at lv1" will suddenly be correct. Not to give them an excuse to keep the tutorials the same. They really should improve them sometime in season 4.

[@haven4304]

The worst offender in the vs AI conquest mode is the Jungler, where AI jungler never goes in the jungle, and instead sticks to solo lane like a glue And also the fact that only assassin can be jungler, so Ao Kuang and Morrigan is stuck in middle lane

[@dragontyron]

That happens with Freya, too. It thinks that Bot Freya should be in mid, and treats her like a mage.

[@marthia8015]

I was going to comment about the AI as well. If you're starting to get into the game, you are going to be horrible, and especially the more complex roles like Jungler can't really be practiced in bot mode because the bots just stay in their lane, so splitting XP and getting buffs doesn't work. But starting to play with real people means you are going to suck and your team will hate you for it, you have to deal with angry people insulting you, and that's something a lot of people don't want to put up with when they already have to learn so many different things about items and rotations and what not. I only got back into Smite this week, and this is what threw me of two years ago: Practice with bots doesn't work because they suck, and practicing with players doesn't work because you constantly get shouted at and at least I constantly feel like I'm ruining the game for everyone else by being inexperienced. It just doesn't feel worth it to deal with both the toxic community AND learn what every god can and can't do, how the meta works... I don't expect the AI to be as good as other players, but Smite's bots just seem like no one put any effort into them. They constantly get stuck in walls or just stand around while your team takes down the tower right in front of them.

[@rmannight15]

If I were Hi Rez I would make a mandatory conquest tutorial that first of all explains the concept of early, mid, and late game. Explains each role and gives recommendations for example recommending hunter for adc but also mentioning hybrids like sol. Also a brief explanation of builds in general like the difference in building ichival vs bloodforge early game. Cost efficiency. Also maybe a brief explanation of rotations. It's mostly common sense but you never know you might learn something new. This is all in addition to fixing what the current tutorial recommends. Hell I would even recommend that Conquest be locked out till you finish the tutorial for both new and returning players. Most of the toxicity comes from elitist players who look down on people. This would level the plain field and even shut down the BM players in some cases. My 2 cent's.

[@kkhanz7122]

That Underworld event bonus round gave me nostalgia I miss that so much

[@dragontyron]

same The elimination-style cage fight was super cool, even if it did make Anhur/Tyr/Xing Tian SS+ tier

[@mindmaster323]

That underworld event was out around the time I started playing and I got my first and only Penta with Nemesis during the bonus round. And it was super cool that one of the MotD let you walk in the lava.

[@PickledWolverine]

I miss domination

[@xxMaro92xx]

I think most parts of SMITE are actually learning by doing - although some people really get much better by doing and others don't. I started the game with a friend and until LVL 20 or so it all went pretty okay. I mean, he had stats like 1-10 and so on, but I didn't think about that. But I kept playing and became better and better, while he stopped playing at LVL 28 and I don't think it would have changed much if he would have trained properly. I think you also need a bit of talent to compete with pretty experienced players. The big problem though for me is: I never really learned or fully understood the whole Conquest-concept. There are several issues that keep me from playing the most important game mode in the game. I read through all the which-camps-to-do-first-explanations and the who-has-to-rotate-at-what-point-in-the-game and so on, but I just don't feel ready for Conquest... I never feel ready for Conquest. I have 5 gods on rank X, I played 800 hours and I played almost 2000 arena-matches. But in those 1.5 years in which I play SMITE I didn't even play enough Conquest-matches to get the Steam-Achievement "Play 25 Conquest-Matches" ... especially because other players on lvl 30 flame you if you fuck up anything. But before lvl 30 you don't even play "real Conquest", because before that it's just like "who the fuck needs buff camps" and "what is a jungler, we rather play 2 people on solo lane" and so on... it's not only hard for new players. Conquest is - as you said, Duke - the main gamemode in SMITE and so people are really REALLY ambitious about it... maybe TOO ambitious... also I wanted to say, thanks for all the great videos and btw I was one of the guys who visited you in the season-4-patchnotes as maxtoothelimit hosted your channel :D Thanks for reading all that stuff, mate, if you came this far :P

[@08baby25]

The truth!

[@apocalfailed8090]

I think it would be helpful if the god selection gave hints about the God's weaknesses. Like Anubis God of the dead pros: High area damage cons: No mobility Or something like that.

[@permaderp]

revive the wisdom tab and link community members who creat content that explains the game and helps people learn.

[@dragontyron]

This would be super helpful. It'd also, undoubtedly, increase DukeSloth's viewer counts by a significant margin.

[@Al77343]

"balanced" around conquest

[@nameisdan6877]

Jean-Claude Garcia It isn't, but they intend to.

[@Al77343]

D..anny in brandons opinion(which I value) they aren't doing that very well

[@scalpingsnake]

Jean-Claude Garcia can you explain why?

[@Al77343]

casper4907 why I value brandons opinion?

[@SkittleArchAngel]

except that the only broken thing about morrigan is that shes literally broken as in unplayable. if she was playable, id barely call her broken.

[@TheTouristArrives]

Love your content, DukeSloth! You articulate a lot of points that I struggle to formulate when discussing Smite with others and you present your points very rationally and with a sense of fairness and empathy for both the experienced and new players (like myself). My favorite Smite content creator so far, by far! ^_^

[@galacticcat3660]

Is it the tutorial that's lacking, or are you just not good enough of a player to kill the enemy titan at level nine?

[@DanG249]

After watching some videos by another Smite youtuber (and former Smite eSports caster [guess who]), I have to say I really appreciate the fact that you explain things thoughtfully, logically and above all, calmly. You take the time to establish the assumptions on which your argument is predicated, and there's more to those arguments than just saying "this is fucking stupid". Thank you, Duke!

[@soldierangelo1119]

Daniel Grimes lmao was it dmbrandon

[@DanG249]

Soldier Angelo Yes. I used to enjoy his content (he was the only twitch streamer I watched on the official Smite channel, back when that was a thing), but he's become too salty for my taste.

[@austinpowers3659]

I learned smite quickly because I got plat in league and I watch a lot of smite vids, 200 hours in smite I know it well now

[@broceedwin]

I just start playing the game about a week ago with my wife. Haven't never played a MOBA before I was hoping for a more instructive tutorial too. You are throw into conquest without any idea of what you have to do. I wish there were more tutorial videos online, but the ones online from this channel, biblestudy and rainday were really helpful specially to learn the roles which is a huge thing missing in the game tutorial where roles are never mention. I just started to get the hand on how to play conquest and my wife is getting there too. It's amazing the amount of people that have no idea on what they need to do when they go into conquest for the first time. We many times start asking for roles in the lobby and they type: "roles???" . It's a huge barrier to entry that I really hope Hi-Rez modify some time in the future. Thanks for the video!

[@ArcticCitadel]

As someone who has both studied and loves most ancient mythologies I was incredibly happy to find Smite. A game filled with gods I know the lore and story of, from Greek to Egyptian, Norse and even Celtic now. It is a playground for any mythology lover. I'm not a big fan of Moba's, though I haven't really played any until this point. I am currently somewhere around 20 full conquest modes, though many were VS bots. I have only learned how to play one god reasonably well [Just managed to get mastery level 1 for Nike] and still don't understand some of the item system to it's full extent. The frustrating thing here is how unforgiving most of the players are. It is to be expected really, but it can be disappointing and stressful to get crap from a more experienced player. So, to any more experienced players, try and keep an open mind, and maybe even suggest items and try to help the newbies learn the game. It will make it better for all of the people involved. [Good gosh, did I just write about this for that long? Help, I've fallen into the comments trap. Must escape.] Good day!

[@losangyolmo19]

Oh i remember playing Smite for the first time in the beta phase. After reaching level 5 i entered Conquest and got my ass whooped so many times that it turned me off from Conquest for more than a year. Only after i watched the grand finals of season 1 did i start playing Conquest again. Players should be forced to play Conquest practice with AI and real players before they play a normal game or they'll start hating conquest like me too.

[@darkice3267]

I hate any more which has towers in it (except Joust and Duel). That's why I just play Arena.

[@danc6167]

three things: #1 I haven't heard of Funke in a while. Not since I quit TF2 to play Smite. #2 I'm glad you took my advice and are using OCR music. Bonus points for picking an amazing track. #3 I really think conquest tutorial should be more pushed by the game. I didn't play conquest for the first four months I played Smite and I really regret it

[@collinjesmain7028]

You definitely bring up some valid points with the tutorials, my friends and I have been playing for over a year and we are just now really starting to get into conquest, because it does take some time to learn the characters and items. But it's mainly the shorter game modes than conquest that really appealed to us especially when you're learning the game and lose quite often.

[@LukeyDude97]

Dude the visual linking to the audio in this way more makes the videos that one notch even better, good work man

[@Covertactician]

Did an article like this back in May, must say I still dislike how Hirez has set up their system still. A lot of their beginner modes such as training and Co-op vs AI lack detail. First place a new player will look is training. Look at the more info, and it tells you nothing. Why isn't the 'more info' present, like it is in normal? Like you mentioned, they also don't go out of their way to teach you conquest. They promote Arena and Joust in the start, why? Why not go: Basic Tutorial, Arena Tutorial, Clash Tutorial, Conquest Tutorial. Would make tons more sense. Even just the structuring of where modes are placed in the screen, Arena and Joust are placed at the very top, meant to be the first thing you see. Conquest should be there, not those. (Not to mention Siege is literally not even on the screen.) And while it seems they are trying to push Conquest for players as you mentioned, they mainly do that on a high to competitive level. For casual players, there's no motivation to play Conquest. They don't make Conquest worth it for the player, which I still think would be solved if they added a more substantial bonus for playing Conquest (in worshippers, as in.) Anyway, loved the video. Brought up a good amount of points, specially about the Conquest tutorial itself.

[@DukeSloth]

Thank you! My main hope is that by pushing ranked, casual will be pushed as well. The majority of people will want some basic understanding before they jump into ranked and with ranked giving more rewards etc. that may very well happen.

[@KatelynSparks]

all your points on this were very good and pretty valid, although when I first joined smite (back in early s2) it's tutorials and guides are much better than any other moba I had discovered. Also on the launcher, instead of the usual feed there are a lot of helpful videos that go more in depth.

[@sibiris8474]

I relly like the format you used in this video. I tend to pick a lot on videos, but I agree with this one, couldnt really find a thing to pick on. I really enjoyed that mention about some people dont play conq, even though its the focus of the game.

[@r3zin]

Like the video. Only thing I wanted to point out about the Joust start is that arguably many people will skip starters. If not, they usually build into boots so I do wish it atleast encouraged that. Personally, I'd love to see them revamp the tutorial to be more relevant and then once they player hits level 5, they present it as a reward that they unlocked Conquest, and the other modes, and offer Conquest training from that message as well as mentioning it gives bonuses.

[@omarmuniz1497]

it actually makes sense to wait till your level 5 to start Conquest because Conquest is a big deal among players and by doing Arena or just first you have a feeling of how the god plays and what items are relics that you can start before you actually go into the bigger games of Conquest

[@mistersalesman]

First off, just want to say that I really enjoyed the choice of music in the background. Gave some vibes at times of the underwater levels in Donkey Kong Country. :P If it was that song, well, I guess I should delete myself from the planet. And, yes, I agree they definitely need to help with players getting into conquest. Not just adding incentives to bring players into the mode but offering up content like yours or other creators that give off amazing and useful information that one can bring into as well.

[@SoRa-tm7hx]

When I first started conquest I always built recommended items, and I always went straight to the solo lane no matter what god I played, later my friend noticed I picked up smite and then he started to teach me the rules of conquest. Like role calling, where to be, the best items and relics, etc.

[@smitetheoldone9389]

Your words made me cry, Sir. I am a new player to MOBA genre. Smite is my first ever MOBA I've played. It's been 50 days and only played conquest 3 times including MOTD. Every word you said is true and for first 30 days i always played with friends in party because i was afraid to go solo in queue because of those who harass players for dying. I can understand that feeding is worst but what even worse is that players who know about game don't even try to give a helping hand. I still need help. Thanks for the video.

[@iggiotto]

Duke Sloth Good video Duke. I can relate as Smite if my first MOBA and I started on console. That'd be great if there was a little bit more of a tutorial because I was on my own until I found KZbinrs like Raynday and you. I like these types of videos where you go over the broader topics of Smite.

[@JustinBailey91]

Hirez should put the some of the "Know Your Enemy" Videos in the game itself since they own them anyway. Smite is pretty complex wich awesome but it also makes learning it really confusing and having one person in your team that doesnt know what they are doing almost impossible to win. Players not only need to know what to do at what time but also have an interest in why. The Know Your Enemy Conquest guide does a really good job at explaining, but most players will never go out of their way to look it up online. On PS4 most level 30s still have no idea what to do due to lack of communication.

[@RainsageGaming]

This video is so relatable for me. I have played Joust since starting Smite 2 years ago. Im going to definitely try to learn Conquest in season 4, so thank you for showing me I am not the only one.

[@joewozniak711]

You make a great point. I just started a few days ago and I did not understand that I needed to kill camps and help out other teammates or anything other than solo focus game play. I think they really need to fix their tutorial. When I started I played the game for a few hours then literally spent the next few days on KZbin trying to understand the basics how to play. I can see why people may not stay with the game that long if they have to do homework on it just to start playing.

[@RunIntoMyKnife]

This video hit the nail on the head for me.. I play on console and I now have a good understanding of the more advanced points of Smite because of watching the SPL. I had a jungle recently call out my whole team saying we were scrubs because he finished the game with a score of 5,2,2 as a jungler. He was under the impression that since he had the highest KDA in the game he carried (we surrendered at 33:00 because he wasn't present in 1 team fight) He started backs instead of helping me clear his speed and backed after killing them. Smite really does need to inform their player base especially in Conquest on how to properly play. If Hi-Rez doesn't then we will have more terrible team mates who feel as if they played wonderfully while actually having little to no effect on the outcome of the game.

[@lajahamamomo]

There is a place where a lot of beginner videos, the Wisdom tab. Which is what I watched when I started, however, you would have no reason to click on it unless, like me you were exploring what everything was in the main menu.

[@ThePastiestKid]

if we all shared this video to hirez via email or Twitter someone would be bound to see it. As a console player who's taking his friends through the game I can say that current tutorial can do more harm than good and it needs to be changed

[@ryanturner3673]

I really wish that Hi Rez put conquest in the spotlight at the beginning for me and my friends. I know conquest can be intimidating at first and not everyone is an extroverted adventure type like myself, but having that realistic and accurate tutorial is critical for new players in order to help remove that anxiety a bit and, get them fired up to be more competitive. To this day im still trying to convince more of my friends to play conquest with me, but to mostly no avail. Hopefully Hi Rez sees this and makes those important changes.

[@casonlyons2207]

When I started smite it was my first moba and I was so confused 3 years later and I think I finally have a good understanding of smite

[@ReDSoXSwAgG]

This really shows when you are trying to level up from 1-30. I have played smite on xbox since xbox beta and I have recently decided to change to pc. Trying to even touch conquest mode without at least a party of 3 is impossible due to the plethora of players who have no idea how to conquest. An updated tutorial featuring the conquest mode would be nice.

[@benaustin1003]

I like the editing DukeSloth, seems like lots of effort was put into this one.

[@bbri826]

I have a strong connection with this. I came into smite stupid, playing gods like kukulklan and asking my friends every second "what should I build" "should I ult now?" And stuff like that and I look back and I'm like, you know it would've been great if I actually had a tutorial. I came from games like overwatch and Csgo and I'm pretty good now but leading up to this it took me so many games of straight feeding and upsetting my friends on how bad I was doing. Especially once I first started maiming jungle. I'm was lost and that's how I initially found this channel look for an awilix guide. I feel like smite should bring in people from the pro scene to write them some tutorials on the roles since they are legit the best in that respective role.

[@RayPoreon]

I think a mentor mode should be available, with mentors being player volunteers using voice or text chat. Tf2 has this feature and, well it doesn't really do much, but I think it might give new players that have no idea what they're doing(I still feel a bit like that, even though I'm a beta tester) a way of learning more, and it will follow the meta, which is nice.

[@Entropic_Alloy]

The thing that Smite didn't prepare me for was understanding how incredibly important being around for every single wave of minions is. If you miss one wave by having to go back or roaming to another lane you lose the exp lead and your opponent(s) gain a level lead on you, and it seems like a single level is enough to snowball the game out of control. This, alongside the fairly strict jungling path that basically involves laning until the camps respawn, which is not intuitive for new players, makes playing conquest confusing the first few times.

[@EmethMatthew]

Totally agreed. they used to have videos in the wisdom tab that helped but their own videos got outdated too quickly, and now it basically has nothing. I think they should revamp the wisdom tab to feature steaks, particularly now that they're partnering with twitch, as well as KZbin channels to help link with the larger smite community and resources they need to learn.

[@KazeRonin44]

Who needs guides when we have DukeSloth

[@ramonakresse8789]

In the original Tutorial during the Beta, on the old 3v3 map. There was a section where It forced you to attack the Speed Buff and Pick up the Buff. Which would be easy for them to re implement potentially

[@hashiramasenju3246]

Oh my god. You found f4nke? I've watched you for about a year, duke, and him for 2 or so. This made my day. Papa bless.

[@jeftar3po372]

I'm also seeing comments about coming from Team Fortress 2 to Smite. I'm in that same boat. In fact I used to watch Funke. I think he's pretty awesome. Now that you reminded me of him, I'm gonna watch him again. Both Smite and Team Fortress 2 are fun to play and watch.

[@afik13]

When i started playing smite 4 years ago, i didn't pay attention to the tutorial at all and i knew about the game from a friend of mine who also learnt about it from watching a streamer who played mainly conquest. i watched this streamer as well, and i thought to myself:" wow this is a great game i want to jump right into it." and im glad i did, i played with my friend in the duo lane and we got our asses handed to us at the start, but later on we improved our laning phase and learned from streamers on how to build and after a month or two we started testing our own builds and synergy between gods. There are alot of things hi-rez can do to help players learning the game. but in the end, smite and other mobas are self learning games. yes, it took me a while to understand that meditation is not a great active (err relic..) but you know how i learned it? some dude used beads when i tried to pull him with sobek and nothing happend so i asked him after the match and he told me about it. watching streamers and youtubers also gave me an edge but in the end, i would have learned everything i know now, maybe it would take me a bit longer. The best thing that hirez did in this regard was when drybear remade the recommended tab. it used to have terrible items in it but he and his team (or him alone idk) review the items that are in the meta back then and changed the entire recommended tab. i know the meta shifts and it could be hard to keep changing it, but at least they can recommend proper starting items. hirez shouldn't treat players like they're dumb. show them how conquest works, make conqest the MAIN focus point after learning the basics from joust tutorial. unlock normal conquest from level 1 and let the players learn for themselves.

[@Dilllly]

As a new player, this is even worse than you know. I recently got into the game because my brother wanted me to try it. The first day I didn't know anything but jumped into the arena and got 3 kills through the play session. Later I tried to learn more about how you play this game, I learned more about farming, and picked out a build from youtube for a Susano who I thought looked like fun, I felt improvement but still got stomped through all my games. Even tanks(in this case Ymir), whom I assumed did little damage and had high health/defense, were shredding me and I wasn't doing more than a sliver of there health(even though I'm building pen/damage). So I figured I'd just try to play Ymir and see what I could do. This time getting shredded by damage dealers, and still not doing any damage. And this is over the course of 3 days, I feel like I've barely learned anything and it's not very motivating when every lobby is hitting me with a You Rock! every time I die. I can't even imagine playing conquest, this game is hard enough in the "casual" game mode.

[@fatpikachu2900]

i think they should have a small separate conquest mode for people who have not ever played conquest before, and only allow players to play in it 10 times or something so that people can get used to the map and stuff

[@alily5070]

When I first got Smite it was because I was bored one day so me and my friend got it. We played it for a bit, and then stopped and played it maybe once a month because we were playing CS:GO. A year later me and two of my friends look up videos on how to play Conquest and how to just be better and build better. After we understood the game more and got better, we played it everyday to the point where I enjoy the game far more then any other game currently and I have barley played CS:GO in months. I really think we would've got into the game sooner if we knew just how far it went and played anything but Joust. I feel as if we're lucky we actually took the time because now we see what Smite really is compared to what we thought about it when we were bad and I think people from other games and even other MOBAs are just not able to see this because of what you said in the video.

[@JT_Drumz]

So I'm a casual Smite player who got started on the PS4 that is competitive in spirit and enjoys learning how to get better. That being said, I agree with this entire video. But there are other very basic (and honestly major) things that are not addressed in the tutorials as well that should be mentioned at some point. Mostly when it comes to explanations of some key things. For example, here are some questions that I had when I first started playing as someone who is totally new to MOBAs... "What is Crowd Control?" "How do I know I'm effected by CC?" "What's the difference between power and penetration?" "Why can't I attack for a short amount of time?" (Silencing) These are just a few of the many questions I had. Sadly you can't find the answer to these questions within the game and I was really frustrated when I first started. Luckily there's YT, but a majority of casual gamers don't look up guides/tutorials. I think building up newer players' confidence causes them to 1. Enjoy the game more. And 2. Give them that motivation to maybe try ranked which helps boost the competitive scene. Just my 2 cents.

[@oxaschnitzel8]

I read/saw multiple articles to this topic and in every single one, gave plenty of good reasons why new players should be encouraged to play more conquest at the start(before they hit lvl 30 and try to queue ranked). And still, all we got is a conquest tutorial, that isnt even needed to be played. Also, none of the beginner quests, that require you to finish the Training, force a player to ever play conquest.

[@jalinss]

The way I learned smite was basically just playing the game, getting my ass kicked over and over again until I figured out how the game really worked.

[@IDKMUFFINKID]

It was from your conquest tutorial that I learned to play conquest. All I ever played was arena because conquest looked complicated until I started to look at KZbin videos.

[@ImCounter]

I started with Joust until level 15 and then i played my first conquest game, (btw im a Mage normally) because there were 3 lanes and i had to play one i just thought that i had to hold my own lane, i think Joust teach that well. Make sure you are good at holding a single lane and having to deal with all of the pressure when 3 enemy are in the lane wanting to attack you. I remember that you said that if you want to learn builds and stuff like that should be googled, but in a way that shows that if the person wants to look more into the game how the items work as so on that they have a competitive mind, they want to be the best or at lease want to be able to say that they are good. I feel like that want makes Conquest different, the fact that know your going to playing players that are wanting to learn just as much or even more then you. The only thing i has trouble with was what exactly that jungle buffs did (like how much extra stuff that it gave you, why you need it ect.) But because i had that competitive mind i went and researched, watched videos and i kept playing. Yea i was not the best but one thing Joust tough me was how to hold my own lane, and because of that i was not really bad at Conquest at the start. But when i started to be higher level thats when i need to learn to adapt to whats going on. What if im one of the players that have a teammate that can only hold there lane, and will not flank and help other teammates when attacked? When that happens i have to start thinking for my own, making sure i watch flank or making sure i have a back up plan. So whats my point you might be asking. I would have never went through all of that if i did not have an urge or desire to get better at the game. In reality i see Conquest as a hot or miss kind of gamemode. You also say that your not getting new players into Conquest because they dont hold there hand. And i agree, but with a gamemode that is the core of competitive SMITE, there will be a point for that person that wanted to play Conquest for fun will go back to other gamemodes. In a way its a filter. And it is a bad thing that they want to get more people to play Conquest but they need to understand that its not for everyone. Sorry for the long comment...I like getting my thoughts out there lol. Hope you read it

[@jemmascott5559]

As a new player to Smite I can say that this was a very difficult game to get into. The VGS system is very complex and the minigame for it feels a bit too brutal. I had no idea about laning phases, when to ward, or how to farm. The tutorial did have some useful stuff but it was the tip of the iceberg compared to all the stuff I've had to look into.

[@ryanbregitzer4187]

you managed to not talk about warding like that should be an entire tutorial on it's own

[@HazzyFcrazy]

That's true because I Came from Overwatch to Smite to, Someone told me "You so good at this I know a game you'd be perfect for" and that's how I got into smite ......But I never understood that cause Smite is nothing like overwatch to me

[@Ryuno_Ace]

That's why I have Arena at 1.4k while conquest is stuck at 7... I really should start playing conquest

[@muco691]

Tatsuya {ʀᴇᴄᴏɴ} Shiba Dude i started conquest 2 months ago. it is so much fun tbh

[@bakublader1999]

The real tutorial is honestly friends that are experienced you play with. I got a new friend playing smite and he does like conquest, but I have to explain everything to him because nothing else taught him how to do it. had to explain game stages, rotation, warding, aa cancelling, map awareness, effective farming and more. I basically had to explain literally everything, and I blame that on Hirez.

[@lukecharlton5340]

highly certain that conquest tutorial isnt there on console :( :/ smh

[@6kourte650]

The reason why conquest is locked until level 5 is because game modes like conquest and joust is more for experienced players if u start playing conquest in level 1 people will think ur feeding unless ur good at the game

[@thedeepees]

I completely agree that there is a disconnect with smite providing a tutorial for conquest even though it is considered the main game mode and they want people playing that mode. Smite was the first MOBA that I liked to play given the unique perspective so I was never very comfortable trying to learn conquest without pissing everyone off

[@cjday573]

Ive also found that there are very little good comprehensive guides to playing conquest and it's various roles, and the ones that are good, don't exactly encompass everything, but just the basics, for example anyone can show you what to do as a jungler or a solo lane, but they don't provide examples of when to gank or rotate and when NOT to do so.

[@narutohokageodama]

something to mention is the wisdom option to see ranked replays and learning

[@TurnGamer]

I'm a new player and I completely agree with this. I had done a little research on Smite before downloading, so as soon as I reached level 5 I jumped into Conquest, but 5 minutes in I was yelled at by all my teammates for being a noob. I had to mute all of them, so I guess I have to learn by not playing but watching KZbin videos?

[@LavaTF2]

Man I love FUNKe so much. Before I game to Smite I play TF2. 2,400 hours, having a break right now.

[@mrmeatball6806]

I can completely relate to this. I have never ever played MOBA before. I played tf2 ( which was also hard to understand what the hell is going on) then paladins and now I am trying to play smite since I saw it multiple times before when I was playing paladins and thought It would be fun to try it. The main thing that attracted me to smite is the 3rd person perspective that felt more friendly compared to other MOBA's. My first problem with the game was with the items. The very first tutorial game showed me very few items. And then after I finished the tutorial, I went to an actual game and I had no idea what items do what. My second problem was understanding how a MOBA works. I don't understand when I should attack and when I shouldn't because in tf2 and paladins you pretty much go in there, get kills , and get out. So I keep dying over and over again when I do that in smite. My third problem was with the gods. In tf2 (9 classes) and paladins (25 champions), there aren't a lot of characters you can play but you can customize each one to play them differently from how they were intended to played. But in smite, I have no idea what's going on. Every god just does so much damage and I have no idea how to counter them because I don't even know what they are doing to me. It is only recently that I found out that jungle practice is a thing because the game doesn't tell you! So what I did and am still doing to try and solve these problems is copying item builds from smite fire mindlessly on the characters I want to play just because they look cool, watching loads of KZbin videos to understand what the hell is going on in conquest , and trying out all heroes in jungle practice in order to understand what heroes to play and how to counter them when they are on the enemy team.

[@piterrospl9512]

SMITE is the first Moba game I actually attempted. And I like it a lot right now. Though, the beginning was really hard due to the lacking tutorial. When I finished the tutorial and got flamed in few games I really thought that the tutorial wasn't too great. Right now I think I made a huge progress and I can do well. My friend teached me like 100x more than tutorial did. I really think they should change it.

[@MrTotalnerd]

Part of me thinks item simplification would be a smart idea. Universal items but break up items so only certain gods can buy them. Given two starter items for guardians with heavy defence items guardians want. Access to some basic universal items. Could even make it so game focuses on stats you want

[@tangomeh]

Smite was my first Moba game, and I was lucky enough to have friends who played it (they are platinum 4 in ranked, so they know the game in and out) and were able to teach me what to do and how to build.

[@sladewright5779]

good points but I think one thing to keep in mind is that conquest is for a more dedicated smite player, and most of the time, and this was the case for me, people that play conquest start playing smite with the intention of playing conquest and are prepared to watch guides and such. obviously not all the time but in general I think this is the case

[@sailaway3250]

Duke, it was hard for me to learn, my friends would block me while they played. They gave up on me! Now, thanks to your vids, I'm a decent player across all game modes. I started playing back in season 2.

[@viperx7262]

I just downloaded this game and did the tutorial and you're right it wasn't enough, I got a better explanation from you and others. I'm still unsure about all these damn items, the game seems too intense for me to be sitting around reading about what each and every item does.

[@SweetBale]

One of the things I think that adds to the dilemma of having to learn everything from external sources is how often that information becomes outdated. Think about it, let's say I want to learn how to build someone. Well I can't go looking at any videos or guides older than maybe a few months cause items, abilities, and even kits get changed constantly. This conundrum is only made worse where trying to learn conquest rotations, builds, etc... because of everything listed above.

[@Caladryus]

Another problem is, IF you are level 5 and then decide to go into conquest... then there's just some smurfs there flaming you for not knowing something about a gamemode you're playing for the first time... and then that toxicity drives away newer players from what is considered the main gamemode

[@Capitaineaa]

DukeSloth, I hope you will see this message, you can get more info on certain gods in the WISDOM panel in the game. There you can see presentations of some gods that help. I know it's very little, but you forgot it.

[@DukeSloth]

+Antoine Cabanac the current wisdom panel is not even worth mentioning, seriously!

[@axeldu22730]

DukeSloth the widsom tab should be a page that helps the new players. the tutorial isn't something that should evolve a lot, it teaches the basics (in lol, the tutorial is in the 1v1 map..). WE need a WAY better widsom tab with current popular builds (for each mode), current popular guides in yt, current streams.. etc. that would require the devs to keep updating that tab but would be WAY more interresting to teach the game. but you are right, they should say to the new players that arena, joust and clash are nice to practice and to have fun but that their job is to prepare you for conquest!

[@TyReedII]

the hardest thing i am dealing with in Smite is when I am looking to buy an item and I am still not sure what to get even though I have read the passive 100 time, or when i think i am buying the right item to counter someone and still get destroyed by the enemy

[@mr.drakanator]

Over a year later and things don't seem to have changed much in my eyes, would love to see an update of your thoughts on the learning curve of smite in the game's state nowadays.

[@dragonspore3398]

I started smite, seeing an ad on KZbin, so I got the game (a week after the beta) and I told my friend about it but he said he already has the game since the beta, so he knew more then me, not too much but enough to tell me "don't do that or that...a lot. " and as time goes on we have gotten better but I learn faster and I pasted my friend's skill like the 4th mouth of the game, we still play the game and we are still hirz sellouts, buying every limited skin.

[@jamiedale1718]

I used to play a lot of Conquest when I first started playing Smite, but I've really struggle to motivate myself to play it anymore since I started learning from other sources how to play it because I end up playing with so many people who don't put in the same effort to learn it and basically have the match lost really early, which sucks as I really excel in late game team fights, as I normally try to pick team orientated Gods instead of good 1v1 Gods. Personally I think they'll really need to do something to help new players get into learning Conquest properly in season 4 with the new start options being a lot more complicated than they've ever been, I'm worried it will be just complete mayhem in Conquest otherwise.

[@WillzWinning]

so much accuracy. I hated Smite when I first began. I still play all other modes except conquest

[@robogoku]

Honestly for Smite I picked a god based on design and kit that I liked watched, and then watched video after video and patch notes and I ended up understanding the game really well.

[@DoujinReader]

I thought about this a day ago when my friend asked about smite. There isnt much the game tells you and that i would need to teach him a game he might not want to play.

[@moosedraw3731]

The thing is they never really explain itemisation for people who start out. So you never know how power increases damage and makes your basics hit harder. And that you attack speed is good on certain gods but useless on others. And that some mages benefit from attack speed and others don’t. There isn’t really any help with learning the way builds work. Plus items have extra affects, not just increased power and mp5 per instance. (They also don’t explain what MP5 is or HP5...) They just don’t explain items that well.

[@typhoon4994]

When I started smite, I would go into conquest not knowing the roles (was new to MOBAS and the different roles) so I would usually go as thanatos going all around the map which made be get flamed by different and several people, but now that I've learned by my self and videos its much better. That's the problem, no tutorial into conquest which causes confusion amongst many players.

[@gus051]

I have 3k hours on smite and the only times I've played conquest was during the free gem events that reward you for getting "first wins of the day"

[@guilhermelopes986]

One thing that I find really offputting as new Smite player is how the TTK just goes from a lengthy engagement at the start of the games to "hey Mercury lets fiii.... Dead" near the end of the match, or maybe im just not used to it, but this is my main gripe with it so far.

[@scalpingsnake]

I have 500 odd hours on smite (mainly joust) and just recently tried to get into conquest. smite is a very difficult game and I still have many issue even with my game time.

[@aaronholmes-black6621]

I started on Smite last year in May, just after Raijin came out. My friends popped me in solo, told me to play Ama, and let me get my ass kicked for around 15 games till I learned how exactly her Ult worked and why defense was necessary for my character. Then I got pissed at losing, went on youtube, found Dm, found Doub J and other Smite toubers and started copying them until I started understanding what I myself was doing. Almost a year later and I can't remember a day when I didn't get my login bonus.

[@xiii0722]

Thanks for this video Duke, I like the topic and I also disagree how the current tutorial is set at the moment !

[@wenbocao8503]

looking at smite guru scores for lv30 players, an average player will start with 1500 points and quickly rise up 2000 without dropping below 1400 in between. Then have a '2k struggle' of scores bouncing around 1900-2200 for a decent while, and then rise after extended gameplay. A good player will have a shorter to non-existance '2k struggle', and sharp rise to 2500-4000 score after. A bad player may drop below 1400 at the start, possibly down to 1k. And may have a struggle at lower scores (1800-1900) and basically stuck there unless they have a major breakthrough. A retarded player will drop to below 1k at the start and never even get above the starting 1500. The current average players are at 2200 score. Below 2000 score is below average, below 1800 is very bad.

[@SlashBadger17]

Could you make another video explaining how they could show players how to play conquest effectively?

[@Brainx3]

i absolutely agree. i also was thinking about a more realistic co-op vs ai conquest. Where even the bots start with buffs etc. So the player as a 5 man team maybe ask their self "yo why does this fucking ra has a red belt and came to the lane so late?" Just i dont know. My own experience while i started in smite was like: "Brain, you played LoL for 5 years, cq is like summoners rift, lets go" But the cq casuals are fucking unfun in smite. The people just dont get to learn to mode BASICS!!! (i really want to point dat out im talking about basics like where the fucking duo lane is and so on. its not crying about bad teammates). This topic needs more attention since season 4 is about to start. Nice video Duke!

[@droidzzz8530]

I started playing with my friends who were just pros in my eyes, I had only played LoL beforehand and I didn’t even play it for that long. I was just confused as to how to distance myself or knowing when to run or stay. I still have difficulties, my friends still call me garbage. I still enjoy playing and I’ve definitely improved since then but still nowhere near my friends skill level. I do have my moments when I go like 16/3 but the next game I’ll end up going 1/17 and that one kill is just a stolen one. It is insanely discouraging to play more after your friends keep trying to give you advice but it feels overwhelming and how you just can’t compete against other players. I understand items, relics, rolls, buffs, game modes, etc. But just my skill I have terrible game sense according to my pals, I just don’t understand what to do in most situations. It’s hard to deal with but smite is still a fun game, I spend most of my time in arena and joust.

[@esteban9504]

0:54 it was at this moment that Urrl knew... he...

[@joshosborne683]

Every time I try to play conquest I wait for the entire queue then get a match status saying it was unable to find a match and I'm the top priority and I have to wait for the entire queue

[@BumblubeeTuna]

the problem with conquest is a game can sometimes go on for an hour+ sometimes people don't always have that much time to spare, also for a newbie player or even an experienced player like myself who mainly plays just or arena for quicker games jumping into conquest other players expect you to be amazing at the god you choose and know exactly where to go at any given moment, so a better tutorial would be very helpful, I think that KZbin is your best option for a tutorial