It's that time again, SMITE junkies. If you followed along with us as we covered how the radical changes in Season 4 influenced the best picks for mid lane, you'll know the drill. We've done most of the heavy lifting when it comes to finding the best picks for solo lane this season, so you can save all that muscle for the carrying you'll have to do.
A lot has changed in Conquest with the 4.1 patch, and while we know you'd be fine on your own (you always are), we're here with a few top solo lane picks for SMITE Season 4 that will help take some of the weight off your shoulders, and put a few more Wins in your match history.
The Bluestone Frontline: Bellona, Nike, & Vamana
Solo lane's frontline collection is becoming something of a "greatest hits" line-up, sporting some of the best disruptive brawlers from previous seasons as the clear favorites heading into Season 4. While the list of "perfectly reasonable" to "excellent" talent in the Solo lane this time around is exceedingly deep -- easily the deepest pool of A-list talent in the game -- safe, fast wave clear is the name of the game at the moment, leaving these three just a little ahead of the rest.
Bellona Solo
While the Queen of Season 2 may have been a second-string pick during much of Season 3 after a round of nerfs and meta changes, she's back with a vengeance -- and a host of new survivability options thanks to a few new items added to the in-game shop.
While her sustain is on the low side when compared to healthier picks like Bellona 2.0 Nike or Amaterasu, the Goddess of War can poke, clear, and brawl with the best of them -- as well as Disarm the resurgent physical Hunters that are reclaiming their spot in the duo lane. Aggressive, with both a powerful early game and incredibly disruptive and tanky lategame, Bellona is exactly the kind of frontliner you want in Season 4. And after a few Bludgeons, she's going to have her enemies screaming for the bell.
Nike Solo
The Goddess of Victory continues her reign as "one of the best solo laners around", sporting wave-clear on par with her earlier model Bellona but at a much safer distance. While nerfs to Sentinel of Zeus have removed her from the "always ban" list, it's not by much. Nike is durable, and while her sustained DPS isn't as high as other Warriors in this class, the amount of utility she brings to the fight more than makes up for it with protection shred, occasional Disarms, and a massive knock up + AoE slow combo.
Vamana Solo
Step aside for a second, Women of War, because the Fifth Avatar of Vishnu is coming through! Back on the scene with a new look and increased focus on Bluestone and wave clear this Season, Vamana is enjoying a little more time in the Solo lane spotlight after essentially dropping off the face of the Battleground in Season 3.
One of the safest Solo lane warriors in the game, Vamana has fantastic ranged clear in Umbrellarang, and one of the best engage/disruptor/escapes around in Clear the Path. His passive, Sleeping Giant, allows him to itemize heavily against Physical enemies while keeping his damage high. Also, he will occasionally bust through your enemy's front line with Colossal Fury like some kind of monstrous Kool-Aid Man hellbent on mass murder.
So he's got that going for him, which is nice.
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Early wave clear, late-game durability, high disruptive potential, and (most importantly) fantastic use of the Bluestone Pendant mean these three Warriors are Tier 1 picks going into Season 4. They'll take the hits -- but your W/L % sure won't.
The Assassolos: Ratatoskr & Camazotz
They're a little less tanky than their Warrior counterparts, but the end of Season 3 saw assassins with high sustain kits cut a spot for themselves in the Solo lane -- and they're only picking up steam headed into Season 4. While the floor is much lower on the Solo lane Assassin (i.e. they're camped into utter oblivion and 0-X by 10 minutes), the ceiling is also much, much higher, as these two trade in the "disrupt and pressure the backline" angle of their more durable Warrior counterparts for "outright murder the backline. And the frontline. And that guy over there too. Who is that? Doesn't matter. Murder them".
It's a subtle change, but SMITE is a game of nuance.
Ratatoskr Solo
One of the few gods -- perhaps really the only god -- to hit headline status in multiple lanes, Ratatoskr is currently on the "incredibly powerful" end of his "Unplayable or Unbeatable" pendulum. Highly mobile, incredibly slippery, equipped with a good amount of sustain, and capable of absolutely melting enemies even when built like a "hybrid", Ratatoskr is a dangerous adversary seemingly built to be good at SMITE Conquest.
While other Assassins inevitably devolve into a trading strategy in the late-game -- that is, they vaporize one high priority target, then are typically vaporized themselves -- Ratatoskr...well...doesn't. He comes in hot with Through the Cosmos, drops onto something that needs deadening, deadens it, peels for himself with a Flurry of Acorns, then Darts a million miles away to safety, ready to do it all again. All that most enemies can really do it about it is grumble "Aw, nuts", and move on to someone else...if they're still alive, anyway.
Camazotz Solo
With the caveat that The Batman himself has two of the absolute worst skins for Ranked or competitive play, thanks to his Jurassic and Dino voice packs having the least intelligible or helpful V-Codes in history, Camazotz is only a hop, skip, and Devour away from matching Ratatoskr as one of the best Solo lane assassins around in Season 4 of SMITE.
While most assassins try to look for unguarded openings, strike, and retreat, The Deadly God of Bats is more than comfortable settling in for an extended brawl. He'll trade damage, and recover most of his health thanks to his Vampire Bats. He'll trade more damage and heal with Devour. Trade again, and watch his Lifesteal items and passive go to work. Eventually the enemy has nothing left to trade, and a still fairly healthy Camazotz can dive on them like a Bat Out of Hell for the kill.
The key to Camazotz in the solo lane is that despite being in the relatively fragile Assassin class, he...Just. Doesn't. Die. When you pair his ability to ignore consistent minor to mid-level sustained damage with the absurd damage output of Assassins in Season 4, you have a powerful pseudo-Warrior more than capable of deleting a target. Warriors have to spend precious fight time continually disrupting while Camazotz does not -- leaving him a durable threat and a fantastic pick for the Solo lane.
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While not necessarily the traditional tanky frontline teams have come to rely on Solo lane for, Camazotz and Ratatoskr are more than up to the task of holding their own against the best in the business. If your team already has a fair bit of meatshield in its roster thanks to your Jungle and Support, these two Assassolo laners should be high on the pick order for anyone looking to snowball their Solo lane rather than just "hold it down".
The Wildcard: Fat Loki Cabrakan
Anyone who watched the recent Relegations may already be aware, but for those who missed out on the matches -- Cabrakan solo seems to be back...kind of.
Affectionately dubbed "Fat Loki" when he first made waves in the Solo lane seasons ago, Cabrakan falls somewhere between the durable Warrior frontliners you usually look for in a solo laner, and the incredible damage output of the Assassin picks.
Except by "between", I mean he does both. He does both really, really well.
He's not exactly on par with competitive mobility standards -- but as it turns out, "running really fast sometimes" is not a super effective gapcloser. However, Cabrakan brings a wide array of hard Crowd Control and zoning mechanics along for the ride, as well as a Two Hit Wonder Stomp Combo that can outright delete enemy Mages, Assassins, and Hunters.
With a few new weapons added to the Magical arsenal this Season, Cabrakan has plenty of options to keep both his survivability and total assassination potential high. So why is he in the Wildcard slot?
One word: Zeus.
A potent countermeasure to the Earthsunder, Zeus' Lightning Storm can put the brakes on any team trying to follow up their Cabrakan's initiation into Tectonic Shift, leaving the Render of Stone alone out in the rain. Cabrakan's Tremors are a powerful soft Crowd Control tool -- especially when coupled with Gem of Isolation. But they also give him a bit of "Hades syndrome", where he stands perfectly still like a giant neon sign saying "Here! Shoot here!"
When the best (and usually only) way to not get immediately blown apart by Zeus is to not get hit by the God of the Sky, this may not be the best place to be tactically. So when Zeus is an obvious, Grade A Tier 1 pick for mid laners (as he is currently), and similarly styled mages like Poseidon are making a comeback in a big way (as they are), Cabrakan may not be the best pick strategically.
Then again, you could always just...y'know...Destroy them. They seem a lot smaller than mountains.
Whether the son of Seven Macaw can weather a Season 4 forecast of Zeus remains to be seen. Keep your eyes open on this one though, solo laners...because the minute the sky clears up, this pick can move mountains.
It's a rough fight ahead for solo laners in SMITE Season 4. You have access to some of the best gods and goddesses in the game -- but so do your enemies. It's going to be hard fought on the Battleground...a game of small edges and little victories while you hold down the fort.
When the fighting starts and things get grim, you're the one with the flag your team will rally to -- and these six solo lane picks will make sure it's still standing when the dust settles.
Of course, it never hurts to have a few other...tricks...up your sleeve as well. But...who could that be?
Now go forth and Conquer! But be sure to stop by and tell us in the comments below which Solo lane picks you use to hold your team (your feedy, incompetent team) together long enough to pull out a victory with in SMITE's Season 4 Spring Split.
