Who doesn't love slinging spell after spell at their enemies?
Sometimes you just gotta blast your enemies in the face with a fireball. Or a lightning bolt. Or an unstable vortex of volatile transtemporal entropic energy (that last one was dripping with both redundancy and grandiloquence - look that word up). And when that itch arises there is no better class in SMITE to scratch it than the Mage class. Mages are primarily heavy damage dealers with little to no defenses whose primary damage and utility come through their abilities. They tend to have some of the coolest abilities in the game and have the capacity to bring an enormous amount of damage to bear and as such are the most popular class in SMITE.
For this reason the Mage class is also the largest class in SMITE , and by a significant margin. They are also perhaps the most versatile class; various Mages can play every single role in the game and several of them actually tend to excel at solo, jungle, and even support. However; the primary role of most Mages, and where they truly shine, is in the mid-lane. For the purpose of this ranking we will be evaluating the best mages for this role. The best mid-laners are those that can bring a withering onslaught of damage and CC to their team.
If you want to excel at being a mid-laner and bringing both excellent utility and damage to your team you should play, learn, and master the following top gods.
5. APHRODITE: THE KISS OF DEATH
SMITE - God Reveal - Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty
The Goddess of Love is perhaps one of the most underrated gods in all of SMITE, and has been for much of her long career. At first glance most people assume she is simply meant to augment another player since much of her kit can benefit whatever ally she is linked with and dismiss her as a power in her own right. But a savvy player should look past the surface level design of her kit and the gigantic breasts that were programmed on to her character model to see the real potential within.
Why Aphrodite is a great Mage:
- Her damage is massive, and unexpected. Her 2, Back Off, is a PBAoE that originates from both her and any linked teammate and can deal up to 320 base damage +80% of her magical power. Her 3, Love Birds, is perhaps the most unexpectedly painful ability in the game. Disguised under the guise of pink flapping doves this ability has a very long range, a wide, easy-to-hit targetter bar and deals massive DoT totaling for 385 base damage plus 105% of her magical power. Read that again. 105%. Keep in mind that is not DoT that enemies can dodge some part of, if they get hit they receive all 7 ticks.
- She’s very hard to kill. For a mage without an escape you might assume her to be one of the squishies characters in the game, and you would be mistaken. Aphrodite’s 1, Kiss, aside from being the way she links with allies is a long range, wide targetter, stun that can be shot through walls. Her 2 is a PBAoE that knocks any enemy away which can bat away pesky jungler’s or warriors. Her 3, aside from dealing massive damage, also heals her. And her ult, Undying Love, is a CC cleanse and grants a brief window of immunity from all damage. This means that all four of her abilities can be used to keep her alive and they are all on relatively quick cooldown.
- She is a massive force multiplier. Everything mentioned above can be coupled with another god making both Aphrodite and her ally incredibly hard to kill forces of destruction. When Aphrodite links to a teammate with her 1 she can then knock enemies off of them and damage them with her 2, heal them with her 3, and make them invulnerable with her ult. An Aphrodite paired with a competent ADC can reliably 2v5 an entire team if not countered correctly.
4. MERLIN: THE OG MAGE
SMITE - God Reveal - Merlin, the Master Wizard
Whose name comes to mind when you think of a wizard or mage? Aside from it being the heading of this paragraph you probably would have said Merlin. Merlin was one of the most highly anticipated additions to SMITE, following shortly on King Arthur’s coat tails, and with him he brought an unparalleled armament of spells to the Mage class. He is likely the most pure Mage in the game, living up to his legendary status.
Why Merlin is a great Mage:
- He is as slippery as his legends prescribe. Merlin is difficult to pin down due to having a built in blink, or teleport, in his kit. His 3, Flicker, allows him to rapidly jump to a target location, which is far safer than leaps and dashes. He also has a knock up and pull in his kit that can interrupt enemies from chasing him.
- He has the largest pool of abilities in the game, and most of them deal damage. Due to Merlin’s ult, Elemental Mastery, he can jump between three stances (fire, ice, and arcane) which augments his first two abilities and gives them different functions. This essentially means Merlin has 8 abilities, 7 of which deal damage.
- He has CC in spades and utilizes item effects better than any other mage in the game. He has two slows and a knockup built into his kit but since he has 7 different damage modes in his abilities, and several of them DoT, he can apply many item on-hit effects to many members of the enemy team in a very short period of time.
3. DISCORDIA: CHAOS UNLEASHED
SMITE - God Reveal - Discordia, Goddess of Strife
Discordia is perhaps the most true to her lore goddess in the game. Her entire kit is designed around sowing chaos in the ranks of her enemies and in doing so she also delivers a debilitating amount of damage. The combination of her uniquely disruptive style of crowd control and easy confirmable damage makes her one of the most potent Mages in the game.
Why Discordia is a great Mage:
- Her damage is incredible, confirmable, and consistent. Her 1, Unruly Magic, is a wide range, high damage ball cast in front of her that can be smoothly paired with her 2, Strife, which is in turn an easy-to-hit, high-damage root that can hit multiple gods. The combo of these two abilities can do up to 555 base damage and 145% of your total magical power making it one of the deadliest combos in the game. Also her ult, Apple of Discord, is a long range high damage orb that will ricochet off walls until it hits an enemy god or disappears.
- Her crowd control is insanely disruptive and can ruin a coordinated team fight. Her 2 is a large rectangular blast that, if it hits multiple enemies, literally turns them against each other, forcing allies to face and throw auto attacks at one another for a full second. When an enemy is tagged with her ult they are stuck running erratically and actually flooding their teams audio with taunts and jeers. On top of this when the ult explodes it will pass to any nearby enemies and cause them to do the same. Both of these abilities are massively disruptive in the midst of a pitched team fight and can cause all kinds of chaos.
- Beyond standard cooldown reduction she can bring her abilities to bear quicker than most gods in the game. Her 3, Erratic Behavior, aside from being a solid escape and stealth ability allows her to rapidly regenerate her 1 and 2 while standing within the circle it creates. This allows her to continuously throw disruption and damage unless killed or forced from the circle.
2. JANUS: WHEN LIFE CLOSES A DOOR, OPEN A PORTAL
SMITE - God Reveal - Janus, God of Portals and Transitions
Janus was one of the first gods to break the game and the unique mechanic he brings to the table permanently cements him as one of the most useful and dangerous gods in the game. His ability to open portals and travel through them is by far one of the most tactically useful abilities in the game and he backs it up with a heavy arsenal of damage. Playing him can be devastating to any opponent you face and mastering him greatly increases your chances of victory on a regular basis.
Why Janus is a great Mage:
- His damage scaling is unparalleled. His passive, Passages, provides 15% magical scaling whenever he passes through a portal or his 3, Threshold. If an enemy crosses over his 3 they are marked and when next hit by one of Janus’s abilities they take up to 60% increased scaling on that ability as a separate damage tick. That means that a highly skilled Janus player, with his passive activated and an enemy marked by Threshold, could hit an enemy god with both vortexes on his 2 and beyond the base damage they would take a cumulative 167% of Janus’s current magical power.
- His base damage is confirmable and massive. His 2, Unstable Vortex, blasts forth two swaying vortexes that hit very hard and if aimed correctly can double hit at half the ability’s distance or at its full distance. Although the targeter for this ability looks difficult once you get used to the speed of the activation you can begin reliably hitting it with ease. His ultimate, Through Space and Time, is a global, straight-line, blast of energy that deals devastating damage. Think Goku’s Kamehameha, no seriously it's exactly the same. This ability is great for sniping fleeing enemies or even sending a surprise attack across the map to help an ally. Oh and his ult scales another 100% of his magical power at distances over 800 units.
- His portals are game breaking. The utility of his 1, Portal, and those created along the path of his ultimate is unmatched in SMITE. Janus can use his Portal ability to catch an enemy, escape through a wall, dodge an attack by dropping through himself, or even create an escape route for an endangered ally. What’s further his ultimate rips a pathway of portals through any walls it encounters and allows any teammates to pass through at least once. This can allow a Janus to create a literal highway across the map for himself and his allies.
1. PERSEPHONE: ALL HAIL THE QUEEN
SMITE - God Reveal - Persephone, Queen of the Underworld
Persephone is, without a doubt, the god with the most bloated kit in SMITE. What I mean by “bloat” is that her kit does too much. She is by far the most snowballing mage in the game and, in my opinion, is ripe for a nerf. However; all the designers of the game have done thus far is tweak some of the values on her abilities and to truly bring her closer to balance they would need to begin stripping away some of the many things her kit can do. For now having a skilled Persephone on your team is almost a guaranteed win. The key word here is skilled since there are many nuances to her kit and she has perhaps one of the steepest learning curves in the game. But she in turn also has the highest skill ceiling and truly proficient players can virtually guarantee a victory for their team.
Why Persephone is a great Mage:
- She brings death from beyond the grave. Her passive, Pomegranate Seeds, allows her to pick up seeds from her other abilities and when she has enough seeds accumulated if she is killed she remains on the battlefield for an extra 5 seconds. This is particularly powerful as even if she is focused and bursted down in a team fight, which she should be due to how dangerous she is, she can then remain in the fight for another 5s and continue to drop all kinds of damage on the enemy team.
- Her 1, Bone Rush, does high damage, has a long range, and can be shot through walls. Although it has a narrow targeter Bone Rush rewards a skilled shooter with having high confirmable damage, great wave clear, and in placing a skull on the map. Which leads me to my next point…
- Her 2, Harvest, is one of the most overwhelmingly devastating abilities in the game. Persephone can plant skulls on the map with this ability (or through her 1) that she can then activate through her auto attacks or her jump. The skulls do the following things:
- At beginning level they heal her when activated
- At their second level they explode dealing significant AoE damage
- At their third level they turn into unkillable stalking plants that run to the nearest god and chomp them for even greater damage
- Her 3, Flourish, not only allows her to jump forward or away from danger but it activates and levels up any skulls planted nearby. A well seeded garden of skulls can turn into a murderfield for an enemy team if Persephone jumps and activates them.
- Her ult, Grasp of Death, allows her to shoot a tangle of vines that will travel until it hits an enemy god or a wall and then will explode vines outward damaging and ensnaring all nearby enemies. This has a massive AoE and can serve to lock down entire teams.
Please note that, as with the other rankings we have put together, these gods were mostly evaluated with respect to their kits and with less emphasis placed on their use of particular items within the game. Item balance and replacement is subject to much more change than overall god kit adjustments and though the designers may tweak certain values of gods’ kits their core mechanics do not often change.
