SMITE Damage vs Defense in Solo

Comparing defensive protection items and aggressive damage/power items for solo laners in SMITE to see why which one has more value early in the game. Talking about protections, flat vs percentage penetration and other effects of both item paths. Focusing especially on Breastplate of Valor (BoV), Jotunn’s Wrath, Hydra’s Lament and Titan’s Bane.

Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.. or don't, if you don't feel like it... really. It's up to you. It's a sloth life after all.
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MORE SLOTH:
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(Outro) Song: Suffer City - Suffer City Blues
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Congratulations, you made it to the end the description. You are now one of the chosen few. Comment "Defense is the best... defense?" down below to confuse the hell out of everyone who didn't.

[johnx]

That moments when u want to listen to Duke but the fight in the background its too interesting so u miss what he is saying :( xD

[pape]

Chaac vs Chaac. How Chaacing. A Chaacing match up if you ask me. I'm Chaaced.

[thesmiteguy]

Instant like because...Chaac gameplay.

[oufail]

great video again duke! I was wondering what boots you recommend for guardian solo since some guardians like sobek or ymir have been seen there recently

[AMB]

At the start of the video, why is nvidia telling you to die?

[XDSilentMods]

Was hoping you might discuss swapping Breastplate of Valor for Mantle of Discord, dropping mana and a little bit of CDR for the extra magical defense and the passive is something I think is worthwhile but I rarely see people do it.

[RyomaE]

Hey Duke, A video idea for another day could be to discuss which items interact best with each other and more importantly which items step on each other's toes when built together, keep up the good work! :)

[derpyghosts]

You should make a video about why it can be difficult to balance gods that are played differently in ranked vs casual, maybe like Loki or anubis

[badgeerr]

Dude amazing, in depth guides dude. You have explained fully which is amazing and this is consistent too

[jacematez]

What about your odin quick guide? Should i still build early dmg?

[ElucidatorGame]

I think you didnt do a build for general/all Warriors so here is my question, Is my Sun Wukong build fine? What I should change to improve it?

Bluestone Pendant - Warrior Tabi - Breastplate of Valor - Jotunns Wrath - Bulwark of Hope - Mystical Mail - Titan Bane/Frostbound, but I dont know what should be better generally for the last item 😢

[punkneverdie]

Usually build some sort of dmg late game. On Osiris and Erlang, for example, when I know I'm tanky enough to get in, harass and don't die I pick Quin's Sai. For ability based just a bit of pen (I usually still go Titan's but that's my preference).

[Wortigon]

talking about Wukong early game, and not mentioning stone of Gaia. I'm disappointed. Not only does it give a high chunk of maxhp, it provides exceptional sustain with that passive. Also it's not even that expensive. 2100 gold or so, maybe 2300.
if it comes to solo laner character, if I had to chose, Herc or Wukong wouldby my top options, and neither of them requires shit like hydra's. just get some starter, boots, gaia, yotunn, breastplate, shifter's, than switch the starter out for something usually situational or god specific, preferably something on the deffensive side, or even void shield. Ofc antiheals and such can be important in some cases, if that's the case, include it when you feel it's needed, even before the aforementioned items if have to

base mana from Yotunn and breastplate are of course important, but Gaia now regenerates mana too, not only hp, it's the best sustain item that shitton of people I see build mostly for the passive, and the regen stats, but the max hp isn't bad either.

[Nagluuu]

welp, i guess i always played wrong
after boots i always went for jotunns directly (i mainly use chaac in solo) and i rarely lose lane, it happens, but it's pretty rare...and no, i'm not that good of a player...i'm kinda confused why this happens if i'm building wrong xD

[sillyredsheep]

Duke Sloth just told me I do everything wrong XD I always build Starter Item and then defense against the damage type I'm laning against. Generally Breastplate since solo is dominated by physical.

[Secretman]

No amount of convincing would change my building of full damage on my two favorite solo laners
Loki and mercucio of neither house capulet or montague

[thecrunchyone]

Once I played Chaac v Chaac in the Solo lane and I chose Quins as my 3rd item while my enemy took breastplate of valor . It actually worked out extremely well for me bcs quins did an extreme amount of damage and I was able to outfarm him bcs of that. I took a lot of defense afterwards and in the end I was ahead in farm, had enough protections and health to be a frontliner and did a lot of damage because of quins. Usually I play jungle and I the chaac I played against wasn't bad at all. What's your opinion about that?

[nairobi]

A simple way is to put it like this. Solo laner is mainly defense with support due to their tankiness nature. Your main damage builders in a game should be your jungler and ADC and sometimes your mid depending on who they are, the situation their in, and how they play. It’s not bad going for defense first especially with some that have a good passive like GShield or good early stats like breastplate. However that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to build damage in your kit but primarily it will end up being your boots and what ever damage item you decide to go with whether it be qin sai, crusher, or frostbound for more AA focused gods or any other items depending on the god your playing, some gods utilize items better then others. Get damage if your ahead to snowball that lane in your favor and build defense after, and build defense first when your feel your getting bullied more then you like and want to sustain in that lane and focus on damage later on. I have played solo lane a lot, I main it constantly and it’s my favorite role. There’s no one way to describe what to build as it’s all situational. Both solo and support have their own ways of building and a lot of it is dependent on knowledge of the enemy and what they might do and build. That usually comes with time and knowledge about what each god does and where their stronger at. TL;DR: It all depends on how well it is going for you in the lane and whether you can come back easily or not.

[coldeed]

NO REASON FOR JOTUNS? CD maxing with that and breastplate gives much higher use to a solo.

[Areszvt]

I was thinking of going a tanking/pen build for bellona. Like greaves, mantle and hide. And jotuns, asi and the hammer that reduces enemy att speed. I forget the name