SMITE 2 has completely revamped how builds work, permitting every god to play whichever role they like. A new system means there's a learning curve for folks jumping into SMITE 2 for the first time however, so we want you to explain how strength and intelligence work in SMITE 2!
Use your expertise to consider how they work on a base level, but also how to build around them and take advantage of the changes to physical and magical damage, as they go hand-in-hand.
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One of the biggest changes from Smite to Smite 2 is how items work. Strength and intelligence on items have replaced Magical and Physical power. There are still gods that deal magical or physical damage, however, the abilities and auto attacks scale based off STR or INT. For example, Sol is a god that deals Magical damage, but auto attacks scale off of STR for every god, so for Sol to have hard hitting autos, she needs STR in her build. Sol's abilities however, scale off of INT, so building INT will make her abilities hit harder and be more effective, but her auto attacks will not do as much damage as they would had she built STR. Some gods have Mixed Scaling. Odin is a great example of this. Odin's Lunge ability scales off of STR items, but his Raven Shout and Gungnir's Might scale off of both STR and INT, so for the most effective build, he needs both STR and INT items to bolster his damage output. Make sure when choosing a god, you know how their abilities scale with STR and INT for maximum efficiency!
Hey guys, my name is StewBeef, and today we’re going to be explaining how Strength and Intelligence works in SMITE 2. But before we can technically do that we need to be able to understand some core features in the game that uses them.
Physical vs Magical Damage
Now what makes a physical or a magical character?
If you previously have SMITE experience then this question is simple. It’s a character that does either physical or magical damage.
So why do we have to talk about this?
Well to put it in simple terms, not shockingly, these elements still exist within SMITE 2. Every god that you play outputs one of these forms of damage either through their abilities or basic attacks. To make this even clearer: a god’s whole kit only deals a certain damage type in SMITE 2. Meaning from their basic attacks to even their abilities will only deal a single damage type.
Okay, if that’s the case wouldn’t it be simple to determine if Strength or Intelligence should be built on that god?
While at first glance it does seem pretty straight forward with: Strength meaning Physical, or Intelligence meaning Magical; this isn’t technically the case.
Scaling
What is scaling?
The exact definition for this question is: how a champion, item, or ability gets stronger or more effective as the match progresses. Now while it is true that most physical based characters scale off of strength or vise versa; sometimes there is more to be said about the situation.
Basic Attacks
So the best way to start getting a general idea of how scaling works with Strength and Intelligence is looking at how basic attacks work for every god (currently) in the game. Every god’s basic attacks scales like so: 100% Strength + 20% Intelligence. Meaning that if you build Strength items your basic attacks will include 100% of that value and 20% of your Intelligence.
Now while this looks like it would be beneficial for you to only build Strength if you want to empower your basic attacks, please remember that not every character’s design will allow you to utilize your basic attacks to the fullest.
Examples:
Anhur
Anhur is a ranged physical damage god. He is primarily played in the ADC role, but can branch out in other areas such as MID and Jungle. His kit is strictly Strength based and scales off of such. His best utilization is building to empower his basic attacks (either with crit or penetration w/ attack speed) to allow him to build up his passive which shreds physical protections.
Sol
Sol is a ranged magical damage god. She is primarily played in the ADC or MID role giving her options as being a burst mage like character or building to empower her autos and utilize her passive. Her kit primarily scales off of Intelligence while her second ability does include additional scaling from Strength. She does very well with either a full Strength build that has crit or a complete Intelligence build that allows her to utilize her kit more effectively. It should be noted that her passive does give strength, intelligence, and attack speed. And at Max Heat she gains bonus basic attack damage.
Answering The Age Ole’ Question
Now that we know some of the basics let’s get down to understanding: how Strength and Intelligence works in SMITE 2. As we already know, even from the examples, that a character can be either physical or magical and scale off of these two elements. We know that each character's basic attacks scale off of both in different ways.
Is this all that there really is to it?
Well, no. Every character in the game has at least a passive, a form of basic attacks, and 4 different abilities. (There are possibilities that more characters will have more than 4 abilities.) And we for a fact know that this is called a kit. And like stated before a god’s kit can only apply damage as physical or magical depending on who you’re playing.
If an ability states that it will scale off of Strength, then that ability will scale off of Strength. If an ability states that it will scale off of Intelligence, then that ability will scale off of Intelligence.
Primarily this is how you will see an ability be displayed within the game as either or.
Sol's 1st Ability
Anhur's 2nd Ability
Notice how the two different abilities scale off as either or. And also it should be noticed that not every ability is alike in scaling. Every god has a different flat base number within the ability and additional scaling of some form. But a single scaling is also not always the case:
Cern's 2nd Ability
Like the example above, you can have abilities scale off of both Strength and Intelligence meaning that you can build both item types and it’ll work toward that ability. We call these type of characters and abilities: Hybrids.
NOTE: Read the abilities of the characters you are playing; there are additional forms of scaling that we will not be going over at this time. (Protection Scaling)
And generally that is how Strength and Intelligence work; they are stats of an item that or ability or buff that scale toward the god’s kit you are playing. If you have any other questions then by all means reach out to me and I’ll be happy to help any newer players having a tougher time grasping certain mechanics in the game as best as I can! :D
Additional Notes:
If you’re having issues finding the right items to build in your game then look in the shop and select either the “Strength” or “Intelligence” category! Also remember that you have to un-select one category and then select the other category to see them with the current iteration of the shop :)
The Item Shop Tabs
Can I build both on a single item? Sure you can! There are also hybrid items in the game, though not very many!
You can associate INT and STR in Smite 2 with the magical and physical from Smite 1. Essenstially certain aspects of the game scale with either INT or STR. God's ability may require you build INT to make it do more damage compared to another that needs STR. Aspects such as auto attacks scale with majority STR and a little bit of INT. Regardless of the stat you are building in to it works exactly the same as magical and physical. You just need to read what scales with what. God's still do damage based on them being magical and physical which is why we have physical and magical protection.
TLDR - Different skills scale with either INT or STR. The God still does magical or physical damage. It is just the stat you must build to get the most out of the skill you want to do the highest damage. INT or STR is not affected by protections. That is only your penetration and damage type (magical or physical)
Strength vs Intelligence is close to physical vs magical power, but with some key differences and things to note:
All auto attacks scale with 100% of your strength and 20% of your intelligence together.
Strength build does not mean physical damage, Intelligence build does not mean magical damage. Damage type is determined by your god, not your build.
Some abilities scale with Strength (Anhur), some with Intelligence (Hecate), and some with a mix of the two (Neith). Read your god's abilities to know which you should be building.
Intelligence also sometimes is used for scaling on utility parts of a gods kit. For example the healing on Cernunnos 1 scales from intelligence, as does the mitigations on Amaterasu 2. It's not just about the damage!
Strength and Intelligence replace "Power" in SMITE 1
Strength and Intelligence affect scaling (damage increased from items)
Each character will have different scaling on abilities (Some Only Int, Some Only Str, Some Hybrid). Which can be found by looking at the details of their abilities
Auto Attacks scale with 100% Strength and 20% Intelligence unless stated otherwise
Intelligence doesn't = Magical, Strength doesn't = Physical. The God defines its damage, (Neith Physical, Anubis Magical)
Strength (STG) and Intelligence (INT) are best explained as replacing the "power" concept from Smite 1. No abilities scale from Magical or Physical power acquired from items anymore, as instead STG and INT are gained from said items now. Your character will still deal a set damage type, either physical or magical, and defenses of both type still exist on items. Penetration has been simplified into one stat simply being "Penetration" instead of being split between two types. So with that explained, the main new quirk with STG and INT is that god's abilities can scale off of both on some characters, making for much more diverse style of builds to be explored. Also Auto-Attacks scale with 100% STG and 20% INT, meaning to build AA style of bulid, you'll likely want to go a significant amount of STG since it scales better. Some INT items can be built when going AA, but alot of players just go outright full STG, like we've seen on most Sol's. This is good time to point out that again - even though you'll go STG Sol you're still dealing Magical damage with her Autos, as that is tied to the character. A shame too as literally none of Sol's abilities except her 2 scale with STG, lol
Unlike smite 1, in smite 2 there is intelligence (INT) and strength (STR), this for someone who so far enters the world of smite 2, can be translated that the strength is the physical damage and intelligence is the magic damage that existed in its predecessor. We can also see that in smite 2 we have more freedom when building builds where there were limitations in that mages and magic tanks could only build builds of magic items or intelligence and the same with the characters of physical damage, but now regardless of the orientation of your character, you can decide which items to acquire, something as crazy and fun as a Zeus with strength build is now possible, a Ymir with critical or also Sol.
Sol:
From what I've experienced the most effective builds with Sol are always accompanied with strength items, specifically criticals and here we come back to the point that even if Sol is a base Mage or character who's base seems to focus on intelligence, it's much more effective to make yourself a strength build.
Ymir:
You have several options from extreme damage INT builds, the traditional support builds or the most interesting alternative which is to go with a very aggressive critical build and Hydra's Lament.
In conclusion, SMITE 2 has revolutionized the way players can build their gods by introducing the concepts of strength (STR) and intelligence (INT), giving more freedom in the builds. Unlike its predecessor, there are no longer strict limitations based on the magical or physical nature of the characters, allowing for surprising and creative combinations such as a Zeus with a strength build or a Ymir with critical. This flexibility has changed the way the game is played, allowing even characters with a magical base, such as Sol, to benefit more from strength builds, proving that strategies and experimentation now play a central role in SMITE 2.
In conclusion, in this installment we have more fun variants for the game where the magical and physical items are not limited to the characters being called physical or magical or rather of intelligence or strength.
In Smite 2, the introduction of the Strength (STR) and Intelligence (INT) systems basically brings a new layer of strategy to the game, and while these stats seem similar to the Physical and Magical power from the original Smite1, there are some key differences that we need to know. It’s important to understand how STR and INT interact with gods’ abilities and basic attacks to optimize your builds/damage/etc.
Basic attacks: all gods' basic attacks now scale with both STR and INT, regardless of their damage type. Specifically, basic attacks scale 100% from your STR and 20% from your INT. This means that even if you’re focusing on a Strength-based build, your Intelligence stat still influences your basic attack damage, but to a lesser extent.
But it’s not as simple as matching STR with physical gods or INT with magical gods (like S1 building kinda). Damage type (phys/magical) comes from the god itself and not your build like in Smite1. For example, Anhur, who is a physical damage dealer, will always deal physical damage even if he builds INT.
For Strength or Intelligence, you need to look at each god’s kit. Some gods scale exclusively with STR (like Anhur), others primarily with INT (like Hecate), and some mix the two (like Neith). Additionally, INT is often used for utility scaling as well—things like healing and mitigations. For example, Cernunnos’ healing scales off INT, while Amaterasu’s mitigations from her second ability also scale from INT. So It’s not just about damage output but also other aspects of their kit
A god’s damage type is still either physical or magical, and that remains consistent throughout Smite 2. All of their abilities and basic attacks will deal one type of damage depending on the god. For example, all of Anhur’s damage is physical, and all of Hecate’s damage is magical. However, the new scaling system means you aren’t just picking items based on whether a god is physical or magical. You need to focus on how their abilities scale, which could mean building STR, INT, or a combination of both depending on the god’s kit.
For example, Sol is a magical damage dealer whose basic attacks benefit from STR due to the universal 100% STR scaling on all gods' autos. However, her abilities scale with INT, so a pure INT build might empower her abilities, but a balanced STR/INT build could make her a more versatile threat. This is where knowing your god’s abilities comes into play.
In short, you'll now have to pay closer attention to what god you play, their scalings, type and items instead of going for a default build, which seems to add more depth to the game IMO.
Smite 2 introduced this new function to give more strategies and tactics planning to make the game play more fun and challenging. Now you can have 2 main options while buying new items for your god, you can focus on Intelligence items or strength items and each one will improve different elements or skill of your god, this gives you the possibility of planning your build depending on which enemy you’re facing and which god you are using.
Smite 1 already had a similar system, Physical Power and Magical Power. But this time the new system will improve the abilities and status of the god with a new approach where any God can buy any item. For example you can buy items with intelligence status to scale up the abilities from Anubis while you can buy strength items to improve gods like Thanatos or make a mix of both to create custom builds for different situations and gods!
Strength (STR) and Intelligence (INT) are Smite 2's new form of Power! Through passives, items buffs, etc., these attributes up the damage of gods' abilities and basic attacks based on their scaling.
Any god can have STR and INT, meaning physical/magical damage is based on the god itself and STR/INT contribute to either type. (E.g. Loki = Physical, Zeus = Magical, both can buy STR/INT)
Basic attacks now scale for 100% of STR and 20% of INT, no matter which god you play.
Some gods lean into just STR or INT scaling, some have hybrid scaling where building both is stronger. Check a god's ability text to see how they scale!
The new strength and intelligence system in Smite 2 on the surface appears confusing, but in actuality is very simple to understand once you have a basic grasp of the core game mechanics and the items in the store.
What we first must understand is the split between gods who deal physical damage, and gods that deal magical damage. In Smite 2 there are gods who deal one or the other, there was a point in time when some gods were capable of doing both types but that has since been removed in favor of a more simple design. To discover what type of damage a god deals all you need to do is navigate to the gods tab and then click on the god you are curious about, the type will be shown on a label named physical or magical. All you need to know about this is no matter what stat you are purchasing from the shop this is the type of damage you will deal and the type of damage that your opponent will need to build protections for. You will also notice that there is another label for strength and intelligence scaling, this label is what is important for knowing whether you should be building strength or intelligence items from the store.
So you now know what type of damage you are dealing with regardless of your build, and you know what stat you will be scaling off of. You might now assume that you should only build the stat that your god scales off of and for the most part that is true! Anhur for example only scales off of strength and therefore building intelligence in any capacity should be considered a waste. However, there are some exceptions. One of these such exceptions is that for basic attacks, all basic attacks fired by gods currently in Smite 2 scale 100% off of strength and 20% off of intelligence, this means that while building strength will net you much higher damage auto attacks in general you will still gain some damage on your autos for building intelligence as well! The other exception to this is that some gods in the game have hybrid scaling across their different abilities. Neith is perhaps the best example of this exception, if we take a look at her abilities you will see what I mean.
This is Neiths first ability, as you can see no matter what type of damage stat you build, this ability will scale up in damage accordingly and in general will do well no matter what damage stat you invest in. But if we go ahead and look at Neiths second ability...
Here you will notice that only intelligence will increase your second abilities damage, not only that but you will also only increase the healing you receive based on your intelligence as well! It is encouraged to experiment with different builds and items, especially for these gods that hybrid scale as new items are introduced but now at least you should know to look at a gods abilities individually to get a grasp of what you should build for and more importantly, you should understand the difference between strength and intelligence! Thank you for reading.
Strength and int are the two ways to increase your dmg dealt. first off every gods auto attacks scales of 100% of the strength you build and 20% of the intellegence you build. If you are wanting to really buff up your auto attacks you want prioritize strength.
Abilities are different, each ability can scale differently so make sure to check how the ability scales before purchasing items. Some will scale soley on strength or int and sometimes both.
On the defensive side of things, build physical protection to guard against strength and magical to guard against int.
Ultimately, any confusion around the strength and intelligence is people being confused as to why Sol, a magical character, isn't doing physical damage if she builds crit, and so on.
The change from Smite 1 to 2 is pretty simple. Physical was changed to STR, Magical was changed to INT, however, now there is no restrictions on the type of damage each character can pick, but the output of the damage is always the same as the god's damage type, not the item's stats.
That means a full STR/Crit Ymir or Sol will be doing magical damage and you should buy magic defense, same with Cernunnos building full INT!
However, all basics so far (wtih the exception of Mordred) are scaled at 100% STR and 20% INT, so take that into account!
Remember to familiarize yourself with the damage types of all the gods, what they're building isn't irrelevant per say, but it helps to know what protections to build!
In SMITE 2, the concepts of strength (STR) and intelligence (INT) are very important if you want to understand how much damage the gods do. All gods cause physical or magical damage, and you will influence this damage according to the attributes you acquire.
Strength, in general, increases physical damage and that of the skills that scale with it, as well as improving your auto-attack (Here it should be explained that auto-attack is made up of 100% strength and 20% intelligence, so that champions who focus on intelligence still have an impact with their auto-attack, albeit lower), while intelligence amplifies the magical damage of the skills that scale with it. That's the basic definition you need to have.
As I've explained how strength and intelligence will influence damage, I think it's important to understand how to defend against both. You build physical protection to defend yourself from strength and you will build magical protection to protect yourself from those dependent on intelligence.
Strength and intelligence are very important in Smite 2. They differ greatly from Smite 1, making it more complex to build characters. They are very important for generating a good performance from the gods during battles in the game. Let's talk about each one now:
Strength: This is responsible for guaranteeing the character's physical damage, and is usually associated with characters who don't have skills focused on magic damage. Gods who use melee attacks, such as warriors or assassins, are the ones who benefit the most, gaining some benefits such as increased physical damage, scaled damage in skills and increased physical resistance
Increased Physical Damage: Increases the damage of basic attacks and physical abilities.
Scaled damage: Certain skills are scaled based on a percentage of strength. Thus, the higher the strength, the stronger the skill.
Physical Resistance: Increases resistance to physical damage, literally that!
Intelligence: This is normally used to increase magical power and is the best option for classes such as sorcerers, mages and god supports with magic-based attacks. Intelligence will confer some benefits such as increased magic damage, more mana and regeneration and reduced recharge time
Increased Magic Damage: More intelligence means more magic damage for skills.
More Mana and Regeneration: It provides greater mana capacity and increases regeneration rates, something perfect for mages!
Reduced Recharge Time: Intelligence reduces the recharge time for skills, which, in simple terms, allows gods to cast spells more often.
Although most gods in SMITE 2 focus on strength or intelligence, depending on the god's function, some hybrids can also appear. For example, some warriors or guardians are able to increase both their physical power - which can be based on strength - and magical power, which can be based on intelligence, depending on the choices of items for flexibility in battle.
It's a question of balancing strength and intelligence, depending on the role of the God and the style of play.
Strength is typically associated with gods who focus on physical damage. Most of their abilities and basic attacks scale with Strength, which boosts the effectiveness of their physical-based skills.
Intelligence applies primarily to gods dealing magical damage, and their abilities scale accordingly with this stat.
The key difference in SMITE 2 is that basic attacks for all gods scale off both Strength and Intelligence, but with different ratios (i think is 100% of Strength and 20% of Intelligence, but i am not 100% sure).
Some abilities also scale off a mix of both stats, creating hybrid scaling where players can experiment with different builds depending on the god. For example, gods like Sol might benefit from building both Strength and Intelligence to maximize certain abilities.
This mechanics opens up more flexibility and creativity in how you build and play each god.
