The best SMITE 2 Mordred builds will make you a force to be reckoned with in the jungle; this melee-focused fallen knight can deal high damage while staying alive independently, and with one of the most intricate kits yet seen in SMITE - as befits as a brand-new god in SMITE 2 - can be hugely satisfying to play. ‘Satisfying’ doesn’t mean ‘easy’, though; the Breaker of the Round Table is a tricky god to master and, if built wrong, can fall limply between several roles. That’s where we come in. We asked our expert community of SMITE 2 players for their tips on building and playing Mordred; and this guide is the result. Consume alongside our top SMITE 2 tips for best results. 

We cover everything to do with Mordred in SMITE 2 here, from his surprisingly complex abilities, the best roles to play him in, general tips for playing him, the best builds for him in his best-suited roles, and more. So without further ado, here's a comprehensive look at how to play Mordred in SMITE 2, builds and all.

Mordred abilities explained

First up, let’s take a look at Mordred’s kit, as understanding exactly what each of his abilities does is fundamental to learning to play him. We'll let TESDAI take it away with their breakdown:

• Mourning & Clarent (basic attack): Mordred's swords are named Mourning and Clarent, and his attack chain is Mourning>Clarent>Clarent>Mourning. Mourning scales with strength while Clarent scales with intelligence. DiscoFerry explains this is unique to Mordred, as "every other god's auto attacks all scale from 100% strength and 20% intelligence, and while Mordred's A attacks follow this rule, his B attacks are 100% intelligence and 60% strength." Check out NotAValveGame's video breakdown below at 1:02 for more details on how this works, along with other elements of Mordred's kit.

• Wrath of the Forsaken (passive): This is Mordred's wrath meter, which slowly fills by itself, but quickens when you land hits and abilities, but his passive has another aspect: a forward dash which can damage the first god you hit and knock them into the air. It also doesn't cost wrath or mana, so can be used whenever.

• Cruel Strikes (first): Slashes a small cone in front of Mordred then slams down in a short line. The slash scales with strength, while the line scales with strength and protections. Follow it up with a basic attack and it will either deal bonus damage (if it's Mourning) or it will heal (if it's Clarent). You can tell which it will be by the colour of the ability icon: pink means damage and orange means heal.

• Bloodrage (second): This is a classic rage ability that deals damage to all surrounding enemies in a circle around Mordred and scales with both strength and intelligence evenly. While Bloodrage is active, you can stack a protection buff onto Mordred, and a protection debuff onto enemies, with basic attacks up to four times.

• Severing Slice (third): A simple line ability that deals damage, scaling on intelligence and slowing enemies. The fun part of this ability is that when hitting the centre of the line, it causes the enemy to bleed as they move, which scales with strength instead.

• Heart Slash/Pursue the Weak (ultimate): Mordred's ultimate isn't dependent on a cooldown like most ultimate abilities. Instead, it has two forms depending on how much wrath he has. 

  • Between 40-80 wrath, his ultimate is Heart Slash, which reaches out in a line in front of Mordred and roots any enemy god you hit for 1.5s.

  • Above 80 wrath, Mordred’s ultimate is Pursue the Weak, which makes him immune to CC (crowd control) and gives him the ability to run through walls. As soon as you hit an opponent, Mordred will deal damage and stun enemies in a circle, then soar into the sky, pulling the enemy god with him and landing a few more hits.

If you'd rather understand all this information in video form, ChrisTDickson has a detailed explanation that dives into each of Mordred's abilities and how they work below:

Alternatively, check out Malum's video breakdown of Mordred’s kit, in which they describe Pursue the Weak as "one of their favourite abilities in the game right now".

Best Mordred roles

So, you know what Mordred can do. What do these abilities say about where he’s best used on the battleground? TESDAI explains that Mordred's "most prominent roles are in the solo and jungle lanes, but he can potentially be niche flexed into support and possibly even mid depending on team composition and the current meta.

"Regardless of role, your goal with Mordred will often be finding your way to the enemy backline to deal damage and survive with mobility, protections, and sustain."

DiscoFerry elaborates further: "Mordred's focus is on getting up close to his opponents and beating them down with his abilities. His kit has more unique mechanics than pretty much any other god in the game currently, which makes him both very interesting to learn and quite hard to master."

Now that we know where Mordred can excel, it’s time to talk builds. How can we lean into his potential in these roles and optimise him during a game to really shine?

Best Mordred solo build

This first Mordred solo build also comes courtesy of TESDAI. Note that where there are multiple choices, pick whichever is the best counter to the particular opponent in your lane.

Cooldown Bruiser

• Relic: Sundering Arc

  • This lets you invade, gives extra damage in a fight if necessary, and gives you good camp and objective secure for your team. You should be looking to start every game by invading either the enemy blue or red with your solo laner, or enemy speed or purple with your duo laners. If your team doesn't invade with you, you can try to sneak a solo invade on red or speed buff.

Starter Items:

• Bluestone Pendant

  • The damage proc on abilities synergises well with the high-CDR (cooldown reduction) nature of this build.

• Axe

  • To give you a little extra damage for the early camp and lane clear.

Consumables:

• 3x Health Potions

  • You shouldn't need mana sustain from potions because you should be able to invade the enemy blue or secure your own blue buff to sustain it.

• Health Chalice

  • Makes your sustain through the early-mid game hard to deal with.

First items:

• Gladiator's Shield (hybrid)

  • Synergises and scales with the rest of the build thanks to the passive, and the strength buff will help with damage on the basic attack and first ability.

• Helm of Radiance (hybrid)

  • Gives intelligence on the second and third basic attacks resulting in extra damage. Only use this against a god that deals physical damage.

• Triton's Conch (hybrid)

  • Buffs strength, intelligence, and health, along with ally buffs that help when team fighting.

Subsequent items:

• Breastplate of Valor (defensive)

  • More physical defence and cooldown reductions.

• Genji's Guard (defensive)

  • More magical defence and cooldown reductions.

• Mystical Mail (defensive)

  • More physical defence and extra damage to help with long fights, but lacks cooldown reduction.

• Amanita Charm (defensive)

  • Hybrid defence and an active that gives your team an area-of-effect heal.

Counter-build items:

• Ruinous Ankh (defensive)

  • Best against anti-heal.

• Leviathan's Hide (defensive)

  • Best against anti-auto attacks.

• Spectral Armor (defensive)

  • Best against anti-crit.

• Hussar's Wings (defensive)

  • Best against slow effects.

Final item:

• Glorious Pridwen

  • Gives a lot of cooldown reduction and hybrid protections. It also has an active that gives a big shield, slow, and extra damage that synergises well with all the tanky items you've built.

Best Mordred jungle build

Our Mordred jungle build also comes courtesy of TESDAI as they've gone into so much detail for each choice. This one "takes a little bit of time and farming to build up and doesn't give much flexibility for counter-building, but once you have all three items stacked, Mordred will be doing an absolute ton of damage."

Triple Stack

Relic: 

• Sundering Arc

  • For the same reason as the solo build, Sundering Arc is too good thanks to the extra damage and how it lets you invade early.

Starter Items:

• Bumba's Cudgel

  • You're going more ability focused and you want to be able to clear the jungle quickly.

• Axe

  • For extra damage on the early camp clears and ganks.

Consumables:

• 2x Health Potions

  • For healing when you need to stay alive.

• 1x Mana Potion

  • You're not guaranteed blue buff sustain like you are with the solo build.

First items:

• Devourer's Gauntlet (offensive)

  • Gives you lifesteal to sustain during camp rotation.

• Transcendence (offensive)

  • Strength scaling on the two primary clear abilities.

• Book of Thoth (offensive)

  • Synergises with Transcendence to give you loads of intelligence and strength on the passives once evolved.

Subsequent items:

• Tekko-Kagi (offensive)

  • Gives strength, cooldown, and a passive that gives movement speed and extra cooldown reduction on ability usage, which lets you rotate faster for clear and ganks.

• The Crusher (offensive)

  • This offers a little bit more cooldown since this build is lacking in that area. It also gives you some % penetration later in the game to punch through natural protections and do more damage to tankier targets. The passive gives you some decent extra damage to your targets as well.

• Heartseeker (offensive)

  • Choose this for more % penetration and damage to tanks. The passive gives % HP physical damage based on 3% of your strength, resulting in extra damage, essentially.

DiscoFerry also recommends a build along these lines for jungle Mordred players, but suggests Gem of Focus as another potential item pickup instead of either Heartseeker or The Crusher. This buffs your movement speed and grants extra intelligence.

For some slightly different builds, CashMoneyMorty has put together a bite-sized TikTok video detailing two different builds for Mordred: Bruiser, which focuses on scrapping with enemies head on, and Big Damage, which is primarily for the jungle before taking opposing gods by surprise and assassinating them. Check them out:

Mordred tips

We’ve covered Mordred’s kit, his potential roles, and a couple of options for you to build into those roles during a game, but we’re not done quite yet. Our SMITE 2 players have a few more handy general tips for playing Mordred, as follows:

ShadeSMITE recommends "stacking up your ult in the early game and getting your rage filled to use your ult to gank lanes as much as possible so you can snowball and get early kills."

DiscoFerry also explains the flexibility in Mordred as a whole: "He can be built and played in pretty much any way you want to, thanks to his real mix of strength and intelligence scalings - a system that he utilises the best of any god in the game right now. Four of his six abilities, and his auto attacks, scale strongly off of both types of power." So while he may be best suited to the solo or jungle lanes, he can dabble wherever he's needed.

Also from ShadeSMITE don't engage in fights head-on with Mordred. If you're focusing on building up your damage, "you need to play like an assassin and look for ults on the enemy backline after the fight has already started."

Finally, ShadeSMITE explains how Mordred's dash can be used to cancel channelled abilities, to chase enemies, or to run away from fights. Bellona is an especially good matchup for Mordred, because when she uses her hammer, you can cancel her ability with Mordred's dash.

Do you have any additional tips for playing Mordred in SMITE 2? Let us know in the comments below!

Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Titan Forge Games