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.
