Best starter items for the solo lane role in Smite Season 8

The solo lane, the shortest lane in Smite, has you going up against a single god, and it’s a battle of endurance. Many players believe it to be a more boring lane because nothing really happens, but if you fail here, the rest of your teammates will feel it, and it’ll be hard to be helpful to them during the late game. It’s critical you win, or at least remain at the same level as the enemy’s team solo. With the changes to the starter items in Season 8, you have a bit more variety, and these choices can impact how well you do in this lane.

Bluestone Pendant

Bluestone Pendant is the big returning item for solo lane players. It was a powerful item when paired with Sun Wukong, and it’s found a home on several other warriors, such as Cú Chulainn and King Arthur. Bluestone Pendant gives you physical power, HP5 and MP5. The item’s passive is when you hit an enemy with a damaging ability, they take an additional 25 physical damage over 2 seconds, which can stack twice.

You can upgrade this item to Bluestone Brooch or Corrupted Bluestone. With Bluestone Brooch, your physical power, HP5, and MP5 go up. The passive becomes your enemies take an additional 25+7.5% of their current health for 2 seconds whenever you hit them with an ability. This effect stacks twice. Corrupted Bluestone gives you even more physical power, but you receive less HP5 and MP5. The passive becomes every time you hit an enemy with a damaging ability, they take an additional 75 damage over 5 seconds and have reduced attack speed by 10%. This can stack twice. You gain 15% attack speed for every enemy with it; up to a maximum of 5 enemies can have this stack.

Warrior’s Axe

Warrior’s Axe is a solid solo lane item if you want something that gives you a bit more defenses right at the start. You receive health, physical and magical protection, and damage reduction. The item’s passive is when you damage an enemy god, you steal 25 away from them and give it to yourself. This effect can occur every 10 seconds.

You can upgrade Warrior’s Axe into Sundering Axe or Hero’s Axe. With Sundering Axe, your health, physical and magical protections, and flag damage reduction goes up. The passive becomes when you damage an enemy god, you steal 10% of their current health and restore it to yourself. The effect can happen every 7 seconds. For Hero’s Axe, you receive even more health and physical and magical protections, but your damage reduction becomes crowd control reduction. The passive becomes when a hard crowd control effect hits an ally god within 55 units of you, they receive a shield equal to 10% of your maximum health. This can occur every 8 seconds.

Warding Sigil

If you find yourself battling against a mage or a guardian god in the solo lane, you want to go with Warding Sigil to receive more magical protections than the other recommended solo lane starter items. You can do this to build into another item for your first slot, such as a lifesteal or heavy damaging choice. With Warding Sigil, you receive health and magical protections. The item’s passive is that whenever an ability hits you, you gain a stack of Rebuke, which reduces damage taken by 5 for 5 seconds. This effect only occurs once per ability, and it can stack twice.

Warding Sigil can be upgraded to become Sigil of the Old Guard or Infused Sigil. With Sigil of the Old Guard, you receive more health and magical protections. The passive is similar to Warding Sigil, but the damage taken is reduced by 4% for 5 seconds. It can only occur once per ability cast on you, but it can happen three times. For Infused Sigil, you receive even more health, but less magical protection, and a little bit of physical protection. The passive is that whenever an ability hits you, Infused Sigil gains a stack, and it can only happen once per ability. When Infused Sigil hits 5 stacks, it explodes after 0.5 seconds, unleashing 400 magical damage to enemies within 30 units of you.

Death’s Toll

For warriors that excel at using your basic attacks, such as Osiris, Bellona, or Erlang Shen, you want to pick up Death’s Toll. The item gives you physical or magical power and health. The passive is that whenever you hit an enemy with a basic attack, you restore 2 health and 1 mana. If your attack does AoE damage, then you restore half the amount for every hit by it.

With Death’s Toll, you can choose to upgrade it into Death’s Embrace or Death’s Temper. With Death’s Embrace, you receive more physical and magical power, along with more health. The passive is that now, whenever you hit an enemy with a basic attack, you restore 3% of your health and mana. If you deal with an AoE attack against enemies, you receive half the enemy hit by your attack, following the first. For Death’s Temper, you’re receiving less physical and magical power, less health, but you gain attack speed. For its passive, when an enemy dies near you, you gain a stack of Temper that provides 3.5% increased basic attack damage for 10 seconds. This effect can stack up to 10 times. You gain 5 stacks when an enemy god dies near you.

Vampiric Shroud

Vampiric Shroud is a situational item that will only go on a handful of gods playing the solo lane. Suppose you want to try out a mage here, such as Isis, Vulcan, Discordia, or Chang’e. feel free to experiment to see how well you handle facing your opponent. It may not always work. With Vampiric Shroud, you receive magical power, physical protection, health, and magical lifesteal. It’s passive is that whenever damaging an enemy with an ability, you gain 6 health and mana. This effect can only trigger once per target, per ability.

You can upgrade this item into Blood-soaked Shroud or Sacrificial Shroud. For Blood-soaked Shroud, you receive more magical power, physical protection, health, and magical lifesteal. Your passive is essentially doubled, restoring 12 health, 6 mana, and you receive a stack of 1% magical lifesteal for 6 seconds. You can stack this infinitely, but it can only trigger once per target per ability. For Sacrificial Shroud, you receive more magical power, less physical protection, less health, but the same amount of magical lifesteal compared to Blood-soaked Shroud. The passive is that your abilities deal 15% more damage, but it costs you 5% of your maximum health to use them.