[Tactics] Auto Attacks

#Auto Attacks

Auto Attacks, like everything else, are skill shots in Smite. This means, that it can often be hard to get them off consecutively. While it is a very complicated and inticrate topic, I'll try to boil it down to a few key points.

##Positioning

* Map awareness: Constantly check your map, make sure you know where your enemies are and if you don't see them, keep in mind that they could be right next to you. You see their Gods in lane and their Jungler on duo? Feel free to push that solo tower as far as you want. You don't see the jungler? Stay back, stay safe or ward to the extend where you know you'll have enough time to get away.

* Cooldowns: Keep track of your, but even more so your teammates and your enemies cooldowns. If you saw Ra cast his heal 2 seconds ago remember that he can't save you and stay back until it's off CD. If you want to gank an Anhur either wait for him to use his leap or save your own leap until he uses his, etc.

* Remember your role: Remember what you're playing and what your strenght & weaknesses are. Don't go rushing at 3 people if you're an Artemis with your ult on CD. Wait for your team. Be strategic about who you attack, when, from where.

* Don't chase: If your enemy is running away just a basic attack away from death don't just mindlessly chase after him. Go over the above points before you chase someone: Could he lead you into a trapp? Is there an enemy that could rotate to sandwich you / give him backup? Is there a teammate who could pick the kill up for you? Do you have enough power to really finish him off, or is his ult off cooldown and he might manage to kill you instead? Do you have any chance of catching him or does he have too much movementspeed & leaps while you have none? The list goes on and on.

* Ward, ward ward: Wards win games, really. As soon as you've gotten your most important items always buy two wards when you back. It might delay your items by a bit, but dying will delay you even more. Wards are insanely important and if I have a team where everyone wards, I not only rarely ever lose but I also hardly ever die: I always know who's where, when I can fight and when I need to run.
Getting Auto Attacks off is very important in Smite. Not only for the Gods that base their kit around them (Hunters or Gods like Osiris and Kali) but also for Gods that do most of their damage with skills. There are a lot of opportunities to land AAs and people often overlook them because they're in a hurry to spamm their skills. While it is a very complex topic, I'll try to boil it down to a few key points.

* Use the map to your advantage: this is especially important when it comes to AAs. Use your surroundings. Trap your enemy in his own minions, body block them while you slash away at them, block their escape into the jungle simply by positioning yourself in their path.

##Time your skills

There's a lot of opportunities to get off AAs inbetween skills. Don't spamm your skills, consider both your own aswel as your enemy's kit before you put any of your skills on CD and you'll soon see a huge increase in damage.

* Jumps / Leaps / Gap closers: Utilizing your leaps effectively and timing them correctly is what will let you get off a bunch of additional AAs. Try not to initiate with your leap / jump / gap closer unless you're certain that you can finish the enemy off before he gets to use his own. Approach them on foot, either scaring him into using his leap too early and thus ineffectively or if they don't, hit them with a few AAs and jump after them when they finally use their escape.

* Stuns / Roots / Cripples: If you have some sort of CC that stopps your enemy from escaping, use it smartly. You can often get a few AAs in before you stun them. Especially if you surprise them (either if you leap in or if they don't see you coming) you can often get away with 1-2 AAs before you stun them, giving you a little bit of additional damage which might just be enough to kill them off.

* Attack Progression: To keep this thread to a reasonable lenght, I wont go into detail on this. Learn your Gods attack progression and use it to it's fullest potential. For more details, feel free to read the short guide I wrote on attack progression over on [pastebin](http://pastebin.com/H80UiDdT).