The Reasons Why Support Starters Should Go Back To Level 15...
Hey again, a SMITE Bug Catcher here! Wanted to make a post about it since I felt this balance change did nothing but hurt the already weakest role in SMITE 2. The support debate has been going on for a while now, Tankiness as a whole but not what this is about, and this is one of the bigger parts of that problem pie. I'll go over the when and why for this change and share my rationale for reverting it.
When did this happen?
This change was implemented on the 23 of February alongside Morgan Le Fay. The change was, among other changes, decoupling jungle and support passives from starters and turning them into passives. Here is PonPon and then KillGoon talking about it for reference.
Mr. Killgoon, Hero of Georgia, Savior of Time
This change overall was a work of art. Turning all starters into adaptive, decoupling the support and jungle passives, and changing them into actual passives is an amazing change! This allows more creativity for these roles and changes the fact of not going the jungle or support starters while in those roles as throwing effectively. Although these changes are great as a whole, we now have a new problem that heavily affects support in a way that is almost completely negative, which is changing the support upgrade from 15 to 20.
Why has this change stuck?
Mr. Killgoon, Hero of Georgia, Savior of Time Thoughts
This is a quick response so instead of going over this off the cuff response, I'll go over the main points as to why this change has the staying power. I'll also give my reasons as to why bringing back the level 15 upgrade is necessary and that the level 15 upgrade shouldn't hold the support starters hostage.
- Standardization -
This first point is pretty simple and it is the fact that the support starter is upgradable at level 15 while every other starter is level 20, seemingly leading to an unbalanced spike in stats that no other role can achieve.
I do love some good standardization, however in this case there is a BIG reason for this asymmetry. Support starters being level 15 was for two big reasons, which are as follows, the first is the supports are always behind the team in farm and this will always be the case due to the nature of what support does for the team. The second point is to give the support a huge boon around the time they will start spending most of their time in team fights. Bringing this level requirement up to 20 keeps them even further behind the team and removes the best team passive they can provide. Just for a data point to show how bad a problem this is, if you go to Smite 2 live, you can see this problem live.
Updated on May. 12, 2026 • 41799 player builds analyzed
Data obtained from - https://smite2.live/items
This data is from Ranked Conquest Obsidian and above (3800+)
Selflessness has been purchased 1326 times with a purchase % of 3.3%, and support buying it 99.5% of the time.
Heroism has been purchased 586 times with a purchase % of 1.4%, and support buying it 99.7% of the time.
War Flag has been purchased 308 times with a purchase % of 0.7%, and support buying it 94.5% of the time.
War Banner has been purchased 128 times with a purchase % of 0.3%, and support buying it 93.8% of the time.
What these numbers mean is simple. You are significantly less likely to upgrade your starter as support than any other role by an insane margin. The answer to why this is right here from these numbers, which is the fact that support due to their role in the team will always be behind and they need this asymmetry to exist as their role was and is intended.
- Build diversity -
Making the support upgrades the same level as all other starters now allows support to try many different/creative build paths since they are not restricted to only support starters. This especially allows supports to provide high levels of pressure and wave clear that would not exist otherwise.
This is a classic monkey's paw scene. You can build whatever you want however support starters are close to unusable compared to Warriors Axe. The decoupling of the passive was great, but all it leads to now is that supports are going to pick Warriors Axe or Bluestone since they are almost always gonna be better than Selflessness and will always be better than going War Flag.
- Buffing Support Starters -
Now that support starters are the same upgrade level as everything else support starters can now be buffed more closely in line with other starters.
It has been about 3 months since this change happened, so let's check the buffs these starters got that they desperately needed.
War Flag - Lost 100 health in place of 15% attack speed and was nerfed from 15% to 10% attack speed. It's passive now also happens when you kill minions.
Selflessness - Gained 40 health and now its shield can apply to yourself.
.....So the support side of the support starters were nerfed so the solo might be able to use them? just look at the numbers above from Smite 2 live. No one besides support is even building these items so all that happened is they were nerfed to better fit into a role that will never use them in place of any of the other significantly better starters for solo.
- Buffing Support Starter Upgrades -
The change also allows support starter upgrades to be buffed in line with other starters now.
I'm gonna be honest, I kind of just disagree with this point completely. Maybe I'm a support shill but I think the stats the way they are would probably be fine if brought back down to level 15. These items are supposed to fill the role as a huge boon to supports around the mid point of the match, providing huge stats for a low price and a team-oriented buff to have that "I'M DOING MY JOB." support high that most who are playing support are trying to attain! The problem with this point is that we have no idea if keeping them at level 15 would have had a negative impact on the game. We have nothing to go on for these GIGANTIC changes that nerfed supports severely, and not testing this with the player base at large is crazy for such a dramatic nerf to the worst-performing role in the game.
- Solo Lane Accessible -
With Selflessness now giving its user the shield and War Flag giving attack speed, plus its passive when killing minions, allowing these starters to now also be built in solo lane.
Looking at the numbers this simply does not exist. No solo is building Selflessness and almost no solo is building War Flag. If the upgrades were brought down to level 15 maybe we could actually see if these changes might be over-tuned, but we simply can't know that since this never happened. We have no idea if ANY solo would actually be able to "abuse" these items leading again to why would such an insane nerf to support happen without any testing?
My Conclusion -
I may not be a support main but even I can tell that this has overall been a nightmare to deal with. Losing the best defense item, cost to defense, support had in their arsenal for the opportunity of "build diversity" aka mostly just Warriors Axe. Just to reiterate what I said at the start is that I think the decoupling and adaptive to starters was great and want that to stay, as said in my responses going to level 20 has made the risk of going a support starter, especially War Flag, just not worth it in most situations. This post is to hopefully give a productive perspective that at least shows the problems with this change and how it has affected support in a way that we are seeing with almost all discourse, especially since this is a big part of that problem pie. Also for those who might think I'm a support shill, here is my tracker for reference. I just want support to fulfill the role they were made for and because of this change, support has been significantly debilitated.
https://tracker.gg/smite2/profile/steam/76561199446962330/overview?gamemode=conquest-ranked&season=3
With much love and respect to the Dev Team.
Sincerely, a SMITE Bug Catcher