tl;dr - We should probably try to play some 3v3, 4v4, or 5v5 all-guild games for the event, at least to start. I personally think it'd be a blast, especially all being on mumble together and talking trash... I mean providing encouragement.. :alien3:
The nature of the Smite matchmaking system kind of punishes new players queuing together in groups, unfortunately. If we have a group of 5 and enter the casual queue, we'll get paired against another group of 5 (and sometimes the game can't even find another group, so we get re-queued and wait longer). Sure, they could be total newbies as well, but odds are pretty high that they are semi-experienced players on voice comms that will rofflestomp anyone that's brand new to the game.
I'm totally fine with getting owned for the sake of playing together for fun on a F2P guild event, but for day to day playing, it can be a little frustrating when people have no clue what an ultimate skill is or what active abilities do for you, etc.. The cool part about the Assault gamemode is that you get a random god, so everyone playing likely isn't 100% awesome with the gods they get chosen for them (unless you luck out and get one of your mainstay characters). I have a max level account and a level 20 account, and I'm still absolute shite with 80% of the gods still, which is why I love assault... it helps you learn new gods in a fun/casual environment. :alien7: Some gods I used to hate getting stuck with (Vamana, I'm looking at you), I'm starting to enjoy playing more and more, for example.
The game is friendly to new players in that it has an auto-level system for skills, and an auto-buy system for items. This makes is "easy to learn" but the mastery part comes when you turn off the auto-buy/level stuff and start tailoring your own item builds and ability leveling order. That simply just takes a little bit of time to get comfortable with, but after you figure out what works and what doesn't work, it's pretty straightforward. (ex: buy boots first for speed buff. facing a magic-heavy team?.. build magic resist items. etc..). In the short term though, you can just leave auto-buy and auto-level on and be assured that it's making fairly reasonable choices for you. You can even fine-tune that auto-purchase item order for each god, offline in the Guides > Character Builder page within the game.
I'm happy to set up a 1v1 joust with people if you want to play around and learn the abilities, take it slow, and get some feedback. Again, I'm by far no expert in the game, but I can help with the basics and give some feedback. But honestly, the tutorial is good, and I also really recommend just going to Play > Practice > Joust (solo/co-op), and play against the computer a few games. It really helps understand what's going on, and it's a fun and low-key way to practice gods and look around in the item store.
Or... just show up and press all the buttons. /allthethings
mg: