I guess perfection gets ruined with the need for new things. Thats nature's cycle.
Smite for years has been one of the best multiplayer games out there. It had everything.
It still is the best, but it is no longer as good as it used to be. Plenty of changes happened.
Plenty of attack items were introduced while defense items were made weaker and now its pretty much pointless to build defense. Attack is way stronger.
Items which give penetration, attack speed and power are very much overpowered compared to defense items which huge majority gives nothing but defense. The gameplay changed.
Now you either build one protection item or none, so I usually choose just mail of renewal because it gives health and healing and protections. It works well.
As for attack items, for physical, you very much want Crusher and Silverbranch bow since they give you power, penetration and attack speed. Then you want Asi, Titans, and Brawler's beatstick. Its balanced build.
You can go for auto attack build and go crusher, silverbranch, executioner, qins, titans. But I dont find auto attack builds that good since most fights are decided in first few seconds, and auto attack only does more damage over longer time. Team fights are about burst damage.
You can still play defensively in Smite, you just cant build defensively, because attack build is now best defense, as you cant defend yourself if you cant do damage, and attack builds give more damage than defense builds reduce. Its how it is now.
I see players at level 100 and above almost all playing almost pure damage builds, with usually just one or none defense item. Its bad news for almost all defense items.