Aphrodite: An Astounding Asset in the Arena (Archived)

At first sight, the lack of AoE heals and the clunkiness of her Kiss might make Afro-titties seem poorly designed for Arena, butt delving deeper into her reveals that even with that bondage, she can still excel in the orgy we call Arena.


When things get heated, she can cast Undying Love, making it easy to pull out of a dangerous situation. In addition, she's also the only support god with hard CC on a short cooldown. Add an extra soft CC and the strongest single-target heal in the game into the equation, and you can clearly see that she's got great assets. She might not be well endowed with the tools to tend to every single ally during an orgy, but this problem can be assuaged by purchasing actives such as Heavenly Agility.

Pro's

+Very safe to play. +Excellent mobility. +Can cripple an enemy offensive. +Only support with hard CC on a short cooldown. +Can ensure the safety of herself and one teammate with her ultimate.

Pro's

Con's

-Relies heavily on a soul-mate. -Passive loses its usefulness in arena. - Kiss is very clunky, which affects her other skills.

Con's

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Loving Embrace

Loving Embrace

This passive makes MP5 items seem perfect for her, but Arena has so many recalls that I do not feel they are very important.

Loving Embrace

Loving Embrace

Ah, kiss. It's a powerful spell because it provides hard CC and links you to a teammate, but it is also why Afro-titties is often considered to be a clunky god. Not only is it impossible to break the bond at will, but even though it won't activate its cooldown if you land it on a friendly god, missing it or hitting an enemy god with it will. This means that using this spell for its stun can result in it being on cooldown when you need to use it on a teammate. For instance, picture a scene where an enemy Ares is pursuing a fleeing teammate. He's channeling Searing Flesh, and a minus five to the ticket count seems imminent. Unfortunately, you're not linked to said teammate, so you don't have time to:


So instead, you simply Kiss Ares to end his channel. Now, you may be thinking "all right! I saved my teammate from dying!" Wrong! A sneaky Apollo using Across The Sky had his eyes set on your teammate, and took him out behind you.

Of course, if you had been linked to your teammate, you would have had enough time to heal him/her and CC Ares, but it's my scenario and I can make it how I want it!

The main reason this spell has a higher priority than Back Off! is because you and your soulmate's passive movement speed is increased with each rank. The slow on Back off, on the other hand, is constant. Oh, and it gives a damage buff to your butt-buddy when you hit an enemy god with it, too. Furthermore, its cooldown decreases with each additional rank, just like Love Birds, while the cooldown of Back Off! remains constant.



Spunky. As of some patch long ago that I don't feel like searching for, this useful little spell always originates off both her and her butt-buddy. Enemies hit by the one that originates off her will be knocked backwards, and enemies hit by the one that originates off her butty-buddy will be slowed. Use this spell as a knockback to:


When it's used as a slow (off your butt-buddy), it's typically done to secure kills - to help a butty-buddy escape, your knockback is usually better. A great example of when to use it to apply a slow is immediately after the slow from a friendly Loki's Aimed Strike wears off, ensuring the enemy cannot escape.

Oh, and just generally being a **** with it is good, too. It's a shame Smite has no ledges to knock people off, like this.



The strongest single-target (technically duo-target) heal in the game, and an excellent skill for clearing minion waves. What's there to explain, really? Ugg the Caveman see empty bar. Ugg the Caveman use birds to make full.

Actually, that's a lie - there is something I can say about this skill; it's unique from the other healing spells in that it is not instant. Since it heals over time, you want to cast this preemptively, rather than, for instance, Chang'e's Moonflower Dance, which you would want to delay in order to avoid over-healing.

It also gives you another soft CC when you build Gem of Isolation, giving you:

Whoa! That much CC, combined with immunity and passively increased movement speed as well as a damage buff? What's not to love about Aphrodite?



Is your teammate prancing around in the center of Release The Kraken!, or has he fallen prey to a Transgressors Fate, with Artemis ready to ambush him? Do him a favor and help him out, thanks.

This skill's primary use is a get-out-of-jail free card, but it can also be used to bait a faulty initiation; send your butt-buddy into the fray and watch as the enemy team launches a barrage of ultimates at him - pop that sucker while your teammate retreats, and the enemy team is at a severe disadvantage in an impending teamfight.

Really, it's an excellent skill and it will have a minuscule (for an ultimate) cooldown of 42 seconds with 40% CDR at rank five.

Your build should be flexible, meaning that it should change depending on the enemy team's composition. However, there are certain stats that are necessary to build towards every game, and they're obviously listed below - that's kind of the point of this chapter.

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The lower the cooldown on your get-out-of-jail-free card, hard CC, and heal, the better - right? Right.



As awesome as CDR is as a stat, it's very easy to reach its cap. You'll therefore need to spend your focus on raising your MP. Why is MP so important? Well, what good are your heals if they don't regenerate the damage from one basic attack? The scaling on her heal is 90% - that's a very high return rate.

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It's nice being able to keep up with your butt-buddy, isn't it? Oh, and movement speed is arguably one of the best survivability stats; avoiding damage altogether is far more effective than reducing damage taken. And hooray for easier escapes or escape prevention!



It's nice, but it's not essential because her ultimate counters CC, and it's hard for the enemy to focus you considering you'll always have a butt-buddy on, well, your butt.



As a healer, protections are more important than health, because it takes fewer spells to return to full health. And considering one of a healer's best assets is the ability to sustain the team, it's a pretty good idea to build in a way that will prevent you from being melted in half a millisecond.

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Don't you go stacking health! Some core items carry health, and more health is better than less health, but gearing specifically towards health, rather than towards protections as a healer ain't too smart.



It's great and all - you can't cast any spells without mana. But, there are more important stats in Arena, considering how many returns there are.

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You have two spells that deal damage, and their primary uses are not draining the enemy's healthbar. So, yeah, don't build towards this.

What better section to follow one explaining the stats to gear towards than one that provides a list of items with said stats?

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These items are essential for Afro-titties and, unless the enemy's composition is extremely cheesy, they will be excellent choices every single game.

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*It will be sprint for the first two tiers, but you will want to branch into Heavenly Agility when you have enough money.

Afro-titties plays best in a fairly unique zone. She is constrained to her butt-buddy, but has long-ranged spells, so you want to be far enough back to not be focused, but close enough to help your butt-buddy.

Unless your team has no capability to initiation, refrain from using Kiss to do so; it's best used defensively by CC'ing an enemy god that is channeling a spell, and it's always nice to have it off cooldown so you can switch soulmates.

Minions are, sadly, very important in Arena, so if you don't need Love Birds off cooldown in the near future, use them to clear minion waves.

Because her heal is not instant, make sure to use it preemptively, and assist your butt-buddy whenever he/she goes in for the kill. It's often best to use this spell as, or very soon after, your teammate initiates. This way, any damage they take in the near future will be restored, and the sooner the cooldown begins, the sooner it ends.

Healing Reductions can be applied through certain skills, or through the use of specific items or actives. It's obviously very important to be aware of them as a healer. Here's a list of all the different healing reductions:

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This is the Healing Debuff item that physical gods will pick up if you are giving them trouble. It applies a 40% healing reduction each time they land their basic attacks capping at one stack, meaning being hit again simply refreshes its duration but doesn't increase the magnitude of its effect. Its duration lasts eight seconds, so there's really no point in delaying a heal; even if they don't land a single additional attack, the typical healing spell with a solid build will have completely run its cooldown by the time its effect wears off.

Its third tier variant, Brawler's Cudgel, has been temporarily removed, but is likely to apply its effect in a similar fashion to Divine Ruin.



This is the Healing Debuff item that magical gods will pick up if you are giving them trouble. Similar to Brawler's Beat Stick, it applies a 40% healing reduction each time you or your teammates are hit by the enemy god's abilities. Because its duration also lasts eight seconds, use the same advice I gave for Brawler's Beatstick. Fortunately, the effects of Beatstick and Ruin do not stack even when built on different gods.

Its third tier variant, Divine Wrath, has, like Brawler's Cudgel, been temporarily removed. It will be likely to apply its effect similarly to Brawler's Beatstick.





If this item is build on an enemy god, it essentially means you will have a static 20% reduction to your heals (only when they're in range, but when else would you need heals?) There's not much you can do other than purchase Rod of Asclepius, but be aware of it.




This is a third-tiered variant of Creeping Curse which applies a 100% healing reduction for its duration. What's there to say about this, really? Your heals will be completely negated, so the best you can do is keep your heals off cooldown and hope you or your teammates survive its duration. The enemy team typically uses this to initiate, which means a whole heck 'o a lotta burst is coming - Undying Love is usually a good idea if it looks like you or your soulmate is about to be focused, and Heavenly Agility is a strong counter to it. Seriously, if you don't have HA and aren't begging your teammates (on your hands and knees, of course) to build it as well, then you're doing something very, very wrong.





This is Sobek's third skill. It applies a 50% healing reduction on all affected targets for four seconds. Many Sobeks will purchase both Divine Ruin and Creeping Curse in order to rotate through pretty insane healing reductions. For instance, a Sobek could Charge Prey> Tail Whip to apply Divine Ruin, and then cast Sickening Strike to apply 90% healing reduction. He can then apply Creeping Curse a few seconds later for an increased duration of healing reduction. That's a long time without a heal.



This is Bacchus's third skill. It applies a 25% healing reduction to all affected targets for two seconds when the belch ends (when the stun occurs). It's not quite as dangerous as Sobek's Sickening Strike as it's an easily preventable CC and you'll have a three second warning before it comes in to effect. However, a Bacchus with Divine Ruin can still be very dangerous because his Belch constantly reapplies Divine Ruin over the course of its duration. This means that simply by building DR, Bacchus can have a three second long 40% healing reduction, followed a three second long 65% healing reduction and then a five second long 40% healing reduction.

Remember that the healing reduction doesn't occur during the belch - it's an effect that is applied at the end of its duration, so healing during the belch will still give the full effect. And it just so happens that you can prevent the debuff from occurring altogether by stunning him with Kiss (or, when unlinked, interrupting him with Back Off!!




This is Chang'e's third spell. Not only does it heal all allies, but it applies a four second 50% healing debuff to all enemies for four seconds: exactly the same as Sickening Strike. Due to her ability to spam her spells, she could easily stack this spell with a Divine Ruin and really mess up your day. Fortunately, the spell effect has rainbow colors and it is cast with her in the center, so it should be very obvious and she has to risk getting in closely if she uses it offensively.

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Know that healing reduction is additive, and that its cap is 100%. This actually makes things really simple; let's say your teammate afflicted by Tornadoes from an Ao Kuang who has Divine Ruin built and he's also under the effects of Bacchus's Belch of the Gods. This means that he will have a combined healing reductions of 65% from the 40% healing reduction from Divine Ruin added to the 25% healing reduction from Belch of the Gods. In addition, negative healing (taking damage from receiving a heal) can never happen.

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Make sure you know that Aegis Amulet not only prevents all damage, but also prevents heals! If you see an ally pop Aegis DO NOT HEAL THEM until the effect wears off, as it will unfortunately do nothing.

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Purification Beads reduces all cooldowns by five seconds, meaning you have the potential to stun and heal twice in a short time period.

Undying Love can be used to bait a faulty initiation; have your butt-buddy charge into the enemy team, and when they all blow their burst on him/her, loltimate them out of there.

You don't need to hit anyone with Love Birds to receive the heal, so if you're fighting in the middle, you can always just aim it at an incoming minion wave. Two Stones with one bird?*

If you have good reaction time, you can Kiss a Loki out of stealth the moment he enters it.

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*I'll show myself out.

Any updates not mentioned in the changelog are simply grammatical/spelling fixes.

Sanguis has given me a beautiful template that integrates MOBAfire's skillsequence coding into Smitefire, which he put to great use in his top-notch Ymir Guide.

Swampmist1142 founded a section focusing on stats to gear towards.