Arachne Arena Teamplayer Build

This build focuses on securing allot of kills for your team in arena, allowing you to incapacitate the enemy for your team as well as being able to burst down the squishier pulls without the assistance of your team.

Important Statement. This build is not the best possible Arachne build. I simply find this tailored quite nicely to how i like to play. First point is the choice of Ninja Tabi over Warrior Tabi, this choice is backed by my tendency to miss ALLOT of cocoons. If you feel you can land more pulls than I, consider instead purchasing Warrior Tabi for the extra damage from the penetration provided. Point being do not tell me my build is wrong, it works for me and i felt like it worked well enough to share. I will not stalk each viewer of this guide and threaten them to follow my guide to the point, so change things to fit your preferences instead of mine if you feel like it is necessary.

The "Useful alternative items" purchase order is in no way meant to be a purchase order but simply a list of some fairly useful alternative items to what i have on the standard build.

Additional notes: Apologies about any grammatical mistakes, if they are not "guide-breaking" please refrain from mentioning them. This is my first guide and i would appreciate some useful tips or suggestions (even for the build) but do not be derogatory to me please as I will not respond.

Ninja Tabi & Jotunn's Wrath - I list these items together as i use them for the same purpose, being to be able to pull as much as possible and lay your Broodlings as much as possible.

Fatalis - In my opinion Fatalis is still superior to Hastened Fatalis as it allows you to take advantage of your passive more effectively than it's brother.

Frostbound Hammer - This items helps to slow the pull in order to make it easier for you and your team to get a few extra hits on them if the subject god happens to like to have allot of protections.

Qin's Sais - This is probably the most powerful physical item in the game currently, these will add allot of numbers to your DPS through their passive as well as providing more attack speed and life-steal which allow you to box more effectively.

Executioner - This item (on top of even more attack speed) allows you to further cripple your pulls making it easier for your team mates as well as you to do more damage as they lower your targets protection. However I consider these the most expendable part of the build and if you need to sub out an item (for instance for protections if you are dying too often), replace this.

Fist of the Gods - This item should be used for two situations, escape and on your pulls. Use it to get a jump on enemy you would rather just not box with or use it to ensure more time can be spent putting a beating on your pulls.

Purification Beads - These are almost standard arena items. The amount of gods that are together means you can sometimes get cought up in a string of hard CC's making it near impossible to escape without the use of these. Since Arachne lacks any form of imidiate escape it is plausible to in some cases sub this item for combat blink (or blink) instead.

Broodlings - These are a very important part of your DPS build as you don't have to stop your auto-attacks in order to add them to your numbers. A good strategy is to stockpile a large amount of these in order to maximize their damage from your cocoons however it is far to simple to "pop" stockpiles or simply steer clear of them, remember that your enemy's are sentient as well so don't expect this strategy to work that often. It is important to place one of these down quickly before your cocoon in order to avoid the enemy being able to react in time to avoid the eggs. Additionally if you have a choice, pull them to were the eggs are between them and were they want to go because they have a small time were they must "hatch" before they will start attacking. The additional damage as well as the ability to place more of these makes a strong argument as to why you will upgrade these first.

Drain Life - This ability's damage is nothing compared to your spiders + basic attacks. However the silence can be very useful to unsure that enemy's with escape ability's or items cannot use them to escape your teammates. You sacrifice damage when you silence them so make sure it is worth using, simply ***es whether or not they have ability's or items that could be used to escape.

Tangled Web - Upgrading this ability second is what seems to be the most hot-topic issue people have with my build, if you are one of these people please refer to my statement in the introduction. Use this before pulling when possible to ensure a slow escape for your enemy's. Between the maximum 50% slow from this ability, 25% from Frostbound Hammer, and the 20% slow from your Broodlings the enemy will be going nowhere fast if they lack escape moves.

Cocoon - This ability is Arachne, this is simply the strongest positioning tool in the game. Forcing an enemy to you is strong enough but coupled with a stun as well as the ability to pull enemy's through walls makes it for this god. Note that it is a skill-shot, has travel time, and roots you when you cast it. (Fun note, due to the travel time of the ultimate if two Arachne's pull each other at the same time they will simply swap positions.) Make sure to try and position it to force the squishy-damage based gods such as mages and hunters so points to where they are quickly bursted down and to pull the tanky and controlling gods away from their team, making it vulnerable. Additionally if the enemy is around your fountain feel free to attempt to pull them into your base for a free kill.

In summary this build is based around setting up kills for your team. Your pulls are the only thing that make Arachne worth playing so it is important that you make every pull count and to pull as often as possible. In order to maximize the effectiveness of your ultimate make sure you have some of your team close by to help; ensure to call out your action using the vvvr (ultimate is ready) quick chat command if your teammates seem to lack the initiative to recognize your targets. On top of your team's positioning watch the enemy's positioning; If i pull that DPS will the tank or his DPS friends be able to respond in time? If i pull the tank will his DPS be to preoccupied to respond? The point being you should always try to predict the outcome of a pull before you actually pull or else your pulls could result in your death and more. When setting up for pulls the pillars to the left and right make perfect places as they are central and provide some cover from ability's that cannot travel though walls and basic attacks as well as keeping your eggs out of aggro range from the lane minions ensuring they attack your target.

Pros
-High sustain with the life-steal and your drain life ability.
-Extremely high single-target damage.
-Ridicules positioning tool.
-Using Tangled Web and Broodlings can make you hard and unpleasant to chase.
-Insane team player using her pull and silence can save many teammates.

Cons
-Pulls can sometimes cause your death or even a team wipe.
-Lacks any natural CC protection or escape move.
-NO area of effect damage.