MY CORE ITEMS:
Warrior Tabi (1550)
The main stats that Bastet needs are Physical Power, Physical Penetration and Cooldown Reduction. Since boots were changed in Season 2 and
Ninja Tabi lost the 15% CDR,
Warrior Tabi is the only right choice.
Jotunn's Wrath (2440)
This is Bastet's bread and butter - it has all the stats that she needs - power, penetration, mana and CDR. Buy it as a second item most of the time, it's pretty standard and solid start.
Brawler's Beat Stick (2400)
Since its passive was changed to work with abilities rather than basic attacks it should be renamed to Bastet's Beat Stick. It has lot of power, flat penetration and 40% heal reduction from passive. It makes Bastet's abilities hit like a truck. The passive is useful if enemies don't have healing abilities, because it also reduces healing received from the fountain, so that makes them stay in base longer.
Void Shield (2600)
This item is actually pretty similar to the mace tree. It provides power, protections and strips 20 protections from the enemies nearly - so it works like extra penetration, but not only for you, but your whole team which is pretty handy on Arena. Remember that if you get too far from the enemy they will get their 20 protections back making the bleed, cats and max-range Declaw deal less damage.
Shifter's Shield (2400)
It got cheaper even than
Void Shield in recent patch. I'm a fan of hybrid items, if gives you lot of power or protections depending on your Health. I usually buy it later on as 5th or 6th item.
Titan's Bane (2050)
Pretty cheap item, more penetration is always welcome on Bastet. It's more helpful on tanky enemies. If the enemy team went full damage, maybe it's a better idea to not buy this item at all and take a defensive/hybrid item instead. If the enemy is really tanky, for example 2 guardians + warrior and you feel safe enough rush it as 4th item.
SITUATIONAL ITEMS:
Winged Blade (1850)
It can save your life from many cripples that let you move, but prevent
Pounce like
Poseidon's
Whirlpool,
Ares'
Shackles or
Cupid's
Fields Of Love. It can be also used offensively to chase enemies trying to slow you down like
He Bo using
Atlas of the Yellow River or
Ah Puch spamming the whole map with
Gem of Isolation's passive.
Magi's Blessing
Magi's Blessing (2350)
Due to the amount of new gods that get free CC to poke you (like Skadi's
Permafrost or Jing Wei's
Persistent Gust) I moved this item to situationals. There's really not many situation where Magi's really pays off these days. It has only one good use - the CC immunity, noone builds it for the stats, they're sh!t.
As I said in
Pounce description - Bastet is really vulnerable to hard CCs so the immunity is pretty nice. Though I think it might be a waste of gold if you face gods like
Nox, Geb, Isis or Sobek who can easyly break that passive by poking you with their AoE CCs. For others like
Ares it might be essential item to survive.
Runic Shield (2250)
I find this item to be quiet broken right now. It's an equivalent of
Void Shield against magical gods, but it's much cheaper and has a stronger aura. Enemies get Magical Power reduced by 50 and Attack Speed by 20%. Counting that Arena team comp usually has a guardian, 2 mages and some hunter - you're practically neutralizing their 2 full items. This aura is a nightmare to magical ADCs like
Freya,
Chronos or
Sol
RELICS:
Curse
Curse
Slows and reduces healing of all enemies in it's radius. It slowly starts to be my first core relic, as I'm feel more aggressive and ballsy this season trying to overcompensate Purification nerfs. Curse will help you catch up to enemies, stick your cats to them, maybe even slap some basic attacks and with the
Brawler's Beat Stick in your build they're unable to heal at all.
Purification
Purification
It got nerfed to death this season. Now it has a muuuch longer cooldown of 160s and no longer reduces cooldowns of your abilities. The only good thing is that it doesn't cost gold anymore. From a core relic it starts to become my situational pick against gods like
Ares or
Awilix.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary
I use it mostly against few ultimates like
Neith's
World Weaver,
Nu Wa's
Fire Shards, but there's a lot of new gods with annoying poke damage these days like
Chiron,
Sol or
Raijin. I usually pick it up as second relic.
I'm also testing some agressive relics like
Frenzy or Sunder.
OTHER MENTIONS
These are mostly the items that I don't use that much anymore or I haven't tested them enough.
Hydra's Lament (2150)
The name fits this item really well now, it got nerfed hard in Season 2 - lost 20 power and the passive got halved. I found
Hydra's Demise on Smitefire that shows the previous stats. I'm honestly including this item, because it's cheap and Arena matches rarely end with full 6-item builds. Since
Jotunn's Wrath lost 5% CD reduction Hydra might be useful if you try to build more CDR, which is totally fine on Bastet, especially for her passive.
Transcendence (2600)
Some people might not like this choice due to higher price and building stacks, especially on Arena. I used it commonly in Season 2, because Bastet lacks mana sustain. It was a nice item, but I think new
Brawler's Beat Stick is just better. It makes Bastet stronger midgame when it's really her time to shine. The loss of MP5 and extra mana doesn't hurt that much when the base is next to you.
Masamune(2200)
I'm mentioning this item, because of the 20 power buff it received. I called it the most interesting katana item at the beginning of Season 3 and now it might actually be pretty viable on Bastet. It's pretty cheap for 50 power, more movement speed and a passive that can add damage to all your abilities (that includes cats, I tested it).
I haven't played much with
Mantle of Discord and
Bulwark of Hope on Bastet and I'm not a big fan of building full defensive items, but the passives are really strong and can save your life, if not also help you kill the enemy.
Anyways, I like your guide. It has given me some ideas for not only bastet but other gods as well.
First time with Bastet and your guide.
But seriously, this is probably the worst hard-counter team comp (even more cancerous if that damage mage is a Poseidon...). I don't think the build will really matter if you get caught. You might survive if you use some defensive items like Spirit Robe or Mail of Renewal, but you'll be rather useless then since Bastet's only strong point on Arena is the damage. I'd just go with my regular build with maybe 1 hybrid/defensive item like Shifter's Shield or Runic Shield. Positioning will be more important. If that team is hugging each other you'd better just sit back and play the minion game. If you jump in you might get CC-locked and even if you manage to land some damage there's Khepri with shield and revive waiting. Wait for them to split up, waste their CCs or focus your other teammates. Prioritize the most squishy target (like mage without escape) or someone who's lazy-backing while ignoring guardians. As for actives I always buy full beads + aegis against Ares. I always split up against him and look at his position. I try to counter his ult with aegis to save my beads for other CCs or the next ult. When both are on cooldown I play supersafe. That's really costly, but hopefully with the free trinkets in Season 3 Bastet will have easier life against CCs, at least cheaper.
However that all falls apart if the team has lots of hard CC in which case you are in big trouble. Even with magi's + beads you'll spend the whole game creeping around the edges not able to do much as the moment you jump in you're dead. Yesterday I faced nox + ares + kepri + hunter + damage mage. Give me a build that works vs that?
About the Shifter's Shield alternatives: If you want pure offense you can replace it with Brawler's Beat Stick, if you want something defensive, but cheaper I'm a big fan of Runic Shield at the moment.
I'll edit the guide and add some BBcodes after HiRez shows new patch notes.
I used the experimental build sequence, but got Titan's Bane before Shifter's Shield. With Transcendence 2nd, it felt like it took FOREVER before I was able to finally build it. I think I'd be more comfortable with Jotunn's Wrath 2nd, as per your original build...more trips back, but more spamming of Pounce and Razor Whip.
Do you see any potentially better items than Shifter's Shield? For the price, it just doesn't feel like it's worth what it brings...
Anyway, I'll keep trying.
Good guide. Just a bit hard to read because everything looks a bit lumped together. Would you consider adding a bit more BB coding to space things out and emphasize things more and less? Maybe use spoilers a bit?
I need to try Bastet in Arena...I never get Transcendence but it makes sense for her.
Also forgot that her Declaw hits a bit of an AOE, nice pointing that out.
I would usually default to an earlier Titan's Bane (like 4th item), before an item like Shifter's Shield, because of the cost difference and the penetration, which should still be pretty effective against all enemies (though of course more against tankier gods, as you mentioned). Brawler's Beat Stick is an interesting 4th in some situations...I've always loved that item, and the flat 20 pen might be more effective in the earlier game against squishy gods.
Anyway, will try this out soon! Upvote.