Candyman. Candyman. Candyman. Candyman. Candyman. (Laning/Joust) (Updated for Season 4)

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Hello everyone, I appreciate you taking the time to find my guide with the intent of learning how to play Ah Muzen Cab. I am Pizzarugi, and this is the first guide I've ever written, possibly even the first of many others if people appreciate the advice I have to offer.

Contained within this guide will be the pros and cons of playing as the god of bees, a summary of his skills, some detail on items and actives, and finally what gods he synergizes with and can be countered against. Since this is the first guide I'll be writing, I will be touching up on this from time to time to make edits and additions when necessary.

Yeah, I'm not very good at writing introductions, so I apologize if it isn't as meaty as some others you have read. Let us get this show on the road, and move into the nitty gritty of the guide!

ATTENTION: Help a writer, and explain why you down voted the guide. This will help me understand the problem and see if I can address it.

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Ah Muzen Cab, the Mayan god of bees, is a hunter that specializes in unabridged basic attack damage. He should be considered among the few physical gods whose waveclear can be compared to mages like Poseidon or Kukulkan. Despite these amazing traits, Ah Muzen Cab also has some glaring weaknesses that can be easily exploited if you are not careful. Ah Muzen Cab is capable of taking on the opposition alone, but he is also very deadly when in teams that are equipped with hard CC. Unfortunately, the same can be said when countering him, as any CC can severely weaken if not destroy him.

The passive unique to Ah Muzen Cab, Bees!, is actually more useful than you may initially give it credit for. Any enemies struck by Swarm, Stinger, or Honey infested by Hive or swarm will receive this debuff. While the damage is mostly minimal, it reveals enemies on the screen and on the minimap for its duration. It also has the added bonus of disarming enemies exposed to it long enough!

His best and only line of defense in any situation lies in his Hive. Providing a buff to both his movement and attack speed while offering a small dose of healing, Ah Muzen Cab relies on this skill for doing just about anything! Whether you are giving chase or trying to escape, you can always count on your hives to get the job done.

For the purpose of this guide, Honey is what makes this buzzing god shine in lanes! By itself, this sticky substance does nothing save for slowing down anything caught in it. Should you use it in the radius of your Hive or use your Swarm on it, however, it becomes much more threatening! It is the best skill you've got when clearing waves of minions, or slowing down enemy gods when chasing them. Because of the Bees! passive, infested honey can also be used as area denial to keep cloaked gods from getting close. Very versatile, very useful!

PROS + Great area denial and wave clear + High attack and movement speed + High single-target damage + Easy to play

CONS - Low defense - Lategame CC spells certain death - Vulnerable outside of Hive - Very mana hungry

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This is Ah Muzen Cab's calling card! What this passive does is infects targets, dealing 8 physical damage plus 5% of your total physical power as extra. The damage isn't just what makes it useful either, as the bees will spread to other gods and minions that weren't infested. The most useful feature of this passive is that it will reveal hidden gods that were infected! If you manage to infect a cloaked Loki or hidden Nu Wa, they will be visible for the duration of the passive. All abilities including your Hive (indirectly through Honey) can infect.

If you're going to make any progress as this god, you have got to use this ability all the time. Not only does it provide you a constant boost to your attack and movement speed, but it also provides a little healing while in the radius. More importantly, it can be used to infest Honey if you place it down nearby. This skill is vital for survival and thriving, as the extra speed is very helpful for escaping, chasing, and offering suppressed fire for your teammates. Your survivability and killing potential drops greatly if you are not within its radius. Protect them as best you can, as enemy gods will try and break them in order to hinder you! It also acts as a tiny ward, so you can see those sneaky Loki ganks before they get you.

This skill is both offense and utility. Swarm not only deals out a decent amount of damage and infect targets hit, but can also be used to infest Honey if used away from your Hive. Getting at least 1 level into it will help you earlygame with wave clearing. It has a wide path and can be used to infect any cloaked gods roaming in narrow passageways!

This is what you will be using a lot while laning, alongside your Hive. Honey lasts for 4 seconds and deals 8 ticks of damage before expiring. By all rights, this is the best skill for clearing minion waves, as its total damage outperforms Swarm! It can also be used defensively by smearing it across the width of a lane for area denial, forcing gods to either go around it, wait for it to expire, or go through it at the cost of receiving damage while getting infected by your passive. This is the first ability you want to max out as soon as possible!

This ultimate skill is high risk, high reward! After a brief windup period, Ah Muzen Cab fires the massive Stinger on his arm at high speed in a straight line. Enemies hit will be crippled, infected with his passive, and hurt for a huge sum of damage. It doesn't end there, as after some time, the stinger will fall off the god you hit and can then be picked up. If you manage to retrieve it before it expires, your cooldown will drop to 15 seconds, giving you a very short wait before firing it again! This skill is useful both for initiating or finishing off a weakened god, allowing you or a teammate to kill them without them trying to escape. However, its brief windup is very audible and if your target is paying attention, they can easily dodge the shot. If your shot misses, your skill will be stuck on its standard cooldown of 90 seconds. Make sure not to miss!

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My build revolves around a mixed balance of power and speed. With the assistance of your hives, you can build less items that increase attack speed which will give you room to build additional power. With any combination of items listed here, you should be looking at 250 power and still boast a large amount of attack speed to back it!

This is based on my own opinion, but I find that the attack speed bonus it provides is still handy for basic attacks. This comes in especially handy when getting buffed by hives. It still has adequate power as well. The extra mana it provides isn't all that bad either, especially when coupled with Transcendence.

You are going to chew through a huge amount of mana! So, what better way to alleviate this problem than getting an item that gives you a large amount of it? At maximum stacks, you will have an additional 750 mana on top of the 300 the item initially gives. On top of all that, it gives physical power based on 3% of your total mana. At level 20 with a max stack Transcendence, you're looking at getting a total of 97 physical power from the item alone!

While it no longer provides physical lifesteal, the additional attack speed and damage it offers is essential for dealing heavy hits. And the more health a god has, the harder you're going to hit. The extra damage based on 4% of target's maximum life has amazing power earlygame, but balances out lategame.

Critical hit chance, simply put, is a must for anyone who rolls a hunter or assassin! While it may no longer have an attack speed bonus, its high critical hit chance is still beneficial and Hive's attack speed buff should compensate for the loss. I recommend Rage over Malice because you're going to want Deathbringer last, so having upwards of 55% critical strike chance would be most beneficial.

Attack speed, physical power, and protection reduction. Is there anything else I need to say? If you know you're not going to get the kill, at least reducing a god's protections will open them up for your teammates to beat them down. Great for any situation that has you being pitted against a tank!

What goes nice with Rage? A weapon that offers a small bonus to critical strike chance while increasing critical hit damage by 40%! Enter the Deathbringer, something you should never go without, especially if you've also got rage. With rage and deathbringer combined, your critical strike chance can go up to 55%.

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If you find that the enemy are packing more protections than what you cared for, you can swap the attack speed Ninja Tabi for this. It has double the physical power, but comes at the cost of reduced attack speed.

This is a fantastic starter item to get! The 5 MP5 may not provide too much regen, but it will help with your immense consumption while building Transcendence. Your abilities and Bees! passive should even keep the damage over time refreshed. If you have the gold, I recommend getting this!

Besides having a crowd control reduction and movement speed buff, it nullifies slows every 30 seconds while simultaneously speeding you up for 4 seconds. This is best used if you're facing a team with more slow CCs than hard CCs.

Magi's Blessing

In the event the enemy gods are more loaded with hard CCs than slows, you're not going to get far without magi's blessing. This is more important to have if you're being focused a lot over the rest of your team!

Do you find yourself more useful on the frontline? Then you should get some lifesteal while still increasing your attack speed. Asi has got you covered there. Not to mention more intense battles where your HP will plummet will increase asi's effectiveness.

An optional item to replace Deathbringer, Bloodforge offers both power and lifesteal in a neat little package. This is a good item to get if you find that you absolutely need the lifesteal and still have physical power to make your abilities and crits sting! I recommend this over Devourer's Gauntlet since you're already building Transcendence stacks.

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While it offers chase by slowing the enemy down, there are items that can serve better for that purpose such as Poisoned Star.

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You have no movement ability whatsoever. You're vulnerable and easy to single out, even moreso if you're out of your Hive radius. And should you get hard CC'd, your doom is almost guaranteed! If the enemy has a lot of hard CC, and you didn't get magi's blessing, then Purification Beads are vital!

This is a handy "final stand" item. It reflects 40% of all damage before mitigation back to the attacker, and prevents them from using lifesteal on you. If Bakasura or Loki get the jump on you and you're unable to run, this active just might save your life in 1v1 combat.

This is a great active to use if you want to use another item rather than Hastened Fatalis. Besides increasing your movement speed and rendering you immune to slows for its duration, it also allows you to use basic attacks without being slowed down.

If the enemy team has Loki or a god with a powerful nuke for an ultimate, and you cannot escape their wrath, this active is important to have. This works well when used with Purification Beads if you're getting CC'd as well.

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ENEMY If you're playing against another Ah Muzen Cab, it will become a battle for territory. Both of you will be fighting over locations that would serve your Hive best in terms of protecting it. The enemy will undoubtedly do his best to both protect his hives while poking you with his infested Honey. Do not do the same, his hives should be your second priority. What you want is to knock him out of the lane, either through killing or retreating, then focus his hives. If he is alone, and you've got a decent amount of movement speed, you can try and destroy his hive while he's still there. If you're chasing Ah Muzen Cab, he will most likely be dropping hives while he runs in order to maintain speed. If you want to counter his retreat, using Heavenly Wings will allow you to keep moving quickly while basic attacking and destroying his hives. Using your Stinger should be a last-resort if you can't catch up, or to finish him off, as cripple will do nothing on a god that has no movement abilities. If you're having trouble fighting him, getting sprint and/or Aegis Amulet should significantly reduce him as a threat if you're escaping. If you really want to ruin his day, you have to be both patient and good at timing. What I mean of course is listening for him winding up his ultimate. The Stinger has roughly 1 audible second of windup time before he actually fires it. If you're good, you wait for him to initiate the ultimate, and immediately use aegis. He'll lose the shot and force him into a ~90 second cooldown!

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ENEMY Ares is a hardy god who is able to take quite a lot of punishment if boosted with Bolster Defenses. While he lacks any movement ability, he can use his crippling Shackles to slow you down while whittling away a chunk of your HP with Searing Flesh. Most good Ares players give him blink in order to jump right into the middle of the enemies and use No Escape. The best overall defense against him is to use Purification Beads or Aegis Amulet if you can't resist his ultimate. ALLY Ares synergizes well with Ah Muzen Cab in every way. He can use his shackles to slow so you can catch up and attack, dealing extra damage to the enemy while he burns away their HP. Combining your Stinger with no escape allows to cripple an enemy after they get pulled, giving you the chance to kill a god without risk of escape.

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ENEMY Bakasura is very fast, both in movement and attack speed. Should he manage to catch you, your chances of escape are very slim. Typically, Bakasura will initiate by using eat minions for the protection buff. He might initiate with Take Down, or use it to chase/escape, but he'll open up with Butcher Blades and Regurgitate to attack. Be wary of his ultimate, as it causes slow as well as cripples you. If you don't think you can take him, pop your sprint and flee. Fortunately, Bakasura lacks any serious crowd control abilities to pose a significant threat. If you decide to fight him, initiate with Stinger in order to keep him from using his leap to escape. Using Honey to slow him to make him easier to hit will prove useful as well. ALLY Bakasura has no hard crowd control, making him a difficult ally to fight with. He will rely on your slows and cripples to initiate so he can take his opponents out. Pay attention to who he wants to engage, and slow them down.

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ENEMY Very sneaky, very unpredictable, Loki is an opportunist god who will burst you to oblivion if you're not paying attention. Do not stray far from your teammates or engage him alone, a well-built Loki will always beat you. The best way to deal with him is to listen carefully to hear if he activated Vanish. If you hear him cloak, you turn around and run to the closest teammate or tower as fast as you can. If he does manage to reach you, your only defense against him is to use Purification Beads and/or Aegis Amulet. If you're quick thinking, pop the pendant just when he ults so you can negate the hit and still take the stun. He'll then be open to retaliation. Should you choose to engage, be sure to infect him with Bees! as soon as possible as your passive will reveal him if he's cloaked. This is very important in teamfights, as a revealed Loki has a much harder time engaging people if he can be seen. Use of your Stinger is another useful asset, as the cripple should prevent him from Vanishing, keeping him from escaping or mitigating damage. ALLY Loki's ultimate stuns his target for 1 second. If Loki vanishes, stay close to the enemy in case he uses his ultimate and help him take his target down. His decoy can help you clear minion waves easier by stopping their movement for a couple seconds, giving your Honey more time to kill them if the decoy fails.

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ENEMY Odin has both a slow and an obstacle-creating ultimate. Should he catch you in both, your chances of survival is going to plummet. Your best course of action is to stay away from the rest of your teammates, since he'll use his ultimate more often if he can get more than one person in it. Odin is usually played if there's also a god with an AoE ultimate like Earthshaker, so being trapped in the ring is very dangerous. Getting Blink Rune or Aegis Amulet should help you survive. ALLY Due to a recent change to his abilities, his ring is now able to allow you to enter and leave the ring as well as attacking through it. Once Odin initiates with his jump and raven shield, move in to prepare for his ult. Trapped enemies are a great deal easier to kill than those who can escape!

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ENEMY Sobek is another tank that will make your life hell. He has both a knockup, a movement ability, and a flip. Sobek's Charge Prey is your greatest threat since it tosses you behind him right towards his allies who are waiting for you. If you try to escape after the toss, he'll use Tail Whip in order to keep you from running. The best course of action you have in this scenario is to use Purification Beads if he charges at you, canceling the flip. Sobek is difficult to take down due to him being classed as a tank. While you can take him on alone, it is better to have teammates with you. Using your Stinger followed up with Honey should put some damage on him while slowing him down, making it easier for your teammates to focus on him. ALLY Charge Prey is his greatest asset for you, as he practically feeds you targets. As soon as he sends someone into the air in your direction, you want to hit them with your Stinger to help thwart their escape.

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ENEMY Big, bulky, and freezing cold, Ymir has everything to make your life miserable. His Ice Wall is an obstacle which is used to keep you from chasing, or prevent you from escaping long enough for him to catch up to you, upon which he'll use Frost Breath to keep you in place. While you're still frozen, he'll hit you with Glacial Strike before you can escape. Ymir's killing potential is very high earlygame, but balances out late/endgame. If you don't get Purification Beads or Heavenly Wings early on, he can very easily shut you down or just open you up for his teammates to kill you. ALLY Like Ares, all of Ymir's abilities synergize with you. His ice wall, frost breath, and glacial strike combo provide a steady amount of CC for you to very easily run up and attack the god he targeted. Your Stinger benefits Ymir in that the cripple will ensure the enemy will have a harder time escaping while he channels his Shards of Ice.

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