Chaac - a power machine (updated 16. 4. 2015.)

Note: the build might change in the future.

Hello, my actual IGN is TheNefarious and this is my first guide on SmiteFire for Chaac. I have played some MOBAs for some time, namely League of Legends and Strife, but I didn't get hooked until SMITE. Its variety of game modes, 3rd person view as well as bigger control over the characters and mythological context enticed me to play more and now SMITE is my favorite MOBA ever. The first god to entice me was Chaac, an excellent warrior for beginners that balances tankiness and damage fairly well and contains excellent sustain. So, on to Chaac.

Pros

+ Sustain + Poke + Good balance of damage vs. tankiness + Early-midgame waveclear + AoE silence

Chaac is a very safe character in the solo lane. He loses few matchups, his laning phase is decent and his midgame is strong. He is also big in teamfights and objective steals due to Storm Call. He is the gateway god to warriors, because he offers the the right balance of tankiness vs. damage and because of his AoE abilities, which makes it easier to hit enemies.

Cons

- Sluggishness (compared to other warriors) - Not much CC - Falls off lategame - Thunder Strike easy to dodge

Chaac is a god who falls off lategame: he can still deal damage, but it's not nearly enough. His escape consists of 2 abilites, and Torrent has a fairly long cooldown so he doesn't have a reliable skill that he can use for escape, cooldown reduction is thus definitely needed for him. He also has almost no hard CC (aside from Storm Call) and only 1 soft CC ( Rain Dance), so in that regard he is lacking.

Passive: Overflow

Effect: For each 5 basic attacks, gain a mana-free ability. A great mana-effective passive; combined with Bluestone Pendant, you will not have many troubles with mana. Tips: Priority using Overflow on abilities: 4 -> 3 -> 1 -> 2 (sorted by mana consumption and early/mid-game importance)

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1st ability: Thunder Strike

Effect: Deals damage + stays on the ground for 5 seconds for other abilities. This is an excellent ability: It deals a lot of damage, it's Chaac's earlygame poke and coupled with Torrent a good waveclear as well. It also acts as an enhancer for other abilities. Tips: When the enemy solo approaches your minions to attack them, poke him and his minions. It gets a good deal of damage off the solo, while still damaging the minion wave. The radius of the axe is just wide enough for the whole minion wave so try to have that in mind. When you throw the axe, there is a timer beneath Chaac that tells you for how long the axe stays on the ground.

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2nd ability: Torrent

Effect: Deals damage, gives protections (up to 100) for 4 sec and blinks to the Thunder Strike axe (if the axe is on the ground). This ability is underrated in my opinion. Chaac's midgame is great, so I prefer leveling this before Rain Dance to strengthen his midgame even more. Good amount of damage, coupled with Thunder Strike, it's an excellent waveclear, it buffs his protections immensely and can also make Chaac blink. Tips: If you want to blink with this ability, WAIT for the Thunder Strike to land, mistakes can be made here. If you think Odin's Ring of Spears is up or if you think you can manage to evade Thanatos' or Thor's ultimates, save Torrent for the blink.

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3rd ability: Rain Dance

Effect: Self-heal, slows and summons an AoE slow at the Thunder Strike axe. A fairly strong self-heal, even at lvl 1, and a good slow once the ability is maxed out. Tips: Good for chases, escapes, teamfights and sometimes peels and zoning. This is the ability Overflow should be used most on.

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4th ability: Storm Call

Effect: Deals damage, AoE silence and in the radius of the Thunder Strike axe deals more damage and knocks up enemies. An excellent ability, this is the only hard CC ability Chaac has (silence) and it's a good initiation/finisher. Great for objective steals too, meshes well with Wrath of the Gods and Heavenly Agility. It also gives CC immunity and 50% damage reduction. Tips: Always try to attack with Thunder Strike before casting Storm Call to get that knockup and damage then focus on the most dangerous god. Use the above for Gold Fury/Fire Giant steals too with Wrath of the Gods online, just be careful to cast the ability at the right time (at 30-35% health). Because Storm Call is CC immune and grants 50% damage reduction, you can use it to escape in general (although that's not often recommended), but more importantly, escape when you get caught in all the CC the enemy team throws at you.

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Skill Priority

First off, Chaac is a very safe god, he usually doesn't lose his lane: he has a good clear, good sustain, and can poke with his Thunder Strike. With proper counter-building and play, he can beat anyone.

Bakasura WHY? Bakasura is the hard counter to Chaac. Regurgitate makes Chaac slow as molasses and Butcher Blades deal true damage (ignoring protections). In addition, his passive, Insatiable Hunger, makes him faster after he kills some minions, he has a leap and he has sustain in the form of Eat Minions. The most important items against Bakasura would be: Midgardian Mail, Improved Sprint and Winged Blade is good too. Also save Storm Call for escape in the laning phase in case of Regurgitate.

Chang'e WHY? Chang'e is good against Chaac, but not a hard counter. Her earlygame is not good, but with Moonlit Waltz, she is able to juke Thunder Strike and Storm Call easily and her Moonflower Dance aplies healing reduction of 4 sec and heals her too and she also has a good clear too. Chang'e should be shut down in the early and midgame. The most important items against her are healing reduction items, especially Weakening Curse and Pestilence.

Hades WHY? Hades is also troubling for Chaac. First off, he has the utility and tankiness of a Guardian and the damage of a mage, essentially making him a bruiser mage. It's easy to take damage from Devour Souls, Pillar of Agony is a nightmare without an escape and he can be slowed. The most important thing against Hades is to save Storm Call for Hades' Pillar of Agony. Greater Purification and tanky items also help against Hades, like Stone of Gaia.

Death's Toll's lack of attack speed means Bluestone Pendant is more favored because it gives more mana for Chaac's abilities.

Semi-mandatory for Chaac because his earlygame wave and buff clear is not up-to-par yet.

For rushing Warrior Tabi.

In case for the extra sustain.

Always buy Wards whenever you're falling back to the base; place the one you have either behind your speed camp (to check for enemy invades) or at the enemy mana camp (to see where the enemy jungler goes).

Though it doesn't have the penetration nor attack speed, it's enough to deal damage early on in the game.

However, if you are really far behind, it might be better to buy these boots instead.

Buy this if the enemy solo is a warrior. For such a cheap item, it gives a good amount of physical protection and health and it gives a percentage of power.

More expensive than Runeforged Hammer, but assassins generally have higher DPS than warriors, so this is a good item to buy against them, not to mention it counters Hastened Fatalis.

If you and your team are ahead, you can buy this item to stack the protections; this is arguably the tankiest item in the game.

THE item against magical solo laners. With this item, you are practically invincible against mages and guardians and its passive goes well with Rain Dance.

Actives:

This is a must-buy against a healer. To try to shut down a healer, you should remember if the healer already used his healing ability and you think you have a chance at killing; if so, first Thunder Strike, then Storm Call into Rain Dance into Torrent into Weakening Curse.

Against gods who have to slow you to kill you ( Bakasura, Nemesis, Freya), this is an almost necessary active.

Literally contains everything every bruiser needs: CDR gets a special mention as it removes 22.5 seconds out of Storm Call (even more with the mana buff).

Offence is usually good when your team has a good lead. Titan's Bane is personally preferred, but all of these are good choices.

Penetration

Hybrid

Chase

Shield of Regrowth

Defence is usually good when you are struggling against someone on the enemy team. Magi's Blessing is great and Spirit Robe is good too for the CDR and for countering CC.

NOTE: If the enemy team has 4 of the same type (or 3 physical and 1 underfed mage), do NOT buy protections of the other type unless they lead in top damage, you would be wasting gold on something you don't need.

Hard CC

Magi's Blessing

Physical

Magical

Due to Chaac's objective steal potential, this is an excellent active.

You pretty much have to buy this if you are countering a healer.

An excellent active against slows and after Storm Call.

Excellent item against hard CC.

Early game

• Before the match starts, keep checking the side paths in case the enemy invades. Preferably even place a ward behind the yellow camp.
• Help clear speed buff then HoG the mana camp, take it and go laning with your jungler
• When you start laning, kill the enemy minions ASAP. When the junglers leave, focus on last-hitting and be wary of the enemy solo.
• Poke as much as you can with Thunder Strike.
• If the jungler initiates someone, follow him up.

With your jungler, you should clear speed and mana buff and start laning. Try to poke both the minions and the god, last-hit minions and every now and then attack the enemy solo when you clear most of the minion wave; if your jungler initiates, try to follow up as much as possible. After 3 minutes, call your jungler if mid harpies still stand and nobody's nearby and then get back. Whenever mana buff is online, clear the wave and go for it and save Torrent and Storm Call in case someone tries to invade you so you can try to punish them or (if there are 2 of them) run away.

Mid game

In this phase, teamfights will start to occur, mostly over objectives and towers and Chaac will help the team greatly with his benefits, especially with his ultimate, Storm Call, which applies silence to enemy gods, however it’s still not too dangerous to travel alone. If at least their Support and ADC dies, your team should preferably push down a tower and then attack the Gold Fury with the team to gain gold and XP advantage and also start warding closer to the mid.

Late game

This stage, all items you build will be situational, whether it's more power, penetration, protections or something else. You should be warding the Fire Giant with Sentry Wards (if other teammates aren't). This is also where Storm Call will be at its most useful for teamfights and objectives. By now, it is dangerous to go alone, so group up, pick up the buffs and start teamfighting. In this phase, the main focus is the fire giant. If your team kills 3-5 gods, it’s generally safe to contest the Fire Giant, but if your team kills less than that, it might be a better idea to push instead. If you’re attacking the Fire Giant, make sure to ward the paths from which the enemy gods might follow so that they don’t get to steal the Fire Giant.

Combos

Damage/chase

> >

Teamfight

> > >

Peel/zoning

> > ( )

Escape

>

I hope this guide helped you in understanding more about Chaac and also check out the links below for more information.

Be sure to rate and comment if you have any feedback.

Smite Gamepaedia - Player, item and god specifications and lists of items by their stats.

r/smitetraining - If you need help about anything Smite-related, ask here.

1. 3. 2015. - Actually added a changelog; also remaking the guide for Season 2.

3. 3. 2015. - Build updated! Also added some links for help.

15. 4. 2015. - Largely overhauled the guide! More BBCode! Bruiser build changed! Experimental ability bruiser added!

16. 4. 2015. - Reorganized chapters, some tweaks and more BBCode!