Disregard wenches, acquire mead. (Outdated)

Out of the gods i have played i have found Thor the most captivating in his broad variety of play-styles. Whether you want to play a tanky bruiser, full on tank or just rain down death from above with a pure damage build, you may find that Thor is just the character for you.

Why trust what i think is good on Thor? I am pretty technical in the way i think and i can quickly see the pros and cons of a god when i see it in action. I am not saying that this guide will bring you to the top-tier of the Smite-players but this guide works for me and hopefully it will for you.

In lack of a better name this section will be called "Typical Lingo".

So just what is "typical lingo" in games? It is what you call things on a regular basis, but to new players it might not be obvious what everything means. NOTE: You might not agree on what i think things are defined as but that is not my concern.

Crowd Control (CC) = Effects that make you lose complete control over a character. It can be a stun, a fear, a sleep effect, a knock-up or even just a slow.
Tank = The role left to the person who is supposed to build very protection-oriented and is supposed to recieve the most of the damage.
Carry = The role of carry means that you are the one who is carrying the team forward with your huge amount of damage. As a carry you are usually a bit squishy and have to rely on the rest of the team to keep the enemies off you so you can dish out the pain.
Bruiser = You are somewhere in the middle of the carry and the tank, building a fine mix of defense and offense so that you can be fine in a 1v1 or even 1v2 situation.
Support = A support is typically a person who uses their abilities and gold to help the team rather than improving their own situation, buying wards and aura items to better benefit the team. Supports are usually (recommendedly) paired up with a laning partner.
Jungler = The jungler is the player who spends their time killing neutral creeps and ganking lanes, it is usually left to the more high-damage, high-mobility gods to jungle.
Gank = A gank is when one or many players surprise-attack an enemy.

"Whoa, whoa wait a minute you *******... your build sucks balls"

Let me explain...

My way of building Thor greatly revolves around the damage aspect. Thor is not very tanky which can be a pain for you early in thegame but if you try to build around that and maybe try to avoid to tank creeps you will be fine.

All of Thor's abilities scale with his attack damage, so it is just natural to go all out man-mode (consider that Anvil of Dawn does 120% of your additional physical power).

You must start off with Mana Potion, at least 1. This is because Thor is really mana dependant early game but it tends to even out as the game progresses. Buying potions is a pretty good way to be able to stay in lane when you face a opponent with much ranged harass.


Physical penetation is (in my opinion) the strongest stat for physical Gods at the moment, Titan's bane brings a ton of damage as well as a huge penetration bonus. The great thing about it is that your abilities will deal more damage as well.

Note!: I earlier stated that critical % was more important. I was wrong. I apologize for this, i have been proven wrong on multiple occasions and critical % is something mor luxurious you can get if you are fed as hell.


This is another thing to help you bring down the resistance of your opponent. By just being close to an enemy you not only gain your Passive's Warrior's Madness physical bonus but you also reduce the opponent's physical protection, making this a must have on Thor. Let's not forget the tankiness that the physical protection applies ;)

Note!: Why i changed Voidblade for Hydra's Lament is simply because i was feeling so squishy and that enemies just barely got away from my spin.



What to say really? Standard issue damage-boots; gives damage, crit and attack speed. Pretty much does what it is supposed to do. Consider getting boots maxed out pretty fast.



Still a sick item on Thor, but it requires that you already can dish out a ton of damage on your opponent.

Situational itemization

In the above section you can see the situational itemizations depending on what you are up against.

About the actives

Recommended

Sprint
Gives you 35% increased movement speed for 6 seconds. You are also immune to slowing effects for 3 seconds after the activate. 180 Seconds Cooldown.

This is a great tool to both escape and catch up to people. Remember that it is better to use it too early than too late.


Removes all crowd control effects currently on you and makes you immune to crowd control for 2 seconds. 180 seconds cooldown.

This is almost never a bad pick because there will always be someone with heavy CC on your enemy team that you have to get away from. It is a worthwhile investment, assuming you think surviving is worth 250 gold.

Optional


You are invulnerable to damage for 2 seconds but you can not do any action, meaning you can not move, cast spells or use items. 180 seconds cooldown.

This can be a saving grace as well as a secure death. Make sure that you time it perfectly and tell your team to help or you will simply give the enemy team more time to gather around you.


Upon activating you grant everyone in a 35 foot radius a 40% movement speed buff for 3 seconds as well as making them immune to slows. 150 seconds cooldown.

This is also a pretty good active spell for initiating/escaping as a large group. Nothing really too bad about it except that the speed duration is only 3 seconds while as Sprint is 6. Remember that you have to activate it and then click again to make sure that everyone is in range of it (which is good because it can prevent people not getting the buff or simply blowing it).

The "Farm to Harm" build is really simple actually.

It is supposed to be what you build when you are going solo versus 1 or 2 opponents. You are simply put just supposed to farm, thus the farm items. I think that farm items really are only worth it when you are the one getting all the farm on your lane alone.

Reinforced Boots
Standard Tank boots, does a great job at what they are supposed to do which is reduce damage.


This is a really good item since it gives a lot of base health as well as the stacks on it goes as high as 100!. When you have this max-stacked it gives you 950 Health bonus which i think is insane for one item. Why you get this before the gloves is simply because this can have more stacks and you typically want to be a passive farmer for a bit longer.

Devourer's Gloves
This is the second piece of the puzzle, aimed at giving you more of an opportunity to trade blows with your opponents and actually deal a ton of damage at ganks. This item's stacks stop at 40 so it goes a lot quicker to max stack this than the gauntlets.


This is where your max-stacked gauntlet REALLY pays off. Let us do some quick math.
Thor's base health at level 20 is roughly 1900.
1900 from base.
950 from gauntlet.
300 from Ankh.
1900 + 950 + 300 = 3150
This health with the 1% bonus physical power from the Ankh gives you 31.5 damage. You might not think it is a lot but it actually helps. See it as a free bonus on your tankyness.

Pros
-High burst damage.
-Good initiate/escape.
-Easy to learn.
-Long range on spells.
-Can become slow-immune.

Cons
-Mana dependant early game.
-Long cooldowns.
-Squishy early on.

The passive of a man.

Explanation: If Thor is withing 30 feet of an enemy god, he gains 15 physical damage, if he is near 2 he gets 30 and if he is near 3 he gets 45. The cap is at 45 so it will stop there. If Thor moves away from a god he loses the bonus. Consider this when doing your ultimate to catch an enemy (When you land you may have a bit more Physical Power than before).


Soar, Mjolnir...

Explanation: Thor throws his hammer in a line from which he originally casted the spell, meaning that if you throw it and move it will go where it was supposed to go when you cast the spell but the way back is altered depending on where you move while the hammer is in the air. If the hammer goes through an enemy it deals damage, but if an already struck enemy gets hit by the hammer a second time it deals double damage (Say that the hammer deals 100 damage on the first hit, if it hits the same target on the way back it will deal 200 damage again, but if the hammer does not hit towards target destination but hits on the way back it deals 100 damage). When the hammer is moving, if you activate the spell again you will teleport to the location of the hammer.

Mjolnir's Attunement gains 30% of your physical power as additional damage.


Thor, creating walls between people.

Explanation: Thor stuns everything in a line, and leaves a wall after that can't be moved over unless you have abilities which allow you to jump. Be careful with this wall as it can easily help enemies get away and stop your allies from being able to pursue.


Let it rip...

Explanation: Thor becomes a beyblade and spins around furiously dealing damage each 0.4 seconds to enemies caught in the storm, minions and neutral creeps who are hit will be pushed back for each tick. Thor is immune to slows and knockup effects when he is in beyblade-mode.

Berserker Barrage gains 45% of your physical power as additional damage each tick.


Death from above!

Explanation: Thor begins to spin Mjolnir for a few seconds, then proceeds to leap into the sky, he stays in the sky for a while or until you tell him where to land. The range is pretty long but not "that" long. Upon impact you do damage and land a 1.5 second stun.

Anvil of Dawn gains 120% of your physical power as additional damage on impact.

Important!: The mana your Anvil of Dawn costs is not spent until you land, so be careful when thinking about how much mana your combo will take.

You can use Mjolnir's Attunement to easily move through walls. This can be used to surprise enemies, escape or just move around. Keep in mind that you are using your highest source of damage and that it will be on cooldown.

If you use Sprint and after 3 seconds you use Berserker Barrage you will be immune to speed reducing effects for 5 seconds and you will be able to put out a bit of damage with the spin.

Use Tectonic Rift to create walls between enemies and a friend in dire need of escape, if you stun them as well it usually is a saving move. Be careful with where you place it because it can easily ruin the escape as well.

Do not be afraid to use Anvil of Dawn a lot, it is a lot of damage combined with a stun. Try to cast it a bit in front of the enemy you decide to target since it takes about 1.5 seconds to actually land. If you miss the damage/stun you miss a lot of damage.

The most important part of playing Thor is having fun, and doing your best. I hope that my guide has helped you in some way and i will keep updating it with new content and (hopefully) videos in the future.

Leave a comment and a rate and don't be afraid to be brutally honest.

Please point out any mistakes i've made as well.

Update 10/3/2013: Fixed a typo.
Update 21/3/2013: Guide rehaul, fixed a lot of things. Added "tips & tricks" and "typical lingo" sections.
Update 3/4/2013: I have changed a lot of things in the guide as well as add a section for the "Farm to Harm" build. As i play Thor i begin to understand him more and more, due to this the guide changes as i get more experienced.
Update 23/4/2013: I may get back to this guide eventually, most of the items are still good and the thought-process still applies.